Issues
A CEO on Jobs and Tax Cuts
A successful businessman – and Democrat – offers the view below on the tax-cut bill passed by the legislature and signed by Governor McCrory. The writer is Reid Overcash, who has been a business owner and CEO for four different companies. “There is no short-term successful strategy to creating jobs by reducing taxes. No…
Read MoreShedding Light on the Rhubarb
Most of the political pundits in the newspaper said the disagreements between the three tribes of Raleigh Republicans were ideological – they broke it down like this: Tribe #1 – Conservative; Tribe #2 – Less Conservative; Tribe #3 – Least Conservative. But a college professor (who’s usually dry as a bone when talking about the…
Read MoreTime for Choosing
So is this the direction North Carolina wants? More restrictions on voting and on women’s health care – and fewer on trash-hauling, landfills and fracking? Less help for people out of work, less health care for the sickest and poorest – and more tax cuts for people on top of the pile? Most of…
Read MoreA Mischievous Genie
Over a week ago in a newspaper story – after a day of women chanting “shame, shame, shame” – a Republican consultant declared bluntly House Speaker Thom Tillis had better support the Senate’s abortion bill or just about every Republican was going to be mad with him. Next, in the same story, a Democratic…
Read MoreTaxes, Jobs and Education
Thankful yet? You get a tax cut. And North Carolinians get more jobs. At least, that’s the theory. Cary Republican Rep. Nelson Dollar called it the “jobs bill of a generation.” Sen. Josh Stein, a Raleigh Democrat, called it “tax breaks for the wealthy and out-of-state corporations.” Here’s the economic question: Will…
Read MoreMalicious Magic
The other day Thomas Edsall of the New York Times reported that a terrible thing has happened. Since the Voting Rights Act passed, the number of Black state legislators has grown from fewer than 5 to 313 – but at the same time, Black political power has diminished. The problem: Most Black legislators are Democrats…
Read MoreA Gift to Democrats
Nine times out of 10 in politics, what you think is a conspiracy is just incompetence. So it is with the Republicans and abortion. Several TAP readers believe that all the GOP’s thrashing on abortion is a well-thought-out plan to pass new restrictions and avoid the political consequences. They may achieve the first…
Read MoreA Quirk of Human Nature
The other morning there was a picture on the front page of the News and Observer of a hundred angry women, every one of them mad as blazes, carrying signs, shaking fists and chanting, ‘Shame, shame, shame’ at Republican Senators who’d just passed a new abortion bill (that required abortion centers to meet the same…
Read MoreWhere Do You Stand, Pat?
Governor McCrory’s waffling on the abortion bill recalls the old mountaineer who listened to a slick politician give a long-winded, on-the-one-hand, on-the-other-hand answer to a tough issue. Finally, the mountaineer demanded: “Son, are you fer it or agin’ it?” McCrory shouldn’t kid himself that he can pass off the bill as protecting women’s health.…
Read MoreShades of Texas
Since Republicans stuck abortion restrictions on a bill about Islamic law, why don’t they go ahead and make women wear veils, scarves and robes? Apparently they’re inspired by Texas Governor Rick Perry. Now watch North Carolina women get fired up like Wendy Davis. This will be a test for Governor McCrory. Will he…
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