Friday, January 13, 2012
Politics GOP Flip-Flops on Food Tax
Posted by Jeff Woods on Fri, Jan 13, 2012 at 11:02 AM
Republicans who thought it was irresponsible for Democrats to propose cutting the food tax have decided it's a great idea now that Gov. Bill Haslam is behind it. To Andrea Zelinski of Tennessee Report, House GOP leader Gerald McCormick explains:
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dislikeThey should keep that .2% and give it Tennessee's failing schools... What a joke and an absolute waste of time.
This is all great legislative theater by Haslam, Harwell, and Ramsey...
"There's a whole lot of people who used to live in Tennessee who don't anymore because it's cheaper to die in Florida," Haslam said. "I can tell you a whole lot of people who spend less than half their year in Tennessee to avoid that estate tax specifically. They're taking capital and creating jobs other places. It truly is small businesses and family farms that are impacted by this, both of which we want more of in Tennessee, not less. I honestly think this creates more revenue for the state in the long term."
As for the food tax, Haslam said: "If we're going to lower taxes for Tennesseans, that's the only way to really touch every Tennessean in a significant way. So we felt like it was important to do both at the same time." --- Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam.
Let's see if we can decipher what Governor Haslam is actually proposing:
Haslam & Harwell "in a significant way" proposal =
- groctax (tax cut for all Tennesseans paying for groceries) +
- estatetax (tax cut for all trust fund babies & wealthy survivors in Tennessee)
all while Haslam and the elected members of the Tennessee General Assembly should be advancing legislation that would put ALL of the tax cuts toward grocery purchases:
Tennessee Grocery Tax Cut Legislation proposal for a deeper and much more significant way for all Tennesseans =
- groctax (tax cut for all Tennesseans paying for groceries) +
- groctax2 (additional tax cut for all Tennesseans paying for groceries and equal to the Haslam/Harwell proposed
- estatetax)
Generally, speaking, this GOP legislation is a false flag operation that is moving three steps forward (i.e.: somewhat cutting grocery taxes for permanent, year round Tennessee residents with the pretext of fully cutting both estate/inheritance/Hall invetsment taxes for wealthy quasi-Tennessee residents), all while moving two steps backwards (not more fully cutting the state sales taxes on groceries for Tennesseans living within the Volunteer State on a permanent and year round basis).
Gov. Haslam, House Speaker Harwell, and Lt. Governor Ron Ramsey are wanting the majority of Tennessee citizens (who reside year round in Tennessee on a permanent basis to actually subsidize tax cuts for Tennessee's wealthiest families through their GOP legislative vehicle of a "less than full" tax cut on Tennesse grocery sales.
