Will Loyal Obama Ally Again Support Tax-Spend-And-Borrow Agenda?
As Governor, Tim Kaine twice attempted to slam Virginians with massive transportation tax hikes, and proposed the largest tax hike in Virginia history in the waning hours of his term. As DNC Chairman, he has spent the last several years as the number-one cheerleader for President Barack Obama’s tax-spend-and-borrow agenda in Washington.
Now, as President Obama prepares to call, in a nationwide address tonight, for a reported $400 billion in new “stimulus” spending – to be paid for later with new debt and job-killing tax hikes – where does his loyal ally, Tim Kaine, stand?
Notably, Virginians have heard this same jobs rhetoric from Obama and Kaine for the last several years. Exactly a year ago, Obama promised a “plan that would start putting Americans to work right away.”
And as he cheered as his fellow Washington Democrats rammed their original $787 billion stimulus debacle into law, Kaine claimed it would create millions of new jobs, while his bosses in the Obama Administration even claimed their spending spree would hold unemployment below 8 percent.
But instead, the United States has lost 2.4 million jobs since Obama took office, and the country is now in its 31st consecutive month of above-8-percent unemployment.
Now, The New York Times reports that Obama’s latest “stimulus” plan will cost “hundreds of billions of dollars,” and Bloomberg reports that the Obama White House says they will “will call on Congress to offset the cost of the short-term jobs measures by raising tax revenue in later years” – in other words, spend the money now, but make Americans pay later with job-killing tax hikes.
“When it comes to jobs, Virginians have been hearing the same empty promises from Tim Kaine and President Obama for the last several years,” said NRSC spokesman Chris Bond. “It’s painfully clear that Obama and Kaine’s liberal tax-spend-and-borrow economic agenda has failed to create the jobs they promised while driving our national debt to $14.6 trillion, and Kaine will continue to have a very difficult time explaining his support for these failed Obama policies and his love of job-killing tax hikes to Virginia voters.”
As the Chicago Sun Times notes, even as he attempts to distract Virginians from his failed Washington agenda in advance of next year’s U.S. Senate election, Kaine is all too happy to reap the rewards of his partisan Washington water-carrying on Obama’s behalf, and will spend this evening lining his campaign coffers with cash from Obama’s liberal elitist donor base in Chicago.
Background Information:
Tim Kaine Said The Stimulus Would Create Or Save Over 3 Million Jobs. Kaine: “. . . The stimulus bill does three things, Gretchen. It has tax cuts for working Americans — those that make — their families make less than $150,000 a year so they can pay bills, put food on the table, help their kids go to college and start spending again. It has infrastructure spending — roads, bridges, alternative energy projects — that will put people to work and then build a platform for greater economic growth. And then it has an important piece of relief as we take care of rising Medicaid and unemployment rolls for Americans that have been hit so hard by 1.8 million job losses in the last three months. This is exactly what we ought to do. We’ll create or save more than 3 million jobs — 90 percent of them in the private sector.” (Fox News, “Fox And Friends,” 2/10/09)
Kaine Proposed The Largest Tax Hike In Virginia History
Governor McDonnell Said Tim Kaine’s Proposed Income Tax Increase Would Have Been “The Largest Tax Increase In Virginia History.” Governor Bob McDonnell: “In Virginia, working across party lines, we have cut $6 billion out of our past two budgets, reduced state spending to 2006 levels, rejected a proposal by my predecessor, Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine, to enact the largest tax increase in Virginia history, and produced a $403 million surplus.” (“Statement Of Republican Governors Association Vice Chairman Bob McDonnell On Governor Martin O’Malley’s Visit To Virginia,” RGA Press Release, 2/19/11)
Governor McDonnell: “Gov. Tim Kaine’s Introduced Budget Proposed To Cover Half Of The Shortfall With The Largest Tax Increase In Virginia History . . . ” (Bob McDonnell, Op-Ed, “Tough, Responsible Choices Set Stage for Recovery,” Richmond Times Dispatch, 3/7/10)
