Rant

After contending with a week's worth of rain and a lot of crap, I finally made it through the past work week. But in my own reality, the whole time I just couldn't wait to get into my current issue of Rolling Stone , (June 11, 2009). Yeah, the one with Lady Gaga on the cover, wearing nothing but plastic bubbles.

The issue is filled with stories about 'American Idol' star, Adam Lambert; Bob Dylan's joining a public tour of John Lennon's childhood house; and a flashback to Woodstock with the man cleaning Port-a-sands. If you're an old hippie like me, you'll remember the guy from the Woodstock movie that cleaned the Port-a-sands, while talking about his kids. He was a really happy guy. Other stories in the issue include It Might Get Loud, a documentary about Jimmy Page and friends. It sounds great! Page, is really looking good. Yeah, his hair is all white, but look at his face. He really looks healthy and seems to be having a ball. There are other stories too: Eric Clapton- still trying to make his best album yet; Elvis Costello- recording again in Nashville. And let's not forget the Girl who conned the Ivy League. You'll have to read that yourself. Overall, it's really a very good issue.

But then I came to the part of the magazine where Matt Taibbi, usually writes his 'take no prisoner' stories. This time, there was an article titled, The Death Tax Scam, from Michael Crowley , a Senior Editor of The New Republic . Crowley focuses on Democrat Senator Blanche Lincoln , and a small group of the super rich for their attempts to eliminate the Estate Tax. You know how it is, the last chance the government gets to steal money from your dead little fingers.

Back in April, Lincoln sponsored a budget amendment that would reduce taxes for the estates of multimillionaires after they die. Wait a minute; I did say the senator was a Democrat, right? Wow! Lincoln's amendment would raise the exemption from the current $7 million to $10 million and cut the rate from 45 percent to 35 percent.  As Crowley puts it, “All told, the move would let the children of Wall Street barons, dot-com millionaires and wealthy industrialists pocket more than $90 billion in tax revenues over the next decade.” Just think, those greedy ass rich people want to steal $90 billion dollars out of the government coffers. What the bleep is wrong with that statement? $90 billion dollars in revenue! This implies that the money actually belonged to the government in the first place. Did the bleeping government do anything to produce that wealth, or has it ever? No!  Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader, was furious according to Crowley. He stated that it was so stunning and outrageous that some would choose this hour of national crisis to push for the super wealthy. Yeah, you just pissed away a trillion dollars in failed bail outs for car manufacturers and financial institutions; how dare those people want to keep their money out of your irresponsible hands.

I'm not a rich man… in fact I'm barely able to keep this site going. It’s the attitude of some that the government has any right to an inheritance that just outrages me. What makes it right for the government to take 45 percent of anyone’s fortune? As Mr. Crowley points out, “We're not talking about a lot of people” but even if it were only one person's wealth, it is wrong!

Crowley tries to persuade us that leaving large amounts of wealth to families is wrong and quotes Andrew Carnegie, and Teddy Roosevelt to convince us. I don't have a problem with that. They're probably right. Bill Gates and Warren Buffet have said they are not leaving large estates to their offspring. So what are they doing? They're donating them to charities.  It’s their choice to decide where their money goes, not some bureaucrat in Washington who will squander it on some stupid study of the sexual habits of a walrus.

Statements like the one above about the $90 billion dollars in revenue, and the one from Vice President Biden, that “It’s unpatriotic not to want to pay taxes,” that drive me insane. Congress appropriates $700,000,000 dollars and doesn't read the bill to see what’s in it? Now that's patriotic? You can bet that when those congressmen go home and play monopoly with their families, they read the instructions.

This country is facing serious national security issues because of the financial mess we're in, but taxing rich people up the kazoo is not the answer. People from my generation are beginning to retire, and they will be expecting their social security check each month. They are going to want their Medicare. In addition, President Obama wants all of us to have free medical care. Where will all the money come from? We don't have enough rich people to tax. We are very close as a country to losing our three-star status for borrowing money. When we can no longer get credit from other countries to pay our bills, we will be in a free fall. Government departments will have to shut down. Those social security checks will stop coming and our military forces will begin to break down, leaving us in peril.

Taxing is not the solution, and the more we tax, the further we get from the solution. The real solution is to cut spending and throwing money at everything in sight. Remember, it’s your money. And while I may have been critical of Mr. Crowley's Rolling Stone article, he has written several other stories that I applaud. One is titled, We're Done with Greed, suggesting things we can do to stay in tune with what is going on in Washington.

Please check the facts of stories, contact your congress person. Check out websites like congress.org for the latest information on bills and where your representative stands on issues. We must unite with others to stop the waste in government spending. We must stop spending money we do not have.