Election 2020 – my issues

I’m sure everyone can associate with this…massive amounts of election spam emails, phone calls, and texts.  They are… depressing.  I think I’ve opted out to well over hundreds of these things, but there is always more, kind of like our taxes, just more and more.

I digress.  The meaning of today’s (and the first in quite a while) topic was inspired by a text exchange I’ve had with someone from a local democratic campaign (could be a spam robot for as much as I really know) worker.

This all started as a “thank you” text to “Wayne.”  Only problem, there’s no Wayne in my household, so either someone has used my phone number or it’s spam.  I replied to them stating that there was no Wayne at this address. They responded asking if I supported the state democratic candidates.  I stated flatly that no, I do not support the state democrats, I support individual candidates, regardless of party affiliation. 

Our conversation quickly went down the path of policy, and I asked them to clarify Biden’s plans on:

1. Beating COVID and restarting the economy.
2. Getting our nation’s spending addiction under control.  I informed them that I have to balance my household budget, and don’t think it’s too much to ask my government to do the same. In support of this, I provided two examples that I wanted clarification on
   1. 2019 spending:
      1. roughly 62% of our nation’s budget went towards mandatory programs (Social Security, Medicare & Medicaid).  Mandatory spending includes those government-funded programs that are necessary, but they are not self-sustaining.
      2. 30% of our nation’s budget went to funding all the other departments and programs (including the military spending you hear so much about).
      3. The remaining 8% goes to servicing the interest payment on our debt.  You think we spend a lot in Foreign Aid ($49 billion in 2016)?  In 2019, the government paid out $593 billion.  Roughly two thirds were payed within the US, the other third, $197 billion was paid to foreign governments, which hold about 1/3 of our national debt.  Scary isn’t it. Both China and Japan are roughly equally “invested” in these united states.
   2. With each passing year, the percentage required to pay the interest on our national debt increases, and we are quickly approaching a time when drastic remedial action will be required to keep our republic in good financial order.

They replied with some generic talking points, although they did answer the specific question about COVID and restarting the economy, the second question was an often quoted talking point about how they are going to tax those making over $400K with increased taxes (for the record, I am not in that category, not even in my wildest dreams).

That was about the end of our texting.

As unpopular as what I’m about to say is, I believe it is the truth, the economy and our nation’s debt ARE the two biggest issues confronting us.  Both issues have tons of smaller details, but these are the two overall themes that I’m voting with. 

If our economy is strong, and our debt is reducing (REDUCING, i.e. getting smaller!!) all other issues will work themselves out.  I believe “race” and “immigration” issues are basically background noise to these bigger issues.  But I will comment on each…

“Race Relations.”  I put quotes around it because I think the phrase itself is full of pompous BS.  Treat people as people, no problem.  There is a natural sense of some to gravitate towards their own, ok- sure; but don’t condemn them.  As someone (I cannot remember their name) pointed out locally, the most segregated part of the week are Sunday mornings.  That stuck with me, I had never thought of it that way, few churches are EQUALLY diverse.  Our church has roughly 1/4 white, 1/4 asian, 1/2 spanish, black and “others” to be inclusive.  Certain services have more Asians, others have more whites, and others have more Spanish.  What’s the big deal, we are all there for the same reason?  I point you to an article I wrote a few years back.

Immigration.  We need immigration, period.  With that being said, it should be legal immigration, and not just crossing the border and you’re here – congrats.  Once again, with that being said, our immigration policy is extremely time consuming.  How about we make it easier and less time consuming.  The boss lady is an immigrant, and she went through all the paperwork and BS related to it to become a citizen of this great land, and to see people “cheat” the system degrades the value of US Citizenship.  Most of my good friends here where I live are originally from other countries, and they have withstood the immigration policies to become productive, and dare I say, successful citizens.  They live their lives with the daily intent and gratefulness to be part of this great land (a value much of our natural citizens lack) and they support this new land of theirs, fervently.

That’s my two cents.  Did you like this article?  Did you hate it?  Leave me a comment below to tell me how you feel.

Related articles I’ve written in the past…
Is race REALLY the issue?
What are America’s Core Values? Pt2
We could all learn from naturalized immigrants on this July 4th