Cut spending or raise taxes?
Our country is in crisis. The recent struggle over raising the debt limit showed that our political divides seem to be getting greater and harder to bridge. As a Republican, although I disagree with Democrats, I am certainly willing to concede that they are honest and decent people, sincere in their beliefs.
All I ask is that they, too, concede that we Republicans are honest and sincere in our beliefs. Raise taxes or cut spending? We favor cutting spending.
Now, if someone wants to say that the really rich, such as Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, etc., can afford to pay more in taxes, I”m not going to disagree. Of course they could pay more in taxes without breaking a sweat. The question that we Republicans ask is, why? Pay more taxes for what? Why should anyone pay more taxes when we already waste so much money?
From my perspective every single day brings more unwanted proof of out-of-control government spending.
In just Friday”s news alone, I read that the county of Sacramento has quietly hired a new county executive at a total salary of more than $320,000. Meanwhile the city of Sacramento has also hired a new city manager at a total pay package of $306,000.
This in the very same week that the Sacramento Firefighter”s Union was forced to make concessions on their pensions.
Why pay the people at the top so much? Why did the Sacramento City Council and the Sacramento Board of Supervisors approve these exorbitant contracts, in this economy? Because they haven”t been voted out of office, yet. Also in Friday”s news, I read that the entire press staff of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee is in Maui, on the taxpayers” dime for a hearing that won”t even happen until next week. Maui? Are there Indians in Maui? Who cares? I mean, it”s someone else”s money, right? This shameless junket is taking place a mere one week after our country was downgraded. Remember these two stories are only part of Friday”s news; I could write an update to this letter every single day of the year.
So, I simply don”t understand why Democrats don”t join us in our quest to stop this ridiculous government spending. After all the only way to pay for these boondoggles for the people at the top of government is to fire dozens of workers at the bottom; rank-and-file government workers ? Democrats, mostly. This pattern is repeated every day, nationwide. The people at the top shower money on themselves at the very same time that they are cutting services to the public and benefits and salaries for the other government workers. Honestly I don”t mind if Democrats consider my arguments and say “no, regardless of these greedy antics of the people at the top, disgusting though they may be, nonetheless, we should still raise taxes.”
OK, we can agree to disagree.
All I ask is that the next time some politician comes out and says, “We absolutely have to raise taxes, or we”ll just have to stop sending Granny a Social Security check,” is that people stop and consider that there is another alternative. We could stop the freebie trips to Maui and pay the top administrators only $100,000 or $200,000 a year, instead.
In sum, there are an awful lot of things that most Republicans and most Democrats can agree on and work on together. If at the end of the day we part company on other issues then at least in the meanwhile we will have done some good to improve our country and God knows this is a very good time for doing some good for our country.
Mark Cabaniss
Chairman, Lake County Republican Party
Kelseyville
