RUSH: There’s a story here, ladies and gentlemen, along the lines of this whole theme that we’ve had today of Obama hellbent on raising taxes, dealing with the debt limit, so forth and so on. It’s by somebody named Conor Dougherty. “Higher Taxes Lift State Collections.” Now, stick with me on this, because there’s a concerted effort underway here. “State and local tax collections rose in the first quarter as an expanding economy and tax increases passed during the recession eased city and state budget woes. State and local tax revenue grew 4.7% to $321.6 billion in the first three months of 2011 compared with the same period a year earlier, the Census Bureau said Tuesday. State revenue grew 9.3% in the quarter, a far better showing than that of local governments, where revenue fell 0.64% in the second consecutive quarter of declines.”
That’s because the states have cut spending, have cut taxes, and that increases revenue overall. The cities are lagging behind in that model. Now, here’s what’s going on. The story here is trying to imply that the economy is recovering and that one reason the states are better is that they raised taxes, and that is not the case. I’ve got this companion storyby Bob McDonnell, who is the governor of Virginia. Now, thisarticle by Conor Dougherty takes all states as a whole, and the results of the Republican-led states are kind of messing with the results here, because it’s the Republican states that are leading the way. The only way you can say states nationwide are doing better is because the Republican states are included in this.
Democrat-run states are not raising revenue; they’re not improving their circumstances. They’re not bettering themselves. I mean Texas’ results alone could account for this story, but there’s no way that New York and California, Michigan, and Illinois are seeing this kind of growth that this guy in this story reports. So there’s a full-fledged effort here, folks, to mislead everybody as to why certain states are doing well and say it’s because of them raising taxes. When you factor in the Republican states doing well, they’re covering for the poor-performing Democrat states. Bob McDonnell, governor of Virginia, Wall Street Journal today: “Democrats say otherwise, but Republican governors and their records will be a major asset to the GOP in 2012.”
In New Jersey, “As Gov. Christie said Friday, underfunded pension and health-care obligations are ‘the core problems of government spending in the country.’ This is the kind of leadership Americans want right now: straight talk about the fiscal mess we’re in and a plan to solve it. The good news is Gov. Christie is not alone among Republican governors. When I became governor of Virginia in January 2010 we faced two historic budget shortfalls totaling $6 billion. The proposals to close these shortfalls spanned the philosophical spectrum. Shortly before leaving office, my predecessor, outgoing Democratic Gov. Tim [“The Eye”] Kaine, put forward a massive $1.8 billion income-tax hike as one of his solutions.
“I knew,” writes Governor McDonnell, “that in an economy struggling to recover, raising taxes was a nonstarter. So we set forth on a different path. We balanced Virginia’s books by reducing state spending to 2006 levels, putting in place a hiring freeze in state government, making conservative revenue estimates and incentivizing state employees to save taxpayer dollars. The result was a budget surplus just a few months later,” without a tax increase — and this is happening in every state-run by a Republican. Rick Perry, for example, in Texas, this is happening out there, and so this guy in this previous story I read talking about all these states doing well raising taxes is a bunch of bohunk, because the states that are raising taxes are harming their states.
It’s the high-performing Republican states that are lifting the whole national average up (when you look at how the states are doing). “Since February 2010, 67,400 new jobs have been created in Virginia and our unemployment rate has fallen to 6% from 7.2%. Virginia’s unemployment rate is more than a full three points below the national average and the third-lowest east of the Mississippi. It’s not surprising that a majority of Virginians surveyed now believe the state is headed in the right direction, compared to 31% who think the nation is moving in the right direction. These results can and will be duplicated in other states. This year, 18 new Republican governors took office, and many confronted budget deficits similar to or worse than what we faced in Virginia last year. …
“In Ohio, Gov. John Kasich is on the verge of passing his Jobs Budget, which would close an $8 billion budget deficit while preserving an income tax cut for all Ohioans. … In Wisconsin, Gov. Scott Walker plans to sign a budget this weekend that will turn a $3.6 billion deficit into a projected $300 million surplus … In Florida, Gov. Rick Scott vetoed a record $615 million from the state budget, enacted a corporate income tax cut and added millions to the state’s rainy-day fund. … In politics, it’s not where you are that matters, it’s where you’re headed. My experience in Virginia, along with the similar experiences of leaders like Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels and former Michigan Gov. John Engler, suggest that the hard choices Republican governors have made this year will pay off at the polls.
“Look no further than growing and diverse Texas, a state Democrats targeted in 2010, where data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics reveal that under Gov. Rick Perry’s leadership the state has created more jobs over the last decade than the rest of the states combined” and they don’t even have an income tax! “Next year President Obama will have to campaign on his record — trillion-dollar deficits, skyrocketing debt and massive tax increases that have failed to adequately rein in unemployment. Meanwhile, Republican governors will have delivered balanced budgets without raising taxes and the entitlement reforms they made will have actually saved jobs. That’s a record of job creation the Obama administration can only dream about.
“The low popularity of Democratic governors facing re-election in 2012 tells us quite a bit about how the public regards the policies and work done by the president’s party in the state capitals. The president and the Democratic National Committee have cause for concern. Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire announced last week that she would not seek re-election, after being dogged by dismal approval ratings. North Carolina Gov. Bev Perdue’s approval rating is bogged down around 30% — not a good sign for the Democratic ticket in a state the Obama campaign has declared a top priority. There’s a reason that no Republican governor seeking re-election has lost a general election since 2007, while three Democrat governors have fallen in that same period.”
It’s what I said earlier, folks. You get a conservative Republican president in the White House and a conservative Republican Congress, and we can start reversing this debacle overnight. It can happen. It will not happen if we stay status quo, if we stay glued to the same failed policies of the socialists Obama and his fellow Democrats who are purposely engaged in policies that will end up in one thing: Larger and larger government with more and more power for them. The states are increasing revenue because they’re cutting spending as well as lowering taxes. How many states have raised taxes? Illinois? Look at them.
California desperately wants to, but they’re having trouble resisting themselves. It’s kind of like the movie Dr. Strangelove. Dr. Strangelove himself just desperately trying to salute Hitler. Democrats in California just want to raise taxes so bad, but something’s stopping them — and look, Governor Cuomo in New York! You throw out the gay marriage business (it’s a whole ‘nother topic), and Governor Cuomo’s fiscal policies in New York are like a Republican! He’s not raising taxes. He’s afraid of people running away from the state with continued high taxation. He’s got a 57% approval rating among Republicans, Governor Cuomo does — and that’s because of fiscal policies.
The answer is there, the alternative is clear as a bell, and anybody can see it who wants to look at it. Look, there’s no question Governor Cuomo wants to run for president, and because he wants to run for president he is not gonna raise taxes. They talk about who it is gonna be next after Obama. Hillary, Shmillary, it’s gonna be Andrew Cuomo. Andrew Cuomo is gonna be in there. He’s gonna be the Cuomo to reach the White House (in the dream) so, as such, he’s not gonna sit there and raise taxes. Damn straight. In order to run for president, he needs conservative fiscal policies to revive that state of New York. How else are you going to run?
Do you think somebody presiding over a failed, just in horrible shape New York is ever gonna get elected president? Ain’t gonna happen. How does any Democrat in trouble get to the solution? They go conservative. They just do. You know, I’m an eternal optimist, my friends, about the American spirit, the American dream. You know that I am. Otherwise, I’d be gone. I would be gone somewhere. I’d be out there. You know, I’d chuck it all. I’d go out there and I would be investing in every vice I’ve got. (laughing) I would! I’d be saying, “To hell with conventions. I’ve paid my dues; I’ve done my work in the eyes of the Lord. I’ve achieved it, bammo! I’m out of here.”
But I, ladies and gentlemen, am an eternal optimist about the American spirit, the American dream, and I suffer through this press conference today with Obama, and I hear how this president can single-handedly wreck the American dream — has wrecked the American dream — and is on a path to continue to do so. (sigh) What a conservative Congress could do, along with the right president in office is erase this mess created by Obama. If you want to preserve the American dream, you have to speak up, you have to inform yourself, you have to be enthusiastic with our friends and neighbors about what’s right, and you gotta be unafraid to talk about it.
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