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News & ArtsMonday, October 12, 2009
Politics War Without End
Posted by Will Kelley-Kamp on Mon, Oct 12, 2009 at 12:51 PM
Tim Eyman was asked recently if he could imagine a time when he wouldn't feel the need to file another anti-tax initiative.Eyman, in essence, said no. "It's a tug of war where the other side is always going to be pulling the rope in favor of higher taxes," he said. "There needs to be a counterweight to that."
And so Eyman, who makes his living filing initiatives, has put before voters another measure he argues will stifle any urge by lawmakers to increase taxes at least during the next couple of years, and help rein in government spending.
Memo to news media: Tim Eyman gets paid to file initiatives. That's what he does. It's his job!
Ever since committing serious campaign finance violations several years ago, Tim's grassroots base has withered. Taking up the slack has been millionaire investor Michael Dunmire, who regularly pours thousands of dollars not only into Eyman's initiative business, but his compensation fund as well.
He may make a living from going to the ballot, but his success is limited—he's 4 for 11 since 2002. If I-1033 passes, Eyman will be back on top, doing what he does best: making a mess, and forcing politicians in Olympia to clean it up.
1
What ever happened to the Three Strikes and You're Out rule for unconstitutional initiatives?
Someone ship him back to California and put him up for auction on eBay.
Someone ship him back to California and put him up for auction on eBay.
2
Has anyone ever asked the same question of the usual Liberals calling for tax increases in Olympia?
Can they imagine a time when they wouldn't feel the need to raise more taxes?
Takes two sides to wage war without end...
Can they imagine a time when they wouldn't feel the need to raise more taxes?
Takes two sides to wage war without end...
3
@2: Oooh, I know the answer: Never! If it were possible to tax everybody at 152% of their income, tax their dreams and tax the dead, I'd be for it, because I'm a tax-and-spend liberal!
Seriously, our tax burden is the lowest in the developed world, our infrastructure is failing, large portions of our citizenry is going without basic healthcare, our education and healthcare outcomes are among the worst in the developed world, states are teetering on the brink of bankruptcy with a very real risk that state pension funds will go under and leave millions of retirees destitute, and the millionaires and billionaires who fund initiatives like Eyman's would still have us believe that the answer to all these problems is more tax cuts and "trimming the fat."
You people are living in a fool's paradise where simply pretending problems don't exist makes them go away and nothing costs you anything because magic Free Market Fairies will somehow take care of every imaginable problem. The fact that this sort of management-by-wishful-thinking is popular among the greedy and the gullible does not make it one iota more viable in the real world.
Seriously, our tax burden is the lowest in the developed world, our infrastructure is failing, large portions of our citizenry is going without basic healthcare, our education and healthcare outcomes are among the worst in the developed world, states are teetering on the brink of bankruptcy with a very real risk that state pension funds will go under and leave millions of retirees destitute, and the millionaires and billionaires who fund initiatives like Eyman's would still have us believe that the answer to all these problems is more tax cuts and "trimming the fat."
You people are living in a fool's paradise where simply pretending problems don't exist makes them go away and nothing costs you anything because magic Free Market Fairies will somehow take care of every imaginable problem. The fact that this sort of management-by-wishful-thinking is popular among the greedy and the gullible does not make it one iota more viable in the real world.
5
You know, Tim, most useless blowhards who have more aggression than sense just run for office when they want to muck things up for everyone else.
I think Eyman should be allowed to go on making as many initiatives as he pleases, but anyone who so desires should get to kick him in the balls every time one has to be overturned judicially or legislatively so that state and local government doesn't utterly collapse.
I think Eyman should be allowed to go on making as many initiatives as he pleases, but anyone who so desires should get to kick him in the balls every time one has to be overturned judicially or legislatively so that state and local government doesn't utterly collapse.
6
Love him or hate him, Eyman is just a symptom of the disease. And no, that disease is not Republicanism. It's a piss-poor public discourse about the budget. What gets spent where? Is spending out of control? What are our priorities?
No, people just knee-jerk vote for anything that limits taxes, not realizing that there's a reason they can't afford to send their kid to college or get medical care.
Beyond that, Eyman is a symptom of a mean streak in the American public. The term "ownership society" (and Eyman's intent to return surpluses to property owners is in the same category as abolishing pensions and priviatizing Social Security the way Bush attempted) is just code for: f*** the poor. I'm all for fostering personal initiative and the profit motive, but the vast majority of us are not better-served by advantaging the tax code to the land-bearing gentry.
And I say that as a staunch member of said gentry. We capitalists will always make our money. Always. Providing certain basic care for your populace doesn't put that at risk.
No, people just knee-jerk vote for anything that limits taxes, not realizing that there's a reason they can't afford to send their kid to college or get medical care.
Beyond that, Eyman is a symptom of a mean streak in the American public. The term "ownership society" (and Eyman's intent to return surpluses to property owners is in the same category as abolishing pensions and priviatizing Social Security the way Bush attempted) is just code for: f*** the poor. I'm all for fostering personal initiative and the profit motive, but the vast majority of us are not better-served by advantaging the tax code to the land-bearing gentry.
And I say that as a staunch member of said gentry. We capitalists will always make our money. Always. Providing certain basic care for your populace doesn't put that at risk.
7
#3 and the buildings down town will be empty vacant hulks, children will roam the streets in packs looking for food, all the while dressed in rags.
#3 and others get a clue. These events are happening now BEFORE 1033 is a fact on the ground. Whence did the problem come from? Bad government? Maybe? People not paying more taxes, can't be that the law does not exist yet. So how did we get to this point where the world is coming to an end?
#3 and others get a clue. These events are happening now BEFORE 1033 is a fact on the ground. Whence did the problem come from? Bad government? Maybe? People not paying more taxes, can't be that the law does not exist yet. So how did we get to this point where the world is coming to an end?
8
I imagine God is up in heaven crying for all the moneychangers who hate regulation ...
Unless she's busy baking a cake.
Unless she's busy baking a cake.
9
since tim's ultimate goal is a crippled government that cannot prevent an objectivist/libertarian future, much less keep the bridges from collapsing, he will never stop.
11
@ 3
Thanks for the confirmation!
Question:
"Can a Liberal imagine a time when they wouldn't feel the need to raise more taxes?"
Answer:
"Never! If it were possible to tax everybody at 152% of their income, tax their dreams and tax the dead, I'd be for it, because I'm a tax-and-spend liberal!"
That's what I thought.
Thanks for the confirmation!
Question:
"Can a Liberal imagine a time when they wouldn't feel the need to raise more taxes?"
Answer:
"Never! If it were possible to tax everybody at 152% of their income, tax their dreams and tax the dead, I'd be for it, because I'm a tax-and-spend liberal!"
That's what I thought.
12
@10: I keep suggesting that if we wanted to be truly fair, we'd keep tax dollars in the same area in which they were raised. So Washington State would have to spend $1 for each $1 brought in in Seattle, meaning that Eastern Washington would lose the 400-percent subsidy they get for each dollar of tax revenue there.
That would be enjoyable as a thought experiment, but I would regret the cannibalism that would inevitably result.
That would be enjoyable as a thought experiment, but I would regret the cannibalism that would inevitably result.
13
@12 - sweet.
It would be fun watching the neocons and libertarians drown in their own dirty bathtubs while we played in our clean ones.
It would be fun watching the neocons and libertarians drown in their own dirty bathtubs while we played in our clean ones.
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