Payson Roundup

Ruby_Finney (Ruby Finney) says…

Morning interview with Dan “potatoe” Quayle: his son has taken out papers to run for a congressional seat from Arizona. I didn't hear which district, but he is obviously running against someone currently in congress.

As more people come out ready to run against those already indoctrinated in the ways of the beltway group, we'll have some choices to throw the bums out!

Up here in the Northwest, the voters objected loudly when the governor attempted to get the legislature to pass another tax, but backed off very quickly when his party people told him that reelection probably would not happen for any legislator who supported his idea!

So at last, the voice of the people is making a difference and I urge all of you to continue letting your representatives know your thoughts on their voting records - you are making a difference!

JohnNaughton (John Naughton) says…

Hi, Ruby.
In the Oregon, as evidenced by the recent tax increase on business, you only have a voice if you happen to live in Portland, Eugene or Corvallis. Rural Oregon doesn't have a chance… kinda sounds like AZ, doesn't it.

Chief1942 (Ronald Hamric) says…

As I mentioned to Tom in another thread, the divisions in this nation are becoming more stark and varied. It breaks down in a far more complex fashion than simply Red vs Blue. I was reading some responses the other day, to the issue of Social Security being severely taxed due to the massive increase in Baby Boomer retirements. Most of the comments were about how irresponsible the whole “Boomer” generation was because it left a very abused and sordid world for those that came after them. The anger at the preceeding generations, as viewed by the current young folks, is almost palpable. I guess one should not be surprised since those educated? in our public school system and especially our institutes of higher learning are being schooled from history books that imply that it was the “Greatest Generation” and their offspring who are at fault for all the world's problems. In other words, “Kids, it's your Mom and Dad and Grandparents who are the cause of all the problems you are facing in this world today”.
So to the growing rift between the interests of rural America versus the interests of metropolitan America, we can add a growing and increasingly vocal generational conflict. Seems it's more about “Me, Me, Me!” and less about “Us, Us, Us!”

Ruby_Finney (Ruby Finney) says…

John,

Our redneck county voted against the tax increase by a very comfortable margin. But there is a heavy registration of Independent voters here. Multnomah and Clakimas Counties are as you say, pretty much Blue Dog Democrat registration and don't even bother to read the ballot information.

But after the votes were counted and some of the larger employers announced either layoffs or plans to move out of state, a lot of attention has suddenly been drawn to what people actually voted for - a stupid sales tax and made retroactive to Jan 1, 2009 - but labeled as a “business tax based on gross sales” !

As soon as the votes were counted, the teachers union demanded a raise !

This week during a special legislative session, the Democratic leader told the Democratic governor that they would not consider his plan to use money set aside to be refunded to taxpayers to start a “Rainy Day Fund”. He specifically told the Gov that if the legislature did such a thing not one of them would be reelected.

I do believe the Tea Party folks are beginning to make points and maybe even Portland will wake up by November!

Ruby_Finney (Ruby Finney) says…

Chief,

I agree to a lot of what you say about the divisions within the country, generation wise, but the truth of the matter is that the Social Security system would not be in the pathetic shape it's in today if common sense was available anywhere in Washington D.C.

If the money had been left in a trust fund as it was when established and stayed until about 40 years ago, drawing interest and accumulating money while the ratio of employees to retirees was pretty high, it would still be funded. But Congress decided to dip into it to keep from raising the national debt limit to pay for their pork barrel stuff and moved it into the general fund. The rest is history - they spend every thing they can touch.

Second, if congress had not decided to use the fund as a welfare fund, it would be in clover.
By making all the programs ( Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security benefits) available to everyone, even though they never paid into the system, it has become welfare . I remember when the Vietnamese “Boat People” came to America, theolder ones were put on Social Security and Medicare right away as were those who were disabled. This is done with all immigrants, both legal and illegal. I don't mean to imply that those people shouldn't be helped, but those funds should not be taken from the Social Security fund.

So the villains aren't the generations filching the money = they just haven't paid attention to what the Beltline Boys are doing!

Chief1942 (Ronald Hamric) says…

Ruby,
I consideration of your opening post on this thread, I might suggest you read the article at the following link:http://blogs.the-american-interest.com/wrm/2010/02/12/feeding-the-blue-beast/

This is one of the few articles that I think fairly summarizes how we as a nation arrived at this juncture, and shares some insight as to what it will require going forward.

Chief1942 (Ronald Hamric) says…

Ruby,
You are right in your view of some of the causitive factors relative to SS, but all that has little influence on the minds of those who are forced to pay into that system and see very little chance they will recoup anything. Critically analyzed, SS is a type of “Ponzi Scheme”. For it to work, it requires that more and more people come into the system in order support those that leave through retirement. One of the problems is that American's quit having kids at a sufficient rate to supply those necessary “new entrants”. If one crunched the numbers, I'm not certain if even left in it's original trust fund, that SS would have been sufficient to supply the needs of the current balloon in Baby Boomer retirements factoring in inflation and all. I know compounding interest is a great thing to behold, but the way SS was intially concieved, it seems to me it was a way for the government at that time to confront a very pressing social issue, while punting the real problem down the road for future generations to deal with. Hence, we see that the current generations are none too happy with what they have inherited. As if that wasn't enough, the national debt as it currently exisits will have to be paid by our children and grandchildren.