Pass it and it will grow

Bill Gates Sr. is on the TV in a series of ads promoting Initiative 1098. Mr. Gates is unwilling to honestly tell the voters what the initiative is about. Initiative 1098 institutes a state income tax, a word never used in the ad.

Mr. Gates assures us that this unnamed thing will only hit “them,” a measly 1 to 2 percent of the population. When the federal income tax was first adopted, it only applied to a few percent of the population also. Did it stay that way? Do the income taxes of other states only apply to 1 to 2 percent of the population? Given the rapacious desire of government for the citizen’s money, it takes a large amount of naiveté to believe a state income tax won’t be expanded during the next fiscal “crisis.”

Conferring benefits upon oneself at the expense of others usually requires mental games involving fairly base instincts. Voters should consider that, when directing envy and resentment toward “them” to justify taking what others have earned, there’s probably someone looking at you, planning the same thing.

Bill Manuel

Spokane