Texas Marriage Tax Increase, Huckabee The Tax Raiser, & Bush’s Ethonal Plan Stinks

Let’s get to the issues that fire me up and deplete the blogsphere.

 

Recently, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the EPA has the legal authority to regulate emissions that cause global warming even though the THEORY of global warming has yet to even be connected to man-made actions or proven that it is not a natural part of the Earth’s process of change. Regardless of these facts and concerns, the Supreme Court has now placed a legal weapon in the hands of the states to force federal regulatory action on it. Specifically, it gives those on the left-wing the power to regulate (always a bad thing) emissions under the Clean Air Act.  Our only hope is that the Supreme Court did say in their ruling that if the EPA were to find that greenhouse gas emissions cause no substantial injury to human health or the environment then the point is mute and the federal agency doesn’t have to regulate after all. I had hoped the EPA and the administration would have had the guts to rule that man made emissions do NOT cause global warming. This is what all the real evidence points too and it’s the truth. However, President Bush decided to cave in…again.

Bowing to the will of the angry and uneducated mob of plebs is exactly what George W. Bush did. regardless of the facts. President Bush’s big plan is to mandate greater amounts of ethanol consumption by reducing oil consumption by 20% over the next ten years. This defies logic and economic reason.  

The truth is that fuel efficiency will raise costs and prices. It costs more to build and manufacture fuel efficient vehicles than current models. In fact, the National Research Council studied the issues a few years ago and reported that improvements in automotive fuel efficiency would increase sticker prices for passenger cars by $1,018-$3,578.

Mandating an increase in the consumption of ethanol/biofuels will actually raise the price of fuel. Think about the economics in that if ethanol was cheaper to produce than gasoline then there wouldn’t any need for a government mandate. Ethanol is NOT competitive price-wise. Mandating an increase in ethanol consumption is costly big government intervention in a private sector affair.

Ethanol uses only three quarters of the energy content of gasoline, therefore, it will cost more to buy enough ethanol in wholesale markets to displace gasoline. What will happen when the government subsidies and mandate end? How about ethanol at $4.00 or $5.00 per gallon. There has been a sharp increase in price of corn, the product were ethanol comes from, which will raise the cost of ethanol fuel as well.

Some of you may say that the money doesn’t matter because it’s all about saving the planet. Well, the same study I mentioned above by the National Research Council calculates that even a 45% in automotive fuel-efficiency standards would not reduce automotive greenhouse-gas emissions below where they are today. Automotive greenhouse emissions represent only about one-fifth of all total man-made emissions. 

The bottom line is that the President’s ethanol mandate will NOT reduce fuel prices and will NOT save the planet. This also shows the Bush has caved in to environmental hysteria, junk science and radicalism. More importantly, this is nothing more than big, liberal government putting its nose where it does not belong….the private sector. The dangers of big government conservatism are just as lethal as the dangers posed by big government liberalism.  

Lawmakers in Texas have voted to raise the marriage tax. The Texas State House and Senate sent Governor Rick Perry legislation that DOUBLES the marriage license fee to $60 if couples choose to forgo a government funded class on how to be good spouses. That’s right, if you choose (choosing still being an American freedom) to not take a government sponsored and taxpayer funded marriage class then you get punished via a larger fee. This is big government intrusion into private lives via the threat of a marriage tax.

The Texas House had previously left out the marriage tax increase but reversed itself.  In the final version, if you take the eight hour class then you don’t have to pay any marriage license fee. However, if you choose not to take the class then you pay double.

I don’t oppose having engaged couples take marriage counseling. What I oppose is punishing those free citizens in our free society financially for choosing not to take the class. Whhy is the government funding such classes anyway? I would rather have pre-marriage classes handled by the church and private Christian organizations.

Rep. Warren Chisum, R-Pampa, argued for the marriage tax increase on those who choose not to take the class because of the cost the state has to bear on child support enforcement and etc. Rep. Chisum’s reasoning is liberal and horrid. It is the same reasoning that big government types use to pass smoking bans, trans-fat bans and SUV taxes. This marriage tax increase is nothing more than big/nanny government.  

There has been some growing admiration for former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee since the second GOP presidential debate. I received about four e-mails from friends wanting my take on Huckabee. I will let Huckabee’s record speak for itself:

1. Governor Huckabee signed sales tax hike in 1996; 

2. Governor Huckabee supported internet sales tax in 2001;

3. Governor Huckabee opposed repeal of a sales tax on groceries and medicine in 2002;

4. Governor Huckabee signed tax increases on gasoline (1999) and cigarettes (2003);

5. Governor Huckabee signed into law a $5.25 per day bed tax on private nursing home patients in 2001;

6. Governor Huckabee proposed sales tax increase in 2002;

7. Governor Huckabee opposed congressional measure to ban internet taxes in 2003;

8. Governor Huckabee allowed 17% sales tax increase to become law in 2004; 

9. Governor Huckabee, by the end of his tenure, was responsible for a 37% higher sales tax in Arkansas, 16% higher motor fuel taxes, and 103% higher cigarette taxes;

10. Governor Huckabee refused to take the pledge to not raise taxes if elected President in 2007;

11. Governor Huckabee is responsible for spending increases of 65.3% from 1996 to 2004;

12. Governor Huckabee is responsible for a 20% increase in the number of state government workers;

13. Governor Huckabee increased and expanded ARKids First which is a massive government program that provides ‘free’ (i.e. socialized) health coverage for thousands; 

14. Governor Huckabee supported the 2003 Republican-initiated (sadly) Medicare prescription drug plan which is a massive and unfunded liability shouldered by us taxpayers. It is the largest new government entitlement program since LBJ;

15. Governor Huckabee raised the minimum wage in April 2006 from $5.15 to $6.25 an hour and encouraged Congress to take the same thereby hurting business and the free market;

16. Governor Huckabee supports ‘price-gouging’ legislation which is just a veiled threat against free enterprise and the free market;

17. Governor Huckabee called No Child Left Behind “the greatest education reform effort by the federal government in my lifetime,” even though it was bloated and stripped schools of local control and increased federal spending on education by 48% without any real reform;

18. Governor Huckabee signed into law Arkansas’s first statewide smoking ban against private property establishments. This was a gross violation of private property rights and a huge act of big/nanny government;

19. Governor Huckabee has banned soda from Arkansas public schools and is promoting the big/nanny government agenda of regulating what we eat and drink;

Bottom Line: Governor Mike Huckabee is no conservative and he is no heir to the Goldwater/Reagan legacy of LIMITED GOVERNMENT and INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY AND FREEDOM. Mike Huckabee is a big government tax-and- spender who can’t be trusted to uphold the Reagan legacy if elected President.