Waiting for Superman - A Must See

So I might be a little late to see Waiting for Superman, but I believe everyone should see this documentary. It is a look into the quality of public education in the U.S. now, and I know the criticism when it came out was that it demonized teachers, the very heroes that educate our children, are under paid, etc etc etc. Though I didn't get that it demonized teachers at all. In fact it stood up for the good teachers that are under paid and do an excellent job of educating children.

The system is broke and is structured so that it is no longer putting children first. In just about any school you have to put up with the bad to get the good. Why can't they all be good? Why can't teachers be graded on their merits like employees in the real world? (By the way I believe all government employees should be terminated if their performance merits termination).

Rent the movie. Care about quality public education. After all, it's not free, you're paying out the wazoo for it whether you use it or not! At least bother to care about the service it's providing future adults that will be sustaining our economy, or become a drain on it.

The Truth about Texas Government

So I've been on hiatus for quite awhile now. I haven't lost interest in my campaign, I've been busy caring for my mom while she grew and birthed my little sister who's now a month old. Now I'm busy protecting her too! That said it's time to get back to my day job.

So being from the great state of Texas, I'm going to talk about something that never seems to get talked about outside of Texas. Or maybe it does and I'm just not aware of it. Texas has always had articles talking about it's 'surplus' (which I find completely wrong that a surplus is retained in a 'rainy day fund' and isn't returned to the taxpayers), 'what Texas is doing right,' etc. etc. Many of you may have seen the great hair Governor Rick Perry traveling the country touting his book and talking about how great everything is in Texas, and trying to sound like a libertarian, while 'not running for president of the United States.'

What the great Rick Perry isn't talking about is the $25 Billion deficit that they must tackle in the current legislative session. He and Republicans insist this will be tackled 1. by not raising taxes, and 2. by not touching the rainy day fund. Suddenly Texas government is not so different from California's in the sense that they are writing checks their budgets and banks can't cash.

The solutions will have to come from the 3 biggest programs that make up the Texas budget.
1. Health and Human Services
2. Education
3. Higher Education

I'm all for deep cuts in these areas but here's the thing. Cuts made from the state budget result in cuts from federal funds received that help operate these programs. In Medicaid services, the expenditures are primarily for funds paid to providers. So cuts have to come in rates paid to providers and/or the number of clients services are provided to. This is not a popular choice for anyone. Though personally, I'm in favor of tougher eligibility requirements.

When it comes to Education, essentially this is paid for with property taxes whether you have kids in public school or not. If you've read through any of my posts, you'll see I'm all in favor of a voucher system. Eliminate the education bureaucracy and minimize the number of public schools available. Keep only the highest performing ones open and those that have enough voucher participants to stay open. I would also say operate all public schools as charter schools. Parents and students could choose where kids go to school. All schools would be operating as a business and if there is no demand for their services they would change or go away.

Education is also funded by the Texas lottery. Another thing that will get brought to the table is casino gambling. I'm all for this, but I would be shocked if this got approved as it's always been shot down in the past as immoral or whatever other stupid reasons they have to vote against it. They'd much rather people go to Louisiana, Oklahoma, New Mexico, rather than stay in or come to Texas. Gotta love the logic. Even if it did pass this session, it wouldn't do anything to help the current deficit as it would take a legislative cycle (2 years) to build and make a difference to the state's budget.

Higher education. These are freaking universities. Why aren't they self sufficient? They should have their own budgets made up of money out equals no more than money in. If they want more money they need to either raise tuition, increase the number of students allowed in or both. And/or they need to find other ways to generate revenue for the schools. There is no good reason, that anyone will convince me of, for Universities to be part of the state's budget. Though I'm sure many will disagree with me.

Anyways I just wanted to talk about the reality in Texas. It's not going to be a pretty session. It's going to be interesting to see how they 'solve' this. And I find it interesting how 'conservative' leadership got us to this deficit rather than plan for this last session when we already had an indication that the economy was headed for a recession.

How Was Your Tax Day?

Did you throw a party this April 15? Do you enjoy getting taxed for your hard work? Isn't that an odd concept? Getting taxed for hard work? (or not so hard in some cases but profitable)

According to taxfoundation.org the percentage of non income tax payers is on the rise.

http://www.taxfoundation.org/publications/show/25962.html

There's a 47% of non income tax payers rumor floating around out there for 2009 taxes. I don't know if that's true or not, but the above graphic should be of concern to you and here's why.


1. Baby boomers are all in the process of retiring or making plans to retire and while many of them have saved a nest egg for retirement, they will all still be planning to get their social security checks and medicare benefits while retired. If we have fewer people paying into the tax system than are relying on benefits and programs that income taxes pay for, we have an unsustainable system.


2. Unsustainable systems encourage and result in negative population growth which makes the number receiving services to paying for the services get larger and larger over time. See Europe as an example which has had this problem since 2000.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Population_decline for more information and sources.

3. Where there is a decrease income to the federal government from income taxes, there are 2 options; Make cuts to programs and services (which I'm on board with across the board including Medicare and Medicaid) and/or increase taxes. We currently don't have leadership willing to make cuts across the board to everything. We as a nation are apparently to dependant on the Government to privatize social security. Look at your SS statement next time it comes in. Big cuts are on the way in just a few years if it doesn't get fixed.

4. If the health care bill that was passed doesn't get overturned and is successfully funded, that will mean a lot more people will be receiving services from the government which is funded by we the people left paying taxes. I don't know about you, but I already pay more than my fair share. I don't want to pay any more. Those of you willing to pay more than your fair share, go right ahead. There's no law against paying more.

These are just some examples of why this statistic should concern you. What is my solution you ask? Please visit http://www.fairtax.org/. The fair tax repeals the income tax established in the 16th amendment and instates a consumption tax. That means everyone that consumes pays taxes whether they are here legally or illegally, doing business within the law or under the table, earning currently taxable income or not, and receiving government services or not.

Article I Section. 8. of the U.S. Constitution
Clause 1: The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

The 16th Amendment was ratified by the states in 1913 allowing for collection of income tax. I don't know about you, but this amendment sounds unconstitutional to me.

A vote for Lola is a vote for sanity that has been long absent from our government.

We Should All Hold our Congressmen Accountable

Some of you may or may not have seen or heard about this video. This is a citizen holding Frank LoBiondo, Republican from New Jersey, accountable for knowing the constitution as part of his job. He was elected in November of 1994 and has been 'serving' ever since. I do believe it's his job (and all congressmens' job regardless of party beliefs) to know the constitution they take an oath to uphold and defend.



The other part I like is the point he makes that it's our civic duty to know it. I'll admit I don't know it to the level of detail he does, but we should make an effort to read it on a regular basis to stay familiar with it so we can hold those accountable who are supposed to be representing us in Washington DC.

So if you need a refresher, here's the link to the U.S. Constitution. Read it...More than once.

So You Want to Know What I Think About the Health Care Bill

I have been in mourning for the last few weeks in preparation for this day. Why? because I knew begging you to call and write your congressmen would do no good. Why? because if you have democratic congressmen most of them had no intention of listening to you unless you were for the health care bill. Though if I saw polls correctly only a slight majority of Americans are vehemently opposed to this bill.

Why?

Because over time we've become a society that slowly allows the government to take over our lives in the name of providing for us or in the name of safety, and after a little while we become used to and dependent upon those provisions and so we let them keep taking more and more of our tax dollars as long as they keep providing for our needs.

This is why I'm in mourning. I no longer believe that a majority of Americans care about liberty and freedom. I believe freedom loving Americans are in the minority and because of how our system is set up, we won't find actual representation in Washington unless we all move into the same districts and can elect our own representatives.

Don't tell me the Republicans are going to step up and represent us, because where were they on health care when they held the house and the senate in the 90's? They could have introduced and passed legislation to increase competition across state lines for health insurance and introduced legislation prohibits denying coverage due to pre-existing conditions. Then they could have put the parameters around pre-existing conditions that they could be subject to higher premiums or patient portions as negotiated between the patient and the insurance companies. But the republicans did nothing when they had the chance so don't tell me they are going to suddenly step up and start representing freedom loving Americans. Hannity and Limbaugh can sell it if they want, but I'm not buying. Running on repealing the legislation in November seems disingenuous to me.

Nancy Pelosi made some comment after the Health Care Bill passed comparing it to Social Security and Medicare passing. While I disagree with her view of it being a good thing, she's right. Social Security and Medicare are bankrupting this country and Health Care will be the nail in the bankruptcy coffin. Next time you get a social security statement in the mail read it.

This is from my statement received in February of this year:

"In 2016 we will begin paying more in benefits than we collect in taxes. Without changes, by 2037 the Social Security Trust Fund will be exhausted* and there will be enough money to pay only about 76 cents for each dollar of scheduled benefits...."

What do you think is going to happen with health care if the government is in charge of it? As it is, premiums will go up for everyone and/or insurance companies will go bankrupt until there's no one left but the government to bail us all out and that's how they'll get the 'universal coverage' they (and many Americans) want so badly.

Do I hope the Republican platform of repeal works in November? Sure I do, but here's how I would like to see it happen; All republicans that are up for re election get booted in their republican primary in favor of their opponent, whoever it is. Let's get rid of the old republican blood that is more than happy to spend our money on things like corporate bailouts and get fresh blood in there. If Sarah Palin were a real 'maverick' she'd be campaigning against John McCain instead of for him. Instead of campaigning for Rick Perry here in Texas for governor, she'd have campaigned for Debra Medina. Who is she you ask. Exactly my point. I will be voting for the libertarian candidate. Out with the old, in with the new.