See you next week for more exciting news and great days ahead.
Archive for February, 2010
27 Feb
Why is Governor OWE Malley in Iraq visiting Troops when he should be here during the Assembly
Not that I have any issue at all with our Leaders visiting our Troops from Maryland, but what I do have a problem with, is leaving the state during the Assembly Session when he should be here. To me, this is not Governing, but a Campaign ploy to garner support from those who won’t vote for him again.
Governor OWE Malley has always been about Photo Ops, his own Ego Stroking and not doing the business of the People. Whether Ex Governor Ehrlich decides to run or not, is not the issue, most think he will not win anyways. Me personally, no matter how much I want Ehrlich to run and win again, I just don’t see it happening. There is too much bickering that took place between these two in the sandbox last time and the recent poll states, that, 48 percent of the voters want someone new, rather, someone other then OWE Malley and Ehrlich.
Here is how I see it shaking down. George Owings, who has announced his intentions to run in the Democratic Primary has a good shot at taking down OWE Malley in the Primary. Why? He is popular, he is for the Death Penalty and Against Abortion, however, he is for fiscal responsibility, something that Maryland Voters want. So while OWE Malley is out garnering Campaign Photo Ops, Marylanders are looking to someone else to replace a Maryland Governor, a Democratic Governor in a Deep Blue State with a poor approval rating below 47 percent.
It truly shows that trust and faith in the current Leadership has failed Marylanders and they no longer are going to stand for the misdeeds of the OWE Malley administration. While he talks about Job Creation, he truly has not created Jobs. Maryland had a net gain of approximately 1 thousand plus jobs and a loss of 36,000 jobs.
Maryland Millionaires have left the state at Record Proportions. In Montgomery County alone, there was a 27 percent decrease in Maryland Millionaires, they went over to Virginia and took their business’s with them. Why? Virginia is friendly to Business’s. Their corp tax rate is lower, exemptions are better, un employment insurance cost less, and the opportunities are there.
Governor Ehrlich, while he is still immensely popular, well, who knows. I do know that the spreading of Lies from the Media has to stop so the Electorate can be accurately informed. Sure Governor Ehrlich raised taxes. He had no choice, he came in with state in total disarray. 600 million in the red left by Glendenning. Maryland at the time was one of the least expensive states to keep your car registered. Property Taxes were low as well. So, Governor Ehrlich raised taxes and fees. By doing so, his budgets were always balanced, the schools funded, transportation funded, which has led to the I 95 Express Toll Lanes and the Inter County Connector. He championed for his whole term to have slots passed to offset any budget deficits in the future. But, because it was good for Maryland at the time, the Democrats controlling the House and Senate did not want him to get credit for it. All because of his extremely high approval ratings. It it weren’t for Bush so to speak, I firmly believe Maryland would still have a great Governor in Office. One of the best in Maryland History. Say what you will about his bedside manner, but he did not run on a campaign of lies, did not leave Maryland in a mess, in fact, left it better off then any other Governor in the history of Maryland.
For those who love to bash Ehrlich, maybe you should look at the record versus OWE Malleys, then decide. Remember, even prior to the current recession, OWE Malley put Maryland into an Operating Deficit during his first year in Office, Ehrlich was already operating in the Red.
For the next Governor coming in, I wish you the best of luck, you will need it.
27 Feb
Road Trip To Annapolis to Testify on Legislation – Illegal Immigration Bills
Subject: Re: Fw: CALLING ALL MARYLANDERS – 3/3 MARCH ON ANNAPOLIS
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Bus trip to Annapolis.. SPEAK LOUD AND CLEAR. READ MY LIPS.. NO MORE OF OUR TAX $$ TO ILLEGAL ALIENS, CASA DE MARYLAND AND PASS THE E-VERIFY AND 287G NOW!! Annapolis is over the disastrous budget proposed by Gov. O’Malley. This $32 BILLION budget originally started with a $2 BILLION deficit. To patch up that deficit, the Governor relies heavily on more federal bailouts, issuance of debt and nearly $1 BILLION in transfers from our 382 special funds and unconscionable increases taxes on liquor, gasoline and cigarettes.. If Gov. O’Malley’s budget passes “as is,” the liberals will repair the deficit with new, MASSIVE TAX INCREASES next year. This budget will greatly hinder any chance of an economic recovery in our Maryland. http://www.helpsavemaryland.com/ click on this link for particulars. It is the Help Save Maryland web site. Here are a list of bills regarding ILLEGALS being presented. Take your pick and SUPPORT or OPPOSE as requested.
On Wednesday March 3rd, the Senate Budget & Taxation Committee will hold a public hearing on the transfer of $1 BILLION from the special funds to cover Gov. O’Malley’s deficit. We need you to testify in OPPOSITION to this bill (SB141 – Budget Reconciliation and Financing Act BRFA) as a way to show disapproval for the fiscal mismanagement by our state leaders. We must be heard, they must be made to understand that we will no longer tolerate Gov. O’Malley’s terrible stewardship of our Treasury. This means we need your help to fill the hearing room. We can speak for you but we can not fill any seats…that is your job. Tony Passaro and the Bel Air Tea Party Patriots are arranging busses for your use. Where: Green Turtle Parking Lot When: 10:30 Departure, Return 5:00 PM Seat: $25.00 The usual MREs (Subway) and beverages and TALKING POINTS will be provided. PLEASE R.S.V.P. A.S.A.P. Sylvia Delong 410-382-4774 sylvia.delong@comcast.net Or Tony Passaro 443-350-0520 apassaro@crosslink.net For more information on SB141 – BRFA and to find out why AFP-Maryland opposes O’Malley’s $1 billion money grab, CLICK HERE and check out our AFP blog with all of the details. If you cannot testify on March 3 rd, please email and call your representative and thechairman of the Budget & Taxation committee Ulysses Currie Tony Passaro |
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26 Feb
The Difference between a Fiscal Conservative and Conservative Liberal is simple to see
Please read this Full Story from the Gazette.
“It sometimes borders on irresponsible to not vote for the budget,” said Sen. Donald F. Munson, who, along with Edwards, makes up one-half of the Republican membership on the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee. “There is so much in that budget that applies to people’s everyday lives.”
But House Minority Whip Christopher B. Shank believes it’s more complicated than that.
“Just because you vote against a budget does not mean you vote against all of those things in a budget,” he said.
The two Washington County rivals, whose primary election showdown this fall is intensifying about 100 miles away from their district in Annapolis, traded barbs on Facebook recently over their respective budget voting records.
Munson (R-Dist. 2) of Hagerstown launched the first attack during this month’s winter storms, alleging Shank’s vote against the budget last year was a vote against snow-removal funding.
In a lengthy response on his own Facebook page, Shank (R-Dist. 2B) of Hagerstown said he was disappointed that Munson “would actually stoop to such disingenuous stunts.”
The online spat is likely a preview of a major campaign flashpoint, with Shank calling Munson’s actions fiscally irresponsible and Munson playing up the benefits his district has received due to his cooperation on the budget.
“It doesn’t make any sense for me to put so much work into a document and come out and vote against it,” Munson said. “Fact is, when that budget passes, it’s not a bloated budget. It’s pretty much bare bones where we can make it.”
Members of the budget committees who spend most of the session poring over thousands of line items take particular ownership in the final product.
http://www.gazette.net/stories/02262010/polinew202059_32548.php
Senator Don Munson, Next to last Conservative Repub in State Senate
House Minority Whip
26 Feb
Harassment Email from Delegate Donoghue picked up by the Washington Post
Delegate Harasser John Donoghue
Delegate accused of sending harassing e-mail
“State Del. John P. Donoghue has admitted to using another lawmaker’s e-mail account to send a harassing message targeting a Hagerstown man,” writes Erin Cunningham of The Gazette. On Jan. 21, Donoghue replied to all recipients of an e-mail that a Hagerstown man had sent to a number of state officials. However, Donoghue used Del. Peter A. Hammen’s state-issued computer and e-mail account to do so. In the e-mail, Donoghue called the man a ‘wife beater’ who had unpaid credit card debt and a protective order against him, Cunningham reports.
Please visit the Washington Post on their article.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/annapolis/2010/02/first_click_–_maryland_128.html
26 Feb
Delegate accused of sending harassing e-mail
State Del. John P. Donoghue has admitted to using another lawmaker’s e-mail account to send a harassing message targeting a Hagerstown man.
The incident, which took place Jan. 21, came before the Maryland General Assembly’s Joint Committee on Legislative Ethics earlier this month, according to a letter from committee counsel William G. Somerville. But the committee voted not take up the complaint, saying that “the matters alleged are not within the jurisdiction of the joint committee,” according to a letter sent Thursday to Donoghue (D-Dist. 2C) of Hagerstown.
Now the man who filed the complaint, Jeffrey Werner of Hagerstown, says he intends to file a civil lawsuit against Donoghue.
In a Jan. 21 e-mail obtained by The Gazette, Donoghue replied to all recipients of an e-mail that Werner had sent to a number of state officials. However, Donoghue used Del. Peter A. Hammen’s state-issued computer and e-mail account and did not sign the e-mail.
In his response, Donoghue called Werner a “wife beater,” saying he had unpaid credit card debt and a protective order out against him.
Werner denies the claims, but acknowledges there was a protective order against him in 2004, stemming from a divorce filed in Baltimore County.
Werner is known for his opposition to illegal immigration and sent the original e-mail on behalf of Americans for Prosperity, a conservative political organization based in Washington, D.C.
Hammen (D-Dist. 46) of Baltimore is chair of the House Health and Government Operations Committee, on which Donoghue sits.
http://www.gazette.net/stories/02262010/polinew202106_32551.php
26 Feb
11 Year Old Silver Spring Maryland Girl Raped by Illegal Aliens
Two Silver Spring men are being held on a $1 million bond Thursday after being arrested on charges that they raped an 11-year-old girl who, shortly after leaving the scene of the crime, helped police arrest the two men by identifying items she saw in their residence, police say.
Melquicide H. Sorto, 31, and Marcos R. Torres-Enriquez, 20, both of the 8700 block of Carroll Avenue in Silver Spring, were arrested Tuesday night by Montgomery County Police and charged with second-degree rape. Montgomery County District Court Judge William Simmons set the bond for both men at $1 million Thursday. They will continue to be held at the Montgomery County Detention Center.
Please visit the Gazette for the rest of the story.
http://www.gazette.net/stories/02252010/montnew162822_32567.php
25 Feb
Ten Questions with Senate Candidate Ron Miller by Red Maryland
Ron Miller for State Senate
Name: Ron Miller
Office Sought: Maryland Senate District 27
Hometown: Huntingtown, MD Calvert County
Website: http://www.teamronmiller.com/
1. Give our readers a little insight into your background?
I am a nine-year plus U.S. Air Force veteran, technology and homeland security consultant, senior executive in the public, private and non-profit sectors, and a former political appointee with FEMA, the Department of Homeland Security, and the U.S. Small Business Administration. I’ve lived in Maryland since 2001.
2. Who is your political lodestar? What shapes your ideological background?
That’s a tough question. Ironically, my family, all staunch Democrats, shaped my ideology. If you described their beliefs independently of their race or party allegiances, you’d swear they were a solidly conservative family. It wasn’t until I left home that I realized I didn’t believe in anything the Democrats represented. When my mother asks me why I’m a conservative and a Republican, I always tell her, “Because you raised me that way!”
I really don’t have a hero in the political realm. I don’t worship anyone other than Jesus Christ, and while I respect many men and women, they all have their flaws, as do I. If you pressed me, however, I’d say Jack Kemp for his tireless evangelism on behalf of conservatism, and his absolute conviction that the values and solutions of conservatism benefitted everyone, even minorities and the urban poor. His hallmark was his outreach to those non-traditional constituencies, and I can think of no one who has done it better or with more integrity before or since.
3. What prompted you to take on one of the most powerful politicians in the state?
I have an innate disdain for elected officials who believe they are above accountability and the consent of the governed, and we have two such animals where I live in Mike Miller and Steny Hoyer. I ran against both in 2006 – the switch from one race to the other is a longer story than you have time for! – and I chose to run against Mike Miller again this time.
I’m not intimidated by them; they are just men, after all. The seats they occupy don’t belong to them, and they should have to stand for election against a credible opponent every election.
I also believe that, after nearly 40 years in the General Assembly, Mike Miller is incapable of the bold steps we’re going to have to take in order to fix our budget woes in the mid-to-long term. We’re going to have to take risks and share sacrifices, and we’re going to have to throw conventional wisdom out the window. He won’t do that because his emphasis is on maintaining the status quo and holding power. Neither serve the interests of the people of Maryland.
4. Maryland is facing a budget crisis; how would you address it?
The Maryland budget is so far gone that we have to start over again. The incrementalism that has plagued our elected officials in Annapolis has brought us to a crisis point, and we have to be big and aggressive in solving our problems.
We start by zero-basing the budget and reaccomplishing it, asking hard questions along the way, like “This is a worthy cause, but should government be funding it?” “Is this a state or local government responsibility?”
Mandates shield off 2/3rds of the budget, and that handcuffs our efforts to devise a permanent solution. Lift state mandates and push back on federal mandates, using the 10th Amendment as it was intended. Force each program to justify its existence.
Every program ought to have a defined and measurable public benefit as an outcome, defined and measurable objectives to reach that public benefit, and a plan to accomplish those objectives. Not a single dime goes to a program until after they have an approved performance plan.
This entire process ought to be completely transparent and open to all Marylanders, from the committee debates and votes all the way to the final vote before it goes to the governor for signature. We should design websites to make it easy for citizens to find the information they need; right now, the General Assembly’s web presence is byzantine and difficult to navigate for anyone other than lobbyists and policy wonks. Unless the release of information adversely affects public safety or violates a citizen’s rights, it all should be out there in the sunshine for all to see.
Just as the sun rises, the sun also sets. Every program should be monitored regularly, and should report back periodically to ensure it is on track to meet its objectives and, ultimately, its public benefit. If it isn’t working and cannot be corrected, then it should be terminated. All programs ought to be considered for termination at some point in their life cycle unless they represent a permanent expense. Not all government programs should last forever.
5. Many Republicans are concerned about the bloated size of Maryland government; what government programs or agencies (if any) would you cut, reduce, or eliminate?
Education and health care costs must be on the table and subjected to the same rigorous analysis I’ve described. Not only are they the largest expenditures in the budget, they are also the fastest growing ones. The sentiment to wall them off from critical review and realloaction is understandable, but is not showing sound stewardship of Marylanders’ tax dollars. We’re not being honest with them if we say we can do this without including them in the mix.
I’m not convinced that the education budget is designed or allocated efficiently and effectively. For all the positive results we’ve seen overall, we still have serious problems with school systems in Baltimore City and Prince George’s County, and they’ve had a lot of money sent their way. We need to look at how much is directly affecting the student and teacher in the classroom, and then critically evaluate costs from there. Other school systems are educating their children well for less money per student; we need to learn from them. We need to examine the success of charter schools and use them as the laboratories of innovation they’re meant to be.
Health care costs will continue to rise, and all the proposals to expand coverage will just dump more participants into a dysfunctional system. My approach to designing a health care budget is similar to how I’d address education. Start with the patient and the doctor, and work from there.
We have a severe doctor shortage in Maryland, especially in rural areas, and you can’t have health care without medical professionals to administer it. Texas enacted comprehensive tort reform many years ago, and doctors are coming back into the state to practice as a result. Lower the cost of doing business for doctors and more of them will stay or set up shop here. It’s common sense, but we’ve let too many people confuse the issue with blizzards of words and numbers. As my mother always says, “Use the common sense God gave you!”
We need to strip most of the mandates from our health insurance regulations and establish a basic package that is more affordable, and give consumers the option to add services as they want or need them. That would not only bring costs down, but would also encourage more insurers to come to Maryland, further enhancing competition.
I have many other ideas, but these are a good representation of how I’d propose to do business. By the way, I’d also look very critically at state land purchases and many smaller programs which, in my view, are involved in areas in which government has no business.
6. Many counties budgets are being crippled by Maintenance of Effort requirements; would you support eliminating or reducing those requirements?
Yes. Maintenance of effort requirements are bad regulations masquerading as educational reform. The counties ought to have the flexibility to make budget decisions without being shackled by the state, and they should be able to sit down with their local school boards to work out solutions when economic times are tight. Threats of fines and reduced aid are reflective of the heavy hand of government, and such bullying should cease. Again, my rule of thumb when it comes to making education budget decisions is to start in the classroom and work your way out from there.
7. What proposals would you champion to help Maryland businesses and entrepreneurs?
We need to cut our corporate tax rate to be competitive with other states in the region. With our highly educated labor force and available office space, there’s no reason why we should lose out to northern Virginia every time a major business wants to relocate to our region. I’d kill the so-called “millionaire’s tax” – it’s losing money and discouraging our small businesses and entrepreneurs. Tax credits are an anemic response to small business concerns; they hire when there’s work to be done and income to pay salaries, not to get a $3K per person tax credit that won’t even cover salary and benefits for a month.
We need to convene a regulatory review board to critically examine regulations and determine which ones can be eliminated. If it can’t demonstrate a positive impact on public safety or worker protection, it’s gone.
In the long term, we need tax reform so we’re not dealing with these budget crises from year to year. We need to encourage savings, investment and wealth creation, and we need to stop using the tax code to reward or punish behavior; that’s not the purpose of taxes. I support a taxpayer bill of rights because I believe in restricting government’s ability to raise taxes on the people; they would be forced to defend their proposals to the people and, if they say no, it’s not the people’s problem, it’s the government’s problem for not making their case. I also believe we need to determine how to streamline or simplify the tax code, whether it’s a flat tax, fair tax or whatever kind of tax system encourages individual wealth creation and small business growth.
8. Two of the most important issues facing Maryland are concerns with transportation and the environment; on which issue do you place a greater priority, and how would you address it?
Transportation issues are reaching a critical mass, and we need to address the concerns in creative ways. Large-scale infrastructure projects, with their lag time and potential for fraud, waste and abuse, can’t be the only solution. Locating business offices closer to where people live is a solution that links back to my economic proposals to attract more companies to Maryland. Knowledge work and services are the predominant industry in our area, and we can expand them without significant environmental impact. Telecommuting ought to be encouraged as well.
I would also look into the smart transportation grid programs being implemented in other states to see if they would work here. My impression is that Maryland lacks a comprehensive plan for transportation; it seems to respond to the squeakiest wheel or the loudest elected official. None of these transportation projects operates in a vacuum; we need an integrated, comprehensive plan for the entire state. Sound project management practices and priority setting will go a long way toward giving people assurances that their government is being smart and prudent about transportation.
The environment is a vital component of Maryland’s quality of life, but we’re throwing money at the problems with limited to no success, and we’re not engaging all citizens to become active participants in maintaining and enhancing the environment. More community and voluntary efforts can have positive effects; we all want to be good stewards of the land on which we live. Giving Marylanders more information on what individuals can do, and then encouraging them to act, can lead to dramatic improvements. I’m an advocate of self-governance, and we need more of it in confronting environmental issues.
9. Following on that last question, Maryland passed cap and trade legislation in 2009 and the Maryland Department of the Environment is working with environmental special interests to write the regulations. If elected what would you do to mitigate or nullify what are sure to be economically ruinous dictates?
We need to involve more than just environmental special interests in developing regulations, because they have vested interests pointed in one direction, and that doesn’t serve the people of Maryland. If businesses and communities are not equally represented, it’s a sham. I wouldn’t allow a single regulation to be enacted if it doesn’t emerge from a consensus between affected parties. It’s good governance and, while some people decry the difficulties in reaching consensus, our government is designed to be inefficient and incapable of running roughshod over our liberties. Consensus is the ultimate goal of good policy and, if we don’t have it, there’s probably a good reason why it shouldn’t be done. Elitism or arrogance has no place in our republic.
10. If you had a choice of any Republican to be the nominee of our party for President in 2012, who would it be?
As you can probably assume, I’m a policy and solutions person, so that’s always an important consideration for me. As a result, I’d like to see Bobby Jindal as the GOP nominee in 2012. He is a highly intelligent and experienced policy maker, and he’s accomplished a great deal in his relatively young life. He appears to be an ethical man with great integrity and the courage of his convictions. His uniquely American story, a story that all legal immigrants recognize, is appealing, too. He may lack the flash and dash of many other candidates, but we have good examples in the Governor’s House in Annapolis and the White House in Washington of what style without substance and experience gets us.
One other thing; despite his great intellectual and political accomplishments, he appears to be a humble man. I’m tired of politicians and other elites who think we’re too ignorant, intolerant, or incompetent to govern ourselves, and they’ve not been shy about expressing their feelings to that end as of late. I prize education, but without the leavening of experience and humility, it leads to condescension and arrogance. We’ve had enough of that.
http://redmaryland.blogspot.com/2010/02/ten-questions-ron-miller.html
25 Feb
Candidate Jeff Cline for Washington County Commissioner to hold Fund Raiser
To those interested in coming out and supporting one of our Next County Commissioners for Washington County, next week will be a perfect time to get acquainted with this wonderful gentleman. He is a man of passion and a man wanting to make a difference in Washington County. Please come and Join Jeff as he goes on to fulfill his goals and vision. If you are interested, please be sure to contact in advance for an accurate head count.
24 Feb
Neither OWE Malley or Puppet President Obama know anything about running a business.
Ron Miller for State Senate
There’s an old saying that “stuffflows downhill” – or words to that effect! There’s no better description I can think of for this barely half-baked notion that a four-figure tax credit per new employee is going to set off this explosion of small business hiring. That “stuff” started in Washington and is flowing downhill to Annapolis, and it doesn’t smell any sweeter.
Since neither Barack Obama nor Martin O’Malley has ever run a business, perhaps they can be forgiven for their ignorance, except they’re in charge. If they don’t know anything about business, they should hire people that actually ran a business once or twice in their lives rather than the academicians, Wall Street financiers or ideological cronies that staff their advisory councils. As I’ve recounted in this space before, there’s not a lot of people surrounding the President who have actually experienced starting and running a company, managing profit and loss, or meeting a payroll.
As I’ve also recounted in this space, O’Malley is at the helm of arguably the most anti-business state in the nation, a state where one of its legislators, Senator Verna L. Jones Rodwell, criticized Maryland businesses, and the producers and innovators who own them, because “the large corporations are not willing to share…the richest among us are not willing to share.” Yep, that’s why people take enormous risks, work long hours away from their families, make tremendous personal sacrifices, and devote their lives to turning their dreams into reality, things that lesser men and women will not do – so they can “share.”
It’s not like Maryland businesses get much of an opportunity to “share.” An 8.25 percent corporate tax rate and a “millionaire’s tax” negates the need for sharing because it’s already being confiscated. The free spenders in Annapolis are more than happy to take the earnings generated by the blood, toil, tears and sweat of others, yet they still manage to botch the budget to the tune of multi-billion dollar deficits every year.
Meanwhile, across the river in Virginia, their House of Delegates is considering a bill to repeal their corporate tax altogether. They have no “millionaire’s tax” and everyone making over $17,000 is taxed at the same rate, making it essentially a flat tax. Is it any wonder Virginia consistently ranks at or near the top for business-friendliness, and Maryland near the bottom?
After pounding small businesses and their customers into submission with record tax increases, and implementing burdensome paperwork requirements that cost small business owners about $50 an hour in lost productivity, O’Malley wants to throw them a bone with what started out as a $3,000 tax credit and is now a whopping $5,000! I’m sure small business owners all over Maryland are bowing down in gratitude at this very moment in recognition of such generosity.
Either he thinks we’re rubes who can’t do the math and figure out his measly tax credit won’t cover the cost of a new employee for longer than two months at best, or he’s truly clueless when it comes to basic economics.
Since he wasn’t paying attention in class – too busy trying to impress the girls with his guitar licks, I suppose – we’ll go over it one more time.
Businesses exist to create wealth, which benefits the business owner, the business owner’s family, the employees of the business and their families, and the communities in which they purchase other goods and services, contribute to charitable causes, save and pay down debt to secure their futures, invest their wealth to create more wealth and, yes, pay taxes. It’s the most effective economic system in world history and the most realistic because it taps into the innate human drive to create and achieve.
Businesses create wealth by selling their goods and services to the general public. How well they do – in other words, how much demand they generate for their products – determines how much they have to produce and that, in turn, determines how many people they must hire to meet their production goals and keep up with the demand. When business is good, everyone wins – the consumers who get value for their money, the workers who earn a decent wage, and the employers who put more money into the business so it can grow, and the community along with it.
When people aren’t buying because they lack the means or the confidence to do so, businesses aren’t selling and they can’t keep people on the job when there’s no demand. A small tax credit placed in the hands of the small business owner isn’t going to make consumers buy more, and that is what has to happen for the job market to be revived.
The question they ought to be asking on Capitol Hill and at the State House is, “How do we put more money in people’s pockets so they’ll go out and spend again, giving businesses a reason to hire?”
Another young Democratic President, John F. Kennedy, understood this was the question that needed to be answered, and he addressed it by cutting taxes and giving people back their money, rather than doling out small tax credits as if the money belonged to the government and not the people. I was astonished by the number of public statements President Kennedy made equating tax cuts to job growth, economic revival, and greater tax revenue for the government.
“In short, it is a paradoxical truth that … the soundest way to raise the revenues in the long run is to cut the rates now. The experience of a number of European countries and Japan have borne this out. This country’s own experience with tax reduction in 1954 has borne this out. And the reason is that only full employment can balance the budget, and tax reduction can pave the way to that employment. The purpose of cutting taxes now is not to incur a budget deficit, but to achieve the more prosperous, expanding economy which can bring a budget surplus.”
In a 1962 radio and television report on the state of the national economy, President Kennedy described the legislation he planned to introduce:
“It will include an across-the-board, top-to-bottom cut in both corporate and personal income taxes. It will include long-needed tax reform that logic and equity demand … The billions of dollars this bill will place in the hands of the consumer and our businessmen will have both immediate and permanent benefits to our economy. Every dollar released from taxation that is spent or invested will help create a new job and a new salary. And these new jobs and new salaries can create other jobs and other salaries and more customers and more growth for an expanding American economy.”
When was the last time you heard a Democrat describe tax cuts with the words “logic” and “equity”? Not in Maryland – not in a long time.
Senate president Mike Miller thinks it’s politically courageous to raise taxes, and mocks those of us committed to keeping more money in the private economy where it can grow and do the most good for the most people. He’d rather keep the money in the public treasury where it’s subject to mismanagement, waste, being used to buy one’s re-election and who knows what else.
Governor O’Malley and his cohorts can get serious and cut taxes for small businesses and their customers, or they can insult our entrepreneurs’ intelligence with tax credits and stink up the Maryland economy even more than they already have.
Ron Miller, of Huntingtown, is a military veteran, conservative writer and activist, former and current candidate for the District 27 Maryland Senate seat, communications director for the Calvert County Republican Party, and executive director of Regular Folks United, Inc., a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. Ron is a regular contributor to RegularFolksUnited.com, American Thinker, and RedCounty.com. You can also follow Ron on his website TeamRonMiller.com, as well as Twitter andFacebook.
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