It's time to answer these so-called free enterprise Bozos who say raising taxes leaves citizens with less money to spend. When I approve a tax, I AM spending my money — on exactly what I want to buy: Services no private company could or should sell me. Services that have to serve everyone to serve anyone.
The other day I read yet another letter to the editor in the Contra Costa Times decrying anyone who is willing to raise taxes. It's a terrible idea in these lean times, he argued, because higher taxes leave people with less money to spend.
The only trouble with that argument is, it's wrong. When we approve taxes, we ARE spending our money on what we want: capital expenditures and services we deem necessary for our long-term future that we couldn't possibly buy individually and wouldn't serve their purpose if we did.
Here's what I'm paying for now, straight off my property tax bill. If you Bozos think our money is wasted, tell me which program you think should be canceled and how you would replace it. (Of course we must account for the fact that any program you don't personally use is "socialism.")
Storm drain reconstruction to avert flooding; storm water pollution prevention; mosquito and vector control to prevent plagues; sewers (need I explain?); schools, so our youth can be educated enough to sustain our economy; and of course the public safety departments we all know we can't do without. And that's just looking at the county level. health inspectors so we trust our restaurants and other commercial institutions enough to actually frequent them;
Actually, your letter shows we aren't spending enough on schools, because apparently you didn't learn critical thinking based on evidence. Instead, you closed-mindedly, simple-mindedly parrot the platitudes of propagandists (Rush Limbaugh earns $27 million per year broadcasting the lies that validate your belief system) who reduce self-government to one simple, iron rule: No taxes under any circumstances.
We can't build or maintain roads, bridges, levees, gas, power and water delivery systems and dozens of other infrastructure elements these anti-tax guys use daily and take for granted because our predecessors 50 years ago had the good sense to invest millions in them - by paying taxes.
This brainlessness is doubled by the twisted law in this deteriorating and dysfunctional state of California, where any Republican who utters the word "tax increase" is literally drummed out of office by his/her own party. The law says that if two of us want to spend the money on anything best bought by taxes and one of you says no, you rule. This isn't democracy; it's oligarchy. And more infrastructure and public institutions will collapse, fail or explode while people with more greed than commitment to the future shape it.
Sorry, buddy, but I'm trying to spend my money where it matters most, and you won't let me do it.