State of Kansas Seeks to Weaken the State Government

The republican majority led legislatures in the state of Kansas plan to eliminate the income tax in the state. The obvious reason is that it will weaken the state government by giving it less funds to provide services, and it gives the people of the state of Kansas (the Kansas government) fewer tools with which to govern. I don’t blame the republican lawmakers directly for they are merely pawns doing the bidding of their masters. Republicans govern, and are governed, by the use of fear and these Republicans fear, correctly, that if they do not always support the most extreme right-wing position proposed in legislature that they will be taken to task, faced with recall votes led by other Republicans, and will forfeit the vast amounts of funds the wealthy individuals and companies are now allowed to secretly provide them since the 2010 repeal of limits on campaign contributions.

Taxes are to government like profits are to business

Taxes are the tool by which government takes money from people to fund the things government wants to do. Profits are the tool by which businesses take money from people to fund the things business owners want to do. Perhaps instead of paying too much in taxes, we are paying too much in profits.

Raise our taxes! We shouldn’t be paying businesses for earning profits.

I am very disappointed to learn that some of my tax dollars in 2010 was given to GE Corporation as a reward for them for earning over $14billion. We live in a society where some people complain that our tax rates are too high for businesses, but in reality the tax rate for GE was less than zero percent. Not only did GE have to pay $0 in taxes on over $14 billion of profit in 2010, but the government gave them a tax credit of more than $3 billion dollars. Does anyone believe this is how our society should work?
I am not blaming GE. The staff at GE is simply doing the best they can for their company. They are working in their own self-interest. The problem is primarily a tax law that allows something like this to happen. The blame belongs to the politicians that passed bills favorable to GE’s tax situation.
GE did spend $200 million lobbying in Washington in the past decade. If you think $200 million sounds like a lot of money, just look at return GE made on that investment in 2010 alone. If GE had no tax breaks they would have paid nearly $5 billion in taxes; a swing of over $8 billion dollars. So it is obvious that a company can spend a mere few million dollars per politician to get the politicians they want and the price is worth it.
It is conceivable that we could reduce our deficit if we did not have a tax system with so many loopholes for the wealthy.

According to TheDailyBeast.com. “when a generous tax break was about to expire, the head of GE’s tax team met with Rep. Charles Rangel, then chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, and begged for an extension on one knee.” After that meeting, and the grant of the extension, “ Rangel got a $30 million gift for New York City schools.”