Bull

I am someone who likes to know what’s going on.

Accordingly, I make it a priority to catch the headlines from the day, be it on the radio, web or television. Well, with the start of our state legislative session taking a lot of the local news time and bandwidth, I have found myself consistently infuriated with how my tax money is being spent.

Doing away with 12th grade? Loosening the child car seat regulations? Passing a resolution to convey their personal opinions about global warming? Please someone tell me what is going on and how any of this could be viewed as more than just a big waste of time and budget in an already fiscally difficult year. I do not understand how this is echoing the needs of the state.

We need job growth, not the murdering of an already under-paid education system (yes, Utah spends less per child than any other state in the Union). We need our health care system fixed because it is broken, even Jason Chaffetz said it is a “complicated” situation and admitted it needs help. And as a Latter Day Saint who has been counseled from a very basic doctrine to honor legitimate powers that be, we want resolutions that do more than just defy what President Obama is trying to do. I am in Obama’s camp but still, I’ve grown up hearing stories of Mormons in WWII fighting the German cause because that’s the land they called home. Well, Obama is not Hitler but even if he was, by that logic it wouldn’t matter, we are to support and respect our leaders. Using your voice to make a difference is American but to waste state resources to simply kick against the pricks and further your political ambition is bull. Disagree with Obama all you want but please stop pushing through fluff on the tax payer’s tab that will be ruled invalid in court anyway.

After figuring my taxes for '09, I have to pay $421 to the beautiful state of Utah but that check is becoming harder and harder to sign the more I hear about what our elected officials are doing. It is getting to the point where the only way I would feel good about my taxes is if they were going towards buying a muzzle for Chris Butters and hanging a 3 foot sign around his neck that reads “I don’t represent the LDS church”.

Wake up to what's really going on, legislature.

Jake