Warren Buffet and taxes

For the first time in several years my federal tax refund was not eaten by my state tax bill.
Personal info aside I think that Warren Buffet and the Buffett Rule should become law. That is not the normal thinking of a conservative registered independant voter. Maybe all the Rules and Laws passed by the House of Representatives while the Honorable Charles Rangel was chairman of the Ways and Means Committee should be looked at. All the loopholes that wealthy individuals and large corporations get should be reveiwed to see if they are actually fair, many of those were put into tax law just to reward certain individuals & corporations.
While the media talks about the home mortgage deduction as a sacred cow of some kind, today with interest rates being so low I have to wonder how many "middle class" people actually pay enough interest to itemize deductions. The smallest part of the more than 11,000 pages of tax law & code is for individuals and couples.
If you go to the link above you can read what wealthy individuals have said about Warren Buffets public comments concering taxes and the wealthy.

Peace Dividend XII

XII is just a number, no more no less. I have to wonder how many times the country has thought there would be a peace dividend after a war. How many times they cut the military in every possible way. Personnel, weapons, ships, aircraft, tanks, trucks, howitzers, APCs and future weapons development. But for the 4th time in my life it is about to happen again. The Army about to loose 50,000 men & women, the Marines 16,000 mean & women and cuts to the Navy & Air Force personnel accounts. There is a real chance for another round of Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC). The thought of a congress that has so little military experience among its members trying to figure out what to cut and what to close and what to stop and what to proceed with is unfathomable to this lowly retired soldier.
The things that take place at the most upper levels of the Pentagon whose task it is to find a way to cut $500 billion from the defense budget over ten years is daunting. Things like "comprehensive strategic review", Quadrennial Defense Review, 5 year budget cycle, think tanks in and out of government put in their $.02 worth on every subject. Then decide what to keep and what to do away with. Cuts in personnel numbers is the quickest way the DoD can reduce spending, so as always that is what will happen first. Then comes the hardware

Retire Senator Orin Hatch

There is an add on my blog about the state of Utah's citizens not to re-elect their (their not meaning my senator in any way shape or form) Senior US Senator. I heard another former Utah official on a commercial paid for and approved by Senator Hatch saying that with the shape of the country & looking out for our state that we should re-elect him, thanks Gov Bangerter (Bang'er'ter not as one radio guy would say Ban'ger'ter). Don't know if I spelled the govs name correct. Why would this state want to give a guy who has served nearly 36 years another chance to be a "compromiser" and a returning Senator. ? A compromiser that usually voted so he could be reelected, raise more money for reelection, and not so he could serve his constituents. If Utahans are really interested in a chance to see real change we can believe in, they won't waste a vote at the state convention on this old geezer. My only hope is that he doesn't win enough votes at the republican convention to make it to the primary in September. Mike Lee turned out to be a very good representative of out state and values.