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Opinion
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- Written by: Nelson Strasser
Have you seen the video of Romney speaking to a room full of rich donors? He said that 47 percent of the voters voted for Obama, and those 47 percent don’t pay taxes, and think the government owes them a living, health care and housing.
According to the Tax Policy Center, “46.4 percent of American households paid no federal income tax. The same data shows, however, that nearly two-thirds of households that paid no income tax did pay payroll taxes. And most people also pay some combination of state, local, sales, gas and property taxes.”
So, many of the households who paid no income tax included wage earners, but, they earned a very low income.
And, “Smaller but significant numbers of the higher-income earners are also exempt: The same data shows that in 2011, 78,000 tax filers with incomes between $211,000 and $533,000 paid no income taxes; 24,000 households with incomes of $533,000 to $2.2 million paid no income taxes, and 3,000 tax filers with incomes above $2.2 million paid no income taxes.”
I am one of the 47 percent that paid no income tax. I paid into Social Security all my working life. The government is not giving me anything. Secondly, Medicare is not free. The government takes almost $100 out of my Social Security check, with which it pays 75 percent of my health care bills. I pay $155 a month to a private insurer to cover the last 25 percent. That is $250 a month more than free.
I think everyone should have health care, just as they do in every other civilized country in the world. It is a right. Capitalism should not mean that you must die if you can’t pay. Or, the next worse thing: go bankrupt.
Also, there is an underlying assumption here: People should work for what they get and not expect help from anyone or any government. Most of us have some sympathy with that point of view.
But, Romney’s five kids will never have to work. They are each getting $20 million without lifting a finger. So, the message is that his kids should not have to work for it, but yours should.
Poor kids, on the other hand, should not have anything, evidently, because their parents are poor, and for that, they should suffer.
But Romney had not achieved the zenith of his hypocrisy. In a second video I saw, Romney said that he would stop jobs from going to China; but, when he led Bain Capital, that is exactly what he did: The companies he consulted sent jobs to China and other places where labor was cheap.
A friend of mine said that his main concern was the enormous federal deficit, and so, he was going to vote for the businessman, meaning Romney.
What a strange notion! Consider that if you look back on the gigantic scandals of the last 30 years, savings and loan, dot.com, Long Term Capital, Enron, the collapse of Wall Street in 2008, all of them were caused by “businessmen.”
Unless you are a right-wing millionaire or richer, you are voting against your own interest if you vote for Romney.
Please, tell me why you would do that?
Nelson Strasser lives in Lakeport, Calif.
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- Written by: Lake County News Reports
The recent concert event at the Soper-Reese Community Theatre was fun and successful.
The Anderson Marsh Interpretive Association (AMIA) raised approximately $1,500 to go towards vital maintenance projects at Anderson Marsh State Historic Park and to help keep the park open and available to the public.
The event would not have been possible without the help of many people.
Thank you to the musicians who volunteered their time and talent. These include members of Three Deep, Uncorked, and of course Rita Hosking and her husband Sean Feder and their daughter Kora, who also performed.
Thank you also to the Clear Lake Clikkers who performed at the beginning of the show and to Bill Fredriksson who was the MC for the event.
Thank you to AMIA volunteers: Chelsea Michael, Wanda Harris, Belle Eleen, Mike Bielenberg, Sandy Moura, and Adrienne Karuza. Thanks also to Soper Reese volunteers. Thorn Hill Winery poured wine, donating half of the proceeds to AMIA.
Thank you to Mike and Andrea Adams, Wally Fuller, and all of the Soper Reese folks who helped make this event a success. We are also grateful to Andi Skelton for all of her help.
And, of course, thanks to everyone who came. It was a great evening with wonderful music and good fellowship.
We look forward to continuing to keep our beautiful Anderson Marsh State Historic Park open and to continuing maintaining the precious historical resources there.
Roberta Lyons is president of the Anderson Marsh Interpretive Association, based in Lower Lake, Calif.
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- Written by: Bob Bridges
The Lakeport City Council, with the help of a $40,000 Washington consultant and its half a million dollar staff, has been working for three years on this 100-percent water and sewer rate increase that is supposedly “only for necessary projects.”
While the city council was disappointed with the lack of public input in this process, when they had a room full of people, they responded by limiting the public’s responses to their three-year plan to only three minutes.
Despite this drastic time limit, the public was able to tell the council that their lists of “necessary” projects included $900,000 worth of new electronic water meters that are not required by the state.
It took the public, who aren’t on the city payroll, to get the city staff to admit to the council that the new electronic water meters are not required.
What else does the city’s wish list have that is not necessary?
Isn’t it strange that the S. Main area has survived for 30-plus years with the existing water line that now suddenly has a “health and safety problem,” that requires a $1 million-plus loop to the new college site. Why do the rate payers have to pay for this, instead of the owners of the land the city hopes to annex?
Isn’t it strange that the north half of Lakeport, whose sewage flows north to the county’s sewer plant for treatment and disposal, is going to be charged new and higher rates, which is equal to the south portion of the city when the city doesn’t even process or dispose of the effluent?
Has anyone noticed that Proposition 218 prohibits the city from charging us more than the actual cost of our service, yet their notice tells us our water rate includes the cost of watering the city parks?
There is an election coming up in six weeks for three seats on the Lakeport City Council. On Tuesday, Oct. 2, watch to see if the council votes to saddle you with a bill for the unnecessary projects.
While the city council gets to vote on the rate increases, you get to vote on whether they stay for another term. Look for the candidates that will stop or moderate this horrible increase.
Thanks to everyone who filed a protest.
Bob Bridges lives in Lakeport, Calif.
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- Written by: Annelle Durham
The Lake County Chamber of Commerce claims that Proposition 37 is imperfect and I would have to agree.
But, I would go on to say that I wish that the agricultural biotech companies and the FDA had applied a standard of perfection to genetically engineered crops before approving them, but they didn’t.
In fact, all the FDA did was review the data presented by the very corporations seeking approval for their genetically engineered seeds.
The first ever long-term study of GE food just came out in the peer reviewed journal “Food and Chemical Toxicology.”
Rats were fed a strain of Roundup Ready corn and the findings included massive mammary tumors, kidney and liver damage and other serious problems: http://research.sustainablefoodtrust.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Final-Paper.pdf .
If the FDA and Monsanto had done a study like this and not released that corn into our food, I’d be willing to wait for a perfect proposition – but heck, I didn’t even get a perfect proposition from my husband and I still accepted him and have no regrets!
As it stands now I’ll take the imperfections of Proposition 37 over the imperfections in the industry, the FDA and GE foods any day.
So, I’ll be voting yes on Proposition 37 in November.
Annelle Durham lives in Upper Lake, Calif.