Saturday, September 6, 2008

Bruce in Wonderland, Part I: Taxes

The contrast from Minnesota -- where Gov. Sarah Palin soared through the glass ceiling -- could not be starker, as Bruce Lunsford crashes and burns through the looking glass. Lunsford's latest ad claims that Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell favors high taxes. As Alice would say, down is up. Even more unreal, Lunsford, who ran twice for governor as a Democrat, implies that he, Lunsford will bring us lower taxes. Up is down.

Lunsford might as well take his ad to its hallucinagenic conclusion and claim that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is a strict constructionist. Or that Barack Obama is a war hero.

How to explain Lunsford's abandonment of reality? It seems that Lunsford has rationalized his last two trouncings by deciding that Kentuckians are so stupid that they will believe that Mitch McConnell is a tax and spend liberal. This, from a candidate, who has complained all summer that McConnell is obstructing a progressive agenda (that is, preventing liberals from taxing and spending).

Take Lunsford's claim that McConnell promised not to raise taxes and then raised taxes. The Americans for Tax Reform gave McConnell a 100 pecent rating for the 110th Congress. Compare that to Sen. Barack Obama, who has a rating of five (5) and Sen. Joe Biden, who aptly rates a zero (0) (which looks alot like Obama's logo). McConnell has one of the best records in the Senate on tax relief. And no wonder.

McConnell opposed the 1990 tax increases (when Bush 41 broke his "read my lips, no new taxes pledge). McConnell voted against Bill Clinton's 1993 tax increase on gas and social security. McConnell supported the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997. He supported the Bush tax cuts of 2001 (the cuts Barack Obama won't make permanent). And McConnell supported tax cuts in 2003 on investment income and the marriage penalty. In October 1990, McConnell joined the non-binding "sense of the Senate" to call for lower gas and capital gains taxes. When the final bill called for higher taxes, McConnell broke with President Bush and voted against this tax increase on, among other things, gas.

Lunsford wants to go to Washington to be a groupie for Biden-Obama, whose combined rating from the Americans for Tax Reform is a whopping 2.5: they flunked so badly, they almost fell off the scale. McConnell, in contrast, consistently scores as A to A+ on opposing tax increases and supporting tax cuts. Kentucky should not exchange an A+ Senator for an F wannabe.

Lunsford's ad makes other absurd claims about McConnell's record. The ad is so replete with distortions that the other lies (such as, that McConnell does not support veterans), will be addressed separately.

No comments: