Steady downward spiral

by Thomas Mills, Politics NC, September 17, 2015.

The budget is out and the impacts are becoming clear. The party that complains about the redistribution of wealth is continuing to redistribute wealth. Instead of shifting resources from those who have them to those that don’t, they are again reaching into the pockets of the poorest people to give more to wealthiest. 

The plan to cut the tax rate disproportionately benefits the wealthiest North Carolinians, while the tax increase on services harms those struggling to get by. The GOP is continuing to shift the burden of paying for government onto those who have yet to fully recover from the Great Recession. In their view, all those rich people are going to invest their money and create tons of jobs and wealth that will eventually trickle down to the rest of us. It’s the same philosophy they’ve been pushing since Reagan and we’re still waiting for the wealth to trickle down.

More likely, we’ll start to look more like the rest of the South, which resembles the developing world more than the rest of the country. The income inequality that plagues the nation will increase in North Carolina, especially as they cut funding for the tools that lift the people out of poverty. Public schools are continuing to take a hit even as the GOP continues to subsidize private schools through voucher programs. 

A lot of the impact of the GOP agenda will hit slowly but it will certainly transform our state. As more good teachers leave the profession, our schools will continue their slide. As older professors retire and the best young professors take a pass on public colleges and universities in North Carolina, our vaunted university system will become mediocre instead of cutting edge. North Carolina is on a slow, steady downward spiral as each budget takes more from the services that help the most people and give money to the few people who have the most.

http://www.politicsnc.com/steady-downward-spiral/