Lesser of Two Evils 09/01/2004

*Sigh* Rant time, again, folks.

With November's election approaching, I'm hearing more and more people talk about "the lesser of two evils", how they are sick of Bush and his nation-building foreign policy and his suck rich dick national policy... at least Kerry is a breath of fresh air.

Except that he isn't.
Bush may be a fastidious prick, but at least he's not incompetent.
There may have been thousands of protestors at the Republican National Convention, but at least you knew exactly what the RNC's strategy for keeping the White House was. Using the events of 9/11/2001 to the best of their political advantage, and glossing over the bungle in Iraq by bringing in Iraqis to tell everyone how happy they are.
What exactly happened at the DNC, other than Kerry/Edwards saying, "Hey, we're not Bush and Cheney, at least we're that"?

Consider, for a moment, Social Security... Created to help senior citizens maintain the high cost of living, it's lately gotten abused, ignored, or cut back.
Alan Greenspan (the guy in charge of all the money, if you didn't know) recently stated that for Social Security to still be available to the newly retiring Baby Boomer generation, it was going to take some massives cuts in the benefits department.

This coming from a fella pulling in the highest possible amount monthly you can get from Social Security ($1800), even while making $200,000 yearly doing his thang.

So while Bush already has a huge list of cuts to make next year when/if he gets reelected, including massive cuts to SocSec, what's Kerry got?

Nothing. Not a statement, not a pledge, nothing.
If he had any balls, he could point out that taxation for SocSec has a cap at $80,000 per year. Anyone who makes more than that only gets taxed for SocSec for $80,000 of what they make.
(If that's still not clear... Alan Greenspan makes $200,000... the standard SocSec tax is 7.5%, but it's only 7.5% of $80,000... not of $200,000... $120,000 isn't taxed.) So while hard working lower to middle class stiffs like you and me are taxed on 100% of what we make per year, the rich upper echelons of America (who are already raping the system for millions) are getting taxed barely a fraction of what they make.
Sure, Social Security has got problems, but remove that cap on taxable income, and we don't anymore.

Edwards has been pretty vocal about how there are two Americas: The Haves and The Havenots (though let's be honest, it's really The Haves and The Wants), yet somehow this little disparraging detail gets ignored.
I wonder if it's 'cause the Democrats like to think of themselves as representing "working" America, and they've got lots and lots of small businesses dumping money into their campaign, which makes it difficult, I imagine, to pledge some equality in the SocSec system, since those small businesses have to match whatever is taken out of their employees paychecks.

Isn't it great to know that Special Interest groups hold more sway over our elected officials than the voice of the people they represent?