Majority Disapprove of Tax Bill

Here is an interesting poll result. Only 29 percent of Americans approve of the tax bill.


WAPO Is Tax Bill Biggest Windfall for Rich?
NPR Tax Plan Comparison
Heritage How Bill will Impact Economy


I found this WAPO graph interesting, because it shows tax cuts since 2000 in one place.  Please remember that the tax cuts in 2001, 2003, 2008, 2009 and 2010 benefited almost everyone in America.  Whereas the 2012 "tax cut" was actually the extending of the previous cuts for the benefit of the low and middle income citizens. (note: others were actually extensions)  While the earlier tax cuts for the wealthy folks were allowed to lapse.  In essence they had a significant tax increase plus they got hit with the ACA taxes just before that.


My point is that we in the low and middle class are already "living the dream of lower taxes". Yet many will complain because they may not get as big of a cut as others.  I have to wonder if they even understand this?  Did they complain when the taxes were raised on the wealthy and not themselves? :-)


I personally am against the bills only because our spineless politicians are not making the budget cuts necessary to offset the loss in revenues.  If they want to give out gifts...  They should have to pay for them and not transfer the bill to our children!!!


Of course as we have been discussing, the Conservative really don't seem to be very Conservative per the second graph.

People Flee GOP

I am really struggling with what the Republicans are striving to accomplish lately.  Especially this new twist where Trump and the GOP have decided to back an accused pedophile just because our misleading and somewhat of a perverted President decided to endorse him.


Now I am somewhat of a fiscal Conservative so I almost always vote Republican, however it is getting really hard to defend an organization that seems to have lost its morals and character.  And of course the irony of this whole situation is that they are supposed to be the morally uptight party.


It is a good thing I don't have to vote for another year.  Hopefully something changes between now and then.  Maybe the GOP will get a backbone and fire Trump...  I think Pence would be a much better President and role model for our children.


CNN A Very Scary Number for GOP

Chennai India Random Pics

Well I did get to visit a temple, a church, the beach and a couple of museums yesterday during a 4 hour tour.  Also, I took an hour or so today to walk around the neighborhood surrounding the Hilton Chennai.  Here are some random thoughts:

• The side streets are crowded with small shops, people, scooters, motorcycles, cars, cows, etc.  Watch where you are walking and who may run into you.
• The bigger streets are mad houses full of all the above plus buses, trucks, etc. Cross the roads carefully.
• A lot of the roads and side walks are pretty broken up, and there are occasional piles of garbage strewn about at times.  And don't forget the cows, dogs, etc.  And people everywhere.
• The smells vary greatly as you walk from the delicious smells near the small road food shops, to wonderful smell of rotting garbage, to the smell of small engine smoke, etc
• The noise is also somewhat overwhelming due to all the different kinds of traffic and their very liberal use of horns over here.
• The boardwalk near the beach, the museums, the temples and the church were interesting to see.  I just learned that "Doubting Thomas" was buried here.
• The Chennai area is very diverse due to it's location, the period of British rule, the Christian influence, etc. 

Back to work for now...  :-(  Click pic to enlarge them.

Tax Bills Get Closer

It will be interesting to see how difficult the Freedom Caucus folks in the House make this.  I still wish they would start cutting things from the budget to get the deficit to ZERO, or better yet a surplus.  We owe that to our kids.  Thoughts?

VOX Tax Bill Differences
CNN Tax Bill Differences
USA Today House May Balk

Adventures in Business Travel

I worked Thursday morning, went to the airport at 1 PM, stayed in the Paris airport for a little while on "Friday morning" and didn't arrive at my hotel in Chennai India until 2 AM "Saturday" morning. and now it is 3:45 PM on "Saturday"... (4:15 AM in Mpls) And I have no idea why they are 11 and 1/2 hours ahead...

So needless to say I just woke up and am struggling to stay awake until 10 PM so I can get my body changed over to this time zone. Somehow James Bond always makes this life look easy and glamorous... No immigration lines, no jet lag, etc :-)


Here is my first look outside my hotel room window. And it confirms my previous perspective, where as China is organized, planned and clean, India is chaos, natural and messy. (G2A Interesting India) I suppose that is due to the difference between the governments and cultures.

To cut my air fare in half I am staying here two days extra, so I hope to escape my hotel and get out into the chaos at least one day. More later. (click pics to enlarge)