JUST A CRACKPOT WITH AN OPINION!

JUST A CRACKPOT WITH AN OPINION!

(Frazer Chronicle)

I am opinionated, always have been and hopefully always will be, you know what they say, "opinions are like butts, everybody has one." But a crackpot, mostly never, a crackpot to me is somebody who says that they were abducted by little green men, and treated in a hostile way on their space-craft. I haven't been abducted by aliens.....at least as far as I know.

We're coming dead into the silly season, the presidential race, when the outlandish is the rule of the day, where the unexpected happens, the unusual is usual, and at least one sex scandal bubbles to the surface. Sadly this race does not include any Sarah Palin’s or Michele Bachmann’s, one never really got into the race and the other for all intents and purposes put herself out to pasture.

I have opinions about those two women, but they really derailed themselves by their own actions, and almost whenever they opened their mouths. I have absolutely no problem with a women president, in fact I would campaign for one, if she were the right one, but neither Palin or Bachman were right for the job, and never will be.

I'm at the point, politically thinking, where it almost doesn't matter which flavor of politician gets the White House "hot seat," both will fail miserably, both men are power hungry photo-opsters, and with the exception of the country's foreign policy programs, next to nothing will change on Capitol Hill.

Government.....man am I sick and tired of government, I guess the only thing I'm sicker of is those whack-jobs out there who throw around their opinions before they look, listen and think; before they open that pie hole of theirs and utter a bunch of nonsensical opinions.

THESE ARE MY OPINIONS, AND THEY ARE FACTS:

Government, local, state and federal look upon us as a herd of cattle, or small children, or worse, dimwits, unable to think for ourselves, make knowledgeable decisions by ourselves, protect ourselves, and generally are not able to take care of ourselves.

It's called a paternalistic approach to governing, you know, government without rights, like the government is our "father." The government, here in the United States gives us stuff, but retains the right not to give us responsibilities.....for anything but to pay.....taxes.

I live in Wisconsin, Paul Ryan comes from Wisconsin and baby, he's a beauty, in case you don't know, and he’s the author of the rebuttal to President Obama’s budget and health plan. Congressman Ryan has written a "Path to Prosperity" and attacks Medicare, Medicaid, wants to lower the tax rate to those making the most money, and scrap other aspects of government programs to the needy.

Of course most of the junk that Ryan proposed fell by the wayside, but that really isn't the point.....the point is, it'll be brought back at a later date, Ryan's "Path to Prosperity" won't die, it'll just fade in and out, always waiting in the wings to see which party has the upper hand.

Speaking of taxes, did you ever read who pays their "fair share," well I have, and the results are actually pretty astounding. I really didn't know that there was that many ways to weasel out of paying taxes. No wonder many, many tax dodgers aren't caught, to catch most of these high tech thieves, you'd have to have an IRS office and every street corner in America.

It's funny, "not ha-ha funny," but the more you make in a year's time, the less you actually pay, percentage wise. I make $100,000 a year, while Joe Blow makes $42 grand, I pay 29.5%, or take home roughly $70 grand, while Joe Blow pays, on average 25.2%, which means the Mr. Blow brings into his household around $31,000. Now I ask you, why I really need to bring 70% of my wage, while poor old Joe pockets just $31,000?

And it gets worse, a millionaire pays 29%, while somebody making $147,000 pays 30.3%.....a higher percentage rate then the daddy big bucks. How that fair, how is is that proper, and what sense does it make.....I don't get it.

Those making the lowest pay, $13,000, about 20% of all taxpayers still have to pony up about 17% of their pay to the Fed. The bottom part of income, about 80 million people live from pay to pay, are in constant fear of not being able to make their monthly obligations, and suffer from a lack of health care.

There is a big misconception out there about the bottom tier of U.S. taxpayers, that misconception is that the 80 million people that are at the bottom rung of income earners do not pay taxes.....and it's not true. These people pay payroll taxes, and all the other taxes on a daily basis.

GOVERNMENT SUBSIDIES:

Now comes the time when the following will open some reader’s eyes, others will already know about some of these silly subsidies, and yet, a small number won't care, the following is dedicated to those people who don't care!

INK REMOVAL:

A California congresswoman got $50 grand to remove tattoo ink in her home district.

FUELING CRAP FUEL:

A $225 thousand dollar grant was awarded to study chicken crap to determine whether the crap could produce fuel, surprise, surprise.....it actually can!

ANGER MANAGEMENT:

People do get angry, some lose control, and really, really do need help, but a $250,000 grant to implement a pre-school program seems a little "over the top."

INNER TURKEY HUNTER:

$234,000 federally funded program to help people increase their desire to hunt turkey.

THE BIG NUT GRAB:

About 50% of all peanuts produced in the United States are grown within about 100 miles of Dothan, Alabama. Since 1938 there has been a "nut festival" every year to celebrate the harvest of the chewy little pea shaped fruit, "I love peanuts," the difference from other communities that celebrate in the same way, and for the same reason is that Dothan gets a $202,500 government subsidy to help defray the cost of their festival.

SHIELDING THE RICH:

It is amazing sometimes how the rich are coddled and provided for by the taxpayer, as in a $10 million subsidy, called the Intercity Bus grant program to improve driver protection, passenger screening and overall safety for passenger-transport companies.

Well there you have it, the opinions of what some people call a "crackpot." I however do not get any governmental subsidy money, and only speak to those of you who take the time to ready the Chronicles. Now I ask you, who's more of a crackpot, me.....or the government official who got almost a quarter of a million to help people shoot turkeys?