Let Freedom Ring Blog

Tarryl Clark released an ad countering Michele Bachmann’s Jim, the Election Guy, ad. As a Tarryl expert, I immediately recognized a number of innacuracies in Tarryl’s ad. Using a series of Jim, The Actual Voter characters is cute but they don’t work because the things they’re saying aren’t accurate. Let’s go through their statements, starting with this statement:

Michele Bachmann attacked Tarryl Clark for balancing the budget, keeping taxes down for 95 percent of working Minnesotans.

No she didn’t. Tarryl voted to increase the most regressive taxes that Minnesotans pay. Here’s the list of the regressive taxes she raised in the Transportation bill of 2008:

The bill also includes these other levies, all dedicated to roads, bridges and transit:

• Higher registration renewal fees on future new car purchases, but no increases on currently owned vehicles.
• A half-cent rise in the general sales tax in the seven-county Twin Cities area, imposed without a voter referendum, plus a $20 excise tax on new vehicle sales in the metro.
• Local-option authority for half-cent sales-tax increases in the rest of Minnesota, subject to voter approval.
• Authority for all 87 counties in the state to impose a $20-per-vehicle annual wheelage tax. Three suburban counties levied the current maximum of $5 per vehicle last year.
• Increased fees for leased vehicle registrations, license plates, titles and drivers’ licenses, plus a $20 reinstatement fee for a license suspended for theft of gasoline.

Until Obama pounded the final nail in the economy’s coffin, people in the bottom 95 percent of taxpayers were buying new cars. They were certainly paying higher registration renewal fees. In many counties, they were paying a higher sales tax, with some counties imposing a wheelage fee on top of that. That’s before talking about the $20 “reinstatement fee for a license suspended for theft of gasoline.” (I don’t know many millionaires who’ve had their licenses suspended for stealing gasoline. Do you?)

That’s before we start talking about Tarryl voting to raise the state sales tax for the Legacy Amendment.

That’s alot of regressive taxes. I wonder how Taxin’ Tarryl, or her surrogates, expect to get away with their statements when the facts are that available. Perhaps, it’s because truth doesn’t matter with Tarryl?

Here’s another statement that doesn’t tell the whole truth:

“Tarryl cut her compensation and her office expenses.”

That’s true. However, it omits the fact that Tarryl voted against cutting the Senate’s stamp allowance:

One of the things the Senate GOP brought up was the fact that the legislature budgets for each legislator to use 5,500 stamps per year. The Senate GOP proposed cutting that number to 3,500 stamps per hear per legislator. Sen. Senjem said that, as Minority Leader, he uses approximately 3,000 stamps annually. Sen. Amy Koch, who made the motion, said that this amendment would save the Senate $56,000 per year.

The GOP proposal was defeated by a 36-29 margin.

That’s $112,000 this biennium that wouldn’t be missed even in the least that Tarryl voted against saving. I’d argue that cutting personal office expenses while voting against saving the Senate’s operating expenses is like saving a penny while spending a quarter. That isn’t the type of fiscal responsibility I’m looking for.

Here’s another statement that doesn’t tell the whole truth:

In fact, she’s cut 10 percent from the state’s budget in the last 2 years alone.

And she had to be dragged kicking and screaming to do it. Let’s remember this from her appearance on @Issue With Tom Hauser:

Hauser: You can talk about reform all you want but reform inevitably ends up meaning that some people that are getting state services now won’t be getting them after this reform, whether it be in HHS, whether it be in education, early childhood, any of those things.

Tarryl: Sure, and an estimate, a good estimate would be that maybe we could figure out how to save about $500 million.

That’s Tarryl saying that it’s all but impossible to save $500,000,000, that we needed to raise taxes to eliminate the deficits that she created by spending the surplus.

That’s right, people. When Tarryl started her only full term, Minnesota had a $2,163,000,000 surplus. At the time, legislators were warned that the economy was slowing down. Did that prevent Tarryl and her DFL colleagues and their special interest allies from spending most of the surplus without cutting taxes? Of course it didn’t. The DFL legislature passed omnibus spending bills that would’ve increased spending by 17 percent.

When Tarryl talks fiscal responsibility, it isn’t because she’s interested in fiscal responsibility. It’s that she knows that’s CD-6 voters are interested so she’d better fake interest. Tarryl knows that if she doesn’t, she’ll be irrelevant this election.

The ad might be clever but it isn’t accurate or hard-hitting. It will be dismissed within a week. Either that or it’ll be laughed at. I’d argue that it’d hurt Tarryl’s credibility but that’s a stretch since people are quickly figuring out that she’ll say anything to people to win votes.

In other words, Tarryl doesn’t suffer from an overabundance of credibility. She never will.

Technorati: Taxes, Tax Increases, Regressive Taxes, Taxin Tarryl, Tarryl Clark, Gas Tax, Sales Tax, Metro Sales Tax, Wheelage Fee, Legacy Act, Spendaholic, Stamp Allowance, DFL, Michele Bachmann, Fiscal Restraint, MNGOP, Election 2010

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