Fantasy Politics USA

Mike Huckabee was asked by CNN if he would direct any U.S. funds to programs that promote and provide condoms for Africa to help fight AIDS. “I’d want to see how that’s used … I’ve been a little reluctant to think that condoms alone are the most effective way,” Huckabee said, “It certainly is more effective than not having them. But I think helping people understand that condoms do have a failure rate, and they are not totally 100 percent successful. And it gives some people a false sense of security thinking that they can still live dangerously and recklessly and that that’s going to be a fail safe protection when it obviously is not.” Huckabee did say there are other ways to help combat diseases in Africa like supplying clean drinking water to fight typhoid and dysentery. He also said he is willing to work with the programs already in use to help fight AIDS but, “The details are something we’ve got to focus on as we get there.” Huckabee is an ordained Baptist minister, and it sounds like he is preaching to his followers. The USAID is the agency under the State Department that is in charge of sending aid to foreign countries. According to the USAID website, “While no barrier method is 100 percent effective, correct and consistent use of latex condoms can reduce the risk of transmission of HIV, some other sexually transmitted infections, and of unintended pregnancy.” The United Nations says condoms are “an essential weapon in the fight against HIV/AIDS.” If he is so interested he should ask the people that have been there, not his congregation.
Alan Cosgrove

Barack Obama spoke before the Tax Policy Center and said we need to overhaul our tax system. He wants to cut taxes for the poor and middle class, and raise taxes for the wealthiest and corporations. Obama introduced his tax plan which has four main parts. Obama says the tax system now is unfair because, “Instead of working to find ways to relieve the burden on the middle class, we’ve developed creative ways to remove the burden from the well-off. Instead of having all of us pay our fair share, we’ve got over $1 trillion worth of loopholes in the corporate tax code.” Obama adds, “This isn’t the invisible hand of the market at work. It’s the successful work of special interests. For decades, we’ve seen a successful strategy to ride anti-tax sentiment in this country toward tax cuts that favor wealth, not work. And for decades, we’ve seen the gaps in wealth in this country grow wider, while the costs to working people are greater.” With his plan the tax cut to the middle class could be about 80 billion dollars. According to Obama, “the Bush tax cuts gave the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans a tax cut that was twice as large as the middle class. At a time when Americans are working harder than ever, we are taxing income from work at nearly twice the level that we’re taxing gains for investors.” He says he wants to restore fairness and simplicity to the tax code. “I’ll end the preferential treatment that’s built into our tax code by eliminating corporate loopholes and tax breaks. We shouldn’t be distorting our tax code to benefit a few powerful interests – we should be insisting that everyone pays their fair share, and when I’m President, they will, Obama said. He said he would penalize companies for using secretive offshore tax havens that are used to avoid paying taxes.
The first part of Obama’s plan is to give the working people a tax cut. He plans on giving a $500 tax cut per person, or $1000 per working family. He says because, “this credit would be greater than their income tax bill, my proposal would eliminate all income taxes for 10 million working Americans.” The second part of his proposal is to provide a universal homeowners’ tax credit. This will give every homeowner, including those that don’t itemize, a mortgage interest credit. The third thing he wants to do is a progressive tax cut for America’s seniors. Obama says, “When I’m President, we’ll work to see that no retiree making less than $50,000 each year has to pay income tax.” This will cut about 7 million people off the tax roll. His final idea is to simplify the tax code. He says he has a plan where most Americans will be able to do their taxes in about 5 minutes. I guess he doesn’t care about all those tax preparers he is putting out of work.
Alan Cosgrove

Fred Thompson is still on tour in Florida and took some questions while with Florida’s governor Charlie Crist. Thompson has said he would search for oil reserves wherever they might exist. Apparently he was unaware that drilling for oil near the Florida Everglades is a hot topic in Florida. He laughed when a reporter asked him if he would consider drilling for oil in the Everglades. “Gosh, no one has told me that there’s any major reserves in the Everglades, but maybe that’s one of the things I need to learn while I’m down here,” Thompson said. Governor Crist quickly chimed in, “We’d rather not do that.” “I’m not going to start by taking this, that, or the other off the table in terms of our overall energy situation,” Thompson said. “We’ve got to do better in terms of nuclear. We’ve got to do better in terms of finding environmentally friendly ways to use coal, which we have plenty of.” Thompson then said it would be a “drastic situation” to have to drill in the Everglades. But, “on the question of drilling in general, I don’t think anybody really prefers to have to drill at all anywhere. I have said we’ve got to use our own resources.” Thompson also said he supports drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. “Nobody wants to see $100 oil, either. So we have to do what’s reasonable and makes sense,” Thompson added. Also last week while in Cape Coral along Florida’s west coast, he said he would be in favor of drilling for oil right off of Florida’s Gulf coast. So you can see the drilling rigs right from the beaches that used to have white sand.
In 2002, while Thompson was a Senator, President Bush announced plans to buy oil and gas rights on 390,396 acres of federally protected land in the Everglades to safeguard them from drilling. This was a political move to help the President’s brother Jeb Bush get reelected as Governor. The rest of the National Park is open for drilling according to Thompson. Later on the phone Governor Crist said he, “wasn’t completely overjoyed with the positions,” Thompson had. Republican rival Mitt Romney was surprised that Thompson would say something like this. “You’re kidding?” said Romney, who also was campaigning in Florida. “Let’s take that off the table. We’re not going to drill in the Everglades. There are certain places in America that are national treasures and the Everglades is one of those.” I suggest we first drill for oil in Fred Thompson’s front yard.
Alan Cosgrove