Paying your own way

by | Aug 25, 2015 | Editor's Blog, Education, NC Politics, NCGOP, Tax Reform | 3 comments

Back in the late 1990s, before North Carolina had a lottery, I asked a conservative friend in Virginia what he thought about his state’s lottery. “It’s fine with me,” he said. “Mostly poor people play it and they’re the ones who use government money anyhow.” That’s about how North Carolina Republicans see government in general.

Since taking office, the GOP has shifted the tax burden from the wealthy to the middle class and cut services that benefit low-income and middle-income families. This week, they are making it more difficult for the unemployed to receive benefits. It’s their blame-the-victim mentality.

On the Senate side, they’re trying to use money from the budget surplus to cut taxes for the wealthy. At the same time, they’re trying to squeeze more money out of poor people by increasing lottery proceeds.

Personally, I don’t have a problem with the lottery. In fact, I think we should be legalizing gambling and taxing it. Right now, people all over North Carolina are gambling in establishments and on the internet and nobody is paying any taxes whatsoever.

However, increasing advertising for lottery sales that were originally sold as a supplement for schools and are now being used to replace lost revenue is a scam. The government shouldn’t be scamming its own people. Instead, they should be fully funding our schools and helping people who are still struggling to climb out of the recession.

The Republicans have made a concerted effort to ensure that wealthy people keep more of their money, while middle class and poor people pick up more of the tab for state services. It illustrates the difference between progressives and conservatives. Progressives believe that we are all in this together and that we have a responsibility to provide basic services and a hand up to those who need it. Conservatives believe in power of individuality and that we should all pay our own way. That’s what my friend in Virginia believes and that’s what Republicans in North Carolina are implementing.

3 Comments

  1. Apply Liberally

    Yeah, three years ago, I had to agree with Mitt Romney. I too believed that there was indeed 47% of the population that a GOP candidate could not expect votes from, would not have any empathy for, and for whom the GOP would do absolutely nothing to help.

    Today, I’d have to disagree with his 47% figure. It’s more like 90% of population—and especially those on the lowest rungs of the economic ladder—that is not just ignored, but is preyed upon as the preferred source of state revenues (e.g., the lottery and regressive sales and income taxes). All while the remaining wealthier NC’ers escape progressive taxation and are favored in so many other ways.

    • Brad

      Hopefully people will wake up to this GOP outrage. Even in gerrymandered districts, there is the opportunity to turn this around statewide and nationally, but more importantly, look at county commissioners, city council,school board, etc.. Get mad and get involved!

  2. Brad

    The NC Educational Lottery is a total scam and the decreased funding for education and increased advertising to get more people to play proves the point. Lottery revenues are an easy source to allow GA pay a pittance for schools while decreasing all other school funding. Look at the recent N&O article on who plays the lottery and most revenue comes from poor areas of the state. Citizens are being played and the Republicans know it.

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