Taxes

Physics man (not what he calls himself, but what I call him) had an interesting post about bad graphs and tax plans today. Really, it's about bad graphs, but the example is a graph about the proposed tax plans of McCain and Obama. So, I've got a political question for the better informed people out there.

As I understand it, Obama wants to raise taxes for the very wealthy and cut taxes for the non-very wealthy. I don't know if this would yield a net increase or decrease in revenue for the government, but clearly they would at least partially cancel each other out. Obama would also increase spending in some areas (health care) while decreasing it in others (military).

McCain, on the other hand, wants to cut taxes for everyone. This will clearly produce less income for the government. What is his plan for decreasing spending to match this decrease in revenue?

In general, I wish candidates would take at least a short break from promising us everything but the kitchen sink and spend a minute or two explaining what programs they plan to give the ax to. I realize it's unpopular, and unfortunately the presidency is all about being a popularity contest, not about making good (and sometimes tough or unpopular) decisions. So, for either candidate, what fat are they going to cut out of the budget?

(I can already hear certain people out there salivating over the chance to say "NOTHING! They both want the government to just grow and grow and spend and spend.) (Hey, I'm not saying you're not right.)

It's dangerous, I know, but I'm foraying into presidential politics on the blog today. Yikes.

We all know that much of the country doesn't thing very highly of President Bush. Pollingreport.com indicates that through the many polls done this year, Bush's approval rating has varied between 22 and 38 percent. Most of the results tend to fall in the 27-33 range. Congress, on the other hand, has an approval rating between 13 and 33 percent. (The second highest poll was only 28%.) My quick glance indicates that the average results are in the high teens or low 20's, and that in the last 3 months no result has been higher than 23%. The two major party presidential nominees and their running mates have a combined 63 years experience in congress. (35 for Biden, 25 for McCain, 3 for Obama and none for Palin.) Now my point: as we come closer to electing a new president, why have we chosen all of our options from a group of people that we nearly all agree are doing a terrible job?

(Possible answer #1: We are idiots.)

Could it be?

For years, I have been a defender of Utah. I defend Utah culture, "Utah Mormons" (it pains me to even use the term), and other such things. But I must admit that last night I had a "I just need to get out of Utah moment". Shannon and I had a dessert party with 2 other couples in the ward. We sat around talking, and it was great until the second half of the evening when the conversation turned to babies, country music and politics. The first is a bit of a touchy subject with us, the second I know nothing about (and I like it that way). The third topic (politics) isn't usually a good one to discuss with people you don't really know, so I tried to keep my mouth shut. I actually did keep my mouth shut and as a result had to wait until getting home before erupting. I consider myself a republican and a conservative. Yet, for not the first time, I found myself in a setting where I was somehow the most liberal person there. By a mile. I think Shannon(!) was the second most liberal person there. I just wanted to go somewhere where I could feel conservative again.

And what are the "crazy liberal ideas" that I've got floating around in my head? Oh, silly things like:

• Barack Obama not being the devil. (Actual statement)
• Gun control not being a bad thing.
• It is possible to be both LDS and a democrat.
  

Maybe I just need to hang out with the local democrats more. I wonder if there are any . . .