Subscribe to Common Dreams News Updates
Most Popular This Week
Popular content
Today's Top News
Maine Librarian's Pointed Budget Message Hits the Mark
Some might have looked at the long lines of people waiting to testify on Gov. Paul LePage's proposed budget and decided it wasn't worth it.
After all, you can wait hours for your turn to speak.
And when they finally do invite you up to the microphone, you get only three minutes.
Kelley McDaniel, who got the attention of lawmakers during a budget hearing Wednesday, is an award-winning librarian who also connects with students at Portland’s King Middle School. And while there may be strength in numbers, it's easy to wonder after a while whether those weary legislators on the Appropriations Committee -- or any of us, for that matter -- are truly capable of absorbing all that testimony over one full day, then another, then another ...
I got that feeling Wednesday afternoon as I sat at my desk with headphones on, listening online as a seemingly endless procession of Maine citizens decried all that's wrong with the governor's $6.1 billion spending package for the next two years.
Some, understandably, sounded nervous.
Others apologized in advance because they had colds.
Still others, bless them, tried to cram too many words into too little time and had to be gently coaxed into conclusion by Sen. Richard Rosen, R-Bucksport, the committee's co-chair.
Then along came Kelley McDaniel of Portland -- No. 48 on the day's speaker list.
She's a part-time librarian at King Middle School -- and a very good one at that.
She drove to Augusta with her 11-year-old daughter, Aedin, in tow because Aedin is on King Middle School's debate team, loves politics and dutifully met her mother's condition that she write a letter to each of her teachers explaining why listening to her mom testify at a state budget hearing was at least as important as a day in school.
Talk about a teachable moment.
If politics these days is all about what the experts call "driving the message," McDaniel spent all of her precious three minutes in the fast lane.
She told the committee that she recently won a national "I Love My Librarian" Award from the Carnegie Corp. and The New York Times -- an honor that included a check, made out to McDaniel, for $5,000.
"I plan to report that money on my income tax and I expect to pay taxes on it," she told the lawmakers. "Even though I donated the money in its entirety to the public middle school where I work."
You heard that right.
She gave the whole five grand, after taxes, to her school. If you live in Portland, that's your school, too.
It was only the beginning.
McDaniel said she's "happy to pay those taxes" because the way she sees it, taxes are "like membership dues" for being a citizen of this great state.
She said that while she gets lots of things (education, health and safety, arts and recreation) in exchange for those "dues," she realizes "I may not personally benefit from everything that tax money is used for."
She has no problem with that. As McDaniel put it, "I try to trust that elected officials will spend money to the best benefit of society and not just to a handful of individuals."
Then, without missing a beat, she turned her attention to the budget.
She talked about how, over there, the budget contains $200 million in tax cuts -- including an expansion of the estate-tax exemption from $1 million to $2 million -- that largely would benefit Mainers who aren't exactly scraping to get by.
And how, over here, that loss of state revenue is more than offset by $413 million in various curtailments on benefits earned by retired state workers -- many of whom, like McDaniel has at King Middle for the past 11 years, served long and nobly in Maine's public schools.
Observed McDaniel, "I don't understand the rationale for this proposal."
She said she doesn't buy the idea that the tax cuts, putting significantly more money back into the pockets (or portfolios) of Maine's wealthy, will stimulate the economy.
Citing reports from the Congressional Budget Office, McDaniel said "the best way to stimulate the economy is to give modest increases to the poor. Wealthy people tend to hold on to their money, while poor people tend to spend it as they get it."
Then McDaniel, as those experts might say, "re-framed the issue."
"I don't think it's a moral decision, because taking money from people who don't have much money and giving it to people who have more money than the people you took it from seems, well, greedy," she said. "Greed is frowned upon in every major world religion -- and I don't think agnostics and atheists look too kindly upon it, either."
She wondered aloud, "Is this about a quid pro quo? A gift from elected officials to wealthy people who have donated, or will donate, to election and re-election campaigns?"
Finally, as the clock wound down, McDaniel dropped the hammer.
"It's not economically sound. It's not morally sound. And I think you know that," she said. "I would be embarrassed to support something so ludicrous -- taking from the poor to give to the rich.
"Maybe you're testing us, checking to see if we, your constituents, are really paying attention, really listening," she continued. "I hope that's what's going on, because the alternative involves me losing faith in representative government, in democracy and in you, the elected officials."
Not once did her voice waver.
Not once did she cross the line between on-point and off-the-wall.
And not once did she sound like she was feeling sorry for herself.
Truth be told, McDaniel decided to testify in honor of her stepfather, a retired high school social studies teacher who, like so many in this state, struggles to fit rising health care costs into a painfully fixed income.
After McDaniel finished, the packed hearing room erupted into applause. Rules being rules, Chairman Rosen reminded them that cheering is not allowed.
But as McDaniel gathered her daughter for the ride home to Portland, a proud young Aedin said she noticed something about her mother's testimony that she hadn't seen with the other speakers.
"All of the people on the committee -- they weren't on their computers or looking at their papers while you were talking," Aiden told her mother. "That's because you were using your teacher voice."
A teacher voice.
Now more than ever, it's worth a few minutes of Maine's time.
78 Comments so far
Show AllShe got the Truth out there. Now will they pay attention to her "teacher voice" or will they bow to the ones with the money? We shall see...
Keep in mind that ever since Raygun's 1986 income tax "reform" the $5,000 she is donating can be deducted from her taxes only if she itemizes, and then only within limits.
Obama is telling us he is shooting for another 1986 style income tax reform that we all know will further limit the few deductions available to non- corporate entities, while giving corporations even more tax breaks, just like the 1986 "reform" did.
A better plan would be to just take the politician's power to manipulate taxes and favor classes by scrapping the U.S. tax code and IRS, and then adopting the FairTax (see www.fairtax.org). With the FairTax everybody is treated the same, regardless of whether they're rich or poor. It removes the temptation to enslave wage earners in order to support non-earners and taxes everybody without regard to social status.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if 15 April were just another day?
By the way, raydelcamino, you spelled Obama right, but somehow you missed Reagan. Interesting.
It goes slowly, but everyone who speaks about what is real, and moves even one person toward it, has a cumulative effect on consciousness that simmers under the surface until one day it breaks through into action. "They" may not pay attention to it, but "we" will, and we outnumber them tenfold. We should never give up telling it like it is.
Is there any question what they'll do?
"The most important things to say are those which often I did not think necessary for me to say - because they were too obvious."
Andre Gide
It's fantastic that she was able to make so many telling points so cogently.
However, a true teaching moment involves having 'students' who are interested in learning.
Truth only becomes effective truth by repetition. In the 'market place of ideas' you can drown it out by repetition of falsehoods.
That's what all the master propagandists from Goebbels to Edward Bernays to Karl Rove to Rupert Murdoch understand. The forceful multiplication of simple falsehoods creates social 'truth'. This is the quintessential 'truth' of Madison Avenue and all mass politics.
Yes, this woman spoke the truth and this journalist was perceptive enough to repeat it. People visiting Common Dreams are attuned to hear it.
The plutocracy will seek to drown it out in a tsunami of noise. She said, 2 plus 2 equals 4 ... but they will shout 2 plus 2 equals 5. And they have the accountants and economists to prove it.
Sometimes though they cannot spin it and let's hope -- (and strive) -- to make this one of those times.
"If we understand the mechanism and motives of the group mind, it is now possible to control and regiment the masses according to our will without them knowing it." Edward Bernays
I'm with Gide on that, Randy. No need to be too clever. Stuff like "war is insane" or "education is fundamental to human welfare" may seem obvious, but must be repeated until the ideal becomes the reality.
I LOVE this woman's passion! We need more like her. WOW.
on a side note: I don't think she has to include that $5,000 in her gross income It wasn't awarded by her employer and it meets all the narrow exceptions to be excluded from gross income under statute. The following requirements must all be met to exclude prize money from GI:
1. Prize was received in recognition of educational/literary/civic achievement
2. The recipient transfers the money to a qualified government unit or NPO
3. The recipient did not solicit for the prize ('I Love My Librarian" kinda self-explains)
and 4. The recipient is not required to render substantial future service as a condition of the prize.
Granted, the GI exclusion would only help her tax liability if certain filing conditions apply (itemizes, adverse affect on GI tests, exceeds ceiling on charitable contribution deductions), but the check should be for the full $5k, If she itemizes, and if the school qualifies, she could itemize it as a charitable deduction.
Prior to Rygun's 1986 income tax "reform" she could have deducted the $5K as a charitable contribution even if she did not itemize.
Obama is now proposing "income tax simplification" in the spirit of Raygun's regressive 1986 "reform" that expanded corporate tax breaks and increased taxes for wage earners in the name of "simplification".
This is why we don't get anywhere. While this woman is telling the PTB what for, we're arguing about tax code. It's minutiae, and we're bogged down in it. Why aren't we out in the streets like the Wisconsinites? Where are the picket signs saying, "Down with LePage?"
The right wing is screwing us and making our lives miserable. You know what we're going to do about it? We're going to have MEETINGS to decide what we're going to do about it. We're going to make PowerPoint presentations, and charts and graphs. That'll show 'em!
I thought it was a helpful aside by an accountant(?) who sees the human story behind the numbers. He is trying to help one of us, a soul sister. We have to keep each other strong.
If you have ever raised a child, created an artwork or built a movement, you know that a lot of it is minutiae, and that attending to banal or even unpleasant details is part of every worthy endeavor. But you are right that we should not forget the goals, dissipate the energy or let the passion be swamped by slogging through endless technicalities.
Taxes are membership dues in our democracy which pay for services and programs we choose through elected representatives in Congress and state legislatures...the Maine librarian showed why acknowledging this is so important.
Right-wing conservatives have been shown to have disdain and contempt for the foundations of our nation's self-government which is only possible through taxes...taxes that should be seen as the membership dues in our democracy.
"That's because you were using your teacher voice."
This is why teacher's are amongst those first against the wall.
Or, if not put against the wall, among the first slated for salary cuts and job elimination.
same result, different method
1st because they aren't bribing the politicians not to.
1st because they aren't bribing the politicians not to.
1st because they aren't bribing the politicians not to.
Bravo to Kelly McDaniel and to Bill Nemitz of the Portland Press-Herald.
Why do people begin with Goebbels as the first modern master of propaganda, when in his famous speech Goebbels acknowledges that it was from Pres. Wilson's WWI propagandist, Walter Lippmann, that he learned the craft?
Hey, I have no problem with sticking Lippmann in there. Chomsky and Herman used one of his key phrases "the manufacture of consent" for the title of their book on the subject.
No disrespect by omission meant to Walter for his contributions to the field.
A refreshing, positive, human interest story. What makes me sad is that there are many wonderful people in our country/world, who are not being listened to; who are right and telling the truth and ignored; who have values that contribute significantly to their society; who want to help, to change the world for the better. All of these along with all of those, will go down with the ship. The best with the worst. So much change and good things for all could come from having these bright, honest people in positions of leadership (not power and control) in government.
"there are many wonderful people in our country/world"
Amen Inanna. That's what keeps me going.
Only 6 in 10 voting age Americans bothered to show up to participate in the 2010 mid-term elections.
It would appear that the American rich are determined to destroy the very foundation that allowed wealth to be created in the first place and that the working class can't be bothered.
Staying home watching Dancing with the Stars is turning out to be a very expensive inactivity.
Could it be that too many Americans have already lost faith in a representative democracy. Two choices each election, both put forward by private clubs [Supreme Court has ruled]? Hell we have more breakfast cereals to choose from. If you are not a Republican or Democrat your can't even get into the public debates. I think the Green Party candidate in California was arrested for trying to enter the Governors debate in 2010. Too many candidates make the elections "too messy," they argue.
Congressional Districts are too big to service the electorate. Unless you are a Lobbyist or a wealthy contributor, try getting in to see your "Representative."
We need to wake up or we will regret having to live in the nightmare.
Mapczar, I think your comment is spot on about the low participation of voters. I can't stress enough how I was raised as a voting civic participant and have done so over the last 32 years. And argued with others over this beginning about 15 years ago. But even I am at the point of withholding my sanction of the election process at this juncture. These are not contests, they are not elections, they are not polls to find the popular will over policy or representation. The suffrage system in our country is broken. I feel sick even considering not voting this April but I can't even get verification of quantity of paper ballots issued to our polling place. I won't touch the electronic crap with a ten foot poll. When I asked for my paper ballot in Nov. election, I was told they had run out. It wasn't even 3 pm and we had been told turn out was average. "They didn't issue us that many" and " those paper ballots are terribly expensive" When I asked the City Clerk who was present and the two ladies that had been "manning the poll since it opened" exactly how many were issued, they didn't have a number. When 3 other people picked up on that as well, we all filed a formal complaint with the Election Commission. Still no response from the county, city or state level. One of us was escorted out for repeating the question several times at a Common Council meeting and the local papers won't publish the editorials submitted. Of course there's way more details than this to the story but it gives the picture. I think the only meaningful participation left for me on voting day is to disrupt proceedings, no doubt violating others' rights as mine have been violated. And they say they don't know where the terrorists come from, that it's just a mystery why those "others" would hate "us" for "our freedoms".
If not already happily married, I'd propose to her.
That's my high school librarian! (She has since moved)
Too bad the librarians can't fine the corporations for every day they're overdue with their share of the tax money.
@Paranoid Pessimist --
What exactly is the fair share for corporations?
Would someone please explain to me how LePage came to be elected as the new governor of Maine? Was it a particularly stupid example of anti-incumbent fever or what? He seems like such an intolerant horse's ass. I have been to Maine and loved visiting and meeting the people there. I felt that there was some real alternative politics in evidence there and was impressed by the general quality of life. Where did this guy come from?
Many of us here in Maine are asking the same question. But then, again, where did W Bush come from?
Three things happened here:
1. There was a 3-way race between LePage(R), Libby Mitchell(D), and Eliot Cutler(I). LIbby Mitchell has been in Maine politics forever and had nothing much to offer. Eliot Cutler was a relative newcomer. LePage was left standing.
2. There was a political hit job foisted on Cutler by a team of Republicans and Democrats that scared the inchoate of mind away from him.
3. LePage had/has the backing of the Tea Party and their obscure deep pockets.
4. (There's always more than 3 things), Maine is really no different from the rest of the nation. We have our share of wacked voters. While we like to think we're smahtah and more "out ahead," we're really not. As such, the saying "As Maine goes, so goes the nation" has been reversed.
Nothing new to see here. Move along.
I dunno. Maine's pretty far ahead of most southern and midwestern states depending upon the issues. Thanks for sharing the info by the way.
This is an inspiring story, but it leads nowhere because there is no enforcement mechanism. In the late 60's and early 70's, alongside the legions of Baby Boomer activists, there were those who were willing to put their lives on the line to confront the brutality and stupidity of the state.
Those in power had the choice of listening to calm, reasoned voices like Ms. McDaniel, or dealing with those for whom 'any means necessary' wasn't just a slogan. The smorgasboard of advances a few generations ago relied on this logic. Today, the left offers tactics that are easily withstood or ignored outright.
Politics hasn't changed much since the time of pharaonic slaves. Time to revise the playbook.
O.K., that did choke me up a bit. Not that the librarian's message got through to any of those lunkheads, but that she showed her daughter the importance of doing your research and speaking out from your heart. What a lucky little girl!
Next time you go to the polls vote for someone like Kelley McDaniel instead of the incumbent. Democracy is supposed to be government by the people not by the elite.
Nice.
The entire world could use more, lots more, people like her: with the conviction and intestinal fortitude to call 'a spade, a spade'. Bravo!
Too bad our tax money is being used to bomb people on the other side of the world. My opinion is that it is an act of nobility and patriotism to NOT pay taxes. Starve the arrogant empiric beast! And charge the banksters and the politicians that have taken money from them with treason.
I agree. A few people not paying taxes will go to jail to frighten the rest, but millions of people not paying their taxes will bring them to their knees. Instead the obvious lame narcotic of voting, which does not seem to work... thank you very much Obama for pointing that out to us, we need a more effective means to gain attention to how we hold the power.
It's a non violent form of protest that has never been tried before.
It's new, it's fresh, it's effective.
Hit 'em where it hurts.
Is there by any chance VIDEO of this?
Spread the word:
Government has reached a point where the problems it has created, it can not solve.
I love you, and God bless you, whatever God may be, he/she/it/they bless you me dear... my darling Kelley. We, all of us, each of us, would be wise to follow your example, to follow your lead.
Unfortunately, women like Sarah Palin get the spotlight and not women like Kelley McDaniel. Why is it that intelligent speech is frowned upon and actually demonized by the "right"?
You might figure out what's going on if you have intelligence... I truly believe the right wing would love for us all to be dumb & fearful. Thankfully there are women of wisdom who are not afraid to tell it like it is (and I DO NOT mean Sarah Palin). I wonder what it would be like to have someone like Kelley McDaniel as President?
Ms. McDaniel's point about "taking money from people who don't have much money and giving it to people who have more money than the people you took it from" is ignorant, to say the least and it smacks of class envy.
Providing a tax cut has nothing to do with taking money from those who've earned it and everything to do with allowing those who earn their money to use it as they see fit.
Ms. McDaniel did a good job speaking in favor of the age-old arguments for re-distribution of wealth, which has never worked and never will. She simply rephrased the Karl Marx credo -- "From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs" -- and that does not earn her kudos for anything other than her ability to speak without wavering.
Hooray for her ability to speak.
Boo for her misguided message.
Yo witless, please DO stop.
With budgets everywhere relying on borrowed money to make ends meet now, you had better believe that tax cuts have everything to do with taking money from the lower classes and giving it to the super rich.
Boo on you for foolishly failing to understand that those who make ridiculous incomes don't need tax breaks.
Hi, Tucson Don --
Thank you for your amusing response. It is typical that those without a meaningful argument resort to name calling (e.g., the person who misspells President Reagan's name).
You appear to be looking at taxes differently than I. I look at tax cuts as allowing the person who earned the money to keep more of it, rather than having it taken (by threat of force, by the way) for redistribution. On the other hand, it looks like you view tax cuts as the government giving up something that belongs to it.
I am not advocating tax cuts just for the rich, but for everybody. What's wrong with that? Is it fair to penalize one person with higher taxes simply because that person has made different choices, which have allowed them to make more money? I am for fairness, which is why I support the FairTax (see www.fairtax.org). The FairTax taxes every person in America the same, so there are no special favors, fewer incentives for greedy politicians and bureaucrats to enact laws that favor special interests, and no forced redistribution of wealth from those who've made the right choices to those who haven't.
By the way, what do you have against rich people? Why don't you think that the person who earned the money should be able to do as they please with it?
It is their property, after all, and property rights are one of the most precious necessities of any viable society. Why not cut a guy some slack and let him keep what he's earned instead of penalizing him for not being slothful?
Bit of a twit, seems that a definition of position is required to determine some serious understanding.
Let me get this straight...If I own a business and work my ass off 80 hours a week and manage to finally make, clear, say, $100,000 income from it after working several years at it, so I get taxed, say the current roughly 21% probably. So I give up 816 hours of work, 10 to 20 weeks of my hard work. And the other guy gets an inheritance and invests tax free money that eventually earns him $100,000 a year income. Is it really fair that he has no sweat equity in this? and will likely not pay near what the other guy does. Doesn't seem fair. People earning less than what it costs to have decent housing, decent education including college, decent transportation, decent health care,
and a decent lifestyle, should not have to pay any taxes. With plenty of good jobs available because everyone paid taxes. A reason for only working part time for instance, children, one parent family, health, or attempting to start a business, or just plain lazy...some of us like a less demanding lifestyle, so...where was I?
Absolutely Right ON the Mark!!
I honestly don't understand the position that if "unearned" income is taxed at a progressively higher rate the higher it goes, that those folks wouldn't invest the money. (The quoted distinction being that they didn't have to trade any of THEIR personal limited resource: their time in exchange for that money)
I say there are only 4 things you can do with money, and really there are only 3, as you will see: 1 you can burn it. Not too many folks doing that, despite its fiat status. 2. Spend it. Result: Helps the economy. 3. Invest it. Also helps the economy/businesses if done for the long term; otherwise it's legalized gambling of another form. 4. Save it. Result: The banker invests it & loans it out, thus helping the economy.
Either way I strongly believe that unearned money should be taxed at a higher rate!