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1. Obama’s National Sales Tax
2. Utah Delegates: Beware of Bridgewater
3. Rep. Wasserman Schultz; Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire
4. Comparing two Pennsylvania polls
5. Failure to Communicate Threatens Giannoulias Campaign
1. Obama’s National Sales Tax
President Obama is vetting a new national sales tax (commonly referred to as a VAT) to extract more wealth from the private sector to sustain his insatiable hunger for more government spending. Former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker and current Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke have commenced a vetting strategy to convince Americans that they need to give more and more money to an every-expanding and bloated federal government. Congress needs to just say no to a VAT — and increased taxation — as part of any pitch by this Administration to balance the budget.
Volker and Bernanke have used a two pronged strategy to vet the VAT. First is fear mongering. Bernanke argues that Americans need to choose between higher taxes or massive cuts in critical government programs. He mentioned Social Security, Medicare, Education and Defense as areas of government spending that would be targeted if we don’t raise taxes. This is a false choice. The federal government needs to reform entitlement programs, needs to root out waste fraud and abuse and should eliminate programs like the National Endowment for the Arts.
The deficit incurred by the federal government has reached about $12.8 trillion and next year’s projected deficit is record breaking at $1.6 trillion. Obama’s solution? Not cutting government, not ending bailouts, not entitlement reform, and not stopping the Stimulus. Instead, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke yesterday commenced a debate on higher taxes yesterday.
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2. Utah Delegates: Beware of Bridgewater
In the past few days I’ve highlighted my concerns with Tim Bridgewater, one of the candidates for U.S. Senate in Utah. This started after Senator Bob Bennett highlighted Bridgewater’s support of No Child Left Behind.
I was disappointed by his support for NCLB but imagine my piqued interest when a reader told me Bridgewater also supported Medicare Part D — the bloated prescription drug benefit that created a new, $15 trillion unfunded liability.
The Salt Lake Tribune included this report on November 25, 2003 when Bridgewater was running for Congress the second time . . .
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3. Rep. Wasserman Schultz; Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire
Actually, I think I’ll say “Liar, Liar, Skirt on fire” just to tick off her feminist sensibilities. Debbie Wasserman Schultz is a huge liar. Yes, a liar. In the video clip below, she blatantly lies and says that the health care bill, which she voted for, does not require mandatory insurance. This is an outright falsehood. In fact, IRS agents are being hired to enforce the requirement; you will be fined by the IRS if you don’t comply with our new health care overlords.
In addition, it proves Nancy Pelosi wrong once again. Gee, guess what, Nancy? You passed the bill and *still* no one knows what’s in it, apparently. Not even the people who voted for it; including members of the Democrats’ own House leadership.
Change. It’s a comin’. In November.
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4. Comparing two Pennsylvania polls
Yesterday we looked at a poll from Public Policy Polling, but today we have a new poll from Quinnipiac University.
Amusingly enough, while we’ve seen Quinnipiac overcount Democrats in Ohio, their results for Specter and Sestak come in just under PPP’s findings.
That’s right. Quinnipiac gives Toomey the same levels of support against Specter (46) and Sestak (42) that PPP found. However the Democrats each lost two points. Specter dropped from 43 to 41, and Sestak fell from 36 to 34.
The Margin of Error for the Quinnipiac poll is 2.6 versus 3.2 for the PPP poll.
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5. Failure to Communicate Threatens Giannoulias Campaign
Illinois State Treasurer and Democratic Senate hopeful Alexi Giannoulias appears to be sending mixed signals, both to the press and senior campaign aides, about his blossoming banking scandals, in which he approved as the senior loan officer of his family’s bank million dollar loans to two of Chicago’s most notorious crime figures.
A report by the Chicago Tribune revealed in April Giannoulias had authorized a series of loans, totaling roughly $20 million, to two convicted felons preparing to serve time in federal prison. The Giannoulias campaign weathered its first loan-related controversy in the Democratic primary when it was reported the Giannoulias family bank awarded sizable loans to prominent Chicago real estate developer and political bundler Tony Rezko, who in 2008 was found guilty on 16 counts of corruption.
Giannoulias had always declined to publicly provide details of the loan arrangement with Michael “Jaws” Giorango and Demitri Stavropolous, admitting only that he traveled to Miami to inspect property the bank had financed for the dubious duo.
But on the nuances of Giannoulias’ loan operations, shady as they may be, campaign talkers are either dated or factually wrong, as campaign spokeswoman Kathleen Strand insists her boss had “no role with these two individuals” when by his own admission he has.
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