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I’m serious in my appreciation for your prayers.

I agree that we should not disparage each other. Candidates pasts and their proposals are fair game, as long as the criticisms are based on something factual.

I have offered my views of the leading candidate’s past, and his tax, 2nd Amendment, and VA proposals. I found his tax proposal was great, but I was disappointed by the lack of follow-up on the spending side. Just vague generalities. But without deep cuts, the national debt would skyrocket. But without a total reconstruction of Social Security and Medicare, it’s not possible.

If and when he proposes massive changes to those programs, I’ll look at them, too, and render an opinion. It’s what voters do.

I then looked at his 2nd Amendment proposal. I thought it was pretty good. But a lot of those ideas have been kicked around by Republican thinkers and writers for some time. So, it was pretty good, but fairly orthodox. AND I didn’t comment on it. I think his ideas are good ones on the topic, but not terribly exciting.

Now, I was excited by Cruz’ tax proposal. 10% rate?? Oh boy!! And no payroll tax!?!? Since I am self-employed, and I pay the whole thing, myself, I see it all, the whole, ugly, 15.3%, not just the employee’s side of 7.65%. So, it’s WAY better than trump’s proposal for folks, especially the self-employed. And unlike trump’s tax proposal, it doesn’t leave a trillion dollars added debt per year. That means that additional cuts in spending may come close to closing the deficit. Without drastic (and politically difficult, or even impossible) cuts in Social Security and Meducare.

But two things I really don’t like about Cruz’ plan is the business tax and that he hasn’t told us where he’d attack spending except, perhaps in generalities.

I’m not crazy at all about the business tax because it’s really a VAT, and I’m REALLY not excited about adding that to Congress’ taxing arsenal. Also, his plan is so close to revenue neutral, that there is much less to substantially reduce government spending.

Oh, wait, did I just say something bad about “my” candidate ?? So sorry! But I want to discuss these guys, pro or con. I’m still thinking about my final view on Cruz’ tax plan.

trump’s VA plan, on the other hand, is more focused on “reforming” the VA bureaucracy. Wrong approach. That’s top, down. And the Medicare thing? That’s trying to solve the problem by throwing more government at it.

I would have been much more impressed if he’d have proposed a healthcare fix, first, and then indicated how to fold VA into the new system.

By the way, a good market-reform of healthcare would enable a radical reform of Medicare, as well as the VA. Which would enable really big savings that would go a long way to paying for trump’s tax plan.

Someone asked me for an alternative earlier in this thread, and I briefly outlined a market-based reform for healthcare. It is based a little on my own intensive experiences of the last few months, but the far greater part is my readings of conservative think-tanks, and writers over the last 30 years, and a little as an employer who has provided low-cost health insurance to my workers for over 20 years.

That’s because I actually care about the issues and the candidates who propose them. Not about name calling.