Tea party reps off to great start

To The Eagle:

Responding to the ancient but oft unheeded principle that the best way to spark the economy and job growth is to cut taxation, regulation, and spending (short version: shrink government), the tea partiers, conservatives, and other happy warriors that we sent to that other Washington last November are off to a great start. They have preserved the Bush income tax cuts, tackled the budget mess, joined the fray to behead the Obamacare monster and are struggling to control the antics of that weird cult of global warmers and green jobbers.

And the 700 plus who we elected to the state legislatures are also in the melee. Over 25 states have joined the Obamacare battle, and several more have taken on the out-of-control public employee unions and their inflated pension schemes. And, with the notable exception of California, many have taken on the elimination or modification of misguided projects such as light rail. Another exception would be our Washington which chose last week to sacrifice a coal fired power plant to the Gods of Climate Change.

Meanwhile, right here in river city, where our unemployment has just scooted past the 15 percent mark, local officials have stimulated the housing market by mandating that present and prospective homeowners get guidance as to how and where to build fences, swimming pools, and dog houses. No word yet on allowable color schemes. Business planning will be enhanced by limitations on size and location of signs. No doubt same year service will be built into the approval process. In other business enhancements, the health mavens have announced that businesses may be held liable for anyone smoking within 25 feet and have provided a hotline so you can turn in your neighbor. This will limit smoking on Main Street to the center line of the street. No word yet from the sheriff's department as to their policy on this.

And, our long awaited relief from inflated property taxes is imminent. There will be an undetermined delay while county officials determine which line of the budget to put the tax assessor's clerical help on, after which this year's tax bills can be corrected for this year's data input errors so they can be forwarded to the board of equalization for correction of last year's data input errors and then forwarded back to the tax assessor for....

Howard Brawn

Puget Island