Posted on 11/20/2001 4:46:33 AM PST by tdadams
-----Original Message-----
From: jch2x@(deleted)
To: rep.chris.clem@(deleted)
Sent: 11/17/01 10:53 AM
Subject: Tax Reform
Honorable Rep. Chris Clem,
I am writing in regard to the state's financial crisis. I feel that the state must do something to solve its budget crisis. I am a student at MTSU and the state's failure to properly fund higher education is a disgraceful. If you feel budget cuts will not hurt anyone, I invite you to come to campus and see how it has hurt those of us here. I think a state income tax is the best solution for our state's budget problems. A higher state sales tax or a car tax would put the tax burden on people who cannot afford it. It is time the state stop taxing food, which hurts the working poor. A state income tax will give us the revenue we need, and help to equalize the amount we all pay in taxes. I must say that any legislature that favors raising the sales tax, putting in a car tax, or massive budget cuts to solve are state's budget crisis, I will work hard to see you are voted out of office.
Jacob Holt
----Original Message-----
From: Chris Clem
To: 'jch2x@(deleted)
Sent: 11/19/01 2:23 PM
Subject: RE: Tax Reform
Wow! Everything in your email was about how "you" and people like you need more benefits at the expense of others. You oppose any tax (sales tax or car tax) which you might have to pay. You oppose any budget cut which affects benefits that go to you or people like you. You will only support taxes that others have to pay.
As the only CPA in the legislature I would suggest that you are greatly mistaken about the tax equity. First, states which rely on an income tax (like Georgia) are in much deaper trouble in this economic slowdown. Georgia's tax revenues have fallen 7% while Tennessee's are holding at 0% growth or perhaps 1% decline. Revenues base upon a sales tax are much more reliable in bad economies than revenues based upon an income tax.
Next, wage earners who earn over $40,000 a year pay nearly 90% of the overall tax burden (Federal, State and local). Wage earners at the bottom of the economic scale pay no property tax (or very little), no federal income tax (or very little) and no state income tax since we do not have one. This same population use more of government benefits (TennCare, welfare, unemployment comp., public schools, food stamps, police protection.) The only tax this population pays is a sales tax. Everyone should pay something.
I find it very unjust to place an ever increasing tax burden on those who are already carrying the lion's share. I find it even more unjust to remove the one tax (a sales tax) which requires everyone to pay a little.
Of our $20 billion state budget, $10 billion is funded by the federal income tax, $5 billion by sales tax revenues and $5 billion by other taxes. Under the tax plan you propose, the middle class and wealthy should pay 100% of the state, federal and local tax burden (they already pay 90%) even though 90% of the benefits are entitlements that they will never enjoy.
It was Karl Marx who said, "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need." Our government was not based upon this principle.
During this budget crunch I would just like to see one email which says, "I am willing to pay more with taxes directed towards me, and I am willing to accept less in benefits and entitlements."
Unfortunately, most of the emails are carbon copies of the one you sent, which simply demand to receive more and pay less while sticking someone else with the bill. Long live Karl Marx! His spirit is apparently living on.
Rep. Chris Clem, JD, CPA.
I have deleted the domain names in each email. I don't want to subject either of these people to a deluge of FReepmail. The messages have been left intact; formatting, spelling, and grammer have not been corrected.
Liberty has already vanished, with little Dumbya and his Repukies henchmen in the HR voting to gift 14 corporate donors with over $7 billion in tax rebates, based upon a 9/11 pretext.
Very clearly, you are the product of cradle-to-grave therapeutic government. You might be surprised to learn that this country was built by people whose primary motivation was to help themselves, and who would have no compunction in telling you so. It is being destroyed by people whose primary motivation is also to help themselves, but who do so by claiming to want to help you. You being the product of the system these domestic money-grubbing extortionists have created, how can the rest of us be surprised that you now expect other people to live your life for you?
Jacob, I hate to tell you this -- especially knowing what a shock it is going to be to you -- but there is no such thing as a free lunch. Nor should there be. The best possible system is one in which those who want an education earn it; because if an education is just handed to you, then you will have no appreciation for it. You will spend most of your time being a drunken frat rat at taxpayers' expense rather than learning how you can be a productive member of society who makes a real contribution. Jacob, as a taxpayer, I'm tired of subsidizing frat rats, especially since so many of them get passed along by liberal arts professors who refuse to hold them to a standard, and then they end up teaching our children in the public schools (or designing tail fins on airlines), and the cycle of codependency continues.
So here is what I suggest you do. Get a job. Go to school. Stop playing video games and hanging out with your friends. I have a surprise for you. Any kid who can master the typical video game today can understand advanced statistics. It's just a question of motivation. Stop expecting the government to live your life for you.
Jacob old buddy, thanks to our socialist system, there are now two types of people in America and the chasm between them is growing. There are those who give to this country more than they receive from it. And then there are those who take more from the country than they will ever give to it. The leeches are rewarded in our society by media and politicians who pander to them in order to maintain power. The doers never get any thanks. So maybe it's better to be the second type. But then, you have to live with yourself.
So it is time. It's time for you to decide which type of person you are going to be.
Haven't seen you often enough, MurryMom.
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