Congressman Hank Johnson and the IRS Offer Free Tax Preparation to African Americans and Others
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United
States Representative Hank Johnson, congressman from the 4th
Congressional District in Georgia, took a few minutes away from a free
tax filing service he sponsored with the IRS at a Goodwill employment
center to answer a few questions for rolling out. Topics discussed
included: President Obama’s first two months in office; the Chris
Brown-Rihanna domestic violence fiasco; the economy; putting people
back to work; and America’s changing sentiments about the
prison-industrial complex.
RO: What is your assessment of Barack Obama’s first two months in the Oval Office?
Congressman Johnson: I don’t think any other president has been faced
with these kind of internal and external problems at the very beginning
of his term. It takes bold and visionary leadership to address these
very complicated issues. … I like the direction that I’ve been voting
for in conjunction with the Obama Administration. If we can follow that
plan, we will come out of this economic morass that we’re in, [which]
developed over the time when we were relying on the trickle down
[theory] and … Reagan-style voodoo economics.
RO: What are some of the ways we can reduce Georgia’s and the country’s highest unemployment rate ever?
Johnson: It’s important that we continue to support reversing the
trickle down economics theories that we’ve been depending on and start
to rebuild the economy from the ground up —instead of … making it
easy for big businesses to get these large government contracts. We
need to change some laws and administrative practices so that small
businesses have an opportunity to get some government business instead
of the large firms [like] Haliburton [and] folks that have been getting
all the work and not doing a good job with the taxpayers money.
RO: What is your take on the Chris Brown-Rihanna domestic fiasco that has started a parade of rage across the nation?
Johnson: The Chris Brown-Rihanna situation is a great tragedy. Until I
hear everything and hear some admissions, I’m reserving my opinion
about that situation. As far as domestic violence in general … when you
are under economic stress, that promotes people’s agitation and their
inclination to strike out. And when people strike out — it’s usually
men — they strike out against their wives or girlfriend or partner and
we’ve seen this in families.
RO:
Media reports have unveiled that states are being crushed under the
weight of the mammoth prison-industrial complex? What are your
thoughts?
Johnson: This ‘tough on crime’ issue that people
have been relying on, [is] to divide people, to scare people and to
enlist people so they can vote for those who have been tough on crime.
That philosophy has yielded situations where we spend [more] on
incarcerated people … than … we devote to education. That is
something that I do not support as a former criminal defense lawyer.
I’m fully aware of what this is doing to our young people, particularly
in the African American community. When the offenders become
ex-offenders [and] when they leave the justice system after paying
their debt to society, they are severely handicapped. Employers won’t
hire them [and] you’re not eligible for student loans. … I’m looking
for Georgia – and the nation – to become more conscientious about the
effects on society.”
