When Paul Harvey died last week, I remembered the many times I listened to his, "here's the rest of the story" - saying "rest" with that bluejay-like upturn, telling the other side of famous historical or news-worthy events. (Read a short Tribune review of Harvey's career by Phil Rosenthal.)
So then as I read about Obama signing his budget filled with almost 8,600 earmarks costing $3.8 - 7.7 billion, depending on which side of the aisle is talking, thereby reneging on his campaign pledge against Congressional earmarks, I wondered, what is the rest of the story?
Compromise and moving on for the sake of making room for the battalion of other concerns is part of it. Presidents get worn down. In forty-one days since Inauguration Day, this President has faced ungodly choices between bad and worse. Too bad he's so busy, otherwise he might tell us his thought process on this broken pledge.
Well, it's not like we didn't expect it. It was just a matter of time.
8 comments:
Extremely high expectations and hopes are bound to be dashed. It's reality, but it still hurts.
Paul Harvey was such a part of my childhood and adult life, too. My mom always listened to his radio pieces. We need someone who lifts our spirits, especially in times like these.
Too bad that Mr. Obama had to make unrealistic promises to get elected. Maybe he really did, naively, believe he could keep this one. Who can know?
I don't know whether this is a fact or not, but I heard that he wants to abolish the mortgage interest tax credit. This would kill me. Have you heard about this at all? If this is the case, it will basically be back door taxation.
Oh heavens! I hope not! I haven't heard about it, but that doesn't mean anything. We would get annihilated too. I'll see if I can find anything.
First thing I see is the universal 10% mortgage interest tax credit he proposed in his campaign. This would help those who don't itemize. Since Don does our taxes, I don't know if this would be better or worse than current credits.
I'll keep looking to see if I can find anything new in his plan to cut the deficit by half.
Next installment:
"About half of what officials characterized as a $634 billion "down payment" toward health care coverage for every American would come from cuts in Medicare. That is sure to incite battles with doctors, hospitals, health insurance companies and drug manufacturers.
Some of the Medicare savings would come from scaling back payments to private insurance plans that serve older Americans, which many analysts believe to be inflated. Other proposals include charging upper-income beneficiaries a higher premium for Medicare's prescription drug coverage.
To raise the other half, Obama wants to reduce the rate by which wealthier people can cut their taxes through deductions for mortgage interest" (my bold)
This was found at NPR. I'll keep digging.
Hard for me to believe he was 90 now, seemed like he was 90 when I was 12.
What scares me is the definition of "Wealthy"
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