Posted on 07/12/2008 9:05:19 AM PDT by Graybeard58
If the government takes money from you and gives it to somebody else, that's known as a "tax." But is it still a tax when the government delegates a third party to take your money and then give it to whomever the government designates? A whole lot of people in Connecticut are trying to pretend that it isn't.
Operation Fuel is proposing that seniors and low-income residents be given a mandatory discount on energy costs. Under the plan, those who qualify would pay a fixed percentage of their total income.
Utilities, such as electricity providers, and suppliers, such as heating-oil companies would be allowed to raise everybody else's rates to make up the difference. Patricia Wrice, executive director of the Bloomfield-based group, says the beauty of the plan is the state retains deniability: "It wouldn't be funded through General Fund money. The burden would be across the board."
Trouble is, the money would come from the same limited source as tax revenues: The pockets of people not lucky enough to be part whichever constituencies qualify for the state-mandated benefit.
The idea of providing a benefit without having to dirty their hands apparently appeals to some awmakers. Sen. John Fonfara, D-Hartford, offered a version of the plan during the last legislative session, but the proposal never came to a vote. He said the plan would be reintroduced in January.
Backers say the plan would cost the average customer only $11. Trouble is, no matter how you disguise it, it's a tax. And the one thing that's certain about taxes is that sooner or later they go up.
Ping to a Republican-American Editorial.
If you want on or off this list, let me know.
Just like Section Eight housing. Next will be medicines and food.
Many seniors have low incomes but high wealth.
If their home is paid for their total housing costs are lower than most of the people who will be forced to subsidize them.
Politicians buying votes with other people’s money, nothing more.
RANT ON:
This is exactly why my hobby is thwarting taxes at every legal turn.
I HATE this redistribution of wealth. That’s really all it is! And a lot of that “wealth” is re-distributed to people that don’t need it in the first place.
I love my family DEARLY, but it p*sses me off that my husband and I have FIVE parents (3 bio, 2 steps still living) who are totally riding the Gravy Train...on OUR backs. They all have uber-cheap healthcare (whereas husband and I pay for our own, and it ain’t cheap!) and between them they are drawing about $9,000.00 cash out of the kitty each and every month and will do so until the day they die. Multiply that by the increasing number of up-and-coming retiring Boomers and pretty soon you’re talking about some REAL money here!
And don’t get me started on how they play every store in the area on “Senior Day” and whine about the cost of living. *Rolleyes* A discount just for LIVING to a specific age? Get real.
Luckily, they were all hard-working when they were our age (late 40’s) and have planned well for their future needs, as well as ours, but still. Will we live long enough to enjoy it? Or will we stroke out by age 62 while we’re still working as greeters at Wal-Mart to support them while they’re in their 90’s and hanging on ‘til the bitter end? ;)
(Aside: Two years of nursing home care for Grandma, when she had dementia so bad that we couldn’t care for her ourselves anymore, was $82,000.00!!)
All I can do is to keep my taxes as low as legally possible and invest wisely for the future...and bite my tongue from time to time over some of the money-economy-tax-related discussions I have with ‘my elders.’ ;)
RANT OFF!
Another wonderful scheme of the marxist/socialist left. We can all assume who’s homes will now convert the electric bill in granny’s name, even if she’s pushing up daisies.
You work as a greeter at Wal-Mart?
I think its time to dust off the treason paperwork.
I don’t have any answers, do have an experiance to relate...last week at the doctor’s office the nurse told me of a patient who quit taking her heart medicine last winter and had to be rushed to the hospital....she was saved by heroic and expensive measures...when asked why she quit taking her heart meds she said “it was either buy medicine or heating oil; and without the oil I’d freeze to death”....so as Tony Soprano would say “whadda you gonna do?”
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
LOL! No. I manage a Garden Center. I was just making an observation that I’ll have to work some chit-job to support my parents’ more-than-adequate lifestyles thanks to Social Security, versus being able to enjoy my OWN retirement when I’ve earned it.
There most likely won’t be any free cash for my generation, and at the rate the work force is dropping, there won’t be anyone coming up behind me to pay for MY lifestyle in my Golden Years, either.
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