SALES TAX WOULD BE HIGHEST IN THE COUNTRY!

Weekly Opinion Editorial

SALES TAX IS A BAD IDEA!

by Steve Fair

     In November, Oklahoma voters could vote on a proposal to impose a statewide one cent sales tax for common education.  Proponents, including OU President David Boren, say the tax would generate over $600 million annually that could be used to increase teacher pay and improve education in the Sooner state.  Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs, a conservative think tank, challenged the legality of the initiative petition saying it violated the ‘single subject’ provision in the state constitution.   After the 6-3 decision was handed down on Tuesday clearing the way for signature collection, Amber England, with Stand for Children Oklahoma said, “We are delighted that the State Supreme Court ruled in favor of sending the initiative petition forward. Oklahomans deserve the opportunity to solve the state’s education funding crisis by voting to pass this plan. We will begin immediately with the signature collection process and already have the staff and resources in place to get this measure on the ballot.”   President Boren said, “The court decision today is a great victory for the schoolchildren and the people of Oklahoma.”  OCPA said they plan to work in the coming months to prevent passage of the proposal.

     Stand for Children Oklahoma has to collect 123,000 signatures in the next 90 days to get Initiative Petition #403 on the November 2016 ballot.  There are 42,000 plus public school teachers in Oklahoma who each would get a $5,000 annual bump in salary should it pass, so that shouldn’t be a big hurdle. There are several reasons why this proposal is a bad idea.

     First, Oklahomans already pay enough sales tax.  According to taxfoundation.org, Oklahoma ranks #5 in the country in combined sales taxes (local &state) at an 8.66% rate.  If this proposal were approved, Oklahoma would have the highest sales tax rate in the nation at 9.66%.  Increasing the sales tax rate would hurt Oklahoma retailers near the state borders.  Consumers would drive across state lines to buy groceries, drugs and big ticket items in order to save 1%, hurting businesses and costing jobs in the state.  Consumers have a choice where they spend their money and in a tight economy, they will drive to save a buck.  They don’t have to just pay the toll like some politicos mistakenly believe- they will find a backroad.

     Second, there is no guarantee earmarking the one cent to education will improve education.  Oklahoma has thrown more and more money at education through the years and yet education test scores haven’t improved.  The answer to improving education is always more taxes or some scheme; remember pari-mutuel betting for horse racing?  How about liquor by the drink? The statewide lottery?   The campaigns to get those issues passed all were couched with the same tagline: ‘Do it for the Children.’  All or a portion of the monies from every one were going to solve the funding issues for education, but they never did.   According to statebudgetsolutions.org report, there is no direct correlation between increased funding and improved performance in public education, but that doesn’t stop them from asking for more money. 

     Third, this same sales tax scheme didn’t work in Arkansas.  In 1983, then Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton pushed for educational change, calling for teacher competency testing, some school consolidation and a one cent increase in state sales tax to be earmarked for education.  The General Assembly approved it, but according to Greg Kaza, an economist with Arkansas Policy Foundation, not much has changed in Arkansas since it passed.  Education test scores have remained about the same.  There hasn’t been the huge influx of jobs that were promised during the promotion of the tax.  In fact, the sales tax hurt grocery retailers so much that Clinton and the legislature removed most of the sales tax burden on food and drugs. The point person for increasing the sales tax was Hillary Clinton.   Jonathan Leaf with the Weekly Standard said Hillary was the key to the passage of the failed idea; “Hillary’s role was central. She helped develop the plan and her personal intervention and testimony before the assembly committee that held the bill up is what pushed it through.  She campaigned in each of the state’s 75 counties to drum up support for the bill. Later Hillary’s intense personal lobbying would guide the bill through the legislature’s main session, where it passed by one vote.”

     Oklahoma can ill afford to increase our sales tax rate to the highest in the country.  Education needs to start thinking outside the box and come up with some ideas to improve their performance that don’t involve increasing our taxes.

 

GUN CONTROL BY OTHER NAMES!

Weekly Opinion Editorial

IT IS STILL GUN CONTROL!

by Steve Fair

     On November 22, 1963, President John F Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas.  I was in Mr. Hawthorne’s fifth grade class at Geronimo elementary school.  I remember him weeping openly when he heard the news.  It was a dark time in America.  Never to allow a crisis to go the waste, liberals immediately seized the opportunity to start their campaign to disarm America. 

     Up until the Kennedy assassination, ‘gun control’ meant a steady aim at a target, but after Dallas that all changed.  Liberals began a systematic propaganda campaign taking aim at guns and gun owners as being a threat to a civilized society.  In 1966, Carl Bakal wrote a book entitled, “The Right to Bear Arms.”  Bakal, a native New Yorker, free-lance writer, and a glamour photographer made the claim that America’s gun laws and in particular the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution contributed to the increased level of violence in society.  Bakal also believed that gun ownership bred criminals and criminal activity.   His book was widely quoted by liberals.

     The first known ‘gun law’ in America was the Sullivan Law, administered in New York State in 1911 and required New Yorkers to have a permit to have a handgun on their own property.   It also prohibited the carrying of bombs, brass knuckles, blackjacks and knives.  The renowned Bat Matterson, a friend of the bill author, said the law was ‘obnoxious’ and he questioned Sullivan’s mental state of mind over the law.  According to Myles Kelleher, a sociologist, murders by gun increased by eighteen percent in New York after the passage of Sullivan’s Law.  NYC Mayor Ed Koch when he was pushing for tougher guns laws in the City said, “Nice guys who own guns aren’t nice guys.”  The Koch-Carey law failed to reduce the number of guns on NYC streets and did not reduce gun use in rape, robbery, assault or murder.

     In 1934, Congress in response to organized crime, passed the National Firearms Act which banned certain weapons such as machine guns (fully automatic), sawed off shotguns and rifles, grenades, and bombs.  They placed a very high tax on transferring weapons and created a federal registry.  In 1968, the U.S. Supreme Court effectively gutted the National Firearms Act when it ruled that it violated the Fifth Amendment in the case of Haynes vs. United States.   

     Congress immediately rewrote the Act and in October 1968, President Johnson signed into law the Gun Control Act of 1968.  It created a federal law regulating the firearms industry by prohibiting interstate commerce in firearms except among licensed manufacturers and dealers.    

     In 1986, The Firearm Owners Protection Act was passed by Congress.  It prohibited felons from owning guns or ammo.  It also prohibited the manufacturing, importing or selling of ammo that would penetrate a bulletproof vest. 

     In 1993, background checks were added when the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, was signed into law.  It requires a federal authorized Federal Firearms License dealer to inspect the criminal history of gun purchasers and run a background check. 

     In 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a city ordinance in Washington DC banning residents from owning a handgun was unconstitutional.

     In his 1976 Master’s thesis, Gary W. Hanson concluded: “Sentiment favoring gun control comes essentially from urban areas which are most remote from America’s frontier heritage, and the common usage of firearms.  Sentiment opposing gun control, on the other hand, comes primarily from the West and the South, which are the areas nearest the frontier heritage.  The popularity of firearms in the United States is also due in large measure to the pioneer background of this nation.”

     Hanson’s conclusion is consistent with the writing of attorney David Kopel who wrote in The Samurai, The Mountie and The Cowboy:  “"Foreign style gun control is doomed to failure in America. Foreign gun control comes along with searches and seizures and with many other restrictions on civil liberties too intrusive for America. Foreign gun control...postulates an authoritarian philosophy of government fundamentally at odds with the individualist and egalitarian American ethos.”

     Note that liberals never use the term gun control anymore.  They understand that a large majority of Americans do not favor gun control and that term is toxic.  They use terms like gun safety and gun violence.  They recognize that words mean something and their intention is to sell their concept of disarming the public in a palatable way, but no matter how they say it, it’s still gun control. 

 

SECOND AMENDMENT IS IMPORTANT!

Weekly Opinion Editorial

WELL ARMED LAMBS!

by Steve Fair

       As I write this, President Obama is set to announce on Tuesday that he will sign an Executive Order that will create stricter gun laws in America.  He is scheduled to hold a Town Hall on CNN to explain his actions and has announced his action will be ‘entirely consistent with the Second Amendment.”  The President met with AG Loretta Lynch on Monday to discuss the gun issue.  “This is not going to solve every violent crime in this country.  It is not going to prevent every mass shooting.  It will potentially save lives in this country and spare families the pain and extraordinary loss they experience when they lose loved ones to gun violence,” he said after the meeting.   The plan includes adding background checks for those who purchase at gun shows and online, tightening up restrictions for gun ownership on those who have domestic violence history, adding 230 additional FBI personnel and 200 new ATF agents and some unidentified ‘gun safety technology.’

     “The good news is that these are not only recommendations that are well within my legal authority and the executive branch,” Obama said. “But they're also ones that the overwhelming majority of the American people, including gun owners, support and believe in.”

     Presidential candidate Carly Fiorina said that Obama’s executive order is, “delusional, dangerous, not to mention unconstitutional.”  “The thing the president should be doing on gun control is enforcing the laws that we have. We have long lists of criminals who own guns, who routinely purchase guns. We know who these people are, and we are not prosecuting any of them,” Fiorina said.   

     Other GOP candidates also weighed in.  "We're not changing the Second Amendment," Donald Trump said. "I will veto that. I will un-sign that so fast."  Governor Chris Christie said, “I’m sure (the gun executive action) will get stopped by the courts.”  Senator Ted Cruz said Obama’s move is unconstitutional.  “It’s entirely backwards. We don’t beat the bad guys by taking away our guns. We beat the bad guys by using our guns,” Cruz said.  Senator Rand Paul said he would fight the President, ‘tooth and nail’ on the gun control issue.  Paul plans to push the Senate GOP caucus to vote on legislation he proposed in December that would reduce executive orders on gun control to ‘advisory only. Senator Marco Rubio said, “I believe that every single American has a Constitution—and therefore God-given right—to defend themselves and their families.”  All the Democrat candidates said they supported the president’s executive order action.

     The second amendment is a critically important right to Americans.  In a democratic republic form of self-government, an armed citizenry serves to prevent tyranny.  Without the second amendment, the other tenets of the Bill of Rights would likely be ignored by government.  So why did the founding fathers put the second amendment in the constitution?  Was it so Americans could own shotguns to duck hunt?  It was about insuring the liberty and survival of a country.  The founder of the Democrat Party, Thomas Jefferson said; “Those who hammer their guns into plowshares will plow for those who do not.” 

     It is likely President Obama’s executive order will be overturned by the courts, but rest assured the liberals in America will not rest until they have forced every law abiding citizen in America to give up their guns.  They fail to understand the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. Guns don’t kill people- people kill people.  The root problem of any violent act is a depraved, wicked heart and gun control will not cure that.   

     George Mason, the co-author of the second amendment, said this: “Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote!”   Americans need to be well armed lambs. 

WORK ON BOTH SIDES OF THE LEDGER!

Weekly Opinion Editorial

2016 PRESENTS A CHALLENGE TO LAWMAKERS

by Steve Fair

     2015 is almost in the books and it has been an interesting year in politics.  The 2016 presidential election kicked off with no less than thirty seven Republicans tossing their hat in the ring.  Only thirteen were considered serious candidates and now that field has been winnowed down to ten.  Eleven of the major candidates spoke in May at the Cox Center in Oklahoma City at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference.  The SRLC was the largest political event ever staged in Oklahoma.  Over 2,000 attended and it put Oklahoma in the worldwide political spotlight for 72 hours.  It allowed Oklahoma to have some impact in the GOP primary process. 

     The first votes to be cast to determine the two major Parties nominee will be on Monday February 1^st at the Iowa caucus. Iowa’s delegate count is less than 1% of the delegates to the GOP national convention, but since it is the first in the country, it is considered to be very important.  The race is reportedly very close and history has shown the candidate with more ‘boots on the ground’ than the competition will win.  Huckabee, Santorum, and Howard Dean have all won Iowa.  They are examples of candidates with little money, but passionate volunteers who get their vote out.  The presidential race is, and will continue to be, fun to watch, but Oklahomans need to pay attention to something closer to home.

     Last week, the Oklahoma State Board of Equalization, a seven member board composed of six statewide elected officials and the Secretary of Agriculture, who is appointed by the Governor met.  Their job, according to the state constitution, is to review state revenue figures and ‘certify’ the amount of money the Oklahoma state legislature has to appropriate in the upcoming fiscal year, which begins in July.  That number is 901 million dollars, 13% less than last year.  The board also heard the amount they certified last year is going to fall short about 2-4%, based on current revenue trends.  That will mean Oklahoma common education (schools), agencies, and transportation will face budget shortfalls in the next six months.  Times are tough in Oklahoma government.  If these numbers were presented to a corporate, publically traded board, massive layoffs would ensue and every departmental head would be charged to justify every dime they were asking to spend.  Until the ‘income’ side of the ledger showed some improvement, management would impose a hiring and wage freeze, but that is not how government- at any level- works.  Government doesn’t do layoffs or wage freezes. 

     In a 2011 USA Today analysis, it was found that government fires only about .55% of workers annually for poor performance, compared to 3% in the private sector.  Most of those fired by the government were entry level, where in the private sector it was evenly distributed throughout all levels.  Ronald Reagan said.: “the closest thing to eternity life in this world is a government job.” 

     The basic problem is when government faces a shortfall, they try to fix only one side of the ledger- the revenue side.  When the budget is down, even conservative Republicans begin to talk about eliminating tax credits and exemptions like uncollected tax money belongs to the government and not to the people who generated it.  Make no mistake, some tax credits should be reviewed, because of fraud and abuse, but conservatives need to be careful in proclaiming that uncollected tax money is the governments.  It isn’t.  It belongs to the one who earned it.   

     Another issue the Oklahoma legislature faces is the amount of actual truly ‘appropriated’ money they get to control.  With all the ‘earmarks,’ (money off the top), the legislature will get to actually haggle over less than half the $901 million.  Through the years past legislatures have made long-term revenue commitments to causes that bind future legislatures.  Legislative leaders and the Governor would like to see that changed

     “A lot of our agencies have lost anywhere from one-fourth to one-third of their budgets, but those off-the-top entities haven't," Speaker of the House Jeff Hickman, R-Fairview said. "They get their money off the top, paid in full, and they have never felt any of this pain like a lot of our agencies." Hickman makes a valid point, but until the legislature is willing to work on the spending side of the ledger, this is merely wealth redistribution.

     Trump’s appeal to many voters is his pledge to run government like a business. The fact is, government can’t be run like a business because government is an entity far different than a business, but fundamental principles of common sense that successful businesses use would be a great improvement over our current government model of tax and spend.

The 'Helpless' Babe RULES!

Weekly Opinion Editorial

CHRISTMAS AND POLITICS!

by Steve Fair

     In two days, the world will celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.  While it isn’t universally accepted that Jesus of Nazareth was born on December 25^th, it is a historical fact He was born, so it is appropriate to celebrate the incarnation of God in flesh.  In a so-called Christian nation like America, most people believe they know the ‘reason for the season,’ but most really do not.  Most do not grasp the primary reason Christ was born.  Was his birth to present God to man?  Was it to teach truth or to fulfill the Mosaic Law?  It must have been to offer His kingdom to mankind or to reveal God’s love to mankind?  It has to be to heal the sick?  Christ did came to do those things, but those were secondary to his primary purpose.  The primary purpose Christ was born was to suffer and die. He was born to die.    

     John MacArthur says because Christ died, He is five things to a believer: (1) He is our substitute, (2) He is our salvation captain, (3) He is our sanctifier, (4) He is our Satan conqueror, and (5) He is our sympathetic high priest.  “He (Jesus Christ) died to recreate men into a creature that God had always intended man to be. He died to make a man what man was meant to be but without Him could never be,” MacArthur says.  Most people this time of year have an image of Christ as a helpless baby in a manger, but He was the very image of God in helpless babe.  He was much more than mere man; He was God made flesh. So what does the birth of Christ have to do with politics?

     First, Christ is the Creator and as such He owns and controls everything in His creation.  That means that ‘helpless’ babe controls everything that happens in the world, including the political arena.  He controls who gets elected and who doesn’t- who votes liberal and who doesn’t.  He can choose to stop wickedness or allow man to manifest his depravity in his inhumanity toward his fellow man.  That ‘helpless’ babe sets up kings (and presidents and dog catchers) and brings them down.  Fox News, MSNBS, political consultants, activists, and influence peddlers may think they are running the show in politics, but the fact is, they are mere pawns in the hand of a sovereign Creator.  

     Second, Christ can’t be pleased with politics in America.  Backbiting, lying, situational ethics, self promotion, and incessant bragging are standard operating procedure in politics today.  The pride and arrogance of the modern politician, liberal and conservative, doesn’t square with the revealed word of God.  Politics in a society is a mere reflection of that society.  Our politicians are a reflection of who we are as a country.  In a self-governed system, we only have ourselves to blame.  Until the average American recognizes that doing things God’s way is the only hope of America, we are doomed to having the loud and proud crowd as political leaders.   

     Third, Christ came to seek and save the lost.  How do you identify the lost?  They are proud, self-absorbed, and see no need for God.  That describes the political class.  Because of the aforementioned behavior, they certainly fail to show forth the ‘fruit of the spirit.’  Humility and meekness are not attributes elected officials strive to have.  Bluster and hyperbole are the order of the day in politics.  Thankfully, there are some in politics who are thoughtful and Christ-like, but they are rare.  Most in the political profession need the gospel.  They need the regenerating work of Christ upon their sinful depraved heart.  They need to see themselves as they are before a holy God as He is.     

     As you celebrate the birth of a Savior this week, recognize God will not bless America if we are not following His principles- in politics or in any other part of our society.  To expect otherwise is naïve and foolhardy.  The ‘helpless’ babe is in fact the great Creator and He rules the world- period.