Posted on 09/18/2007 11:21:00 AM PDT by ElkGroveDan
"Everything is on the table," said Governor Schwarzenegger yesterday, when asked whether he would support a statewide sales tax, in this case, as part of a massive government intervention into health care in California. The Governor said that he could support placing a tax hike on the ballot on which Californians can vote. Presumably the Republican Governor, after negotiating such a "deal" for California taxpayers, would then advocate its passage as well.
Shame on Arnold Schwarzenegger.
I don't know how to sugar coat this, so I will just say it like it is -- he lied. He lied to me, he lied to his supporters and he lied to all Californians. When he campaigned for re-election last year, he said he was "moderate on social issues, progressive on environmental issues, and conservative on fiscal issues."
I cannot remember a stump speech that the Governor delivered to Republican activists, and I heard quite a few as a grassroots supporter of his campaign, where he did not flat out state his opposition to raising taxes, period. There was no audible "asterisk" qualifying his opposition to new taxes. Schwarzenegger's firm opposition to increasing taxes, in contrast to billions in tax hikes being promoted by Democrat Phil Angelides, helped to keep the Republican base fired up for the Governor while he reached out to Democrat voters with his social and environmental views.
Along with all of my fellow Republicans, we have been trying to practice a terrible balancing act, perched precariously on the Governor's stool while it is has been balanced on just one leg -- solid opposition to new taxes. Well, the Governor has yanked that stool out from under us and we Republicans have now all fallen on the floor. I don't know if it is more embarrassing, frustrating, or upsetting. My Republican Governor has proposed taxes on hospitals, income taxes on medical professionals, and now he is "open" to supporting a statewide sales tax.
The mantra that the Governor has been spewing on healthcare is downright... liberal. He has wrapped himself around the banner of the notion of "hidden taxes" and articulating that there is a cost to all insurance-holding Californians to provide coverage to all of those who do not have health care insurance and that this justifies tax hikes. He is correct about insurance-holding Californians bearing the costs of the uninsured, though the experts at the Hoover Institute have released a study showing that this burden is much lower than has been articulated by the Governor. But the next step that Schwarzenegger takes is to say that we should, in essence, replace the so-called "hidden tax" with actual non-hidden, overt taxes. What the Governor proposes is no fiscally conservative solution. It is not even a moderate one. His proposals on health care "reform" are quite liberal, and are based around this left-wing straw man called "shared responsibility."
Shared responsibility is just another way to say government responsibility, and moves away from a bedrock American principle -- individual responsibility. There is a notion in America, unlike any other place in the world, that here you have freedom. Freedom to succeed, and freedom to fail. You have opportunity that is boundless, but that comes from the notion of a limited government, one that affords liberty to its citizenry. The price for this freedom and liberty is individual responsibility, and the Governor's direction on health care "reform" in California is counter to this philosophical approach towards the proper role of government in our society.
Today in the Wall Street Journal, former Presidential advisor Karl Rove has an outstanding opinion piece in which he articulates a broad number of market-oriented approaches that government can take to increasing the accessibility to and the quality of health care in America -- including leveling the tax playing field through tax deductions or credits, tax-free savings for health costs, increase competition by allowing insurance companies to offer policies across state lines, allow for greater pooling of risk by small companies, increase transparency of medical costs so that American consumers understand what they are paying for, and reigning in junk lawsuits that are driving costs up dramatically. These are just some areas where market principles can be applied to make our health care system in America better -- without attacking the core American principles of freedom and liberty.
Today there is a bold headline in the Los Angeles Times proclaiming "In Clinton Health Plan, Coverage Is Mandatory" -- referring to the latest "HillaryCare" proposal to massively increase the federal government's role in health care. I find it disturbing that both Hillary Clinton and Arnold Schwarzenegger have at the core of their respective proposals the notion that carrying health care insurance is no longer the responsibility of the individual, but is the role of the government. Both want to move us in the direction of European socialism, and this should be rejected from the outset.
Speaking of veracity, here's one recent example of your bad lies.
Please, point out where I've lied.
Depends on what you mean by "viable." We have plenty of solid conservatives who are "viable" with grassroots conservatives like me: Tom McClintock, Bill Simon, Bruce Herschenson, etc. But San Francisco and L.A. liberals outnumber the "red" California vote.
Their ranks are swollen by illegals, unions, public employees, Silicon Valley "flower child" capitalists, etc. Plus the CA "Republican" party under the "leadership" of RINOs like Brooks Firestone have wanted to out-pander the Democrats to buy votes, forcing candidates like the perennial and unelectable Tom Campbell on us. CA Republicans can only come out of the wilderness by contributing directly to real conservatives and refusing to be flim-flammed by the "but he's electable" BS.
He needs to be pulling a rabbit out of a hat there!
If you spent one month here you’d never leave. I’ve been to Ohio.
************************************************************
Well, I lived there for over 34 years and watched it rot from the inside,,,,,,, I mean Sacramento. Like I said
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1377367/posts
beauty is only skin deep.
.
LOL!
That’s 100x30 at the bottom
Not sure of the top width
But it sure fits right on there!
Arnold turns left, GW goes to Tijuana, now Newt saying Hillary has an 80% shot at the WH
Gotta dig up Jim Croce for a linked post now
O.K.!
All three of those things represent tiny minorities of the state's population. They just get media attention far beyond their numbers.
No, they faced a choice between Bustamonte, McClintock and Arnold. If they hadn't bought his eyewash in 2003, with his last minute entry and skating around questions, he would have been nowhere when the Dems put up Angelides. Without Arnold sucking up the votes on the (R) side, I think McClintock really would have won; he certainly got a bigger percentage of CA votes when he ran for LT Gov than Bustamonte got in his bid in the last election.
What's more, if Arnold hadn't been around, I don't think the Dems would have picked a lefty like Phil Angelides. They would have tried to get more centrists, the ground Arnold seized for his campaign.
I am all for a new tax that would assess only movie, television and music salaries including royalties.Movie, television and music production costs,tickets for movie, television and theater productions, all records,CD and DVD sales. In short, if it is entertainment and it has any connection with California, I fully support that tax.Please show me to the voting boot.
So, where are the apologies now? I guess being a “pragmatist” means never having to say you’re sorry.
***Almost tagline worthy.
California gave the Republican nominee 5.5 million votes in the last presidential election.
***But zero electoral votes. That’s what counts, other than perhaps some coattails — but looking at how many democrat congressmen there are here, I’d say those are short coattails as well.
And you'd be wrong.
The Austrian never lied. People just didn't listen. The Austrian never claimed to be a fiscal or social conservative in the traditional US sense. He claimed to be a Republican and he intimated that he was conservative but the framework for his definition was European.
His first day on the campaign trail included a vow to expand social programs and one of his first official acts as governor was to increase the state's indebtedness by 5%. During his first year as governor he promoted the largest single increase in state taxes ($21B) outside of a budget bill and that promotion was just the tip of the iceberg.
The Austrian didn't change. People just started listening to him and watching what he did.
Well Dan... He’s just another untrustworthy Repellican that’s been yelling “READ MY LIPS... NO NEW TAXES!!!” (Remember that one???)
Must be because of your screamname!!! Here's mud in yer eye!!! Must be "that vision thing!" How come alla yer conservatives are comin up lame back there in retro OH???
You're one of them people in a glass house throwin rocks!!! Your momma tole yew to stop that or you'd go blind!!! Why do you keep arguin that you wanna keep it up till you need thicker glasses??? What'sa matta you???
I'm sure it doesn't matter one whit to you that your trying in vain to argue with a political professional that in employed in CA's Crapitol for one of the leading political figures in America's most populuous state!!! (and most popular, I must add)
Good grief! You haven't even been to the top of Mt. Shasta, hummin up a harmonic convergence, or nuthin!!! Why you wastin so much time composin a big vanity thread like that??? Sure you seen a little of this and a little of that, but you haven't experienced much of it at all!!!
You hardly spent ANY time in Arnold Stupidnegger's Sierra-Nevada CONservancy that takes up 1/5th of the entire state and you're trying to write an essay about CA's beauty bein only skin deep??? Get series, will ya??? Phhhhhhhhhht!!!
That would be New Jersey.
Dear Jon, What we had was wonderful, it really was!
But I have found a new love, and we are going to get married next week.
I know you will find someone new, really you will!
And I hope you and I can always be the best of friends.
Your forever and ever best friend,
Arnie
P.S. You better put some ice on that, Jon.
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