I’ve always loved the films that featured con-jobs. Especially successful cons. Everyone remembers Oceans 11. Or, how about that great flick starring Ryan and a very young Tatum O’Neal, Paper Moon? Great stuff. Don’t forget George C. Scott as the flim-flam man. But my very favorite of all the con-job movies is The Sting. Starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford and featuring the memorable music of Scott Joplin, this was the feel-good con movie of all time. Redford is a small time con artist whose partner, Luther, is murdered by the henchmen of a Chicago mobster because he conned a runner for that mobster out of a day’s numbers money. The mobster is played by that great character actor, Robert Shaw (who will always have a warm place in my heart for that great scene in Jaws where he and Richard Dreyfus are getting drunk and trading shark war stories). In this movie Redford travels to Chicago and enlists the help of Paul Newman. Together they set up an elaborate sting complete with a betting parlor and phony Western Union Office. They lure Robert Shaw into placing a huge bet and then have the place raided by make-believe FBI agents. Of course, to make the con complete, they stage a phony shootout between Redford and Newman in which they kill each other. Now the mobster is out not only his money but also his opportunity for revenge as he thinks that both his antagonists are dead. That’s the point: The best cons are those in which the mark never realizes he’s been conned.

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Dave Kessler is completing his first term as state representative in the 130th District. He won his seat demagoging the tax issue by promising gullible constituents the elimination of school property taxes. Of course, irresponsible tax elimination schemes are right out of the Republican play-book. Most recently they were successfully employed by one Christian Leinbach in his bid for County Commissioner. Unethical tax behavior is the Republican Party’s stock in trade. The only problem here is that Dave Kessler is supposed to be a Democrat.

The problem with telling people what they want to hear as opposed to what they need to hear, (besides the basic dishonesty of it, of course), is that once you get elected you are stuck with that agenda. When reelection time rolls around you have to put lipstick on this pig and take it out for another date. Dave Kessler is doing just that. If you go to Dave’s website and click on issues you get an interesting peek at Kessler-World. Dave lists four issues on his website with school property tax relief as number one. He starts out his discussion with ” Property tax relief is a very complicated issue.” That’s funny, Dave. When you were running for office I don’t recall it being a complicated issue then. You were just going to eliminate school property taxes as we know them. When you saddle yourself with a ludicrous mandate like this, I guess it’s necessary to buy time to keep the con going through the next election. Making it complicated does that.

Actually tax reform of any kind is not complicated at all. You need “x” amount of dollars to continue funding what you’re doing. Since Dave makes no educational spending cuts, the revenue needed to fund our school system after the “reform” is the same as it was before the “reform”. It’s revenue neutral. So the term “tax cut” is really a misnomer. It’s really a tax shift. It’s about who pays more and who pays less. The total is the same. Progressives in the FDR tradition want to shift the burden upwards. They operate on the principle that those most able to pay should pay at a greater percentage than those least able to pay. Conservatives, especially in the era of Reagan through Bush, have wanted to free the wealthy of their tax burden and place it on the backs of the working class. They have been remarkably successful in enacting a series of tax cuts that do just that. The Dave Kessler plan is one of those.

So how does Dave propose to pay for the elimination of the school tax? He mentions impact fees for developers before he gets to the crux of the matter: ” We need to reconsider an expansion of the sales tax…..” Dave wants to take the school property tax which taxes people on the value of their house and replace it with a tax in which everybody pays the same percentage. The rich person with the giant house will have his taxes reduced while the poor can help make up the difference with an increased sales tax. And don’t forget those renters. Those not able to participate in the American Dream of home ownership can now contribute to the tax reduction of the wealthiest among us. Doesn’t it make you feel proud to be a progressive?

Speaking of the school tax, Dave goes on to say, ” With the monies saved by the elimination of such taxes, Pennsylvanians will have more disposable income, a good portion of which will be for products and services offered by businesses.” How would that be, Dave? You haven’t reduced the cost of the school budget to Pennsylvania residents. You’ve just rearranged which Pennsylvanians pay what. The total of disposable income is the same. Just different Pennsylvanians paying different amounts. In general, it’s wealthier Pennsylvanians paying less, poorer Pennsylvanians more. Should warm your heart if you’re a progressive.

But Dave does give a fig-leaf for any progressive gullible enough to buy it: “We need to create a graduated income tax to offset the balance of the monies needed to replace the property taxes.” Of course, this would require a constitutional amendment. Then we would all have to pray that our esteemed state legislature would do the right thing. Fat chance. These lapdogs have been doing the bidding of the wealthy as long as I’ve lived in the state. Anyone who carefully reads Sylvia Baylor’s column, Keystone Scorecard, in CS2 knows that our do-nothing legislators would not act on behalf of working families. Dave knows that. He’s hoping you don’t.

There are plenty of progressive tax reforms that could be proposed if the state does amend the constitution and allow taxing at different percentages. For example, you could tax houses that are over 3,000 square feet at a higher percentage than anyone else. They are houses that use a greater percentage of the world’s resources to heat and cool and whose owners are thus leaving a greater carbon footprint behind. Those owning houses of this size would be those most likely to be able to afford the increase. Then you could take the monies gained and reduce or eliminate the school tax on those over 65. This would help enable retirees on fixed incomes to stay in their houses and not be pushed out by taxes they can no longer afford. That’s progressive because it pushes upward for the needed revenues. Kessler pushes down on the general population with his sales tax increase.

The other items on Dave’s website list of issues are: Encourage Rejuvenation of Downtown Areas; Improve Public Education; Preserve Open Space & Farmland. I think he should have added support Mom and Eat Apple Pie. As far as this list goes, it’s fine. What’s not fine is the 8000 pound elephant in the room. Health Care is not an issue to Dave Kessler. Not one word on the issue page of his website. This man looks at the world and ignores the preeminent moral imperative of our time.

It’s not like Dave has no recourse here. There’s a single-payer bill in the PA House that has 37 co-sponsors, representatives that have summoned the courage to stand against the special interests. Representatives that have thrown down the gauntlet and sided with the people against the predatory insurance companies who threaten the economic well-being of every American family. Dave hides behind the conservative nature of his district. As if conservatives aren’t worried about losing their health insurance when their jobs are being exported overseas. As if conservatives aren’t outraged by the capricious denials of insurance claims by companies answerable to no one. As if conservatives approve of insurance companies telling doctors which drugs they can prescribe.

So what’s it going to be, Dave? Are you going to tell us that this too is very complicated? Because clearly it is not. It’s a question of morality. Either you feel that comprehensive coverage is the right of every American citizen or you don’t. You show up at the single-payer event in Lancaster a few weeks ago. Not to endorse. Rather to hype your Rodale Initiative. Now don’t get me wrong. I’m all for organic, locally-produced food. But a mother can’t take her children to the doctor and pay with the Rodale Initiative. The Rodale Initiative is to the health care crisis what Nancy Reagan’s Just Say No Program is to the scourge of drugs. A drop in the ocean. It’s way past time to buck up a little courage and do the right thing, Dave.

I’ll tell you one thing our rep didn’t find too complicated to accomplish in his first term. Fundraising. I got an email the other day inviting me to a Dave Kessler fundraiser. It was very interesting. If you wanted to sit at Dave’s table you had to ante up additional money. I think Dave should have called the event Pay To Play with Dave Kessler. For a moment I thought about going. O.K. I really didn’t. That’s the inside game. I’d rather play the outside game and talk to Dave’s constituents about single-payer. Someone’s got to. Dave sure as hell won’t.

Well, I’ll close with an admission. I have a certain grudging admiration for Dave Kessler. Think about it. The conservatives in his district know he’s one of them. The progressives think he’s one of them. That’s quite an accomplishment. As they say: The best cons are the ones in which the mark never realizes he’s been conned.

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