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If You Vote Republican How Happy Are You About The Following? National Issues: 1. You may believe that abortion is murder & want the government to prevent it. But back street abortions existed where abortion was illegal and often resulted in the death of the mother and the child. Spending your effort on encouraging the government to outlaw abortion is unlikely to succeed. You didn't believe that Johnson's War on Poverty would end poverty or that any other government program ever achieves its stated goal. Your efforts would be better spent instead on educating young mothers on their alternatives, donating to adoption agencies, advocating the repeal of taxes so having children is more affordable and the removal of restrictions on adoption. "Any government War on Abortion could easily lead within five years to men having abortions." 2. The 2004 federal budget is now almost $400 billion. It contains a $515,000 subsidy for "brown tree snake management", $150,000 for "Fishing Rationalization Research" in Alaska, $150,000 for the "Therapeutic Horseback Riding Program" at the Lady B Ranch in California & $4 million for research at the International Fertilizer Development Center in Alabama. Once you concede that the government should help some people at the expense of others, there is no stopping it. If the coercion of government can endow one person with property he hasn't earned, then everyone will want to use government to get something he wants. So it's not surprising that, over the past two centuries, more and more people have concluded that they deserve government's help. Reform of the existing system is impossible. You have to conclude that all subsidies are unfair or we will slide to a communist society. 3. The total take of federal state and local taxes for the average person now amounts to 48% of his/her income: http://www.harrybrowne.org/articles/GovernmentFinancesTable.htm . 48% may seem a lot but remember that healthcare is cheap and plentiful, your social security income is guaranteed, children love their schools, the streets are cleaned daily and there is law and order in every neighborhood. 4. You may believe that we live in a society that is so degenerate that the government must fight & win a Culture War. The problem is once you allow government to have power over people to prohibit certain forms of behavior that you disapprove of, how can you guarantee that in a few years your political enemy will not use those same methods against you? Suppose you like drinking but hate smoky bars & currently support the proposed law mandating a No Smoking policy in 'public areas'. How can you be sure that once enacted the anti-alcohol crowd won't try to force a limit or ban on alcohol in public areas? The truth is up to the bar owner whether to allow smoking. If you think there is a market for non smoky bars, open one yourself. All of us do something which given unlimited powers someone else would try to prevent. 5. Total federal government spending in the first three years of the Bush administration has risen by 24.4% the equivalent of 7.6% per year. This is twice the rate at which spending increased under Clinton. 6. Thousands of Americans have died in Iraq. There was no connection between Saddam & 9/11. Saddam didn't have any weapons of mass destruction. Saddam is in jail. The majority of Iraqis want the Americans to leave. Its up for the Iraqis to sort out their own problems. Like Reagan after the bombing of the Marines in Beirut, its time to declare victory & get out. How many American soldiers is a foreign land worth? Here are pictures of wounded Americans soldiers - warning these are graphic: http://www.thememoryhole.org/war/wounded/gallery.htm 7. There are US troops in 130 countries around the world. If we knocked down all the foreign military bases and rebuilt them it would cost $500 billion. "Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations entangling alliances with none." ~ Thomas Jefferson Philadelphia Issues: 1. The City Wage Tax is 4.3% for residents & 3.8% for non- residents and raises a billion dollars (one thousand million). There are plans to reduce it fractionally by 2009. In the rest of the Commonwealth the Wage Tax is limited by State Law to 1%. Republicans believe in accelerating the rate of reduction slightly faster than the Democrats. No Republican proposes a reduction to 1% or elimination. It won't make any difference whether the rate is 4.3% or 4%. The Libertarians would abolish the City Wage Tax. If you earn $50,000 a year how would you spend an extra $2,500 every year? Would you save it for your retirement, donate some to a worthy cause or take time off & visit other parts of the world? 2. The Business Privilege Tax raises $300 million for the City. No net new jobs have been created in Philadelphia in the past 10 years, despite the much talked out about growth in tourism and restaurants (this has merely offset the decline in manufacturing). The City's population falls annually. Meanwhile firms sprout up daily in Bala Cynwyd & King of Prussia. Only the Libertarians would abolish the BPT on Day One. 3. Your right to own a gun is protected by the 2nd Amendment and section 21 of the PA State Constitution: The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the State shall not be questioned. http://sites.state.pa.us/PA_Constitution.html Laws which require you to obtain a license before purchase, have a background check, register your gun & prevent you from owning some types harm the innocent citizen & do nothing to prevent guns from being used by robbers. If you are weak, elderly or female, a gun is a great equalizer in a conflict: http://www.2asisters.net/pa/ More criminals are shot by an armed citizen during the commission of their crime than by a police officer. Philadelphia Republican politicians are in favor of the existing gun control laws & some want further controls. |