Long entry to make my buddies hate me
I’ve been reading up when I have the chance on this whole presidential election thing. I’ve found that the best way to get information on Kerry is from the GOP’s website. Conversely, the best way to get information about Bush is from Al-Jazeera. Haha… I jest.
On the GOP’s website there is a portion that I like called the spendometer. There is a section indicating how much Kerry will raise taxes and how much he will spend. It doesn’t appear that these sections offset each other, nor do they reflect what the current administration’s plans will do.
One section that I really enjoyed though, involves Kerry’s unknown spending promises - meaning plans that he has that the costs have not or could not be determined. I figured I’d read through them and I was shocked to learn that I support a large number of them. I think most Republicans would as well, so the GOPs only problem is that Kerry hasn’t crunched the numbers to give a cost.
• Reverse Department Of Labor Inclusion Of Military Training In Criteria For Employees Who May Be Exempted From Overtime Pay: COST UNKNOWN. I don’t have enough knowledge on this issue.
• Allow Military Families Penalty-Free Withdrawals From IRAs For Expenses Associated With Deployment: COST UNKNOWN. Great idea. Probably not too costly. Deployments are expensive and currently there are other ways to get money out of IRAs tax free - such as buying your first home. Plus this money goes straight into the economy.
• Reimburse Families Forced To Pay For Body Armor: COST UNKNOWN. For Christ’s sake - this is only fair! Cheney’s buddies’ pockets are filling with money that was overcharged or not spent on soldier’s food, supplies and fuel while people I know have to go into hostile areas without the protective equipment that can be cost-effectively provided. Plus, a soldier buying his own equipment and staying alive contributes vastly to overall military readiness and decreases the costs of having to train replacements.
• Protect Funding For Impact Aid, Funding For Department Of Defense Schools: COST UNKNOWN. All I know is that most DOD schools are comparable to inner-city schools - as in bad. But this reflects an overall need to do something about education.
• Make Permanent Extension Of TRICARE To Unemployed Or Uninsured Reservists: COST UNKNOWN. Poor or no health care of reservists greatly detracts from the overall deployability and readiness of the reserve forces. Additionally, even injuries sustained while on duty are rarely given proper health care, or paid for. I am currently trying to get the military to pay for a minor injury received while on duty. They think that I should have to pay because it wasn’t necessary. I had to go to a civilian clinic because the nearest military clinic wasn’t open for 2 more days.
• Accelerate Construction Of New Military Housing By Offering Incentives To Developers: COST UNKNOWN. Military housing is awful. BAH is pretty good from what I can tell, but uneducated service members are easily taken advantage of by landlords who know they’ll be in and out in 2 years.
• Implement Standards Found In Military's Child Care System To Improve Workforce Quality: COST UNKNOWN. I don’t have enough knowledge on this issue.
• Train Health Professionals, School Administrators And Parents About Preventing Obesity: COST UNKNOWN. Huge drain on the nation’s health care resources. Cost benefit analysis…. Which is cheaper, prevention or cure?
• Provide After-School Tax Credits To Help Parents Afford After-School Programs: COST UNKNOWN. See above. Is it cheaper to have a boys and girls club now or another prison later.
• Compact With America's Seniors: COST UNKNOWN. I don’t have enough knowledge on this issue.
• Support Caregivers Who Pay For Bulk Of Long-Term Care: COST UNKNOWN. I’m not sure if I agree with this because there already is a tax break for medical expenses.
• Give "I Have A Dream" Scholarships: COST UNKNOWN. Sounds like a good idea, depending on what it actually means. I am generally opposed to scholarships based exclusively or predominately on race. I think that income level is a better guideline.
• Expedite Naturalization Process For Legal Permanent Residents Serving In Armed Forces: COST UNKNOWN. Not only is it a good thing for people for non-citizens serving our country to get help, it also increases morale and overall readiness of the military. How? Soldier doesn’t have to worry about his citizenship paperwork, extensive security clearances or restrictions based on citizenship and he can vote and realize why he is serving this country. Of course, that is my naïve take on it.
• Offer Low- And No- Interest Loans To Facilitate Bus Companies' Purchase New Handicapped- Accessible Busses: COST UNKNOWN. I agree only if they are the smaller companies (ie not Microsoft or Ford) and they handicap accessible busses are required by law.
• Encourage DOT-Funded Startup Grantees To Exceed ADA Obligations: COST UNKNOWN. I’m wishy-washy on the ADA in general. I don’t have strong opinions either way. I’m sure it would be nice to have places going above the bare minimums and if I was in a wheel chair, I’d feel stronger.
• Create White House Director Of Family Economic Security Office: COST UNKNOWN. I don’t have enough knowledge on this issue.
• Provide Dislocated Workers With Up To $4,000 In Job Training: COST UNKNOWN. I don’t have enough knowledge on this issue, but it just doesn’t sit right from knowing this much about it. I guess I’d want to know why they are displaced.
• Eliminate Capital Gains Tax On Investments In Technology Companies: COST UNKNOWN. I disagree that tech companies should be treated any different than other companies on tax issues. Cap Gains taxes are low enough and there shouldn’t be a sector getting a free ride.
• Expand Earned Income Tax Credit: COST UNKNOWN. Sits well, I like it.
• Tax Credits For Rural Deployment Of Broadband Technologies: COST UNKNOWN. It’ll develop as need dictates. It’s like building a subway system in Dubuque, Iowa… when it needs to be there, it will be built.
• Allow Small Businesses To Defer Up To $250,000 In Taxes: COST UNKNOWN. Maybe not $250,000, but a smaller tax deferment could be good for businesses without being too detrimental to the government.
• Expand Loans For Small Businesses: COST UNKNOWN. By how much? There are a lot of loans other there for small business, but I’m sure a few more couldn’t hurt.
• Increase Venture Capital Investments: COST UNKNOWN. I don’t have enough knowledge on this issue. How? By what methods?
• Create A SBA Office Of Manufacturing: COST UNKNOWN. Probably a good idea. Small Bus. Administration might need one. But I don’t have enough knowledge on this issue.
• Fully Fund Land And Water Conservation Fund: COST UNKNOWN. I don’t have enough knowledge on this issue.
• Create A Toxics Task Force At EPA: COST UNKNOWN. I don’t have enough knowledge on this issue.
• Insist The EPA And USDA Work Together With States To Enforce Environmental Protection Laws: COST UNKNOWN. They aren’t already?! Hell, states should be required to help as well!
• Remove Cap On Section 8 Vouchers Entirely And Expand Cap In Interim: COST UNKNOWN. Disagree. Cap may need to be expanded, but it should be there. Keeps costs and abuse down.
• Establish An Affordable Housing Trust Fund: COST UNKNOWN. I don’t have enough knowledge on this issue.
• Provide Demonstration Project Funding To Non-Profit Organizations To Help Increase Stock Of Universal Design Housing: COST UNKNOWN. I don’t have enough knowledge on this issue.
• Provide A $10,000 Tax Deduction For Teachers, Principals, And Paraprofessionals In Low Performing And Underserved Schools: COST UNKNOWN. Underserved I understand, but in low performing - maybe it just sounds that it is a reward for doing poorly - that once the school does well you lose the $10,000 deduction. Maybe if it was for the first year of going to such a school. This doesn’t sit right.
• Ban Corporate Packer Ownership Of Livestock: COST UNKNOWN. I don’t have enough knowledge on this issue.
• Restructuring The Environmental Quality Incentive Program To Ensure It Benefits Family Farmers: COST UNKNOWN. I don’t have enough knowledge on this issue. Although Family Farmers do need more help than corporate farms - but do we do it at the expensive of the environment?
• Protect Independent Farmers From Discriminatory Pricing: COST UNKNOWN. Too much meddling in the economy perhaps? But I don’t have enough knowledge on this issue.
• Increase Funding For Roads And Infrastructure In Indian Country: COST UNKNOWN. As it stands now, only the casinos have paved roads and plumbing. Too bad the gambling perpetuates the poverty problem and doesn’t provide much income to the entire community. The Indian country… well… they just don’t seem like team players. Sure our country took the land they were living on initially and that sucked… I guess I am confused about their status - are they Americans? Are they citizens of their tribe? Are they both? I guess their culture doesn’t work well in Manhattan, but cultures have had to adapt to live in America. I hear the British that move here have started brushing their teeth.
• Build, Safe Affordable Housing In Indian Country: COST UNKNOWN. The overbearing, obnoxious white man in me was asking why their teepees and wigwams and adobes weren’t good enough. It just seems hard to think that they are trying to hang on to their culture from a split-level ranch or a double-wide. Don’t get me wrong, everyone should have good housing, but the reservations seem like an economic black hole money and goods go in, but nothing comes out. It’s hard to get an economy going when there are no services, products or raw materials to produce. Again, it makes me wonder why they are on the reservations and not integrating into society - culture is the only thing I can think of. But, I admit, I don’t know much about this. I am very naïve on this. I don’t know anyone who has lived on a reservation or who has strong ties to native Americans or their culture. So, what I don’t know about, I make fun of.
• Repair Existing And Build New Schools For American Indian Children: COST UNKNOWN. See above about DOD schools. It’s a theme - American schools are in bad shape.
• Expand Efforts To Train Foreign Health Care Personnel: COST UNKNOWN. It just seems to me that if it’s a choice of where to spend the money, we should train our people first.
• Create A National Health Tracking System For Chronic Diseases And Environmental Hazards: COST UNKNOWN. Maybe tag it into the CDC? I don’t have enough knowledge on this issue.
• Create A Greater Federal Role In Equitably Financing Long-Term Services: COST UNKNOWN. I don’t have enough knowledge on this issue.
• Enhance Coverage For Employed Medicare Beneficiaries With Disabilities: COST UNKNOWN. I don’t have enough knowledge on this issue.
• Modernize Medicare Benefits To Include Inpatient And Community Rehabilitation Services, Community Transition Services, Mental Health Parity, Durable Medical Equipment, And Skilled Home Health Service: COST UNKNOWN. Costly. I don’t have enough knowledge on this issue.
On the GOP’s website there is a portion that I like called the spendometer. There is a section indicating how much Kerry will raise taxes and how much he will spend. It doesn’t appear that these sections offset each other, nor do they reflect what the current administration’s plans will do.
One section that I really enjoyed though, involves Kerry’s unknown spending promises - meaning plans that he has that the costs have not or could not be determined. I figured I’d read through them and I was shocked to learn that I support a large number of them. I think most Republicans would as well, so the GOPs only problem is that Kerry hasn’t crunched the numbers to give a cost.
• Reverse Department Of Labor Inclusion Of Military Training In Criteria For Employees Who May Be Exempted From Overtime Pay: COST UNKNOWN. I don’t have enough knowledge on this issue.
• Allow Military Families Penalty-Free Withdrawals From IRAs For Expenses Associated With Deployment: COST UNKNOWN. Great idea. Probably not too costly. Deployments are expensive and currently there are other ways to get money out of IRAs tax free - such as buying your first home. Plus this money goes straight into the economy.
• Reimburse Families Forced To Pay For Body Armor: COST UNKNOWN. For Christ’s sake - this is only fair! Cheney’s buddies’ pockets are filling with money that was overcharged or not spent on soldier’s food, supplies and fuel while people I know have to go into hostile areas without the protective equipment that can be cost-effectively provided. Plus, a soldier buying his own equipment and staying alive contributes vastly to overall military readiness and decreases the costs of having to train replacements.
• Protect Funding For Impact Aid, Funding For Department Of Defense Schools: COST UNKNOWN. All I know is that most DOD schools are comparable to inner-city schools - as in bad. But this reflects an overall need to do something about education.
• Make Permanent Extension Of TRICARE To Unemployed Or Uninsured Reservists: COST UNKNOWN. Poor or no health care of reservists greatly detracts from the overall deployability and readiness of the reserve forces. Additionally, even injuries sustained while on duty are rarely given proper health care, or paid for. I am currently trying to get the military to pay for a minor injury received while on duty. They think that I should have to pay because it wasn’t necessary. I had to go to a civilian clinic because the nearest military clinic wasn’t open for 2 more days.
• Accelerate Construction Of New Military Housing By Offering Incentives To Developers: COST UNKNOWN. Military housing is awful. BAH is pretty good from what I can tell, but uneducated service members are easily taken advantage of by landlords who know they’ll be in and out in 2 years.
• Implement Standards Found In Military's Child Care System To Improve Workforce Quality: COST UNKNOWN. I don’t have enough knowledge on this issue.
• Train Health Professionals, School Administrators And Parents About Preventing Obesity: COST UNKNOWN. Huge drain on the nation’s health care resources. Cost benefit analysis…. Which is cheaper, prevention or cure?
• Provide After-School Tax Credits To Help Parents Afford After-School Programs: COST UNKNOWN. See above. Is it cheaper to have a boys and girls club now or another prison later.
• Compact With America's Seniors: COST UNKNOWN. I don’t have enough knowledge on this issue.
• Support Caregivers Who Pay For Bulk Of Long-Term Care: COST UNKNOWN. I’m not sure if I agree with this because there already is a tax break for medical expenses.
• Give "I Have A Dream" Scholarships: COST UNKNOWN. Sounds like a good idea, depending on what it actually means. I am generally opposed to scholarships based exclusively or predominately on race. I think that income level is a better guideline.
• Expedite Naturalization Process For Legal Permanent Residents Serving In Armed Forces: COST UNKNOWN. Not only is it a good thing for people for non-citizens serving our country to get help, it also increases morale and overall readiness of the military. How? Soldier doesn’t have to worry about his citizenship paperwork, extensive security clearances or restrictions based on citizenship and he can vote and realize why he is serving this country. Of course, that is my naïve take on it.
• Offer Low- And No- Interest Loans To Facilitate Bus Companies' Purchase New Handicapped- Accessible Busses: COST UNKNOWN. I agree only if they are the smaller companies (ie not Microsoft or Ford) and they handicap accessible busses are required by law.
• Encourage DOT-Funded Startup Grantees To Exceed ADA Obligations: COST UNKNOWN. I’m wishy-washy on the ADA in general. I don’t have strong opinions either way. I’m sure it would be nice to have places going above the bare minimums and if I was in a wheel chair, I’d feel stronger.
• Create White House Director Of Family Economic Security Office: COST UNKNOWN. I don’t have enough knowledge on this issue.
• Provide Dislocated Workers With Up To $4,000 In Job Training: COST UNKNOWN. I don’t have enough knowledge on this issue, but it just doesn’t sit right from knowing this much about it. I guess I’d want to know why they are displaced.
• Eliminate Capital Gains Tax On Investments In Technology Companies: COST UNKNOWN. I disagree that tech companies should be treated any different than other companies on tax issues. Cap Gains taxes are low enough and there shouldn’t be a sector getting a free ride.
• Expand Earned Income Tax Credit: COST UNKNOWN. Sits well, I like it.
• Tax Credits For Rural Deployment Of Broadband Technologies: COST UNKNOWN. It’ll develop as need dictates. It’s like building a subway system in Dubuque, Iowa… when it needs to be there, it will be built.
• Allow Small Businesses To Defer Up To $250,000 In Taxes: COST UNKNOWN. Maybe not $250,000, but a smaller tax deferment could be good for businesses without being too detrimental to the government.
• Expand Loans For Small Businesses: COST UNKNOWN. By how much? There are a lot of loans other there for small business, but I’m sure a few more couldn’t hurt.
• Increase Venture Capital Investments: COST UNKNOWN. I don’t have enough knowledge on this issue. How? By what methods?
• Create A SBA Office Of Manufacturing: COST UNKNOWN. Probably a good idea. Small Bus. Administration might need one. But I don’t have enough knowledge on this issue.
• Fully Fund Land And Water Conservation Fund: COST UNKNOWN. I don’t have enough knowledge on this issue.
• Create A Toxics Task Force At EPA: COST UNKNOWN. I don’t have enough knowledge on this issue.
• Insist The EPA And USDA Work Together With States To Enforce Environmental Protection Laws: COST UNKNOWN. They aren’t already?! Hell, states should be required to help as well!
• Remove Cap On Section 8 Vouchers Entirely And Expand Cap In Interim: COST UNKNOWN. Disagree. Cap may need to be expanded, but it should be there. Keeps costs and abuse down.
• Establish An Affordable Housing Trust Fund: COST UNKNOWN. I don’t have enough knowledge on this issue.
• Provide Demonstration Project Funding To Non-Profit Organizations To Help Increase Stock Of Universal Design Housing: COST UNKNOWN. I don’t have enough knowledge on this issue.
• Provide A $10,000 Tax Deduction For Teachers, Principals, And Paraprofessionals In Low Performing And Underserved Schools: COST UNKNOWN. Underserved I understand, but in low performing - maybe it just sounds that it is a reward for doing poorly - that once the school does well you lose the $10,000 deduction. Maybe if it was for the first year of going to such a school. This doesn’t sit right.
• Ban Corporate Packer Ownership Of Livestock: COST UNKNOWN. I don’t have enough knowledge on this issue.
• Restructuring The Environmental Quality Incentive Program To Ensure It Benefits Family Farmers: COST UNKNOWN. I don’t have enough knowledge on this issue. Although Family Farmers do need more help than corporate farms - but do we do it at the expensive of the environment?
• Protect Independent Farmers From Discriminatory Pricing: COST UNKNOWN. Too much meddling in the economy perhaps? But I don’t have enough knowledge on this issue.
• Increase Funding For Roads And Infrastructure In Indian Country: COST UNKNOWN. As it stands now, only the casinos have paved roads and plumbing. Too bad the gambling perpetuates the poverty problem and doesn’t provide much income to the entire community. The Indian country… well… they just don’t seem like team players. Sure our country took the land they were living on initially and that sucked… I guess I am confused about their status - are they Americans? Are they citizens of their tribe? Are they both? I guess their culture doesn’t work well in Manhattan, but cultures have had to adapt to live in America. I hear the British that move here have started brushing their teeth.
• Build, Safe Affordable Housing In Indian Country: COST UNKNOWN. The overbearing, obnoxious white man in me was asking why their teepees and wigwams and adobes weren’t good enough. It just seems hard to think that they are trying to hang on to their culture from a split-level ranch or a double-wide. Don’t get me wrong, everyone should have good housing, but the reservations seem like an economic black hole money and goods go in, but nothing comes out. It’s hard to get an economy going when there are no services, products or raw materials to produce. Again, it makes me wonder why they are on the reservations and not integrating into society - culture is the only thing I can think of. But, I admit, I don’t know much about this. I am very naïve on this. I don’t know anyone who has lived on a reservation or who has strong ties to native Americans or their culture. So, what I don’t know about, I make fun of.
• Repair Existing And Build New Schools For American Indian Children: COST UNKNOWN. See above about DOD schools. It’s a theme - American schools are in bad shape.
• Expand Efforts To Train Foreign Health Care Personnel: COST UNKNOWN. It just seems to me that if it’s a choice of where to spend the money, we should train our people first.
• Create A National Health Tracking System For Chronic Diseases And Environmental Hazards: COST UNKNOWN. Maybe tag it into the CDC? I don’t have enough knowledge on this issue.
• Create A Greater Federal Role In Equitably Financing Long-Term Services: COST UNKNOWN. I don’t have enough knowledge on this issue.
• Enhance Coverage For Employed Medicare Beneficiaries With Disabilities: COST UNKNOWN. I don’t have enough knowledge on this issue.
• Modernize Medicare Benefits To Include Inpatient And Community Rehabilitation Services, Community Transition Services, Mental Health Parity, Durable Medical Equipment, And Skilled Home Health Service: COST UNKNOWN. Costly. I don’t have enough knowledge on this issue.