Be careful what you wish for, the saying goes. IN KANSAS, Gov. Sam Brownback wants to eliminate all income taxes.
When ultra-conservatives clamor for smaller government, it’s a good bet they’re not promoting the elimination of Medicare and Social Security. That is, unless they have a cushy nest egg.
And votes to lower taxes are not intended to deprive us of important government services — yet what else can be the case?
When we call for less government and lower taxes, the biggest targets come first.
For Kansas, that means education, which comprises almost two-thirds of our state budget.
For the country, that means the benefit programs. Social Security and Medicare alone consume 41 percent of all federal spending. Defense spending is not quite 20 percent, followed by much, much smaller amounts for employee benefits, transportation, etc. Of critical note is that education comprises only 1 percent of the national budget. It is a state’s responsibility to educate its children.
Behind the rhetoric is a sense of fear. Older generations, especially, are afraid their “share” of the pie — Medicare and Social Security — will get smaller due to other demands on the budget. Increasingly, conservatives view the country’s poor and disabled as a “drain” on the federal budget.
In his run for president in 2012, Republican Mitt Romney referred to these people as the “47 percent,” which likely played no small part to his defeat.
That song is tone deaf to the needs of the country.
And the middle class is waking up to the fact that tax cuts for the wealthy can only mean a reduction in important government services.
If the massive tax cuts do not spur economic development as he has projected, he proposes to raise sales and property taxes until the budget is righted.
The majority of Americans nearing retirement age are not cash-rich; 75 percent have less than $30,000 in their retirement accounts. Increasingly, their homes are their major assets. To raise their property taxes disproportionately seems especially punitive.
For generations, the three-legged funding mechanism of sales, income and property taxes has kept Kansas humming along.
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
— Susan Lynn
Trite sayings hold gems of truth
