Venturing Across the Missouri River
by Kyle Michaelis
Pssst! Iowa. Hey, Iowa. Yeah, all you good people in Council Bluffs and throughout Iowa's 5th Congressional District. How about you do the nation a favor and get rid of this stooge Steve King? With the exception of Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo (in a league all his own), King is on that very next tier of Republican whack-jobs whom the country is begging you to remove from the national debate.
Sure, with Nebraska's Timid Trio, I don't have too much room to judge. But, at least Jeff Fortenberry, Lee Terry, and Tom Osborne aren't actually taking the lead in destroying America. Like good little lemmings, they're just following the likes of your Congressman King as he openly advocates sweeping changes in immigration and tax policy so fundamentally deplorable that his faction within the Republican Party must rightfully be considered enemies of the Constitution and the American public.
But, don't take my word on it. Look at his record yourself (from the pages of the Omaha-World Herald):
Cuckoo. Cuckoo. Cuckoo.
I mean, seriously, calling McCarthy, one of the most distasteful characters in American history, a "hero"? At the same time, he wants to attack Democrats for relying on "a dependent class" of voters, while he's advocating a monthly rebate check from the federal government?
Excuse me, but isn't relying on a check from your Uncle Sam to survive a sign of a whole lot more dependence than - under the progressive income tax - just letting people keep their money in the first place?
Someone is certainly manipulating voters with such talk - but it's the ignorant being manipulated by King, not the poor being manipulated by Democrats. This national sales tax thing has zero to do with economics and everything to do with shifting the tax burden even further onto the backs of America's working-class.
Steve King is an embarrassment. Worse than that, he is a dangerous ideologue running on an agenda of fear and distrust. From one Heartlander to another - screaming across the digital banks of the Missouri River and praying that someone is listening - I ask that you please stand up for our shared culture of common sense and compassion and show this joker the door.
2006 may or may not be the year when the Democratic Party rises-up and retakes the U.S. Congress, but it must definitely be the year when all Americans rise-up - for the future of the country - and put an end to the reigns of incompetence, corruption, and ideological savagery for which Republicans like Steve King stand.
Besides, the guy just makes the whole Midwest look bad. Please do your neighbors a favor and strip this would-be King of his crown this November.
Sure, with Nebraska's Timid Trio, I don't have too much room to judge. But, at least Jeff Fortenberry, Lee Terry, and Tom Osborne aren't actually taking the lead in destroying America. Like good little lemmings, they're just following the likes of your Congressman King as he openly advocates sweeping changes in immigration and tax policy so fundamentally deplorable that his faction within the Republican Party must rightfully be considered enemies of the Constitution and the American public.
But, don't take my word on it. Look at his record yourself (from the pages of the Omaha-World Herald):
King...has long advocated the "fair tax," a consumption-based sales tax, as a replacement for the federal income tax.
He supports eliminating both the federal income tax and the Internal Revenue Service, replacing them with the fair tax. The fair tax would implement a sales tax of 23 percent on the final sale of all goods and services.
King said product prices already are inflated by a rate of 22 percent because of the federal income tax. Under the new plan, he said, prices would drop....
Both Joyce Schulte and Bob Chambers, the two Democrats who are vying to face off with King in November, oppose the measure.
Schulte called it a "regressive tax," that would unfairly benefit the rich. Because the tax is consumption-based, Schulte has argued, those who need most of their income to pay for everyday living expenses would be taxed the highest.
Rebate checks issued each month for the amount of taxes paid, up to the poverty level, would alleviate that concern, King said. He accused Democrats of playing politics with something that is essentially an economic issue.
"Those who oppose it do so because they want to maintain a dependent class of people they can manipulate for votes," King said.
King's position on issues are frequently on the opposite side of Democrats in Congress. In a ranking by the nonpartisan National Journal, King was dubbed the most conservative member of the House based on his voting record....
King's critics say he has gone too far to the right at times. He made national headlines last fall for praising former Wisconsin Sen. Joe McCarthy as a "hero." McCarthy gained notoriety in the 1950s for accusing people of membership in the Communist Party or of Communist sympathies.
King defended his statement last week. "Joe McCarthy was right far more than he was wrong, and that's more than I can say for his critics," he said.
Cuckoo. Cuckoo. Cuckoo.
I mean, seriously, calling McCarthy, one of the most distasteful characters in American history, a "hero"? At the same time, he wants to attack Democrats for relying on "a dependent class" of voters, while he's advocating a monthly rebate check from the federal government?
Excuse me, but isn't relying on a check from your Uncle Sam to survive a sign of a whole lot more dependence than - under the progressive income tax - just letting people keep their money in the first place?
Someone is certainly manipulating voters with such talk - but it's the ignorant being manipulated by King, not the poor being manipulated by Democrats. This national sales tax thing has zero to do with economics and everything to do with shifting the tax burden even further onto the backs of America's working-class.
Steve King is an embarrassment. Worse than that, he is a dangerous ideologue running on an agenda of fear and distrust. From one Heartlander to another - screaming across the digital banks of the Missouri River and praying that someone is listening - I ask that you please stand up for our shared culture of common sense and compassion and show this joker the door.
2006 may or may not be the year when the Democratic Party rises-up and retakes the U.S. Congress, but it must definitely be the year when all Americans rise-up - for the future of the country - and put an end to the reigns of incompetence, corruption, and ideological savagery for which Republicans like Steve King stand.
Besides, the guy just makes the whole Midwest look bad. Please do your neighbors a favor and strip this would-be King of his crown this November.
posted at 10:58 PM
2 Comments:
This fair tax is another word for a value added tax. Others project that the tax would have to be at least 36% to make up for replacing the IRS tax as we know it.
Bush has a stealth plan on taxation before he brings out his favored flat tax that Grover Norquist has long pushed for.
The stealth plan is already in action. First, you get rid of taxes on savings, capital gains, and inheritance tax because those are all taxes on mostly wealthy people.
Second, you move in for the kill with your flat tax proposal which is unfair to the middle and lower classes because they spend most of their income just to exist.
The flat tax proposal might seem fair as they present it, but it isn't because all the other taxes as mentioned in stealth step no. 1 will have already been removed from taxation. All passive income will be tax free.
I'd venture that the flat tax would still have to have brackets though, but it still will be unfair even with brackets.
This is one reason they are pushing the idea that the present tax structure is too complicated. Too complicated for whom? Most people don't have that many deductions anyway so can easily do their own taxes only being out their time to gather the information and record it. People don't want to take the time to do it and that's why places like H&R Block are in business. Wealthy people don't do their own taxes anyway.
It has also been rumored rightly so that the flat tax would erase the deduction for your home mortgage. A deduction that many rely heavily on getting. Currently, it is limited to something like $100,000 interest.
They'll hype the flat tax for it's ease in filing via a postcard form.
It's all about stealth and robbing the middle class. Hence, the Rs don't care how high they've driven the deficit because the middle class will pay for it, not rich people.
Interesting that you mention defeating King, as it seems that both Schulte's and Chamber's campaigns are not serious as of yet. I've contacted both candidates to attempt to volunteer and recieved form responses, and their websites arent even updated half of the time. I beieve that e progressives in western iowa will have to wait at least two years for a serious candidate to emerge.
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