Could Something of Interest be Happening Somewhere Other Than Kansas?

Minnesota                            Kansas

Just in case you didn’t read this in the news, in 2010 the people of Minnesota elected a Democratic Governor, Mark Dayton, an heir to the Target fortune.  Gov. Dayton raised income taxes on individuals making more than $150,000 a year, and on couples earning more than $250,000. He also began raising the State minimum wage, it will reach $9.50 an hour in 2018.
I am sure that at the time, some said, “You can’t raise taxes on the Job Creators or force them to pay employees more!  The Corporations and small business owners will stop hiring, shut down, and then move away!!”
However, what they saw in Minnesota was an increase in tax revenue, an increase in employment, and an increase of the median income. Not only did the richest citizens not move away, the improving economy has increased the number of tax payers in the $150,000 + tax bracket. The state has a $1 Billion budget surplus as of January 2015. The Governor is going to apply one third of the surplus to public education. That’s right, an increase in school funds. Minnesota  also set up a State exchange under the Affordable Care Act and they expanded Medicare to make health insurance available to the poorest of it’s citizens. (Which cost the state $0).
Compare those facts to what you have read in the news. The State of Kansas stopped collecting taxes on it’s richest citizens, it has refused to increase wages for the lowest earning citizens. Budget deficits are forcing the State to delay/renege on pension promises made to employees. Funds intended for highway projects are being detoured to cover budget shortfalls. Expenses once covered by the State are being shifted to local governments who have had to raise property taxes. Public education funds that were promised are being sliced in the middle of the school year. Some Kansans who had no healthcare coverage were able to buy coverage through the Federal exchange, but the refusal to expand Medicaid has left some of our fellow citizens in a black hole of health insurance; too rich for Kansas Medicaid but too poor for subsidized coverage.
During the last election Sam Brownback said that the “Sun is shining in Kansas, don’t let anyone tell you different.” Well, facts are telling us that the sun IS shining, but apparently in Minnesota. Here, not so much.

The Tim Huelskamp Small Business Award

Representative Tim Huelskamp, in a recent column, observed National Small Business Week by calling on the government to “get out of the way” of small business owners by reducing tax and regulatory burdens. To further recognize those small business owners who spend hours at the kitchen table reading the complete IRS tax code and the entire printing of Obamacare regulations instead of doing what they do best, running their business; I am awarding The Tim Huelskamp Small Business Award to Farrukh and Bushra Baig, owners of 7-Eleven franchises in New York and Virginia. They along with seven others have been indicted for fraud, identity theft, and concealing illegal immigration. They receive this prestigious award for having the courage to lead us into a system of decreased taxes and regulation, by refusing to knuckle under to time consuming federal rules; including those mandating paying a minimum wage, or the ones requiring that employees be actually paid for the work they do, or the ones outlawing undocumented workers from stealing the identities of deceased Americans. I am sure Rep. Huelskamp, along with me, thanks these brave job creators for showing us what a small business Nirvana this country could become, just as soon as the Government gets out of way.

YOU are the "Job Creator"

Some of our elected officials have talked repeatedly about a need to reduce tax rates and eliminate regulations that concern a group they refer to as “The Job Creators”. These politicians , however, are completely wrong about the role of regulations and tax rates when it comes to job creation. They can not even identify America’s actual “Job Creators”.
When you buy this newspaper, YOU are creating jobs. If 100,000 more of us subscribed to this paper, there would be more workers at the Hays Daily News. The decision to expand the number of workers at a business is NOT based primarily on the owner’s personal tax rate or regulations imposed by the EPA. The primary concern is “Will more employees result in more profit? Will the business be able to sell what the new employees produce“?
Our Representative in Congress, Tim Huelskamp, recently visited with the owners of Tony’s Pizza in Salina, so I’ll use them as an example. Mr. Tony will hire more workers when and only if someone will buy the pizzas the new employees would make. To repeat the point; the primary factor for job creation is NOT, as some claim, tax rates or government regulations; the primary factor is the demand for frozen pizzas.
I live in Rush County and I work in the oil patch; who do you think is more likely to purchase a Tony’s Pizza next week: me or Donald Trump? Who is more likely to buy a Tony’s Pizza sometime in the next month: you or Kim Kardashian? You and I and others like us are the “Job Creators”.
Who do you think is more likely to give money to some hedge fund to speculate on the price of natural gas: you or Paris Hilton? Who is more likely to put money in a Cayman Island bank: you or Charles Koch? Who does Rep. Huelskamp believe is deserving of further privilege and economic advantage: you or Kobe Bryant? The answer to the last three questions is … Not You!
Now for the part that Republican , right-wing, Tea Partiers, like Rep. Huelskamp, will not acknowledge. Government, federal through local, creates jobs. Some of them directly - teachers, policemen, prison guards, etc.- some of them by buying things; like paper for the copiers, new bridges, or new tanker airplanes (manufactured in Wichita). When a politician argues for government to reduce spending, they are arguing for “job destruction”, not job creation.
When the GOP tells us that the government has to improve conditions for “job creators”, they are ignoring your role in the economy. They are saying that people in a certain group have to be insulated from hard times and should not have to sacrifice during austerity. And they are also saying that this special, protected group does NOT include you.