The Bipartisan Directive

"What makes men think they can justify death? Is it arrogance?"
- Mel Gibson, The Patriot

While watching The Patriot this weekend that quote really hit me. With the events of the past weeks I have been disgusted at the acts of violence around our country and the world. Almost as disgusting as the violence is the ignorance about current events. It surprised me how many people had no idea about the police killings in Oakland and Pittsburgh, the shooting sprees and people killing their own families in New York, Alabama, and even my home state of Washington. The "justification," excuses, or even blame accross conservative and liberal lines for these events given by the shooters and the media has been the stagnant economy or job loss or any number of reasons. I am not a pacifist by any means, but when innocent people die for any reason is terrible, be it "justifiable" or not. In my last post I had said to read a paper, watch the news, surf news stations on the web, or listen to news radio for just an hour and you will be more informed about the world you live in. I am sticking by that because it astonishes me when people in the most powerful country in the world have no idea what is going on it. We are world leaders, yet we know nothing of the world. President Obama told Europeans in a speech there that Americans were, "arrogant," and though I find that completely offensive I find it hard to disagree with him. Arrogance may not be the correct word but ignorance fits it perfectly. So many people had no idea North Korea was preparing to launch a "test" rocket that it was honestly scary. The news started covering it adequately AFTER it had already been launched, and North Korea is a country with a viable nuclear program. If there is a type of "justifiable" violence it would be to protect innocent people from a dictator like Kim Jong Il, but instead most of us only justify our own ignorance and arrogance. Arrogance that we believe our government should give us everything and make sure none of us fail, arrogance that we are leaders of the free world and must be treated as such, and arrogance that we have some right to the wealth and prosperity we so easily take for granted. We DO have the right and the opportunity to work for that prosperity, we DO have the right and opportunity to lead the world and protect freedom and innocence, and we DO have the right, the opportunity, and the duty to be informed and make this world a better place. Maybe eventually we can lead the world by showing it that violence is not only unjustifiable, but unnecissary, and by eliminating not only ignorance, but arrogance as well.

Now I will move on to the news I wanted to cover, and live up to the expectations I have made for myself of being fair and honest.

I may seem harsh in most of my posts against Democrats, President Obama, and I hope Republicans and our government as a whole, but I found something positive I want to share to balance out my own negativity (believe it or not it depresses me too). I originally heard about this on Fox News and then took time over the weekend to research it more. It is called the, "Payroll Tax Holiday Act of 2009," and it was proposed by Democratic Congressman Walt Minnick of Idaho and Republican Aaron Schock from Illinois. This Bipartisan idea put forward by two former businessmen would help small businesses, of which there are about 5 million in the United States. They believe that small businesses will lead the way out of this recession and get our economy growing again because 70% of Americans are employed by small businesses. What the bill proposes is any business that has less than 50 employees can "take a holiday" on paying their payroll taxes, which they say comes out to about $120 per employee per pay period and that money would be required to be reinvested in the company by the employer, and would also put the employees portion into their pockets giving them more to spend in the economy. In essence this bill puts money back into the system, and not only into the hands of the producers but the consumers also. I also think this bill is a great idea, not only a great idea but a great bipartisan idea! It gives employers a chance to grow and hire more employees, and gives 70% of Americans more money to save, invest, or spend. If there is a better way to jumpstart lending, spending, and our economy I don't see it. There was a study done that said just a 40% decrease in this tax could add 2-4 million jobs and INCREASE tax revenue (as reducing taxes in the past has almost always done). Both Congressmen are new this year, freshmen in a government of career politicians that have come up with one of the best ideas I have heard in years. It allows not only the creation of new jobs, but for employers to keep current employees that they may not have been on the verge of being forced to let go.
Here are the places I got my information, so you can make your own decision and hopefully we as Americans can make ourselves heard and help these Congressmen pass their great bill.

http://minnick.house.gov/2009/04/bipartisan-proposal-calls-for-payroll-tax-holiday-for-small-businesses.shtml
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.R.1836
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,512433,00.html