Countering right to the point

From Kevin Shilling

Greenfield

A lot of us get to read John Porter’s columns that are pretty much the talking points from Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck. The column would be even better if, like Paul Harvey, we got the rest of the story, instead of party-line talking points.

While the author proclaims his new status as a fellow tea bagger, I see him as a tea bagger in name only (TINO). Tinos jump on the bandwagon and never violate the 11th amendment, which is never to criticize a fellow Republican, and hope they can benefit from the real tea-bagger’s movement. The Republicans in charge of “hi-jacking” this movement need to make sure that every tea bagger forgets Republican spending, expanding the government (Homeland Security, etc.), tax cuts to the rich and privileged, The Patriot Act (during martial law you have NO rights) and that our former vice president had government health care for his recent heart attack.

A classic example of what is wrong with our Senate and Congress is the pay-offs. Uh, I mean campaign contributions. Just look at Baucus (Democrat) from Montana, and our own Grassley (Republican) from Iowa. Both, in bipartisan fashion, accepted more than $3 million each from the health-insurance industry and pharmaceutical manufacturers! This is why representatives do a lot for the status-quo and nothing for us. At the rate we are going, neither one should be worried about re-election. Iowans will forget this and send Grassley back for more donations as he really has worked hard for ... them.

I don’t carry water for the status-quo, which just trades off the two parties to get what they want. So far, they have paid their way for off-shore accounts, outsourcing our jobs and having us pay the taxes they do not pay. With the Supreme Court opening the floodgates for corporate donations (under the guise of corporate personhood/free speech), our situation as citizens will not get better.

Both political parties in Iowa are guarding out-of-state corporations, which pay no state income tax on their earnings. Imagine that! Thanks to Iowa-based businesses that subsidize these out-of-state corporations that send their profits home tax free. Check out combined corporate reporting that is required in other states that got the idea this is not fair to their own businesses.