Category Archives: taxes

Anti-tax legislation lost

Nov. 13, 20096:04 a.m.

taxcutsOn the same day that Democrats lost the New Jersey and Virginia governors’ mansions, the state-by-state push to limit taxes and spending lost momentum. Maine voters nixed a Taxpayer Bill of Rights measure 60 to 40 percent. Washington state voters defeated similar legislation 57 to 43 percent. In both cases, wrote Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne, opponents “made a case for what government does, why it’s important and why cutbacks in public services can be harmful to citizens and the common good.” He further observed: “It’s true that Washington and Maine have been reliably Democratic in recent presidential elections. But this is precisely why the defeat of these anti-tax measures was so important. Anti-government crusaders were getting ready to argue that if TABOR measures could pass in blue states, theirs was the wave of the future.”

By Rhonda Holman | Filed under taxes | Comments (15)

Estates get tax cuts while the poor get more budget cuts

Oct. 16, 20096:02 a.m.

taxcutsAdditional budget cuts this year could result in fewer meals for seniors, larger class sizes in public schools and deeper cuts to state programs that already have gone through several reductions, The Eagle reported Tuesday. That makes even more indefensible the refusal last session by most GOP state lawmakers to temporarily delay the phase-in of tax cuts for estates and corporations. If everything is on the budget-cutting table, as GOP lawmakers have said, then that should include tax cuts to the wealthy, not just services to the poor.

By Phillip Brownlee | Filed under Kansas government, taxes | Comments (234)

Is it patriotic to want to secede?

April 21, 20096:03 a.m.

Tax Day Protests Texas“Have you ever noticed that the states where anti-tax sentiment is strongest are frequently the same states that get way more back from the federal government than they send in?” columnist Gail Collins asked. “Alaska gets $1.84 for every tax dollar it sends to Washington, which is a rate of return even Bernard Madoff never pretended to achieve. Yet there they were in Ketchikan waving ‘Taxed Enough Already!’ signs and demanding an end to federal spending. Also, have you noticed how places that pride themselves on being superpatriotic seem to have the most people who want to abandon the country entirely and set up shop on their own?”
Noting how Texas Gov. Rick Perry egged on talk about Texas seceding from the union (in photo), Collins asked: “What about my country, right or wrong? Weren’t there complaints, some from Texan quarters, during the last election that Barack Obama seemed insufficiently up front about his love of country? Isn’t threatening to dissolve the union over the stimulus package a little less American than failure to wear a flag pin?”

By Phillip Brownlee | Filed under U.S. politics, taxes | Comments (124)

Anti-tax signs of the times

April 17, 20096:00 a.m.

teasignWednesday’s spirited exercise of free speech by tax foes generated some entertaining signage. Among the best spied at the region’s tea parties: “Pirates at sea, pirates in D.C.” and “Read my lipstick; no new taxes,” seen in Kansas City. “Commander and thief” and “Right-wing nut job” (with an arrow pointing downward), seen in Hutchinson. “I think we have been hope-a-doped” and “Don’t tax me, bro,” seen in Wichita. “I’ll pay my taxes when I’m nominated to Obama’s Cabinet,” seen in Topeka, as was a sign reading “KS profligate spending” atop a wheelbarrow of manure.

By Rhonda Holman | Filed under taxes | Comments (15)

Brownback acknowledged GOP role in spending

April 16, 200911:43 a.m.

brownbackmug4Though backers claimed that the anti-tax tea parties weren’t partisan, they clearly were. But good for Sen. Sam Brownback for acknowledging that the GOP played a role in what the parties were protesting. “I think these things started under President Bush,” Brownback said at the Wichita rally, mentioning the federal bailouts. Brownback also said that “there aren’t enough ‘no’ votes” in Congress right now to block spending increases — though he didn’t point out how federal deficits soared while the GOP controlled Congress and the White House.

By Phillip Brownlee | Filed under Kansas delegation, taxes | Comments (15)

Moran backs Fair Tax

April 16, 20096:02 a.m.

taxaudit1“An overhaul of our federal tax code is necessary,” contends Rep. Jerry Moran, R-Hays, and “the Fair Tax Act is the right answer to simplify the process.” The act would replace the federal income tax with a national sales tax. Moran argues that “the Fair Tax is a simple and honest tax” that would encourage growth. Critics contend that the Fair Tax would shift some of the tax burden from the wealthy to the middle class.

By Phillip Brownlee | Filed under Kansas delegation, taxes | Comments (80)

Tax Day marked by tea parties

April 15, 20096:03 a.m.

teaparty“Today might become the biggest tax-and-spend protest since the Boston Tea Party of 1773,” Cal Thomas wrote about the planned tax protests today. Thomas said that “the cry at these tea parties should be ‘not a penny more’ until governments get their houses in order, just as we must do.”
Sen. Sam Brownback will be one of the speakers at Wichita’s tea party, which is focused mostly on the stimulus bill.

By Phillip Brownlee | Filed under taxes | Comments (77)

Are tea parties ‘fake’?

April 15, 20096:02 a.m.

“President Obama is being called a ‘socialist’ who seeks to destroy capitalism. Why? Because he wants to raise the tax rate on the highest-income Americans back to, um, about 10 percentage points less than it was for most of the Reagan administration. Bizarre,” wrote Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman, suggesting that the GOP’s anti-tax tea parties are “AstroTurf (fake grassroots) events” put on by the party’s “usual suspects.”
Media Matters noted how the tea parties have been aggressively promoted by Fox News.

By Rhonda Holman | Filed under taxes | Comments (413)