The Current State of the Union

The economy clearly is in a mess. Our fearless political leaders have chosen to "stimulate" the economy by handing out billions of dollars of bailout money to banks and organizations that couldn't run themselves properly to begin with. Since they weren't careful with their own money it's perfectly logical to assume that they will be very careful with taxpayer money, right? Yea, I thought so too.

And now info has been released that dear Ron Kirk, Austin College alum, former mayor of Dallas, and Barack Obama's pick for Trade Secretary, is also behind on taxes. Does this make the fourth or fifth potential cabinet pick that couldn't be bothered to pay their taxes? What's going on there? I know it's not fun to write a check to the government but come on!

And today the Senate voted to keep $410 billion of earmarks into their spending bill. Excellent use of money the government does not have. These types of earmarks are sometimes good for the constituency but often are for ridiculous projects that could be paid for with nongovernmental funding. However it's very important at election time to tell your constituency that you brought in $X to the area. What has the opponent done for you? Probably nothing since they are running against you and most likely haven't had a chance to get their hands on government money yet.


I am fine with higher taxes but I'm concerned about exactly how high they will have to be to pay for all this crap.