I am a white male, age 37, and a retired Army officer.  Although I am a registered Republican, I am actually considering voting for Obama.  When I mentioned this to a friend, she brought to light several reasons why that is not a good idea.  Specifically, what bothers her is the fact that the Democrats want to raise taxes.  This impacts people in my tax bracket, obviously.  But to be honest, I see her point.  I grew up poor.  My father worked two jobs just to make ends meet.  As the youngest child, I am the first to graduate from college, because I joined the military.  In 1995, I claimed seven W-2 forms of income because I busted my butt to earn money.  Frankly, I worked hard to get where I am today and am tired of having my hard earned money taken from me to fund programs that have no chance of working.  I’d rather take that money and help my own children pay for college.  I’d rather invest that money for my retirement since I can not count on Social Security to be there for me.  I’d rather do something on my own accord, like the Bible tells me, to help those in need then rely on the government to do that on my behalf.  Our goverment, in my opinion, allows people to take advantage of our good will.  When I was in college, I did student teaching in a large town near Philadelphia.  This one particular 5th grader was not doing very well in school, mostly because he didn’t put any effort into his school work.  I questioned him on his behavior, why he didn’t seem to try.  His response was that he was going to be a famous football star and make lots of money.  I asked what he would do in the event he blew out a knee and didn’t make it to the pros.  His answer was, “I’ll let the government take care of me, like my mom does!”  How screwed up is that, but we manifest that behavior because the government rewards it.  That’s MY money that is going to support people like that.  That’s MY money that is basically stolen from me, in the name of charity.  That’s MY HARD EARNED MONEY that is given to, in many cases, lazy people getting a free ride.  What is the new administration going to do to stop this fleecing of MY MONEY?