Tuesday, July 22, 2008
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The DNC's Denver Gas Tax Holiday
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Posted by:
Amanda Carpenter at
7:15 PM
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Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama says a gas tax holiday is a silly gimmick that won't to anything to alleviate pain at the pump, but even his most devoted followers don't believe that.
According to this Rocky Mountain news story Democratic National Committee officials are completely on board with the "gimmick." They're taking a secret gas tax holiday while they lay the groundwork for Obama's historic nominating convention in Denver. That's right, the DNC isn't paying any of the state or federal taxes on the gas they purchase in Denver, by way of a *special* contract worked out with city officials worth almost a half million dollars.
This amounts to a 40.4 cent per gallon DNC Denver discount. 18.4 of those 40.4 cents a gallon are federal taxes that are supposed to go into the precious Highway Trust Fund Congress pulls all their earmarks out of. The DNC is just taking a pass on that, I guess. Dang it, I want my gimmick, too!
Meanwhile, Obama's still out campaigning on raising gas taxes. He'll be so shocked and disappointed to hear this when he gets back, I'm sure.
The Denver mayor says he "knows for a fact" the RNC isn't paying taxes on their gas from Minneapolis, but the RNC says "oh, yes we are." RNC spokeswoman Teresa McFarland says they are buying all their gas, taxes included, from the pump like most normal people. (Have you ever NOT filled up at a retail pump? I haven't.) They say they don't get a tax-free government spigot like the Dems are in Denver.
If the Denver city officials are giving the DNC a break on taxes methinks it could count as a in-kind political contribution to the DNC. And, methinks it would be pretty illegal for a city government to be making a political contribution like this coffer-to-coffer. I wonder if anyone will raise that point. Hopefully someone more important and who has more political clout than me.
Stay tuned...
And, my apologies for being a little absent the last day or so. I'm cranking on a feature story about a great charter school up in Pennsylvania for the magazine's September issue. I'll be back in full swing tomorrow afternoon.
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Why can't the DNC simply follow the rules? Is there a principled justification for this corner-cutting?
And don't switch the subject. I thought Obama's campaign was flush with cash. Even if it's the DNC's expense, couldn't the DNC get Obama to float them a loan?
Toads. |
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I was a volunteer for the Demo Convention here in LA back in 2000. My task was to drive the folks around town in a nice Olds. When it came time to fill the tank, I went to a City of Los Angeles fuel station to fill the tank. Can't imagine that the City of LA pays all the taxes that the consumers pay. It was just one more thing that turned me off the "party of the liberal elite." |
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Sorry, little off topic, but same line of Democratic corner-cutting.
O'Reilly just nailed FL's Rep. Wexler. He owns a residence in the DC area (MD or VA, little unclear). Kosher.
But the "residence" he claims is actually a home owned by his mother-in-law in Delray Beach, FL. So Wexler doesn't own a residence in his district and, unless, his mother-in-law is hocking him for rent, he doesn't rent a residence in FL. How is Wexler a FL residence?
Of course, part of this ruse, on top of evading a residency requirement, is that he avoids state income tax to either MD or VA because FL has no income tax. I wonder if he scams FL on the intangibles tax as well.
If I'm either VA or MD, I have my state taxing authority at Wexler's door tomorrow insisting on tax information for as many years as he hasn't been filing returns.
What a weasle.
And I heard John Edwards is having some problems today. |
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I hope someone follows up on this...Amanda you should get this story on O'Reilly or get it to Hannity. Seriously! All McCain wanted to do was "give the folks a little break" for the summer...not the DNC taking a big break! |
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Do as I say, not as I do -- the motto of the liberal elite. |
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