Campaign 2016: Part I (Buying Votes)
It's that season of sweeping promises of Political Freebies that cost lots!
Senator Bernie Sanders (R/VT) has introduced legislation in the Senate "to foster family values." It doesn't appear coincidental that he has announced his candidacy for the office of president in 2016's election.
What would it cost (surely someone, you and I and many millions of Americans, would have to pay, in higher prices ad taxes) for every worker who has worked for an employer with 15 or more employees to be paid for two weeks of vacation every year?
The idea has merit, but as with most Senate ideas it would come with a cost.
Likewise there would be costs associated with his promotion of bills (and that's the operative word) to give seriously ill employees and a new parent 12 weeks of paid leave, along with a guarantee for most workers to have a minimum of seven paid days of sick leave each year.
If these bills come out of the Senate Finance Committee where Republican Senator Orrin Hatch (Republican of Utah) is chairman, there will be vigorous debates....or else these ideas would have been approved long ago.
Keep your eyes and ears open between now and November 8, 2016. Many proposals will be floated under candidates' banners as Political Freebies without a stated cost or impact statement.
Tough choices, sensitive issues that might alienate any given segment of voters, and calls for citizens to sacrifice for the common good....well, keep your eyes and ears open for those too, but don't get your hopes up before January 2017's State of The Union Speech by the winning candidate.
Even then, don't get your hopes up too high, just keep on doing what you can do for your country once all the expensive promises of what your country could do for you have come face to face with fiscal reality.
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© 2015 Demas W. Jasper All rights reserved.