It’s just about cost shifting for the GOP

You don't have to be a genius to figure out what's behind the GOP's reluctance to raise the rates of the top 2%. It's a 40 year plan of reducing the government's role in our lives by starving it to death. If we only cut out the loopholes and deductions, it would hit some in the middle class and then they too would be clamoring to cut more spending. Raising the tax rates to that of the Clinton era would buy us the time to come up with a manageable reform of the entitlements and it would force us to look at the wasteful defense spending. That's the reason the GOP wants to raise the Medicare eligibility age to age 67. Even though that two year cost shifting will not amount to much; it's a start.

The conservatives I see and listen to, whether it be locally or on the television do not want government to provide social services or anything beyond the necessities because they feel it's coming out of their personal pocket. They usually have a different opinion of what “we the people” means because their world is composed of “makers and takers.” That's why we always reach an impasse when both parties try to negotiate.

This can also be seen on the social level where a local land/building owner decided he couldn't in good conscience allow a pharmacist to continue to sell the Plan B on a piece of property he owned. The pharmacist  couldn't just tell his customers that they don't carry the “morning after pill “so now we have a full blown  political argument It's an unwinnable argument because the land owner probably thinks that the day after conception, the embryo is entitled to a Social Security number and property rights. Good luck having that argument.

This morning Joe Scarborough tried to make a case for conservatism, by saying that creating an era of dependency only hurts the poor. I'm not arguing with the statement as a whole but I don't think that's necessarily a view that's held only by conservatives. Joe Scarborough doesn't see that income inequality continues to create a low wage population. The GOP continues to try to dismantle the unions, the minimum wage, and laws which will help workers get into the middle class. He quoted a story in the New York Times where the Appalachian families were encouraging their offspring to remain illiterate, so they could get SSI checks. That's a practice that should be stopped but is that the exception rather than the norm and what's the ratio of investigators to SSI abuse cases?

Joe Scarborough said that President Ronald Reagan brought in conservatism just as people were getting tired of liberalism. The conservatives had a good 10 year reign until conservatism became a business (talk radio, selling books) and then radicalism took the place of good ideas. I tend to agree with that. I've quoted good republican ideas like the “Clean Air Act,” the EPA, Cap & Trade and most recently the “individual mandate.” Today, it's more about individualism than what we can do collectively. The GOP is going through an internal struggle like the democrats did after the 2000 election but on a much broader scale. It wasn't hard for the democrats to become more inclusive because all they had to do was accept fiscal conservative Democrats. The GOP is using the threat of a primary to rein in those who dare to compromise. We’ll see who wins the war between the Wall Street Journal who's arguing for more conservative purity or the Weekly Standard who making a case for taking what you can get and becoming a party for the future.

Do we have be so distrustful?

Pudge taking it easy.

It sure would be nice if my days were all like my wife's Persian cat Pudge? He gets to sleep 20 hours or more, eats, drinks, does his business and pretty much what he wants for the remaining hours he's awake. My wife thinks I'm pretty close that..:-) He's able to sleep in that position, without a care in the world because he trusts us to protect him and care for his needs. We humans don’t want to be that content because we like a lot more excitement than that but we could be more trustful.

Even without a set schedule, I'm still a procrastinator when it comes to getting my truck's state annual inspection and vehicle registration sticker. I thought that I would change this year, so I headed off this morning to Larry's Texaco on Lone Tree for what I thought was going to be a 10 minute yearly ritual of checking my insurance card, tapping the horn, checking my lights and tires, brakes and the then the mechanic would say, " $14.50 please." As I started to turn into Larry's, I noticed 10 vehicles that had the same idea, so this morning was as if I would have waited until Tuesday. What the hell, I don’t have anything else to do, I'm retired?

Larry's service station reminded me so much of the service station that I used to own and it's run pretty much the same. The car drives up the pump, running over a rubber air-hose drive way alarm, which makes that familiar “ring-ring" sound. The attendant approaches the customer with the familiar red rag strapped on his shoulder asking “how can I help you today." He then puts in the gasoline nozzle, opens the hood checks the oil and windshield washer dispenser, closes the hood and then cleans the windshields, as the vehicle is filling. In today's world of self- service, we just don't see that anymore. It’s even worse in the big cities where the attendant is barely visible behind bars and security cameras. Don’t ask him for directions because he probably doesn’t know the area he’s working in.

The mechanic who inspected my car was nice enough to tell me that I may need some new belts, but it was more in advisement not like what I used to hearing when I used to take my old truck to the dealership or Firestone. I would get a simple oil change and get back a two-page computer printout with over $800 of repairs that were needed right now. It's an old truck people; just give me the basics.

While it was still fresh on my mind,  I drove my truck over to my daughter's mechanic Mickey's and he gave me a reasonable estimate, so I made an appointment for next week.

It was my first time ever stepping foot in Mickey's so the old building and small office, reminded me of garages from years past. You what I'm talking about, the old unpainted small desk, repair manuals lying around, and old and use parts on the bench. It doesn’t matter because they keep their overhead down, which they pass along to people like me. As long as they are open, they’ll always have me as a customer because I trust them.

I may be old fashioned, but I think we’re lacking trust in our fellow human being. It may be because of what we read on the Internet or see on the news, and it might be warranted in some instances but it seems like we've grown more skeptical than ever before. I'm sure you know several local store owners you trust, and you don't mind paying them a dollar or two more, just to keep them around. I still will shop at major chains and purchase items online, but it's nice to know if there's still a trustful mechanic for my old truck.

Well, I'm pretty much though for the day until 7:00 tonight, when I catch up with the news, politics or whatever; not quite as easy as Pudge has it but life is good. Enjoy it people,smile, and approach each day as if it’s going to take a lot to get you angry.