punched my cigarette

As the U.S. Congress has been putting together (throwing together?) a tax bill -- Republicans for it; Democrats against -- it's a little hard to see clearly if, overall, the bill is good or bad.

     A Republican person (a former state legislator) told me the companies that took jobs out of the U.S. and put them in other countries, are now going to bring those jobs back here and hire Americans.

     That sounds like pie-in-the-sky.  But I don't know.  Maybe not so much "pie," as "armchair-speculation."

     Armchair speculation from non-Republicans airs the theory that repubs are cutting taxes so that government will have less income, then they can say, "hey the government's broke now, so we gotta -- shall we say -- 'liberate' the Social Security money you have been paying into since you started working the summer after sophomore year of high school.


     I told my Republican adviser, I just don't want America to become like a third world country where people are starving to death in the streets.

     He said, "Oh, that won't happen."

     I was thinking today, that's the same kind of answer my father would have given, to a question like that.  But do they give that answer because they've seriously analyzed the issues and the politics from all angles, considering a multitude of influences and agendas?  Or do they give the "Oh that won't happen" answer because --

a) They cannot imagine a horrific future in America because it didn't materialize during their lifetime,
b) Because they want their answer to be true, or
c) Because they don't want me to be fearful, or to "fret," as my dad would say....


Earlier this week I was thinking, re --

~~  Getting nuked by North Korea, and

~~  Commentators who say the wealthiest people want to take all the money, 

to the detriment of working people



...it's like a cloud Of Existential Dread hovering nearby.

If it was hovering over me, that would be worse; it's nearby, so I don't walk by it; I cross the street and walk over there instead....

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Two things I've been taught by this recent tax-cut-bill-commentary:

1)  I can really see why so many Americans will say, if politics or even current events, is mentioned, "I have nothing to do with politics, I don't pay any attention to those guys...."  I can totally see it.  Or -- maybe not totally -- but I can see it much more clearly than I used to be able to see it.  

(I can see clearly now, the rain is gone...I can see all obstacles in my way...gone are the dark clouds...)  

[If only those dark clouds that are "gone" would have taken their friend, the Cloud-Of-Existential-Dread, with them....]

And, 2)  I am beyond done listening to any politician, or any partisan commentator, whining/ranting,

"The government's broke!"

Obviously, that phrase is just attention-getting drama; our government can forego more than One Trillion dollars of the income it receives from taxes -- clearly, we are not "broke."

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CNN - Money put up a thing on the Internet, headlined, 
"34 things you need to know about the incoming tax law"
by Julia Horowitz.

It seems to have some useful information.  The 34 items are brief, and to the point:  understandable and clear.

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