Gaps dog U.S. efforts on security - can't people make the tax connection?

[mrsteve]

Gaps dog U.S. efforts on security

<snip>
Two years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, state and local budget cuts have eaten into police and fire protection across the Midwest and around the country.

Even as the federal government has invested billions of dollars to create an enormous new bureaucracy--the Homeland Security Department--aimed at protecting the nation against terrorism and responding to its aftermath, local governments have been squeezed by state budget cuts and the lackluster economy. That has hobbled their efforts as the first line of defense against terrorists as well as first responders.
</snip>

An article with the concrete example of a sheriff department in a small Ohio county that has no deputies due to tax cuts. There is only the sheriff.

Can't even a Midwestern Republican make the connection?

Tax Cuts = Less Public Safety

Maybe back in the 70s or early 80s you could make a case that "cutting taxes is just cutting waste" or "we are just removing uneeded bureaucracy by cutting taxes", but those days, if they existed, are long gone.

So what will get these people to see that you can't really cut taxes any more - we are down to the bone, especially at the local level.

And why aren't the Democrats playing this up. Has the right wing so securely fastened the "Taxes are evil" sign to the consciousness of America that this issue is a lost cause?

Sorry for the rant, but with the crap stirred up in the Middle East by the PNAC master plan all that Al Queda needs to know is that in a small Ohio county with 4 power plants and 23000 people that there is only one county-wide law officer, period.

Bet that makes the people in Meigs County, Ohio, feel safe at night.

[sinkingfeeling]

1. Keep am eye on Alabama......

let's see what they cut there since the voters refused the tax increase to put the budget back in the black and improve education.

[mrsteve]

2. Good point - Alabama could be a very visible symbol of taxcutitis

Although perhaps the question will be "will the the media cover the effects of those cuts in budget due to tax cuts?"

This whole issue in Alabama has gotten a lot of national media attention lately, but that's probably because of the "man bites dog" spectacle of a Republican governor urging tax increases, not the issue of the need for the tax increases themselves.