Cooper Sounding Like Socialist Bernie Sanders In Pitch Against D.C.Tax Cuts

RALEIGH – Gov. Roy Cooper checked the calendar, realized 2018 elections are just around the corner, and decided to weigh in on the tax debate in D.C. via a post on Medium.

The takeaway? Cooper maintains his wide socialist streak and attempts to rips Republicans in D.C. for giving tax cuts ‘to the wealthy,’ warning them of the horrible results conservative tax reforms had in the Old North State. You know, the state that was just named the #1 economic climate in the nation due largely to said tax reforms.

“Unfortunately, decisions made by the Republican state legislature have left too many middle class families out of our state’s economic growth. Those decisions rigged the system to let those at the top reap most of the rewards. And as Congress considers major tax changes, the script seems eerily familiar in North Carolina.

In 2013, with legislative supermajorities and a Republican governor, Republicans in Raleigh passed sweeping tax changes that disproportionately benefited the wealthy and big corporations, with no guarantees for middle class growth. These tax giveaways are now straining our state’s budget and forcing middle class families to pick up the tab — actually raising taxes 67 different ways. In our state, 800,000 households will pay more in taxes in 2019 than they did in 2012. Many of these households include small business owners and low-wage workers with children.”

How strained is the General Assembly’s budget, exactly? It is so strained that Republic-crafted budgets have resulted in year after year of revenue surpluses, billions in debt eliminations, billions in Rainy-Day funds, and some of the highest spending numbers in the State’s history.

In fact, after Republican tax reforms in North Carolina generated so much revenue lawmakers on Jones Street actually extended a legislative session because they could not agree on where to spend all the extra money.

But Cooper, a Leftist, wasn’t done.  He wants his base and gullible people in the middle to believe that tax cuts are evil and Republicans want to ‘treat the Middle Class like second class citizens.’

This year, the North Carolina legislature further tipped the scales in favor of corporations and top earners. Under the plan passed this year in North Carolina, millionaires receive a tax cut 85 times larger than middle class families. And more than half the tax breaks go to families earning more than $100,000 a year.

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Now, leaders in Washington have ripped a page straight from the North Carolina legislative playbook. The tax proposal in front of Congress offers substantial breaks to large corporations and millionaires. How will they pay for it? By eliminating tax benefits for the middle class including deductions for medical expenses, student loan interest, and school supplies that teachers pay for themselves.

Of course a political animal like Cooper is perfectly willing to ignore, and obscure, the fact that eliminations of deductions come after reducing rates, but that is expected.

It’s also no surprise that a Leftist like Cooper will fear monger about millionaires receiving exponentially larger tax cuts than the poor under Republican reforms while at the same time hoping you don’t make the giant intellectual leap [SARC] to the realization that high earners already pay an overwhelming majority of taxes.

Of course tax cuts benefit those with higher incomes! All the taxes come from higher incomes!

Further, what planet is Cooper on where a family household earning just above $100,000 represents ‘the rich’?!

Low six-figure incomes are often earned by the same small-business owners he is claiming to advocate for here. A $100,000 gross income between two working parents is very much Middle Class, and not necessarily a cushy lifestyle.

After state and federal taxes, mortgage, daycare, car payments, monthly bills, groceries, gas, health insurance, and the inevitable surprise (!) expense, it is not uncommon for those $100,000 household incomes to scrape buy month to month.

If Cooper had his druthers he would raise taxes on those people, adding burdens to those that already make our economy go ’round. Burdens he sanctimoniously claims to be fighting on behalf of the working man.

“The end game in Washington is the same as it has been for Republicans in Raleigh — alter the tax code to drastically favor the wealthy, and when it comes time to fill the hole created by these irresponsible decisions just balance the budget by cutting education and health care.

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I talk to teachers, nurses, police officers, and families nearly every day in North Carolina. Their desire to make a difference inspires me. They deserve to be treated right, and I’m going to work hard to make sure they’re treated fairly.

Both in Raleigh and in Washington, middle class shouldn’t mean second class.”

Well, Roy, the fact is that Republican tax reforms, both in Washington and Raleigh, are much more fair to individuals than the thieving socialist redistribution you seem to be a fan of.

Republicans cut rates while dramatically boosting standard deductions that benefit everyone. If you haven’t noticed, our state has been doing pretty on the economic front lately.

Cooper’s version of treating people right means stealing money from some to shower onto others whose vote he can depend on.

Second class to Roy Cooper is anyone who works hard, and smart, and produces too much prosperity for their family and community.

Second class to Cooper is anyone who dares to think they deserve to keep that money; not see it squandered on some wasteful government program.

In North Carolina, we tax everyone the same flat rate. How is that unfair?

It’s not; it’s right.

If only Washington could achieve the same level of tax reform that we have in the Tar Heel State, then maybe we’d all be better off.