North Carolina just needs poor people to move out of state

Published April 22, 2015

by Doug Clark, Off the Record, Greensboro News-Record, April 22, 2015.

The state’s political leaders hold a strategy session:

“Tax Day was a disaster. Most people thought we hit them with a tax increase instead of a tax cut.”

“Didn’t we?”

“Sort of, but they weren’t supposed to figure that out. We cut income-tax rates, which they ought to notice, and raised sales taxes, which they don’t.”

“Except they didn’t notice the income-tax cuts, either, since they had just a few dollars less taken out of their paychecks all year but owed money when they filed because we eliminated deductions and exemptions. We really clobbered retired folks.”

“With so many people mailing in big checks last week, we took a PR hit.”

“So what? The people who really count — big corporations and the wealthy — appreciate what we did for them. They came out way ahead.”

“Right. And there are more breaks for them on the way.”

“Philosophically — by which I mean where our campaign contributions come from — I agree with you 100 percent. The problem is that some poor and middle-class people vote. We’re lucky there aren’t elections this year, because they wouldn’t vote for us.”

“Didn’t our election ‘reforms’ take care of that?”

“We could only do so much. And the U.S. Supreme Court is going to cost us some of the advantages we’ve engineered for ourselves.”

“Liberal activists!”

“I know, I know. What we need is a broader solution to both our political and economic challenges.”

“What economic challenges? I’ve proclaimed the Carolina Comeback! We’re doing great!”

“In all candor, we should admit, if only to ourselves, that the real picture isn’t quite as bright as we’ve tried to present it.”

“How so? Our unemployment rate is way down.”

“True, but it doesn’t count all the people who dropped out of the workforce and haven’t come back. A low share of our total population is actually working. On top of that, wages are low. A lot of the new jobs pay worse than the old jobs that were lost.”

“Isn’t that good? I mean, don’t we draw employers to North Carolina who want to hire workers on the cheap?”

“Not as much anymore. A lot of companies want skilled workers. We’re lagging in that area.”

“That’s not the end of our problems. We’ve got a very high poverty rate. One of our major metro areas was just rated first in the country in hunger. Our population isn’t healthy. We’ve just got too many poor people. It makes us look bad, and they’re a drag on our whole society.”

“What should we do?”

“I think we should drive them out.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, make it so miserable for them to live in North Carolina that they move to other states.”

“Are you serious?”

“Totally. In fact, we’re already promoting policies that can accomplish that.”

“Hey, you’re right. We’ve become incredibly stingy with unemployment benefits. We’ve refused to expand Medicaid. We won’t raise the minimum wage. Right there are reasons for the poor to move to more generous states.”

“Exactly. We sure don’t want poor people moving here, like they did when the other party was handing out benefits left and right. It’s not by accident that our population growth has slowed down in the last few years.”

“People are already moving from poor rural counties to the cities. We’ve got to keep them moving, all the way out of the state.”

“We can do it if we keep on hammering the cities.”

“I’ve got another idea. Let’s reduce the payouts from the state lottery. For a lot of poor people, winning the lottery is their only hope of making it.”

“Losers. We don’t want them here.”

“Unless they actually hit the jackpot.”

“We also should keep raising college tuition to price out the poor. Cut more from the schools. Charge for driver’s ed. Poor kids won’t even be able to get a license in this state. Raise fees to visit the zoo or to camp and fish at our state parks. Poor people don’t pay my country club dues. Why should I pay for their recreation?”

“Brilliant! We’re not running a state for the benefit of poor people. The sooner they learn that, the sooner they can move to states that are willing to coddle them. They can take their Medicaid, free school lunches, social services and crime with them.”

“Let’s put them on boats, or at least buy them bus tickets!”

“North Carolina can proudly claim government of the rich, by the rich and for the rich!”

April 22, 2015 at 10:30 am
Richard L Bunce says:

So every NC Income Tax payer received an State Income Tax rate reduction and a more than doubling of the State Income Standard Deduction and a few small groups of loyal Democrats lost their special interest tax credits and deductions... A century of Democratic Party vote buying comes to an end.

April 24, 2015 at 9:06 am
Rip Arrowood says:

.... the corporations and the wealthy are glad to assume the position that the poor and middle class have held for a century.

April 24, 2015 at 9:47 am
Richard L Bunce says:

I suspect you are in no position to speak for either of the former...

and the later are code words for Democratic voters... not actually inclusive of those groups.

April 25, 2015 at 1:04 pm
Rip Arrowood says:

I suspect you spend a lot of time ignoring the truth....