A little one thousand nine hundred and seventy word rant.

Well it isn’t really a rant, that would imply that I am just shouting jibberish at random or shaking my fist in anger at a cloud that looks vaguely like Keanu Reeves… I just feel the need to write about a few things that have been on my mind here, and if it offends your beliefs and sensibilities then… that’s too bad I guess? As election day draws near all I see or hear about on the news is how some people are pissed off about how bad the country is and how they don’t like how things are going. Honestly I don’t get it. Why is it that the people that scream the loudest are the only ones that are heard? I don’t know about you but I can say without a doubt that the changes that have been implemented over the last couple years by Democrats have affected me in a positive way. I can name five or six off the top of my head.

1. Extended Education Tax Credits

There are tax credits for your Freshman and Sophomore years of college that are pretty substantial. Basically the first couple thousand dollars of tuition are fully refundable. Those tax cuts were extended to Juniors and Seniors which saved me a ton of money on my taxes.

2. Made College Textbooks Count as an Education Expense

I never knew why this wasn’t in effect before because textbooks are a huge expense when attending college You can now add in the cost of your textbooks in with tuition costs when figuring education expenses instead of tuition only. This is wonderful because the college textbook market is a complete racket. The required book sometimes costs 25-30% of the cost for tuition but when you go to sell it back they give you 10 cents on the dollar because a “new edition” has come out. Why is a new edition needed when the subject matter is The Civil War? Have we learned new information that wasn’t in the old book?

3. Lowered my payroll taxes.

In fact they have been lowered for every working class person out there. There seem to be a lot of people that either aren’t aware of it or they won’t admit it. Pull out your old tax forms and compare them. For me the difference was substantial.

4. C.A.R.S. aka Cash for Clunkers

I was able to trade in my rusty 1989 S-10 that had no muffler, leaked oil all over the place, got about 14 MPG, and wasn’t worth $100 for $4600 when I purchased my first brand new car which I then paid off 4 years early.

5. Sales Tax on New Car

I was able to write off the sales tax that I paid on that new car to save me additional money on my taxes. Quite the pleasant unexpected surprise that I knew nothing about until I did my taxes.

6. Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act

This is one that I had heard nothing about until I started to look into protecting ourselves when we got served with papers because our landlord wasn’t paying the mortgage on the house we were renting. This basically protects us as tenants from immediately getting thrown out on our ass by the bank because our landlord let the house we are living in go into foreclosure while at the same time taking and pocketing our rent money.

7. Health Care Reform

Although this does not directly affect me the health care reform saved my aunt’s life by allowing them to purchase insurance from a high risk pool so she could get cancer treatment when no insurance company would cover her before because of a preexisting condition. Had they not been able to do this they would have lost everything they owned or worked for in the process trying to pay for it out of their own pocket. This is definitely worth mentioning, congratulations Kim on being cancer free!

There is actually more stuff that has impacted me other than this but you get my point. I’m actually surprised that anything at all got passed considering the constant obstruction that went on during the last two years. I need to think back and try to come up with some stuff that affected me in a positive way during the time that Republicans were in power. I was going to say the Bush Tax Cuts but now that I think about it I don’t recall any difference at all when that happened. How can that be? Everyone is making such a big deal about them expiring now. All I know is that I don’t recall doing my taxes and saying “Wow! What a difference!” or having any more money refunded than normal. It was a very tumultuous time in my life though and all the problems that I had financially and personally might have concealed it’s impact. I will give the benefit of the doubt on that one because I was making a lot less money then than I am now and I’m sure the impact on my finances now would be pretty noticeable should they let the law sunset on the first of the year like it was originally written. I think they should let it sunset for everyone, not just people making over $250,000, but it will never happen. Republicans won’t let anyone say they raised taxes and Democrats are a bunch of weak kneed pansies who will cave like they always do even though they have the upper hand and the cuts will be made permanent for everyone even though it is fiscally unsustainable in the long run and they all know it. Another thing that I recall was the two instances of receiving tax rebate checks or “Bush Bucks” as I like to call them. Those were a nice short term plus, I believe I bought an electric guitar with the first check I got, probably not the best buy in the world since I still can’t play the damn thing but I was a lot dumber with my money back then.

I can’t really think of much else other than that to tell you the truth. The scale is heavily tipped towards the Democrats when it comes to things that impacted me in a bigger way. That isn’t to say that I think it should all be about me me me though. I don’t think my taxes nor anyone else’s taxes should have ever been lowered in a time of war in the first place and I really don’t think I needed all the new things that I did get. I do have to admit that it’s nice though to be the one getting stuff instead of someone else, usually someone else that is already doing quite well and doesn’t really need the help in the first place. I don’t need to be getting a lot of this stuff and a lot of other people don’t need to be getting a lot of the stuff that they are eligible for either. That’s the whole problem, what one person considers unnecessary spending is only unnecessary because they aren’t the one getting it and it becomes impossible for a politician to cut any of it and still stay in office. If I had my way there would be a constitutional amendment to balance the federal budget and a war tax that would be applied to every man woman and child in the country that you couldn’t get out of with deductions or credits to pay for every cent of the cost of an ongoing war. I would also support a draft that you couldn’t get out of because of your status or the amount of money you had for every single adult citizen, pauper to billionaire. Our citizens need to sacrifice something when our country is at war instead of being completely insulated from it all, only vaguely aware of it because of the stupid yellow ribbon magnet on their car. That way people would stay fully aware of the costs of the things that they are supporting and not just forget about it while it runs up 3 trillion dollar bar tab and slaughters hundreds of thousands of innocent people in a quest for a feeling of safety that will never be achieved.

I used to be a moderate Republican back in the day but I can’t support what they have become. They don’t seem to have any solutions for any problems anymore. All I see anymore is a party that says “Hey, do you hate niggers, wetbacks, faggots, elitist people who are educated and any religion that isn’t Christian? So do we!” You might reply, no that’s not true! We are angry because they are spending too much money! We are fiscally conservative! I only wish that were true but it’s just words. Words mean nothing. It’s what you do that matters. You can’t say you hate Obama because of his policies, not know any of his actual policies, instead only giving the general answer “socialism” “fascism” or “communism” like those are all the same thing, and then use the word nigger in casual conversation 5 minutes later when talking about something else and not give away the real reasons for your hatred. I almost wish it was the 50’s again where people were more open instead of hiding it. At least then you knew what you were dealing with. Now “dog whistle” words are used instead, like Kenyan, muslim or tribal.

The “fiscal conservative” garbage needs to end as well because the record shows differently going back many decades. When in power Republicans doubled the deficit in only a few years and went from a budget surplus in the beginning to a huge deficit at the end. The Medicare prescription drug benefit passed in 2003 adds more to the deficit than the bailout, stimulus bill, and health care bill combined. When asked what they are going to cut they have no answers. After screaming about the deficit Obama said that he agreed, it is too high, he then proposed creating a bipartisan committee to come up with cuts that would sting for everyone that would be binding and couldn’t be screwed with by amendments to put the money back. It would be similar to the committees that were put together to close military bases, for the simple reason that it would be hugely unpopular just like closing bases, and it helped spread the blame around to everyone so things could actually get done that needed to get done. Republicans weren’t interested in solutions, only bitching about the problem. Anything and everything was too much money… except if it was for rich people, then no amount of money is too much. That showed me a lot right there. Obama isn’t worth a shit on a lot of things but I don’t really feel like I have much of a reasonable alternative on the other side.

My point is where is the place for someone like me? Someone who really is fiscally conservative but socially liberal? I don’t pass the purity test so I’m not welcome. Someone who isn’t afraid of black people, or Hispanics, and doesn’t care if gay people get married or serve in the military. News flash, there are already gay people in the military, I served with one that I know about, probably many others that I didn’t. Who cares? Go get married, then half of you can join in the pleasure of a divorce bankrupting you like I did. It’s no skin off my nose. Where is there room for someone that thinks that education isn’t a bad thing, and that knowing what the hell you are talking about should be celebrated instead of looked down upon? Where is the room in the big tent for someone who isn’t driven by fear and anger?

Go out and vote next Tuesday. I know I will.