Pauls Ponderings - 3-27-08

As anyone who reads my column with any regularity knows, a lot of times I don’t agree with what  some of our officials whom we elect to lead our nation and state are doing, are trying to do, or not attempting to do. I try not to dwell too much on one political party or the other, but it’s usually the party that’s in power at the time that get the majority of my wrath, as the members of that party are the ones that do the most, or fail to do the most.
Of late, I’m about to the point where I’d like to throw up my hands and say “To h••• with every one of them.” I’m talking about our current president, the senators who are running to succeed him (from both sides), as well as our U.S. Congressmen and women and our state legislatures, in both the House and Senate.
Take our current president, the Leader of the Free World, the man who must be walking around with a blindfold over his eyes and plugs in his ears. He keeps on and on espousing the merits of a war that the majority of American citizens no longer support – a war that has cost us billions and billions and has severely crippled our economy. Then, he turns around and says that the income tax rebate we’ll be getting later this spring or summer is going to bring our economy out of the downward spiral it has been in for the last several months or years. It’s going to take a lot more than $300 per person, or $800 to $1000 for a family,  to get our economic ship righted.
The candidates we have running to be our next president are about as bad in some ways. The Democratic candidates keep attacking each other, stopping every once in a while to throw a punch at the Republican candidate (who endured his share of criticism from his fellow party members until he wrapped up the nomination and everyone else dropped out of the race.) If would believe everything that’s being said and alleged about each of the candidates, none of them should be elected as a dogcatcher, let along the next  leader of our country.
This might be a year when it would be nice to have a ballot that had a place you could mark “None of the Above” when you go in to vote.
As for our U.S. senators and representatives, they seem to spend more time bickering and plotting to make sure their district or their state gets its fair share of the pie rather than passing meaningful legislation that would benefit the entire nation. And, things haven’t changed much since the Democrats took control of Congress. About the only thing I’ve noticed is if a meaningful piece of legislation is lucky enough to be passed, it stands a chance of being vetoed.
And, our state legislature isn’t much better. Several years ago, I read a comment made by some well-known person (I don’t remember who it was) who said that Kentucky is in pretty good shape until the legislature convenes in Frankfort. When that happens, no one or nothing is safe.
As usual, our legislative session is being played out along party lines. With the Democrats in control of the House and Republicans in control of the Senate, it doesn’t appear much at all that was needed to be done will be accomplished. It doesn’t appear that we’ll get to vote on whether or not to expand gambling, and there won’t be any tax increases to help fund much-needed programs. Even though I am a smoker, I supported the House’s bill that woul increase the cigarette tax by 25 cents per pack, because it would have helped pay for many things that need to be done. However, the Senate leaders say that they won’t pass such as tax because their constituents oppose such a measure. My question is, how long has it been since your state representative or senator called you up and asked you what you thought about an issue?
To me, one of the most absurd things that has occurred so far during this legislative session concerns a bill that was passed by the House that would increase penalties (prison terms) for repeat sex offenders. The bill passed the House by a unanimous vote, and was co-sponsored by a large number of representatives, both Democrats and Republicans. Yet, to date, the bill hasn’t even been brought to the floor in the Senate. It’s being held in committee because some of those on the committee say they “need to look at it more.” What for?