What is the political temperature in Burlington? (St. Johnsbury, Windsor: relocation, home)

[sevdie]

Originally Posted by Mark S.

And by "health care" I do not mean liposuction, nose jobs, breat implants, hair weaves, etc. You're on your own there. But I do mean basic medical care. There's no excuse for a nation this prosperious having millions of children without basic health care needs. There's no excuse for cancer patients being denied treatment because it is "cost ineffective." Parents shouldn't have to choose between buying their child medicine and paying the electric bill. Not in this country. With our vast prosperity, there's no excuse for it.

I couldn't have said it better myself. I agree with you 100%

[Mark S.]

Originally Posted by Lehi

Sounds good to me! When are you running for Congress?

Well, there's one vote for me.

[vter]

My personal views of Howard Dean are this. He was a very popular governor. He was fairly fiscally conservative. The whole statewide property tax "reform" was handed down by the VT Supreme Court, so Dean had no choice but to sign it. He made sure the each and every child in the state had health care coverage. When he got into the national spotlight though...something changed with him. Don't know if it's his ego or what. He was never this "hyper" in Vermont (behind closed doors, who knows!).
BUT, I can tell you he's a normal guy who lives in a normal house who drives a normal car and still wears his 20 year old ski jacket.

[Georgia]

Originally Posted by Mark S.

There's a real easy solution for the "illegal immigration problem" today: Pass a law that says that any business that knowingly hires illegal aliens gets severe legal penalties. Start out with fines at first, but if they do it again, start throwing CEOs in jail and revoking business licenses.

The reason illegal immigrants are flocking to this country is that businesses hire them in order to save labor costs. Remove that, and you've gone a long way to solving the problem.

Mark,

We in Georgia have done this. The governor signed onto Prop 529 which becomes effective next April. Here is the issue. The lovely Federal Government has stepped in and stated the our Georgia law is unconstitutional.

So now we have the Fed's coming down to Georgia. (Remember, Charlie Daniels song, the Devil Came down to Georgia? ) Well, except a soul to steal it's the populations hard earned money

Basically, Georgia has been ordered to continue to pay medical payments for illegals, but of course the Federal Government is NOT going to supply money.
Add this to demostrations by Azteca or whatever they call themselves and somehow the national race card slim bag known as Jesse Jackson has entered into frey ( I guess he is now a Blackcian ) all H E double toothpick is about to breakout in 07.

Im with you on this one. First they should be rounded up. They Broke the law, and most of all these worthless currupt mostly developers, need to be penalized.

[Georgia]

Originally Posted by Mark S.

Georgia,

Two things: First of all, I'm not in Vermont (yet). May be moving there. May not. I'm in Washington State right now. Haven of a very silly form of modern liberalism. Don't much care for it myself.

Secondly, I think we've come the long way around to basic agreement. My own political leanings are much more distributivist than either capitalist or socialist. While I do VERY MUCH think health care ought to be wrenched from the control of for-profit corporations, I'm not sure that handing it over to the federal government is the best idea. As a distributivist, I do believe in areas of public service and the commons being in the hands of the people and thus accountable to the democratic process, but wherever possible, most control ought to be at the local level. Ideally, local within communities, then counties, then state, and finally federal. But whenver possible, most control should be at the local level.

Why? Because locals ought to have a say in their own fate and government. The federal government is simply too big to handle all that. For example, laws intended to help farmers might indeed be a great help to farmers in California, but that same law might put North Carolina farmers out of business.

So in terms of health care, yes I am very much in favor of it being handled by government, but that government ought to be local. Primarily local within communities, but larger issues might be handled by the state.

And by "health care" I do not mean liposuction, nose jobs, breat implants, hair weaves, etc. You're on your own there. But I do mean basic medical care. There's no excuse for a nation this prosperious having millions of children without basic health care needs. There's no excuse for cancer patients being denied treatment because it is "cost ineffective." Parents shouldn't have to choose between buying their child medicine and paying the electric bill. Not in this country. With our vast prosperity, there's no excuse for it.

Sounds like you and are basically on the same page. But keep in mind, either state, local, and God help us Federal. Tort reform must be passed.

Your view here is quite equal to the way things are ran in Japan.

[Georgia]

Originally Posted by vter

My personal views of Howard Dean are this. He was a very popular governor. He was fairly fiscally conservative. The whole statewide property tax "reform" was handed down by the VT Supreme Court, so Dean had no choice but to sign it. He made sure the each and every child in the state had health care coverage. When he got into the national spotlight though...something changed with him. Don't know if it's his ego or what. He was never this "hyper" in Vermont (behind closed doors, who knows!).
BUT, I can tell you he's a normal guy who lives in a normal house who drives a normal car and still wears his 20 year old ski jacket.

Good to hear. When Dean first entered into the limelight I actually had a Veterans for Dean sticker. Then he went a little nutso.
My appreciation for him was his no BS approach. And this coming from a fella who is mostly on the right side of the isle.

Tell me, what was the property tax reform issue. Are property taxes high in Vermont? I see your top income tax rate is over 9%. Now that can be a killer.

[vter]

The property tax issue is complicated at best. The majority of your property taxes go to education. A small portion goes to town government. It's intention is to equalize the amount of school spending throughout the state. So...wealthy districts send "out" money to poor districts, and poor districts are "receivers". It's really complicated and hard to explain. I'll post a link, but if it gets deleted, google Vermont Act 60. http://www.state.vt.us/educ/new/html...act_sheet.html
My town's tax rate is $1.76/$100 assessed value. To see other towns, go to picketfencepreview dot com, click Vermont, then click tax rates.

[Mark S.]

Originally Posted by Georgia

We in Georgia have done this. The governor signed onto Prop 529 which becomes effective next April. Here is the issue. The lovely Federal Government has stepped in and stated the our Georgia law is unconstitutional.

Sounds like its time to rouse the "states rights" issue again, eh?

Originally Posted by Georgia

First they should be rounded up. They Broke the law, and most of all these worthless currupt mostly developers, need to be penalized.

If by "they" you mean the employers giving illegals jobs, then I'm with you. I'm all for immigration (I'm second generation myself), but we need to insist it be done legally. This isn't just to be mean. It's to protect the basic human rights of the immigrants themselves. People who come to this country to live and work need to have the full protection of the law, and that means becoming a citizen.

If by "they" you mean the immigrants, then I don't think we need to round them up. I think if we start treating the employers taking advantage of illegals as criminals, then they'll stop hiring them, and illegal immigrants will have to seek legal means to enter the country. Even better, more immigrants might decide to stay in their country and fight for their rights. (I'm thinking in particular of Mexico here, and its notoriously corrupt government.)

[Mark S.]

Originally Posted by Georgia

Good to hear. When Dean first entered into the limelight I actually had a Veterans for Dean sticker. Then he went a little nutso.

I'm not a Vermonter, but just based on what I've seen and read of Dean, I really like his stance on 90% of most major issues. I for one wasn't turned off by the famous "Dean scream." It was a guy venting steam in the heat of the moment. We've all done it. I do it on a regular basis in front of the TV while watching football. Doesn't make him a nut. Makes him a regular Joe in my book.

[jipsee]

As I read over these very interesting posts, I was frustrated anew. I'm carrying my former employer's health care plan on my own (Cobra), and it's costing me $515/month. It was $472, it went up in September. I can't afford to not have insurance, or to let it lapse, because I have a chronic condition. I can't even think about illegal aliens getting free health care when I'm paying this much, it makes me so mad. It just illustrates my feeling that the "middle man" in the U.S. seems to carry the load. It's our punishment for working hard...(lol).
I'm just hoping I can get a job with benefits soon.