Editor explores the implications of Nikki Haley's governorship and sneaky money practices

By Connor de Bruler
debrulerc@mytjnow.com

Illustration by Courtney NIskala - niskalac@mytjnow.comI would gladly take Sanford back as South Carolina’s governor just to get rid of Nikki Haley.

Governor Haley is a money-grubbing backstabber to put things lightly. Every Neo-Tea Party conservative is. Not only has Nikki Haley lied on her federal income tax, according to The State (Columbia, S.C.), but she is now increasing health insurance costs for retired government employees as well as lowering their monthly pensions.

Wait, it gets better!

She increased her gubernatorial staffers salaries to  $110,000 per month. Money that they so obviously worked hard for. Money they deserve, right? Money we shouldn’t be allocating to college students or relief programs.

The whole mantra of America’s conservatives is that they want to keep their hard earned dollars. They don’t believe in income tax or any kind of “big” government; but, strangely enough, the people they tend to elect are miserly, upper-echelon gentry who increase the salaries of those around them and oppose any kind of taxes on the wealthy and help for the poor.

The Tea Party and indeed the majority of the Republican party is geared toward beguiling simple-minded people into believing they too can become rich, while the select group at the top pockets everything. They use Christianity to further their control of this country and hypnotize the masses like they used racism in years before.

Republicans are not politicians. They’re businessmen, crooked, racketeering amoral businessmen.

Washington refuses to allow the president to increase taxes on the rich. Oh sorry, the new terminology is “job makers” or “innovators.” Somehow, they believe taxing the rich will harm our economy, which is complete nonsense.

It’s part of Regan’s “trickle down” theory: Give the money to the rich and the wealth will trickle down. Any college economist will tell you it doesn’t work that way. The rich don’t pump money back into the economy, they lock it away and only buy crap rich people can afford.

The middle-class is the greatest consumer and stimulator of an economy.

A society without a middle-class is an unstable society. We’ve seen this time and time again throughout history. Just look at Brazil. It was once very poor in its metropolitan areas and infamous for its instability and danger. But a new middle class is forming, and the country has never been more prosperous. Now look back at the U.S. We’ve lost a huge chunk of our middle-class. Now we’re screwed.

This is a society. We are a community. Our members must participate. If the “rich” don’t want to pay income tax, I say we offer them a one-time payout contract where they pay one tax period’s worth of money and then agree to leave the country forever.

I hope that in the future voters from my generation won’t elect people like Nikki Haley into office. Politicians should be civil servants, not controllers. Until conservatives understand that they’re losing and being manipulated by their own party, nothing is going to happen.