Oregon Republicans are furious with Democrats for accusing them of backing a 30% sales tax – and they’ve got reason to be mad, because they’re not doing anything of the kind.
A mailer sent by Future PAC, the campaign arm of Oregon House Democrats, claims that three GOP House candidates – all in the Portland area – support a 30% sales tax. Such a claim is sure to open the eyes of Oregon voters, to whom the very thought of a sales tax is toxic.
The basis for the claim? Well, the three Republicans are members of, or have appeared at events hosted by, the right-wing group Americans for Prosperity. And that group, the Democrats say, has backed a proposal to replace the federal income tax with a national 30% sales tax.
Let’s see if I can follow this logic: Because the Republican candidates have some tenuous connection with a group that supports the sales tax idea, THEY must support it too.
The Democrats’ claim actually is even sketchier than that, because former Oregon Republican Rep. Jeff Kropf, head of the Oregon chapter of Americans for Prosperity, told The Oregonian that although individual members might support the 30% sales tax, the organization itself has taken no position on the issue.
Americans for Prosperity, which is guiding and organizing the supposedly “grassroots” Tea Party movement, is a thoroughly sleazy outfit, bankrolled by the ultra-right-wing multi-billionaire Koch brothers, and I wouldn’t even consider voting for anybody who was associated with it. But if Democrats wanted to let voters know the Republican candidates were linked to the group they could have simply said so. To claim they’re supporting a 30% sales tax is just plain dishonest – and smacks of desperation.
This article appears in Sep 23-29, 2010.
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They all stink. R or D. Shades of gray = gray.
Show me an honest politician and I’ll show you a politician out of a job.
Oh for crying out loud. What a bunch of nitwits.
Bruce, we appreciate your honest thoughts on the issue. I think your reaction will be shared by others. Just a note for you, AFP OR doesnt receive one penny from the Koch’s, not even from any of their companies here in Oregon. We have over 2,000 Oregon donors, 20,000 members now after operating here three years and 30 local chapters around the state that meet once a month.
“AFP OR doesnt receive one penny from the Koch’s”
But what about the national organization?
And anyway, even if you do get money from the Koch boys, why be ashamed of it if you espouse the same political views they do?
HBM: “Americans for Prosperity, which is guiding and organizing the supposedly “grassroots” Tea Party movement, is a thoroughly sleazy outfit, bankrolled by the ultra-right-wing multi-billionaire Koch brothers, and I wouldn't even consider voting for anybody who was associated with it.”
OK HBM, so us the proof. You always take on your critics by insisting on them presenting proof. So show the proof, the evidence that AFP guides/controls the Tea Party, not just your suspicions or speculations. Tell me who the national leader of the Tea Party is and where their headquarters are. Tell me where I should mail a check to support the national efforts of the Tea Party.
And for the record, tell your readers your thoughts about the ultra-left-wing multi-billionaire sleazebag George Soros and the sleazebag organizations he bankrolls such as MoveOn.org and the Center for American Progress. Are you consistent in your disgust with the extreme factions of the left? Would you vote for anyone associated with those ultra-left-wing organizations?
aaychbee –
It’s getting a little tiresome to see you persistently posting on this blog and failing to realize that this a left leaning blog consisting of Bruce’s opinion. These are bits of information gleaned from what Bruce sees in his intellectual wanderings. This is not political science class. For god’s sake man, you’re commenting on every post and you hate 90% of what he writes. I suggest movingon.org.
“So show the proof, the evidence that AFP guides/controls the Tea Party”
Follow the link from “Koch brothers” in my post and read the story for more information on the connection between AFP and the birth and rise of the so-called Tea Party “movement.” Dick Armey’s outfit, FreedomWorks, also is a force behind the “movement”; it even calls itself “Tea Party HQ.”
You might also want to read this story (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/24/us/politics/24donate.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Americans for Job Security&st=cse) in today’s New York Times. While not specifically about AFP or the Koch brothers, it’s a good description of how moneyed interests set up Astroturf operations to advance their agendas.
“tell your readers your thoughts about the ultra-left-wing multi-billionaire sleazebag George Soros ”
Yawn. As predictably as the sun rising in the east, every time somebody mentions the influence of right-wing billionaires like the Koch brothers on the political process, the right-wingers will start croaking “George Soros! George Soros!” like demented parrots. For every billionaire like Soros backing left-wing causes there are about a dozen like the Koch brothers backing right-wing ones.
BTW, it’s really laughable to call an ultra-successful billionaire capitalist like Soros “ultra-left-wing.” Kinda reminds me of how the neo-Nazis claim that the Jews are controlling the world’s banks while at the same time they’re pushing for communism. Just a little contradiction there.
“Would you vote for anyone associated with those ultra-left-wing organizations?”
Probably, because I do not consider them “ultra-left-wing.” By the standards of 40 or 50 years ago they would not even be considered “left-wing.” But organizations like AFP and FreedomWorks — backed by the money of people like the Koch brothers and Richard Mellon Scaife — have done a hell of a fine job of moving the political goal posts farther and farther to the right in this country, to the point where even a very, very tame and moderate liberal like Obama can be depicted as a “socialist.”
Gadfly: Thank you. “Critic” seems to hang around all day, every day, waiting for me to post something so he can denounce it. He really needs to get a life.
Also of interest: AFP and FreedomWorks are offshoots of Citizens for a Sound Economy, an Astroturf organization founded in 1984 with Koch money. AFP and FreedomWorks “have provided direct education, training, and support to Tea Party activist groups across the nation. AFP has offered ‘Tea Party Talking Points,’ urged citizens to protest by sending tea bags to Obama, and provided directions to protests. It is now hosting ‘Defending the American Dream’ summits across the country, the next one scheduled in Washington, D.C. for this Friday and Saturday. The event package includes transportation to Glenn Beck's ‘Restoring Honor Rally’ on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial …” (Washington Independent, Aug. 24: http://washingtonindependent.com/95603/the-koch-brothers-and-the-tea-parties)
Claiming the Koch brothers and their front organizations have nothing to do with the Tea Party “movement” is like claiming Macy’s has nothing to do with that big Thanksgiving Day parade they have in New York every year.
Of course “Critic” will say I failed to back up my claims because he only believes right-wing news sources — and of course such sources are not going to say anything about the big-money boys behind the Tea Party “movement.”
“`Critic’ seems to hang around all day, every day, waiting for me to post something so he can denounce it. He really needs to get a life.”
Or, to paraphrase filmmaker Spike Lee, if he doesn’t like your blog, he should start his own.
More on who’s behind the Tea Party, from a NY Times editorial yesterday:
“Tea Party supporters and their candidates like to imagine themselves as insurgents, crashing the barricades of Washington to establish a new order of clean and frugal government. In earthbound reality, many of the people pulling the Tea Party's strings are establishment Republican operatives and lobbyists. Some have made money off the party for years. …
Dick Armey, the former House Republican leader, considers himself a godfather of the Tea Party and is co-author of the book, “Give Us Liberty: a Tea Party Manifesto.” Writing in The Wall Street Journal, he called for a “hostile takeover” of the Republican Party, which sounds so very revolutionary until one remembers that he helped lead that party for many years, guiding its policies and raising its money. When he left office in 2003, he cashed in on his connections to become a very high-paid lobbyist at DLA Piper, one of Washington's biggest law firms, which has clients that include health-care companies, energy producers and foreign governments.
Then there is Carl Paladino, the Tea Party-backed Republican nominee for governor of New York. His bloodcurdling denunciations of Albany never seem to mention that he is one of the biggest landlords of state agencies, owning properties with $85 million in taxpayer leases in Buffalo alone that provide him with income of more than $5 million a year. He is the biggest property owner in Buffalo, and much of his empire has been constructed with state development incentives and tax breaks. An adviser is Roger Stone, an operator for Republicans since Richard Nixon's re-election campaign.”
More: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/24/opinion/24fri2.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.