You would think that in a state overwhelmingly run by conservatives, conservatives would feel pretty upbeat. Not necessarily so.
The Tennessee Conservative, a website that purports to speak for the right, seems perpetually aggrieved. Whether it’s complaints about illegal immigration, insufficiently conservative RINOs or gender issues, it delivers unabated criticism of the status quo.
With Democrats in the White House and in control of the Senate, it’s no surprise the national political situation might fluster the Tennessee Conservative and its followers. And the way the presidential contest has been reset – thank goodness – surely induces among them a severe case of the jitters.
But Republicans so thoroughly control Tennessee politics and policy that the only real intrigue at the state level for the November election is whether Gloria Johnson can limit her Senate loss to Marsha Blackburn to less than double digits.
(Here’s a prediction: no.)
I follow the Tennessee Conservative on Twitter (I know, I know) and occasionally read the “news” articles on its website, frequently perplexed by the agita expressed. It’s research for me, part of my effort to stay apprised of what the other side sees as problems and as solutions.
And something caught my eye the other day. It was a tweet delivered in all-caps, so I’ll render it that way here, though it amounts to shouting:
“AFTER THE AGE OF 65 YOU SHOULD BE 100% TAX EXEMPT. YOU HAVE ALREADY MORE THAN PAID YOUR DUES.”
Standard fare for Republicans, who believe that cutting taxes is the answer to every political and economic situation. And, sure enough, the responses were enthusiastic.
“GREAT IDEA!!!!” said Number Six. (If you’re a fan of “The Prisoner,” the 1960s classic British TV program, you get the reference.)
“I SECOND THAT MOTION!!” said JustACitizen. “Truth Bomb,” said a relatively reserved Billy Rae. “Start tax exempt at BIRTH,” suggested Key Largo.
This is not surprising. I doubt that Tennessee Conservative tweets draw a lot of attention from people outside the right-wing silo, other than those few like me who are just monitoring the opposition.
But then something happened that was surprising: I saw the exact same sentiment, also in all-caps, posted by a friend whom I know to be progressive.
Proof, I suppose, that bad ideas can have bipartisan support.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t love paying taxes. I don’t love paying for food, either, or gasoline or my mortgage or insurance or anything else. But that’s the way our society works, and I’m not aware of any functioning economic model based on things being free.
True, we in the over-65 cohort do catch some breaks. Lots of states or municipalities offer some kind of partial exemption on property taxes, for example. And many businesses have found it in their interest to extend “senior” discounts of 10% or so to customers, starting in some instances with people at age 50. Or, as I think of them, kids.
But nobody is inviting us to fill our shopping baskets and then walk out the door. It’s not economically feasible. Nor is it feasible for government to do what amounts to the same.
People 65 and older made up 17.3% of the U.S. population in 2022, Statista reports. That percentage is expected to reach 22% by 2050. Imagine the hit to public coffers – from the lowest governmental level to the highest – if all those folks got a free ride.
I’d like to see the fiscal report on the costs just at the state level. I suspect it would be beyond substantial. Are all the younger taxpayers going to have to make up the difference?
Of course, conservatives always have a different answer: Cut government spending.
Then they point their finger at foreign aid, say, which they think is something like 25% of the federal budget. It’s actually less than 1%.
Or they invoke the magical “cut waste” mantra, as if waste is a multibillion-dollar budget line item easily identified.
Or they rail about all the freebies handed out to illegal immigrants. Guess what? Undocumented immigrants are generally ineligible for federal benefits.
So whenever I hear proposals like those, I always ask one question: What government benefit are you personally willing to give up?
Joe Rogers is a former writer for The Tennessean and editor for The New York Times. He is retired and living in Nashville. He can be reached at jrogink@gmail.com