Huntley Seniors for Progressive Action assembled several prominent positions held by 14th District Congressman Randy Hultgren and shown on his website. They then asked 14th District Democratic Candidate Dennis Anderson his responses to the same positions. Below is the summary of those positions and responses.
Representative Hultgren’s statements are provided essentially as shown without any documentation or reference to sources on his website. Consider:
Hultgren’s positions:
1. The rise of unemployment is a direct result of the Obama administration’s out-of-control spending, massive deficits and strident anti-business agenda. While Randy does not believe that government creates jobs, he knows that it can destroy jobs through uncertainty, out-of-control spending, high taxes and burdensome regulations.
Anderson’s response:
The unemployment rate began to climb steeply during President George W. Bush’s last year in office, from 5 percent at the start of that year to 7.8 percent – a more than 50 percent increase – when President Obama took office, at which point the economy was shedding some 700,000 jobs per month. That steep climb continued for the next year, but has been on a generally downward trend since early 2010. I refer Mr. Hultgren to a simple chart from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics that can be found at:
data.bls.gov/pdq/SurveyOutputServlet?request_action=wh&graph_name=LN_cpsbref3
A recent report issued by the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that the employment situation has been improving across virtually all sectors since the downward slide was arrested in 2010. The report, “Current Employment Statistics, Highlights, April 2012,” can be found at www.bls.gov/ces/highlights012012.pdf
It is important to note as well that if public sector job cuts championed by Republicans in Congress and in Governorships and legislatures around the country had not been imposed, the unemployment rate would now be in the neighborhood of 7.0 percent.
Republicans like Representative Hultgren conveniently forget – and are outraged when anyone reminds them – that the deficit was created during the previous administration, and was largely the result of two unfunded wars and simultaneous tax cuts.
Federal spending under President Obama has been lower than under the previous administration. In fact, it is the lowest that it has been in decades, as reported in an article in the Wall Street Journal’s “Marketwatch.” This article can be found at www.marketwatch.com/story/obama-spending-binge-never-happened-2012-05-22?link=home_carousel
The Republican bromides of business being stifled by regulations, taxes and uncertainty are just not borne out in surveys of small business owners. What is holding back small businesses is quite simply, a lack of customers, as revealed in a number of surveys. As for “uncertainty,” none other than Arthur Laffer himself, conservative creator of the Laffer Curve and exponent of “trickle down” economics, has stated that uncertainty is always a condition of business ownership, and is an issue that good business owners deal with on a daily basis.
2. Fix the broken tax code
It is clear that the system is broken. We should clean up our tax code by making it flatter, fairer and remove loopholes to create an environment where businesses can thrive and focus on growing and creating jobs.
Anderson’s response:
Flatter taxes and fairer taxes are not the same. Understanding this is not difficult, and I am constantly surprised at the number of people who seem to have trouble grasping the concept.
For example, If the amount needed by a family to obtain decent housing, sufficient food, clothing, adequate health care and transportation to and from school and work in a given area is $2,500 per month, a family earning $2,700 per month before taxes would take home only $2,457 per month if the tax rate was, for example, the 9 percent suggested by Herman Cain. That family would be pushed into dependency.
A family earning $10,000 per month would still be taking home $9,100 per month at the same 9 percent tax rate, and would obviously be much advantaged by the low rate. The progressive income tax rate has never been meant to equalize everyone’s standard of living, as some conservatives would have you believe, but yes, there is a redistributive effect that helps to ensure that even lower income earners have the opportunity to live decent lives.
As to loopholes, one person’s loophole is another’s critical incentive. I would agree with Representative Hultgren that a tax code that allows massively profitable industries to pay no taxes or, worse yet, to get refunds is in need of reform.
Jobs are created primarily by small businesses. Small business owners, as noted above, do not view regulations or taxes as a major obstacle to their growth and success.
3. Stop Job-Crushing Regulations
Randy supports legislation to require congressional review and approval of any proposed government regulation that would increase the cost of doing business in America.
Anderson’s response:
“Increase the cost of doing business in America.”? By how much? This is so vague and meaningless as to be discounted without comment. Nearly.
Congress bears the responsibility for passing laws. The Executive Branch is charged with implementing those laws. Requiring Congressional approval of regulations established by the Executive in fulfillment of its constitutional responsibilities is an idea that those who claim to treasure the constitution must find particularly distasteful. Or perhaps not.
4. 100 percent pro-life record
Randy has been a constant opponent of abortion. He believes that it is our moral obligation to respect all life from the moment it begins. In Washington, Randy is fighting to remove the shroud of secrecy from the abortion industry and supports eliminating all taxpayer funding for entities that choose to perform abortions.
Anderson’s response:
The legality of abortion was decided in 1973. Taxpayer funding of abortion services is already prohibited. The argument that providing federal funds to organizations may free up other funds for support of abortion services – i.e. the “fungibility” argument – might be applied equally to religious organizations, for example, that receive federal funds but then use not those funds, but other, non-federal dollars, for religious evangelism and political action. Would not the fungibility argument apply equally to these other organizations?
(More positions and responses to follow in the next edition of the Sun Day)
5. Protecting Families
Randy is fighting against federal and state laws that undermine the sanctity of marriage
Anderson’s response:
I don’t know what this means. The “sanctity” of marriage is a religious issue, and different faiths have differing views and teachings on marriage. Not so long ago, for example, Catholics could not divorce under Church law, but were free to do so under civil law. Allowing divorce, it could still be argued, undermines the “sanctity” of marriage. Similarly, some faiths require that the wife be subservient to the husband, but not all. Does a law that gives the wife and husband equal ownership of a married couple’s assets violate the “sanctity” of marriage?
6. Repeal Obamacare
Anderson’s response:The Affordable care Act is already benefiting millions of Americans through the provisions covering preexisting conditions and allowance for continued coverage of young adults on parental policies. In July of last year, the CBO provided Speaker Boehner with an analysis comparing the cost of implementing the Act with the cost of repealing the Act, the finding being that repealing the Act would add to the deficit, while implementation will reduce the deficit. Health care cost inflation continues to be a serious drag on the economy, and some 50 million Americans still lack health insurance coverage. I would have thought that in the 80 years since health care became an issue of national attention, a private sector solution would have presented, if such a solution were possible. Given the ingenuity of our business and entrepreneurial sector, and given the decades in which a solution might have presented, I think that it is safe to say that a private sector solution ranges between unlikely and impossible.7. End Obama’s borrowing and out-of-control spending
Put an end to this borrowing and out-of-control federal spending. American families have to live within their means and I believe the federal government should as well. Once we establish a sensible federal budget, cut spending, and lower taxes, the economy will grow and businesses will feel confident to start hiring again.
Anderson’s response:
Given that the rate of federal spending has so significantly slowed under President Obama, I find the “out-of-control” characterization to be a bit strained. Mr. Hultgren’s characterization of the administration’s policy as “borrow and spend” reflects an interesting change from the old Republican mantra that the Democratic Party is the party of “tax and spend.” It has been, in fact, the Republicans who introduced the 21st Century “borrow and spend” model by initiating two unfunded wars and a new prescription coverage mandate while cutting taxes.
8. Oppose all Obama’s proposed tax increases
Anderson’s response:
I assume that the qualification in the statement – i.e. “Obama’s proposed tax increases” – means that Representative Hultgren might consider supporting Republican-introduced tax increases. The unexpected happens. Bad policies, such as initiating wars without making provision to pay for them or deregulating industries and thus putting the economy at risk, may result in the need for additional revenue. Democracy costs. Living in a safe and civil society costs. Not all needs are predictable.
9. Battle Obama’s plans to disarm America
The Second Amendment of the United States Constitution protects an individual’s right to bear arms. This is a basic, constitutional right extended to all US citizens and should not be diminished by any elected official’s personal agenda.
Randy strongly supports the right of law-abiding citizens to own firearms and will continue to fight to protect that right.
Anderson’s response:
Oft repeated, never documented. If Representative Hultgren actually has evidence that the Obama Administration has a plan to disarm America, I think that we’d all love to see it. Or even evidence that such a policy might exist. I’ll wait for my copy. Perhaps Representative Hultgren would be willing to share his.
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Mychal Massie is chairman of the National Leadership Network of Black Conservatives-Project 21 – a conservative black think tank located in Washington, D.C. He was recognized as the 2008 Conservative Man of the Year by the Conservative Party of Suffolk County, N.Y. He is a nationally recognized political activist, pundit, and columnist. He has appeared on Fox News Channel, CNN, MSNBC, C-SPAN, NBC, Comcast Cable, and talk-radio programming nationwide.
Here is his article about our current First Lady.
What on earth can Michelle Obama possibly be tired from? What has she done since her husband was elected that gives her one reason to be tired? I know that flying, for the proletariat such as myself, can be tiring and, more times than not, a genuine pain – but she flies in presidential luxury, sans the president. And the only checking in and full-body scan she goes through at an airport is when she looks at herself in a mirror.
We, the taxpayers of this great nation, demand to know just what it is that has her royalness so worn out and tired that after just enjoying a lavish 17-day Hawaiian Christmas vacation (that cost taxpayers $4 million), she needs another vacation at one of the most exclusive (and anti-union) resorts in the country.
It cannot be that she is overworked, because, if the liberal Los Angeles Times is to be believed, between them, the Obamas have 454 White House aides at a cost to the taxpayers of more than $37 million annually – and that doesn’t include recent pay raises. (See: “No Recession for Obama’s 454 White House aides: They’ll make $37,121,463 this year”; Andrew Malcolm, July 5, 2011.) And before you ask – yes, that is more than President and Mrs. Bush had, and I was one of the lone voices decrying the small size and cost of Laura Bush’s staff.
Could Ms. Obama still be suffering fatigue from the weight of having kept secret, for two years, her extravagant Halloween costume ball? Even though they used military families as a cover in case it got out, the last thing she wanted the public to know was that, while Americans were suffering in the depths of recession, she had the biggest players in Hollywood doing an exclusive costume party just for herself and her family.
Or perhaps it’s the lingering effects of taking her mother and daughters to South Africa and Botswana, or the sheer exhaustion of rushing out of Washington four hours ahead of her husband so she wouldn’t have to share her presidential jet with him on the way to Martha’s Vineyard for their annual beach break.
Then again, maybe she was exhausted from her personal $50,000 underwear shopping spree with the queen of Qatar, at Agent Provocateur, the store that bills itself as selling “the most erotic lingerie in the world.” Realizing that you’re responsible for closing down Madison Avenue can be tiring, and watching staff carry all those bags back to her limousines … whew! – that would sure wear me out. And after the tiring experience of picking out all of those exotic undies, what better place to recover than an uber-posh Vail resort and the private home owned by Paula and Jim Crown?
Or maybe she’s worn out from rolling around on the floor to the delight of Ellen Degeneres, or making muscles on a daytime show, or pulling on a rope on another show, or eating at all of the restaurants where she loves to pig it up.
Then again, maybe Ms. Obama is just an arrogant, high-minded person who doesn’t give a rat’s tail about propriety or how her behavior looks to a suffering public, because, after all, her husband claims the economy is improving, and who are we going to believe – the reality of our financial situation or her husband?
Michelle Obama can afford to live life large since every dime she’s spending comes on the backs and sweat of others. Nothing, zip, nada that she spends did she personally earn. And therein is the disgusting elitism of a woman who forgets where she came from and dares you to remind her.
We are responsible for the billionaire life she lives, and it’s time we started demanding that she be accountable to us. It’s time we started confronting Obama at every press conference and/or speaking venue about the behavior of his wife. He is spending hundreds of millions of our money, flying around the country to raise a billion dollars for his campaign war chest, and we’re paying $4 per gallon for fuel. We’ve lost our homes, our mortgages are upside-down, our property taxes aren’t enough to cover the increasing cost of infrastructure because of the drain of resources by illegal aliens, and all of this is happening as the price of putting milk and cereal on our tables is rising dramatically.
But why shouldn’t she be smiling? For the first time in her adult life, she is proud of America – and why not? She has tens of millions of peons paying for her very own private reparations – now that’s enough to put a smile on any elitist’s face!
