Conservatism – “way out there”?

Yes, that’s what our favorite “independent” (who’s taken almost $2 million from his party brass) is saying in his latest commercial, called “Untrue Attacks”:

First of all, he’s not on my side (nor is he “independent”, but I already covered that). And how about the evidence of “untrue attacks”? Just because you say they’re untrue doesn’t necessarily make them so.

Let’s go further. If I heard correctly, Frank has a claim that he “fought for new laws to arrest and deport illegal immigrants.” So what law was it? If it’s the one I’ve heard Kratovil talk about, which is making driving without a license a jailable offense, how do you think it became law? My educated guess is that it made it through the General Assembly with the seal of approval of one State Senator Andy Harris – if not, you can bet that Kratovil would be jumping up and down, yelling about that vote.

Frank also claims to be “for middle-class tax cuts”. Why not just keep in place tax cuts for everyone, the ones President Bush passed in 2001/2003 which face elimination in 2010? I guess Frank would rather “spread the wealth” like Barack Obama, because that sounds a lot like Obama’s plan where 95% of taxpayers get a “tax cut” but in reality only about 60% actually pay taxes. The rest get another government check, just like welfare.

I’ll give Frank credit for one thing: he actually corrected the citation I couldn’t find before. It’s SB335 from 2000. What this bill did was raise the income eligibility level to get the credit slightly, but also capped the amount of credit to the amount one paid in tax, so a refund of excess credit could not be given. Personally I think that if you’re going to have these sorts of behavior-based items, there should be no income cap placed on them. In theory, Frank’s claim is correct but it’s very tenuous at best.

The other claim Frank makes is that Andy “voted against lower college tuition.” Here’s what really happened. SB110 in 2006 was the budget bill, and as is customary in the General Assembly at budget time a lot of horse trading goes on. The Senate’s version of the bill passed its third reading 47-0, obviously with there being 47 Senators Andy voted for it. In that bill was this paragraph:

To add an appropriation on page 115 of the printed bill (first reading file bill), to provide sufficient funding to cover the cost incurred to freeze undergraduate, resident tuition to academic year 2005–2006 levels for University System of Maryland and Morgan State University. The Governor, in consultation with the University System of Maryland and Morgan State University, will develop a schedule for allocating the funding.

This is what Andy voted for. What Frank is deviously leaving out is that the overall bill changed when the House of Delegates revisions were added. This particular portion regarding tuition stayed the same, but other things in the Conference Committee report did not and Harris decided to vote against the bill as a whole, regardless of his agreement with what the Senate had worked out. By that same token, I can call Frank Kratovil a liar because I have a recorded vote in favor of tuition breaks too. Is that the kind of twisting the truth we want in Congress?

Unfortunately, I couldn’t attend today’s debate but perhaps there’s a good question for Frank to ponder as he slams Harris’s support for privatizing Social Security – would he rather see 401.(k) contributions be socialized like some of his friends and contributors favor? Even moreso, doesn’t it beg the question whether Frank Kratovil would trust you to plan your own retirement?

Now I’ll get to the good commercials. No spin or twisting truth, just a simple pair of messages from Governor Bob Ehrlich. Yes, he appointed Frank Kratovil to some obscure committee but when it comes to Congress Bob’s backing Andy Harris:

I guess the Kratovil strategy is one of a guy who once had momentum but is falling behind after people take a hard look at the company he keeps and say, “you know, these guys are the ones who messed things up in the first place.” Give me the guy who will keep freedom in my hands anytime.

Author: Michael

It's me from my laptop computer.

3 thoughts on “Conservatism – “way out there”?”

  1. You want to judge a guy by the company he keeps? Awesome. Andy Harris hangs out with Joe Albero. Vote for Kratovil.

  2. Final Frontier,

    Albero may be a tool, but unlike O’Malley, he’s never raised my taxes. Clearly Harris is the better choice if we’re using the association metric.

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