Earlier this week U.S. Rep. Lynn Jenkins was in Pittsburg, where she was met by a frustrated audience, according to an article in the Joplin Globe.
Many had complaints about the United States’ continued involvement with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and called for its immediate withdrawals, now in their eighth and 11th years, respectively. Almost 4,500 U.S. soldiers have died in Iraq; another 1,755 in Afghanistan.
Jenkins deferred responsibility for the wars to higher-ups saying she’s been told “to trust the military generals” who have the experience and expertise to make those decisions, as well as President Obama, “who you have to trust to visit with those folks and do oversight.”
Almost in the same breath, Jenkins then said she was “offended when President Obama went into Libya without Congressional oversight,” and she’ll “continue to hold his feet to the fire.”
Too late.
Just this week Moammar Gadhafi’s 42-year stranglehold over his country has been broken. Credit goes to Obama for pulling in European allies to wage massive air strikes that since March have debilitated Gadhafi’s troops and eventually convinced his cronies to switch sides.
Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain, President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, and President Obama ignored the naysayers, including Jenkins, about the value of the United Nations waging the war, claiming that Libya, and its 6.5 million citizens, was not worth saving.
The fact that the uprising was begun by Gadhafi’s own people and not some other country, gave credit to the effort to overthrow the tyrant, who has a human rights record of atrocities that rivals Uganda’s notorious Idi Amin.
Conservative columnist and commentator David Brooks said Republicans today can’t give Obama credit for the regime change in Libya — it’s called politics — “but in a couple of years, people will acknowledge this was a good thing.”
WHEN IT CAME to the economy, a brave soul in the Pittsburg audience said he was concerned about the debt limit increase and that he believes the “vast majority of Americans want a tax increase on the wealthy,” to help balance the budget.
“Are you willing to work with the Democrats to get that done?” the man asked.
Jenkins dodged the question by saying she believed a flat tax would be more effective. That is where all citizens are taxed at the same rate on their household income.
That would be fine — if we all earned about the same.
But for the poor, that 7 percent tax may very well be their undoing, while for the rich it would hardly be noticed.
An accountant by trade, Jenkins surely is aware of the inequality of such a formula.
Even more obvious is that lower- and middle-income wage earners are slim pickings when it comes to financing a campaign.
MORE and MORE I feel we’re being duped by politicians who think we’re too naive to understand their motives.
The infamous “death tax” is another example of a con job.
Today, those who inherit estates that exceed $3.5 million, or $7 million if a couple, are taxed on average 18.9 percent. Less than 10 years ago, estates that exceeded $1 million were taxed at 50 percent. That’s a huge loss to the country’s pocketbook.
Today, couples who inherit agricultural land, including farms, can get $9 million in exemptions.
Who benefits? The upper, upper tiers of society who stand to inherit multimillion dollar estates scot-free.
Yet for the most part it’s rural America that has cried foul, saying the farm will have to be sold to pay the “outrageous” tax. Even back in 2001, when the inheritance tax was much higher, the American Farm Bureau Federation acknowledged that it could not cite a single farm having to be sold to pay estate taxes.
I think it is fair to say there’s not a farm in Allen County that exceeds $9 million in value — though I’d love to be proven wrong.
As of 2009, only 1.6 percent of American farm estates were subject to any estate tax — and again, the family farm was kept intact.
Instead of relaxing the estate tax even more, farmers — just like the rest of us — would be better off if child tax credits and earned income tax credits were extended.
Those incentives keep families growing, and workers bringing home bigger paychecks.
THE BEST defense against rumors and misinformation is to read from a variety of sources, play like you’re Sherlock Holmes and be suspicious of easy answers, and, perhaps the most useful, go outside tonight and let your mind contemplate the stars.
Susan Lynn, Register editor
