| Read my lips� I don�t understand taxes. I don�t worry about taxes. My mom does them for me. She probably rips me off but I don�t care. Most people do care. Lots of people in this country have families, dependants or gambling/drug addictions. These people worry about their money. They often have a hard time making ends meet. They worry about every penny. Every cut out of their paycheck or tax on their property impacts them greatly. These people are also worried about job security and the financial well being of the country. For these people(or normal people� as I like to call them) taxes and the economy are big factors in making their election decision. I honestly don�t think we can believe what the candidates say about taxes. They say one thing now to garner support then do what they want when they get into office. Then there is the amazingly complicated world of finance, which makes me want to kill myself at the mere mention of it. But you did list it as a topic you wanted to hear my opinions on so I will write about it, as agonizing as this is for me (but I�m not promising it will be as long as the others.) George W. Bush is conservative. He doesn�t like big government and therefore doesn�t like big taxes. Strike that. He doesn�t like FEDERAL taxes. He keeps talking about state responsibility. I�m not sure what that means. Does that mean that state taxes will go up as the national ones go down? I�m not planning on answering that even though it isn�t a rhetorical question. George plans to give back the �surplus� in 483 billion dollars in tax cuts from 2002-2006. He throws out a lot of big numbers. He�s got trillions running around after 10 years. I think he is overestimating future surpluses. I do believe I�m accusing him of fuzzy math, even though I hate that phrase with a passion. So I don�t believe his tax plan will actually pan out the way he wants it too. The economy at the moment is pretty good as far as I can tell. I don�t know anyone who can�t get a job. Despite the fact that I know a lot of people that shouldn�t be able to get jobs due to mild insanity. It wasn�t so long ago that my parents were having trouble finding work and my father had to move to Florida to get a position in his field. We had bill collectors beating down the doors, among other clich�s. In the new economic boom there are less bill collectors at our door and now they just knock a lot and we pretend we aren�t home. I don�t know how it is for other people but the CNN people say it�s pretty good. George Women Bush (I just read that that is what the W stands for on his website) wants the economy to continue to flourish. He feels that the best way to do this is to cut taxes and support free trade. Of course when it comes to oil he doesn�t want to buy it from Sadam cause he is a bad man but when it comes to free trade with China he doesn�t seem to think human rights violations are that big of a deal. He should just come out and say foreign oil is too expensive and China is a big market where we could make a lot of money. Honesty is the best policy Al Gore proposes surplus tax cuts but he wants to keep some of it to fund social programs and pay off the national debt. Al Gore loves social programs. He thinks the government should do a lot for the people. Some see this as saying the people can�t do it for themselves. Lets face it, most of them can�t. Al likes to let people think that he is partially responsible for the economic boom because he was part of the Clinton administration. He also got to cast the tie breaking vote for some economic policy plan and he says that helped the economy. Al gets to ride the wave of a good economy but there are also some drawbacks. Many people feel that the Clinton administration doesn�t really have anything to do with our current financial situation. They feel it was due to technological advances in the private sector. If people believe this and they think it is a good thing then Bush is the man for them. If they think the Clinton administration was the cause then they can just stay with Gore. Either way I don�t care. Neither way is �wrong.� They both have ups and downs and I�m too ignorant to really choose. I hate numbers. I haven�t memorized my Wilmington phone number yet and I�ve been here for months. Notice I didn�t say how many months because I honestly don�t know. I know this is not normal but ever since I had to take algebra three times I�ve just pretended numbers don�t exist. This way of life has served me well for quite some time. I don�t spend money so I don�t need to really worry about overdrawing accounts and making ends meet. I have rent and utilities. I don�t buy clothes. I buy enough food to live. I get all my books and videos at either the library or a second hand store. I get my music from Napster and my software from Gnutella. I haven�t paid to have my hair cut in two years. I have one picture frame and I rotate the pictures in it rather than buy new frames. Half of my wardrobe belonged to my mother in the 70s. One paper towel can last me three days. I have even been known to trash pick. I feel like I�m going overboard if I buy a soda from a machine and I feel bad about it for days. I haven�t had paper money in my wallet in 2 weeks. I could go into some rather ridiculous details of my neurotic frugality (those old ladies from the depression are big spenders compared to me) but I�ll get to the point. I don�t like to think about money. It makes me feel stressed out because all of my life I�ve worried about money. Every year I go to school at the least expensive option available. This is the fourth university I�ve been to and I�m not even a junior. Despite my absolutely insane fear of dealing with money I want things to be done in our country. I don�t want to have to be responsible for feeding the poor with charitable donations; I just want fat poor people. I don�t want to be responsible for investigating schools and making sure they are doing their job; I just want smart children. I don�t want to be responsible for anything financial in this country. I want the government to do what I want and send me the bill because I don�t know how to get it done without them. By that standard I would have to choose Al Gore(but you all know who I�m really voting for!) |