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Letter: A sugar high, A new low for ramifications
Op-Ed · February 22, 2018


Since 1980, we have had three large tax cuts, think Reagan, Bush and now Trump. Republicans love tax cuts like I love sugar cookies, the only difference being I know sugar cookies are bad for me.


Too bad more of us don’t recognize that tax cuts can be bad for us as well.

Sure, it’s easy to love tax cuts because who wants to think about the ramifications?

In 1980, our national debt was $1 trillion. Today it is over $20 trillion, that is $20,000,000,000,000.

The GOP’s new tax and budget busting spending plans promise trillion-dollar deficits for the foreseeable future.

Every child born today’s share of the debt is over $60,000 and growing.

If tax cuts are so great, why is our debt out of control, why is inequality of wealth and opportunity increasing, why is our infrastructure crumbling, why are we underfunding education and job training, why do we have a mental health and opioid crisis, why have wages for hard working men and women been flat, why are college grads carrying an unbearable load of debt, why is the middle class shrinking, why is health care bankrupting families?

Not to be outdone, Iowa’s GOP governor and legislature are pushing forward with their plan for more tax cuts while at the same time cutting funding for higher education, the courts, mental health, women’s health care, public safety and praising themselves for giving K-12 an increase of half the rate of inflation.

In the last year, under GOP “leadership”, they had to borrow from the rainy-day fund which, once again, shows the fallacy of all their previous tax cuts and credits to wealthy and politically influential allies in the corporate world.

Public education in Iowa is under attack by the extreme right-wing GOP who have “failed” to manage our fiscal house resulting in eight years of the lowest public education funding in 50 years.

Now they want to further reduce dollars available for public education by creating ESA’s (Educational Savings Accounts), another form of vouchers, which will benefit parents in urban areas that can already afford private education.

How will this benefit lower income rural parents? It won’t.

What it will do is further stress our local K-12 public schools.

Our strong American middle class was created because of our strong support for public education. Iowans took pride in having great public schools, and most of us still do.

Too bad our GOP leaders don’t agree. We really need Fred Hubbell.

Larry Hodgden

Tipton, Iowa