tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10559060.post112748021463457461..comments2023-07-21T11:30:53.081-04:00Comments on SkepticalObservor: Chairman Sean on the WarpathJames Younghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15983017193858666436noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10559060.post-1127869659821441922005-09-27T21:07:00.000-04:002005-09-27T21:07:00.000-04:00Jim's right. If the Taxpayer's Alliance has "pett...Jim's right. If the Taxpayer's Alliance has "petty personal grudges" against Sean, why did I (while chairman of the Alliance) make a point to tell Sean I endorsed him in his primary campaign for Board Chairman when opposed by someone who actually did take our pledge. I suggested that Sean post my personal endorsement on his web site, which he did. And I defy anyone to find any official statement of the PWTA that includes "nasty personal stuff" about Sean or anyone else. Why can't people understand that our position is simple ... our taxes are already high enough and the government should be able to come up with a budget with an INCREASE no greater than inflation and population growth. Note that I didn't say a CUT. Sounds like a pretty reasonable, mainstream conservative position to me.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10559060.post-1127739947418253642005-09-26T09:05:00.000-04:002005-09-26T09:05:00.000-04:00NoVA Scout, if I or the PWTA has "lost credibility...NoVA Scout, if I or the PWTA has "lost credibility" with people who "diss" as though it were a word, then we're doing the right thing. And I suspect we'd never have -- and never want -- "credibility" with people who would call a 50% increase in property taxes and an effort to raise the sales tax (2002) a "positive impact at all on taxes in recent times."<BR/><BR/>Apologists for the liberal welfare state like yourself and Chairman Sean use "the minutiae of state and local fiscal discipline" as a club with which to beat true fiscal conservatives over the head, and ignore real, positive answers (you know, like suggesting that elected officials make bureaucrats write their budgets within existing revenue) because you don't like them. Ignoring policy suggestions you don't like is an old Liberal trick, and one reason that people like you despise people like me so much (and why the Conservative movement has enjoyed increasing success) is that we won't let you get away with it.<BR/><BR/>And, of course, ignoring solutions you don't like and can't answer but can't admit you don't like, and dismissing substantive criticisms of spendthrift Chairman Sean as "just a lot of petty personal grudges" is a whole lot easier than addressing the points. That might be a part of it, but Chairman Sean is certainly as "petty" as those you disparage.<BR/><BR/>BTW, what "nasty personal stuff... characterize[s] the PW Taxpayers' Alliance"? Be specific. 'Fact is, we've offered nothing but specific, substantive criticisms. It is critics like you who attempt to disparage us with such accusations, which is so much easier than responding to the fact that Chairman Sean is a tax-increasing spendthrift with no claim whatsoever to the title "fiscal conservative."James Younghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15983017193858666436noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10559060.post-1127697216366603712005-09-25T21:13:00.000-04:002005-09-25T21:13:00.000-04:00I think a major way in which the Taxpayer Alliance...I think a major way in which the Taxpayer Alliance groups have seriously lost credibility in Fairfax and PW is the way they diss Sean, the only Republican in the Commonewealth who has had any positive impact at all on taxes in recent times. Many of the TA people would rather be beguiled by Gilmore's nonsense the car tax tha deal with the minutiae of state and local fiscal discipline. It kind of reminds me of the way a lot of Dems really liked being fooled by Clinton. I know that with Sean it's just a lot of petty personal grudges, and can't be taken too seriously, but how much would it have hurt them to get behind someone who has made a difference? At some point fiscal conservatives have to show they can govern. AFP seems a lot more sophisticated and focussed on the spectrm of issues affecting state budgets, not just phony issues like "Tax Pledges" apparently drafted by third-graders. They offer a very attractive alternative for conservatives who are tired of the nasty personal stuff that has characterized the PW Taxpayers' Alliance. I hope they provide a cohesive statewide focus for eventually bringing back the Republican Party of Virginia to something resembling an adult approach to sound fiscal management.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10559060.post-1127484313055054652005-09-23T10:05:00.000-04:002005-09-23T10:05:00.000-04:00Perhaps you're coming around, Scott.I'm attracted ...Perhaps you're coming around, Scott.<BR/><BR/>I'm attracted to AFP's goal of a Taxpayer Bill of Rights, and would've been there but for other commitments. That having been said, though, if it turns out to be a method by which tax-and-spenders are attempting to coopt the fiscal conservative label --- much as I view some former and/or ideological Democrats trying to coopt the GOP label --- then it truly is a fraud.<BR/><BR/>However, while I have my problems with Chairman Sean, I have heretofore never attributed to him the level of personal dishonesty which caused the VYR/YRFV split. It was a different issue (integrity in the conduct of elections, though the initial cause --- which goes back 30 years --- was ideological), and those on the other side who tell you otherwise are, not surprisingly, lying.James Younghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15983017193858666436noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10559060.post-1127482434791000802005-09-23T09:33:00.000-04:002005-09-23T09:33:00.000-04:00Wow - kind of have to agree with you on this one J...Wow - kind of have to agree with you on this one Jim. There seems to be some unnecessary bitterness there. C'mon Sean - it's politics. I'm as big of a Sean fan there is, but what's he mean by "fraud". I've always thought the Taxpayer Alliance, although I disagree with their tactics, does have credibility.<BR/><BR/>Is this heading towards a VYR v. YRFV type of battle/split?Scotthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01258697352297763285noreply@blogger.com