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Is 2008 the Year of “Bilk the Poor” in Arkansas?
When did we decide on this theme? Did I miss a vote?
First we have this asinine lottery proposal to get the government into the vice business, rip off our poor population and attempt to buy our votes with scholarships. Now the government, never having enough money of course, wants a new fifty cent tax on cigarettes to further squeeze a few dollars out of our poor population.
But Freeman, don’t we need a trauma system in Arkansas? It’s arguable, but let’s say that we do. Do we need a new tax to fund it? No, we don’t.
What do you think would happen if we added this new cigarette tax and then we finished implementing our trauma system? Does anyone believe that the tax would go away? No. Everyone knows that once the bureaucrats have their claws into a new source of revenue, it is almost impossible to extract them from it.
How many times might this have happened before? Figure we might have quite a few old, just-for-this-special-project taxes from long finished projects still hanging around on the books? Me, too. So if the confiscators want a new trauma system, I say let them stop spending on something else first.
And as for the argument that a new tax will make people stop smoking: Well pardon me, Big Brother, but butt out. I don’t smoke. I don’t smoke because smoking causes all sorts of health problems. Everyone knows that smoking causes all sorts of health problems. And yet, some people still smoke. That’s their prerogative. It is not an invitation for social engineering by those who think they know best.
Instead of sitting around trying to come up with new things to do and new money to spend, I would be very happy to see legislators sitting around trying to come up with old things to not do anymore and old money to stop spending. In fact, I would even settle for them just sitting around doing nothing at all. At least that would stop their slow and steady encroachment into every area of our lives.
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2 Responses to “Is 2008 the Year of “Bilk the Poor” in Arkansas?”
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August 13th, 2008 at 3:19 pm
I see the libs have recently been chastizing conservatives for not thinking things through. If only the socialist elites were in charge, then all posibilities would be considered with proper weight and thus no need for free markets and the price system to order commerce and efficiently allocate resources.
But wait. In the case of the lottery, if more money for college scholarships is provided, doesn’t that mean more kids requiring remediation? Will the lottery cover that? The government monopoly k-12 system in Arkansas properly prepares about half of the incoming freshmen for AR. colleges so these scholarships will likely swell their number proportionately. Please ask your nearest lib to think it through. (I wonder how the market would handle such a thing)?
The Murphy Commission recomendations for streamlining and and cost savings in state government are as relevant today as they were in 1998–the numbers are just much bigger. These recommendations required political courage and leadership to implement such as Mark Sanford is providing in South Carolina, not what we have or have had in Arkansas.
August 14th, 2008 at 8:35 am
Freeman:
In New Jersey,Governor Corzine had to do just that. He cut the state’s budget so it is actually spending less this year than last year.
The funny thing is, the governor is embarrassed he had to do it. He is a Dem of course and he is still trying to find new “revenue” streams so he can go back to spending.
At the Governor’s convention (held justafter Corzine cut the budget), he went around bad mouthing the federal government and say it had to give more money to the states for things like infrastructure repairs. Of course, our governor, Fat Eddie Rendell was there and was leading that charge.
There was a time when Corzine would have been viewed as a genius by his peers for cutting spending. Now he is viewed as an unfortunate victim. The Dems are so stupid they missed an opportunity to brag to taxpayers that they had a governor who could save state money. Go figure.