Will Creigh Deeds sign a “no tax” pledge?
By JR Hoeft | Thursday, June 18th, 2009 | PoliticsA lot of unnecessary stink has been made about Bob McDonnell, who voted to cut taxes more than fifty times in the General Assembly to the tune of more than $2 billion, and his comments regarding not signing a “no tax” pledge to the Washington Times yesterday:
“I will tell you exactly what I think, because I’ve answered your questions today, and I will tell you that I have no plans to raise taxes.”
Apparently that wasn’t good enough for the Times, which went on to write a scathing editorial.
The irony is the Times excoriates the tax cutter but does nothing regarding his opponent who really hasn’t found a tax he doesn’t like.
During the nomination contest, there was this exchange between Moran and Deeds:
Two of the Democrats left the door open for tax increases to help the state meet its needs, though neither made an immediate call to raise levies.
“Everything should be on the table,” said Del. Brian Moran of Alexandria. State Sen. Creigh Deeds of Bath County took a similar position. Moran’s aide later said his candidate would consider raising taxes only for transportation.
Even Moran made a clarification on what taxes he would consider, but the Democratic gubernatorial nominee, Deeds, made no such clarification.
So, again, I pose this question to the Washington Times – who should you be writing editorials about: The tax cutter…or the guy who leaves every tax “on the table”?
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About the author
Conservative to the core; liberal with his opinion! J.R. has been involved in politics for over a decade and has worked on several campaigns in Hampton Roads. He has served on the Executive Committee of the Republican Party of Chesapeake and the Central Committee of the Republican Party of Virginia. He is also the director of “Blogs United” in Virginia. E-mail J.R.. Follow J.R. on Twitter.
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8 Responses to "Will Creigh Deeds sign a “no tax” pledge?"
Lets see, McDonnell told everyone who would listen, that he was the “chief negotiator” of the regional taxing authorities, which if you will recall was ruled UNCONSTITUTIONAL by the state supreme Court. And oh, yes, RAISED TAXES in more ways that we can count. And would have put additional “tolls” (which means more taxes) on every road coming into and out of Hampton Roads. You conveninently forget that fact, but ramble on, hyperbolize the issue, the fact is McDonnell raised taxes every chance he got is ignored.
Do I like Deeds? Not much, but at least Deeds isn’t pretending to be for “limted government” and parading around trying to fool people, like McDonnell!
This sad tactic isn’t going to work, because so many people know the facts, which apparently have alluded the poster of this tripe!
Slow down, Bruce. Before you go around starting to call me names, at least read up on the issue.
First, it was governor who proposed the unconstitutional amendments.
Second, there was a great expectation in 2007 to get something done for roads. So, while the amendments were an abortion, they still passed the House 85-15 and the Senate 29-10. Notice that the yays and nays are totally bi-partisan.
Third, McDonnell was forced to defend the bill in the supreme court because that was his job. Here are his comments from the statement following the ruling:
And here is his podcast to Bearing Drift that explains his role.
Before we start re-writing history, let’s at least remember what happened and the context in which it happened.
The larger point here of course is NOT what McDonnell did or did not do, but rather what the Washington Times is not doing . . . which is asking Deeds (the guy they most likely favor) to sign the same pledge they had a hissy fit over McDonnell not signing. If they are going to ask McDonnell to sign it and not ask Deeds . . . well you do that math on that one. As far as I am concerned this was a simple attempt to weaken Bob amongst his supporters because there is no way the “tax pledge” crowd would EVER consider voting for Mr. (I never met a tax I did not like) Deeds. Oh, also how about asking Deeds about that gas tax he wanted to raise 30+% last summer in the middle of $4 dollar a gallon gas prices.
This discussion is ludicrous. On the one hand you have Creigh Deeds, a proven tax and spend liberal and on the other you have Bob McDonnell, a proven tax-cutter and limited government advocate. Can we please dispense with the idiotic circular firing squad debate and focus 100% of our attention, effort and energy on electing Bob McDonnell as Governor of Virginia this November?
Maybe you can help me out. McD says he voted to cut taxes over 50 times. I haven’t been able to find nearly that many tax bills that he voted against. Since it seems to be common knowledge to all you GOPpers, would you be so kind as to list the bills that include those tax cut votes? Otherwise such claims are merely BS. I mean, we wouldn’t want to rewrite history like some are trying to do with McD’s role in how HB3202 became law, would we?
I wouldn’t blame McDonnell or Deeds for not signing some dumb pledge.
Only a fool (in either Party) would sign a “No Tax Increase” pledge and box themselves into a corner before fully understanding the budget problems in Virginia. There are enough cheap election stunts to pull without signing a pledge that will be violated in some way, shape or form by the next governor.
If McDonnell is such a tax cutter, why does he get so much flack from fiscal conservatives? Why not Bolling? Why not Cuccinelli?
J.R. , you speak of “context” in regard to McDonnell supporting HRTA. However, McDonnell did not just defend the HRTA after telling the governor and legislators that it faced potential contsitutional problems. McDonnell championed the HRTA and used his position as one of the biggest party leaders, to push the unconstituitional taxing authority. McDonnell’s action with HRTA is not small government. Legislation on “eminent domain reform” he pushed that protected nobody’s property rights, was NOT smaller government. Thank goodness real refform passed the next year. The government determining what you can do or not, with your consenting wife in your private home, is “Big Brother Taliban” not smaller government.
Hey, you may be correct. Maybe………McDonnell might pass fewer tax increases and grow government less that Deeds. I’m not so sure about that, but it is possible. However as alluded to by another response, a lot of us feel the once conservative legislator from Virginia Beach totally turned his back on us in Hampton Roads. Between a Democrat taxer and a Republican guy that tries to decieve us about his willingness to tax us and grow government, I’ll take the honest one.
So Bob is now waffling on taxes.
So we can’t trust him on guns, and now on taxes.
Time to have some fun and turn up the heat.
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