The foolhardy march towards insolvency

Per VPR / John Dillon:

House Speaker Shap Smith has given lawmakers their marching orders: don’t hike taxes, even to save social programs from budget cuts.

And that’s pretty much where our problem lies.  Our economy has been severely weakened by the Douglas administration.  And now we’ve got commandments from on high telling us that we can’t invest in the tools that will improve it.

Unemployment insurance, which funnels money back into our economy.  Money to refund LIHEAP, which funds programs that keep Vermonters in work.  

Strong, powerful, social programs, such as subsidized child care, such as assistance for the mentally ill, such as support for medical care for low-income Vermonters?  In what possible twisted, upside down, ridiculous world, are these things less less important than, say, raising taxes a small amount on people who make more than $200,000/year?

Raising taxes a small degree won’t bankrupt anyone.  Refusing to take necessary and important steps to stimulate the state’s economy can do real, serious and lasting damage.

I don’t know why I keep thinking we’ve got Democrats in charge.

41 thoughts on “The foolhardy march towards insolvency

  1. I saw the “blue ribbon” commission suggested cutting the top marginal rate from 8.95% to 6.95%.

    Have people lost their minds as they’ve forgotten history?  Did we not just endure a lost decade of tax cuts that have gutted the economy and the middle class?  Did we not see Republican Governor Snelling raise the top rate to 13.5% to specifically save social services?

    I can’t believe this is leadership in the party I signed up with…

  2. … it’s what they’ve decided to represent that can bring tears to one’s eyes. Never fails to amaze me how they continue to delude themselves that being GOP Lite is the ticket to success.

    The tactic strikes me as the epitome of fail: the moderate Republicans won’t like you, because all they need is a wedge issue like gays or abortions or war to ensure that they stay on board; the progressives won’t like you, because they see thru the bullshit and will insist (rightly) that a pared down version of a fatally flawed strategy is still a failed strategy; and while the dwindling group of die-hard mainstream democrats may love whatever vapid economic plan their master’s present, their uncritical support of institutionalized stupidity, ignorance and short-sightedness, ensures the slow and steady erosion of the very foundation upon which their party was built: a middle class with decent jobs, decent pensions and a reasonably decent life.  

  3. Simplest explanation. Shumlin,Shap and Campbell don’t want to hear the loud squawk the wealthier Vermonters would make at the slightest tax increase.

    Its the most dangerous squawk if you are in office.

  4. I’ve listened for some time now as nearly all of our elected leaders have proclaimed that there is just “no more capacity” for taxation. While many of them may actually believe what they’re saying, I believe it’s reasonable for us to expect those who’ve come to this conclusion to explain to us when they feel it is appropriate to raise taxes and for what reasons. They’re getting off way too easily, in my opinion.

    I’m not a huge fan of catchy phrases that give academics hard-ons, but it appears that the “Overton Window” has shifted so dramatically on the topic of taxation that anybody who proposes a tax increase, at any time, is seen as too extreme without any consideration of the reasoning behind such a proposal.

    There has to be a way to create an environment in which revenue generation is an acceptable part of the conversation when discussing economics in difficult times. Otherwise, we’re left with the notion that the only good time to increase revenue through taxation is never. And, that appears to be the goal of the war being waged and won by economic “conservatives”.  

  5. I had thought Vermont missed out on the TeaBircher Revolution that took over most other states, even NH and ME.

    It turns out that we don’t need TeaBirchers in Vermont when we have the Democratic Party!

    Shumlin and Shap has decreed that no wealthy people shall ever pay taxes in Vermont, and that all taxes are to be borne by the middle class and the poor.

    An internet sales tax has but one effect: taking money form the middle class and poor and wrecking online sales by Vermonters.  Amazon has announced plans to end all affiliate relationships with every Vermont seller when the Democrat’s tax on the poor is passed.

    By refusing the tax the wealthy, by refusing to make them pay their fair share of the cost of having a First-World society, the Vermont Democrats are on the side of the far-right extremist TeaBirchers that took over the GOP.

    The Vermont Democrats have sided with the Republican leadership in attacking every Vermonter that doesn’t make $125, 000 a year or more.

  6. The sad fact of our political system is that candidates with opinions that offend wealthy people have a higher chance of being filtered out of the system. Campaigns are won with $200 checks and $500 checks and $1,000 checks, not a bunch of ten-dollar bills.

    Of course Shap and Peter and Co. are, economically speaking, GOP-lite. The economic progressives got filtered out in the campaign finance process.

    We are better off than a lot of states due to our small population and small physical area. It’s just cheaper to campaign here. That’s one of the reasons why we have Bernie and the prospect of single payer and nobody else does. Still, even in Vermont, “…if you ain’t got that dough, re, mi…”

    The important point is to view Peter and Shap (and Obama and Pelosi and McConnell and Boehner) as symptoms, not causes. They will act on the principles that their life experiences have taught them, but the fact that they are in power is a symptom of our system for selecting them. If our electoral system wasn’t dependent on large donations there would be a different type of people in power.

    We shouldn’t be surprised and we shouldn’t expect more from people who were pre-selected by the MNC (Millionaire Nominating Committee).

    I wish that every left-of-center activist would drop all their worldview-in-a-dixie-cup particular issues and band together to get the campaign finance issue solved. Then we could work with politicians selected by a majority and actually get somewhere.

    “It is hard to convince a man of something if his salary is dependent upon not being convinced of that thing.” Sinclair Lewis

  7. Where have you been?  Democrats have been selling out the poor since at least the Clinton administration and Obama is selling out everyone but Wall Street. The sacred elites must be preserved in their extended, pampered infanthood and so what if others die from lack of heat or healthcare. Wisconsin has been the first time in at least 30 years that Dems have shown some spine and we in Vermont had best go after our majority party and governor or we too will be sold out to the ones with the big campaign fund contributions.

    We better raise hell and not make the mistake thats been made nationally or giving Obama a pass cause he’s so nice and smart while he destroys Democracy  and lets Wall street have all the money with no strings and no interest. They haven’t created jobs for years, not in this country anyway. So Governor Shummy is playing the same tune all the big Dem pols hum and we’re still sitting here self-satisfied that Vermont is so different and so progressive. Oh and then there’s the progressives whose brilliant strategy for income is to sell out to the military industrial complex in the corporate personhood of Lockheed Martin and its subsidiary Sandia. Yeah we’re doing so well if we’re a Vermont pol and don’t need unemployment or LIHEAP. Keep that smug self satisfaction that we are so different and immune from this national corporate coup d’etat. Check out whats going on in Wisconsin and Michegan. Coming to a theater of cruelty in your neighborhood soon!

  8. Our economy has been severely weakened by the Douglas administration.

    First of all, if you’re talking about the economy, Vermont’s unemployment rate is significantly under the national unemployment rate.  If you’re talking about the fiscal mess, I seem to remember a veto override by the Legislature.

    Raising taxes a small degree won’t bankrupt anyone.

    Again, it’s about fairness.  I’ve said it before that the top 1 percent of earners make 20 percent of the annual gross income but pays 38 percent of the income tax.  Now, Doug Hoffer likes to say the more relevant figure is the tax rate.  So, I’ll provide that.  The top 1 percent of earners have an average rate of 23.27 percent.  That’s compared to an overall average of 12.24 percent.  The bottom half of wage earners pays an average rate of 2.59 percent.

    In my history classes I sometimes teach about an ancient Chinese dynasty that required its people to work for free for the state for a month.  My students are somewhat revolted by that.  But we essentially work into April for the government now.  Used to be May during the Clinton years.  Why would we want to go back to that?

  9. Try selling that line to any couple of the same sex who were married in this state. Especially around tax time!

  10. part of the problem is that some folks are trying to run government as a business. Its not.

    We shouldn’t be trying to compare making 5000 widgets at the lowest cost and highest profit to an organization of people  our community trying to provide basic services to one another.

    I don’t think I want to live in a place that outsources my snow plowing or teaching or librarian in order to have a better balance sheet.

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