Republican leadership was split, which is emblematic of the party's vision for the future:
GOP Leader Boehner: NO
GOP Whip Blunt: YES
Conference Chair Putnam: YES
Conference Vice-Chair Granger: NO
Policy Chairman McCotter: YES
Conference Secretary Carter: YES
NRCC Chairman Cole: YES
Chief Deputy Whip Cantor: NO
The Club for Growth urges all House members to vote "NO" on the domestic spending amendment (Amdt. 3) to the war supplemental. This key vote will be part of our 2008 Congressional Scorecard.
The amendment has several provisions that are anti-growth. It extends unemployment benefits and prevents cost-cutting Medicare rules from being implemented. However, the most troublesome provision is the absurdly named "Patriot Tax", which is a 0.5% surcharge on gross income on earnings over $500,000 a year or $1 million for a couple. The rate increase is higher than it appears, as deductions are taxed too.
This tax is anti-growth and will destroy jobs, pure and simple. It will lead to higher and higher income tax rates as Congress would likely keep adding such increases for other new spending. The tax will be especially harmful on small businesses whose owners sometimes file their business income on their individual tax return. In fact, the Tax Foundation reports (PDF) that almost 83% of all income tax returns with over $1 million in income are business owners. This tax will stifle innovation and job growth and should be vigorously opposed.
Our Congressional Scorecard for the 110th Congress provides a comprehensive rating of how well or how poorly each member of Congress supports pro-growth, free-market policies and will be distributed to our members and to the public.
]]>But wait, I thought Michigan's wise leaders raised taxes last year, but now tax revenue is expected to go down? What are the odds that the wise leaders will raises taxes again to make up the new budget shortfall?
]]>]]>Haley's Comment
JACKSON, Miss. -- Haley Barbour has quickly gained a reputation as one of America's most effective governors. Liberals and conservatives give him near straight As for his handling of the Katrina hurricane disaster. He passed one of the most sweeping tort reform bills in the nation four years ago. And he has held budget growth to below the inflation rate, so Mississippi is not in dire fiscal shape like many states today. Mr. Barbour is also considered to be a shortlist candidate for a John McCain vice presidential slot.
When I asked him about these rumors, he was charmingly modest and guffawed with his thick southern drawl: "Why would he take me? If John McCain can't win Mississippi, he's going to lose 40 states." Mr. Barbour also concedes that his background as a "former tobacco lobbyist in Washington" would make him a dart board for the left.
But the right wing of the GOP is demanding a conservative on the ticket to keep a check on Mr. McCain's penchant for compromise and leftward drift on issues. Mr. Barbour is clearly a favorite of conservatives. "Haley has rock solid conservative credentials," says Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform.
More than that, Mr. Barbour is one of the most insightful political strategists of modern times. As chairman of the Republican National Committee, he was right alongside Newt Gingrich in 1993 and 1994 during the Contract with America period of Republican ascendancy. If Newt was the brains of the GOP takeover, Haley was the field marshal.
I asked the governor whether he thought John McCain could win in this tough anti-Republican environment. "Because he is a maverick, McCain was the best Republican we could have nominated in this political cycle with voter hostility towards Bush and Republicans in Congress," Mr. Barbour says. "The key to winning this year is to take the opposite course of the 2004 election. In '04 Bush won by getting out more of our base than the Democrats did of theirs," he continues. "This election will be decided by which party gets more crossover votes from the other party. John McCain must win the Reagan Democrats -- a group Barack Obama has big problems with."
One of the knocks against Haley in the past has been his weight. He once had a "John Engler problem" of being too pudgy to climb on the national stage. But now Mr. Barbour is as trim as I've ever seen him, with at least a 25-pound weight loss. He looks to me to be tanned, rested and ready. If not for the No. 2 slot in 2008, then certainly for the top of the ticket in 2012.
Washington – In today’s Sacramento Bee, former Rep. Doug Ose is trying to hide his liberal voting record. When Ose represented California’s Third Congressional District in Congress, his liberal record consistently ranked him in the bottom half of the Republican Caucus (see NTU scores). Now that Ose is running in the conservative Fourth District, he is trying to spin a conservative image out of whole cloth.
Sorry Doug, the congressional record doesn’t lie.
Doug Ose consistently voted for wasteful projects, increased government spending, new regulations, bigger government, and even taxes on the Internet. These include:
“Doug Ose is spending millions of dollars trying to make over his liberal voting record and attacking his conservative challenger Tom McClintock,” said Club for Growth Executive Director David Keating. “There is just one problem with this plan—voters in California’s Fourth Congressional District know Doug Ose’s liberal record and have watched Tom McClintock fight for lower taxes and limited government for years. Sorry Doug, all the money in the world can’t cover up the truth.”
PAID FOR BY CLUB FOR GROWTH PAC AND NOT AUTHORIZED BY ANY CANDIDATE OR CANDIDATE'S COMMITTEE. 202-955-5500.
]]>]]>Top 10 Crazy Laws or Proposals - Whatever happened to common sense?
1. State law requires an individual to complete 1,500 hours of instruction to become a cosmetologist. It takes more hours of licensing to become a cosmetologist in SC than it does to become a police officer (396 hours) or carry a concealed weapon (8 hours).
2. Caskets and Stones, a retail funeral store in Greenwood, submitted their license application, paid their fee, were scheduled to go before the Board of Funeral Directors, and were told they could open. But then the Board gave them a "cease and desist" order * essentially telling them to stop selling caskets. The Board fined them $1,500 for "opening before their Board appointment." They had to pay it before they could get their license.
3. Fortune Tellers are required to obtain a special permit in order to operate in South Carolina.
4. A proposed bill would require high school football and basketball playoff games to have replay for officials to use during these games.
5. Barbering schools are required by law to have at least ten instructional chairs *and those chairs are required by law to be upholstered and finished exactly the same way.
6. In 2003, a bill was introduced that would have required all drinking straws in South Carolina be sold in individual wrappers. The bill almost led to a fist fight on the House floor.
7. The fourth Friday in October in each year is designated by law in public schools as Frances Willard Day, and each public school is required "to prepare and render a suitable program on the day to the end that the children of the state may be taught the evils of intemperance."
8. Circuses cannot exceed 48 hours at one place in any one year.
9. If a menu or advertisement states "frozen dessert," it must correctly state the specific frozen dessert that is offered for sale so as not to mislead the consumer.
10. Musical instruments are not allowed to be sold on Sunday.
Top 10 Crazy Laws or Proposals - Whatever happened to common sense?
1. State law requires an individual to complete 1,500 hours of instruction to become a cosmetologist. It takes more hours of licensing to become a cosmetologist in SC than it does to become a police officer (396 hours) or carry a concealed weapon (8 hours).
2. Caskets and Stones, a retail funeral store in Greenwood, submitted their license application, paid their fee, were scheduled to go before the Board of Funeral Directors, and were told they could open. But then the Board gave them a "cease and desist" order * essentially telling them to stop selling caskets. The Board fined them $1,500 for "opening before their Board appointment." They had to pay it before they could get their license.
3. Fortune Tellers are required to obtain a special permit in order to operate in South Carolina.
4. A proposed bill would require high school football and basketball playoff games to have replay for officials to use during these games.
5. Barbering schools are required by law to have at least ten instructional chairs *and those chairs are required by law to be upholstered and finished exactly the same way.
6. In 2003, a bill was introduced that would have required all drinking straws in South Carolina be sold in individual wrappers. The bill almost led to a fist fight on the House floor.
7. The fourth Friday in October in each year is designated by law in public schools as Frances Willard Day, and each public school is required "to prepare and render a suitable program on the day to the end that the children of the state may be taught the evils of intemperance."
8. Circuses cannot exceed 48 hours at one place in any one year.
9. If a menu or advertisement states "frozen dessert," it must correctly state the specific frozen dessert that is offered for sale so as not to mislead the consumer.
10. Musical instruments are not allowed to be sold on Sunday.
This is cross-posted at VPWatch
]]>Who Will Pay For Promises Of Politicians? - Walter Williams, IBD
Botswana and Zimbabwe: A Tale of Two Countries - M. Tupy, American.com
Government Stifles the Wisdom of Crowds - John Stossel, RCP
Economic Impacts of Sichuan Quake on China - Rich, All Roads Lead to China
Why Apple Can't Kill The BlackBerry - Brian Caulfield, Forbes.com
Cubs 3, Padres 4 - Associated Press
]]>]]>“If I were asked I’d probably have to get a divorce, so the answer would probably be no. But I won’t be asked if he [McCain] wants to win.” -- Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.)
“No. I don’t like going to funerals.” -- Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.)
“I’d say, ‘Please read the Constitution.’ I wasn’t born in America; I can’t be VP.” -- Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.)