deadissue.com

I made an appointment to get a vasectomy today.  The procedure sounds pretty easy, I did not even need a pre-surgery appointment and my co-pay is only $40.  This seems like a no-brainer when one looks at the cost of raising a child.  Plus, in my case my dog, Kip, hates kids.  If I ever had a kid I would have to give up him up, (my dog not the kid, although it would probably be smarter to give up the kid, as I am sure most dogs are better companions than the drooling poop factories that some people call children) 

It is interesting that more men don’t decide to go child free, most my friends who have children don’t seem that happy about the situation, they either complain that they cannot do the things they want to do.  Or in some cases they complain about being stuck in a bad relationship for the sake of the children.  I know Al might disagree with me on this but when I look at parents I see people who are tired and have that look of someone who is trying to run out the clock. 

I like the idea that I can live in a small place in a bad school district and be very happy.  Children would ruin that, suddenly I would have to listen to my realtor when he talks about the need to live in a “good area”.  I might even need to worry about finding a good paying carreer so that I could one day send my kid to college.  Thanks to a $40 dollar co-pay I can insure happiness for a very long time.  I think my ROI on this $40 might be almost infinite.

From washingtonmonthly

Ninety-two percent of farm-dwellers derive either all or most of their income from sources other than farming or subsidies….The other 8 percent — commercial farmers who derive most of their income from farming and subsidies — earned an average of $200,000 last year — an increase of 22 percent from 2006. This year, income for this group is projected to hit $230,000 — another 9.3-percent increase. The USDA, which calculated these estimates, reported last year that the windfall for commercial farmers is due in large part to “demand from the rapid expansion of ethanol production.”

….Right now, Congress is attempting to renew farm subsidies for five more years, even though the vast majority of the payments go to farmers who are making six figures a year. The chief obstacle is President Bush, who has threatened to veto the bill in its current form. Bush, who signed the massive 2002 farm bill, has set an unbelievably low bar for Congress to clear, calling only for modest spending restraint in the wake of record farm incomes. Yet Congress cannot even bring itself to cap payments to millionaires, among other simple reforms.

Every now and again Bush does something smart and this might be one of thise times. I really wonder why everyone finds it necessary to pander to the farmers.

Taken from Matthew Yglesisas

Rob Goodspeed points out that we have substantial evidence that consumers bear only around half the burden of gasoline taxes over the long run, with the rest of the incidence falling on the oil companies. Here’s one study:

Using the estimated coefficients, we can determine the incidence of federal and state specific taxes. An increase in the federal tax by 1¢ raises the retail price by 0.47¢ and decreases the wholesale price by 0.56¢. Thus, consumers and wholesalers each pay roughly half of the federal specific tax.
In other words, we really should be raising the gas tax. There are a billion reasons this won’t happen, but if we were to raise the gas tax, then rebate half the revenues to citizens on some kind of flat per person basis, and make the other half available to fund transit projects, there’d be no net burden on the population, you’d create an incentive to use alternative forms of transportation where they exist, and you’d have a pool of revenue available to create alternative forms of transportation

Higher gas taxes also have the benefit of decreasing consumption which should be good for the enviroment as well. The gas tax holiday is one of the dumbest ideas ever, once again Hillary Clinton shows her poor judgement with her support of the idea.

Grown-ups are trying to stop the Hillary/McCain pander fest