To start this column let me repeat something I have already mentioned several time before - there is no budget surplus. The surplus that all these Washington types want to spend so badly does not exist. It is only a projection. There are many potential things that could wipe out the projected surplus in one fell swoop. If, for instance, the economy were to slow down for any reason, the amount of money collected would be smaller than is now thought. If the price of gas keeps rising, the costs of producing will cause prices to rise. People would, at that point, have less disposable income and many of us would learn what we could do without. This could have a domino effect sooner or later of costing jobs. Or, if some sort of financial crisis were to develop, it could cause large inflation - interest rates would rise - and many would end up losing their assets that they have invested.

This having been said, I did some research on both Gov. Bush's and Vice President Gore's proposed budgets. I don't have enough time or space to go into great detail on all the specifics of the two plans. I will say BOTH candidates put us in the area of a trillion dollars in debt. Gov. Bush's at about $1.1 trillion and Vice President Gore's at about $900 billion, this is based on what some independent experts have concluded. These figures include the so-called surplus. I just watched the first debate and, at least according to some expert opinions, both candidates lied about the benefits of and how their budgets operate. I tell you this is based on expert opinion because I am not an economist so I can only use what they (The Experts) have said. I trust this statement because both candidates are said to have overspent, not just one of them. Most politicians chomp at the bit when they hear surplus and tend to overspend. This is not what the average working family (the people who these politicians claim to be interested in) can do because we know we have to pay the bills come the end of the day.

All you can expect either of these people to do is to spend the money that the government has taken from the taxpayers. So one must ask oneself "Do I trust either of these people to do what they say they will do?" All I can tell you is that I don't. If these projected surpluses do not show up will the two candidates then cut spending to make up for the shortfall or will they raise your taxes? I am sure you know the answer to this question. There is, of course, one other possibility. They borrow more money and increase the debt our children or grandchildren will end up paying.

One thing I find disturbing is far too many people are looking to the federal government to solve all our problems. This was never the purpose of government, at least according to the Constitution. The government has enough problems working on broad-based problems such as Social Security, defense, energy, etc. Now, no matter how any of us may feel about Social Security, there was a promise made to our country's seniors. They held up their end. Now that they have retired it is our obligation to follow through on the back end of the promise - to make sure that they receive what they were promised. The main question is how? If we plan on surpluses that we have not gotten and may never materialize. It is a harsh reality that Social Security, as it was originally proposed, was never meant as a sole source of income. It was meant to be a supplement to whatever they had done to plan for their retirement. It has turned the other way, unfortunately. I am not saying that this is necessarily the fault of retiree. Many factors are involved and these people had promises made to them - and it is up to us to follow through.

Now, concerning the first debate, my take is it was a draw. I am sure if you are a Republican you felt Bush won and conversely if you are a Democrat you felt Gore won. I saw no evidence of a knock out punch. Bush didn't look like a buffoon and Gore didn't appear to be a tree. Gore had a great handle on the facts of his proposal vs. Bush's. Bush made no gaffes, which he is now becoming famous for. Gore's mistake, according to many polls, was he appeared mean and condescending. And Bush didn't seem to have command of all the facts. So there you have my take on the first debate - from our "for what it is worth" department.

As far as the Vice Presidential debate is concerned, who cares? Vice Presidents, for the most part, provide the material for Jay Leno, David Letterman, Bill Maher, Conan O'Brien, or your favorite comedian. The Veep can hurt the candidate much easier than any benefit he provides. It has been reported that Harry Truman, after the death of FDR, had to be brought up to speed on the Manhattan Project, the group that developed the atomic bomb. Well, Mr. Cheney and Sen. Lieberman had an uneventful debate that put me to sleep twice. The reason it was covered so much is the news media decided it was important.

Well after the second debate again if you are a Republican I am sure you would say Bush won and a Democrat will think the Vice President won. Most of the pundits give it to Gov. Bush. I was not impressed by either candidate. I heard nothing new or different. Under either candidate the government will increase in size and scope.

Now we will take a look at another independent or small party candidate. At the end of this column I will give you a link where you can find all the declared candidates and what their positions are. I will not be looking at any more candidates for this election but will be looking at the whole philosophy of this newsletter in relation to our country.

To find out who is running for the presidency Click Here

Issue Positions Data For

Mr. Scott Conroy Palmer

Party: Write-In
2000 Presidential National Political Awareness
Test Results

Results for Candidate Palmer:
Candidate Palmer did the right and honorable thing by providing citizens with the essential issue information requested in the National Political Awareness Test. The test provides voters with information regarding his intentions in 17 issue areas.

Project Vote Smart is being supported in this program by dozens of news media organizations including: CNN, FOX, MTV, C-SPAN, NBC, Washington Week in Review, Knight-Ridder News Service, Washington Post.com, National Journal, Des Moines Register, and Manchester Union Leader.

Abortion Issues

Other - My veiw: Abortion should be ok up to the (2nd trimester), (3rd Trimester) restricted to rape, incest and risk to mother. Women 17 and under should be required to inform their parents and require written permission from parents.

Budgetary Priorities
Slightly IncreaseFunding
Agricultural programs
Maintain Funding Status
Arts funding
Slightly Increase Funding
Defense
Greatly Increase Funding
Education
Greatly Increase Funding
e) Environmental programs
Greatly Decrease Funding
International aid
Slightly Decrease Funding
Law enforcement Didn't Answer Transportation and Highway Infrastructure
UNDECIDED
Would you support enforcing the spending limits agreed to in 1997 by the President and Congress to balance the budget?

Defense Spending
Slightly IncreaseFunding
Armed Forces personnel trainingDidn't
Greatly Increase Funding
Pay for active duty personnel
Didn't Answer
Modernization of weaponry and equipment
Slightly Increase Funding
Programs to improve military retention rates

Budget, Spending and Tax Issues
UNDECIDED
Do you support replacing the current U.S. income tax structure with a flat income tax?
YES
Do you support instituting a national sales tax?
YES
Should a married couple filing jointly pay the same taxes as if they were an unmarried couple filing separately?
UNDECIDED
Do you support requiring at least a 2/3 majority (super-majority) vote in both houses of Congress to raise taxes?
NO
Would you cut taxes if there were an operating surplus?
NO
Would you cut taxes and use Social Security surpluses to supplement the difference?

Campaign Finance Issues
Provide free or low-cost television advertising to candidates who agree to voluntary campaign spending limits.
Ban unregulated soft money campaign contributions to political parties or committees.
Prohibit non-U.S. citizens from making soft money contributions to national parties or party committees.
Require full disclosure of funding sources of issue advocacy commercials which appear within 60 days of an election.
Require unions to get members' permission before using union dues for political advocacy.
Require Congressional candidates to raise over half of their campaign money from their home state.
The Election Process is to find the General Consensus of all of the issues concerning the Nation, the trouble with our election process is that timely inclussion of "All" the candidates during the Introduction of candidates is misleading when transmitted media tells the entire nation that only RNC and DNC members are running and non-members must physically go to all 270 million citizens within (1) year. That is un-realistic and hampers the ability of finding and publically debating those issues and those also running for those offices.

Crime Issues
Impose stricter penalties for violent felons.
Impose "truth in sentencing" for violent criminals so they serve full sentences with no chance of parole.
Support programs to provide prison inmates with vocational and job-related skills and job-placement assistance when released.
Support programs to provide prison inmates with drug and alcohol addiction treatment.
Reduce prison sentences for those who commit non-violent crimes.
Enforcement of civil rights should primarily be the responsibility of the federal government.
Other - It is not the responsibility of the federal government to financially support individual communities that would mean a citizen in Michigan would be paying for a cop in Indiana...no sense.2)
Impose harsher penalties for youths convicted of violent offenses.
Support programs that provide job training and placement services for at-risk youth.
Other - Block grants should be "Ballot Initiatives" debated in open public. It is my view that citizens in one state should not be made to pay for youths in other states. Boot camps should be per state and by "Ballot Initiative" debated in open public forums.

Drug Issues
Support capital punishment for convicted international drug traffickers.
Expand federally sponsored drug education and drug treatment programs.
Decriminalize the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes.
Increase border security to stop the flow of illegal drugs into the U.S.
Other - The Majority of Pot users use pot for a social drug and most are supportive of the idea of stopping hard drugs at the country of origin. My opinion: Deriminalize pot and regulate it like alcohol with the same restrictions. Stop hard drugs at the originating countries and impose stronger sentencing for sales and increase hard drug treatment programs until decline.

Education Issues
Support national standards and testing of public school students.
Give all federal education funding to states in the form of block grants and allow the states to spend it as they see fit.
Increase funding for block grants to states to help them hire additional teachers.
Support mandatory teacher testing and reward teachers with merit pay.
Increase funding to reduce class sizes.
Increase funding for computers and computer training in public schools.
Increase funding for school capital improvements (e.g. buildings and infrastructure).
Other - The Federal Education roles should be reduced to a dep't that co-ordinates national minimum job requirements and minimal life skills to easily and efficiently manage day-to-day life.
Other - Higher education is a great thing but it is not the responsibility of other citizens to pay for higher education of children not belonging to them. The tax burden should be low and the cost of college classes should be reduced. Note: move (2 year) prep colleges to the end of high school as elective and cost would equal high school.3) Indicate which principles you support (if any) regarding religion and public schools.
Other - U.S. Constitution: 1st Amendment - Congress shall make no law.

Employment and Affirmative Action Issues
Increase the federal minimum wage.
Encourage employers to offer flex-time scheduling, comp-time, and unpaid leave for family emergencies.
Increase support for the AmeriCorps program.
Other - Companies should be reminded that it is the company/corporation's responsibility to train employee's for the job they are seeking to fill. I do not like importing foriegn citizens to fill jobs.

Other - Affirmative Action should be recognized as a fixed time measure to assist fair competitive growth in the diversity of the pupulas. Obvious public desire for Affirmative Action shows the need for competition in this area.

Environmental Issues
Strengthen the regulation and enforcement of the Clean Water Act.
Strengthen the regulation and enforcement of the Clean Air Act.
Revise the 1872 mining law to increase the fees charged to mining companies using federal lands.[  ]e) Require states to fully compensate citizens when environmental regulations limit uses of privately-owned land.
Encourage further development and use of alternative fuels to reduce pollution.
Strengthen emission controls on all gasoline or diesel-powered engines, including cars, trucks, and sport utility vehicles.
Strengthen logging restrictions on federal lands.
Strengthen regulations governing the security, safety, transportation, and storage of spent nuclear fuel and waste.
Support the use of ethanol as an alternative fuel. Other - Be Responsible, this is our Only Home.
UNDECIDED
Do you support the United Nations (Kyoto Conference) treaty, in its current form, regarding global climate change?

Gun Issues
Ease federal restrictions on the purchase and possession of guns.
Repeal federal restrictions on the purchase and possession of guns by law-abiding citizens.
Allow citizens to carry concealed guns.

Hold gun owners responsible for crimes committed with their guns by children age 16 and under.
Other - Individuals of legal age (18), must have the ability to defend thmeselfs. When the 2nd Amendment refers to the Right of the Citizen to keep and near arms shall not be infringed - meaning lessened. When a president takes his/her oath to "uphold, support and defend" the cinstitution he/she cannot fuldill that oath by finding ways to infringe upon it.

Health Issues
Implement a universal health care program to guarantee coverage to all Americans regardless of income.

Support a Patient's Bill of Rights to define and enforce the rights of insured patients, including greater access to specialists and emergency rooms, wider choice of health care providers, and appeal mechanisms when claims are denied.

Support a Patient's Bill of Rights which includes the right to sue when claims are denied.
Other - In my opinion: The Healtcare costs are "Too High" and need to be reduced to amounts affordable to the individual, Healt Ins. and Medicare/Medicaid are a taxation without representation to those who do not draw upon it.
NO
Do you support increasing taxes on alcohol and cigarettes to help defer costs of Medicare and Medicaid?

Immigration Issues
Decrease the number of immigrants allowed into the country.
Increase the eligibility of legal immigrants for certain social programs (e.g. public housing, food stamps).
Children of illegal immigrants, born in the U. S., should not automatically receive U.S. citizenship.
l) Other - Healthcare restructuring and tax re-organization should take care of this issue.

International Aid, International Policy and Trade Issues

Indicate which principles (if any) you support regarding U. S. economic assistance.
Aid should be granted to countries when extraordinary circumstances cause disaster and threaten civilian lives.
Aid should be granted to countries when it is in the security interests of the U. S.
Aid should be granted to countries that are close allies of the U. S. and in need of financial/military assistance.
Aid should be eliminated for any nation with documented human rights abuses.
Aid programs should be scaled back and eventually eliminated except for extraordinary circumstances.

Other - Aid to other countries should only come from surpluses if a compitent Economic Policy can be defined and at least 10% of the surplus can be saved in reserve, use the remaining surplus to fund Foreign Aid Policies.
UNDECIDED

Should the International Monetary Fund (IMF) be restructured so that it can respond to international financial crises more effectively?

International Policy

The U.S. should maintain ground troops in the Kosovo province with a specific deadline for withdrawal.
Other - I believe slowly withdrawing would allow the natural continuation of the social concensus to develop. If things flare up, we'll just go back in and do it again.

Indicate which principles you support (if any) regarding the Middle East.
The U.S. should resolve future disputes with Iraq only through diplomatic means.
The U.S. should take unilateral military action if Iraq does not comply with all accepted United Nations resolutions.

The U.S. should take military action against Iraq only as part of an international effort.
The U.S. should end the economic embargo against Iraq.

Other - The U.S. should only play a prminent role between Israel + Palestine if both agree.

United States-United Nations relationship.
The U.S. should pay its debt to the United Nations.
Other - The U.S. should not give the Impression of Foriegn Policy manipulation.
YES
4) Should the U.S. have full diplomatic relations with Cuba?
UNDECIDED
5) Should the U.S. have full diplomatic relations with China?
UNDECIDED
6) Should the U.S. recognize and extend full diplomatic relations to Taiwan? NO
7) Should the U.S. have full diplomatic relations with nations with documented human rights abuses?
YES
8) Do you support the cooperative threat reduction programs with Russia to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons to unfriendly nations?
UNDECIDED
9) Do you support modifying the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty in order to deploy the National Missile Defense System?

International Aid, International Policy and Trade Issues
NO
1) Do you support the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)?
NO
2) Do you support broadening NAFTA to include other countries in the western hemisphere?
YES
3) Do you support the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)?
UNDECIDED
4) Do you support continued U.S. membership in the World Trade Organization (WTO)?
UNDECIDED
5) Do you support China becoming a member of the World Trade Organization?
YES
6) Do you support imposing tariffs on products imported from nations that maintain restrictive trade barriers on American products?
YES
7) Should a nation's human rights record affect its normal trade relations (most favored nation) trading status with the United States?
UNDECIDED
8) Do you support normal trade relation (most favored nation) status with Vietnam?
NO
9) Do you support granting the President "fast-track" authority in trade negotiations?
UNDECIDED
10) Do you support the trade embargo against Cuba?
UNDECIDED
11) Do you support strengthening the American anti-dumping laws which give the Commerce Department additional power to fight imports priced below the manufacturing cost?
UNDECIDED
12) Do you support an open trade policy for the United States?

Moral and Ethical Issues
YES
Do you believe there has been a decline in moral and ethical standards in America over the last four decades?In one hundred words or less please explain what you would do as President to address this concern.

Social Security Issues
Lower Social Security's annual cost-of-living increases.
Limit Social Security benefits based on recipients' other income and assets.
Require individuals to pay the Social Security tax on incomes above $68,400 (which is currently exempt).
Support a lock box measure, limiting Congress's ability to spend Social Security and Medicare surpluses on any other federal programs except Social Security and Medicare, until each program's long-term solvency is guaranteed.

Technology Issues
Implement taxes on commercial Internet transactions.
Support strong Internet privacy laws.

Welfare and Poverty Issues

So till Next Time.

As always

Don

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