In light of Barack Obama's pretty bullshit spending freeze scheme-you know, the one that affects programs like "air traffic control, farm subsidies, education, nutrition and national parks"-the success of two ballot initiatives in Oregon yesterday are fascinating! The state will raise, by nearly two whopping percentage points, taxes on households that earn more than $250,000 a year (which, in Oregon, is basically the equivalent of three miiilllllion New York City dollars) and will also raise the state's minimum corporate income tax. How radical! No wait, let's take a closer look at that one. Since 1931, all businesses in Oregon have been required to pay a minimum of $10 a year in tax. (TEN DOLLARS.) That minimum tax amount, for corporations making up to half a million a year, will now be $150. It also increases very minimally the filing fees for businesses, and increases, very slightly, tax rates on large and profitable companies. And all of this excludes sole proprietors. How did a crummy state like Oregon come up with such a mind-blowing idea? Maybe other people will try this so that "air traffic controllers" and "nutrition" can continue to exist.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
11
"Everywhere is freaks and hairies." Alvin Lee.
If businesses have to pay an extra hundred bucks and change a year, then they'll definitely move to Utah, or at the very least stop hiring.
Everyone claims that. Then they actually go there, and end up quietly dropping the whole idea.
My sense from FB seems to be that the Oregon people "ran a campaign," "communicated with voters" and "organized a MITV effort." I KNOW! And they were Democrats, too!
Blame John "Asshole" Irving. Ever since rabid-got-rich, he has inveighed against equal-education laws. My question for these assholes: when crime stats rise because the poor in his state will be getting poorer and less educated, will he then be advocating -- with pungency -- for higher taxes to increase the police presence?
IT PASSED? OH THANK GOD. (I get my Oregon news from blogs based in New York, yeah.)
Seriously I can't believe the filthy and ridiculous campaign that went down over this. The Yes campaign was really badly run, too. They called me FIVE TIMES in the last 24 hours of the campaign to ask me to vote, when I had long since turned in my ballot.
If air traffic controllers exist, then how will our pilots take naps/blowjobs/video games?
He's clearly going for "Reaganesque." I hope school lunch ketchup rations won't be affected!
A smallish tax on locally-produced draft beers would mint a fortune for the state. And I would gladly pay it. Also, I wouldn't likely remember paying it, so there's that too.
The *Oregon System* has the potential for being really awesome, as evidenced by these measures. I'm having a hard time not being serious when talking about it because those fucktards nationally continue to sit on their hands in regards to many issues, but particularly health care. This state is a place where things feel more possible, I guess. Things like great coffee, produce, and maybe health care someday. Or jobs? That might be asking too much.
If you look at the federal budget and the federal spending process impartially, you would realize the damn thing needs an ax taken to it. The whole budget is merely a wealth distribution scheme from the wealthiest, most progressive, and most in need of funding states to the poorest, most backward, and least in need of funding states. This is to say nothing about the 40%-50% of the world military spending that is included in the US budget to not only protect the United States, but Europe, Japan, Korea, the Middle East and much of the Western Hemisphere.
The idea of a federal system is that the several states have the sovereign power to set out a course for the society within their territory, but when people try to make the vision of one state or a group of states the policy for everybody, it crosses a line that only breeds discontent.
So three cheers for Oregon's people finding the resolve to take matters into its own hands and three more cheers for Obama finding the courage to demand Congress stop using the federal budget as a piggy-bank. Now let's hope he'll stop those foreign occupations and we'll be in the black soon enough.