Letters on tax bill, water rules, GOP health plan, Trump, James Thompson

Income tax bill was reasonable

As a retired tax professional, I am concerned that media coverage of the recent tax bill in the Legislature, House Bill 2178, didn’t explain the dollar impact to Kansas families.

A married couple with two children with a taxable income of $33,500 have a gross income of at least $50,000, before subtracting the standard deductions. They currently pay Kansas income taxes of $971. Under HB 2178, they would have paid $994, an increase of $23 a year. Prior to 2012, they paid $275 more in taxes.

A family of four with a taxable income of $58,500 have a gross income of at least $75,000. They currently pay Kansas income taxes of $2,121. Under HB 2178, they would have paid taxes of $2,306, an increase of $185 a year. Prior to 2012, they paid $525 more in taxes.

Were the tax rates and changes proposed in HB 2178 really “punitive,” “an assault on pocketbooks” or “reach too deep,” as claimed by Gov. Sam Brownback and his supporters?

Prior to the 2012 cuts, Kansas funded roads, health services, education and budget items that contributed to our economy. Kansas needs more revenue, and I think HB 2178 was a responsible approach towards that objective.

Save applause

I don’t understand a recent letter by Rich Felts, president of the Kansas Farm Bureau, indicating support for the executive order making the Environmental Protection Agency reconsider the Waters of the United States rule (March 8 Letters to the Editor). The law (Clean Water Act) has always included agriculture exemptions and continues to do so.

It appears that while Trump’s order is another piece of meat for the anti-government crowd to salivate over, it has no effect on agriculture. The ditch regulation canard was sent packing back in 2015 by President Obama’s EPA, saying the rule clearly exempted farming. That is from the Congressional Research Service.

What was the goal of the letter? If it is to say, “Way to go, Mr. President,” feel free. But make it for real issues, not another no-effect issue. This is another grandstanding play by the president that makes a splash but has no real substance to it.

Don’t applaud for nothing. It cheapens the Farm Bureau and helps no one.

Oppose GOP plan

Please contact your congressman and senators and ask them to oppose the new health law that is being fast-tracked for approval in the House of Representatives. The proposed “reform” of Obamacare cuts Medicare funding, imposes an age tax on senior citizens, allowing insurance companies to charge five times what they charge younger customers, and creates a windfall for big pharmaceutical companies that already over-charge American consumers.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., has made it clear that he wants major changes to Social Security and Medicare. His ultimate goal is to transform Medicare into a voucher program and to force seniors to buy health insurance on the open market. Changes that would be made in the current bill would allow insurance companies to charge seniors much more than others and also cut funds to Medicare. In other words, Ryan would force us onto the open market where we would buy more expensive insurance with less money from vouchers.

Please contact the Kansas delegation and ask them to oppose the bill that supposedly reforms Obamacare by increasing health care costs for seniors.

We will survive

The Cleveland Cavaliers won the NBA championship last year. They weren’t supposed to. Donald Trump won the presidency last year. He wasn’t supposed to. Neither outcome cost me sleep.

A bunch of people are really upset about the Trump victory. Some believe that Trump is just the worst president since the previous one. Half the population hates him and about half love him. It’s been that way since our first president was elected.

Protests, riots and marches, oh my. Signs abound. I don’t get the “not my president” signs. If he is not your president, then who is?

I guess I am a deplorable. Trump appears somewhat normal to me. I kind of understand Trump-speak. Exaggeration, the use of grandiose adjectives, and gestures like musician Joe Cocker used to do replace expletives.

I’ve been around since Franklin Roosevelt. I have voted in many elections, not always picking the winners. I didn’t protest or impale myself on a yard sign when my choice lost.

Trump is our president. We will survive.

The bell tolls

Regarding President Trump’s policy of “America first”: How can he see the miserable people streaming out of Iraq and Syria and not, as a human being, consider them equally with ourselves?

Poet John Donne wrote: “Any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee.” It tolls for thee, President Trump.

State of decline

There is another word the tea party doesn’t use for cutting spending: “decline.”

Our schools decline. Our roads decline. Our jobs decline.

Thank you, Republicans, for our state of decline.

Yes, GOP lawmakers lowered our taxes a little, and that was nice. But at what cost? We got decline while fat cats got careers in government.

Now it seems that just any old Republican can automatically win in Kansas. But it’s time for Kansans to rethink that premise. After all, doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result is insane.

We have to think about what it is that we want out of our government. What do we want it to do? What are we willing to pay for it to do?

It’s time to rebuild, to refresh, to seek out a new vision of our horizon.

We have a chance now to tell the nation and the world that Kansans can think for themselves. And we have the greatest opportunity to do this on the world stage on April 11, when District 4 can elect James Thompson to Congress.

This story was originally published March 12, 2017 at 5:03 AM with the headline "Letters on tax bill, water rules, GOP health plan, Trump, James Thompson."