Taxes, jobs and education
Published July 17, 2013
By Gary Pearce, political consultant, Talking About Politics, July 17, 2013.
Thankful yet? You get a tax cut. And North Carolinians get more jobs. At least, that’s the theory.
Cary Republican Rep. Nelson Dollar called it the “jobs bill of a generation.”
Sen. Josh Stein, a Raleigh Democrat, called it “tax breaks for the wealthy and out-of-state corporations.”
Here’s the economic question: Will cutting taxes create more jobs than cutting education, interfering with women’s health care, polarizing the populace and bashing gays, minorities and young voters scare away?
Here’s the political question for Republicans: Will voters believe they got a tax cut? Will they believe it was “the jobs bill of a generation”?
Here’s the question for Democrats: Do you fight on taxes – or education?
The unarguable fact is that, contrary to what Governor McCrory seemed to say once, the tax bill is not revenue-neutral. It does what the Tea Party Republicans want: It starves government – especially public schools, early childhood education, community colleges and universities.
That’s the high ground where Democrats should fight.
