Waqshington state cell phone law

Washington State has passed a new cell phone law which went into effect October 1, 2008. This law makes it illegal to talk on a cell phone while driving a car unless you have a hands free head set. Now let me start off by saying I am totally in favor of this law. I myself have a hand free head set that I bought when I got my phone. They are not that expensive and for me it was a safety issue. I have even gone as far as pulling over when driving when I have been involved in an intense conversation. I do it for my safety as well as the other drivers on the road.
I have witnessed other drivers that are not paying attention even without a phone. All you have to do is drive on the freeway during rush hour and you see all kinds of drivers, men shaving, women putting on makeup, even reading a news paper over the steering wheel. So as I said I think this is a good law and I hope other states will do the same. If your state does not have such a law please go ahead and get a hand free set for your cell phone it could be your life or mine that you save.
Now with that being said there is one problem with the law. The state gave an exception to police. They can still use their cell phones without a hand free set. Now think of the logic of this. They have way more going on than anyone else. They are not only watching their driving but everyone else. They are tiring to drive code 3, operate their lights and siren, talk on the radio and even work a laptop computer in their cars all while speeding through intersections and red lights. If anyone should use a hand free head set it is the police. They should be held to the same standard as everyone else especially sense it is so easy and the cost is minimal.
Now for some good news the Clark County Sheriff’s office feels the same way. They also believe that they should be held to the same standard sense it is a safety issue. Gary Lucas issued all deputies hand free sets and told them to use them. I only hope all the other police agencies follow their lead. Good job Clark County Sheriff!

Gas Tax

Fuel tax
For years the federal government has been pushing the car makers to increase fuel efficiency. They have been telling the American people to conserve gas, by fuel efficient cars, car pool or take mas transit. They have spent millions of dollars on car pool lanes and rapid transit. They are encouraging investments in alternative fuels and even giving tax credits if you buy a hybrid car. They are doing all this to cut our dependence on foreign oil and to help out the environment. II think these are all worthy things to do. I have always bought small fuel efficient cars; it’s my way of saving money on gas and helping to lesson my foot print on the environment. In the last year as fuel prices have gone up I got my boss to change my schedule a little so I could car pool. I am doing my part. Now you have to wonder what the government was thinking or how stupid they are.
Now they are complaining that as we cut back on driving to save money and cut our dependence on foreign oils they are not collecting enough gas tax. Almost every state is now facing a shortfall in their gas tax and looking at raising the fuel tax. I live in Washington State which has the privilege of having one of the highest if not the highest gas tax in the nation, 38 cents a gallon. Our governor last year had talked about putting a fee (not a tax so we do not get a vote) of $100.00 on all cars that get 40 MPG or better. Guess what my car is rated at 41 MPG highway so I would have to pay this if they do. They are also looking into raising our gas tax. They seem surprised that they have less gas tax money. Anyone with a third grade education can understand that if you tax something and then get people to buy less you get less tax money.
Driving nationwide is down is down 4.7%, California is down by as much as 8% and here in Washington and Oregon its down about 4.5%. Now the head of the federal transportation wants to raise the gas tax by .40 cents a gallon over the next five years (.08 cents a year) we currently pay .18 cents a gallon. This would rise what we pay in federal gas tax to .58 cents a gallon and for those in Washington State you can add the current .38 cents for a total of .96 cents a gallon in tax if Washington doesn’t raise their tax too. On the federal level this would amount to a 225% increase in gas tax. How in the world can a 4.7% drop in fuel use (gas tax) equal a need for a 225% increase? Can you imagine if your property tax, income tax, or sales tax increased by 225%.
Every time they raise the tax we will find new ways to cut back, all you have to do is look at cigarettes. As they have raised taxes less and less people are smoking, By the way for the record I have never smoked so this tax does not affect me but I still think it is unfair to tax one small group so heavy. I am sure that is how they justify such a big tax increase because they know they will lose sales of gas with an increase.
I am getting tiered of government thinking that the tax payer is a bottomless pit of money and every time they want or need something we will pay for it. I work hard and even harder to live on a budget. I do not have the option of spending more then I make and then expecting my boss to just give me more money. It is time the elected officials learn to live in the real world with the rest of us. They put these taxes and fees on and then wonder why when they do ask for tax increases on really important thing we say no.

Social Security

I thought the best place to start is the begging, what is Social Security. Social Security was originally set up to supplement our retirement. It was never suppose to be a full retirement fund. People always say it is a horrible investment which it is because it is not an investment. It is designed to provide you with basic need for living such as a roof over your head or basic food. To long people have looked at Social Security as their retirement and then when they retire they are unhappy with how much they have. People need to start taking care of themselves and putting money away for their own future. Look at it as an insurance policy you pay for. If you are not putting some of your money aside every month into something for your future such as an IRA, 401K or even a savings account then you are part of the problem. We need to get everyone to start taking responsibility for their own future and not rely on the government.

With that said Social Security is in sad shape because of the draw on it now. My understanding of how it works is this. What you pay in now goes to pay for those who are collecting it now. When you retire the people still working will be paying for your benefits. The first problem is we will soon have all the baby boomers retiring. There will soon be more people drawing benefits then are working so there will be more money going out then coming in. the government over the past years has slowly increased the age at which you can get Social Security to try to slow this down. This also is not a go choice and is unfair to the people putting their money in. when I started working I could get full Social security at 62 and Medicare. That has changed to 65, and now 67 and they are talking about making it 70. I have been working almost 30 years and if they make this change it will be like taking away 8 years I have worked. How would you like your bank to come to you after you have been paying on your house for 20 years and tell you, I know your loan was for 30 years but we are short on money so now you have to keep paying your mortgage 8 more years for a total of 38 year? They would be sued because that is illegal but yet the government thinks they can change the rules after you have already agreed to them.

Right now you pay Social Security on the first $96,000 of income after that you pay no Social Security. I think we should change that, maybe not for the tax payer but make the businesses that hire these CEO’s for millions of dollars keep paying on what they pay. They keep talking about helping the middle class and yet Social Security is a tax on middle income America. Just look at the payroll for Baseball. The averages salary for a player is now over a million dollars a year so they are paying Social Security on less than 10% of that. The average team salary is over 100 million which means Baseball has a total payroll of over 2.5 billion a year and Social security is collected on less than 10% or 250 million. Now if you only take the 6.2% that the employer pays on the remaining 2.25 billion it would equal $139.5 million dollars into social security and that’s just for baseball. There would also be basketball, football and all those hi paid heads of companies.

The next thing is they make everyone pay into social security even if you have a retirement plan from your work but if you are an elected official or state employee you don’t these people have some of the best retirement plans around. Let make them pay into social security like the rest of us do. This would also ad millions of dollars to Social Security ever year. It would also give our elected officials an incentive to fix Social Security.

Global Warming

I was watching the vice president debate and they were talking about global warming. Palin when asked said that it was both man made and a global cycle. Biden on the other hand said it was man made and criticized Palin for not knowing what caused it so she could not fix it. This is a very narrow view. I would have to agree with Governor Palin on this issue.

Yes man has had a big impact on the environment and global warming but there are also natural cycles in nature that warm and cool our world. This has happened many times over history with Ice ages and then the ice retreats. For Biden not to know this and only blame man is sad.

Now let’s look at how man has effected global warming. It is true that burning fossil fuels has a huge impact on this. It pollutes our air and traps in heat. Coal burning plant, cars on the road, even fires places burning wood all pollute the air. This is what everyone keeps talking about. We need to cut pollution and keep green house gasses out of the air. The one thing they have not talked about or possible thought about is the suns heat.

As the population grows we are cutting down more and more trees. These trees and plants not only clean the air and produce oxygen but they also shade the earth. Now we are building freeways and roads. We are building skyscrapers out of cement and steel all of which trap heat. All you have to do is on a hot summer day walk bare foot from your grass onto the street. You will find that it will burn your feet. All this concrete holds the heat and radiates it back into the air. Even at night when it cools off the roads are still hot.

Just cutting pollution and fossil fuel use will not stop what’s happening; it will just slow it down. We can start by planting more trees even in our cities to provide shade and help keep the cities cooler. They will also help clean the air and produce oxygen. If every person in the country planted just one tree the impact would be huge and this is something we can all do.

We also need to be more mindful of recycling. Not just after we use it but when we buy things. I look for items that use the least amount of packaging or have recycled packaging. These are all simple things that we can do and may not seem like they will make a difference but if everyone did their part they would add up and make a difference. Please do your part and help out.

Government bailout is a joke

Well they finally passed the bailout for Wall Street today. Now I was in support of the original bailout. It would have given money to buy bad loans and help out banks which would have helped them stay off bankruptcy. It would have helped stabilized the housing market and also the stock market. But I am very disappointed in the members of congress that changed their votes.
They lied to the public and told us that they would not support it because it put too much on the taxpayers and they wanted to stand up for us. Now it turns out it was just their way of blackmailing the country and taxpayers for more money. As if the 700 billion wasn’t enough they held out for an additional 150 billion dollars bringing the total to 850 billion or 21% more. They didn’t care about us they just wanted more money from us so now the bailout that they thought was unfair to us will cost us all more.
They tacked on 150 billion of special interest pork barrels. That is downright dishonest and should be illegal. I feel all those that had voted no and now changed their vote betrayed our trust and should be voted out of office. I think all elected officials should be replaced with someone who cares about the people who elect them.
Now some states are crying to the federal government for help making their bills. It now seems that with the down turn they are now facing budget shortfalls. They feel the federal government should bail them out to at tax payer expense. I don’t know about the rest of you but as gas has gone up I have made cuts in other places where I spend money. I think that if states can do this we as tax payers should be able to tell the government we want a bail out too. Maybe they can suspend all personal federal tax till this problem is solved. I know that will never happen but just shows how stupid it sounds. It is time that state, city, county and even the federal government start cutting their spending and lives within their means like the rest of us. It is time they step up and make cuts in spending waste.

Mortgage crises and what I would do to fix it.

With all the talk of the mortgage crises and what to do I have given it some thought. First you need to see the big picture and not just look at the 700 billion in tax money spent. This problem affects every aspect of the economy and country. Now remember I do not know all the facts but this is my idea. Banks are struggling under loans the people can no longer make the payments on. The people with those loans are falling behind because they now have to start paying principle on the loan that up to now was just interest. Banks have to write off loans and take huge losses. Now the blame goes all the way around from people who borrowed more than they should have, to the mortgage brokers that sold loans they knew were too risky, to banks that loaned to full value of the property so there was no equity in the property if the value went down.
I agree that the banks should not get off completely free. I propose that the government buy the bad loans from the banks and for this they be assessed a special tax on all profits for the next 20 years that starts at 20% and reduces 1% each year for 20 years till it disappears. This is only on their profits and would go into the fund that bought the loans to hopefully cover any losses the government might take on the loans.
Next sense the government sets interest rates they could reduce the rates on the loans they buy to 3%. The people would continue to make the same payments they were when they took out the loan. Now if you have a $250,000 interest only loan at 5%your payment would be $1042.00 a month. Now if your reduce the interest to 3% and they make the same payment of $1042 they would pay the loan off in 30.5 years which would allow the government to make 3% on the money they borrowed from the tax payers. The people with the loans would see their interest rates drop so they would get less of a tax write off. Again on a $250,000 loan their interest payment would drop from $12,500 a year to $8,300 a year so they would pay income tax on that extra $42,200 a year. If the average tax payer pays 15% federal tax this would mean an extra $630 dollars a year.
Now the 3% the government collects on the loans should cover any costs they incur for managing the loans as all they have to do is process the payments so there shouldn’t be a lot of labor involved and should be a little extra. The government would also collect the extra federal tax from the home owners and the special taxes on companies for 20 years. Also sense they will not be issuing any new loans the money should be paid back over the next 31 years give or take a couple years.
This would get the banks back on sound footing and stabilized the housing market because home would not be foreclosed on and homeowners would not have to sell their homes for whatever they can get to get out from under a loan that goes up to where they cannot afford it. This would also cut the supply of houses on the market which would stop housing prices from falling. Falling housing prices cause a big problems for states, counties and cities which are seeing their budgets shrink as they collect less tax dollars so they will not have to raise property tax to cover falling tax revenue.
This brings us full circle. Everyone has a part in fixing the problem and we can work together. Now this is a pretty simple plan and again I don’t portend to know all the information and there may be more to it then what I have here but it would be a go start.