Taxes

The GOP’s complicit enablers in the corporate media have finally solved all the country’s current problems and just in time for the November elections.

Here is the new message: Everything is actually okay. Americans complain too much. The media (gosh, darn us) make everything seem so bad when, in fact, all is well. Americans are doing great. We do not need to change a thing.

Rising energy, gasoline, college tuition and grocery costs, lack of health insurance or adequate medical care, the mortgage crisis, stagnant wages, well, apparently these are relatively minor issues that get exaggerated, according to the new spin. By historical standards, the numbers show everything is hunky-dory.

Here’s the The Washington Post on the issue:

Ask Americans how the economy is doing, and their answer is stark: It is not just bad, it is run-for-the-hills terrible. Consumer confidence is at its lowest level in almost 30 years. Only 12 percent of Americans think the economy is in good shape. On the Internet, comparisons to the Great Depression are widespread.

But the reality is different. According to most broad measures of how the economy is doing, it's not all that grim.

So why all the silly whining?

Some analysts attribute Americans' negative views on the economy to media coverage, which tends to play bad news more prominently than good news. There is ample research proving that, say, a drop in the stock market or rise in the unemployment rate gets more extensive news coverage than a move in the reverse direction. (In other news, newspapers tend to cover plane crashes more extensively than a safe landings.)

This creates a real problem for our country’s great and revered financial leaders, according to The Post.

This paradox has created a unique challenge for those guiding the economy, who worry that Americans' pessimistic views will become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Two-thirds of the economy is consumer spending. So if people's negative outlook leads them to cut their spending, a steeper downturn could happen.

On a local level, The Oklahoman, which is the nation’s most conservative metropolitan newspaper, has jumped on the bandwagon with an editorial urging everyone to cheer up. The editorial (“Bad news bearers: Image can really be everything,” June 24, 2008) cites a Wall Street Journal article by a think-tank pundit who follows the GOP line on the economy.

And yet, polling shows Americans feel about as bad as they ever have about the general state of things. Why? Easterbrook points largely to the media. "Whatever goes wrong in the country or around the world is telecast 24/7, making us think the world is falling to pieces ...” he says. "If a factory closes, that's news. If a factory opens, that's not a story.”

The editorial then urges Oklahomans to “take some of what you read and watch and hear with a grain of salt. And cheer up.”

Of course, all rational people here have taken The Oklahoman with a “grain of salt” for decades, and these rational people also know a GOP talking points initiative when they encounter it.

If the GOP and their enablers in the media can convince a certain number of Americans that their bleak financial situations are really not that bad, then maybe they can convince them that this country really does not need to change directions. Consequently, if the country does not need to change directions, then the 71-year-old John McCain will do just fine as president preserving the status quo.

These specious arguments about how things are not so bad are part of a political ruse in the Karl Rove tradition. The Post numbers, for example, lack context. Maybe the unemployment numbers are supposedly not as bad as in 1980, but how many people have left the work force under the President George Bush regime because they cannot find jobs? The article does not even mention the rise of hungry, broke families. The country’s food banks, for example, have been stretched thin in the current financial crisis. Even The Oklahoman has mentioned this issue on a local level. Who can even trust the government numbers this article cites?

Does anyone still believe any information or statistics released by the current presidential administration?

What about the worker who does not have the money to pay the health insurance co-pay on a simple medical test? What about those people who have lost their homes recently to foreclosure? What about rising energy costs beyond gasoline for our vehicles? What about college students who have faced steep tuition increases in recent years? Of course, people do not think the current government will do anything about these issues. Of course, they are pessimistic. They should be.

It comes down to this: If you want change, then throw the GOP bums out of office. Do not vote for John McCain.

Does this mean everything is gloom and doom? No. This is not yet the Great Depression. No one pretends it is. Still, where is the reform?

Do you think health insurance premiums or health care costs will ever be lowered in this country without government intervention? Do you think the oil companies will reduce their profit margins to help Americans drive to work? Do you think the utility companies on their own will reduce rates to help out struggling families?

After the long, gruesome Bush years, we need a federal government that cares about and is responsive to ordinary people and families in this country. The only way that will happen is if people vote for their interests this November.

The Oklahoma College Tuition Paradox

The recently announced tuition increases of 9.9 percent this coming fall at the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University are the result of the state’s recent income tax cuts, which heavily favored wealthy people.

As state revenues decline because of the tax cuts, universities and colleges are forced to raise tuition just to meet basic operating costs, such as utility expenses.

Sure, you might have received a $100 break on your Oklahoma taxes over the last two years or so, but now your college tuition or your children’s tuition has gone up so much it has wiped out any net gain. Do you or your child drive to school? Well, that is going to cost you a lot more as well given the country’s energy crisis that the neoconservatives have done nothing about. Fees and textbook prices are up as well. But you have (or once had) your $100 and you can feel good knowing the state's rich people get an extra vacation or two using their tax break money

The $7.1 billion “standstill” Oklahoma budget for the upcoming fiscal year could actually require budget cuts across state government because of rising prices and skyrocketing gasoline costs.

How rising prices will affect individual agencies will depend on what they need to purchase in order to function and how much traveling they require of their employees. If the economy continues to decline here and across the country and if prices continue to rise, the budget cuts could be quite substantial. Under a worst-case scenario, these “unspoken” budget cuts could stop new hiring among some agencies and have the potential to lead to layoffs.

In addition, the budget contains no new raises for teachers. This breaks the promise from some state leaders to raise their salaries to the regional average. Some people, like the editorial writers at The Daily Oklahoman, might shrug this off as no big deal, but the action, or rather non-action, again tells educators that they are not valued here by the state’s leaders. It gives them yet another compelling reason to seek jobs in other states.

The lack of raises for teachers and other state employees is actually a salary cut because of rising food and energy prices.

Meanwhile, Oklahoma continues to pay its teachers some of the lowest salaries in the nation. The Department of Human Services faces a major lawsuit demanding it invest more in its child welfare programs by, among other things, hiring more social workers. The state has high rates of uninsured people, and it recently led the nation in the number of hungry families.

The main issue here is the tax cuts implemented by the state legislature in recent years. These tax cuts, which lowered the income tax rate from 6.25 to 5.5, will eventually cost the state $2 billion in lost revenue, according to state Treasurer Scott Meacham. The tax cuts were part of the same tired, right-wing ideology embraced by many Republicans and Democrats alike in the legislature these days. This ideology says tax cuts grow the economy, producing new revenues. Obviously, that is not happening here.

The tax cuts can also be framed by right-wing “starve the beast” strategy, which tries to reduce the size of government by starving it through tax cuts.

But the bottom line is the tax cuts increasingly seem irresponsible because there was no effort to find replacement revenue and no real foresight about what would happen in an economic downturn. Other states are facing expected budget shortfalls for this same reason.

Restructuring the state’s tax system to eliminate the income tax altogether has always been a worthy idea, and it deserves consideration, but there can be no debate when legislators are tripping over themselves to make conservative political points.

What is most distressing is the use of the word “standstill” to describe this budget. It seems disingenuous. When you basically have the same amount of money you had last year to buy products that are rising astronomically in price, then you, in fact, face a budget shortfall.

Let us hope Oklahoma can escape the major economic distress in other areas of the country.

Oklahoma could soon face “enormous difficulties” meeting its budget obligations because of declining tax revenues, according to the Alliance For Oklahoma’s Future, a state think tank.

“With only minuscule revenue growth to work with, the Governor and Legislature will face enormous difficulties finding the funds to address even basic budgetary obligations for the year ahead,” according to a release issued this week by the progressive leaning organization.

The Oklahoma Board of Equalization recently met and estimated the state would only have an extra $32 million to appropriate during the 2008 legislative session. This is a relatively tiny 0.5 percent increase over the $7.035 billion amount appropriated last year. The cost of funding state government normally increases 4 to 5 percent each year because of inflation and new funding mandates, according to the organization.

“It is still too early to know whether available revenues will prove adequate to fully fund a current services budget for FY '09 (continuing existing programs at current levels),” the organization notes. “If not, the Governor and the Legislature will have to confront more difficult choices, which could include some combination of tapping the Rainy Day Fund, imposing targeted or broad-based budget cuts, or identifying new revenue sources that can muster legislative approval.”

The state legislature has cut taxes recently, and these cuts and other factors have resulted in the revenue drop. The legislature has declined to replace the tax loss by creating new or bolstering existing revenue streams. Although some legislators might have believed Oklahoma’s recent growing economy would make up for the revenue loss, other politicians simply want to irresponsibly cut taxes regardless of the effect on education and state government programs. This ultimately harms the state’s economic development and quality of life, which are inextricably intertwined. Oklahoma’s ultra conservative corporate power structure and media have supported the tax cuts in recent years.

University of Oklahoma President David Boren, the alliance and other individuals and organizations have correctly called for a moratorium on tax cuts this year given the budget situation. Higher education, in particular, usually suffers the most in years of static or declining revenues, and then college students face rising tuition rates.

The state should not cut taxes this coming session given the current budget predictions.

The corporate power structure and media outlets in the state should get off the tax-cutting bandwagon this year so the state can fund its basic programs and obligations. If the budget predictions hold or get worse, continued corporate sponsorship of tax cuts should be considered reckless and irresponsible.