Special Session Platform Index – Way too many R’s voting like D’s!

Several bloggers are collaborating on this analysis and shocking information regarding voting records during the recent special session. Here are the votes reviewed:

• HB1035x OCT Fallin Tax
• HB1054x Tobacco/Fuel Tax
• HB1085x NOV Oil Tax
• HB1033xx FEB Step Up Tax
• HB1020xx FEB Cuts to Balance

You can see the whole spreadsheet here:

Google Docs Spreadsheet on Special Session Votes Oklahoma House 2018‘

Just look at all those R’s below 50% — not a pretty picture at all!  

Me thinks we have some HOUSEcleaning todo…

Special thanks to the hero’s listed at the top and featured in the graphic!

Finding Gems & Sharing Them – Special Session Platform Index – Way too many R’s voting like D’s!

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Still having the wrong conversation — Cut the spending!

 

More laws and more taxes —

that’ll solve the problem = NOT!

Think CUT SPENDING…

Earlier this year, I did a post on this topic and it seems to deserve a repeat because we are still not having the right conversation!  From February 2017 (here and below)

 

Color me livid.  We have lost before we even get started if we don’t correct this matter.  

Let me see if I can show you  how this game actually works.

Case 1:  I say lets cut taxes 20%  and you come back with how about 10% and we settle on 15%.  You think you won because we cut taxes a little.  Spending wasn’t reduced one iota in this scenario!  The revenue will have to be raised somehow by this generation or the next.

Amount saved 0%

Case 2:  What if the opening gambit had been let’s cut spending 20% and you come back with how about 10% and we settle on 15%.  In this scenario we both won and spending was actually reduced a little right here and now.

Amount saved 15%

Do you see the difference?  Please think about it.  Shift the conversation.  Talking about taxes is a trap and you loose no matter what the compromise position is.  Here’s a sample letter if it helps you get started:

Dear Representative,

I don’t want to hear another word about taxes.

Not one single solitary word.

Don’t even think about raising them – not on me and not on my neighbors either!

Don’t come to any of us asking for more money.  We are united on this matter.

You already have plenty.

You simply have not learned to prioritize correctly.

It is really pretty easy.

Do not spend more money than you have.  Do not ask me for more.

Let’s see how much government we can cut before anyone (not on the payroll actually misses any of it).

Thank you for getting our spending priorities in order and balancing our budget.  It is after all what we elected you to do.

Sincerely,

A Taxpayer

 

For Reference:

By the numbers: Winners and losers of Oklahoma’s proposed budget

Finding Gems & Sharing Them – We Are Seriously Not Having the Right Conversation! It is the Spending Stupid

Finding Gems & Sharing Them – We are still having the wrong conversation — Cut the spending! (updated with new graphic meme from Facebook)

 

We Are Seriously Not Having the Right Conversation! It is the Spending Stupid…

Color me livid.  We have lost before we even get started if we don’t correct this matter.  

Let me see if I can show you  how this game actually works.

Case 1:  I say lets cut taxes 20%  and you come back with how about 10% and we settle on 15%.  You think you won because we cut taxes a little.  Spending wasn’t reduced one iota in this scenario!  The revenue will have to be raised somehow by this generation or the next.

Amount saved 0%

Case 2:  What if the opening gambit had been let’s cut spending 20% and you come back with how about 10% and we settle on 15%.  In this scenario we both won and spending was actually reduced a little right here and now.

Amount saved 15%

Do you see the difference?  Please think about it.  Shift the conversation.  Talking about taxes is a trap and you loose no matter what the compromise position is.  Here’s a sample letter if it helps you get started:

Dear Representative,

I don’t want to hear another word about taxes.

Not one single solitary word.

Don’t even think about raising them – not on me and not on my neighbors either!

Don’t come to any of us asking for more money.  We are united on this matter.

You already have plenty.

You simply have not learned to prioritize correctly.

It is really pretty easy.

Do not spend more money than you have.  Do not ask me for more.

Let’s see how much government we can cut before anyone (not on the payroll actually misses any of it).

Thank you for getting our spending priorities in order and balancing our budget.  It is after all what we elected you to do.

Sincerely,

A Taxpayer

 

For Reference:

By the numbers: Winners and losers of Oklahoma’s proposed budget

Finding Gems & Sharing Them – We Are Seriously Not Having the Right Conversation! It is the Spending Stupid

Reblog — The 2012 Elections: A Death Knell for the Christian Right by Kevin Swanson

The 2012 Elections:
A Death Knell for the Christian Right

By Kevin Swanson

Well, the dust has cleared on the Obama agenda. After four years of Barack Obama’s presidency, we have socialist medicine through mandated insurance, more government-funded abortions, and about $4 trillion of extra debt. Knowing this, I’m apparently supposed to vote for the Other Guy. Never mind the fact that George W. Bush left office with a 1.5 trillion dollar budget deficit (inflation adjusted), and it was his appointee to the Supreme Court who gave the final push to Obama’s socialist medicine plan.

I am told to set all this aside in this election and to endorse the Other Guy for President — the latest elephant in the room. He must be better — but why? I am offered reasons for supporting the Other Guy, and here they are:

(1). The Other Guy is a Mormon, and everybody knows that Mormons are better than Muslims. Clearly, not all Muslims or Mormons are polygamists. Then again, it is possible that President Obama has cooled on his “Muslim faith.” Or maybe the Other Guy has lapsed with his “Mormon faith.” If Mormons or Muslims led the nation for a hundred years, where would we be? I wonder. Suffice it to say, I’m not convinced that Mormons are better than Muslims.

(2). Everybody knows that Republican presidents are more conservative fiscally than Democrat presidents. This may be true in the minds of Republicans who enjoy listening to Republican rhetoric. I know. I know. Most conservatives do not want to be confused with the data. But here it is.

Annualized Growth in Spending:

• Reagan — first term — 8.7%
• Reagan — second term — 4.9%
• Bush I — 5.4%
• Clinton — first term — 3.2%
• Clinton — second term — 3.9%
• Bush 2 — first term — 7.3%
• Bush 2 — second term — 8.1%
• Obama — 1.4%^[1]

1. Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/rickungar/2012/05/24/who-is-the-smallest-government-spender-since-eisenhower-would-you-believe-its-barack-obama/

Read more here >>>

[Editor’s note:  What is missing from this data is the future cost of legislation such as Obamacare and entitlement spending./sc]

Posted by Sandra Crosnoe for Finding Gems & Sharing Them

OKGrassroots

Take the Test Yourself: BUSH or OBAMA? Can 8-28 DC rally-goers match spending facts with the right president?

The BA team breezed through the big 8-28 rallies in Washington, DC to test the government spending IQ of participants. Below are the questions asked in the video and the answers (with sources). But don’t spoil the fun: first watch the video and test yourself.

(1) Q: Bush or Obama? This president spent a record-breaking $3 trillion in a single year.
A: Both. In 2008, Bush was the first president to spend $3 trillion in a single year. According to White House estimates, Obama will spend $3.6 trillion in 2010 and $3.8 trillion in 2011.
 Source:http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/…

(2) Q: Bush or Obama? This president bailed out hundreds of large banks and corporations.
A: Both. Obama carried out Bush’s unpopular $700 billion bailout for failing corporations. Together, the presidents have bailed out over 600 businesses since Spring 2008. Source:http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/…

(3) Q: Bush or Obama? This president spent billions of taxpayer dollars on “stimulus” spending during a recession.
A: Both. In 2008, Bush spent over $100 billion on rebates to stimulate consumer spending – his second attempt at using spending as stimulus. In 2009, Obama enacted a $814 billion stimulus package. Sources: http://useconomy.about.com/od/fiscalp… http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/117xx/doc1…

(4) Q: Bush or Obama? This President increased spending by many times the rate of inflation across most non-defense categories.
A: Both. Contrary to popular belief, defense and homeland security spending only made up about 40 percent of Bush’s new spending.  He increased spending across most non-defense categories (such as education, Medicare, income security) by four to six times the rate of inflation. In Obama’s first half year in office, many of these budgets rose another 70 percent. Source:http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/defau…

(5) Q: Bush or Obama? This president passed an expensive healthcare bill.
A: Both. In 2003, George Bush signed into law Medicare Part D, which cost hundreds of billions of dollars. As you probably know, President Obama also enacted an expensive healthcare package earlier this year (though cost estimates vary considerably). Source:http://www.forbes.com/2009/11/19/repu…