CARLTON FLETCHER: The cowardice of an old lie: Republicans cut taxes

“Lie to me, go ahead and lie to me.”

— Jonny Lang

The speaker of the Georgia House of Representatives, David Ralston, dug out this old chestnut when asked about taxing tobacco products in the state to help alleviate some of the dramatic tax shortfall created by the coronavirus: “Republicans cut taxes.”

(Maybe it’s the cynic in me, but that sounds a lot to me like Mr. Ralston meant something like, oh, “Republicans get too much kickback money from Big Tobacco to punish them for putting their deadly products into the hands of an unwitting public” or maybe “Republicans own Big Tobacco, and Republicans politicians need their support when election time comes around.” Or maybe even, “Republicans don’t care about all the thousands and thousands of people who die from tobacco products. I’m sure most of them are Democrats anyway.”)

Something like that.

If the House speaker were to do a little research, rather than shoveling the BS about how these God-fearing, right-thinking bastions of all that is good in America — i.e. the Republicans — are protecting Georgians’ pocketbooks by “cutting taxes,” he might be surprised to learn that more than 75 % of Georgians surveyed say they are in favor of raising the tax on tobacco products to help offset the shortfall that will land somewhere in the billions. And, given that Georgia is a very red — leaning slightly toward purple — state with a majority of its citizens registered GOP loyalists, the math would point to the fact that a lot of that 75 percent is made up of tax-cut-loving Republicans.

See, even those of us who are not very well-versed in high finance know that the only way to make up for the state’s lost revenue is to a) bring in more money or b) spend less money.

What Mr. Ralston — and Gov. Brian Kemp and others in the state hierarchy — are suggesting is that the state … hmm, let’s see … cut care to mental health patients, do away with state patrol and GBI personnel, cut back on education funding, all but end a program designed to reduce the maternal mortality rate … but let the tobacco companies get away with paying the third-lowest tax on their poison of all the states in the union.

Experts have conducted studies that show that raising the 37-cent-per pack tax on cigarettes to a national average of $1.87 per pack would raise between $485 million and $515 million a year in new revenue.

Here’s the irony: Those tax-cutting Republicans are willing to slash at least 11 percent from public health funding in the state, but they aren’t willing to increase taxes on a product that is the primary cause of poor health in Georgia to begin with. If they don’t have the guts to ban products that are not “suspected of” but are “directly responsible for” more deaths than anything else and cost taxpayers billions of dollars each year in indigent health care costs, the reason has to be one of two things: stupidity or money.

Using an old cliche that, truth be told, is a falsehood and, in this case, is not supported by fact, is one of the biggest cop-outs imaginable coming from a person whose alleged purpose for serving in the state government is to do the bidding of the people of the state who elected him to represent them. It is apparent that Ralston’s — and others who refuse to listen to reason and, more importantly, the will of the people — primary purpose in holding his lofty position is self-service. It has nothing to do with what an overwhelming majority of the people in Georgia favor nor what is best for the people’s health.

So, climb down off your high horse, Mr. Speaker. When it comes to a tax on deadly tobacco products, there is no altruistic Republican-ism that lets you off the hook. You’re just another coward who bows to the will of companies like Big Tobacco, who continue to pedal their poison with your blessing.