No willpower to stop deficit spending – There are 100 days until government funding runs out. Even with budget ceiling cuts Congress is still spending beyond its revenue. With no propensity to raise taxes or reduce spending the deficit will increase from $32T today to $50T by 2040. Exacerbating the problem are Medicare/Social Security payments that will default within 10 years.
Neither Congress nor the President have the willpower to reduce spending and upset their constituency. Democrats support increasing entitlements; Republicans want more defense spending. Washington is never motivated to balance spending to tax revenue but just prints money when short. Fiscal discipline must come from outside of Washington.
Families balance their home budgets as should Congress. Our founding fathers gave us a tool to hone in Congress called the Convention of the States…(COS). Thirty-four states can call a convention to offer a balance budget and term limit amendments to our Constitution. Proposed changes must be adopted by two-thirds present at the convention and require approval by 38 states to be added to the Constitution.
Pundits claim opening the Constitution could attract nefarious constitutional changes from special interests’ groups like making a living wage a right. With the amendment approval threshold set so high by our founding fathers states could easily reject such unreasonable changes.
Twenty-one state legislatures have approved calling a COS and several more are considering it. Without change our economic system will likely collapse. Only COS can provide a check on Washington and restore power to where it belongs: the states. – Frank Mazur, South Burlington
Too taxed to stay – My Montpelier property taxes are going up 45%, my pension gets taxed, my Social Security gets taxed, part-time job gets taxed, I pay to feed lunches to wealthy children in Chittenden County (sorry, South Burlington students no longer allowed to order Grub Hub or Door Dash anymore)… Oh and Act 60 allowed me to pay to educate my brother’s children as he pays less property taxes than I did… Life in Vermont sucks!
Yes, I’m moving to NH and going to sell my house to a flatlander way over market price. Maybe they can pay for state pensions and support all the non-profits… – Maurice Martineau
Categories: Opinion
Most of us would leave this state if we had the funds and AFFORDABLE HOUSING.
The private sector/free market determines housing prices. If you want the government to determine it, stay in Vermont as that’s where it’s going or move to Communist China. And just as an aside, how is the supposed lack of “affordable” housing now preventing you from leaving Vermont, to begin with?
Not sure why people cannot comprehend how Real Estate market values work. UVM is a huge draw in Chittenden County as a major employer and a teaching hospital that brings in white-collar jobs & professionals. Hence, homes are thereby desirable, and prices go: UP. See how that works? The fact that there is a waterfront contributes to high property values. People who like the waterfront aren’t criminals either.
Want lower “affordable” home values? Try Bennington for just starters: 2,000 square feet and up begin as low as $200,000….low enough for you, or are folks looking for houses $60,000 and under? Sorry, but the year 1959 has come and gone even here in VT and Alabama. And when looking there, be sure to take some anti-nausea pills when you see how Bennington has hung pride flags up & down Main Street to celebrate July 4th(????????) And don’t forget to genuflect at the BLM lettering painted on a public roadway either.
Want to instead try even way HIGHER home values than “Vermont”? Try the Cape of MA or in the suburbs surrounding L.A. County, CA., or the eastern end or North Shore of L.I., NY! Seriously……how hard is this all to understand???
We do not live in a socialist country and most rational people don’t want to. If you change your mind, there are plenty of countries to choose from. Enjoy the unending rows of high-rise tenements you have that offer “affordable” housing there.
Enjoy your 4% tax savings. I’m guessing you’ll have a list of complaints about New Hampshire before long.
https://taxfoundation.org/tax-burden-by-state-2022/
Hey Brian,
Hope You enjoy Socialism as I put $ 18,000 back in my pocket after moving to NH and have a Republic instead of WOKE politics
In state income tax savings? Hard to believe. I’m guessing maybe you downsized and are counting your property tax savings.
Exactly, it is the socialist progressive agenda aligned to the United Nations agenda, which is destroying this state and inflating our taxes. Education in the his state and the rest of this country is driven by UNESCO, OECD and other UN partners, in partnership with the Biden Administration. I would leave in a heartbeat but my husband refuses to abandon the sinking ship.
I’ll take 4% over zero regardless of other complaints, which there are many in both places!!
Thinking about NH myself, but it does have a Boston problem. Too bad, Vermont has a lot going for it… beautiful, good farm & food culture, good self-defense laws, general lack of gross strip mall development… but the communist wokies are really going to wreck it, and it doesn’t look like voting is going to stop them.
New Hampshire may be the last State in New England that isn’t completely insolvent. Their population is nearly 1.4 million compared to VT with roughly 645,000 (2021.) Cities south of Concord generate the most revenue and all the secondary residences around the Lakes Region and White Mountains generates even more revenue. Seems the areas north of Grafton County or running along the CT river are less prosperous than the rest of the State. New Hampshire definately manages to attract more tourism and more business than Vermont. Their political climate appears more balanced and so far able to fend off the woke nonsense taking over their government. Must be their water supply isn’t as tainted and chemical-laden as Vermont’s?