A Revenue Task Force: The Result of Tax Cowardice and the Passing of the Buck

A Revenue Task Force: The Result of Tax Cowardice and the Passing of the Buck

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Longtime readers will know my frustration with Delaware and its revenues. We have what is essentially a flat tax rate system for the middle and higher brackets of income. If one person has $60,000 in taxable income and another has $600,000 and another has $6 million, they all pay exactly the same tax rate. But we can never... NEVER!!!!!! ... raise taxes on those at the higher levels, because, you know, they are job creators and it will hurt their fees fees. So we have to scrounge around every year, waiting desperately for every DEFAC forecast to come out with good news. We have to talk about raising regressive fees and taxes, like the gas taxes, which fall disproportionately on those who least can afford to pay more. We have to talk about deeper and deeper spending cuts. And we have to resort to a Task Force to tell us what is wrong with our "revenue structure." And that task force will come back with proposals for a gas tax and a sales tax, both regressive taxes, and both unpopular, which will "force" the Governor to look to spending cuts to education and Medicaid. That's the Delaware Way.

Tuesday Open Thread [12.16.14]

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One of the great ironies of our time is that the radical Republican hates the tyrannical Big Obama Government, yet wants that tyrannical Big Government to torture. James Antle III calls out the Republican hypocrites who apologize for torture:
[T]he case for limited government is weakened when those making it ignore or defend torture, testicle-crushing, and waterboarding, complaining only about big government when someone proposes spending taxpayer dollars to help people. And I say that as someone who has written a book arguing that seemingly benign and compassionate government spending can curtail individual freedom. It is difficult to take someone seriously who thinks the imprisonment of human beings in cages and the behavior of government agents with guns have less impact on personal freedom than the capital-gains tax rate. That is one reason it is so easy for many to dismiss arguments against programs like Obamacare as being motivated purely by economic self-interest.
The truth is that there is no irony, no hypocrisy. The truth is, and this issue, and the issue of abortion, lays bare the lie that is the Republican Party today: Republicans do not hate big government at all. They love it. And they love it precisely because they are fascists. They want to control you and society. That is why they also support police officers who murder with no provocation. It is why they support torture. It is why they want to abolish reproductive choice, public education, public health, and social security. All of those things free the citizen and uplifts them. But that is not what the Republican Party wants.

This is Exactly Right

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Andrew Hawkins, a football player for the NFL's Cleveland Browns, wore the T-shirt you see above during the game warm ups on Sunday. Like in St. Louis, when some St. Louis Rams players last week entered the stadium during game introductions with their hands up, the local police in Cleveland demanded an apology from the Cleveland Browns organization and Mr. Hawkins himself. The Cleveland Browns said no, no apology, stating correctly:
"We have great respect for the Cleveland Police Department and the work that they do to protect and serve our city," the Browns said in a statement, via Cleveland.com. "We also respect our players' rights to project their support and bring awareness to issues that are important to them if done so in a responsible manner."
Then Hawkins hit it out of the park with his statement......
The 2014 MVP Awards! And the winner is…. Mike Matthews.

The 2014 MVP Awards! And the winner is…. Mike Matthews.

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Granted, it wasn't a great year for progressives in Delaware, to put it mildly. A business uber alles governor, a congressional delegation that aids and comforts the enemy, more shenanigans from narcissistic elected officials, and a refusal by the General Assembly to address financial shortfalls that will soon impact Delaware's infrastructure. However...we began to see the emergence of coalitions that may well have a profound and positive impact on our future. We also saw some elected officials step up their game. And we saw members of the public lead in challenging some of the most wrong-headed assumptions of our elected officials. So, here they are: The 2014 Bob Stachnik Memorial MVP Awards.   Dedicated to a man who epitomized the spirit of those who created this very blog. A man who, literally and figuratively, sought to 're-twinkle the stars'.