Commentary by Tracy McCue, Sumner Newscow — Five Cueball thoughts, minus one, for April 14, 2013…

1. The bombshell

Oh, boy.

A month ago I got an e-mail from someone who told me a couple of Kansas City Star reporters were coming to Wellington to do a story about Sumner County because it was a “typical county in Kansas.” Yeah, right. I knew that was trouble. It is never a good day when big city newspaper reporters from faraway places or the crew from “60 Minutes” are in the neighborhood.

I kept trying to think “what did we do now?”

I had forgotten about the e-mail until this morning when the story came out in the Wichita Eagle, a sister publication of the Kansas City Star, about how dependent we Sumner County dwellers are with federal government despite our conservative nature.  The article can be found here: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/04/13/4180553/sumner-county-kan-like-much-of.html

A lot of people aren’t going to like the article, and I kind of wished some other county would have been featured instead of us because it puts us in the bullseye. But the article was accurate. There’s a fair share of hypocrisy in how we view government. We demand less of it unless it directly affects us.

This is a quote I will remember most from today’s article

“In fiscal year 2010, for example, the U.S. government spent roughly $189 million in Sumner County, almost $7,900 for every man, woman and child who lives here. That’s an estimated 40 to 50 percent more, on average, than each county resident paid in federal taxes.”

2. April 15

Obviously the above article was in the spirit of America’s saddest holiday: Tax day – when hard-working Americans simultaneously tally the money they made the year before, submit a federal and state return, and then literally take it up the shorts.

I thought about this the other day when Sumner County was contemplating a half-cent sales tax to help fund various health services. Of all the taxes levied on us, income taxes are the most unfair of all.

Think about it. With sales taxes, you are being taxed for purchases sold. You are making a choice to purchase sale of goods with your money, and so is everybody else. We are all participating on an equilibrium.

Property taxes are similar (except for those taking tax abatements but that’s a subject for another column). You are making a choice to purchase property and therefore should be taxed accordingly. It’s a less fair tax than sales tax because the burden of taxation lies strictly on those who have the ability to purchase property. But in principle it’s fair.

The income taxes, though, is penalizing people for working. It’s completely unAmerican and socialistic. You are being levied a tax for success.

And it’s the one tax we have so little control over. When is the last time we went to the polls to determine whether to raise “income” taxes to pay for a federal project? And what about the tax rates on income compared to sales and property? And that’s not to mention how the government can come around and tax you twice like for capital gains, etc.

3. Margaret Thatcher

Perhaps it is only appropriate that one of the world’s greatest leader, Margaret Thatcher, the Iron Lady, died last week as we prepare our income tax returns. Thatcher wasn’t much for governmental handouts.

Thatcher was the Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1979 to 1990 — the longest-serving Prime Minister of the 20th Century. She is attributed for turning around the country that was decimated by rampant high unemployment, state-owned companies and trade union influence.

She was Ronald Reagan in a dress but having even more influence over her country than her American counterpart. Thatcher deregulated the country, kicked Argentina off the Falkland Islands, hated Communists, and basically never wavered her position on self-reliance. She was eventually kicked out of office by members of her own Conservative Party because she failed to compromise.

Thatcher is a hero of mine. I have always had a soft spot for the rebels, who do things their way against the tide of political correctness or conventional wisdom. The fact Thatcher was able to accomplish all that she did being a woman in a man’s world, makes her even more intriguing.

4. Shout out of the week…

I’m going to give it this week to those hard-working individuals who are self-reliant who earn a wage based on the work they perform and pay their taxes accordingly. Despite our reliance on government, I’d like to think America still relies on the entrepreneurship and honesty as the backbone of our foundation.