Vic, I don't believe anyone could be as wrong as you unless they were really trying. You win the award for the post with the most errors for 2009!
Eddie I know you are a smart guy, so I went back and checked on a few things and am ready to defend my position on all points I made except 1.
Washington doesn't rank 42nd in terms of education. We are 42nd in terms of dollars spent per student. We are 40th in terms of test scores.
If I am missing something then by all means enlighten me.
Let's take them one by one. My responses in
red .
Our gas tax has been amongst the highest in the nation for a long time. Where has that money been going? Not into road improvement which is what is was supposed to be for.
Our gas tax is among the highest in the nation. If you have not been seeing road construction, you have not been looking. Over the last year, due to construction projects, my commute time has decreased by about 15%. Check out wsdot.wa.gov to find out where the money is being spent. I hate to tell you, but Boeing left because of the B&O tax and all the other BS taxes they were asked to pay. Not to mention all the capital improvements (overpass on Being Everett freeway) they were asked to pay for.
Boeing has received multiple tax breaks from a reduction in the B&O to elimination of the sales tax on their airplane sales, and lower fees and regulations on their construction projects. Boeing (and other large businesses) commonly get huge breaks and some would feel that they get them as a result of extortion - using the threat of moving as the hammer.So the housing act of 1998 didn't have anything to do with the hole we are in. That is the bill that urged companies like Fanny May and Freddy Mac to give out those ridiculous loans. Certainly Bush didn't do anything to change it, but Clinton opened Pandora's box. Doesn't make a whole lot of sense to pin it all on Bush. But that is what I expect from the left. Only look at the part of the picture that makes your case and leave out the other facts.
Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac did not give out loans, they underwrote loans that were originated by others. An attempt to get more homeowners did not force any real estate agent, loan originator, or loan aggregator to falsify information from borrowers or to not undertake due diligence. Greed, on all parties in the transaction, led to the housing crisis.False reports of WMDS huh? Well I am pretty sure that the UN resolution that gave the United States the authority to use force in Iraq said the the burden of proof was on Iraq and its leaders to prove that the weapons had been disposed of. They were supposed to allow weapons inspectors unrestricted access to any facility the wanted to see. Iraq wouldn't allow this type of access even though these were terms of the original cease fire signed back in 1991. Iraq made its own bed, and the world is a safer place without Saddam. This is one of your best - the UN NEVER gave the United States the authority to use force in Iraq. The resolution that is cited said there would be "serious consequences" if Iraq did not allow the inspectors back in with unfettered access and they needed to produce a report that detailed what happened with the WMD's. Iraq did allow the inspectors in, the inspectors found nothing; the report was produced by Iraq. Again, it detailed what had been done with the WMD's but Bush decided that he didn't believe the report and the Bush administration went in anyway. The world is a safer place without Sadaam, it is also a safer place without Bush IMHO.Don't get me wrong Bush definitely spent too much money, you will have a difficult time finding any good conservative that doesn't agree on that.
Yeah, we moan about the various stimulus packages for reasonable reasons, but never seem to talk about the $1 Trillion that we have spent in Iraq and Afghanistan - all off budget by the way.What happens when budgets get tight? The government cuts the programs that people want until they start to whine, and then they use those cuts to justify tax hikes.
No arguement on this one.I for one think that as Washington tax payers we are getting screwed. We pay one of the highest gas taxes in the country, yet we have one of the worst transportation systems. We are in the top ten in terms of funding for schools, yet we are in the bottom ten in terms of effective education. Why shouldn't we whine about what the leaders in this state are providing us? Why should we accept this?
Welcome to the world of democracy. When the sheep of this country elected GW Bush twice, I wondered how we could be so stupid. I'm certain that those on the other side would feel the same way when elections go the opposite direction.