I Believe

I believe.

I believe that government is for the benefit of all the people no matter their birth status, the financial status, their political connections (or lack thereof) or their location.  I believe government should never be on the cheap and should be as big as needed.  I believe that taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society and yes, I believe that the rich should pay a higher percentage of their income than a person working at Burger King.

I believe in a strong public education system that isn’t forced to turn out automatons who only know what was the standardized test required to graduate.  I believe in open and honest sex education in our nation’s schools.  I believe that religion has no place in what our schools teach or how they are governed.  I believe that charter schools are anathema to strong public schools.  I believe that taxes should never be used for vouchers or tax credits or other incentives to send children to private and/or parochial schools.

I believe in strong regulation of business, making sure they provide safe products and/or services at reasonable prices.  I believe that businesses are not persons and should not be allowed to contribute to politicians or political parties.  I believe that businesses should actually pay taxes and not receive special tax breaks.  I believe that privatization of government services to be wrong.  I believe in strong private and public sector unions.

I believe in a strong social safety net.  I believe in Social Security and the financial security it provides our elderly.  I believe in single payer universal health care and short of that I believe in Medicare for all.  I believe in unemployment insurance and food assistance for the unemployed and the working poor.  I believe in public transportation and a high speed passenger rail network across the nation.  I believe it does take a village.

I believe in a strong, smart military.  I believe in marriage equality as well as equal rights for gays and lesbians.  I believe that my love for Michael is just as valid as the love my mom and dad hold for each other.  I believe those who enter our nation illegally in the hopes of a better life deserve our full protections and should not be demonized for political purposes.

I believe there is goodness in all, even Dick Cheney.

I believe.

Let Them Eat Cake - The Second Helping

You can read the original Let Them Eat Cake here.

Courtesy of Fratelli Studios

It didn’t take long for Governor Brewer and the Republican controlled legislature to strike a deal to give more subsidies to corporations on the backs of Arizona’s poor and working poor.  If you remember, Governor Brewer has proposed dropping almost 300 thousand men, women and children from the Arizona’s Medicaid (ACCCHS) rolls in order to cut $540 million from the budget.  Not surprisingly, the new corporate welfare bill will cost an estimated $538 million a year.

WHAT THE FUCK?!  Arizona can afford to give out $538 million a year in tax breaks, tax cuts and other corporate “incentives” yet it can’t afford $540 million a year to make sure that 300 thousand men, women and children don’t go without non-emergency room medical care?  Are we as a state that callous that we would throw that many people to the wolves in order to give more corporate welfare in the name of “job creation”?

Arizona already has some of the lowest corporate income and property taxes in the nation.  We are one of the most business friendly states and one of the most worker unfriendly be an “at will” and “right to work” state.  Maybe we are spending on all of this money on corporations because we can’t entice them here any other way.  I mean, why would a corporation want to invest in creating jobs in a state that doesn’t value public education, public transportation or a social safety net?

Then again, there will be corporations that will jump at the opportunity to partake in corporate welfare at the expense of 300 thousand men, women and children.  Those corporations will wallow in the state’s largesse and provide very little in return.  Those corporations will gladly say, “Let them eat cake”.