TAXES! HEALTH CARE! WAR!

Many mornings I make a commute from Monroe County near Bloomington Indiana to the metropolitan area of Indianapolis Indiana. If you are in a service business such as myself there is much time spent channel surfing the car stereo to find something interesting that goes along with your desired listening experience. Indiana is dominated by conservative AM radio stations, which I can sometimes agree with. These stations have learned to capitalize on their market power and drive the faults of the left wingers into my mind, while preserving the need for low taxes on the rich and the need for the war in Iraq.

It’s difficult for me to accept all that I hear having been raised by a grandmother whom I would characterize as a Roosevelt Democrat. Secondly the right seems amiss of my own experiences as a veteran and the only of one of my father’s ten children to attend or graduate from College. Ironically I married a right winger whom carries the banner for the Republican Party as a sort of code of ethics. She’s for the party without question, while I seem to question everything coding myself as an independent.

Tax time is here. Guess what I had a descent year, unlike the past several years, primarily because the weather or God brought a great hailstorm down on Indianapolis in late April 2006. This brings me to the main point of my story the contrast between two American political powers, Ted Kennedy and George Bush, both representing their family party politics with the strongest of conviction.

For a moment please forgive me for looking past the banter of the sins of the past but, Ted Kennedy has always been a favorite politician of mine, primarily because he chose to enlist in the arm services as an enlisted man in spite of his wealth and family background. His campaign for Health Reform is one that cannot be easily overlooked or minimized for the future of the American Agenda. This year our family will probably pay ten percent of our adjusted gross income towards Health Care. I consider our family to be average middle class Americans. Ironically, if Health care was part of normal taxation I would probably pay no more while the rich would pay considerably more. This concept of course is Taboo from the political right who know that these benefits would cost the wealthy a considerable amount of money if added to normal tax reform. The medical establishments of Doctors and Large Pharmaceuticals and their political allies view these concepts as something close to treason. Ironically if health care was part of normal taxation, we could go to a flat tax and actually see an increase in taxes for the richest Americans. Americans and Politicians would also have to consider more carefully the problems of illegal immigration and benefits provided to millions of undocumented aliens.

For now though we must worry about the war in Iraq and who is going to protect the interests of the United States. Just who are these troops enlisting to go overseas? Probably people like me twenty plus years ago who were willing to throw caution to the wind looking for the sense of accomplishment, adventure and opportunity that the military can sometimes provide to the less fortunate in this country of great wealth.

Go Colts

I watched the Fox Friday Sports Net Show and all four of the hosts picked the colts to lose. This would really bother me accept that the combined records of all four is less than 50%. In fact the best game picker had a record of 19-15. This is almost a good omen. I'm going out on a limb and picking the Colts 37-16. This may be overly optimistic, however one of the Hosts is Eddie George who swears to never pick the Colts-- No matter what.

Go former IU quarterbackTrent Green-- But not tomorrow!