How can these people call themselves our representatives?
News ·Sunday February 11, 2007 @ 01:08 EST (link)
I recently found my way to Americans for Better Immigration, which provides immigration score cards for members of congress, and things aren't pretty. They also have grades for presidential candidates. News shows frequently show the majority of the people being against free handouts and benefits for illegal aliens (benefits that legal residents and citizens usually can't get), but many of these clods in Washington (D.C.) are voting to give away the farm at every turn. Why would anyone support in-state tuition for illegals, when someone from the next state over can't get it? Why not crack down on people stealing identities? Why shouldn't the loophole in the fourteenth amendment that spawns so-called "anchor babies" be closed? Our state senators, Maria Cantwell (votes) and Patty Murray (votes) both scored D-. Why vote against a border fence that helps keep drugs out (sure it's not perfect, but it's a great start)? Mine the borders, build the fence, require employers and landlords to check eligibility, fine the ones that fail it, and take away the free stuff. When they find themselves out in the cold, they'll get the hint and go home.
(Technically, my government representatives aren't responsible to me yet, neither should they be, since I'm not a United States citizen, although I'm preparing my N-400 package presently and after I get my two passport photos and make some photocopies I can send it all in and hopefully get called for a citizenship interview in about ten months.)
Now, how about China? We need to quit buying from them, post-haste; it's hurting the country in the long run. Export and sell goods, sure, but anything we can make here we shouldn't buy there, and a little protectionism and insularity is good for the country. What does the US need from the rest of the world? Just oil, and only because we don't want to drill in the ANWR. If we don't need goods, we shouldn't be importing them, but placing such restrictions is unfree and makes people cry, so instead, tax the hell out of it. Make people pay for propping up hostile foreign nations. Maximizing exports and minimizing imports is the route to long-term profitability. CEOs only care about the quarterly financial statement, so they don't mind exporting jobs overseas and raking in the savings that come from a lower standard of living; the representatives of our government should be looking further ahead. This nation was not founded to support Mexico, China, and a few plutocrats.
I've talked about property tax before, and how most of it goes to schools and since I don't have anyone in school, I shouldn't have to pay that part of it; I wonder if there are any (non-retirement) communities that have resolved not to have schools, and so have drastically lowered property taxes? Of course (for all intents and purposes) not having children in the community means a lack of low-skilled labor too (think service industry), so I may have to rethink my cunning plan; perhaps it'll help to think of my subsidizing schools as actually facilitating child labor. Don't any of you read too much into this, either; that really annoys me. Just take it as my personal musings and leave me alone.
