Shaking Hands, Coming Clean On Taxes

WHEN I SHOOK HANDS with the governor, I told him that I might consider becoming a Republican. Seeing through my little charade, he said: "under what conditions"? "More money for our senior center" I replied. He smiled, and nothing else. A few minutes later, while speaking to us all,he said:"to all you seniors, let me say, I hear you loud and clear". So I like to think I had an impact, even though my offer to switch parties was, as we say these days, a "hoax", and he knew it. I wasn't dressed properly either. Gray sweats and a pink T shirt don't cut it when meeting the gov, but hell, he wasn't even wearing a necktie, so I called it a draw. Nor was I the only hoaxer in the room. During his remarks, the governor started in on the old tax cutting routine, just like a conservative should, i suppose. I rolled my eyes, then, and now. Bottom line, we simply can;t keep cutting taxes, nor even begin to cut taxes, nor keep promising hollowly to do so, for anybody, rich and poor alike. Them days is over. The much celebrated (in conservative circles) fourteen percent tax break for the wealthy corporations enacted several months ago, included a much less celebrated much more subtle tax increase for the middle class and everyone else, to pay for the largesse for the rich. We, the teeming, passive masses screwed, once again, due to being underrepresented by the billionaires in congress and lobbying firms. No, in the future, near and far, taxes will not be cut, they will be raised, through sheer necessity. last I heard, we have no plans to stop driving our expensive cars on expensive roads and highways,n o plans to immolate the military, nor to stop exploring and militarizing outer space. To pay for the required infrastructure, salaries, and equipment, all expensive publicly funded = socialistic enterprises - taxes. then too there are those annoying poor people, and programs like social security, medicare, and medicaid, which we all say we love but would prefer not to pay for. In the future, our socialistic projects will be big, vital, and expensive, even more so than now, and that's goin' some. We will all help pay for them. Taxed enough already? (TEA party) hardly. We have barely begun to tax ourselves to death, and speaking of death, each and every day in these United States another ten thousand Americans reach the golden age of sixty five, and for the most part they want to retire, live a long time in retirement, and live reasonably largely. The world is aging. True, we might have to start working longer, but there comes a time for each of us when we simply can no longer work, physically, mentally, or both, and yet...we linger. who's going to pay for that? We are, that's who. I'm still glad I shook the governors hand, even though he sold us a bill of goods. Maybe if I had just been a little bit better dressed...