As a rule, I truly do not write a political column. I have attempted in my way to take your minds off the quagmire that is politics. Rules are meant to be broken, so here goes.

I will attempt to hit the high points and leave the technical stuff for those much more intelligent, much more knowledgeable, making much more money to explain it all.

The government said, “if you have a Junker, or a car that gets worse than x-amount of miles per gallon, trade it in for a new gas saving, earth saving car and we will pay you 4500 dollars for your trade-in. the government budgeted a certain amount for this program, and away we went.

First, they changed the amount of miles per gallon your Junker had to get to qualify for the program. Then they broke it down to two sections of qualifying. Well. So many folks wanted to take advantage of this wonderful program that the out-dated government computers could not keep up with the offers. The backlog became scary to the government agency because they were afraid the trades might run over budget and the slow computers might not let them know in time. Therefore, they yanked the program.

There were still TV ads running all over the nation to trade in your Junker, but the program was not in force. Some dealerships were giving the discount and trading, but if the government didn’t pay the dealership you had to bring the new car back.

Now this same government wants to maintain my health care. To decide when and if, I need surgery, or which medication I need. They want to pick my doctor, decide how much premium I can afford, and use part of my premium to pay for others, who they choose should get free medical care.

I cannot think offhand of even one government program that works, as it should. Can you? They are all mismanaged, over budgeted, overstaffed, and impossible, once started to ever get rid of.

Now I am thankful for the defenders of our land, and I will most definitely need my social security checks (if I get any!), and I do appreciate the freedom to complain, or join with others to complain, or at the very least to worship any way I see fit to pray for those misguided souls running this mess.

However, I must confess to feeling sometimes like this whole country is being operated like a game show. We spin the wheel to decide which school our children attend. We ask for a lifeline when we pay our complicated taxes. We go to a commercial break if our questions to them get too difficult.

We are slowly giving up every right our founders paid for with their dedication and blood. When I think of the men and women who have fought and died so we may live in this country, I have to pause and wonder what any of them would think of many of the inconveniences we seem to take for granted. Alex, I’ll take government confusion for a trillion. I’ll be right back.