Moron Trivia in Minneapolis

 

 

 

"Just when I thought I have seen it all, or read it all, along comes the newspaper with a new low in reporting..."

There are some things in life you can count on. Some things that never change. Take for example, our hometown newspaper. Written by morons, edited by morons. Especially in the opinion pages. They have taken some very odd stances in the past, but the one today takes the cake. It chided people like me (retired) for being selfish. You know, for thinking that taxing my social security and military pay is wrong. I should be ashamed. I am not. I am furious.

Just to be fair (as the local newspaper rarely is), let us look at the facts once again:

Social Security - Twenty seven states and the District of Columbia do not tax social security benefits. That is over half the nation. This includes such high tax state as New York and California. In fact, it is so common NOT to have social security taxed, there is NO provision when you file for social security to have state tax withheld. So if you are of normal income when you retire, your earnings exceed poverty level. You figure out your federal taxes on your return, and chances are you have escrowed correctly. However, since there is NO way to escrow state taxes out of your social security check, the tax man cometh, and cometh in a big way. To add insult to injury, you even have to pay a fine for "underestimating" what you should have had withheld for state income tax.

Military Pensions - The point the local newspaper made on this one was almost laughable. Thirty-nine states either don't tax military retirement pay or have some special considerations for those who draw it. Minnesota taxes the whole enchilada. The weak (and I must say weak) point the newspaper gave was "Military retirees already get a $750 tax CREDIT ever year, and have since 2009." When I read that, I felt like a fool. How could I have missed that on my taxes for the past six years? So I did some research. Yes, the credit does exist. However, you need to be DIRT POOR to qualify! Like making $30,000 a year! If you are drawing social security and a retirement pension, it would almost be impossible to make that little. And if you are married - FORGETABOUTIT!!!

The editorial concluded by saying (paraphrase), "We could give those selfish seniors an undeserved tax break by not taxing social security, but then we would have to tax the socks off the Millennials." In other words, it was the zero sum game again. One wins, then the other has to lose. Here is a newsflash to the morons who work at the newspaper - what about lowering the tax burden for everyone? What about becoming a tax friendly state instead of a confiscatory one? How about giving a damn about senior citizens who worked and toiled here for decades while paying ungodly taxes?

So to the morons who work at the paper as well as the morons who keep driving this state deeper into the tax ditch, we are watching you. We are not morons. We know the score. We know when to leave. The Mayor of Minneapolis may be trying to make this town into a mecca for well-heeled Yuppies who like to live vertically. For us seniors however, well - that is a different story. Like with ObamaCare, seniors don't count for much. That is, except for being an ATM machine for the state to use over and over again. But guess what - Yuppies may not realize it now, but they too will grow old. They will become seniors some day. And by the way, seniors are not stupid. You at the paper and in government may be, and I am very sorry about that. So please don't look to us seniors to help you with your problem, because.....YOU CAN'T FIX STUPID!