Mr. Obama supports a Consumer Financial Protection Agency, and your Reps and Senators are coming around to support a Consumer Financial Protection Agency -- so it's a done deal, right? Wrong -- the banksters don't like it and are willing to spend the money to defeat it, rather than, you know, spending the money to, I don't know, hire people to do actual work. They're even willing to spend money they got from us, the taxpayers, in that $700-billion-because-it's-a-big-number bailout. The House Financial Services Committee plans to vote on the new agency before the end of the month, so Public Citizen helps you turn up the heat.
Meanwhile, Keystone Progress gives Pennsylvania residents the opportunity to balance the Pennsylvania state budget, which currently faces a $5.6 billion deficit. After you're done, you can submit your solution to your lawmakers. Frankly, I thought it was pretty easy, mainly because I did all kinds of things -- stop the phase-out of certain corporate taxes, for example -- that the Pennsylvania legislature doesn't have the will to do. But then that's the point, isn't it? They're supposed to represent their constituents, after all, so if we have the will, then they should have the will. Things I'm proud of doing? Balancing the state budget without raising either income taxes or sales taxes (which latter item wouldn't exist in my ideal society anyway). Things I regretted doing? Cutting pre-kindergarten spending to the max, shaving a few million bucks from a few other services, and raising taxes slightly on cigarettes (not because I love cigarettes but because, really, it's not nice to tax addicts). Things I wish I could have done? Overhaul the state income tax. Pennsylvania's flat income tax mostly benefits its wealthiest citizens. If I could have introduced, say, 1, 3, 5 and 7 percent brackets to replace the flat 3 percent bracket, I think I could have balanced the budget entirely with raised revenues. And what would rich Pennsylvanians do about it? Move to New Jersey?
Comments