Election day is practically upon us. By now you probably groan and roll your eyes at every political commercial and flip frantically through channels when presented with yet another televised debate. If you're like most of America, neither presidential candidate inspires you, the issues are mired in denial and accusation, and your local candidates are complete mysteries. Apathy and resentment toward our federal government has increased in recent years, most likely due to the perception that government is only interested in big money, big corporations and special interests, not to mention their own extra-curricular activities.
Believe it or not, despite this rather pithy and understandably cynical tone, I will be making a trip to the polls on Tuesday and I will exercise my right to vote.
Why? Well, for one thing, too many people in our country have been denied that voice, whether legally or not (and in some countries still are). Secondly, suffragists struggled for over seventy years to secure this right for me and I'm not about to waste it. Finally, I'm voting because I feel it's incredibly important to be a part of the democratic process and I still hang onto to the rather idealistic belief that one person can make a difference.
That being said, here are the reasons why I think that every married woman needs to get herself into the booth:
- Taxes Please re-read my article on the marriage penalty tax for a refresher on this one. In the news recently also is the inheritance tax, which in reality only affects those estates with a value over $750,000, a very small percentage of estates settled each year, despite what the politicians tell us.
- Social Security Does the program need a major overhaul? After all, the workers of today are paying for the aging boomers, who far outnumber any subsequent generation and by all projections, will deplete the program's resources within thirty years. Should the government keep control of our money, or should we have the choice of reinvesting in private stock accounts? Then there is the small issue of the social security funds utilized by our government to pay for other program that have never been repaid.
- Medicare The rising costs of prescriptions has made prescription coverage an important issue in this election. Also, should recipients have the option of transferring their coverage to private plans?
- Healthcare Medicare we've already mentioned, but what about the cost of health care in general, the bureaucratic control of HMO's, and families in poverty? According to the World Health Organization, our country ranks 37th in health care provided to its people. In the US, 24 cents of every dollar spent on health care goes to administrative costs versus 11 cents in Canada.
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