Taxpayers should question trips to defend Trump in person | ELAINE HARRIS SPEARMAN
“The only things certain in life are death and taxes.” This phrase has been repeated for time immemorial. This fact is very stressful for a great many people, because paying taxes is an inevitability. Sometimes the burden goes on for years with private property, businesses and other valuables hanging in the balance.
Much of what we see in American law came from England. There was such a thing as a debtor’s prison, which was abolished by the Debtors Act of 1869. I don’t hesitate to say that many people would languish in jail if this system still existed.
What does exist is taxation without representation. At many levels, anyone who can see will see the issue. All of us pay taxes to fund the government and its operations. Much of what taxpayers fund, they benefit from.
Although the everyday taxpayer has no real individual voice in what his taxes pay for, their wishes can be made known. Although there is such a thing as tax court, no person can arbitrarily decide what they are not going to pay for with their tax dollars.
What tax dollars are spent on, taxpayers are left to the wiles and wishes of those who are elected, or those who are ultimately appointed by a higher source at the local, state, and federal level.
Most Americans understand the system of elective office and how it works. In most elections, a party affiliation is declared. For the most part it is either Republican, Democrat or independent. There are other party affiliations that have yet to make a substantive mark on American elections.
The taxpayer is left to hope that those whom they have elected make good decisions about how taxpayer dollars are spent.
Every person who runs for office does not deserve to hold office and make decisions for the taxpaying public. We do not need to feel honored by every person who throws his or her hat into the ring. We would be better served if they chose something else to do.
Some of those who hold those coveted elective office seats have no regard for the reality that their salaries are paid by the taxpaying public, all of us. Some of those “buddy hustlers,” and those who wear political ambition on their sleeve dismiss the fact that they don’t just represent “their base.” Given the elective office that they occupy, they represent everybody.
Too many who hold office seem to believe that they are there to carry out their personal desires and beliefs that they have harbored for a lifetime.
When was the last time you took off from your job with pay, to follow your dream? While we hope that taxpayer dollars were not used, we all have common sense. Nobody walks to New York.
It is galling to see taxpayer-elected officials from the state level to the federal level, some political hopefuls for the vice presidency of the United States and others make a pilgrimage in lookalike clothing to New York City.
Why did they leave their posts? To attend a trial in New York involving a payoff to a porn actress by someone who desperately wanted to kill the details so as not to affect his chances to occupy the White House.
To show their support for the defendant? What about the rest of taxpaying Americans whom you trampled on while being employed by them.
America is in turmoil, Congress is floundering, elected senators and representatives are still Biden-hunting, and calling everything they can find a Democratic plot.
In the face of the world, a press conference was held outside of the courtroom in New York by the uniformly dressed (just like Donald Trump) elected officials and “wannabes.” House Speaker Mike Johnson led one of the press briefings. How in good conscience could he justify this pilgrimage when the state of Louisiana continues to lead the nation in “worst places to live?”
What must taxpayers in Louisiana feel when those whom they elected to in some way improve their state and their living conditions "buddy hustles" and wears ambition on his sleeves?
Taxpayers, not just political leaders, have a right to question how elected and appointed officials spend their tax dollars. People run for office for a myriad of reasons. It is not a charitable spot for unpaid volunteer service. Those who run and succeed need to be held to account.
Taxpayers hold the key to tamp down what we see. They have got to pay attention to whom they select to make decisions on their behalf.
Taxpayers in West Virginia had the good sense to say no to Derrick Evans as he brazenly tagged himself a “J6 political prisoner” in his run for the GOP nomination for the U.S. House of Representatives.
He served time, as he should have and is an admitted convicted felon. According to an earlier USA Today article he yelled “We’re in! Derrick Evans is in the Capitol!”, as he live-streamed crowds trying to stop the certification of President Joe Biden's election. Would you want this strategist to make decisions for you?
Elaine Harris Spearman, Esq., a Gadsden native, is an attorney and is the retired legal advisor to the comptroller of the City of St. Louis. The views expressed are her own.
This article originally appeared on The Gadsden Times: Political trips to New York City raise doubts | ELAINE HARRIS SPEARMAN
