Poppino letter: Gubernatorial candidates

The three Republican candidates for governor have spoken in unison about their economic vision for our state. Their message is: cut, cut, cut. Their Reagan-era Big Lie says give the government less money and the rich will share their wealth and the people will flourish. This is fantasy. When the rich are handed more money, they send it overseas, buy themselves more stuff, and freeze their workers’ pay. They don’t share. The candidates all ignore difficult issues like funding for public education, lack of medical insurance for a large number of our citizens, road and bridge maintenance, and legal assistance for the poor. All these things require money. The state needs to collect money (taxes) to spend for the common good. They require government agencies to be funded well enough to oversee work for the common good. These candidates have never heard of the common good. They need to look at Kansas, which enacted Big Lie tax cuts for many years and recently had to reinstate some taxes to save their state from economic collapse. We need a candidate who will weigh policy on the scales of the common good, not private enrichment and political ideology.

This story was originally published September 15, 2017 at 10:51 PM with the headline "Poppino letter: Gubernatorial candidates."