Bass For Congress - Democrats Push The Lie of the Year

NATIONAL DEMOCRATS PUSH THE LIE OF THE YEAR!

Dear Friend,

Just how far are national Democratic groups that support Ann Kuster willing to go to try and defeat me in November and return Nancy Pelosi to the Speaker of the House?

The answer: They are willing to LIE to the people of New Hampshire about my record to protect and preserve Medicare.

This morning ABC News reported that special interest groups that support Ann Kuster , the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, and Howard Dean's Democracy for America will be running ads during this weekend's Presidential debates in New Hampshire that distort and lie about my votes on Medicare. It is an ad that Pulitizer Prize winning, non-partisan independent fact-checking website, Politifact.com named the "2011 Lie of the Year".

Seniors and voters in New Hampshire deserve the facts and not be subjected to lies spread by out of state interest groups. I have long supported preserving and protecting Medicare and ensuring that anyone over the age of 55 will not see a change to their benefits, and ensuring that the our children and grandchildren have access to this valuable and critical program.

The Democrats continue to lie about Medicare because they are trying to hide from their own record. The only plan that will end Medicare is the Democrat's plan to do nothing which will force the program to go bankrupt in the near future. President Obama's Health Care law, supported by Ann Kuster, cuts over $500 billion from Medicare to pay for other health care programs. These are not the ways to save Medicare.

Please help me fight back against these lies by sharing with your friends and family the truth about my record on preserving and protecting Medicare.Please contribute $10 today to help me fight back against this dishonest attack!

As always, thank you for your support.

Democrats Do Backflips Over Romney’s 10K Bet

http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/12/democrats-do-backflips-over-romneys-10k-bet.php

 

Democrats Do Backflips Over Romney’s 10K Bet

Mitt

Benjy SarlinDecember 10, 2011, 11:35 PM5400

Democrats could barely contain their glee after Mitt Romney proposed a $10,000 bet with Rick Perry over his health care position.

“He’s going to own that $10,000 bet line,” DNC communications director Brad Woodhouse said on Twitter. “Nothing else he has said in this debate matters.”

Before the debate ended, the DNC was out with an e-mail to reporters trying to put the $10,000 number into perspective, noting it was more than the average in-state tuition at a public university, for example.

But it was Twitter where things really took off. Woodhouse and other DNC officials began tweeting a #What10kbuys hashtag to amplify their message, with items like a year of daycare for the average family. Within less than a half hour of the debate’s end, it was one of the top trending topics not just in Iowa, or in the United States, but around the world, according to Twitter.

“I’ll bet you ten thousand beers Mitt lives to regret that $10K bet line,” Democratic strategist Paul Begala tweeted.

The episode recalled Romney’s “corporations are people” moment at an Iowa event, which Democrats pounced on in similar fashion. Romney responded to that episode, which many observers interpreted as a gaffe at the time, by doubling down on the line and using it again on the trail and in his official economic plan.

It appears they’re taking a similar tack this time as well. Romney spokesman, Eric Fehrnstrom, for his part, told TPM that he thought the line went over just fine, describing it as a “good moment” for the former Massachusetts governor.

“It made Perry look weak,” he said, adding that Romney made the wager “because he knew Perry wouldn’t take it.”

Evan McMorris-Santoro contributed to this post.

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http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/11/us-usa-campaign-romney-idUSTRE7B825X20111211?feedType=RSS&feedName=politicsNews&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter&dlvrit=60468

Romney's $10,000 bet falls flat in Iowa debate

By Sam Youngman

DES MOINES | Sat Dec 10, 2011 10:58pm EST

(Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney put his money where his mouth was on Saturday in a quip at a presidential debate that may have backfired.

Romney, a multi-millionaire and a frontrunner for the Republican nomination, offered a $10,000 bet to opponent Texas Gov. Rick Perry in an argument over what Romney wrote about healthcare in his book "No Apologies."

Former Massachusetts governor Romney tried to bet that he had not supported implementing an individual healthcare mandate, mistrusted by conservatives.

"Rick, I'll tell you what: 10,000 bucks?," Romney said. Perry, like many of those assembled at Iowa's Drake University for the debate, seemed surprised by the offer.

"I'm not in the betting business, but I'll show you the book," Perry said.

The bet line could potentially hurt Romney, who has suffered in the polls in recent weeks as former speaker of the House of Representatives Newt Gingrich has risen in the polls. Romney's wealth has long been a point of attack from Democrats who say the former head of Bain Capital is out of touch.

Bill Burton, spokesman for PrioritiesUSA, an outside group supporting President Barack Obama's re-election, said the attempted wager is another sign that in an economy with 8.6 percent unemployment, Romney "could not be more out of step."

Burton, a former Obama administration official, pointed to other statements Romney has made joking about being unemployed and calling corporations people.

"It is predictable that Mitt Romney will slip up and let folks in on who he is from time-to-time," Burton said in an email. "Corporations are people, joking about being unemployed and now this. Mitt Romney has no clue what pain the American middle class is feeling right now."

Eric Fehrnstrom, a senior Romney adviser, said the campaign was not concerned the comment might make its candidate appear out of touch.

"Not at all," Fehrnstrom said in an email to Reuters. "Mitt Romney knew that Rick Perry wouldn't take the bet because it's a phony attack. By backing down, Perry looked weak."

Rival Republican Jon Huntsman's campaign seized on Romney's remark, promising in an email that the website 10KBet.com was on its way.

"While Jon Huntsman signed free-market health care without a mandate, Mitt Romney was arguing that his government-run, mandate approach should be a model for the nation," Huntsman spokesman Tim Miller said.

"I guess he owes Rick Perry $10,000."

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http://www.politico.com/blogs/burns-haberman/2011/12/romney-foes-will-take-that-bet-106789.html

Romney foes will take that bet

By ALEXANDER BURNS | 

12/10/11 10:40 PM EST

The line of the debate, as far as Democrats are concerned, is evidently Mitt Romney’s offer of a $10,000 bet to Rick Perry. The DNC has already blasted out an email titled: “Here’s What the Average American Family Can Buy with $10,000.” And a senior Democratic Party strategist emails to exult in Romney’s rich-guy moment:

Mitt Romney is going to rue the day he offered a $10,000 bet in this debate.  Talk about a window in to his out-of-touch soul.  And he did it in the same debate where he again called the payroll tax cut for the middle class a temporary band-aid.  You just can’t be more out of touch than Mitt Romney – and you can’t have a less understanding of what it’s like to be middle class.

The Huntsman campaign, as it happens, has also pounced on the comment and announced in an email that it purchased the URL www.10KBet.com

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http://elections.nytimes.com/2012/debates/#sha=95dd3ceec

D.N.C. Attacks Romney Bet

What will everyone remember from the debate tonight?

Even before it was over, the Democratic National Committee sought to make sure that voters don't forget Mitt Romney's spontaneous offer to bet Rick Perry $10,000 on a dispute about what Mr. Romney had written in his book.

"Here's What the Average American Family Can Buy with $10,000," the D.N.C. said in an e-mail to reporters.

The email noted that $10,000 is more than four month's pay for most people in America, where the median income was $26,197 in 2010.

For Mr. Romney, the moment reinforces the problem he has had connecting with average people. (Mr. Romney is a multi-millionaire whose net worth is estimated at about $200 million.)

The moment recalled another earlier in the year, when Mr. Romney went looking in his wallet for a $1 bill for a boy who had donated a dollar folded into origami. The candidate at first only found a $100 bill and then dug deeper to find a $5 bill.

The particulars of the dispute with Mr. Perry tonight may not matter as much as the fact that he was so quick to bet such a large amount.

The D.N.C., at least, will be trying to make sure that's what everyone remembers.

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http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/12/mitt-romneys-10000-bet-blows-up-twitter.php?ref=fpb

MItt Romney’s $10,000 Bet Blows Up Twitter

BENJY SARLIN DECEMBER 10, 2011, 10:00 AM 

Pundits and strategists on the left and right alike were united in their reaction to Mitt Romney’s $10,000 mid-debate bet with Rick Perry: expect to see it many, many, many more times if Romney wins the nomination.

“If Mitt is the nominee, we’ll see that ten-thousand dollar bet offer about ten thousand more times,” Josh Trevino of the Public Policy Foundation in Texas, which is close to Perry, tweeted. 

“Do you think Romney is carrying $10,000 with him right now? #whatsinyourwallet,” Democratic strategist Bill Burton tweeted.

“I’m doing an endzone dance on it,” tweeted Democratic strategist Matt Ortega.

The consensus seemed to be that Romney had given Democrats a big fat peg for yet another round of attacks on the candidate’s vast fortune.

You can already feel the $10k bet backfiring—will be one of the replayed moments from the debate,” The National Review’s Rich Lowry tweeted.

“How does Romney challenging Perry to a $10,000 bet fit into strategy of being champion of the middle class?” tweeted the Washington Examiner’s Phillip Klein.

“Not too many Iowa caucusgoers are the sort to offer a $10,000 bet, even on a sure thing,”tweeted Des Moines Register columnist Kathie Obradovich.

Watch the video of the moment:

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http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-romney-bet-20111210,0,2009778.story?track=rss&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter&dlvrit=56325

Mitt Romney's $10,000 bet could come back to haunt him

By James Oliphant

December 10, 2011, 7:26 p.m.

Mitt Romney, the millionaire who has tried again and again to try to show voters that he’s just another everyday Joe, may have given his GOP rivals and President Obama a gold-plated gift in Saturday’s debate in Iowa.

While sparring with Rick Perry over healthcare at the debate in Des Moines, Romney challenged Perry to a wager. The stakes? A cool 10 grand.

That’s not exactly your typical bar bet.

Perry had accused Romney of altering a paperback version of his book to delete a line that had Romney wanting to make his Massachusetts healthcare plan a model for the rest of the nation, suggesting that Romney is a champion of an individual mandate to force people to purchase health insurance.

Romney said that wasn’t true.

“I'll tell you what. 10,000 bucks? Ten-thousand-dollar bet?” Romney said.

“I’m not in the betting business,” Perry replied.

Romney, who likes to talk about his work creating jobs as a venture capitalist in the private sector, is estimated to be worth between $190 million and $250 million.

Should he go on to win the Republican nomination, the clip from Saturday's debate may be replayed again and again in Democratic attack ads.

The reaction of former Obama White House aide Bill Burton to Romney's bet was typical. Burton now runs a Democratic "super PAC."

 "Not a lot of 99%'ers are out there making $10,000 bets," Burton wrote on Twitter.

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Senate Dems Push for $35 Billion States Bailout, Will Funnel $95 Million to Democrat Campaign Coffers, ALG Warns

October 18, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement blasting a Senate Democrat plan to spend $35 billion to bail out state and local governments:

"This is like a horror story with endless sequels: 'The Return of the States Bailout'.  States already got $145 billion in the original Obama 'stimulus' in 2009, and another $26.1 billion in August 2010.  Now, the Obama economic recovery has been so weak that states that refuse to clean their fiscal houses are still facing a $103 billion shortfall for this fiscal year as revenues fail to recover, and so Senate Democrats want another $35 billion.

"Senate Democrats project their plan will prop up 400,000 teachers' jobs with $30 billion of the funding for that purpose.  When you do the math, if you conservatively assumed only half them were unionized, with average contributions to state, local, and national unions combined about $475, it works out to a $95 million political slush fund to help Democrats, including Barack Obama, get elected.

"This plan to borrow-print-and-spend another $35 billion for the states is not about creating jobs.  It won't create jobs.  It's about propping up government worker unions, and funneling $95 million to help Democrats' ailing campaign to get reelected.  It is hard to think of a greater waste of taxpayer resources."

Attachments:

"Democrats Push for $35 Billion States Bailout Which Will Funnel $95 Million to Help Elect Democrats," NetRightDaily.com, Americans for Limited Government, October 18, 2011 at http://netrightdaily.com/2011/10/democrats-push-for-35-billion-states-bailout-which-will-funnel-95-million-to-help-elect-democrats/

Public Policy Polling Media Alert: The 'leftovers' from our New Hampshire poll

-There are a million New Hampshire Republican primary polls out there right now so when we polled the state earlier this month we decided we may as well ask about the 2016 Democratic race too. The answer is not surprising: if Hillary Clinton decided to make another run at the White House she would start out as an overwhelming favorite. 52% of primary voters said she'd be their choice from the options we gave, followed by Joe Biden at 16%. No one else registered in double digits- Andrew Cuomo at 9%, Russ Feingold at 3%, Deval Patrick at 2%, Cory Booker at 1%, and Brian Schweitzer and Mark Warner each at 0%.

Those numbers largely reinforce what we found when we asked about a similar pool of candidates in Iowa in April. There 44% picked Clinton to 13% for Biden, and again no one else in double digits. If nothing changes over the next few years- and goodness knows it could- Clinton's going to be way out in front to start if she decides to make the race.

Since it seems quite likely neither Clinton nor Biden will actually run we also asked a version of the question in New Hampshire without them. In that permutation Cuomo leads the way with 30% to 18% for Feingold, 13% for Patrick, 2% each for Booker and Warner, and 1% for Schweitzer. That may be an indication that Cuomo's work in his first 6 months as Governor really has made national waves. Or it could also just be an indication that he has a famous family name.

-New Hampshire Republicans made enormous gains in the Legislature last year. Now voters appear ready to go back in the other direction in 2012. Democrats lead the generic ballot in the state by a 48-45 margin. That actually represents progress for the Republicans, who trailed by 49-41 on that count when PPP last polled the state in April. But that spread would still result in a huge number of seats- and quite possibly the majority- moving back to the Democrats. The key to the party's improvement relative to last year? It leads 42-41 with independent voters- that's a modest advantage but it's a far cry from the huge margins the GOP was winning those voters by last year.

-New Hampshire is one state where there's an outright majority in favor of gay marriage. 51% of voters in the state think it should be legal to only 38% who think it should be outlawed. Two thirds of voters under 30 support it but what might be most remarkable is that even seniors do by a 45/44 margin. That's quite a different story than we see in most states.

If you extend the question to asking about both gay marriage and civil unions 80% of voters in the state support some form of legal recognition for same sex couples with 45% saying that full marriage rights is their top choice and the other 35% preferring civil unions. Only 19% oppose all recognition.

Even among Republicans in New Hampshire 67% support legal recognition for gay couples. They largely prefer civil unions- 50% of GOP voters- with 17% in favor of marriage. These numbers suggest that gay bashing is not likely to be a winner for Republican Presidential candidates in New Hampshire next year.

-The state's 2 Senators have very similar and pretty solid numbers. Neither is overwhelmingly popular but they're both on positive ground and that's not a bad place for an elected official to be these days. Kelly Ayotte's approval is a +6 spread at 44/38 and Jeanne Shaheen's breaks down at +5 at 47/42.

This analysis is also available on our blog:

http://publicpolicypolling.blogspot.com/2011/07/new-hampshire-miscellaneous-poll.html

CEI Weekly: Big Labor Alliance with Democrats in Jeopardy

Feature: Democrats are being forced to choose between balancing budgets and appeasing union leaders.

FEATURED STORY: Big Labor Alliance with Democrats in Jeopardy In states across America, Democratic leaders are being forced to re-evaluate their close relationship with powerful union lobbyists. Taxpayers are holding politicians accountable for broken state budgets now more than ever; and Democrats are realizing that they can't seriously address their constituents' economic concerns if they're continuing to give political gifts to Big Labor. In this month's Labor Watch, Ivan Osorio and Trey Kovacs examine the causes and consequences of the disintegrating friendship between leftist lawmakers and powerful unions. Read the study here (PDF). SHAPING THE DEBATE Mandatory Voting Fred Smith's televised debate with Norm Ornstein TSA Under Fire After Man Boards Flight With Expired Boarding Pass Vincent Vernuccio's interview on Fox Business The Cost of Government Regulation Wayne Crews' column in Forbes Fuel Economy Standards Need a Warning Label Sam Kazman's citation in The Richmond Times-Dispatch Employers Doubt Obama's Promise of Less Red Tape CEI's citation in The Washington Times NYT: Tea Party vs. John Mica's Myopic Monorail to Nowhere Marc Scribner's citation in The Washington Examiner Blogs CEI PODCAST July 7, 2011: How Much Does Regulation Cost  One federal government study says federal regulations cost $1.75 trillion. Another says it’s $62 billion. The difference is almost a factor of 30. Vice President for Policy Wayne Crews compares the two, and talks about the hazards of calculating regulatory costs and benefits. As it turns out, $1.75 trillion might be an understatement. BEST OF THE BLOGS Third Time's the Charm: Ray LaHood Announces TIGER 3 By Marc Scribner Sour Attitudes on Raw Milk By Greg Conko The EU's Sanctimonious Climate Bluster By William Yeatman Virginia's Child Support Guidelines Likely to Become Grossly Excessive for Most Households By Hans Bader Alcohol Regulation Roundup: Independence Day Edition By Michelle Minton

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