Posted by
nhoop on Friday, September 28, 2007 10:01:51 PM
According to the Democratic party's website, their Party platform includes (and I quote); "...a long and proud history of representing and protecting the interests of working Americans."
That has a noble ring to it, but now I read that Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.) is proposing a new carbon tax to reduce U.S. energy consumption. Part of the proceeds, he said, would help pay for universal health care.
That does sound nice too, but I see it as robbing Peter to pay Paul. Try to imagine, how it would hurt the majority of poor people just hanging on financially. The already too high price of gas means that, right now, they cannot afford any recreational driving. Just shelling out dollars for the gas needed by them to get to work, deprives them of common necessities in the miserable days before payday.
When I lived down in flossy Naples, Florida, the most omnipresent vehicle was the luxury car. Mercedes and Cadillacs were common as the Palm trees. Up here in rural Arkansas it's the pickup, most likely an old V8 bought in the driver's foolish youth. Today it's the poor guy's only means of getting to a poor-paying job many miles away. No, there is no public transportation in most rural areas. A car is an absolute necessity for the majority.
A few years back, I knew a man - married with two teenage kids, clean and well-mannered. He worked in the woods for a lumbering outfit that paid him eighty-five dollars a week....if it didn't rain. He is certainly not the only American hanging on by his fingernails. To artificially increase their financial burden would be criminal.