Ron Amundson’s Political Blog

Responses to Huckabee’s speech in support of McCain, Palin and some of the reasons I became a Democrat.

The fact is, my friends, most Americans don’t want more government. They want less government.

I think he is right on that… although I would add a qualifier, the govt they do have, they want to be effective, and said govt to promote somewhat of a level playing field and decency. Yet, the following has happened.

• Pensions were plundered, creditors were shafted, yet through KERPS and other bonus programs CEO’s recieved windfalls, and the average Joe worker lost his shirt.
• Baggage screeners were federalized, where as the FAA is pushing for greater privatization, resulting in aviation weather services now being run by Lockheed, and more and more air traffic control towers becoming private all the time. WHich is more critical for aviation safety… air traffic control, aviation weather, or bag screeners?
• Passport applications are now being processed by offshore firms.
• A successful self employed college student pays ~15% for FICA and medicare. A F100 CEO, typically under 1%.
• The tax avoidance strategies, where multinational corporations may pay 0%, as contrasted with totally US based successful corps paying 35%.
• Govt corp welfare, where the public takes on the risk, and private investors reap the reward. Bear-Stearns, Freddie Mac and Fannie May bailouts come to mind come to mind. GM may be next.
• Through lack of oversight, melamine spiked wheat gluten ends up in pet food, and many cats and dogs die.
• Mevacor, a prescription statin ends up in nutritional supplements in a higher dosage than what is available via prescriptions.
• Through international investment, more and more key infrastructure has moved, or is moving offshore. Do we really need out ports owned and controlled by Middle East firms?

Let me make something clear tonight: I’m not a Republican because I grew up rich. I’m a Republican because I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life poor, waiting for the government to rescue me.

I’m a Democrat, as I dont want to spend the rest of my life having the govt stack the deck against me, and other fellow Americans who are trying to get a peice of the American Dream. We dont need rescuing, just look at Katrina, that doesnt work. What we dont need, is govt working against us.

John McCain doesn’t want the kind of change that allows the government to reach even deeper into your paycheck and pick your pocket, your doctor, your child’s school, or even the kind of car you drive, or tell you how much you have to inflate your tires.

This doesnt add up… only a few pockets, many of whom do not get a formal paycheck will be subject to greater tax. Ie, multinational corps using tax avoidance strategies, and those making more than $250,000 a year, and even for those folks, one can be sure there will be options to mitigate the effects of such a tax. The vast majority of people and corporations will get to keep more of their money. WIth McCain, much less so… only a few, namely the elite will benefit under McCains proposal.

Republican plans through loose regulation of the insurance industry, allows insurance buearocrats to stand between you and your doctor…. and in some cases, if you move, or change employers, you loose your doctor, unless of course you want to pay cash.

NCLB is a huge reach into schools operations… and promoting lower standard of learning is an unintended side effect. The Fed govt needs to step out of that domain, at least as concerns standardized testing driving funding. There are too many unintended consequences, not the least of which is encouraging teaching to the test, rather than higher levels of learning.

Govt can and should dictate CAFE standards… as obviously the manufacturers are incapable of doing so from a market driven perspective, even going so far as to a few years back requesting employees to write their legislatures to prevent increases in CAFE standard. Now, those manufacturers are in a world or hurt, many employees are loosing their jobs. It may be survival of the fittest… but there is an aspect of the public good and national infrastructure at stake. Do we really want to loose the big 3, as their investors pushed for quaterly returns now, and ignoring the worlds markets, to the exception of long term sustainable business practices.

Market driven tire pressures as evidence by the Ford Firestone disaster are not a good thing… There is very much a need for govt safety standards. To abrogate those would be disastrous. Just look at the case of the bus with retreads on the steering axle disaster from a couple months ago… Govt indeed has a place, but it needs to be funded at adequate levels… We dont need a DOT stating they dont need any more funding, only to have bridges collapse.

And I wish, ladies and gentlemen…I wish we would all remember that being American is not just about the freedom we have; it is about those who gave it to us.

Then how come the VA and veterans get shafted? McCain voted against funding, and programs for veterans numerous times… These folks in some cases paid the ultimate price. We must not be shafting them in their time of need. They fought for freedom, so why did we sell out freedom and the constitution for the benefit of the telephone companies? Yes, Democrats and Obama voted for that…. a sad day indeed. WHy did we exchange freedom for Calea (Joe Biden was behind that). All seem to be willing to sacrifice freedom for some feel good things in the interest of public safety. Even the Democratic party is not immune, but I think its far less intrusive than the Republicans.