Whether you agree with me or not, please do yourself a favor and read through the following that is well documented. I am an independent voter and evaluate the issues and vote for candidates that are best for America. I cannot vote for a Democratic nominee at any level of government at this time that adopts the current Party line because the Party has strayed from looking after American interests and needs to be given a wakeup call. This is evidenced, in part, by the items below and reiterated in the Democratic Party Platform for the 2008 Convention that provides policy guidance for the next 4 years. Furthermore, the current Democratic controlled Congress has been the most unproductive in 3 decades, stonewalling and playing party politics on important issues affecting American’s everyday lives. 

The Democratic Party needs a wakeup call for:

-         CREATING the CREDIT CRISIS. The Democratic Party created the current Credit Crisis that has resulted in the expansion of the housing bubble followed by the housing decline, when it burst, creating havoc with the banking and mortgage lending industry. This was set in motion by the Community Reinvestment Actpassed in 1977 created by Jimmy Carter and the Democratic controlled congress, later in 1995 expanded by Bill Clinton and the then Democratic congress. The Act requires lending institutions to make loans (mortgages) to individuals that would not normally qualify, with implied restrictions against institutions that did not comply applied by Government Regulatory Agencies. This gave Federal blessing (and requirement) to risky loans and the Act should be grossly modified if not repealed.

-         KEEPING AMERICA DEPENDENT on FOREIGN OIL. The Democratic Party is responsible for our level of dependency on foreign oil; we have to import 80% of our oil and 11% of our gasoline. The Democrats have managed to hold their moratorium on domestic exploration, development, and drilling and new refineries for three decades and still, in light of today’s oil issues, refuse to lift the moratorium. We should have been developing our oil reserves decades ago. Obama’s proposed Senate Bill S.115 makes it illegal to explore for oil around our coastline on the continental shelf. The largest oil companies in the World are foreign government owned; most of those governments are not our friends; by America not being in the oil production game, we are sending Billions of Dollars off shore, providing U.S. $ to petro-tyrants from Moscow to Tehran to Caracas to fund their activities to harass America and its allies! Not to mention leaving ourselves vulnerable to malicious restriction of oil supply. Drilling and developing America’s oil reserves would set off an economic boom and help pull the world out of the recession that falling global markets now seem to be signaling.

-         TAX & SPEND without regard to BUDGET DEFICIT. Under Obama leadership the Democratic Party will abandon their “pay-as-you-go” rhetoric to spend more, as they already did on the 2008 Farm Bill. This will grow our national deficit to historically high levels in the name of social reform and if they maintain control of the Congress and get the White House they will have a field day with spending money WE don’t have. The Washington Post reported (reprint in the Arkansas Democrat Gazette 8-11-2008) an analysis that showed Obama’s Tax Policy would swell the budget deficit and increase the tax burden on everyone except those who don’t pay any taxes at all, due to income level. We currently pay the first 5 months of income to taxes at one level or another, it seems the Democratic Party wants 6 months or more of our income to go to taxes. Many economists have stated that current and future, as outlined in the 2008 Party Platform, policies of the Democratic Party will certainly push our economy into a recession.

-         HIGH FOOD PRICES. The Democratic Party must shoulder part of the blame for rising food costs because of the support and subsidy of Ethanol production from corn. Germany quickly realized the impact this approach and the fallacy of turning food into fuel, with its resulting impact on food cost, and abruptly ceased all support for Ethanol from corn or any food crop. Corn is a major input factor in the food industry for feed, cereals, and other food products. Corn last year was $2.00 a bushel and, even with bumper corn crops, is $6.50 a bushel today. Even with these results the Democratic congress still has Fuel From Food as a big part of their planned energy package. The Democratic Party is apparently ignoring more rational choices of fuel for automobiles, such as natural gas or better yet hydrogen fuel, instead pushing higher cost and inefficient fuels.

-         HAS PUT PARTY POLITICS AHEAD OF AMERICA. Senator Joe Lieberman, a popular democrat, left the Democratic Party because the party put political gain ahead of America’s interests in decisions and policies. 

-         THE BANNER OF SOCIALISM FLYING OVER THE PARTY. As documented in the Democratic Party platform, a 94-page document that lays out the Party direction for the next 4 years and establishes, among other social programs, a “Social Investment Fund Network”, a Barack Obama brainchild. This would create a government office to coordinate grants to “chosen groups” and “nonprofit efforts” providing a permanent taxpayer-funded pipeline to Democratic partisan outfits masquerading as public-interest do-gooders. This is nothing more than a smoke screen for redistribution of assets from those who pay taxes to those who don’t. The Democratic Party has been captured by the Far Left Liberal segments of the Party that are pushing the Party to extremes of Socialism that is not in any American’s interest and the Party needs a Wakeup Call to come back to America’s principles.

-         THE FRAM BILL of 2008. The Democratic controlled Congress passed this bill into law over a Presidential Veto. It represents a massive tax dollar giveaway to farmers in the form of crop subsidies. The Democratic controlled Congress waived their “pay-as-you-go” rule to allow this Bill to go forward. It is one thing to provide subsidies for “family farms”, but to give these large subsidies to corporate farms that are making large profits is ludicrous. To qualify for subsidies farm income has to be below $750,000 or $500,000 from non-farm income. If your income is under $500,000 do you get a subsidy, I’ll bet not, you just get to pay taxes.

-         CHASING FANTASY ELECTRICAL POWER GENERATION: The Democrats are focusing on wind and solar for power generation. These are potential supplements to a power grid but what if the wind isn’t blowing and the day is overcast or it’s nighttime? You can’t store electrical power for a rainy day! You either use it or lose it when it’s generated. Many industrialized countries derive most of their electrical power from nuclear energy, recycling spent fuel rods. This is too big an issue to be focusing our tax dollars solely on a sometimes energy source.

-         AGAINST VOTERS RIGHTS to a SECRET BALLOT: Current law affords all workers the opportunity to vote by private ballot on whether or not to be represented by a union in their workplaces. This private ballot ensures that workers are able to make a choice without the undue influence of their union organizers, employers, colleagues and friends.  “The Employee Free Choice Act” (EFCA), interesting play on words, would supplant a worker’s right to a private vote with of a public card check system in which paid union organizers persuade workers to sign cards indicating their agreement to union representation. These organizers would have the liberty to seek signatures anywhere and at any time, including showing up at workers’ homes. As soon as a simple majority (50%, plus one) of employees sign a union authorization card, EFCA would force the employer to immediately recognize the union for all workers—even those who did not sign authorization cards.  The Democratic Party supports this travesty against voter’s rights. What’s next; have voting in National elections made public? I personally experienced union organization when in high school working part time. That experience convinced me that unions represent themselves first and the employee last. As a result of that experience I decided that union representation was a workers best interests in this day of Government oversight of workplace issues. 

The American people need to ensure themselves that they really understand and want the Democratic Party policy if they are going to vote this Party line, because I’ll guarantee you it’s bad for those of us who pay taxes, it’s bad for individual lifestyles, and it’s bad for the economy. 

This country was built on and has become great because of entrepreneurs and capitalism. Immigrants have come to this country for centuries to escape tyranny, socialism, anarchy and oppressive societies. They came here and, along with fellow American’s, helped grow this country because they had/have a chance to expend their energy and skills, and apply their knowledge to improve their lives, grow the country and give something back, and in some cases sacrifice their (or their descendants) lives to preserve the American dream. 

The problem is the Democratic Party seems to be heading in a direction that wants you to give it all back, a state run society fraught with redistribution of wealth. And I don’t mean redistribution from only the very rich; it’s from anyone who earns enough to pay taxes! 

Is that “change” and is that the “change” you want?