Column by Mike Hodge
Change. Hope. Hope for change. These are the buzzwords we have heard for the last couple years in politics. We need change in Richmond. We need change in Washington. Well, we got change in November 2006. Since then we have gotten the housing crisis, record-high gas prices, record-high oil prices, a slowing economy.
From Richmond we got a transportation crisis. Again. Let’s see, all of this can be fixed by a tax increase. Higher gas taxes, higher car-registration fees, higher taxes on a purchase of a vehicle, excess profits taxes on oil companies, bailing out people who bought a bigger house than they can afford (and probably needed), bailing out lenders who shouldn’t have made the loan to start with.
On the other side, we have talk of a gas-tax holiday and the economic-stimulus checks going out. Saving 18 1/2 cents a gallon on gas sounds great, but do you think we would really see that? I mean, if you want to tax the oil companies more, don’t you think that will more than take care of this so-called tax holiday? Of course, who could forget the millions spent by the IRS to tell us that we were getting some of our money back. A better way would have been to just mail the checks. It’s mid-June, and I’m still waiting on mine. Our government is so big and inept that it can’t even handle mailing out checks.
To top all of this, we have two senators running for president. Neither of whom have any experience at running anything, other than their office. We need to wake up and start making wise decisions about who we elect and entrust our future with. We need to take responsibility for our own actions as well. The best way to combat global warming (the Washington kind) is to get involved and work to do something about it. I don’t think either of the senators “get it.” The best bet is to be active in the political process and elect common-sense politicians to the local, state and federal levels. This is the only way we can get some protection for the disaster headed for the White House.
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