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Maybe I am a one-issue woman

In all my years of presidential voting, I have never really felt strongly about anyone I voted for. In most cases, I was simply choosing the lesser of two evils. In the '92 election, I voted for Perot. Why? Honestly, the only thing I remember about him was that he was not going to take a salary. I hope I had other reasons at that the time, but I am not sure. Similarly, I voted for Tom Ridge for governor the first time because he said he would not give himself (or maybe he said he would not vote for) a pay raise. I seem to recall he did, though. So when Ed Spendell ran for governor five years ago and said he was going to lower property taxes, I did not believe him. And rightly so. Now a year into his second term, I am still waiting for lower property taxes. Probably the only way I, not a senior citizen, will see them is if Spendell raises our income taxes, which he has already done once.

A few weeks ago, I was complaining about taxes going up, when one of the bosses happened to be at our lunch table and chimed in. He asked me if I supported the war in Iraq. I said I never did, but if the troops leave now, then I feel as if all the deaths will be in vain. And he said that in order to pay for the war, you have to raise taxes. He may be somewhat right (though I doubt raising everyone's taxes would cover that astronomical amount), but what I really wanted to tell him was if he gave me a raise (more than the cost of living ones that have been doled out over the last four or so years), maybe I would not be so against higher taxes. I still would, to be sure, but perhaps not as vehemently so.

Regardless of that, the cost of pretty much everything has gone up: gas heating, electric, school taxes, house insurance, groceries, an oil change, water/sewage, cable, phone, gas (cars), childcare, preschool tuition, health care. Sadly, I may be forgetting some. If Brian and I did not live beneath our means, I don't know how we would keep up with everything. So show me the candidate who will not raise my taxes. And if that person ends up raising taxes, he/she better do something to stimulate the economy, lower prices of things, etc. You cannot keep taking money from people and giving them little in return. Don't even get me started on the rebate, which I still am betting will affect our tax returns next year.

Oh, and one other thing: as much as I am not a Hillary fan, I don't understand why she gets so much heat for originally voting for military backing for the war and then later changing her mind. Didn't she think there were weapons of mass destruction, which swayed her vote? So once she found out otherwise, how can people fault her for changing her view? Maybe I am misinformed. Regardless, I believe that Bush thought the war would be over quickly and with little loss of life. He greatly underestimated the opponent, and now I bet he wishes we never went to war. As the years go on, I, too, am wondering if it might be time to raise the white flag, or at least just go home. If McCain gets in the White House (and at the present time, he is my lesser of two evils now that Ron Paul and Duncan Hunter are out), do we really want this war to go on for four more years?!

Maybe I need to look into Ralph Nadar now that he is back in the saddle...

Seriously, I would love for someone to give me some compelling reasons to vote for anyone running.

Comments

Anonymous said…
I will give you one reason to vote for John McCain (although I would love not to) and that is national security. Barack Obama is already on the record stating that he will cut way back on defense spending and slow down our technological advancing in weaponry. He also is on the record stating that he will roll back tax cuts, in essence raising taxes. Your boss, by the way, is wrong when he says that you have to raise taxes to fund a war. Anybody who looks closer at the issue can see that if you cut taxes, more revenue flows into the federal treasury. It has been proven time and time again. We cannot leave Iraq now--the surge has worked tremendously and we are basically winning the second war that George Bush started--we won the war with Iraq and we are winning the war against terrorism and Al-Qaeda. As much as I dislike a lot of what John McCain says, we cannot allow our country to be run by the most liberal senator in our country and the principles that go along with that.
Facie said…
Maybe I should have asked for two reasons. Yes, I should want to vote for someone who cares about defending our nation; makes sense. For years Bush has said that no one has attacked our country since 9/11, which is true, but who is to say that anyone would have if Kerry would have been president (for the record, I still think we are better off with Bush as opposed to Kerry).

According to foxnews.com, "McCain says he would not raise taxes, but that he would not go as far as to sign a pledge to that effect."

Thanks for the comments.
Anonymous said…
I am a Brian, sorry to say. I hate getting gifts that I don't like or won't use. Sometimes by hubbie really scores on his own, but usually I help by leaving my favorite catalogs laying around with things circled. Recently I have even started emailing him things that I like I see online with "my wishlist" in the subject. He has a file in his email where he saves them. I am so bad! BUT I am not a fan of video games. My eldest has been introduced to them at friends house and now wants a Wii.........I will have to think about this one.

I would have loved the cushion!!

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