Individual people are far smarter than the Fed

I consider myself a typical middle class working man with the simple goal of providing a quality life form myself and my family. I give 100% at my job and feel I deserve what little money I make.

Yes, I make enough to afford a roof over my head and to put food on the table, but I'd have to say that I'm far from being rich. In fact, I'm not even close. The only way I'm able to go on vacations, or to accumulate dollars in the bank, is by living frugally.

I have no problem paying local taxes. I also have no problem paying state and federal taxes, but I absolutely do not want to pay any more than the minimun necessary to keep the government running.

Literally, my wife and I try to save every penny possible, and when the government raises our taxes, we feel the pinch. That is why I am leary every time a politician states that he or she want to start a new government program, because I know to pay for it will require the government to raise my taxes.

I have no problem helping the poor. Yet, even though the government has spent billions of dollars the past 40 years in programs to help the poor, the number of poor in this country has remained stagnant. So this is proof to me that these government programs are not working to help the poor.

To keep these programs running, it requires taxing the middle class. Why is it that people like me have barely enough money to provide a quality life for my family, and the people in Washington want me to pay for these programs to help the poor, especially when these programs are not working.

The same thing with education. George Bush has doubled the budget for education in the past 8 years, yet the quality of that education has shown no signs of improving. This is proof to me that this government program is not working.

And I'm not like my neigbors and have two new cars, a new camper, two snowmobiles, and two dirtbikes all on a lease and credit. I have a new house because I have bad allergies, but I also don't have a yard because I chose to try to get out of debt before I spent money on the yard. And, while my neigbors spend thousands of dollars getting their yards landscaped, I do all that work myself.

Thus, when the government raises taxes, I feel the pinch.

I believe that most people in this country are smart like me and my wife, and don't want to waste the money they make. And, when it comes to government, most people believe too much of the money they take from us via taxes is being wasted.

It's being spent on government programs that do not work, yet are impossible to get rid or even to fix, like Social Security. It's being spend on education, while the majority of that money is being absorbed by the beuarocracy.

Big Government is not the answer, in my opinion. I think money would be much better spent in the hands of the people. I think I can solve my problems far better than some guy sitting in Washington. I think each state can solve their probelems far better than some guy in Washington.

And, for that reason, I think Washington should be as small as possible. I don not think that the Federal government is even remotely capable fo providing a good educaiton for our kids, and I don't think they are even remotely capable of getting rid of poverty.

We, people like me and my friends, are capable of solving these problems. When governmental officials choose to create more govenrment, what results is nothing more than more wasted money, and a need to ask middle class people like me to reach deeper into our wallets to pay uncle Sam.

Too many of our politicians are passing bills that benefit big businesses and hurt the middle class. They do this because lobbyists for these big businesses provide thousands of dollars for politicians.

Too many of our politicians are approving bills that have billions of dollars of pork projects that benefit one politicians jurisdiction and have absolutely no effect on the average middle class American like me and you.

This, what I have described here regarding education, the poor, lobbying, and pork barrel projects, result in nothing more than my taxes to go up. And then, when candidates for president propose more government programs that will cause my taxes to go up even more, I cringe.

This is not about republican and democrat, it's about a political system that is corrupt. We, as Americans, as middle class workers, are tired of Washington. That is why polls show Americans give our elected officials in Washington a grade equivelent to an F.

George Bush has failed us. Sure, he has done an excellent job of keeping taxes low, and for that we herald him, but he has done nothing to fix the problems in Washington that I listed above. Bill Clinton, in effect, failed us also in this regard, as he raised our taxes, was popular, and still did nothing.

Washington is too big. The person I vote for for president in 2008 will be the person I think will trust the American people to solve their own problems, because I know full well that Washington cannot.

My brother is going to vote for Huckabee because he is pro-life. I, on the other hand, will not vote for someone on one issue alone. My other brother said he is going to vote for Obama just because he thinks change is needed in Washington. I, on the other hand, think that too much change can be bad for the middle class as well, especially when said candidate has said right out that he wants to raise our taxes to create more government.

While I promised you guys I would have made a decision on who I would vote for in the primary by today, I have decided to do a little research instead. I'm going to go to all the candicates websites and do a full review. I'm going to clean the slate, and give each candidate a chance to convince me that he or she is the best candidate.

My quest will be to find the candidate who not only will be the best for me, but the country as a whole. I will not simply look at myself as I suppose too many people will, but at the big picture.

I think this will be fun.