My Trip to Seattle

Hi, to all my faithful readers (all 2 or 3 of you).

I recently returned from a trip to Seattle where I attended a wildlife seminar up in the mountains about 45 minutes east of the city. It was beautiful out there, I have to admit, and I really miss being near the ocean. As expected, the weather was cool and it rained on the day of our field trip - who'd of guessed, but overall, I loved being in Washington. It was my first trip there.

On the last day of the seminar, we had this stupid state representative, or senator, or whatever he was, come talk to us about wildlife issues in the State of Washington. Up 'til then, the seminar had gone well and I loved all the talk of how we can help wildlife while improving our highways. However, when this guy started talking he blew me out of my seat, almost literally.

His first stupid idea was that he was for "choice." Being as he said he is a Republican, that already made him suspect in my mind. Can you spell R-I-N-O (Republican In Name Only)?

His second stupid idea is that we need higher gasoline prices. Yes, I said higher prices for gas. He thinks that's a great idea. To be fair, his rationale was that higher prices would stimulate research into alternative energy sources. While that may be true, those cost-efficient alternative energy sources are years if not decades away still. That doesn't help us in our current situation, but only stifles our economy. What we need is to develop the energy sources we already have, such as drill in Anwar, Alaska, develop oil shale, tar sands, drill off-shore, etc. We also need more refineries. We haven't built a new refinery in over 30 years. Can you spell petroleum S-H-O-R-T-A-G-E!

Then, he topped that with his third stupid idea. He said we need to raise taxes!!! That one totally blue me away. Somehow, by raising taxes and stifling economic growth, putting more strain on small as well as large businesses, putting people out of work, etc., will somehow magically materialize into more money in the governmental coffers. Well, just the opposite is true. Milton Freedman demonstrated it in theory that if you reduce taxes, thus stimulate the economy, it will result in more dollars in the governmental coffers. President John Kennedy proved it, President Ronald Reagan proved it, the Republican Congress during Bill Clinton's administration proved it, and our current President Bush proved it. Every time taxes have been lowered, it resulted in more, not less, money in the coffers, and just the opposite has happened whenever taxes have been raised. I just don't understand why politicians don't seem to get it.

Well, about this time, being the mild-mannered superhero, er, person that I am, I simply got up and walked out, not wanting to make a scene. But I was fuming and haven't calmed down yet. Maybe this blog entry will help.

I'm open to discussion.