Final-minute touchdown by Southwestern drops East, 37-30

Comment by Watchdog: Friday, September 10

I knew it - East Jessamine always were Colts at heart!...read more...

Final-minute touchdown by Southwestern drops East, 37-30

Comment by zerovic: Thursday, September 9

Kind of looks like Mr. Stark had gotten bored reporting about East Jessamine in the third to last pa...read more...

Two candidates eyeing Jessamine County clerk seat

Comment by jjhle6: Thursday, September 9

Finally someone else running against her! Joseph Hagen, you have my vote and my support for your cam...read more...

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Kentucky State Sen. Kathy Stein, D-Lexington, has introduced a bill that would cut the pay of legislators and employees of the judicial branch by 10 percent. Nice — but this is a distraction.

While I support the concept of this bill, and applaud Kathy Stein for submitting it, I am not fooled into thinking our state legislature is actually making the tough decisions required to keep us afloat.

Sen. Stein likes to brag about being “the most liberal senator in Kentucky.” Thus, it’s not hard to imagine that she has been supportive of a lot of Kentucky’s lavish government spending.

The problem we have is not that our legislators are overpaid for their job — which they are — but that our legislators are not doing their job at all.

People do not need more entitlements, bailouts or subsidies. They need government to get out of the way so they can innovate.

Progressives claim that they fight for equality and justice. Yet the end results of their policies are both inequality and injustice. What they truly seek is equality of outcomes. Ironically, in order to make this guarantee, one must treat people unequally. The smart will have to be made dumber, the rich will have to be made poorer, and the excellent will have to be made mediocre.

The progressive tax tries to justify taking money from those who have earned more and giving it to those who have earned less, thus treating the two unequally.

Let’s apply progressive economic policy to the world of sports. A star wide receiver is able to catch more touchdown passes than anyone else in his league. Progressives see this as an injustice. We must equalize all of the wide receivers in the league. Since we cannot physiologically make the lesser athlete into the greater, we will make the greater athlete lesser by forcing him to wear a weighted jacket during the games.

Each athlete becomes equal in talent and skill, thus all games end in a 0-0 tie. Athletes quit playing. There is no longer a reason to innovative and compete.

The truth is that an injustice has been done to the once-talented athlete when they were forced to wear the weight jacket. The progressive tax system and the wealth redistribution practiced by politicians like Stein approaches the economy in the same way.

The problem is that once there is no longer a reason to be innovative, competitive and resourceful, people will begin to quit the game. The most talented will give up first, tired of bearing the burden for the rest of us. Soon those that are left will be total dependents and government will have no one left to tax.

While Stein’s bill cutting legislator pay is commendable, it fails to address the real issues regarding our current fiscal situation. Kentucky’s legislature should stop throwing up fiscal diversion. They should instead be focused on real tax reform and eliminating entitlements if they want to restore us to fiscal soundness.

Doing away with the state’s income and corporate tax, while adding sales tax to services not currently levied, would be a good start. This would put cash back in the hands of working Kentuckians, would make our state more business friendly and the ensuing economic activity would lead to an increase in state revenue.

Editor’s note: Leland Conway is the executive editor and co-founder of www.conservativeedge.com and the host of the Pulse of Lexington on News Radio 630 WLAP.

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