Jackson Free Press

Certain folks around town -- let's call them "interested parties" -- seem occasionally to sign me up for various e-mail newsletter blasts without my consent. The casual observer would be interested to find the John Birch Society newsletter in my e-mail inbox along side "Action Items" pushed out by RedState.com, all of which I receive courtesy of the generous fingertips of a few folks with, perhaps, a little too much time on their hands.

Many of these newsletters I don't cancel -- I find it interesting to know what everyone thinks...even if sometimes it makes me crazy to think that people actually do think some of these things.

Take this missive I received from ATR, the Americans for Tax Reform, a group headed by Grover Norquist, the fabled thinker to which we can attribute the notion of "drowning government in a bathtub" -- something that the Bush Administration took a touch too literally.

Their release:

Contact: John Kartch
[e-mail missing]; 202-785-0266
February 4, 2009

Obama Breaks Campaign Promise

By signing SCHIP bill, Obama breaks campaign promise not to raise taxes on those making under $250,000 per year

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Today, on the sixteenth day of his presidency, Barack Obama broke one of the central promises of his candidacy: No American earning under $250,000 per year would face any form of tax increase under his administration. By signing the S-CHIP legislation today, Obama has now broken his oft-repeated promise.

Obama's signature puts into effect a 156 percent increase in the federal excise tax on tobacco, a hike of 61 cents per pack.

Obama promised repeatedly on the campaign trail that he would never raise taxes on those making less than $250,000 per year:

"I can make a firm pledge. Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes" (Barack Obama, September 12, 2008, Dover, NH).

Shouldering the burden of this tax increase are the middle- and low-income Americans Obama said he would not raise taxes on:
55 percent of smokers are "working poor"
One in four smokers live below the poverty line
On average, smokers, whose median income is a little more than $36,000, make about 30 percent less than non-smokers.

"Tom Daschle and Leona Helmsley believe that only the little people should pay taxes," said Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform. "Obama agrees; he just raised taxes on millions of lower-income Americans. His central campaign promise was a lie."

Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) is a non-partisan coalition of taxpayers and taxpayer groups who oppose all federal, state and local tax increases. For more information or to arrange an interview, please contact John Kartch at (202) 785-0266 or at [e-mail missing].

Anybody else hearing those famous opening strains of "Desparado" while reading this?

In my mind, this is the antiquated stuff -- the context-bending, "gotcha" sort of talk-radio logic that does nothing to move forward debate. Nothing.

Note that nothing of substance is suggested by the release. No call to action, no alternative plan, no research or study that speaks to why the increase in cigarette taxes so that four million kids receive health insurance is a net loss for the country.

Indeed, from a group that *might* have valuable things to contribute (things -- oh -- about smarter taxation or waste in government), you end up with wide-eyed, bushy-tailed craziness that has GOT to hurt their credibility with any intelligent people (and me) who might still have listened to them.

I certainly don't think all of our problems ended on January 20, but as we undergo this generational shift in ideas, I do hope that the power of people like Grover Norquist to sway the argument will wane in the face of the real problems that are facing people economically in this day and age. And while we're at it, let's call a spade a spade -- the "greed is good" genius of people like Norquist and the Right Honorable Phil Gramm is what got us into a fair bit of this economic mess that has hundreds of billions pouring into the banks.

That doesn't mean that everything Obama plans to do will be right; but I do hope that everything we try to do as a nation will be more intelligently debated than this.

Previous Comments

ID

143293

Comment

Go ahead, iTodd. Grover Norquist = irrelevant old coot

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2009-02-04T20:45:33-06:00

ID

143297

Comment

That email is a load of horse puckey. Moving on... This may be the first time in ages that an administration will be so closely scrutinized. Imagine all the the pitfalls we could have avoided if the last administration was put under a similar magnifying glass. QUOYE O' THE WEEK! :P

Author

LatashaWillis

Date

2009-02-05T05:47:26-06:00