Oregon House Republicans Cave?

Well now this is interesting and I had heard some of the discussions before the first vote. Basically the talk was that if Nike, Intel and Associated Oregon Industries (AOI), wanted to be taxed higher by kicking in their kicker checks then let’em. However there are thousands of small businesses in Oregon who should not be punished by the likes of Nike et al.

Well you know what? There is a visceral part of me that agrees. Right near the end of the 2006 campaigns one conservative candidate said that they secretly hoped some of the taxes on some of the businesses would be raised. After all some of the businesses were getting too cute by half and contributing to the Democrats. Well now some of them got what they wanted. The kicker is a quirky tool and a great bargaining chip for Republicans. And the State needs a rainy day fund for investment rating purposes (it will save taxpayers money in the long run).

The Republicans were successful in creating a rainy day fund and protecting the smaller businesses in Oregon. The Republicans also insured that the interest from the rainy day fund would stay in the RDF.

Is this the perfect “conservative” answer? Nope. Sen. Bruce Starr had a plan that did not touch the kicker. However the Republicans lost the majority and that means they are playing in a new house. And now the devil will be in the details. As one commenter on this site suggested, I too will be interested to hear some of the thinking behind this move.

FreedomWorks Responds

Well it did not take my buddies over at FreedomWorks very long to respond to the Democrat push to increase taxes. Post cards were dropped into the districts of Democrats, Mike Schaufler, Chuck Riley, David Edwards, Betty Komp and Chris Edwards. The cards look like this:

Check out the FreedomWorks website for more details.

Now the liberal left is all up in arms over this mailing. They don’t like the idea that FW is calling this a tax increase. Well let me ask you this. Those dollars are they TAX dollars? Would the end result of those votes have meant that someone would have been paying INCREASED dollars? Thus if you are INCREASING… TAX… dollars, are you not INCREASING TAXES? Sounds pretty simple to me, but I can understand how the truth can sting sometimes.

Well good golly, they should be proud of their votes shouldn’t they? Settle down folks, embrace your votes and you should be happy that FW has done the hard work of informing the voters in those districts.