“SOME PEOPLE GET THEIR KICKS…STOMPIN’ ON A DREAM…”

4/25/10

So the saga of the tax returns of Bill Brady, GOP candidate for Illinois governor, continues. (See my two 4/21/10 posts, DON’T SHOW ME YOURS AND I WON’T SHOW YOU MINE and IXNAY ON THAT LAST MESSAGE.) Mr. Brady caved in to pressure from Governor Pat Quinn (Caving into “pressure” from the likes of Pat Quinn (no relation) is almost enough to disqualify one perhaps not from public office in these times when a degree of poltroonishness seems to be a prerequisite for political office, but certainly from being taken seriously. That, however, is another issue.) and released his tax returns, albeit briefly.

Mr. Brady’s returns showed that he paid no federal income taxes for 2008 and 2009 due to a disastrous 2008 for his construction business and a provision in the Obama stimulus package, a provision that was not by any means a radical departure from established tax law, that allows carryforwards of business losses to subsequent profitable tax years.

Predictably, Governor Quinn and his accomplices were all over this piece of information. Mica Matsoff, a Quinn spokeswoman, opined

“The original Tea Party’s rallying cry was ‘no taxation without representation.’ Apparently, Senator Brady misinterpreted this line as ‘no taxation for elected representatives.’”

The Governor himself castigated State Senator Brady for failing to pay “his fair share.”
At the risk of sounding impolitic, all I can say in response to Mr. Quinn’s latest baying is “What a dope,” or, more temperately, “What a disingenuous windbag.” Mr. Brady paid no federal income taxes because he actually invested his own money, started a business, employed lots of people, put his own financial well being on the line, and lost a lot of money in a down economy. He had the guts to actually go out there and provide a product that people wanted so much they were willing to pay for it, a concept completely unfamiliar to those who make their livings (How can I put his nicely?), er, living off the public treasury. If Senator Brady, rather than operating a business, merely went to work for the government full time and drew a paycheck from the taxpayers, he, like Governor Quinn, whose familiarity with real work is at best transitory and in the distant past, would have paid income taxes. But a lot of people wouldn’t be in the homes they currently occupy and a lot of people wouldn’t be putting food on their families’ tables.

Perhaps in Governor Quinn’s febrile designs for the perfect world, we should all go to work for the government or a fat and happy mega-corporation that draws most of its sustenance from its “relationships” with the leeches that make a career out of “public service.” But small business people’s taking big risks made America great once upon a time and if there is any hope for our economic future, it lies in the continuation of the entrepreneurial spirit. Without the willingness of entrepreneurs to take risks and chase dreams, our economy would grind to a halt and the public till would run dry. Then whence would these estimables draw their substantial public salaries?