EMERGENCY BRUSHFIRE ALERT!
Republican Sen. Ben Kieckhefer indicates he plans to support a bill by Democrat State Treasurer “Calamity” Kate Marshall that would circumvent Nevada’s constitutional prohibition on lending taxpayer money to private corporations. Please immediately contact Sen. Ben Kieckhefer and urge him not support this backdoor end-run around Nevada’s Constitution which could come up for a vote as early as tomorrow morning!
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ONE FANTASTIC FIRST FRIDAY HAPPY HOUR
If you missed May’s First Friday Happy Hour, you missed one heckuva great one.
The afternoon started off with a private newsmaker briefing with presidential exploratory candidate Herman Cain in his suite at the Wynn where, fresh off his boffo performance at the presidential candidate debate the night before in South Carolina, he broke the news that he would be making his formal announcement of his official presidential campaign on May 21st at high noon in Atlanta Georgia.
Cain also said he believed Las Vegas was a more-than-appropriate venue for a future Republican National Convention, including for his re-election bid in 2016 should he win the GOP nomination next year and go on to beat Barack Obama.
We then all went to Stoney’s for happy hour where a hundred or so people were lined up outside before the doors even opened. And yes, the first 100 through the door quickly scarfed up all 100 copies of Grover Noquist’s book, “Leave us Alone.”
KXNT’s Alan Stock opened up the evening’s program by introducing a special guest who popped in for a visit, Republican Congressman Joe Heck. Heck was followed by the Tax Slayer himself, Mr. Norquist, who invited the crowd to attend the Conservative Leadership Conference in Las Vegas this July which will include the next Republican presidential candidates’ debate.
Next, I had the privilege of introducing state Sen. Greg Brower, a GOP candidate for the upcoming special election in CD2, who flew all the way down from Reno just to sign the Taxpayer Protection Pledge with Grover Norquist, me and 400 of our closest friends as witnesses.
All of which was just the warm-up act for Mr. Cain, who fired up the crowd while firing at Barack Obama and the Democrats (metaphorically speaking, of course!). The man is just an awesome public speaker, an original tea party supporter and great American success story and conservative. Folks were lined up six deep waiting to get his autograph and picture with him after his remarks.
How are we ever gonna top this month’s First Friday Happy Hour next month?
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WE WILL IF THEY WILL
Las Vegas SUN columnist Jon Ralston put out this tweet on Friday: “Hey, NV media tweeps, let's agree, as @schwartznews 1st pointed out, D tax increase is $1.2B. $300M is additional revenue from projections.”
Fair enough. Tell you what: I’ll stop saying the Democrat tax hike is $1.5 billion when the other side stops claiming the overspending deficit is $2.5 billion when the actual over-spending deficit in the general fund is now around $200 million thanks to the additional revenue from projections.
Deal?
Yeah, I didn’t think so. Back to opposing the Democrats’ $1.5 billion tax hike.
Which reminds me: In an otherwise meaningless op/ed in today’s Las Vegas Sun trying to sell his $1.5 billion tax hike, Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford declared that “the current modified business tax hurts small business and hampers job creation.”
Well, um, duh. Those of us on the right have been saying that for, like, six years now.
So, Sen. Horsford, if Nevada leads the nation in unemployment – and it does – then why not repeal the modified business tax right now? Immediately. This week. I’m pretty certain you can get plenty of Republicans to go along with you in the spirit of bipartisanship you so desperately crave. So what are you waiting for? Repeal it, stimulate job creation and let’s move on.
So let it be written; so let it be done.
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SUNSET EXTENSION DOESN’T EVEN PASS RALSTON’S MUSTER
Democrats, and some Republicans in the state Assembly, would have you believe that extending the 2009 tax hikes scheduled to sunset on June 30th is not a tax hike. Well, that dog won’t hunt. If Las Vegas Sun columnist Jon Ralston, who fervently believes Nevada needs higher revenue, ain’t buyin’ it, no one is:
“Most observers think the only component of the plan with any chance is the continuation of sales and business taxes scheduled to sunset June 30. This is seen as easier to spin because it’s not a tax increase if you continue existing taxes. I think this is actually the worst part of the plan and the easiest to criticize.
“First, it is a tax increase - $600 million worth - when a tax that is not supposed to exist on July 1 … exists on July 1. Second, the very taxes the Democrats want to keep alive, sales and payroll taxes, are the same ones they argue are inimical to the state’s long-term fiscal health - at least the way they are constituted now. And, third, I know one Legislature can’t bind another but: Lawmakers two years ago, by putting on the sunsets, pledged to their constituents they would raise those taxes only for two years. This would be a broken promise.”
When you can’t even sell Jon Ralston on your scheme to extend the sunsets, you’re in a world of hurt.
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NJ’s CHRISTIE MAKES POWERFUL CASE FOR SCHOOL CHOICE
Add Republican New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie as a huge supporter of school choice. Here’s what he said on the matter in a speech to Harvard’s School of Education last week (Hat tip/Political Diary):
"It's easy for the union members making four and five hundred thousand dollars a year sending their kids to some of the best schools in New Jersey to pontificate about how those [other] children should wait until the schools improve in their neighborhood.
“I have a daughter in the second grade right now, our youngest. She's only got one year in the second grade. How long are we going to make her wait? To third or fourth or fifth? When she's so far behind she has no hope of ever catching up.
“This is not a problem with an infinite time frame to fix. Every year we don't fix it we're losing more children. Irretrievable in many instances. So I'm for choice not as the solution to the problem in public schools but as a building block. I think we should forget about how a school starts and worry about how it performs.
“So whether it starts as a private school or as a parochial school, whether it starts as a charter school or a regular public school, let's reward excellence. Let's encourage excellence. Let's fund excellence rather than just worrying about maintaining a system that looks almost exactly like it would when this country started.”
AMEN!
TEA PARTY ANGST OVER ANGLE
For the record, Nevada tea party activist Karel Smith has my point regarding Sharron Angle and the 2010 GOP primary exactly right:
“I repeat that Sharron Angle was not THE tea party candidate; she was A candidate endorsed by one or two tea party groups and she was supported by some people who consider themselves to be tea party activists. But there was never a consensus and there was never just ONE tea party candidate.”
Exactly. Angle was “a” tea party candidate in the primary. She became “the” tea party candidate in the general after winning the primary.
The point is that had Tea Party Express not come into Nevada and dumped hundreds of thousands of dollars of independent expenditures into her campaign, Angle wouldn’t have won the primary. She simply did not have the unified support of the NEVADA tea party groups who were divided among the field of candidates.
Yes, there were tea party folks who supported Angle. But there were also a lot of tea party folks who supported Lowden, Tarkanian, Chachas, Chistensen and Parsons, as well.
But that’s all water under the dam. The question now is this: Is Sharron Angle THE tea party candidate for CD2 (not including Tea Party Express)? Or are tea party activists in NEVADA again split?
I suggest that again the tea party folks are split.
Sharron is very polarizing. She both attracts and repels. And while she might be the Republican candidate with the best chance of winning the special election, she might also be the one Republican who could cause that seat to go to the Democrats. If NEVADA tea partiers don’t want to see Calamity Kate Marshall representing Barbara Vucanovich’s district, they better get their stuff together and unite behind ONE candidate.
I have a modest, somewhat self-serving suggestion in that regard. If any tea party leaders are interested, please give me a shout: chuck@chuckmuth.com
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MORE THE MERRIER
Former state senator and Nevada Republican Party Chairman Mark Amodei announced today that he would be announcing his candidacy for the September CD 2 special election on Monday at a 10:00 a.m. press conference in Carson City at which “All credentialed media are invited to attend.”
Hmm. Seems strange not to want “non-credentialed” conservative bloggers to cover his announcement, doesn’t it?
PRAVDA MIKE STRIKES AGAIN
Liberal UNLV physics professor Michael “Pravda Mike” Pravica has a new whiny letter-to-the-editor in Sunday’s Las Vegas Review-Journal in which he calls for raising taxes on basically everything under the sun (except on physics professors!) while whimpering that Republicans in the Legislature “won’t work together with Democrats to compromise on this issue.”
Waahhhh!
Somebody send this guy a box of pacifiers.
Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval ran on a campaign platform of not raising taxes last year. Democrat gubernatorial candidate Rory “Man of a Thousand PACs” Reid ran on…oh, yeah, the exact same platform. And to the best of my knowledge, not a single Democrat candidate for the Legislature ran on a platform of “Vote for me and I’ll raise your taxes $1.5 billion!”
OK, maybe Peggy Pierce did. But no one else.
So why, if Republicans ran on a platform telling voters they would NOT raise taxes and Democrats did NOT run on a platform to raise taxes should Republicans “compromise” and now join Democrats in this last-minute Mother of Mothers of All Tax Hikes the Democrats just trotted out this week?
If Democrats want to run in 2012 on a platform of “Vote for us and we’ll raise your taxes $1.5 billion, including new taxes on your haircuts and dry cleaning,” have at it. But since they didn’t put up their tax hike in 2010, it’s now time for them to shut up. And that includes Pravda Mike’s “amen corner” over at Hyperbole U.
FAMOUS LAST WORDS
“Of all the Democrats’ failed strategies in Carson City this year, Thursday’s long-awaited response to (Nevada Gov. Brian) Sandoval’s no-new-taxes, $6.1 billion budget is the biggest flop of them all.” – Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist Glenn Cook
“The payroll tax (modified business tax) was proposed in 2003 by business groups, including the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce, which sold out its small members to ensure its larger companies didn’t have to pay a gross receipts tax.” – Las Vegas Sun columnist Jon Ralston
“Are taxes the biggest problem (for businesses), or is it licenses, fees and regulations that require some businesses to hang as many as a dozen certificates on the wall, dropping everything to deal with an endless parade of government inspectors, auditors and regulators?” – Las Vegas Review-Journal editorial, 5/8/11
“As a small business owner, the government is my biggest and fiercest competitor. The constant, unrelenting demand for more and more money and regulation impacts my ability to (1) hire and retain qualified employees by providing better salaries, benefits and incentives; (2) invest in my business so that it can grow, resulting in more jobs; (3) set aside reserve funds in the event of economic challenges; and (4) stay in business. I am not joking. The demands of the government severely inhibit the ability to survive and grow.” – Jeff Ecker, Corporate General Manager, Paymon’s Mediterranean Café/Hookah Lounge
“I have noticed this cycle that the GOP rapid response team, nonexistent or inept in past elections, is operating very efficiently so far. The Republicans have been all over major events, with Mari Nakashima (late of the Joe Heck campaign) at the state party, Ryan Erwin for the Assembly GOP and Jodi Stephens for the Senate GOP producing quality partisan rhetoric on a moment's notice. This has been the Democrats' province around here for years. So kudos are in order.” – Jon Ralston, RalstonFlash, 5/5/11
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