Babies and Bathwater

"I'm against ending the Income Tax. You are throwing the baby out with the bath water." - Massachusetts Public School Teacher

"Ending the state income tax would mean laying off teachers, police and fire-fighters, closing schools and shutting down road projects," claims Senate President Therese Murray.

She cautions,"We mustn't throw out the baby with the bathwater."

The Massachusetts Teachers Union's whisper campaign is littered with fear-inciting language and images against the income tax elimination initiative:

"devastation," "decimation," "gutting of public services," "massive layoffs of teachers, police, and firefighters," "closings of police stations, fire stations, schools, and hospitals."

'Don't You Dare Throw Out the Bathwater - or the Baby's Going to Get Hurt' - opponents warn taxpayers.

For hundreds of years, Western babies have been bathed in buckets, small barrels, or baby baths. This was safer - and it was easier to heat the water.

After the baby was bathed, the mother emptied out the dirty bathwater.

This common experience became an easily grasped figure of speech, a proverb:

Do not throw out the good with the bad, nor the desirable with the undesirable.

Do not throw out the necessary with the unnecessary, nor the essential with the waste.

Don't throw out the baby with the bathwater.

If a person can't tell the difference between a baby and dirty bathwater, he should not be put in charge of either.

If she can't show you which is the baby and which is the bathwater, would you let her bathe or care for your baby?

If he doesn't know the difference, if he can't show you the difference, why would you let him advise you on your baby and your bathwater?

Now let's consider the Massachusetts government budget baby - and the government budget bathwater.

The Massachusetts state government statutory budget is $28 billion (FY 2009). The state government also spends an additional $6 billion to $14 billion OFF-BUDGET each year. (Undisclosed, undocumented, and unreported to YOU: the taxpayer.) Total state government spending for this year? $34 billion to $42 billion.

Massachusetts towns and cities will collect and spend an additional $18 billion to $20 billion this year.

Total Massachusetts’s local and state government taxes and spending for the next year? $52 billion to $62 billion.

Governor Deval Patrick, Massachusetts state legislators, Massachusetts state government officials, as well as local government officials:

Show us the baby - and show us the bathwater.

Show us each government program baby - and each government program bathwater.

Show us each government program or service's cost baby - and each government program or service's cost bathwater.

Show Massachusetts taxpayers the bad, the undesirable, the unnecessary, and the waste in the government programs, services, and spending.

Taxpayers and voters are dead sure you've covering up and protecting massive amount of government bathwater.

"41 cents out of every tax dollar is wasted," said voters in an April 2008 poll. That's a massive amount of bathwater. But you just can't seem to put your finger on budget bathwater.

You hint or suggest or brazenly claim: there isn't any budget bathwater; there never
was any bathwater; there ain't never going to be any budget bathwater. And anyone who disagrees is a baby hater.

I don't believe you. I don't trust you.

Neither do the 3,000,000 Massachusetts workers and taxpayers that earn the money that you take, who pay the bills you make.

'Don't You Dare Throw Out the Bathwater - or the Baby's Going to Get Hurt' -- you and your allies tell taxpayers.

The first time I heard that remark, I gave you the benefit of the doubt. I assumed you were counseling taxpayers to be careful.

But now I'm wondering: Is it a warning - or a threat?

Our State Representatives had their chance to roll back the income tax level, and it was voted down. What do they expect? Massachusetts taxpayers are ready to toss out the bathwater, the baby will be just fine.

Memorial Day Tribute

In Flanders Fields
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

John McCrae (1872-1918)

Massachusetts Farmers Say No to N.A.I.S.

The purpose of NAIS is to provide 48-hour traceback of all animal movements. NAIS will not prevent diseases from occurring. It does not address animal management, such as feeding cow parts to other cows or the other practices of factory farms that lead to animal health problems. It does not prevent wild animals and insects from spreading diseases, nor does it protect against foreign animal diseases from being brought into this country through lax inspection of agricultural shipments. All it does is provide after-the-fact information on where a sick animal has been. So what does the government plan to do with this information?

Call it mature capitalism or call it something else, but the fact is that we have been steadily, inexorably moving to an industrialized, centralized food production system. It is a terrible plan, that could really discourage small farms while it encourages corporate factory farming methods.

There is not much time left. The animal tracking, logging, and reporting components of NAIS will come into effect nationwide in January 2009. The USDA has been authorized to engage in tough enforcement measures -- fines, inspections of properties, and confiscation or redistribution of livestock without trial or legal hearings and with no compensation to the owner of the animals. Failure to register your home or farm with a Premise ID already faces a $1,000 fine in some states.

Once fully implemented, the NAIS program would require every person who owns even one livestock or poultry animal (a single chicken or a pet pony) to register their property with the state and federal government, to tag each animal, and to report “events” to a database within 24 hours. Reportable events would include such things as a private sale, a state fair, or a horse show.

There was some doubt that this was a state issue, as the mandates are coming down from the federal level. Here in Massachusetts, N.O.F.A. has been active in helping friendly state legislators draft and propose legislation to stop state compliance with this program.

N.A.I.S. is currently voluntary at the federal level, which means that state agricultural Departments will be charged with implementing the NAIS, and the USDA has already allocated over $60 million to them to do it.

Clearly, the ball is in our park, at least for now. Other states such as VT have managed to pass legislation stopping state participation in the program, at least temporarily.

What can you do as a consumer? Patronize farmers who raise meat, milk and eggs in a way you support.

If you are interested in learning more, go to:

MA legislation regarding N.A.I.S.

List of Massachusetts Legislators who sponsored and co-sponsored legislation to stop N.A.I.S.

Here is N.A.I.S. First Step PDF and N.A.I.S. Fact Sheet

"It is difficult to imagine any acceptable basis for the (USDA) to subject the owner of a chicken to more intrusive surveillance than the owner of a gun." -Mary Zanoni