Some of you know that I don’t care much for politics. All of that mud-slinging, flip-flopping, blame-gaming hullabaloo just doesn’t do it for me. BUT…I do feel that it is extremely important for voting Americans to know the politicians and what they plan to do if elected to office. Now I know that often a politician will say one thing and then do the complete opposite but still, it’s important to at least hear them out. I don’t mean just find out about the candidate that wears a particular party label either. In order to make an educated decision about something as important as who is going to preside over our country, you must find out about ALL the candidates involved.
I haven’t
been following the presidential campaigning much as it makes me want to hurl…I
think I would rather clean dog poo out of my back yard than listen to campaign
speeches and the talking heads on TV who think they know everything. But I decided that I should pay attention to
the first debate last night and really see how the candidates handled the
on-the-spot questioning. I’m glad I did…I'm also glad that I got distracted playing bejeweled blitz after the debate so that I didn't have to listen to the so-called "expert" analyses of who won and why and whatever...I'll draw my own conclusion thx!
Not knowing
much about how either candidate plans to proceed if elected, I feel that I am a
bit more in-the-know now which is great, but that's not exactly what I want to talk
about here. I will mention a few things
specifically but you’ll just have to wait a minute. One of the first impressions I got, probably
within the first 10 minutes of the debate, is that the President seemed very detached
and disconnected and that Mitt Romney seemed very sincere and relatable. Now, before all my liberal friends decide to
quit reading and take me off their friend lists, I will say why I got that
impression.
Body
language is important in a meeting like this because it’s honest, sub-conscious
communication. When speaking, President
Obama mostly just looked at the camera (probably looking for his teleprompter,
sorry liberals, couldn’t resist that one!!) and only occasionally looking at
the audience but Romney looked at him (and took notes) when he was
speaking. Gov. Romney spoke TO the
audience rather than AT them but what was the President doing when Romney was speaking? Oh, that’s right, looking down. That tells me that he was not paying
attention…however, if you ask Al Gore, it was just the elevation of Denver, CO
that was getting to the President because he flew in from Las Vegas just hours
earlier…Puh-leeeez…really?? Yes it’s the
mile-high city but give me a break, it’s not like he was out there playing
football or something!
Anyway,
moving on to my thoughts as the debate continued…I noticed that the President
clung to the number “5-trillion” plus 2-trillion more that the military would
get but didn’t ask for…had he backed up that number with some credible
facts/sources I may have believed it but he didn’t. Romney didn’t put a number on his tax plan
(maybe it will be more than 5 trillion…), rather he outlined the steps he would
include in his plan: no increases to middle income people, bring down
deductions/credits/loop holes, and stop giving breaks to higher income
people. That’s great…of course no plan
is perfect but at least he laid out the basic idea. The president talked about the $3600 in tax
savings that he has created for us middle earners over the last four years…whoopy-do. $3600 in savings would be fantastic if the
price of gas were still around $2.00 per gallon and the cost of groceries hadn’t
gone up (largely due to the price of gas NOT still being $2/gallon) and if our
dollar were stronger. I have no problem
paying my taxes, what I have a problem with is how the government spends them…
I do love
that President embraced the term “Obamacare” though! Nice to see that he does have a sense of
humor :) About that though, I have mixed
feelings on the Affordable Care Act.
There are many aspects of it that are great and have already benefited
many many people (myself included) however, other parts of it make me scratch
my head. The biggest: student
loans. First of all, why were student
loans even a part of a health care plan?
Second, why does the government think they can better handle my
educational financing than my local bank?
I had a fantastic rate (2.75%) on my student loans until they were
commandeered by the government…now my rate is 6.8%! Exactly how is that beneficial???
Medicare was
brought up…the President mentioned that he cut some 716 billion dollars from
the medicare program and he seemed proud of that, but what he may or may not
realize is that cut has likely hurt more than it has helped. I know that a lot of doctors don’t even take
medicare patients now because they don’t get paid or they get paid so little
that they can’t afford to practice!
Government control of healthcare is not the answer here. I like the idea presented by Romney that the
states should be in control of medical assistance programs as they are “closer
to home” than the federal government and can take care of the people in their
own states better than the fed.
Education
was also brought up. I have a lot of
friends that are teachers and at one time planned on becoming one myself and I
can tell you that many teachers feel that the system is broken. It’s all about politics and test scores when
it should be about the quality of “future-adults” they are shaping. The federal government CANNOT fix our
education system…STUDENTS & PARENTS can.
I could go on and on about how uninvolved parents are in the kids’ lives
& education these days but I’ll save that for a later post. Just know that I feel strongly about getting
the government OUT of our education system.
There needs to be standards and oversight but until the parents and
students start taking the responsibility for their education, no amount of
government anything will fix the system.
Moving on…I
know that liberals in every corner of every state are freaking out right now
because Mitt Romney is going to take away PBS’ subsidy. Really?
Does anyone even watch PBS anymore anyway? I love big bird as much as the next guy but
let’s face it people, cuts need to be made and if giving big bird the pink slip
helps get our country’s finances under control then so be it. As Romney said, if it’s so important that we
have to borrow money from China to pay for it…
By the way,
I love that Romney mentioned tolerance of ALL religions & beliefs and that
we are each entitled to pursue happiness in the way we see fit! And no, I don’t like him just because he’s
Mormon ;)
Just a
couple more thoughts before the brains of my liberal friends start oozing out
of their ears ;) Many times when the
President was talking, it seemed as if he had forgotten that he has been the
one in charge for the last 4 years. 4
years ago he promised to cut the deficit but hasn’t. He talked about 2.8 billion dollars/year in incentives
or credits for oil/gas companies being too much and unnecessary but he was the
one who pushed for 3 times that much/year to go to companies like Solyndra for
green energy production…we all know how that turned out… I think the President means well but you know
what they say about good intentions… And
let’s not forget about the Vice-President’s laugh-inducing flub about the
middle class being buried for the last 4 years…um, I think you just talked
trash about your boss Mr. VP!
Enough
ranting…if you got nothing out of this except a migraine, go take an aspirin
and know that I don’t really care who you vote for, as long as you KNOW who you
are voting for. Don’t vote for someone
just because of their party affiliation or skin tone or religion or
whatever. Vote for the person that most
closely represents the things that you believe will be best. Too often we get caught up in the politics of
the moment and forget that the decisions we make now (about voting and so many
other things) will directly affect us in the future!
Thanks for
stopping by!
(P.S. I did a little bit of research for this post but I didn't take the time to proof read so exqueeze any typos!!)
The President did not cut 716 billion from medicare, that is a Republican talking point. He SAVED that much. There is a big difference. Please check the facts on that.
ReplyDeleteDid you consider that when people look down during debates, they are often making notes on what the other person is saying?
A lot of people watch and listen to PBS, and the amount that would save is so negligible its laughable. Or it would be if people actually thought that miniscule amount was going to make a difference. We don't borrow money from China to pay Big Bird, we borrow money from China to pay for needless wars in Iraq.
I have yet to see even a moment when Mr. Romney comes off to as genuine, in my opinion.
I could write an entire treatise on healthcare, but as my hands are destroyed by my lack of access to healthcare, I'll refrain. I just don't want my chances at access to healthcare dependent on whether I live in a state that thinks it's a right or a state where the legislature thinks it's a priviledge. Guess which we live in? Yeah. Hence no healthcare for me. It should not matter what state one lives in. I'm an American first. Medicare is the best program out there-- dont' believe me? Ask a senior if they want to give it up. That program is GOVERNMENT run. And it works. You know who I don't want making my healthcare decisions? Executives in some insurance coompany who are only interested in profits. How does it make sense that THOSE are the people Mr. Romney would rather have in control rather than a committee of actual doctors and healthcare professionals? The whole problem with our healthcare system is that it operates on profits. Well, that's why I'm uninsurable. No profit in me. It's a great place to be. And Mr. Romney won't do anything about that.
Mr. Romney is disingenuous, doesn't give a crap about the poor, and still has not given specifics about what he would ACTUALLY do if elected.
But the President wasn't taking notes :) he looked tired, shoulda flown to Denver a bit sooner probably! Like I said, there are aspects of the healthcare plan that are great and have really benefited a lot of us so kudos to President Obama for that. And poor big bird, had to be used as the example for the borrow-from-China test ;) See, this is why we can be friends Tracie, we agree to disagree and it's ok :-) thx for reading, somehow I knew that you would be among the first to read this post!
ReplyDeleteI don't want to clash with others, but this is what I liked about the debate. First off, I have always been pissed about the bail-outs that have happened during the Obama administration. It did not make sense to me that the government was bailing out these large companies that couldn't keep their businesses in the black. If my business was going belly up would it save me?...NO!! Free enterprise is the way to get the country up and going again, not government having their companies that their pockets are invested in saved so they can limp-along and save their billions. The little man that has their finances in order should become the big man. Rewards should come to the companies that run things right! Romney talked about this to an extent when he was referring to healthcare. If you treat healthcare like a business, you are going to do whatever you can to get patients into your facility and earn the money. Competition begins...prices get more competitive, and the people get to choose the best facility for themselves. I like the "business-mind" since we as a nation are trillions of dollars in debt. As soon as we can get the money under control, this nation will begin to heal. Healthcare is a problem, yes, but here is a thought that just popped into my mind...what do you think would happen if we had no healthcare system? I think it would go back to old days of paying for your doc in trades/services and survival of the fittest. We would as a community, state, or whatever, work together to get our loved ones cared about...back to the grass roots-pioneers...wow...what a thought...hmmm :)
ReplyDeleteLance, we might already be there. grass roots that is. The government as it stands is unsunstainable. If we don't get our act together, we will be the next Greece. Romney gets this while Obama doesn't. If I had my choice though, it would be Ron Paul, but I feel that that would be a wasted vote unfortunately. We have to stop borrowing all this money to keep our programs going. It is the perfect storm, and unless we find a Pres that will stop it, and say enough is enough, we are toast. No more college, or food stamps for the poor, or jobs. We have to get back to reality, which our people has been ignoring for far too long. Our Pres should not promise us what we can't pay for.
ReplyDeleteApril, amazing post, and keep them coming.