Senator John McCain attended a town hall in Gilbert today. When asked about his recent statement on the Tea Party, this was his response:
Matt Salmon’s Union Connections
August 8, 2011 By 31 Comments
By Jean Valjean
Reposted from Western Free Press.
Matt Salmon seems to be playing both sides of the political fence. Salmon apparently is a Phoenix union supporter but a self-described “conservative” in Arizona’s East Valley.
Matt Salmon’s website home page welcomes you with this quote:
“Your financial support will help ensure my message of smaller government, fiscal responsibility and less taxes reaches every voter.” – Matt Salmon
Furthermore, Salmon markets himself as a “conservative.”
If this is true, why is Salmon, a supposed stalwart of conservatism, endorsing liberal union activist Claude Mattox for Mayor of Phoenix?
Matt Salmon’s firm, Upstream Consulting, represents government unions, specifically public employee unions in Arizona. These unions endorse Claude Mattox for Mayor of Phoenix. Salmon then endorses Claude Mattox. In turn, Salmon receives money from the unions. In addition, Salmon gets more ammunition against his primary opponents, specifically Kirk Adams.
Why? One reason is the unions hate Kirk Adams for spearheading pension reform in Arizona. Adams’ pension reform was the most ambitious in the country, targeting the public safety unions that Salmon represents. In fact, Arizona is on the union’s target list of states to “fight back” against.
This provides a unique solution for the unions and Matt Salmon. Salmon gets to capitalize on privately raising money from the unions, coordinating attacks on Salmon’s more anti-union primary opponents, while claiming he has nothing to do with the unions. The unions also get a more “friendly” candidate by eliminating old enemies.
While Kirk Adams was trying to pass pension reform and getting government sector spending in control with universities and unions, Matt Salmon was lobbying against these things. During Salmon’s lobbying tenure, he picked battles with the Goldwater Institute over corporate welfare, protected government public safety unions, and fought to protect ASU’s government gravy train.
Matt Salmon is receiving money from other union players. The list includes ex-union boss Billy Shields and union spokesman David Leibowitz.
Once again, why is Salmon endorsing union candidates and receiving union money? Why is Salmon suggesting he is a symbol of “smaller government” when there is no bigger symbol of “Big Government” than public-employee unions and their political candidates? Does Salmon really believe in these union backed candidates and issues or is it just “politics?” Do we want to reward politicians who take on political risks or those who take advantage of them?
This is a big issue that deserves more transparency and answers.
The Tea Party made them do it! Credit Rating reduction
August 8, 2011 By 2 Comments
Here’s to Common Sense! And credit to Jim Lakely of the Heartland Institute…
The ‘Tea Party Downgrade’? Please
| by Jim Lakely on August 8, 2011 |
The talking point of the weekend from the Obama administration and Congressional Democrats was that Standard & Poor’s reduction of the U.S. government’s credit rating from sterling AAA to less-shiny AA-plus was the fault of the Tea Party movement and the freshmen they put into the House and Senate last year. As of Sunday night, if you googled (in quotes) “Tea Party Downgrade,” you got 11,000 hits. That number is sure to skyrocket in the coming weeks , but the argument (if you want to call it one) is absurd.
Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) trotted out the line on Meet the Press Sunday morning:
“I believe this is without question the Tea Party downgrade,” he said. “This is the Tea Party downgrade because a minority of people in the House of Representatives countered the will of even many of Republicans in the United States Senate who were prepared to do a bigger deal.”
Obama political operative David Axelrod (who likely coined the phrase and passed it along to Kerry and others), said the same on Face The Nation:
On the CBS program “Face the Nation,” Mr. Obama’s longtime political adviser, David Axelrod, made clear that Democrats would seek to brand the rating as a “Tea Party downgrade.” He said Mr. Obama had been willing to compromise on issues sacred to liberals by curbing spending on entitlements, but the deal foundered because “Republicans are having to respond to this very, very strident group that is pulling them away and believes that compromise is a dirty word. That is a prescription for failure.”
They may “seek to brand” this on the Tea Party, but as John Hinderaker at Power Line noted Sunday afternoon, there’s no way that is going to sell.
What is most ludicrous is the Democrats’ effort to distract attention from the fact that they controlled Congress from January 2007 until January 2011. The first Congress that had any ability to be influenced by the Tea Party movement has been in office for only six months. Do the Democrats seriously expect anyone to believe that S&P’s downgrade of U.S. debt arises out of something that Republican Congressmen have done in the last six months? We expect the Democrats to appeal to ignorance at all times, but this is ridiculous.
Yes, but the tactic will continue. A recent poll by The New York Times shows that this budget/debt-ceiling fight has reduced the public appeal of the Tea Party movement: 40 percent give the Tea Party an “unfavorable” rating. This should come as no surprise, considering the MSM has spent the better part of some three years characterizing Tea Party folks as racists, terrorists, hostage-takers, etc. Somebody get the MSM a “Mission Accomplished” sign they can use for a photo-op!
But has Hinderaker notes in his Power Line post, the 2008 budget deficit was a mere $460 billion. Since then, the Democratic Congress (and, for two years, Obama with full and nearly filibuster-proof majorities on his side) has racked up annual deficits of $1.4 trillion in 2009, $1.3 trillion in 2010, and $1.6 trillion in 2011.
So, of our current $14.5 trillion national debt, writes Hinderaker, “nearly $4.8 trillion–one-third of the total–was incurred during that four-year period when the Congress was exclusively controlled by the Democrats.” But this is a “Tea Party Downgrade.” Right.
As the credit-rating agencies have said for months before S&P’s dramatic late-Friday downgrade, it came as a result of federal borrowing and spending that is way out of control. And, as it is, the deal the Republicans squeezed out of Obama and the spendthrift Democrats merely reduces a planned $10 trillion increase in federal spending over 10 years by a trillion or so. The “draconian cuts,” in other words, don’t actually decrease real federal spending at all — which is why some Heartland scholars are not too happy with the “deal.”
Regardless, this is the line we’ll hear from the talking heads for a while. Hinderaker, like me, doesn’t think voters are stupid enough to buy it.
It is hard to believe that even the dimmest voters will fall for the idea that the movement that was founded in order to do something about the spending and debt crisis is somehow to blame for that crisis.
We’ll see. More absurd lies have been swallowed by the electorate.
Ann Kirkpatrick, Still Turning Her Back on Voters After All These Years
August 8, 2011 By 3 Comments
The latest video released by the Arizona Republican Party “celebrates” the two-year anniversary of former Congresswoman Ann Kirkpatrick walking out on her constituents in a town hall meeting.
Let’s not forget how Ann treats voters as she mounts an effort to rejoin her fellow Democrats and Obama in Washington, D.C.
Rep. Flake: Additional Downgrades of U.S. Credit Rating Possible Without Further Cuts to Federal Spending
August 8, 2011 By 3 Comments
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: August 8, 2011
CONTACT: Genevieve Frye Rozansky
Deeper Spending Cuts Needed to Restore AAA Credit Rating
Mesa, Arizona – Republican Congressman Jeff Flake, who represents Arizona’s Sixth District, today released the following statement on Standard and Poor’s downgrade of the United States government’s credit rating and it’s warning that additional downgrades are possible if further spending federal spending cuts are not made.
“This will only be the first of possible future downgrades for the U.S. credit rating if we don’t make more significant cuts to federal spending immediately,” said Flake. “The only way we’re going to regain our AAA rating is to make immediate and significant spending cuts in order to curb our long-term budget deficits and debt.”
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Grantham wants balanced budget amendment, blames Congress, President for credit downgrade
August 8, 2011 By 2 Comments
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: August 8, 2011
CONTACT: Evan Kozlow
Grantham wants a balanced budget amendment, blames Congress and the President for the credit downgrade
Gilbert, AZ – Travis Grantham, candidate for Arizona’s Sixth Congressional District released the following statement on the heels of the downgrade of the US Credit Rating by Standard & Poor’s reiterating his support for a balanced budget amendment and significant cuts in spending.
“The United States Congress and our President failed our country by passing a debt limit increase bill that did nothing for our reckless spending habits and skyrocketing debt. The American people deserve more from their representatives than a simple patchwork that only pushes the problem down the road while continuing to erode our economy.”
“As citizens, we must elect leaders that will change the way Washington does business. Cut, Cap, and Balance should be reintroduced by the Republican controlled house and our party leaders should stand together and force a vote in the Senate. It is our time to stand on principle and do what is right for the American people. Those who have fought and died for this country and those who are defending her abroad deserve to be represented by individuals that do not take our freedoms, liberty, and way of life for granted.”
“I call on all Americans to demand more accountability from their government. America’s future as the greatest and brightest beacon of economic freedom is hanging in the balance.”
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Travis Grantham is a candidate for Arizona’s Sixth Congressional District. He serves as the Chief Operations Officer at International Air Response based at the Phoenix Mesa Gateway Airport. He is also a Captain and Pilot in the Arizona Air National Guard’s 161st Air Refueling Wing based out of Sky Harbor International Airport. Travis lives in Gilbert with his wife Patricia and two daughters.
For more information go to GranthamForCongress.com
