BY SHARON MARTIN
If the GOP doesn’t pass this tax bill, Vice President Pence said, it will be bad for them in the next election.
If they do pass the GOP tax bill, it will be bad for almost everyone.
Back in Oklahoma, people impacted by our state’s tax cuts line up to meet with their lawmakers. The lines stretch out the door and into the street.
When that many people show up to demand action and lawmakers just come up with one more fee, one more tax on the poor and middle class, you have to ask yourself, “Does he [or she] understand what representative means?”
There is a lot of anger seething right now.
Americans have a right to be angry, but for too many citizens, that anger is misplaced. It isn’t immigrants causing the trouble. It isn’t poor people needing help. It isn’t antifa or brown people or uppity woman or those godless socialists. It certainly isn’t football players or journalists who ask tough questions.
Corruption is the problem. A regressive tax system … that lets billionaires keep more and gives citizens less … is the problem. Ignoring investments in infrastructure, healthcare, and education in favor of tax breaks is not just dumb, it’s downright unpatriotic.
Ninety percent of us have a right to be angry. Brown people have a right to be angry. Laws target them. Trigger-happy officers shoot first and ask questions later.
Educators have a right to be angry. Schools are overcrowded and understaffed. The curriculum doesn’t serve the students, but it makes a whole lot of money for a couple of testing companies. Even library books are tested.
Middle class families have a right to be angry. Everything has gone up except their income. The safety net has had holes cut in it. Most families require at least two incomes, but the brilliant thinkers in Congress want to take away the Child Care Credit.
The only people getting assistance are corporations and billionaires. Corporations have more rights than we do … and more representation.
In Oklahoma last week, the people who stood in line to see their representatives are our front line. It’s time we stood with them.
It’s also time to join the Anti-Grover Crusade. Let’s take the pledge:
If you cut taxes for the wealthy and services for the poor and middle class, you won’t get our vote.
If you stiff state workers in favor in donors, we will actively campaign against you.
If you cut services for the vulnerable and call it fiscal responsibility, we will call it what it is, hypocrisy.
Taking care of the people’s business is patriotic. Hurting citizens in exchange for campaign donations is a form of treason.
– Sharon Martin lives in Oilton, OK and is a regular contributor to The Oklahoma Observer
