Worst congress ever: “Republicans for Pork?” includes the most intelligent thing Lindsey Graham ever said.
“Second acts are hard to get in life…particularly in politics,” Graham said. “We got a second lease on life… not because of anything we did, because of [the Democrats’] screw-ups, and if the first thing we do is quietly let this go through, then our second act is over before it begins.”
Jim Galloway’s recent Political Insider column in the Atlanta Journal discusses Georgia’s recently rejected “trauma tax” and how that rejection will impact the state’s proposed sales tax increase in 2012. I respect Mr. Galloway. His Political Insider column provides a great deal of insight into the world of Georgia politics… but being an insider has its price.
In the case of tax increases Mr. Galloway’s insider viewpoint prevent hims from seeing the issue from the perspective of the political outsider (otherwise known as a typical voter). As a political outsider perhaps I can help.
Right now there is a failure to communicate in Georgia. The communication failure stems from the fact that too many elected officials aren’t listening to the voters. Instead of listening to voters politicians spend their time listening to each other along with the bureaucrats and lobbyists that surround them. After talking amongst themselves this political class hammers out a mutually acceptable solution to whatever the perceived problem is and unveils it to the public. Of course the solution always involves confiscating millions of dollars from Georgia’s taxpayers so the taxpayers frequently reject the proposed solution once they find out about it. The whole process is a tremendous waste of time and a big part of the reason government rarely solves anything. If more elected officials juat made a point of talking to people outside of their echo chamber a great deal of time and money could be saved and some progress might actually take place.
The recent trauma tax debacle is a perfect example of miscommunication between voters and politicians. I have lived in Georgia for 40 years and I have never once had a person tell me they wanted or needed more trauma centers in the state. But despite the fact that average people didn’t think there was a problem, some hospital lobbying group convinced Georgia’s political class that a problem did exist. Once the lobbyists convinced the politicians there was a problem they all got together and hammered out an agreement that was acceptable to them. As usual the solution called for Georgia’s taxpayers to cough up millions of dollars. So once they were satisfied with their solution the political class went to the people of Georgia. The voters weighed the option of paying millions of dollars to solve a problem they had never heard of or faced and said no. The whole process was a complete waste of time and money that could have been spent on one of the real problems facing Georgians.
A similar process is taking place now in Georgia’s struggle to address transportation infrastructure needs. Both the voters and politicans seem to agree that Georgia needs transportation improvements in this case but the trouble is that the political class and the voters disagree on the solution.
The political class say they could fix the problem if they only had more money. What the political class doesn’t understand is that the voters don’t blame infrastructure needs on a lack of money, the voters place the blame on the political class. Taxes in Georgia are the 16th highest in all of the United States while transportation spending is 49th out 50. See the problem?
But Georgia’s political class won’t accept the fact that they have been the problem. Instead, the politicians and lobbyists sat down together and once again hammered out an agreement acceptable to the politicans and lobbyists. And once again their solution is to raise taxes… billions and billions of dollars in taxes. That solution must have sounded awfully good in their echo chamber because a few months ago the political class unveiled this genius idea to great fanfair and they patted themselves on the back so hard that Atlanta’s chiropractors must have made a fortune.
But the people that will pay for this enormous tax increase are not impressed, they are hurting. They face 10% unemployment while the other 90% are still unsure of the future. More than 12,000 Georgia homes were foreclosed in July. IRA accounts and home prices are going down while grocery and gasoline prices are going up. To make matters worse their federal income taxes are going up in a few weeks and they will have even less money to spend. Georgia voters are hurting and they find it offensive that political insiders have decided taxpayers need to pay billions of dollars more to fund transportation improvements. While transportation improvements might bring jobs to Georgia in a decade or so, the state’s taxpayers would have to cough up billions of dollars that could have gone to pay their mortgage or put food on the table in the meantime.
During Georgia’s recent economic boom transportation issues were a top priority for Georgia taxpayers. Voters pleaded for road improvements but the political class ignored their pleas and spent the money elsewhere. Now that the economy has tanked the roads are no longer the highest priority for voters. Money is the top priority now and the politicans find the shoe on the other foot. So as the political insiders plead for money to improve roads in the current environment I fully expect Georgia’s voters will ignore their pleas in return.
You can read Mr. Galloway’ Political Insider column on ajc.com here: http://bit.ly/gqeLnw
(Added 12/2/10 ) P.S. I forgot to mention that Mr. Galloway conspicuously chose not to allow comments on the column cited above. It is the only recent column which doesn’t permit comments and I don’t ever remember seeing him block comments before. Feel free to draw your own conclusions.
Georgia is one of eight states projected to gain congressional seats after the 2010 census numbers are tallied. Recently, Barbara Hollingsworth of the Washington Examiner wrote an editorial analyzing the tax policies of those eight states compared to the states which are projected to lose representation and guess what? Barbara discovered that people are fleeing states with high taxes and high spending. Surprise, surprise!
The article points out, “The state and local tax burden is nearly a third lower in states with growing populations… As a result, per capita government spending is also lower: $4,008 for states gaining congressional seats, $5,117 for states losing them.” In addition to tax policies Barbara Hollingsworth also points out that many of the states also have right to work laws that entice businesses to relocate from less friendly states. The article isn’t very long and you can read it here: bit.ly/9C6cRd
So we see that relatively low taxes and government spending have a direct correlation to Georgia’s tremendous growth over the past few decades. The majority of voters in Georgia understand this instinctively but I’m not sure the state’s current power structure quite gets it.
I have noticed that as political junkies sift through the ashes of yesterday’s election in Georgia few people have discussed the defeat of the proposed constitutional Amendment #2. The proposed amendment would have raised annual car tag fees in the state by $10 and the money would purportedly have gone to fund additional trauma centers in underserved areas of the state. According to the AJC the people of Georgia refused to raise taxes on themselves by a margin of 53% to 47%.
I wrote about this issue earlier and last week I found this comment on peachpundit.com: “I got burned with the 400 toll roads. I fully believed the government when it was said the tolls would come down when it was paid for. Since that is not going to happen, I will probably vote no on everything from now on.” It seems that I wasn’t the only person fed up with the way the state of Georgia has been stealthily slipping their hand into my wallet.
I know of no political figure that opposed this amendment and there was a multimillion dollar ad campaign which supporters of the amendment funded in the weeks before the election. The tax increase lost by 129,000 votes.
I hope Republicans are paying attention.
I was born in October so I recently received a thoughtful note from the state of Georgia requiring me to send them $200. What a great way to celebrate the joyous occasion of my birth. If you own a car here in Georgia you too have probably received one of these car tag bills. Isn’t government thoughtful? And if Republicans get their way the state’s gift to you next year could be even larger. Oh Boy!
The tax increase I am talking about is state constitutional amendment #2 which is on the ballot this year. The amendment says,”Shall the Constitution of Georgia be amended so as to impose an annual $10.00 trauma charge on certain passenger motor vehicles in this state for the purpose of funding trauma care?”
But that can’t be right because Georgia Republican politicans told us that the trauma care in question would be paid for by the “Super Speeder” law they passed last year. Remember when Republicans raised speeding ticket fees by $200? Didn’t our elected officials tell us that exorbitant fines for speeding would raise $23 million dollars a year to pay for the state’s needed trauma centers? Yes they did. They were wrong.
The super speeder law has been an abject failure when it comes to raising money. The state has only received about $2 million of the $23 million they projected. Much to the surprise of politicians it turns out that when you charge people hundreds of dollars for something they stop doing it. And since the first Republican tax has failed to raise enough money the only solution is for us to send them even more money. Well at least they will repeal the super speeder law since it didn’t raise enough money,right? Fat chance. And how much of the $2 million they have raised has gone toward trauma care? I’m guessing the over/under is 0.
Now I realize that the Republicans of Georgia are generally more conservative than the Democrats. But George Bush was more conservative than Al Gore and you see where that got us.
Somewhere along the way the majority of Republicans of Georgia have lost sight of the fact that it is impossible for governments to do everything for everybody. Eventually you run out of other people’s money, as Margaret Thatcher once said. If you don’t believe her just look at the financial situation in Cuba, Venezuela, California or Illinois.
I am not against more trauma centers in Georgia but I do believe another tax on every car owner in Georgia is the wrong way to solve the problem and I am opposed to the state of Georgia reaching deeper into the pockets of my family every time it tries to address a problem. I am also tired of politicians calling themselves conservative as they take more and more money away from their constituents.
Georgia Republicans often have good intentions but you know what they say about the road to hell. Of course, if we could pave roads with good intentions the Republicans might not be advocating a new transportation tax.
For decades political commentators have believed that there are only two classes of Republicans, the Moderate Republican and the Conservative Republican. This dual classification system seems to have originated in the early 1980’s during the Reagan Revolution and has been the commonly accepted wisdom ever since. While the dual classification has served most political discussions well, a few years ago GA Jim researchers noticed that the behavior of some Republicans in Georgia would no longer permit them to be classified as Moderate or Conservative. The shocking conclusion is that Georgia has become the breeding ground for a new species of political animal commonly known as the Tax and Spend Republican (scientifically as Perduica Spendica).
Throughout Georgia’s history it has been home to a small population of Conservative Republicans along with a few scattered Moderate Republicans. The small bands of moderate and conservative Republicans roamed over Georgia but their differences were irrelevant because they operated in obscurity as Democrats controlled the state. But the state’s political ecosystem experienced a seismic shift early in the new millenium as the the Republican party of Georgia assumed control of the political landscape. The ensuing irrational exuberance brought together the native Moderate and Conservative Republicans and despite their incompatible tendencies the unholy union soon produced a new, hybrid species of political animal. When asses breed with horses the result is a mule. When Moderate Republicans and Conservative Republicans come together the result is a Tax and Spend Republican. Unfortunately, Tax & Spend Republicans are not sterile like mules so the species is spreading through Georgia like Kudzu.
Research of this new species is hampered by the fact that most of their curious behavior occurs in inconvenient, sparsely attended meetings, behind closed doors or over drinks in inaccessible locales. But despite this adversity persistence has finally paid off and you can find a perfect description of Tax & Spend Republican behavior in this article from the Atlanta Journal and Constitution: http://bit.ly/dixKby
As you see in the article the behavior of Georgia’s Governor Sonny Perdue is inexplicable when viewed within the context of the Conservative/Moderate Republican dual classification system. The Governor extended tolls on his constituents when the state explicitly promised that would not occur. Governor Perdue rationalizes his behavior and then tries to hide behind the ridiculous ritual of stopping the toll for a brief moment to make sure the maneuever is legal. Ordinarily any Republican governor that raises taxes on his constituents without their consent would automatically be classified as a Moderate Republican but since the Governor once promoted a prayer vigil to fight Georgia’s drought there is a stark contradiction. Governor Perdue does not fit the old model; he is clearly a shining example of Georgia’s new species, the Tax and Spend Republican.
As with any ecosystem the introduction of a new species threatens the delicate balance which allowed other indigenous species to thrive. In this case the Tax and Spenders are a serious threat to the Republican party of Georgia. These Tax and Spenders are even planning to add another one percent sales tax during the worst economy of our lifetimes. The situation is critical and it is important that Georgia Republicans identify the members of this new species and stop the damage being done to their state and their party. Hopefully it is not too late.
GA Jim 