Wednesday, March 16, 2011

It's Not Fair!

Opponents of Rick Snyder's plan to raise taxes on senior citizens and the poor so that most Michigan businesses will pay no taxes descended on the Capitol in Lansing Tuesday and will be back today.

They chanted, "It's Not Fair," and they are right.

People plan for retirement for years. You've seen the commercials asking, "What's your number?" The "number" represents the amount of money needed to support yourself in retirement. People who thought they had the number covered are having the rug pulled out from under them. Too old to work, many of them, they will never benefit from the supposed jobs that the businesses are going to rush to create because they no longer pay taxes.

What is striking about the news stories on the taxation plan, (aside from the reporters who just don't get that these higher taxes are going to pay for tax cuts for businesses rather than to fill the state budget hole) is the number of people who say they will spend less as a result. Less spending for local businesses. But the businesses don't seem to get that less money means less demand for their products and services, which means less profit and less reason to hire people. And this is supposed to be about creating jobs.

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