MEMO TO ASSEMBLY REPUBLICANS: NO…NEW…TAXES
House Speaker John Boehner spoke Monday night to the Economic Club of New York and drew a line in the sand on tax hikes. As Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform explains, Boehner declared that there will be no more 1982 or 1990 “Andrews Air Force Base” or “Gang of Six” deals that raise taxes and promise spending restraint.
“Tax increases are off the table,” writes Norquist. “Boehner and 235 other members of the House of Representatives have signed the “Taxpayer Protection Pledge” - a written pledge to their voters that they will oppose and vote against any net tax hike. Forty-one Senators have signed the same pledge.
“The Washington spending establishment has been hoping that Boehner and the Republican House majority would weaken and fold before Obama’s threats to close down the government if he didn’t get his tax and spending increases. They did not win, and tonight was Boehner’s ‘Read My Lips’ speech . . . No tax increases, period.”
So Speaker Boehner has taken tax hikes off the table.
And 235 other Republicans in the House of Representatives have taken tax hikes off the table…including Rep. Joe Heck of Nevada.
And 41 Senate Republicans have taken tax hikes off the table…including SENATOR Dean Heller.
And Nevada Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval has taken tax hikes off the table.
And all ten Nevada Senate Republicans have taken tax hikes off the table.
And four of the twelve Assembly Republicans have signed the Taxpayer Protection Pledge and have taken tax hikes off the table.
So what are the other dozen Assembly Republicans – Goicoechea, Stewart, Grady, Woodbury, Ellison, Kirner, Hansen, Hickey, Hammond, Sherwood, Hardy and Kite - waiting for to take tax hikes completely off the table for the 2011 session, an engraved invitation??
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WHEN YOU STAND FOR NOTHING, YOU’LL FALL FOR ANYTHING
Legislative Democrats, the media and special interest lobbyists all did their darnedest to dissuade GOP legislative candidates from signing the Taxpayer Protection Pledge to oppose and vote against any and all efforts to increase taxes last campaign cycle. And most of them fell for it…hook, line and sinker.
Lobbyists told GOP candidates that if they signed the Pledge, they wouldn’t get any money. Guess what? Most of those who didn’t sign the Pledge STILL didn’t get any money from these big bucks special interests. Go figure.
Democrats told GOP candidates that if they signed the Pledge, none of their bills would get passed. Guess what? Most of those who haven’t signed the Pledge STILL didn’t get any of their bills passed as of the latest pass-or-die deadlines.
According to an analysis by Citizen Outreach CEO Dan Burdish, 95 Democrat bills have been passed so far this session compared to only 26 Republican bills - despite the fact that only 4 of the 16 Republicans signed the Tax Pledge.
In addition, non-Pledge signer Assemblywoman Melissa Woodbury only has one more bill passed this session so far than Taxpayer Protection Pledge caucus chairman Assemblyman Ed Goedhart, 3-2.
So it certainly looks like the Democrats duped Republicans (again) into believing that if they just refused to sign the Tax Pledge, they’d have a seat at the table and their bills would have a chance.
Yeah….a FAT chance.
Further analysis, however, shows the situation is actually even worse than that.
Indeed, not one of the GOP bills is what you would consider a “conservative” bill. Unless, of course, you consider Assemblyman Pete Goicoechea’s bill getting wild horses excluded from watering rights a “conservative” bill. As opposed to, you know, tax cuts, spending limits, school choice, public employee benefit reform, expanded Second Amendment rights, etc.
So even the R bills the D’s have let go through are, for all intents and purposes, completely useless as far as advancing the limited-government conservative movement. Most of the R bills which have been passed are nothing more than technical or “process” bills, not philosophical.
There’s an old saying that if you stand for nothing, you’ll fall for anything. And Republicans who continue to refuse to stand up against tax and fee hikes keep falling for the Democrats’ promise to pass their bills – just like Lucy promising Charlie Brown that she’ll hold the football.
You’d think that eventually Republicans would catch on. Then again, Charlie Brown never has. Good grief.
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TPX CHUGS INTO NEBRASKA
Not satisfied with blowing U.S. Senate races in Nevada (Angle), Alaska (Miller) and Delaware (O’Donnell) in 2010, Tea Party Express has announced that it will make a “surprise endorsement” tomorrow in the GOP primary race for the right to take on Democrat Sen. Ben Nelson in November 2012. This just a couple weeks after urging Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval NOT to appoint Dean Heller to the U.S. Senate to replace John Ensign.
Regretful congratulations to Sen. Nelson. If history is any guide, tomorrow’s TPX endorsement of one of his GOP opponents could well lead to his re-election.
PLEASE, TPX, stop “helping”! Especially in Nevada.
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ELLISON SELLS OUT ELKO
This might be the most disgusting story of the session regarding an Assembly Republican (not the story itself; what the Republican did)…though with a month yet to go, I’m not yet willing to declare a definitive winner.
As reported here previously, AB 299 would add a new fee to every auto insurance policy in the state in order to create a new low-cost auto insurance fund for drivers in Clark County. That’s right; drivers in rural Nevada and Washoe County would be subsidizing uninsured drivers in Las Vegas.
Lovely.
Because this is a tax increase, AB 299 required a 2/3 supermajority vote for approval…and was voted down in the Assembly, with 14 assemblymen voting no…including freshman Assemblyman John Ellison of Elko. But on the very next day, Ellison made a deal with the devil and voted “yes” on a re-vote. So the bill passed by one stinking vote. Thanks to Ellison’s flip-flop.
Lovely.
According to an well-done story by the Nevada News Bureau’s Andrew Doughman, Ellison sold his vote to Assemblyman Kelvin Atkinson (D-North Las Vegas) in return for Atkinson allowing one of Ellison’s bills to receive a vote in Atkinson’s committee. Ellison told NNB that his promise to vote for Atkinson’s bill was more important than blocking this new tax increase on drivers all across the state, including his own constituents.
Lovely.
Now we know why Assemblyman Ellison refused to sign the Taxpayer Protection Pledge last year even though he “said” he was a fiscal conservative and opposed tax hikes. He wanted the flexibility to sell out his constituents for 30 pieces of silver or a bag of “magic” beans…whatever the Democrats were willing to pay him.
John Ellison was more worried about keeping a promise to raise taxes that he made to a Democrat than promising the voters of Elko that he would NOT raise their taxes.
Lovely.
And now you know why I personally endorsed IAP candidate Janine Hansen over Ellison in that race last fall. We had every reason to believe that Ellison was nothing but a go-along-to-get-along, let’s-make-a-deal, wishy-washy, mamby-pamby Gumby moderate Republican. Sadly, we’ve now been proven correct in that assessment.
Primary challengers, start your engines!
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CALLING ALL BLOGGERS
Tea Party West and Townhall.com will conduct a training workshop for bloggers this Thursday, May 12, at the Hampton Inn (421 Astair Drive) in Henderson, Nevada from 5:00 to 8:00 pm. “Beyond Blogging: How to Drive Liberals Nuts with Words and Create Real Traffic for Your Blog” will be conducted by John Ransom, Finance Editor and columnist for Town Hall, with some introductory pearl of blogging wisdom from Chuck Muth of Muth’s Truths blogging fame. Click here for more information
FOLLOW CHUCK ON TWITTER
If you’re not following me on Twitter, you’re missing out on a lot of great “stuff” that doesn’t otherwise make it here in Muth’s Truths.
1. @jpcoolican: GOP "is the party that nominated sharron angle" for US Senate last year. / True, but 60 percent of those voting voted against her
2. Anyone who thinks NV tea partiers are united behind the Sharron Angle Express needs to read this...including comments. http://bit.ly/lGyI0N
3. Sen. Kieckhefer: "The way you need to balance a budget that’s 80% payroll, is to cut payroll, in the public or private sector." #nvleg
4. Ron Paul's Campaign 4 Liberty group turns on their hero over natural gas bill. http://bit.ly/jAC48c
5. AFL-CIO's Danny Thompson threatens ballot tax hike if legislature doesn't raise taxes. Bring it on. Let people decide. (H/T @schwartznews)
6. @RindelsAP "Nevada Faculty Assoc. says pay cut possibility is making profs leave." / Grass is always greener. Hasta la vista, baby.
7. Viguerie's "Conservative HQ" finds over 1/2 of conservatives saying that if Romney is GOP prez nominee, count them out. http://bit.ly/imedvp
8. Full, unedited newsmaker briefing w/Herman Cain last Fri., including his position on national GOP convention in Vegas. http://bit.ly/lZU3Xh
Click here: http://twitter.com/ChuckMuth
FIRST FRIDAY HAPPY HOUR!
The next “star-studded, fun-filled, action-packed” First Friday Happy Hour will be on June 3, 2011 at Stoney’s in Las Vegas from 5:00 to 7:00 pm. Free parking, no cover charge and 2-1 drinks. First Friday is co-sponsored by conservative talk-show host Alan Stock and and KXNT 100.5 FM/840 AM.
FAMOUS LAST WORDS
“The way you need to balance a budget that’s 80% payroll, is to cut payroll, in the public or private sector." – Nevada Sen. Ben Kieckhefer (R-Reno)
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