Well geez, when youâre worried about forced gender reassignment surgeries on your cattle, whatâs a farmer to do?
I get that everybody doesnât have time to research and understand before voting. Maybe uninformed voters shouldnât vote. If they choose to vote for a candidate that screws them, they deserve to be screwed.
I attended a Republican Committee meeting today. Presentation was all about plans for a reduction in state income tax and sales tax.
In most rural counties in Missouri any Republican who wins the primary gets elected. Trumps win was never in doubt.
The committee is concerned about Rino Republicans who buckle under to lobbysts. Lobbysts are out for every line item in the state budget.
They bemoan the slow progress after years of super majority in the state legislature. The committee plans to review future candidates carefully to exclude rino Republicans. Due to term limits in Missouri next year 30 state legislature positions are up for grabs. Big progress is possible. Tax cuts (and zero state income tax) are in the future.
Apparently they didnât learn anything from the Kansas Brownback experiment in extreme supply side economics.
Theyâll have to learn the hard way, I guess. Give âem what they voted for. All of it.
The hot issue in Lansing is road maintenance funding. The GOP faction in the legislature has floated a âno new taxesâ plan for increasing road funding. At present, we pay Michigan 6% sales tax on fuel. Their plan is to replace the sales tax on fuel, with a fuel tax, which will put that 6% into the road maintenance budget, instead of the general fund. Except that takes over $900M/year out of the general fund. What will be defunded to compensate for that $900M shortfall in the general fund? As usual with the Shinies in Lansing, that is a deep, dark, secret.
Steve
Who knows, USAID projects may suddenly turn into a patriotic duty.
âThis food is going places, and I love it. I mean, itâs packaged with an American flag printed on it,â said Rep. Glenn âGTâ Thompson, chair of the House Agriculture Committee. âItâs good diplomacy.â
The problem is for some âdiplomacyâ like âkindnessâ, âcompassionâ, âforethoughtâ, and âdemocracyâ are four letter words. Innumeracy is strong with them too.
Notice that Michigan is one of the blue states losing population in the Uhaul study. Ohio and Indiana are doing much better in growth.
Thatâs what they used to be. Eventually weâll return to sane foreign policy.
Michigan isnât all that blue. State-wide offices, like Gov, AG, SecState, Senator, flip back and forth. Current delegation to the House in DC is 7 red, 6 blue. The reds had a lock on the state legislature, for 40 years, until redistricting was taken out of their hands and turned over to an independent commission. A court had previously ruled the red dominated legislature had gerrymandered districts âto a historic degreeâ. Prior too redistricting being taken out of the hands of the (L&Ses), the delegation to the US House was 9 red, 5 blue, in 2016.
To your point about out-migration: the last company I worked for was an Allied Van Lines agent. People around the office commented about how many trucks came back to Michigan empty, due to the imbalance of out, vs in, movement.
Steve
I donât think Michigan has elected a red Senator for 25-30 years.
DB2
Spence Abraham. US Senator from 95-01. Lost reelection. #43âs Sec of Energy 01-05.
Last red Gov: Rick Snyder. 2011-2019. Two rounds of âJCâ tax cuts. Cut funding to cities and counties, and raised taxes on retirees and the working poor, to pay for the âJCâ tax cuts.
Three successive red Sec of State: 95-2019
Two successive red AGs: 2003-2019
Michigan is not all that blue.
Steve
Zero sympathy.
Life was only going to be tough for someone else?
Waitress where is that tips tax cut your were promised? Or life was only going to be hard for someone else. Sure.
Sir I have your million tax cut on tap. Enjoy. Love you dearly mr. multimillionaire. Dump on ourâŚ
The lie? Tax cuts will create jobs. Love the lie,. Live the lie.
The Secret Peace talks to end Vietnam. The waitress tax cut on tips.
Do you really think itâs about waitresses making a sub-minimum wage? The SCOTUS has ruled that kickbacks are âgratuitiesâ, ie âtipsâ, not âbribesâ, so perfectly legal. So, when a pol leans on you to show your âgratitudeâ for his awarding a contract to your company, his extortion is legal, and tax free to him.
Steve
In Nevada where cutting the tax was declared it was about the waitstaff.
It is up there with the secret plans to end the war. There were no plans to end the war.
The numbers do not add up. They can not cut earned income taxes on waitresses without blowing a hole in the budget. Making your claims moot.
How is the employment market holding up? Will all those layed off govt workers easily find jobs? Will employers finally be able to find enough workers?
Will govt layoffs put downward pressure on wages?
I donât think we will ever know.
I think we will know if unemployment figures rise or fall. Ditto wage data. And if help wanted signs disappear.
I agree on the help wanted signs. That could also be an indicator of a slowing economy not just an increased supply of job seekers.
I donât care about Missouri specifically, but I am greatly concerned about this âtax cutsâ paradigm that weâve fallen into. At this point, we need targeted tax increases. Itâs really simple arithmetic, combined with a few âthird railâ topics.
The US population will not get behind serious cuts in either Medicare or SS. And without those, you cannot balance the budget with current revenues. Last I saw, you could completely delete everything to do with the Pentagon, and still not balance the budget. Tax cuts in that environment are not only foolish, but genuinely stupid.
There is no amount of cutting CPB, or USAID, or any of that, which will make a difference. You either have to cut Medicare and Social Security (and Medicaid), or you have to raise taxes. Cutting taxes is moronic. A vote getter, to be sure. But it just digs the hole deeper.
Perhaps we should start the topic âhow to protect our retirement when the US debt finally kills the economyâ. We already had one about protecting assets if/when the US eliminates FDIC and similar depositor insurance programs.