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WHY AMERICA CAN'T AFFORD BARACK OBAMA
June 13, 2008
[Publisher's Note: As part of an ongoing effort to bring original, thoughtful commentary to you here at the FlashReport, I am pleased to present this column from California Congressman George Radanovich.]
If you are new to the FlashReport, please check out the main site and the acclaimed FlashReport Weblog on California politics.
This November, Californians have the opportunity to vote for a Western Republican presidential candidate who understands California issues and will uphold conservative values—a combination that I believe will make California a competitive state in the 2008 Presidential election.
With increasing energy prices, the cost of food skyrocketing, and the housing market in turmoil, the economy is on the mind of every American family. Voters must ask which candidate is best prepared to steer our country in the right direction.
Senator John McCain, a foot soldier in the Reagan Revolution, understands that the best remedy for a struggling economy is for each American to keep more of their earnings and be given the freedom to invest those earnings back into the economy. In contrast, Barack Obama postulates the misguided liberal notion that top down, government run programs funded by chronic taxation are best for Americans.
In three short years in the United States Senate, Obama has voted 94 times to increase taxes—frighteningly that amounts to a vote to increase taxes once every five days Congress has been in session. Such votes siphon middle class Americans of their resources, leaving them less money to fill up their car with gas or feed their family.
Looking at Obama’s tax and trade policies, one must wonder if he even has a desire for businesses or families to prosper. He opposes free trade, making it more expensive for businesses to compete in a global economy, wants to raise the corporate tax rate and repeal the Bush income tax cuts, effectively raising taxes on middle income families earning $31,850 a year.
As gas prices close in on $5 a gallon, Obama has endorsed a windfall profits tax on oil companies, which when last implemented under President Jimmy Carter brought increased gasoline prices and further reliance on foreign oil. A degree in economics is not needed to understand that when additional taxes are placed on an industry the lost revenue will be made up by the consumer through higher prices.
Senator McCain, having seen the value of the Bush tax cuts, believes that ordinary Americans, not the government, are in a better position to meet the demands of increasing living expenses. The American people are taxed at every possible turn—at the gas pump, on property, income, and capital gains—the last thing they need are more taxes and in fact John McCain will ensure that there are less. Reagan’s insight that “Government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem,” has never been more poignant.
From his Hollywood enabled pulpit, Barack Obama preaches a message of “change” and “hope” through bipartisanship. Yet, his words are hollow and his actions are anything but bipartisan—rated the most liberal Senator in the country, Obama has continued to toe the Democratic line via an overextended federal government, increased taxes and an out of touch foreign policy.
The American people don’t need a sanctimonious celebrity for a president given to empty loquacity with an entourage that includes a racially incensed pastor, and a wife who only within the past six months has been proud of her country. We deserve a president who understands the everyday challenges that the American family is facing and will resolve those challenges by giving families financial freedom through pro growth economic policies.
The choice Californians have this November is a stark contrast—a fiscally conservative war hero with a wealth of foreign relation experience or a leftist half term Senator who can boast nothing more than a large YouTube following and a promise of “hope” that not even he can define.
Americans will best serve themselves and future generations by voting for John McCain in 2008.
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You can reach Congressman Radonovich via his website here.