#Sam Brownback, governor of Kansas, was a guest of #Chuck
Todd this morning for a milk toast interview. The political world knows Brownback
as the ultimate #Republican of all Republicans. You will find him at the center
of every radical conservative position on every controversial political divide.
This includes the one about taking campaign money for political favors; he is
bought and owned by the #Koch Brothers and has been for 20 years. In addition, I
could predict his position on every issue by knowing the issue without knowing what
he has said about it by assuming he will take the most radical position
possible; sacredness of life which is abortion, biblical law dominates secular law
which is antithetical to the constitutional mandated separation of church and
state, and family values which is one man and one woman, individual rights
which is gun ownership and not individual rights which is the foundation of our
country, etc. His only deviation in the “sacredness of life issues” is the
death penalty; he is pro death penalty, which is consistent with the “tough guy”
or John Wayne image all Republicans have of themselves. I might add, his position of the death penalty
is the only one that is the same as mine—the state can use the death penalty in
the sense of self-protection of society.
Of course, the nationwide attention getting issue is cutting
taxes; it has been that way since the being of time. However, one startling difference between Brownback’s anti tax stance in
Kansas that most Republican run state governments do not shared. It is not surprising
that it is what has gotten him in the most trouble. In keeping with
Reaganomics, he has shifted the tax burden from the rich to the working class.
Most Republican governors do this in a subtle way; they cut progressive income
taxes and shift the tax burden to the workers by increasing the non-progressive
sales tax. North Carolina was a classic example; Thom Tillis, legislative leaders
in that state, lower income tax and business taxes, and sales taxes, which is
followed raising sales taxes in the future. Brownback is more direct in pursuing
his tax cut mania; he cut both income tax and sales tax and drove his state
into a financial crisis.
This morning was interesting to hear his explanation; according
to him, his state will attract business, which will create income for the state
by increased employment. He has the
numbers to prove this; businesses are moving to Kansas. Of course business will
move where taxes are almost nothing and labor unions have been destroyed (no
union dues), which increases profits. Workers will be happy if they have low
sales tax. Utopia; everyone is happy.
It reminds me of happy children in a candy store with free chocolate. However, I remember my mother telling me about my father’s auto and farm equipment maintenance
business during the great depression. He used his supply of spare parts farmers
did not pay or paid in sacks of potatoes and chickens, which are useless in
buying more spare parts. The children do not think about what happens when the
shelves are empty in the candy store. Kansans love the tax cuts but now start
to worry about public schools for their children, about costs of health care
for their families, about police and fire protection for their businesses or
about highways for receiving supplies and delivering their products.
Brownback has stripped the states shelves of the essential people
need to survive. He has done it using Republican techniques that center
attention on innate human greed related to taxes and drawing attention to
social and religious issues but ignoring the big issue, which is the ever-increasing
income disparity—the empty shelves in the candy store.
Brownback is the poster-child for what is wrong with America,
which is a step by step political facilitation of individual greed by money and
not hard work—the rich get richer!
URL: firetreepub.blogspot.com Comments Invited and not moderated
No comments:
Post a Comment