Sansom Hates Women

Ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment is a no-brainer. The only reason to oppose it would be because you think women shouldn't be equal. That seems to be the stance of incoming speaker Ray Sansom, who won't venture an opinion on Florida's legislature ratifying the amendment. He says he won't talk about it because he's focused on winning elections. But considering that the majority of voters are women, what better way to win elections than to let the majority of voters you support them? If he opposes the amendment, he should be honest and come out and say it. Otherwise we'll be left to assume, since his explanation is nonsensical, that he opposes the ERA and equality for women.

Crazy Republican Quote of the Day

From the Buzz:

"There's a big difference between cuts and reductions...We're not cutting anything. We have to balance the budget. We're doing what the people of Florida expect us to do ... This is not the United States Congress. We cannot spend in a deficit. We have to live within our means."

-- Ray Sansom (R-Obfuscation)

While there is a difference between eliminating and cutting a program, there isn't any difference between cutting and reducing a program. These are synonyms. Really. By any standard or definition. Except in crazy Republican world.

Besides, most of this rationale is a straw man argument. Nobody said that you didn't have to balance the budget. And, of course, there are two ways to live within your means -- cut spending and increase revenue. Republicans appear to be allergic to the latter, regardless of the circumstances. That's fiscal irresponsibility. I'm one of those people of Florida Sansom speaks of, and what I expect the legislature to do is maintain services (or even improve them) while keeping taxes at a reasonable level. I'll wager I'm in the majorit on this particular expectation.

Campbell Hates Taxes, Honesty...Republicans?

House District 32 Special Election Candidate Sean Campbell has been going on and on about his "top priority" -- property taxes. And he warns that his opponent, Tony Sasso, will raise taxes if elected. This ignores, of course, the fact that Sasso actually voted repeatedly to cut taxes as Cocoa Beach City Commissioner. While Sasso did vote to increase tax revenue, what this really means is that he voted to support real estate improvements and new growth, things that generate additional tax revenue while maintaining or even cutting tax rates.

So, while Campbell is dishonest in going after Sasso, he is on target in attacking people who say they favor lower taxes but actually vote to increase taxes. It's good to see that he's takign on the Republicans in the legislature, who love to talk about cutting taxes, but actually have done quite a bit to increase them. Like last year when they required local governments to increase their share of education funding -- something they could only do by raising taxes.

But lets not just talk about this in generalities, lets get some numbers, using the Republican way of looking at this, tax "revenue" increases:
*Will Weatherford (R-Land O' Lakes) - Voted to increase property tax revenues more than $550 million
*Dean Cannon (R-Winter Park) - Voted to increase annual property tax revenues more than $1.5 billion, for a total of nearly $3 billion
*Ray Sansom (R-Gulf Breeze) - Voted to increase annual property tax revenues by $2.7 billion for a total of nearly $7 billion
*Marco Rubio (R-Miami) - Voted to increase annual property tax revenues by $3.8 billion for a total of more than $40 billion
*Bill Posey (R-Rockledge) - Voted to increase tax revenues so many times that its hard to keep track, but the total is certainly more than Rubio's

This is the problem with so much of the Republican rhetoric, they create dishonest standards by which to judge their opponents, and don't apply these same standards to themselves.