Brownwood Bulletin (Brownwood, Tex.), Vol. 112, No. 238, Ed. 1 Thursday, July 19, 2012 Page: 4 of 8
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Thursday, July 19, 2012
4 Brownwood Bulletin
Texas’ small businesses don’t need tax punishment
Last week, I set out on my annual bus
tour in Texas. I have taken a tour of
Texas every year since I entered the Sen-
ate, taking me thousands of miles across
this glorious state and every one of our
254 counties. This is my last year as a
US Senator, and nothing highlights the
reasons I chose to represent my great
state better than spending time with our
people. Texans are strong, resourceful,
innovative, self-reliant, kind, open and
world-famous for friendliness. Texas is a
destination for everything from barbecue
to cutting-edge science and technology,
and that is a reflection of the people -
richly diverse in so many ways, but shar-
ing an inimitable and unique Texas spirit.
But this is not an easy time in Texas,
which, though not as bad as many other
states, still has a sluggish economy with
high unemployment.
I went to Washington to ensure that
the American Dream would stay alive
for every Texan. But we find ourselves in
a new era, where the promise that hard
work and dedication will translate into
success is in jeopardy. The economy is
sluggish, recovery is stagnant and unem-
ployment numbers won’t budge - they
haven’t been below 8 per-
cent in three years. And
now the Administration is
proposing a tax increase
that would slam small
businesses when they can
least afford it - and when
we need them the most.
Small businesses drive
our economy, providing
some 55 percent of private
sector jobs. In the midst
of the most uncertain
economic environment in
recent memory, punishing
them with higher taxes
is incomprehensible. Even talk about
raising taxes paralyzes business, as the
uncertainty about economic burdens
stops owners from hiring and reinvesting
capital to grow their businesses.
Our economy can’t sustain that kind
of deprivation of revenue, and the 23
million underemployed and unemployed
Americans can’t afford a longer hiring
freeze.
The people I met with - families,
small-business owners, veterans - are
the people I think of as I try to secure tax
fairness.
On my tour, I met with members of the
community in a number of small busi-
nesses: in Marble Falls at the Blue Bon-
net Cafe, in Fredricksburg at the Clear
River Soda Fountain and in Uvalde at the
famous Vasquez Restaurant, where I had
a wonderful afternoon with my hosts,
Enrique Vasquez and Donald McLaughlin
of DKM Enterprises, a local steel salvage
and distribution company.
Vasquez Restaurant is the perfect
example of a great American small busi-
ness. It was founded in 1935 by Enrique’s
parents, Mr. and Mrs. Jesus Vasquez. En-
rique took over and has kept it a Uvalde
institution. Sgt. Maj. Enrique Vasquez
served in the U.S. Army and fought in the
Korean Conflict - pictures of his time in
Korea and Japan adorn one of the res-
taurant walls. He is one of Uvalde’s most
recognizable locals and can be found
in his restaurant every day working the
lunch shift.
The tax increases proposed by the
Administration will hit businesses like
Vasquez Restaurant. Why? Because 75
percent of small businesses pay taxes at
an individual rate, as they are organized
as “flow-through” businesses, such as
partnerships, S Corporations, LLCs and
sole proprietorships. The Joint Commit-
tee on Taxation estimates that 53 percent
of all flow-through business income will
be subject to the top two individual in-
come tax rate increases scheduled to take
effect in 2013.
This increase is an unfair burden
on hard-working Americans. Sgt. Maj.
Vasquez’s parents started a business,
worked hard and made it a success. Sgt.
Maj. Vasquez served his country, took
over his parents’ business and made it
an even bigger success that provides jobs
to locals and is a fixture in the commu-
nity. It survived the Great Depression
and 11 recessions and is working its way
through a 12th. These tax hikes punish
businesses like Vasquez Restaurant in
already tough times, starve the American
economy of revenue and deprive job-
seekers of opportunities. I hope that the
administration will heed calls from both
parties to re-think this tax on our job-
creators.
Kay Bailey Hutchison, a Republican, is
the senior U.S. senator from Texas.
Kay Bailey
Hutchison
EDITORIALS
Camp puts focus
on military kids
Camp Corral under way this week at the Texas 4-H
Conference Center at Lake Brownwood is not only an
outstanding community service project for Golden
Corral restaurants, the choice of a camp in Brown
County is most appropriate, and in keeping with the
mission of the endeavor. Few places in America can
claim to be more supportive of men and women in
military service and their families than Central Texas.
“Camp Corral is all about the kids,” the project’s
website states. Anyone who spends a couple of hours
watching the Texas 4-H Center’s staff work with the
young people attending Camp Corral will verify that
point.
The youngsters who are attending the camp here, as
well as other camps being held this summer in Geor-
gia, Ohio, Virginia, Kansas, North Carolina, Florida
and Colorado, are children of American military he-
roes. It’s for the children of brave soldiers who have
been injured or fallen while protecting America’s
freedom. Many of these children might never be able
to share traditional summer camp activities like boat-
ing, swimming, hiking, archery, wall-climbing, nature
skills and team building exercises without Camp
Corral.
Needless to say, these youngsters may also develop
friendships that will last a lifetime.
And of course, the week’s stay at Camp Corral
comes at no charge to the families involved.
Brown County residents have seen the difficulties
military families endure even in good times. But when
a parent suffers a serious injury, times really get
tough. Recovery is not an easy process, and it is just
as difficult for the spouse and children, along with
their extended families. Loved ones of Andrew Put-
man and Cody Williams, to name two, are currently
experiencing that, and the community has stepped
forward to be of whatever support they can be.
Both are Brownwood natives who joined the service,
became medics, and who were seriously injured in
Afghanistan. They are now recovering in the United
States.
Camp Corral offers a week of excitement and joy
for children whose family life is anything but normal
because their parents are facing similar trials. We
wish them a great week, and nothing but happiness in
the weeks and months ahead.
Brownwood Bulletin
7/19
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Warning: This may cause drowsiness
Most of the prescriptions I have ever
gotten warn me not to drive, operate
heavy equipment or use a chainsaw
while taking the medicine — which
was never a big problem when I was
young and lived in Manhattan. I didn’t
own a car or a chainsaw, and operating
heavy equipment was so far out of my
comfort zone, it wasn’t even an issue.
Pretty much the same for light equip-
ment.
I thought the only people who owned
chainsaws were serial killers and Mafia
enforcers. When watching the news
after a hurricane or tornado had hit
some unfortunate town, it always
seemed strange to see homeowners
emerge from their houses lugging gi-
ant chainsaws and start cutting apart
fallen trees. Where did they learn how
to use them? How often does this town
get hit by tornadoes? If it’s a regular
thing, I’m not sure owning a chainsaw
will solve the problem. Maybe there’s
something about chainsaws that at-
tracts tornadoes.
But now that I live in a real place that
is not Manhattan, a place where people
drive cars and live in houses with
yards and operate heavy equipment
for a living, I realize that a chainsaw
is a handy thing to have around. I’ve
learned that even a garden-variety
thunderstorm, the kind that will never
make the national news, can leave a lot
of downed tree limbs in its wake, most
of them in my backyard. My chainsaw
has paid for itself many times over.
But as I get older, along with most of
my friends and neighbors, I now take
lots of medicines all the time, not just
for a week while something gets better.
Nothing we have now is going to get
better. All the medicines we take, we
take to keep things from getting worse.
And they all seem to have side effects
and warning labels.
The caution not to operate heavy
equipment and chainsaws is still very
popular, but one is new to me. The
warning on a common medicine taken
by almost 100 percent of the residents
of places with names like Sun City
and Valley of the Sun says, “Avoid
exposure to direct or artificial sunlight
while on this medication.”
Isn’t this why old
people who take this
medicine move south
in the first place — to
spend time in the sun?
And what does “arti-
ficial sunlight” mean?
Are we supposed to
live in the dark?
The next bottle says
this drug “may cause
dizziness.” But that’s
OK, because the doc-
tor gives me another
medicine for the diz-
ziness. It says, “Do not
eat grapefruit while
taking this medicine.”
I can live with being
dizzy; I’m not sure I can live without
grapefruit.
Several of the medicines say they
should be taken with food, while
some say they should not. One says it
shouldn’t be taken for an hour after
eating a meal high in fiber. I nearly
missed that, as the warning is writ-
ten in letters so small that you need a
microfiche to read them.
It’s a medicine mainly for the read-
ing-glass set. Maybe someone should
explain to my pharmacist that eye-
sight, as with so much else, does not
get better with age. I notice the amount
of my co-pay is printed in large, easy-
to-read numbers.
It’s funny how health care is the one
thing we pay for without knowing its
price before we buy it. I know people
who will go to a different supermarket
to save 15 cents on a can of peas and
people who will drive miles out of their
way to buy gas that’s 3 cents a gallon
cheaper. But when they get a bill for
$1,783.62 for a test they can’t remem-
ber taking at a doctor’s office, they pay
their share (or the whole thing) without
complaint. After all, that’s why they
call them your “golden years.” Because
that’s what it costs to live during them.
Jim Mullen’s newest book, “How to
Lose Money in Your Spare Time — At
Home,” is available at amazon.com.
You can follow him on Pinterest at pin-
terest.com/jimmullen.
Village Idiot
Jim Mullen
OTHER VIEWS
U.S. apology makes it
easier for our troops
Secretary of State Hill-
ary Clinton wisely called
Pakistani Foreign Minis-
ter Hina Rabbani Khar
recently to express re-
gret over a U.S. air strike
that killed 24 Pakistani
soldiers last November.
She also issued a
statement saying, “We
are sorry for the losses
suffered by the Pakistani
military.”
As a welcome result,
the Pakistan government
agreed to finally re-open
crucial supply routes and
border crossings that
NATO forces need for
their continuing mission
in Afghanistan.
Another result: Some
Americans are again de-
crying what they at times
fairly regard as President
Barack Obama’s misguid-
ed impulse to apologize
for America when no
apology is warranted.
But in this case, the
administration said it
was sorry only after a
diplomatic standoff,
which lasted more than
seven months, over that
U.S. air strike.
And for what it’s
worth, Clinton’s state-
ment did not include the
words “apologize” or
“apology.” ...
The gratifying suc-
cess of that operation,
prudently launched
without warning to
Pakistani officials, can’t
erase President Obama’s
foreign policy missteps,
including his continu-
ing failure to slow Iran’s
march toward a nuclear
arsenal.
And certainly the
United States shouldn’t
make a habit of saying
we’re sorry when we’ve
done nothing wrong.
But as the current
commander in chief has
learned over the last
three and a half years,
it’s much easier to criti-
cize a president’s foreign
and military policy deci-
sions than to make them.
And while saying “we
are sorry” to Pakistan
leaves a sour taste,
knowing that it will help
U.S. and NATO troops
makes that bitter medi-
cine easier to swallow.
The Post and Courier of
Charleston
Gene Deason
Editor
Amber Kennamer
Graphics/Design
Wesley Davis
Press Room
Juliet LeMond
Advertising Manager
Karen Wade
Business Manager
Marty Baker
Mailroom
700 Carnegie Street
Brownwood, TX 76801
Phone: (325) 646-2541
Fax: (325) 646-6835
On the web:
www.brownwoodtx.com
(USPS 068-040)
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published daily every Tuesday
through Sunday morning by
Brownwood Newspapers, Inc., at
700 Carnegie, Brownwood, Texas
76801. Mail correspondence to
Brownwood Bulletin, P.O. Box
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Deason, Gene. Brownwood Bulletin (Brownwood, Tex.), Vol. 112, No. 238, Ed. 1 Thursday, July 19, 2012, newspaper, July 19, 2012; Brownwood, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth741201/m1/4/: accessed July 13, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Brownwood Public Library.