...so shouldn't we stop being distracted by national politics?
The percentage of Illinois mean and median household income taken for property taxes (a hyper-local taxation which has zero to do with Washington D.C.) vastly exceeds that paid in households all across America.
In my collar county region, over 10% of median household income living in a median value home is taken for property taxes. (BLS indicates around 3.4% of household income for property taxes is average).
Is it because our public schools achieve much better results? No, according to standardized test scores and other performance metrics, most Illinois public schools are average at best.
This suggests that we are not paying for quality, we are paying because the Illinois political industry has forced us to pay for the system crafted by them to enrich their narrow personal interests.
Taxpayers should devote a fraction of the time they spend studying national political theater on LOCAL politically-driven taxation malfeasance.
THAT is where the big money really is taken from taxpayers. And while you are distracted or not looking, that is where you will be bled dry over your own personal economic life-cycle.