Thursday, August 30, 2012

The Republican Convention

I've been watching the convention. Many of the stories shared there were about Mitt Romney's experience in his church and when he was pastor (Bishop, in their church) and the many good things he did as he served his pastorate.

One thing no one shared was that they do not ordain women in their church. Only men can serve in that way.

The Mormon church takes care of their own. They do not want any of their people to go on public assistance. They are required to tithe 10% of their total income. And they are also expected to give extra money and time too. Mormons are generally very good people. I know many of them because I belong to a historical society that they share. ...John Whitmer Historical Association.

I suggest that anyone interested in voting for him read the book, "The Real Romney".

There are good things about him, that's true. But he cannot relate to the poor or middle class because he has never "been there". In fact, the Mormon Church and the entire Republican party believes that people should pull themselves up by their own bootstraps. Sometimes no matter how hard one works, they cannot become rich. Sometimes they can only just make ends meet.

Some folks don't seem to realize that the Republican party would like to change Medicare in such a way that folks would be given vouchers to use to purchase their own health care. That would do away with Medicare as we know it. They would really like to eliminate social security altogether too but instead will have to raise the premiums to make it last longer. The answer is to raise the ceiling on the amount to pay into social security and that would ensure it for generations to come.

I've mentioned this before but I'll say it again.

Social Security can be easily fixed for a couple decades past the 2032 date usually cited (and it doesn't actually crash at that point, rather, like defense costs, we will need to budget for the expenditures). During the Clinton administration, 90% of employment income was subject to Social Security tax. But because top management salaries went through the roof in the last couple of decades, only about 83% of employment income is now being taxed. If we went back to the 90%, mainly by raising the cap to rise with the inflation of management salaries, the "problem" goes away.

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