The first debate of the 2012 CD4 election was held at the State Fair Tuesday 8/29. The candidates for US House of Representatives are Tony Hernandez, Betty McCollum, and Steve Carlson.
Tony Hernandez is the endorsed Republican candidate who is the fiscal conservative candidate in the race.
"We need to figure out a way to reform our tax structure, lower our taxes, so that businesses want to come back to America in order to invest,"
Betty McCollum is the long term incumbent, representing the far left constituency of Harry Reid, and Nancy Pelosi. Betty McCollum is a staunch believer in government involvement and regulation of business. And as she states in the debate,
The fiscal cliff, you know we shouldn't, we shouldn't be in this position we should not be there. We should be having a discussion as President Obama is starting to have with John Behner about putting everything on the table. Tax reform as well as "smart cuts".
Placing the blame on "the Republican Tea Party element" for the issue and the "gridlock". In the debate you will hear "tax reform" translates to tax increases (revenues), and "smart cuts" appear to equate to cuts to the military, and most forms of military advertisement [from other sources here, here, here, here].
Steve Carlson is the returning Independence Party candidate that ran in 2010, as a far distant third, claiming to represent the Tea Party.
As reviewed in MPR's article, this debate centered on those fiscal issues that undoubtedly are primary in everyone's mind. Job's, the economy, debt, and the Stillwater bridge.
Harry Reid has reprised Joe McCarthy's "I have here in my hand.." with the unfounded and un-substatitated claim of "I was told by an extremely credible source that Romney has not paid taxes for ten years ". As the advertisements say, there is no more ruthless collections agency than the IRS. There is no way Mitt Romney could have conceivably not paid the entirety of the taxes due. The IRS would have chased him down with audits and investigations.
He’s refused to release his tax returns, as we know. [Yes he has, all that are required, just not "all" of them to provide opponents with excessive opportunity for slander like Harry Reid] If a person coming before this body wanted to be a cabinet officer, he couldn’t be if he did the same refusal Mitt Romney does about tax returns. So the word’s out that he hasn’t paid any taxes for ten years. Let him prove that he has paid taxes, because he hasn’t. We already know from one partial tax return that he gave us, he has money hidden in Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, and a Swiss bank account. Not making that up, that’s in the partial year that he gave us. Mitt Romney makes more money in a single day than the average middle-class family makes in two years–or more.
Wait, wait, let me get this straight -- He has money "hidden" in completely legal foreign investments? But Harry "found them" on Mitt Romney's publicly released IRS submitted tax form? Real investigative journalism. That would seem to be the least well kept secret "hiding" of assets ever. What is Harry Reid accusing him of? Hiding money offshore so it doesn't get taxed, when its ON HIS TAX FORM! Mitt Romney's tax forms detail the foreign investments and the applicable foreign taxes and subsequent additional US taxes paid on those investments. Hardly a case of tax evasion, as Harry Reid tries to impugn, more like full disclosure.
Harry Reid said these tall tales (otherwise known as dissembling or lies) from the floor of the Senate. That give him constitutional protection from the possibility of suit for libel. A most despicable way of slandering someone without having to be accountable. If Harry Reid has seen unreleased tax forms of Mitt Romney, he has just admitted to a crime.
When Mitt Romney's father died and he inherited the estate, Mitt gave it all away [heard on Hugh Hewitt's show from author of On The Brink]. More on Mitt Romney's altruism and generosity here and here. He further eschewed and donated salary and other benefits as governor and head of the Olympics. His altruism and dedication is a truer testament to the man than baseless accusations from well known serial dissemblers.
Reid, who also refuses to release his own tax returns, isn’t just a hypocrite and a slanderer. He’s also a political idiot. Until these attacks, Romney was on the defensive over his tax returns. Now Romney can paint his decision to keep them private as a principled stand against unscrupulous opponents. Reid has handed the high ground to Romney in this fight with his scurrilous lies. Reid has all but ruined Obama’s strategy of making Romney look secretive and weird.
Politics is a full contact sport, but it shouldn't include libelous gutter snipe attacks of desperation.
