The George Allen Record – Energy – May 31, 2001

May 31, 2011 By Leave a Comment

As today’s gasoline prices edge close to $4 per gallon, Virginians may recall George Allen addressing the pressing need for a comprehensive national energy policy ten years ago.  At a press conference outside a local gas station in Richmond on May 31, 2001, Allen urged action in Washington on common-sense solutions for affordable energy – solutions that embrace conservation and innovation and increase domestic production to reduce dependence on foreign oil and protect our national security while encouraging economic growth.  Following the press conference, Allen took time to exchange ideas with fellow motorists concerning ways to fix America’s energy policy.

“The crisis has not come overnight,” Allen said of the nation’s growing dependence and rising energy costs.  “We need to take action. Demand for energy is at an all-time high.”

Today, even more of America’s resources have been put off limits and Americans are paying with higher prices for gasoline and for heating and cooling their homes.  George Allen is committed to reversing Washington’s counterproductive energy policies and ending over-reaching regulations to unleash America’s plentiful resources and creativity to produce American energy, American jobs, and American competitiveness.

 

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Memorial Day

May 30, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Our hearts are eternally grateful for our heroes, the men and women of our armed services, who lost their lives to keep our Nation sovereign, free and prosperous.   As President Reagan said “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.”  Today we remember and have our flags flying for those who sacrificed their all in the defense and advancement of liberty and thank God for them, and their families.

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Arlington National Cemetery

May 28, 2011 By Leave a Comment

On this Memorial Day weekend visiting Arlington, I’m gratefully thinking of the US and British armed forces who liberated my mother and her family in Tunisia from the Nazi’s in WW2, all our heroes who have lost their lives in the defense and advancement of liberty, and specifically Major Charles Ransom, Jason Redifer, Colin Wolfe, ‘Salty’ Watkins, and Chic Burlingame.

Our hearts are grateful for their families, who sacrificed for our country, too.

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What Obama did to Israel

May 27, 2011 By Leave a Comment

President Obama’s policies have undermined Israel’s ability to negotiate and risked the national security and interests of our democratic, longtime ally. The people of America and Israel share a unity of purpose, and the same values and vision. Our country should be standing up to the terrorist organization of Hamas, not undercutting the position of a reliable friend and partner in the Middle East. Mr. Krauthammer provides an insightful analysis.

What Obama did to Israel

The Washington Post

By Charles Krauthammer

May 26, 2011

Every Arab-Israeli negotiation contains a fundamental asymmetry: Israel gives up land, which is tangible; the Arabs make promises, which are ephemeral. The long-standing American solution has been to nonetheless urge Israel to take risks for peace while America balances things by giving assurances of U.S. support for Israel’s security and diplomatic needs.

It’s on the basis of such solemn assurances that Israel undertook, for example, the Gaza withdrawal. In order to mitigate this risk, President George W. Bush gave a written commitment that America supported Israel absorbing major settlement blocs in any peace agreement, opposed any return to the 1967 lines and stood firm against the so-called Palestinian right of return to Israel.

For 21 / 2 years, the Obama administration has refused to recognize and reaffirm these assurances. Then last week in his State Department speech, President Obama definitively trashed them. He declared that the Arab-Israeli conflict should indeed be resolved along “the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps.”

Nothing new here, said Obama three days later. “By definition, it means that the parties themselves — Israelis and Palestinians — will negotiate a border that is different” from 1967.

It means nothing of the sort. “Mutually” means both parties have to agree. And if one side doesn’t? Then, by definition, you’re back to the 1967 lines.

Nor is this merely a theoretical proposition. Three times the Palestinians have been offered exactly that formula, 1967 plus swaps — at Camp David 2000, Taba 2001, and the 2008 Olmert-Abbas negotiations. Every time, the Palestinians said no and walked away.

And that remains their position today: The 1967 lines. Period. Indeed, in September the Palestinians are going to the United Nations to get the world to ratify precisely that — a Palestinian state on the ’67 lines. No swaps.

Note how Obama has undermined Israel’s negotiating position. He is demanding that Israel go into peace talks having already forfeited its claim to the territory won in the ’67 war — its only bargaining chip. Remember: That ’67 line runs right through Jerusalem. Thus the starting point of negotiations would be that the Western Wall and even Jerusalem’s Jewish Quarter are Palestinian — alien territory for which Israel must now bargain.

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The George Allen Record – Taxes – May 26, 2001

May 26, 2011 By Leave a Comment

On May 26, 2001, George Allen commended Congress’ passage of a  broad-based tax relief for the American people, including a provision he sponsored to give parents a tax deduction to help pay for education expenses such as computers, educational software, and Internet access. Allen’s amendment marks a promise he made to the people of Virginia to work toward tax relief not only for higher education but all levels of education-related expenses.

“This is an important success in giving parents education-related tax relief for their K-12 school-age children.  It is unprecedented new ground gained for elementary and secondary school children in making home computers more affordable with such a tax deduction,” stated Allen.  “Over the next ten years, these computer and education savings accounts will represent over $6.5 billion in new education spending.  But instead of this new spending being controlled by Washington bureaucracies, it will be spending controlled by parents.  And with the passage of this provision, 5 million new computers can be placed in the homes of K-12 students.”

The legislation, signed into law eleven days later, expands annual contributions limits to Education Savings Accounts, previously capped at $500, to $2,000 while ensuring tax relief for parents purchasing essential educational supplies for their child. Furthermore, Allen applauded the legislation for giving relatives, who wish to help parents put money away for their child’s education, the opportunity to contribute to Education Savings Accounts allowing all family members the chance to forever shape their child’s future.

 

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A 62% Top Tax Rate?

May 26, 2011 By Leave a Comment

My good friend Stephen Moore provided an important analysis of how higher taxation places America in a less competitive position for investment and job creation. We need to be better than our competitors to be the world capital of innovation.

A 62% Top Tax Rate?

The Wall Street Journal

By Stephen Moore

By Media reports in recent weeks say that Senate Democrats are considering a 3% surtax on income over $1 million to raise federal revenues. This would come on top of the higher income tax rates that President Obama has already proposed through the cancellation of the Bush era tax-rate reductions.

If the Democrats’ millionaire surtax were to happen—and were added to other tax increases already enacted last year and other leading tax hike ideas on the table this year—this could leave the U.S. with a combined federal and state top tax rate on earnings of 62%. That’s more than double the highest federal marginal rate of 28% when President Reagan left office in 1989. Welcome back to the 1970s.

Here’s the math behind that depressing calculation. Today’s top federal income tax rate is 35%. Almost all Democrats in Washington want to repeal the Bush tax cuts on those who make more than $250,000 and phase out certain deductions, so the effective income tax rate would rise to about 41.5%. The 3% millionaire surtax raises that rate to 44.5%.

But payroll taxes, which are income taxes on wages and salaries, must also be included in the equation. So we have to add about 2.5 percentage points for the payroll tax for Medicare (employee and employer share after business deductions), which was applied to all income without a ceiling in 1993 as part of the Clinton tax hike. I am including in this analysis the employer share of all payroll taxes because it is a direct tax on a worker’s salary and most economists agree that though employers are responsible for collecting this tax, it is ultimately borne by the employee. That brings the tax rate to 47%.

Then last year, as part of the down payment for ObamaCare, Congress snuck in an extra 0.9% Medicare surtax on “high-income earners,” meaning any individual earning more than $200,000 or couples earning more than $250,000. This brings the total tax rate to 47.9%.

But that’s not all. Several weeks ago, Mr. Obama raised the possibility of eliminating the income ceiling on the Social Security tax, now capped at $106,800 of earnings a year. (Never mind that the program was designed to operate as an insurance system, with each individual’s payment tied to the benefits paid out at retirement.) Subjecting all wage and salary income to Social Security taxes would add roughly 10.1 percentage points to the top tax rate. This takes the grand total tax rate on each additional dollar earned in America to about 58%.

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Campaign event for AJ Dudley

May 25, 2011 By Leave a Comment

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Virginia Tech Veterinary School Tour

May 25, 2011 By Leave a Comment

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Franklin County Dutch Treat Lunch

May 25, 2011 By Leave a Comment

What a great turn out for today’s lunch. Franklin County is fired up and ready to support great candidates like AJ Dudley, Bill Stanley, and Charles Poindexter.

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Montgomery County Dutch Treat Breakfast

May 25, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Thank you to everyone who came to breakfast this morning in Blacksburg. It was great to see so many good friends and new teammates in the New River Valley.

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