Never again...I swear!

Okay. The Idylls have stopped. I'm done. I'm not quite sure what came over me -- aside from a gigantic wave of self-pity. My most sincere apologies. I intend to delete the damn things as soon as I'm done with this.

In other areas, I've come up with several options to clear up our country's financial problems, along with several state issues. Since education and social security are such big issues and rightfully so, I think there are some easy solutions that should be put into place immediately. To start with, every major athlete should have a required 5% of their pay taken from them and remanded to whatever state they graduated high school from. In turn, that state is required to put that money into the educational budget. For states that are so unlucky as to miss out on this, any state that has more than 5 athletes contributing loses the other contributions. Those would be routed to states with less than 5, with those having none or one being a priority state. It would even out fairly quickly. That alone would solve the educational budget crisis within two years. On to Social Security. This one is slightly more complex, but still workable. First, we need to abolish the practice of agencies counting gross wages to decide qualification for assistance programs. Nearly one-third of a person's wages is never seen to begin with, even at tax refund time. Second, all income should be taxable. I know this sounds hinky, but it really wouldn't hurt anyone. If all income was considered taxable, earned income, more taxes would roll in, more people would get more in refunds ( mainly from the EIC), and the excess (ha) funds could go straight into the Social Security program. Within five years, Social Security would again be operating the way it should. Figure that if all sources of income count as earned income, students would pay taxes on their financial aid--sort of, since most students would get a refund of some type--which is quite a lot of tax money each year; plus the other sources of income that do not count as taxable income. I know these untaxed sources are supposed to help out the needy and so on, but there are too many loopholes that are benefiting the wrong people. So, remove the loopholes. Also, bring back the tax on food. Everyone uses it, and those who qualify for Food Stamps or the like could receive a waiver on it, since they're obviously in need of it. Still fair, but doesn't hurt anyone. Some of the tax would go to the state and some to the Feds. Split it evenly, except for places that have the local option sales tax (give them their penny on the dollar or whatever) and POOF! Problem solved. Now all I have to do is get an audience with PResident Bush and the other yahoos in power for the nonce and get them to go along with it. Riiiiiight.