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March 15, 2005

Texas Legislature Screws the Middle Class

I don't have much to say about HB3, the recent Texas Legislature bill that shifts the tax burden from the wealthiest among us to the poor and middle class (and increases taxation on luxuries like smoking and plastic surgery). I'll just quote from DriveDemocracy.org:

Dear DriveDemocracy Member,

They’re already here. That’s the advertising slogan for the upcoming Steven Spielberg/Tom Cruise remake of H.G. Welles’ classic tale, War of the Worlds. And that’s how it feels watching the Texas House of Representatives. They’re already here.

For those of you not in Texas, you should pay attention to what's happening to us because we're on the bleeding edge of the Bush GOP agenda. Everything Bush is bringing to the US as a whole has already been rolled out here and what's happening in Texas now, a huge tax hike for the working and middle classes accompanied by tax cuts for the wealthiest.

When Orson Wells narrated the story on national radio in 1938, many Americans believed his alarmed exclamations about attacking Martians were an authentic newsman’s reactions to a real invasion from outer space. Now “real” newsmen give us fake reactions to real invasions and we believe the fakery just the same. And while we are distracted, the real invaders, cannily dressed as undertakers, sneak into town and steal the future from us, the undertaken.

How else is one to look at the Republican-dominated Texas State House passing a tax bill that 1) raises taxes on 80 percent of the population; 2) doesn’t put a dime into public education, where everyone thinks the money should go; 3) gives huge tax breaks to companies that have been indicted for (or are under suspicion of) participating in a criminal campaign financing scheme to take over the world, I mean, the Texas House?

Footnote: Apparently, the tax bill was drafted by a conservative think tank in California [via].

Update: Quorum Report had posted the revised property tax tables last week. (PDF)

Posted by timothompson at March 15, 2005 01:48 PM