George Smith With Three Thoughts….
Could this be a sign of ‘normalcy’?
The National Prayer Breakfast, one of the most visible and long-standing events that brings religion and politics together in Washington, is splitting from the private religious group that had ‘owned’ it for decades. There were concerns the gathering had become too divisive.
The organizer and host for this year’s breakfast, scheduled for Thursday, February 2, will be the National Prayer Breakfast Foundation, headed by former Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark.
News reports over the last several years have raised concerns about the intent of the organization, how money was raised and how funds were used. Sen, Chris Coons a Delaware Democrat, and Sen. James Langford, an Oklahoma Republican, raised bipartisan concerns about the invitation list and funds raised.
The new organization wants to ensure the gathering is no longer seen as divisive, that it is truly bipartisan and inclusive.
Pryor said the new organization is a “reset” where “House members and Senate members can come together and pray for the president, for his family, and administration, pray for our government, the world.”
President Biden, the vice president and administration leaders and guests are invited, as well as congressional members.
Here’s hoping they all show up to pray for this country and its leaders.
Prayer. Most folks would agree… prayer in tumultuous times certainly can’t hurt.
Election 22 months away
We’re still 22 months out from the 2024 presidential election and Clown College Circus that prec4des it and there is only one announced candidate: President 45 Donald Trump who wants to be No. 47.
The list of presidential hopeful maybes is long but the list of OMG! NOs! is longer still.
New blood, not a stampede of ancient hoary-heads, is needed, so prayers going up that Biden declines to run for a second term and Trump is dumped by a GOP up-and-comer. Voters need new choices, not retreads and reruns.
Many calculated and experienced election watchers, while contemplating choices for contenders, do not include VP Kamala Harris, who has proven that, as John Nance Garner put it, the vice presidency is not worth a bucket of warm spit.
To her eternal shame, Harris, the nation’s first black and first woman vice president, has been, for the most part, two parts of ‘in’; INvisible and INeffective. She will always been known as the official “Border Czar” who was in no hurry; it took her six months to visit the southern border.
On another front, she could have been played her party’s point person to reestablish a strong connection with blacks and women, but the political demographics show her impact on these voting blocs have been minimal.
Both parties need new blood to inject a sense of urgency, of enthusiasm, into the political process. What we have now is the same-old-same-old and, frankly, it’s gotten weary and tiresome.
Those durn taxes
Like a lot of Baby Boomers, my spousal unity and I are retired … sort of. We both are adjunct instructors at a community college. Then, for other sources of income, there’s Social Security, teacher retirement, a couple of smallish corporate pensions and an occasional consulting gig at hourly rates.
We are not rich: Let’s put it this way: Normally, we can afford gas to get to work and to buy the occasional dozen eggs; when the SS checks are deposited, I sometimes find a $20 bill stuck in my billfold.
Recent news about how little gadzillionaires and major global corporations pay in income taxes hit a lot of taxpayers squarely between the eyes.
In the year just passed, we paid the federal government more than $23,000 in federal income taxes. That does not include state taxes for income, sales taxes for purchases, county taxes for real estate and property taxes, taxes for utilities or fees to government entities or corporations for everything from vehicle registration to trash pickup to mysterious corporate “surcharges”.
Point: We are careful with our money (well, at least my life-partner is and has me on a short financial leash because of my it’s-in-the-bank-let’s-spend-it philosophy of life). And, on purpose, we overpay income tax on every paycheck.
We used to take our refund check and go on memorable vacations — Alaskan Intercoastal Waterway cruise, 15-day driving tour of Ireland and Scotland; 16-day river cruise with Viking in Europe, and a two-week stay at a Costa Rican ego-lodge, awakened each morning to rainforest conversations with howler monkeys and toucans.
Overpaying taxes was our way of “saving” and then reaping the benefits of our labors by making “forever” memories.
Of the $25,000-plus paid in federal incom taxes last year, based on our total income and standard deductions, we should get a refund this year of between $8,000-$10,000.
That sounds like a bunch…and it is. But that figure has decreased about $5,000-$6,000 from before the Trump tax cuts of 2017 and the slashing of some basic deductions that adversely affected the middle class.
Meanwhile, the tax laws are still skewed to aid the wealthy and corporations.
Fair share: Two words that no longer have relevance when it comes to paying taxes in this country.
I truly don’t mind paying taxes to have the privilege to live in the U.S. It’s just that I would like a fair and equitable tax system that spreads the tax burden around equally.
In 2020, for example, a horde of rich folks and major corporations paid zero taxes: acknowledged “billionaire” Trump paid no taxes in numerous years in the pasts decade.
Fair share. It’s not that hard of a concept. But common sense in tax accountability has gone the way of the Sears catalog and rotary telephone.
The system we now have will be the system we will continue to have as long as we elect politicians who are beholding to the rich and special interests.