Odds and Ends

Please say a prayer for the victims of the latest round of flooding which has hit NW Ohio hard, especially the Findlay/Ottawa Ohio areas. Perhaps we should have been re-building and addressing some of our infrastructure needs instead of wasting our Federal tax dollars in the needless and useless war in Iraq, but I certainly don't want do confuse any of you out there who believe otherwise with logic.



We are still paying a tax on our groceries in Ohio due to the commercial activity tax (CAT), a tax contrived by the ever-popular Taft administration and supported by various local politicians. This was implemented after the bill was passed in 2005 by the GOP legislature. The CAT imposes a tax on gross receipts for certain businesses in Ohio which effectively means they are paying tax before they make a profit. We continue to pay this tax on groceries since 2006, a tax which hadn't been seen since the great Depression. Good going, GOP'ers.

The tax is assessed for the "privilege" of doing business in Ohio, a privilege that many businesses seem more than willing to pass up, given the state of our economy lately. That same tax bill permanently increased the sales tax in Ohio from 5.0 percent to 5.5 percent, yet another example of the low tax GOP actually increasing our taxes. Maybe someone actually ought to call out these anti-tax hypocrites regarding these changes when they start crying about high taxes. The sad thing is that these changes put more of the total burden on the lower and middle classes, who continue to have the audacity to eat and buy household staples in these rough economic times. At least the very wealthy received a generous tax cut so they can continue to contribute obscene amounts of money to the Republican of their choice.

I'm signing off for now until next time. Have a great week!