When you lose senior citizens and you claim to be a conservative, you might want to rethink your policies. 1500 senior citizens gathered in Lansing, Michigan to protest Governor Rick Snyder's plan to tax their pensions as ordinary income.
“I’ve never been political, but this is a power grab,” said Jennifer Cherrette, 55, a Lansing-area retired state employee who said her pension is less than $20,000 a year. “And it’s not about the budget. It’s about our governor taking our money and giving it to big business. And now he wants those emergency managers. It’s wrong, and it’s not about the budget.”
She added, “This isn’t about old people, this about working America and killing the middle class.”
Retiree Bob Fox, 67, of Hartland, said the state should raise the tax on beer rather than tax his pension.
“It’s going to a tax cut for big business, that’s the problem,” he said.
Patricia Matlock, a retired Highland Park teacher, said she paid taxes on her pension savings and it would be unfair to tax her pension benefits.
The pension provision is part of the larger effort on the part of Michigan Republicans and Governor Snyder to cut corporate income taxes by 81% by increasing taxes on the poor, elderly and middle class by 36%.
As bad as Wisconsin governor Scott Walker is, Rick Snyder makes him look like Santa Claus, despite Snyder's efforts to paint himself as a non-partisan "problem-solver".
Michiganders have a response. They plan a peaceful takeover of the State Capitol in response to the ongoing efforts of Republicans to marginalize the people in favor of corporate "persons". It cannot happen soon enough. I wish them all good luck.
