The ballot initiative to end the income tax in Massachusetts has survived the challenges of some of the State’s worst tax whores and will be on the ballot this fall. If you live there, brace yourself for a cacophony of awesomely silly claims. You will soon be hearing the schools will close, your children will grow up to be heroin addicts, your pets will die of Ebola and the Atlantic Ocean will rise and smite thy town should you have the temerity to vote ‘yes’ in spite of the warnings of your betters.
Do you think I am kidding? The Governor of that State has already tried to relate tax repeal and Darfur. I kid you not. According to Jeff Jacoby:
So Governor Deval Patrick is cranking up the rhetoric. He told the Associated Press last week that undoing the income tax is “just a dumb idea” that would utterly devastate Massachusetts.
“Patrick said he has lived in places with no taxes, including the time he spent in Darfur 30 years ago,” AP’s Steve LeBlanc reported. “He says there were also no bridges, no good roads, and no public safety there. ‘Civilization costs something,’ he said. ‘If we could have something for nothing, which is the fiction that has been sold by the right for some time now, then we wouldn’t have a $19 billion upkeep backlog for the roads and bridges.’ “
You have loads of time to tell your friends and neighbors about this Initiative. Get out the vote and give the Statists their head on a platter this November.
You know who else charged people taxes? That’s right… HITLER. A vote against this initiative is a vote for the Nazi party.
Arguing this way is fun, and easy.
On whether taxes help places like Darfur, here’s a short film making the point that more money goes to many countries in the developing world as remittances from people working in the developed world with family connections than goes in aid:
http://current.com/items/88809058_cash_back(Link)
It makes the point that this money doesn’t have the low horizons associated with aid, gets ordinary people things like better houses with running water, doesn’t come with strings attached, is more real help than people feeling good by wearing armbands, and doesn’t dry up when the cameras move on to the next disaster zone.
It’s made by young people from a London community centre so production values, while good but not 100%. I mention it because I think it’s worth supporting.
There are plenty of taxes in Darfur.
The government, and the groups loyal to it, will take everything you have got – and they will kill you as well.
Even Governor Patrick is not in favour of taxation to this level – or is he?
As for “roads, bridges…..”
Has the man never heard of turnpikes (tolls)?
Or, if we must use modern terminolgy, “road pricing”.
It is very “Green” – Governor Patrick should love it.
Scotney wins the thread.
As if I needed more reason to be excited about next week’s job interview for a position in Massachusetts. Excellent.
The last time I was in Tennessee it seemed rather modern. They had bridges. Several of them that I recall. Yet, they don’t have state income tax. Odd.
No income taxes means they will have to close the state schools? Remind me why this is a bad idea. If only it were true.
Paul,
Massachusetts (or just “Mass” in the venacular) already has a turnpike. And sales tax, btw.
Here in Washington state (never Wash) some snake oil salesman is always trying to sell the idea of dropping all our sales tax in exchange for a state income tax (which we don’t have – still have roads and bridges though). They never say that they promise not to reinstate the taxes later which is, I believe, what happened to Mass. People smile knowingly and go about their business.
One of the great pleasures of my time in the military, when I lived far away from home, was the time of year when Mass would send me my state income tax bill. I would deposit in the trash with a smile ’cause I knew I would never live there again and they were helpless against me.
Never give one inch on taxes or they’ll have their hand in your pocket clear to the knee. not to mention the next set of robbers, I mean politicians, who come along.
I wouldn’t mind taking away MA Secretary of the Commonwealth (i.e. “of State”) Galvin’s budget for making self-serving political commercials using taxpayers’ money. He’s been trying to get voters to vote by telling them that the lobbyists, special interests, and political extremists will decide, if they don’t vote. It’s the goddamned political “moderates” who’ve been compromising away our liberty and property, if not lives.
Then there’s MA Governor Deval Patrick’s recent claim that he’d give illegal aliens massive tuition breaks, by executive fiat, bypassing the legislature. Let him try that with 40% (or whatever) less money to sling around.
i want to know is happinn in darfur