Among all the candidate endorsement editorials you might read this month – since general election ballots go out next week – a must read came out of Wenatchee last month, from columnist Trace Warner. Fortunately, The News Tribune reprinted it for readers on this side of the mountains, under the very appropriate headline “Where do we get the money?”
And that really is the key question for all candidates soliciting votes this month. Do you think that taxpayers have an endless supply of money, or can government meet its obligations with a budget that is now growing by several billion this biennium?
Warner not only asks the key question, but he also pokes a big hole in the most common alternative offered by Democrat candidates – close loopholes. As Warner wrote, “Close tax loopholes? That’s often proposed, but never effective. The biggest loopholes – the sales tax exemptions for food, fuel and services – are thoroughly enjoyed by the poor and middle class. Business tax loopholes often can’t be closed, because the business with the tax break may go away without it, along with its jobs, and there goes the imaginary tax hike.”
