Three migrants, a woman and two children, drowned Saturday in the Rio Grande in Eagle Pass, Texas – very recently the epicenter of the migrant crisis – just days after state authorities blocked the US Border Patrol from accessing miles of the US-Mexico border, according to a post on X by Rep. Henry Cuellar.
“This is a tragedy, and the State bears responsibility,” Cuellar, a Democrat from Texas, said on X, formally known as Twitter.
The congressman said Border Patrol learned a group of six migrants were in distress in the Rio Grande at about 9 p.m. on Friday.
Border Patrol called the Texas Military Department, the Texas National Guard and Texas Department of Public Safety but “were unsuccessful” at relaying the information by phone, Cuellar said in the social media post. Federal agents then went to the gate at Shelby Park, set up by Texas authorities, to provide the information, Cuellar said.
“However, Texas Military Department soldiers stated they would not grant access to the migrants – even in the event of an emergency – and that they would send a soldier to investigate the situation,” Cuellar said on X.
TX has very high Taxes, just no income Tax.
This is an important point.
Here’s a map of tax burden by state:
https://wallethub.com/edu/states-with-highest-lowest-tax-burden/20494
Income tax isn’t everything.
Even this map though isn’t quite telling the whole story. If you’re in a state like Texas relying on things like sales, excise, or other regressive taxes for the majority of tax revenue, lower income people will be paying a higher share than richer people. Income tax is progressive, so lower income people pay lower rates. Whereas your sales or excise or other regressive taxes are proportionally hitting lower income people more than higher income. So the states without income tax are often the hardest on people with low or middle incomes. Not to mention that taxes may be paying for a more robust social safety net that you may need at some point.
“Income tax is progressive” should be, but the wealthy have been given break after break and loop holes to avoid paying making the Income Tax far more regressive than it was Sixty Years ago. Add in the no services as there isn’t money to pay for them and you’ve got the perfect environment for keeping wage slaves from gaining anything.
It’s funny how conservatives idolize the 1950s but never mention the top tax bracket in the 1950s was taxed at 91%.
Great data thanks for sharing. I had to reference stats like this during a recent argument with family about taxes. The conservatives have done a great job convincing people that states like Texas and Florida are some sort of taxless wonderlands. We live in Pennsylvania, when I showed them that the Pennsylvania tax burden was lower than Texas in most metrics they shut up real fast. As we enter this election cycle, we all need to be backing our arguments with data like this. While they might not acknowledge they are wrong, it MIGHT get them thinking.