Pubdate: Mon, 27 Apr 2009
Source: Red Bluff Daily News (CA)
Copyright: 2009 Red Bluff Daily News
Contact:  http://redbluffdailynews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1079
Author: Orval Strong, Special to the DN
Note: Orval Strong, of Gerber, is a 100 percent disabled combat 
veteran from the Vietnam War era.
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?115 (Marijuana - California)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Marijuana - Medicinal)

A FEW HOW COMES? ABOUT OUR NATION

I thought I would devote this week's commentary to a few how comes.

Like, how come the greatest and most well equipped army in the world 
had to outsource to corporations what they had quite successfully 
been doing for well over 200 years?

How come with half of American bankruptcies attributed to medical 
bills, our congress isn't doing anything about it?

How come doctors can get consultation fees for simply poking their 
head through the doorway just long enough to say, how's it going?

How come the U.S. subsidizes the sugar and junk food industries 
rather than the organic farmers who produce nutritious food?

How come more and more children, according to Dr. Alicia Neu (a 
pediatric nephrologists at Johns Hopkins hospital) develop kidney 
stones these days?

How come with 435,000 deaths attributed to tobacco in 2000 and 85,000 
to alcohol, these products can still be purchased legally but 
marijuana, which has never produced any permanent harmful effects let 
alone deaths, is outlawed?

How come we have so many prison inmates in this country?

China has five times our population but only half as many people 
locked up. The U.S. holds 25 percent of the world's prison population 
yet only 5 percent of the world's population live here. Are Americans 
really that much more dangerous?

How come after years of outrageous government spending, the public is 
now outraged because of Obama's plans to make the rich carry more of 
the tax load?

What is so objectionable about the making work pay tax credit that 
will give a $500 to $1,000 tax cut to 95 percent of working families?

How about the $4,000 refundable tax credit to ensure that college is 
affordable for all American families?

How about his plan to eliminate income taxes all together for seniors 
making less than $50,000 a year? Or the 10 percent refundable credit 
to offset mortgage interest payments? The Tax plan that has put so 
many in such a state of rebellion would give a $3,700 tax cut to 
couples who make $75,000 with two children one of whom is in college. 
A $1,000 tax cut would go to married couples making $90,000. Single 
parents with two young children and childcare expenses making $40,000 
would get a $2,100 dollar tax cut.

Now let's take a quick look at the other side of Obama's tax policies.

His plans include reforming international tax loopholes: including 
reforming deferral to end the incentive for companies to ship jobs 
overseas and closing the offshore pension loophole; closing domestic 
tax loopholes; eliminating special tax breaks for oil and gas 
companies (oh, we definitely can't stand for that one) and closing 
the CEO pay loophole.

Here is the big tax increase everyone is so excited about. Obama's 
plan would repeal a portion of the Bush tax cuts.

This means that the top two income tax brackets would return to their 
1990s levels of 36 percent and 39.6 percent.

Under Roosevelt the rich paid considerable more than that. And it 
should be pointed out that our economy got its biggest boost as a 
result of his policies.

For what its worth, I seriously believe this tea party rebellion has 
less to do with people's knowledge of Obama's proposals and more to 
do with the idiotic blabberings of a couple of nationally syndicated 
conservative talk show hosts like Rush Limbaugh and Michael Savage.

This brings me to another, how come. If we have such a liberal media 
how come Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert or some other liberal doesn't 
have American's ears for three hours a day six days a week. And don't 
tell me liberals can't be entertaining.

How come the Federal Reserve system allows banks to loan out money 
they don't nor never did have? And how come we still put our trust in 
the Federal Reserve system? Just you try and collect on a debt you 
put up zilch towards and see what the courts think of that.

How come even though they know their vote will profoundly affect the 
lives of millions, our politicians in Washington don't even take the 
time to read the bills they vote on.

Just what the heck do those clowns do to deserve $174,000 per year anyway?

Finally, if this is such a great democracy, how come a few pompous 
judges were able to overrule the decision of millions of voters as in 
the California medical marijuana case?
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake