NO COMPLAINTS

It would appear the lake is just not ready to succumb to winter. Within the last two days all signs of ice have disappeared. We are back to open water, again. No complaints. Even with this weekends projected rain or snow or who knows what, there may just be open water for one more week. Have at it. Just fine by me.

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With all the discussion in Washington regarding the recommendations from the President's Deficit Reduction Committee, the one he had to appoint because Congress refused to take on the problem, it is no wonder the Committee failed to garner the necessary 14 votes to move the Bill on to the floor. One of the recommendations was to freeze the salaries and benefits of the members of Congress but not those in the military. Now that is one recommendation I can support, I know too many military families who are in real financial difficulty, especially during repeated deployments. (And kudos to the President for appointing the Committee - no pat on the back to the members of Congress who wanted to walk away from the issue.)

There are a few of the other recommendations I have a problem with, such as eliminating the tax deduction for homeowner mortgage interest. That would be a "killer" for the housing industry, not to mention those of us already paying the interest and increasing property taxes and what would also be higher income taxes. For retirees trying to survive on fixed incomes, I just don't know where the money would come from to pay any taxes at all unless we stopped paying for the heat, electricity and gasoline we already can't afford. Even the taxes on gasoline would double. Just means we couldn't go anywhere except to the grocery store to buy food we couldn't afford.

Looking at the scenario this Debt Reduction Committee has put full square in the spotlight, one has to wonder why Congress has a problem on raising the income taxes on those making more than $250,000? Maybe an argument can be made for $250,000. It was explained to me today that many small business owners file a certain tax form that includes their personal and small business taxes together. So being taxed at a higher rate at the $250,000 level would hurt the job creation aspect. But this same person agreed that raising the limit to a compromise amount of $750,000 (instead of $1,000,000) would be equitable.

Leaving the tax break for those earning under $750,000 but increasing it for those earning over that amount would generate plenty of increased taxes - cut into the deficit, and still provide a tax break for the middle income Americans. A fair compromise if anyone in Congress would sit down and compromise. Talk about a Christmas Miracle.