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To the editor:
I no longer expect anything close to professional journalism from the Daily Chronicle. I acknowledge that you have the right of free speech, so you are free to lie about me or misrepresent me if you wish, as you have done in this instance:
“To quote Progressive Representative Brian Cina’s call last year, “Madam Speaker: Read my lips, yes, new taxes…!” That’s their opinion.”
That is definitely NOT my opinion. And you know that you are chopping up my words to lie about my opinion, because we have been through this before.
But how would you feel if people lied about you and misrepresented your position by taking your words out of context? For example, what if I posted this:
To quote Republican so-called journalist Rob Roper “we are spending hundreds of millions of dollars on Global Warming Solutions Act projects ….we should backfill any of that with state tax revenue…” That’s his opinion! Instead we should re-evaluate both our spending priorities and our taxation policies.
Respectfully, I ask that if you are going to quote me, that you quote me correctly and not take words out of context. For the record, I do not support new taxes for everyone. And you know this.
–Rep. Brian Cina (P-Burlington)
Editor’s note: At VDC’s request, Cina forwarded from the House Journal his statements made on the House floor: Rep. Cina of Burlington explained his vote as follows: Madam Speaker: Read my lips, yes, new taxes on corporations, so that Vermont can take this important step forward toward guaranteeing the human right of health care to all Vermonters.”
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Categories: Opinion
The most important part of this quote (IMO!) is his admition that yes there will be “new taxes” . The fact that he tries to justify this by stating “on corporations” does not disqualify the fact that he is asking for a new tax . We do not need ANY new taxes regardless of who they are levied on ! Live within our means, and requests, not your wants ! We really just can’t afford you folks anymore !
Hi Brian. I did not say that you supported taxes on everyone. Only that your quote (colorfully to be sure) reflected an overall opinion on the Left under the Golden Dome, that taxes should be raised to maintain and/or increase state spending levels. If that is an incorrect interpretation I’d be more than delighted to be proved wrong. Who do you want to increase taxes on? Just “the rich”? Fine rhetoric, but it rarely ends up that way, does it? The corporations? Those taxes are passed along to consumers, so you may as well tax us directly and be honest about it.
Prediction: We’ll not hear another peep from Mr. Cina in response to these comments.
Brian Cina:
News Flash!
Corporations do not pay taxes. Corporations collect taxes.
Corporations collect taxes from poor, middle class and rich people.
Corporations are non-discriminating tax collectors.
Get it-now-Brian?
Beat me to it, Tom Licata. Exactly. Another way to put it, new taxes on corporations IS new taxes on EVERYONE. It is frightening that the representative doesn’t see this obvious point. I would love to hear his response to this point. Perhaps VDC should ask him this question: “Doesn’t raising taxes on corporations in effect raise “taxes” on the people that purchase goods and serves from those corporation?”
It’s always amazed me that politicians don’t get the “cost added” when ever they raise taxes on business . Or, and this is just me spitballin, they think we are so stupid that we don’t understand the way businesses have to set prices ?
The same with tariffs. Do you criticise trump on tariffs? Are you upset that he thinks other countries pay tariffs?
I know some commenters continue to believe facts are meaningless. Nonetheless, Trump’s tariffs are ‘reciprocal’. They are import duties imposed by a country in response to similar tariffs applied by another country, aiming to create a balance in trade relations. If you treat me fairly, I’ll reciprocate. If you don’t know what reciprocal means… look it up.
Oh, and this tariff reciprocity isn’t just economic. It is also a response to criminal activity, e.g., intellectual property theft, drug and human smuggling, warmongering, and so forth. Tariffs are as much a national security and foreign policy tool as they are economic.
I know, I know. Just more facts.
Question is are you upset that other Countries charge us tariffs without a matching amounts on our part? Just walk all over US? Tariffs have always been around and am old enough to remember ‘fair trade goods’ mostly with Japan that were exempt from Tariffs.
Jay, your poor attempt to change tariffs is so tiresome. Call them reciprocal if you want. That has nothing to do with the fact that american consumers pay tariffs either directly or through higher priced goods. That is a fact.
Re: “Call them reciprocal if you want. That has nothing to do with the fact that american consumers pay tariffs…”
Yes, it does. It has everything to do with reciprocity. Quid pro quo.
You continue to ignore what the American consumer receives in return for those tariffs. More and better paying jobs, from a more competitive local economy, with more protection from intellectual property theft, with fewer drug overdoses. decreased human trafficking, not to mention enhanced national security and foreign policy agreements.
For example, American consumers are paying three times the global average for pharmaceuticals. They’re paying three times as much as their NATO counterparts to defend Europe. The U.S. pays almost one third of all of the costs of the United Nations. The U.S. is the largest single provider of foreign aid in the world. With tariffs we can peacefully begin to level the playing field.
The only people who might not care about the effects of tariffs are those Americans who don’t ever intend to work, and who intend to live permanently on welfare. In the short term, they have nothing to gain from the U.S. being more competitive, because they don’t compete with anyone. They just take. Merit based achievement means nothing to them.
In the long term, however, if those who know so little about tariffs knew any better, they’d figure out that, without reciprocal tariffs, the goose that lays their golden egg will not survive. Without tariffs we will continue our Marxist decline. Be it toward democratic socialism or pure communism.
Consider this dichotomy. When a foreign country attacks us, economically, socially, or militarily, we can impose tariffs and other sanctions on them. Or we can go to war with them. Or, we can simply surrender our way of life and everything we own. Choose your poison.
“There is no difference between communism and socialism, except in the means of achieving the same ultimate end: communism proposes to enslave men by force, socialism – by vote. It is merely the difference between murder and suicide.” A.R.
Jay, your coherence is beginning to sound like Biden in his later years. You’ve tried to say Reagan loved tariffs, you even tried to use Milton Friedman to defend tariffs in previous posts. Sorry, bub, but you’re comments make nonsense. Im just saying tariffs are a tax on US citizens. And if someone is going to criticise a local Vermont politician about taxes, they should weigh the same argument against trump, but they do not. Tariffs are a tax. And people like you think they help the economy and drive spending…. only because Trump says so. And that is a fact.
Re: :…if someone is going to criticise a local Vermont politician about taxes, they should weigh the same argument against trump,”
That’s precisely what I did, Rosato. I ‘weighed the argument’. You, on the other hand, breach your own sensibility.
Yes, we pay taxes… be they tariffs or income taxes, or sales taxes, or property taxes, etc., etc.. The question is, what do we receive in return for those payments? How do we weigh the risks and the rewards of each tax?
My property tax, for example, is my single greatest annual expense. So, what’s the return on that investment? We get what? Ever increasing education costs and more taxes, ever declining student outcomes, and an unqualified workforce. Never mind the taxes and fees we pay for energy.
On the other hand, I barely notice the cost of tariffs. In fact, I don’t notice those costs at all. And I defy you to demonstrate how tariffs cost you more than your property tax, for example.
Never mind that when we apply tariffs to certain goods, drug trafficking declines, human trafficking declines, our local businesses become more competitive in the world markets, more jobs become available here at home, our national security improves, and we improve foreign relations across the board without going to war.
I know…. I know. For you, facts are meaningless. In fact, you refuse to consider any of my referenced points as being factual. Which is probably why you never use facts to support your opinions.
If we asked small businesses in representative Cina’s district in Burlington if raising taxes was good idea, how do you think they would respond? 🙂
But, but, but how else can we financially support other people’s lives – their healthcare, their home, the food they eat, their income??
Geez……Socialism and its related Communism & Marxism work GREAT! Do you NOT see even the modern-day success stories amongst us such as Venezuela, Cuba, the former Soviet Union, China, North Korea, etc.
The United States of Amerika! It’ll work here just as well! Ask Cina and his democRat cheerleaders.
And yet what Cina FAILS to either know or publicly acknowledge was that for many years now – Vermont had consistently been one of the top five states within this entire nation to have a nearly entirely insured populace. In fact, some of the estimates over those many years demonstrated that well over 95% of all Vermonters held health insurance of one type or another.
For years as well, Vermont was also included in the top five healthiest states of the Union with a population that lived amongst the longest & had the least complications following most major surgeries.
Yet extremists like Cina nevertheless have pressed for Vermont’s healthcare system/policies to be largely dismantled & altered because it was somehow failed & broken, likely yet another system deemed “racist” and “discriminatory” and, true to form, determined to be in need of yet MORE taxes of some type seized in order to remedy. After all, democrats like Cina are always at the forefront of needing to fix things that aren’t or weren’t broken to begin with.
So, Cina, with the stats at hand that demonstrate up to 98% of VT residents already insured….just WHO are you including within your professed demographic of “Vermonters” who deserve insurance on someone else’s dime?
They haven’t historically been VT’s retirees, its second homeowners or newer transplant home buyers, its seniors, its veterans, its middle class or the wealthy – nor even most of its “native” poorer population.
Do ILLEGAL ALIENS (who are not and can NEVER be counted as “Vermonters”) or those within your “REFUGEE” programs or the steady stream of homeless and unemployed out-of-staters being attracted to this state for its overly generous “free” social programs & this state’s notorious reputation for not prosecuting criminals comprise the population you seek to demand health insurance for by any chance??
Of course it is. What else is new.
How about VDC attempts to be more transparent once you and your fellow scammers in the legislature do?
Hilarious to hear comments decrying taxes. I bet you enjoy two scoops of tariffs with that whine mixed in with your morning dose of hypocrisy. Thank you for a hilarious morning dose of disillusionment. Pointing the finger at a local politician while you gleefully soak in the fecal matter dispensed from your king’s warplane.
Yeah, as always very persuasive to hear the anointed mouthpieces attempting to protect their fav Vermont carpetbaggers through diversion and through defending yet MORE tax increases in this state possessing the:
42nd highest TAX BURDEN out of all the 50 states.
Thereby……… STILL waiting to hear who these masses of uninsured “Vermonters” are, CINA.
CINA….ya out there??
CINA…..Who are all these “uninsured” “residents”???
CINA…..Who do you define as a “Vermonter”????
I don’t know about that, but there are people out there, and you know who you are, that loved the fact that CBS changed Kamala’s words to make her look better and now the BBC altering Trumps words to make him look worse. I now see the hypocrisy that everyone loves to hate.
I see the Meme worked! Antagonizing those with TDS
Kind of funny that each time Jay mentions tariffs, Nick, you jump right in with your fecal obsession. I guess we all have our pet peeves.
Dan, you’re the lap dog enjoying the fecal matter. I’m the one calling it out as disgusting and unpresidential. And Jay will not admit that american consumers pay tariffs, despite video evidence on YouTube of citizens getting bills in the mail to pay tariffs. Dan, who do you think pays tariffs? The exporting country? The exporting business? I expect you not to answer and instead let J talk for you.
I am no one’s lap dog because I don’t believe everything on YouTube. Artificial intelligence can make you believe most anything, obviously. I recently downloaded the list of everything that Canada charged tariffs on that were sent to the United States. A list of over 1500 items. Most at 75% to 400% tariffs. So, I guess that if you really need deep fried Canadian Emu, you have to pay. And, we paid a small tariff charge on wool yarn from Great Britain. And no, I don’t agree with everyone that comments on VDC.
Oops, I was wrong, it is 5700 items on the list. If Canada adds a tariff charge to the dairy products they send us and we add a tariff charge on the hand turned wooden bowls we send them, it’s called a reciprocal tariff. The end.
Dan, i was 50% right. You didn’t answer my question about who pays tariffs. I’m still waiting for J to chime in. He believes american citizens unequivocally do not pay tariffs on imports not ever ever. And he also believes that to suggest that american importers pay tariffs is akin to… (insert Biden-era nonsense.) Dan, congratulations for being able to list off Canadian tariffs… a real exercise in AI research. Ask AI who pays American tariffs. Then post it here on this forum. If you don’t trust the answer, try a printed dictionary. If that doesn’t satisfy your palette, pound sand.
Per your request to Dan….
In the United States, tariffs are legally paid by the importer of record—typically an American company or its customs broker—when goods enter the country, and this payment is made directly to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
However, the economic burden of tariffs does not necessarily fall on the importer, as these costs are often passed on through the supply chain.
While importers bear the initial cost, they frequently raise prices on goods, shifting the financial burden to domestic businesses and ultimately to American consumers in the form of higher prices.
Economists widely agree that U.S. consumers usually end up footing most of the bill, although the exact distribution of the cost depends on market conditions such as competition, price elasticity, and whether foreign exporters absorb part of the cost by lowering their prices
Organicjuice, thank you for saying that which Dan and J are incapable. The burden absolutely falls on the importer. If anything else were true, the government would be asking for someone else to pay the tariff… someone else to write the check. Anyone who believes that which Dan and J believe might as well say “any increase in sales tax in VT is not on the burden on VT consumers. It is a tax on the people selling the products…. not the consumer. Therefore, prices will not increase.”
Not AI. Canadian Department of Finance.
Dan: I ask 3rd time: who pays tariffs?
Also, is Marjorie Taylor Greene now on your hitlist? I’m sure you hate her now…. for the only fact that trump hates her now. I’m sure you can’t stand her.
It must be lonely having to assume everything you think is right. You have little respect for any other commenters. Once again, anybody in the USA that buys anything from another country pays the tariff, usually in the form of inflated prices. Yes, yes, Americans pay tariffs in a roundabout way. Now, Canadians pay the tariffs on items sold there from the USA. If you were unsure about all of this, you should have checked AI. You happy?
Dan, I am so happy! Finally, a trump fan who admits that the burden of tariffs falls on american consumers! Soon, very soon, you will go the way of the dodo bird, also known as Marjorie Taylor Green. In the eyes of the trump regime, you have sinned! Brace yourself, the DOJ might investigate your ties with Epstein now.
2025-26 | November 13, 2025
Report from The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco
“…. we find that a [short-run] tariff hike raises unemployment (lowers economic activity) and lowers inflation.”
https://www.frbsf.org/research-and-insights/publications/working-papers/2025/11/what-is-a-tariff-shock-insights-from-150-years-of-tariff-policy/
“The inflation response goes against the predictions of standard models, …..”.
I know. I know. More facts. Go figure.
Straight from the political housekeeping procedural handbook: When challenged, simply refer to the provided script – insert plausible deniability with a heaping portion of rejection, projection, and deflection” It is found within the chapter of best recipes for “How to cook the books” and “Best practices for laundering” How to fold in and where to store offshore or within the confines of a zombie LLC .”
And don’t forget……that poster loathes & resents transplants plants moving into the state who have paid their taxes religiously and contributed to & volunteered within their new communities, but ADORES the democrat carpetbagging politicos who came into VT to specifically run for public office and change the entire state in every way imaginable.
Add hypocrisy to your list too Melissa……
The left/right paradigm is an illusion – a conjured mess of bs created to deceive – divide and conquer. I reject it and I rebuke it. I repent for ever believing any liar and deceiver who crossed my path and any I voted for in the past. Judgement Day – I can’t wait, but wait I shall…the closing Act promises to be spectacular.
LOL You nailed it! Your 9:19am post. It is a “Illusion”/deliberate manipulation, yet the Reality is real and affected… The Games people play….
There is a list of US Tariffs that came off today due to having accomplished their mission in the trade negotiations, Bananas and Coffee are two, which are not grown in US except for Hawaiian coffee which is much too expensive for most consumers anyway
Hahaha! The tariff on coffee and bananas accomplished what mission exactly? According to trump, tariffs are supposed to help american citizens. With that logic, why lift tariffs? With his logic, more tariffs is better. So why lift them?
What I didn’t see mentioned concerning raising taxes on corporations was the potential for expansion of the tax base to consumers out of state. For that possibility to work the corporation would have to remain in Vermont and would have to sell product out of state and to non-Vermont residents.