Posted on 01/16/2008 1:59:20 PM PST by unspun
Question: What does $585,000 buy you?
Answer: It bought Mitt Romney backers a smear job against Mike Huckabee orchestrated by Beltway Insiders.
The Club for Growth has an affiliated 527 group, Club for Growth.net, running anti-Mike Huckabee ads in early primary states.
- At least $585,000 in contributions from Mitt Romney financial backers.
- Club for Growth has spent $750,000 against Governor Huckabee in Iowa, South Carolina and Michigan. Here are donors that have donated both to Club for Growth.net* and Mitt Romney: Name: John Childs**
Contribution to Beltway Group $100,000 on 11/16/07
$100,000 on 12/31/07
Contribution to Mitt Romney $2,100 on 1/8/07 Name: Bob Perry
Contribution to Beltway Group
$200,000 on 12/12/07
Contribution to Mitt Romney $2,300 on 3/13/07
Name: Kristen Hertel
Contribution to Beltway Group
$25,000 on 12/21/07
$25,000 on 1/02/08
Contribution to Mitt Romney $1,000 on 2/6/07
Name: Muneer Satter
Contribution to Beltway Group
$25,000 on 12/21/07 $25,000 on 1/02/08
Contribution to Mitt Romney
$2,300 on 2/6/07
Name: Michael Valentine
Contribution to Beltway Group
$40,000 on 1/3/08
Contribution to Mitt Romney
$2,300 on 4/4/07
Name: Travis Anderson
Contribution to Beltway Group
$25,000 on 12/19/07
Contribution to Mitt Romney
$2,100 on 2/8/07
Name: Richard Gaby
Contribution to Beltway Group
$20,000 on 12/19/07
Contribution to Mitt Romney
$1,000 on 2/12/07 * Only represents donors that contributed more than $20,000 to Club for Growth.net in 2007/2008. ** "Boston investor John Childs, who donated $2,100 to Romney in 2007, recently gave 100,000 to the Club for Growth." [Morain, Dan. "Huckabee foes open their wallets for attack ads," The Los Angeles Times. 1 January 2008.] *** All contributor information obtained from Federal Election Commission's electronic database at www.fec.gov. Paid for by Huckabee for President, Inc. www.mikehuckabee.com
http://www.mikehuckabee.com/?FuseAction=TruthSquad.ClubSmear
Romney = liberal
Huckabee = a corrupt socialist
CLUB FOR GROWTH = The last best hope of Amercican conservative politics.
Without the CFG their is no hope for the GOP.
Club for Growth? Isn’t the guy in charge of that the fellow who ran as pro-life against Specter and now is supporting Giuliani? Anyone know?
Ping. Counterpunching against the Romney-supporter-backed “ClubforGrowth.net” 527 hit squad.
Next, I’m posting Huckabee’s response. It is long, so I won’t ping you with that.
“Over the pas ten months, Governor Huckabee’s embrace of his liberal economic record as governor and his populist, protectionist rhetoric on the campaign trail has only confirmed the Club for Growth’s original assessment,” said Club for Growth President Pat Toomey. “Huckabee himself admits that he is a ‘different kind of Republican,’ a code word for more government involvement, less personal freedom, and greater dependence on government bureaucrats.”
The Club for Growth is a great organization!
Huckabaybee Campaign? Not so much...
ping
Well, the President of the Club for Growth hasn’t fiancially backed anyone.
TOOMEY, PATRICK
ZIONSVILLE,PA 18092
CLUB FOR GROWTH/EXECUTIVE
2/8/2007
$5,000
Club for Growth PAC
TOOMEY, PATRICK
ZIONSVILLE,PA 18092
CLUB FOR GROWTH/CEO
1/19/2007
$1,000
Pro-Growth Action Team
He did have some positive things to say about Guiliani regarding eonomics.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119993521284380155.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Myth’s hench people at the Club for Greed/Growth have been spending millions, a mere bag of shells for his fat cats.
“Huckabee is proud of his tax hikes, his spending increases, and his regulatory expansions as governor, and he has not indicated that he would govern any differently as president. Nominating Mike Huckabee for president or vice-president would constitute an abject rejection of the free-market, limited-government, economic conservatism that has been the unifying theme of the Republican Party for decades.”
I really am glad the poster put this out. It reminds me why I'm not supporting Huckabee.
‘different kind of Republican,’ a code word for:
jimmy carter Christian
america.. bad
jews.. bad
wealthy whites.. bad
conservative wealthy whites.. satan himself
swimming rabbits..the enemy to be paddled
Taxes
The Club for Growth is committed to lower taxes across the board. Lower taxes on work, savings, and investments lead to greater levels of these activities, thus encouraging greater economic growth.
Governor Huckabee touts himself as an economic conservative, writing in his biography that he “pushed through the Arkansas Legislature the first major, broad-based tax cuts in state history” and “led efforts to establish a Property Taxpayers’ Bill of Rights” early on as governor,[1] but he only offers a small piece of the picture. It is true that Governor Huckabee fought for an $80 million tax cut package in 1997 that was passed by the Arkansas Legislature;[2] cut the state capital gains tax in 1999;[3] and passed the Property Taxpayers’ Bill of Rights in the same year, limiting the increase in property taxes to 10% a year for individuals and 5% per taxing unit.[4] However, his record over the rest of his ten-year tenure tells a starkly different story.
Immediately upon taking office, Governor Huckabee signed a sales tax hike in 1996 to fund the Games and Fishing Commission and the Department of Parks and Tourism.[5]
He supported an internet sales tax in 2001.[6]
He publicly opposed the repeal of a sales tax on groceries and medicine in 2002.[7]
He signed bills raising taxes on gasoline (1999), cigarettes (2003)[8], and a $5.25 per day bed-tax on private nursing home patients in 2001.[9]
He proposed another sales take hike in 2002 to fund education improvements.[10]
He opposed a congressional measure to ban internet taxes in 2003.[11]
In 2004, he allowed a 17% sales tax increase to become law.[12]
By the end of his ten-year tenure, Governor Huckabee was responsible for a 37% higher sales tax in Arkansas, 16% higher motor fuel taxes, and 103% higher cigarette taxes according to Americans for Tax Reform,[13] garnering a lifetime grade of D from the free-market Cato Institute. While he is on record supporting making the Bush tax cuts permanent, he joined Democrats in criticizing the Republican Party for tilting its tax policies “toward the people at the top end of the economic scale,”[14] even though objective evidence demonstrates that the Bush tax cuts have actually shifted the tax burden to higher income taxpayers.
Finally, Governor Huckabee opposed further tax cuts at a 2005 gathering of Iowa conservatives.[15] On January 28, 2007, Governor Huckabee refused to pledge not to raise taxes if elected President, first on “Meet the Press”[16] and then at the National Review Conservative Summit.[17] The evidence suggests that his commitment to protecting taxpayers evidenced in his early gubernatorial years may be a thing of the past.
Update: Governor Huckabee has taken to pronouncing his 94 tax cuts on the campaign trail as “proof” of his economic conservatism and of the Club for Growth’s “dishonesty.”[18] While Governor Huckabee deserves credit for his modest tax cuts at the beginning of his tenure, several Arkansas papers have documented the fallacy of Huckabee’s “94 tax cuts” line. The Arkansas Morning News called it “another bloated pronouncement encompassing every penny-ante tax break the Legislature passed during his time.”[19] These “94 tax cuts” include such minor tweaks as exempting residential lawn care from the sales tax, reducing taxes on bets made at Southland Greyhound Park, and exempting Arkansas Symphony Orchestra purchases from the sales tax.[20]
Overall, Huckabee’s substantial tax hikes far surpassed his modest tax cuts, with the average tax burden increasing by a whopping 47% over his tenure.[21] Huckabee will argue that he did not sign all of the tax hikes, and while true, this fact does not absolve him of responsibility. In the case of a 1996 constitutional amendment to raise the sales tax for the state’s conservation agencies, Huckabee campaigned vigorously for the tax hike, even taking a fishing trip down the Arkansas River to promote it.[22] The amendment passed by just 8,284 votes out of 802,148 votes cast.[23]
While Huckabee repeatedly claims that 80% of Arkansas voters approved the gas and diesel fuel tax increases that he backed,[24] the frequency of his repetition of this claim does not make it true. In fact, the claim is false. The Arkansas Legislature passed two bills in March of 1999 to pay for transportation projects, a gas and fuel tax hike, not subject to voter approval, and a bond issue that was contingent on voter approval.[25] Huckabee signed the gas and diesel fuel tax increases into law on April 1, 1999; the tax hikes began taking effect that day.[26] Voters approved the bond issue, but this referendum did not include the gas and fuel tax increases[27] and did not take place until June 15, 1999.[28] Importantly, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette made this clear when it wrote, “the tax increases [signed by Huckabee] will stay whether voters approve the bond issue or not.”[29]
Finally, Huckabee argues that the 2003 historically high sales tax hike was mandated by the state Supreme Court and that he refused to sign the final product.[30] This is a blatant misrepresentation of the facts. The Arkansas Supreme Court did not mandate a tax hike. It simply mandated that the state spend more money on education and distribute that money equitably.[31] Reducing state spending in other areas in order to increase education funding would have been a perfectly acceptable remedy for the court ruling, but it is one that Governor Huckabee did not embrace. Instead of cutting spending, the Legislature opted to raise taxes by historical levels.[32] While Huckabee allowed the bill to become law without his signature, his opposition was not due to any philosophical opposition to tax hikes; rather, he opposed it because the Legislature refused to adopt his school consolidation plan,[33] telling the Associated Press through his spokesperson that “He doesn’t want to obstruct the wishes of the Legislature but still believes we should have obtained a more-significant level of reform for this size tax increase.”[34] While Huckabee did not sign this tax hike, as he did many others, his refusal to fight for lower spending and his ambivalence in the face of the largest tax hike in Arkansas history[35] is certainly reason for concern.
It is also true that since our initial white paper in January, Huckabee has signed Americans for Tax Reform’s anti-tax pledge[36] and embraced a Fair Tax proposal on the campaign trail.[37]
These are positive steps in a vacuum, but they lack credibility given his tax-hiking record and the vigor with which he defends those tax hikes. It is hard to take Huckabee seriously when he says he will not raise taxes as president when he continues to vigorously defend the tax hikes he initiated and supported as governor.
Spending
The Club for Growth is committed to reducing government spending. Less spending enhances economic growth by enabling lower taxes and diminishing the economically inefficient political allocation of resources.
Under Governor Huckabee’s watch, state spending increased a whopping 65.3% from 1996 to 2004, three times the rate of inflation.[38] The number of state government workers rose 20% during his tenure,[39] and the state’s general obligation debt shot up by almost $1 billion, according to Americans for Tax Reform.[40] The massive increase in government spending is due in part to the number of new programs and expansion of already existing programs initiated by Governor Huckabee, including ARKids First, a multimillion-dollar government program to provide health coverage for thousands of Arkansas’ children.[41]
These large increases in government borrowing and spending significantly impede economic growth.
UPDATE: Huckabee is the only Republican presidential candidate to refuse to endorse President Bush’s veto of a vastly expanded and expensive SCHIP program.[42]
..Read the rest here:
http://www.clubforgrowth.com/2007/11/updated_huckabee_white_paper.php
So in FR, the admin has say over the title clarification and the poster does not. Hm.
Looks like Toomey has taken the soup.
If it is not the original title, yes.
And Limbaugh, and a few other Hamilton/Rand "upper class" elitists.
He's bought into the global warming baloney and has also pushed a public service academy to train more bureaucrats for government jobs-- just what we don't need.
Guilani, for all his faults, actually got the swollen government sector under control in NYC and revitalized it economically. Romney did the same for Massachusetts. And these are just the RINOs.
Once we start comparing real conservatives to the Huckster, he even looks worse. But his worst move of all was to put down the welcome mat for illegal aliens so Tyson's could have cheap labor subsidized by the Arkansas tax payers.
Don't try to peddle your anti-GFG propaganda here. Conservatives in Pennsylvania know Pat Toomey, the head of the organization, who came very near replacing our RINO senior senator in 2004.
Government exists to allow me to soak my employees for all I can get out of them. And — let the po’ folks kill their babies, if I keep lowering their standards of living and limiting their opportunities.
No, that is your choice to do that and the employees choice to stay.
Updated FR Excerpt and Link Only or Deny Posting List due to Copyright Complaints
Your post will be removed.
...or lose their health care for themselves and their families, also any chance to get a higher education, also meet their mortgage.
Corporate Paternalism
Wow, the snooty NYT doesn’t even allow a forum to post links advertising their own Web site, unless we extract a copyrighted portion of their article to reproduce along with it?
Turning the world upside down, 24 hours a day.
That buys me the 2-bedroom condo I’m renting here in San Jose, CA.
Would you rather have a nanny government ‘fixing’ these things for everyone? Sounds like liberalism, spreading misery equally.
Or is that being interpreted mistakenly? The Huckabee site lists the following and the URL is an actual link. Is that somehow in violation, too?:
From their piece, "The link to the NYT article: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/02/us/politics/02huckabee.html "
I don't see how they could possibly sue, when someone merely posts their URL as a link. (That is all I did, you know.)
Maybe you want the government to step in and make it all OK for you Unspun?
No, it isn’t freedom, per se. The corporation is stepping in as an extragovernmental “nanny state” themselves, except tying the “services” to “shut up and work nice” employment standards.
That is paternalism.
That is not freedom, though the corporate bodies are free to participate in that kind of tyranny.
The solution is to allow the People to individually have their own, self-reliant means.
Actually, they already did. It's called the First Amendment.
LOL — telling the truth about Tax Hike Mike isn’t a “smear”.
And Huckabee's solution is for us to subsidize said colonization as an atonement for slavery? How is that supposed to help an American, black or white, in the lower to middle classes get ahead?
Club for Growth actually works to pull people out of poverty by creating wealth rather than redistributing it. Exactly what is there about that concept that you don't understand?
BTW, CFG is neither racist nor elitist. If Mexico employed the concepts they advocate, they could develop their own middle class rather than trying to pull down ours. CFG's remedies have been wildly successful everwhere they've been tried-- the Asian Tiger Economies and Chile being good examples.
Spinning falsities, distortions, and negative half-truths is virtually the definition of a smear. But LOL if you like.
I could retire.
Where ya' been? ;-`
What’s with the class warfare crap? If that’s what the Huckster has to offer, no wonder he’s melting away under the light of truth as fast as the Wicked Witch of the West melted away under water.
LOL, let's look at the first amendment why don't we.
Congress shall make no law...
This is a private forum and has nothing to do with Governmental intrusion into your freedom of speech.
It is only those who presumably believe themselves in some kind of power/money "upper class," who are touting "class warfare."
Hm. Maybe they're threatened by something? Some kind of presumed status and power over others, in their minds?
The truth is that Tax Hike Mike raised taxes and spending in Arkansas at a rate that earned him a 45th out of 50 ranking on Cato’s report of state governors.
I might look in to Arkansas, too.
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