Conversation starters
Excerpts of what our online commentators are saying:
U.S. TAX MIGRATION
IRS data show that taxpayers are migrating from high-tax states such as New York and California to low-tax states such as Texas and Florida. Over time, if taxpayers tend to migrate from high-tax states to low-tax states, and if people receiving government benefits tend to stay in place or migrate from lower-benefit states to higher-benefit states, then lower-tax states will accumulate more people with high earnings, while higher-benefit states will accumulate more people who live on the dole. It gets worse if high-benefits states are also high-tax states. Then states with high benefits will accumulate more people who draw on them, while shedding the taxpayers they need to support them.
Migrants from high-tax states might also bring their political attitudes with them. If I were one of those conservative billionaires, I might spend money on a sort of welcome wagon for blue-state migrants to red states. Something that would explain to them why the place they’re moving to is doing better than the place they left. Glenn Reynolds Professor University of Tennessee
AMERICA’S GUN WAR
We are engaged in a war in this country. On one side is a group that is successfully fighting to ensure that a discussion to find solutions never takes place: the National Rifle Association. On the other side are the families whose lives have been shattered by the devastation of gun violence. This is the fraternity my wife and I joined when a disturbed gunman shot my daughter Alison on live television.
I believe in Second Amendment rights. But rights carry responsibilities. After the 2014 mass shooting in Isla Vista, Calif., the state passed a reform that allows family members or law enforcement to petition a judge to temporarily remove firearms from a loved one. We don’t know whether a bill like this would have made a difference in my daughter’s case or in Oregon. But we do know that we must have an open and honest discussion about what we can do to reduce the number of gun violence victims. Andy Parker Father of Alison Parker, WDBJ7 reporter