Sondra Stein: Conserving privilege

Regarding the Feb. 2 letter “Careful approach beats playing politics”: State House Speaker Tim Moore has a very short memory.

In crediting state Republicans with fixing the “financial mess” created by “tax-and-spend” liberals, he seems to have forgotten that the whole country was plunged into the “Great Recession” in 2007 by the actions of a feckless Republican administration in Washington and was rescued by the careful policies of President Obama – a Democrat. Obama’s policies were limited by a Republican Congress that refused to restore more jobs by investing in repairing our public roads and bridges.

The major interest of our “conservative” General Assembly is conserving the wealth of the richest residents rather than investing in public goods that benefit all of the residents of North Carolina.

To pay for the tax cuts to the wealthiest North Carolinians, this legislature has cut funding for public education and higher education, refused federal assistance to expand health care to 500,000 low-income North Carolinians, cut subsidies for a new growth industry (solar) in order to subsidize an old polluting industry (oil) and gerry-rigged the state’s electoral districts and limited voting rights in order to conserve their positions in power.

I guess that’s what conservative government is about: conserving privilege rather than promoting the public good.

This story was originally published February 6, 2016 at 1:00 PM with the headline "Sondra Stein: Conserving privilege."