The seemingly gullible Raleigh News and Observer has fallen hook, line and sinker for the increasing rhetoric coming from the General Assembly regarding the House's proposed budget cuts.
For those of you who don't receive the printed version of the paper (I know that's a number that is growing daily) it dedicated a huge above the fold headline and pictures laying out the "stark spending cuts" that the House is proposing to education, human services and prisons.
What the article doesn't do is explain that this is nothing but scare tactics. A "shock and awe" game to rile public opinion against such harmful and drastic cuts that people will be more supportive of tax increases. The Democrats have done the same polling we've done. They know how unpopular tax increases are in general and even more so in our current economy.
They need cover, and that's exactly what this House budget is. An attempt at giving them cover to raise taxes.
We've seen this entire game played out before in 2001. The EXACT same thing happened. The public was bombarded with tales of doom and gloom of dire cuts to education unless taxes were raised.
And taxes were raised. And what happened, job growth in during the economic recovery lagged that of the US. Our state was harmed by tax increases then, and will be if the General Assembly does so this year.
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