Ma Bell and the Spanish-American War……
What does the telephone company and the Spanish-American War have in common?…… The Spanish-American War ended 107 year ago…… Alexander’s company was then just emerging….. So-o-o, where’s the connection? (Pun intended)…… Our fabulous government……
In order to pay for the Spanish-American War, our government levied an excise tax on telephone usage as it was then considered a luxury to own a phone….. So-o-o, what’s the problem?…… THE TAX IS STILL THERE!….. YES, 107 years after the fact, you are still paying for the Spanish-American War every time you pay your phone bill!…… That must have been a Hell’va expensive war!…….
I saw this on the news and they are considering repealing the excise tax, but what about all the money they’ve collected over the 107 years?….. I don’t think the American taxpayer will ever see any of it again…..
We need to get more involved in the politics of this country or we are going to lose it…… There are plenty of other countries that would love the U.S. to fail…..
My hint for when you go to the polls: “Incumbent means incompetent”…… The only exception to this rule is if vast and sweeping changes to the good occurred during the incumbent’s term….. And, this just doesn’t happen, although the “Governator” of California is making a good showing so far……
August 3rd, 2005 at 10:39 am
Did the news source say what the tax was really going towards? Obivously the war is long since paid off. This could be just a bookkeeping issue. I’m sure if the tax is removed, a new tax or fee will appear to fund whatever the old tax was. Government does cost money to run.
As for âIncumbent means incompetentâ, we have several people in office here in Seattle that I’d like to see stay in office. The real message here is to know whom you’re voting for. Get as much information you can on candidates. Personally I don’t want a bunch of newbees every term making the same mistakes over and over. Incumbents can be very productive: they’ve made contacts, they understand how the system works, and hopefully they better understand what the represented population wants.
August 5th, 2005 at 5:48 pm
I hear ya talkin’ ’bout the incumbents and I agree that in Seattle there are probably some good ones, but, the way it works in Oklahoma is that once someone is elected to an office it is very rare occasion that person leaves office until all the term limits have expired or if there are no term limits, until they are ready to leave the office for bigger things or to avoid prosecution….. The people just keep re-electing them!… It doesn’t matter if they did anything good or not!…..