Kansas lawmaker opposes ‘encouraging the behavior of purchasing food’ with lower food taxes

[unhappycamper]

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/05/24/kansas-lawmaker-opposes-encouraging-the-behavior-of-purchasing-food-with-lower-food-taxes/



Kansas lawmaker opposes ‘encouraging the behavior of purchasing food’ with lower food taxes
By David Edwards
Friday, May 24, 2013 10:11 EDT

A Republican state lawmaker in Kansas says that he opposes cutting the taxes on groceries because it would be a form of “social engineering” that encourages people to buy food over other items.

The Kansas state Senate on Thursday voted to cut the state sales tax on food from 6.3 percent to 4.95 percent, but Sen. Jeff Melcher (R) led opposition against the measure, arguing that it would lead to people eating more.

“It seems to me we are encouraging the behavior of purchasing food and discouraging the behavior of purchasing anything else,” Melcher reportedly told his colleagues.

The lawmaker pointed out that the state already had programs to help get food to poor people, and that creating two different tax rates would be additional “complexity” for retailers.

[KansDem]

1. Someone must have left the fluoride pipe on...

Topeka, Kansas, Urged To Remove Fluoride From Drinking Water To Protect Legislators' IQs

A Republican group in Kansas wants Topeka city officials to remove fluoride from the city's drinking water in order to preserve the intelligence of legislators in the state's capital.

Citing concerns about the chemical's impact on IQ, the Kansas Republican Assembly, a conservative group that has campaigned against fluoridation, is sending a letter to Topeka's top leaders urging that the city's fluoride pipe be shut off during the annual legislative session. A draft of the letter and the minutes of the group's January meeting where the proposal was made surfaced on the KRA's website in recent days.

--more--
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/15/topeka-kansas-flouride_n_2697306.html

It must be very difficult to protect something that's not even there...

[pscot]

12. He's right to be worried about IQ

if the Kansas legislature is any indicator.

[SnowCritter]

2. The mind boggles!

Do these <choose your own derogatory term> listen to themselves? Do they understand what they're saying? I know - stupid questions.

[Chipper Chat]

3. Kansas republicans should propose letting cars idle 24 hours a day

so that more carbon dioxide would fill the air because........
pure clean air only encourages people to breathe deeply.

[tanyev]

4. Yeah, just look how no tax on food in Texas has turned the state into a socialist paradise.

[kristopher]

5. Ijit.

[Ed Suspicious]

6. Sounds like another "tax-and-spend republican."

[abelenkpe]

7. Republicans must have a contest going

On how to appear the most heartless.

[Historic NY]

8. Ah, the new Republican programs,

buy shit and then die because you have no food. He must have China owned DNA coursing through him. Apparently he hasn't bought a lot of food, often enough to see how much it costs.

[Half-Century Man]

9. Can't Republicans do simple arithmetic?

Or do they tend to buy an entire years worth of groceries at once?

This walking waste of an education claims that lowering the tax on food as far as to allow the purchase of an additional half pound of 80/20 hamburger for every hundred dollars is encouraging food over other vital goods.
Pray tell sir, what market is so unstable that an extra $1.35 per $100.00 in food is the tipping point?

Or, as it seems to the rest of humanity, are you just speaking to make sure we know you haven't died yet? Go back to your office, surf porn and stop bothering the rest of us.

[Voice for Peace]

10. He likely thinks people already have more than enough money to buy plenty of food

as if most of us weren't counting pennies
at the end of the month, wondering if it
would be too extravagant to buy a treat;
and we shouldn't be encouraged to buy more,
in case it makes us fat, which he probably
could care less about.

[Half-Century Man]

11. Most months we get to eat out once

but not always. We have to go to 4 food pantries a month and we get food stamps.

All because in the middle of a good run at middle class, I made 2 stupid choices. First, I demanded my pay keep pace with inflation. Second, I decided to contract leukemia due to chemical poisoning at work.
My company was forced to close shop and sell the entire kit and caboodle to a man they financed overseas, to protect the corporate assets.
I selfishly chose to survive the leukemia so I could be, in my own small way, a driving force in destroying America. My years of military service, contributing to United Way, and participating in the economy through work and consuming, were just to lull America into a false sense of security.

[Voice for Peace]

14. augh

that's some rough times.. but you are alive!! good choice!!

[brooklynite]

13. Well, eating IS a choice.....just like being Gay.

[hamerfan]

15. Unfortunately,

I live in this goofball state. This is the first I've heard of this proposal and it doesn't surprise me at all.
I used to live in South Dakota, which has no tax on food or services (at least it didn't used to), and it didn't "add complexity" for them.
Sheesh!

[BadgerKid]

16. New framing: Why are you against cutting state tax revenue and lowering costs for consumers?

"Complexity"? What nonsense. I expect retailers to use computers these days, Mr. Lawmaker. A simple software upgrade should take care of it. That in and of itself creates a business need, which you and other R's generally support.

Cutting taxes on groceries means less revenues for the state, which generally R's support.