Posts Tagged ‘Tax’

PA GOP News Brief 9.1.10

1. PA GOP: Sestak Tries, Fails To Use Common Sense

2.    Delaware County Times: Guest Column: Sestak tax would see rates rocket

3.    The Mercury: GOP candidate: Reduce spending, extend tax cuts, repeal Obamacare

4.    Rasmussen Reports: Election 2010: Pennsylvania Senate

5.    The Washington Times: Editorial: Democrats party while nation suffers

1. PA GOP: Sestak Tries, Fails To Use Common Sense

Republican Party of Pennsylvania Chairman Rob Gleason released the following statement regarding U.S. Senate Democratic candidate Joe Sestak’s continued refusal to take responsibility for his latest earmark scandal.

“How many times must the people of Pennsylvania be subjected to another scandal involving Joe Sestak, and how many times must we be forced to watch him refuse to take responsibility for his actions?,” Gleason said. “No matter how often he tries to avoid the countless questions regarding his actions, it was Joe Sestak who requested an unethical $350,000 earmark so that a group dedicated to promoting the ideals of a Founding Father could supposedly build a wind turbine.

“Joe Sestak’s office said he did ‘due diligence’ when his office decided to pursue this unethical earmark. Knowing what we know about the Thomas Paine Foundation, does it sound like an organization that is active in the field of turbine construction? Did Joe Sestak miss the fact that the Thomas Paine Foundation hadn’t filed with the IRS in the past six years, or did he just not care?

“Once again, the voters of Pennsylvania are left to draw their own conclusions regarding this shady situation. It’s time for Joe Sestak to learn that leaders stand up and take responsibility for their actions.”

2.Delaware County Times: Guest Column: Sestak tax would see rates rocket

Common sense says that if you impose a massive tax on a product, that product will be more expensive. And if that product is essential to a particular sector of our economy, then we will witness job losses in that sector. In fact, if I told you that taxing a particular industry would create jobs in that industry, you would probably laugh out loud.

Last spring, Congressman Sestak co-sponsored and voted for a cap-and-trade bill that would impose a massive tax on energy … This is a non-controversial concept. And a host of independent studies and bipartisan elected officials across Pennsylvania understand it — but not Congressman Sestak.

2. The Mercury: GOP candidate: Reduce spending, extend tax cuts, repeal Obamacare

Congressional candidate Dee Adcock says the best way to strengthen the nation’s economy is to pull the plug on the remaining money in the “stimulus” package approved last year.

For the sake of cost certainty, Adcock also said Congress should act to extend the current tax cuts set to expire at the end of the year, even for Americans making more than $250,000 annually.

4. Rasmussen Reports: Election 2010: Pennsylvania Senate

Republican Pat Toomey continues to hold a modest lead over his Democratic Challenger, Joe Sestak, in the U.S. Senate race in Pennsylvania.

A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Voters in the state finds Toomey earning 45% of the vote, while Sestak earns 39% support. Five percent (5%) prefer some other candidate, and 11% are not sure.

5. The Washington Times: Editorial: Democrats party while nation suffers

It’s striking how little empathy Democrats seem to have for the economic troubles facing ordinary Americans. While unemployment and underemployment rates remain sky-high, economic growth falters. During the last quarter of 2009, gross domestic product grew 1.4 percent, but that figure fell to 0.9 percent in the first quarter of this year and just 0.4 percent in the second. “Now the fun stuff starts!” Vice President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. said in a bubbly interview with Time magazine last week regarding the administration’s stimulus plan. “This is a chance to do something big, man!”

The team at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. has more interest in redecorating the Oval Office than in feeling your pain. In fact, it is downright excited to take advantage of the economic downturn to push the stuff that otherwise could never be done.

PA GOP News Brief – 7.30.10

1. Rasmussen Reports: Election 2010: Pennsylvania Senate

2. PA GOP: Will Joe Sestak And Other Pennsylvania Democratic Members Of Congress Join The Call For Charlie Rangel To Resign?

3. Altoona Mirror: Tax hikes hurt job creation

4. The Wall Street Journal: The Rangel Dispensation

5. Town Hall: “Bipartisan” Dems Go on the Attack

1. Rasmussen Reports: Election 2010: Pennsylvania Senate

Republican Pat Toomey continues to hold a small lead over Democratic Congressman Joe Sestak in Pennsylvania’s U.S. Senate race.

The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Pennsylvania Voters shows Toomey earning 45% support, while Sestak picks up 39% of the vote. Six percent (6%) prefer another candidate in the race, and 10% are undecided.

That’s little changed from two weeks ago.

Sixty-six percent (66%) of Pennsylvania voters regard Toomey as politically conservative, and 42% place his views in the mainstream. Twenty-seven percent (27%) see him as an extremist, with 31% undecided.

Forty-five percent (45%) feel that Sestak is politically liberal, while 27% characterize him as a moderate. But 39% regard his views an extreme, while nearly as many (37%) think his views are in the mainstream. But roughly one-in-four voters (23%) aren’t sure.

2. PA GOP: Will Joe Sestak And Other Pennsylvania Democratic Members Of Congress Join The Call For Charlie Rangel To Resign?

Republican Party of Pennsylvania Spokesman Mike Barley released the following statement calling on Joe Sestak and fellow Democratic members of Congress Paul Kanjorski, Kathy Dahlkemper, Jason Altmire, Chris Carney, Tim Holden, Mark Critz, Allyson Schwartz, Mike Doyle, Chaka Fattah and Bob Brady continued refusal to call for Charlie Rangel’s resignation.

“What will it take for Joe Sestak and his fellow Democratic members of Congress to finally take a stand and call for the ethically challenged Congressman Charlie Rangel to resign,” Barley said. “It’s been months since allegations surrounding Charlie Rangel’s unethical behavior first came to light, and yet Joe Sestak and nearly all of his Democratic colleagues have remained silent on this issue as Charlie Rangel continues to serve as a United States Congressman.”

3. Altoona Mirror: Tax hikes hurt job creation

With the nation’s unemployment rate still troubling at 9.5 percent, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner believes it is time to kill more of the country’s job-creation ability.

Geithner did not put it that way, of course. He and his boss, President Barack Obama, continue to insist their actions are lifting the United States out of recession.

While some economic indicators have trended upwards, the unemployment rate remains unacceptably high. In some states, it exceeds the national rate. Ohio, for example, is suffering from 10.5 percent unemployment.

Economists warn the recovery is a very fragile one. Missteps could plunge us back into a more severe downturn. Geithner, Obama and other policy makers do not seem to understand that. On Sunday, the treasury secretary suggested tax increases may be a good idea.

4. The Wall Street Journal: The Rangel Dispensation

As we went to press last night, it wasn’t clear if Charlie Rangel would cut a plea deal with the House ethics committee to avoid a public trial. Still, the rap sheet of 13 alleged violations the committee released yesterday after a two-year investigation of the New York Democrat’s conduct in office are an object lesson in the reasons the public holds Congress in contempt. They reveal in detail the culture of entitlement and self-dealing that typifies modern Washington.

***

The most pungent allegations concern the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service at the City College of New York and suggest that he used his Chairmanship of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee to lure corporate donations in return for the expectation or hope of favorable tax treatment. The vanity project in Mr. Rangel’s Harlem district was akin to a Presidential library to “preserve the work of my public life,” as he put it in a 2004 letter, and it used several taxpayer earmarks as seed money, including a $1.9 million appropriation in 2007.

5. Town Hall: “Bipartisan” Dems Go on the Attack

With their poll numbers plunging in a jobless recovery, skyrocketing budget deficits, an unpopular health care plan, and their majority teetering on the edge of defeat, Democrats have switched to a novel election strategy: attack the Republicans.

In a campaign strategy that comes directly from the White House high command, Democrats are ditching President Obama’s 2008 campaign promise of political reconciliation and attempting to smear the GOP by tying it to the tea party movement.

The decision, announced Wednesday by Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine, has failure and desperation written all over it.

The tea party movement, which is not a party and has no central organization, was born in the fiery debate over the health care bill in the summer of 2009 as thousands of dissident voters showed up at town hall meetings to express their opposition. It grew over time as Obama’s budget deficits grew to $1.4 trillion last year, then to $1.5 trillion this year. Their common sense response: Enough is enough!