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Will Rogers they aren’t
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Recently White House Communications Director Anita Dunn was caught on tape saying one of her favorite political philosophers is Mao Tse-Tung. As much as I would like to devote this to the curious thought patterns of people surrounding our current President, I simply want to contrast this statement with the fact that one of my favorites is Will Rogers. Some of his quotes are legendary and the one I’d like to paraphrase today is “I never met a man I didn’t like.” This was actually a partial quote, taken from a longer quotation referring to Leon Trotsky, one of the leaders of the Russian Revolution.
Without going into great detail, there is a tone to Rogers’ quote that rings quite differently than Ms. Dunn’s. I wanted to mention Rogers and the quote after reading Jon Gurda’s piece in Sunday’s Journal Sentinel. Leftists like Gurda, whom the Journal Sentinel allows to disguise themselves as experts, have never met a tax they didn’t like. Gurda’s latest screed tells us that “Scott Walker, who seems more intent on dismantling his branch of government than managing it” is one of the bad guys trying to drag us back into prehistoric times. These were times when there were no enlightened people like Gurda himself to help all those whose life is dependent on getting something from any and all branches of government.
Mr. Gurda feels we who live in Metropolitan Milwaukee should thank our lucky stars we have a proud history of Socialism exemplified by Dan Hoan, mayor of Milwaukee from 1916 to 1940 (does the idea of term limits appeal to anyone anymore?). No other metropolitan area has ever thrived like Milwaukee and we have our socialist heritage to thank for it. My favorite quote in his article is “I understand that calling for higher taxes is as popular as inviting skunks to a picnic, but hasn’t the time come to at least consider the possibility?”
Let’s see- my property taxes continue to go up, our sales tax has gone up six tenths of a percent in the last few years, and the total state and local tax burden ranks us 9th in the nation yet we need to consider the possibility of higher taxes. Gurda and his ilk won’t be satisfied until we are number one nationally (and will probably whine even then) and every business that can has fled the state.
Scott Walker tries to privatize some areas such as cleaning of the courthouse and the intelligentsia goes nuts. Tax hike proposals are greeted with a yawn and those of us who complain are viewed as Neanderthals bent on taking us back to the bad old days when people had to work to get stuff. Sorry, but I’ve really had enough. From now on, only those who promise to reduce my taxes will get my support.
