More Faith Based Public Policy

In Reference to Mary Peters, Minnesota's Transportation Secretary's, op-ed in the WaPo rejecting the call for a five cent a gallon gas tax to address infrastructure problems in our state;


It is incredible the extremes to which these people will reach in order to argue their ideology. Hold the line. No new Taxes. Starve the beast. Does this sound like good public policy? Is this a good way to deliver much needed services to the citizens of a state? It doesn't even matter that she says we are striving to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels - particularly imports. Wouldn't a gas tax slow the rate of increase in the demand for gas and lessen the impact of increasing use of roads by actually reducing congestion? Her solution of charging people directly for the use of roads would have zero impact on the demand for and dependence on fossil fuels. It would allow people to drive larger vehicles using more gas and causing more damage to roads for the same price as more efficient ones. This is idiotic and the time for simple minded, ideologically driven solutions is long over.

Newsweek Poll Gives Repubs 28 point advantage on Supporting a Strong Military

It is astounding that after extended deployments in Iraq, scandal at Walter Reed, Bush's threat to veto the military pay increase passed by the democrats, the Pat Tillman fiasco and endless other attacks by republicans on our armed forces, Americans still give them a twenty-eight point advantage on promoting a strong military! Is this country completely insane or do we just watch too much Fox News Channel?