Who will your vote protect?

By Jim Thompson
HCP columnist

When you vote for president, who will your vote be protecting? The candidates (including the one I have endorsed, President Trump,) direct their comments at protecting you and your family.  

Forever, political candidates have directed their comments to appeal to your greed (I want more!) and your jealousy (I want as much or more than my neighbor!). I suggest we have reached the point where these issues are no longer the vital ones.

Take a look at the national debt. The national debt, as of this writing, is $35 trillion, or $105,000 for every living human being in America. In 2000, it was $5.6 trillion or less than $20,000 for every living human being in America. This increase has exceeded the rate of inflation by nearly three times.

I have ignored the calculation recognizing the 10 million or so illegals in the country who do not pay taxes but take services. Properly account for them and the situation is only worse.

Like pigs at the trough, we keep nipping at our fellow pigs beside us and going for more and more until the trough is empty. We expect our faithful feeder to continue to fill the trough, but the day is coming when that cannot happen.

You need to vote to protect the federal government before it is too late. Vote for federal fiscal responsibility, if you want to maintain your lifestyle in the future. For your children and grandchildren, the situation is even more dire if we continue down this path. 

You are seeing a bit of this happening on the local level. Regularly, the folks from Arc of Appalachia come to the county commissioners in Highland County announcing they have acquired more land. Why do they make these visits? Do they like the commissioners that much? Of course not, they are there to get a property tax abatement for their acquisitions.  

Who pays for this reduction in the property tax base in Highland County? You do. If you are a land owner, the property tax base must eventually go up in order to cover this land that no longer pays property taxes. If you are a renter, your landlord will pass this rise on to you.

I have read a number of stories over the years of these folks coming to your commissioners to take land off the tax rolls. I have never seen any pause, hesitation or allowance for time to calculate the impact on the tax base of Highland County. I have noticed the Arc of Appalachia imposes their own rules on the land they acquire (limited access, with hunting and fishing restrictions). They raise your taxes and then impose their idea of what rules should be in place on the land they took off the tax rolls. Nice work if you can get it.

It just so happens you have a nice little example of the federal government at work right here in Highland County, courtesy of the Arc of Appalachia. Yet, the federal government has many, many departments and zillions of regulations to impose their will on your life. The Arc of Appalachia is nothing compared to the federal government.

The only way this can be fixed is for you to eschew greed and jealousy and vote to protect our country in this year’s presidential election.

Jim Thompson, formerly of Marshall, is a graduate of Hillsboro High School and the University of Cincinnati. He resides in Duluth, Ga. and is a columnist for The Highland County Press. 

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