Comments on: Hard Ball

By: Peter Joes

Peter Joes — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 02:21:14 +0000

Undoubtedly there is room for cuts in our social service network in ways that won’t affect the needy. We shouldn’t be taxing middle class folks for the purpose of subsidizing other middle class folks. However, it is clear that budget cuts have already affected essential social services for the truly needy.

Ever check your medical bills? Does anybody who’s covered with insurance pay any attention at all to the costs? Using simple arithmetic it is easy to see how medical professionals (not so much GPs) but surgeons, specialists, etc. are clearly netting over a million dollars a year in income. Now, we seem totally unable as a nation to get a handle on medical costs which, more than anything, are driving all of our local, state, and federal budget problems.

So, maybe Doug is right. We are unable to reign in outrageous incomes from many sectors of our society but we sure can tax them.

I disagree however with Mr. Hoffer’s approach. In Vermont I think there should be an across the board percentage increase in income taxes, not just an extra levy on the rich. All of us that are working and making a living do need to dig in a bit deeper during this crises.

By: Doug Hoffer

Doug Hoffer — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 11:30:55 +0000

Speaking of possible budget cuts, you said “These suggestions might be unkind. But so is ignoring the burden placed on middle-income taxpayers who might not have very much more money than the folks getting helped.”

Why are you assuming the only revenue option is to raise taxes on middle-income folks? This is a false dichotomy used often by Jim Douglas. He scares people with such hypotheticals and leaves the impression that those damn Liberals want nothing more than to take money from hard working Vermonters. Many of us believe that the wealthy can and should be asked to do more and have no desire to raise taxes on the middle class.

By: BP

BP — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 10:56:01 +0000

Boy News Guy you really had me there! I thought for a moment you were serious .
In keeping with your tone of levity …..
First Collector: I don’t think you quite understand us, sir. A few of us are endeavoring to buy the poor some meat and drink, and means of warmth.
Ebenezer: Why?
No one has lately starved to death in Vermont, and no one is likely to in the coming year, even if there is a cut in state aid to food banks and homeless shelters. (One Vermonter did die of starvation in another state in 2007, the Health Department said). State and local governments, churches, synagogues, and other private agencies will provide enough food to keep everyone alive.
Of course it’s always possible for someone to slip through the cracks, for a drunk to fall asleep where no one will find him or an old person to be left alone in her home and succumb to hunger and neglect. Such mishaps, though, can happen at any funding level.
And the workhouses – are they still in operation?