{"id":711,"date":"2005-05-26T10:44:58","date_gmt":"2005-05-26T14:44:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/000af36.netsolhost.com\/wordpress1\/2005\/05\/26\/raising_taxes_l\/"},"modified":"2005-05-26T10:44:58","modified_gmt":"2005-05-26T14:44:58","slug":"raising_taxes_l","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/2005\/05\/26\/raising_taxes_l\/","title":{"rendered":"Raising Taxes, Lowering Kaine"},"content":{"rendered":"

Politically, I think Tim Kaine\u2019s rapid response<\/a> to Kilgore\u2019s charge that he\u2019s a tax and spend liberal is smart. But the execution of the ad can do him more harm than good.<\/p>\n

Calling your opponent a liar, as Kilgore\u2019s GOP front group did and Kaine\u2019s similar response also did, is a well-worn political tactic. Yes, some people will be swayed by Kilgore\u2019s charge; after all, a lot of people bought the Swift Boat charges even though they were soundly refuted. Even if they knew the charge was bogus, it gave some a rationale for voting against Kerry. They didn\u2019t so much believe the charges against Kerry as they were still angry at anti-war protesters in general. So in a sense, lying works.<\/p>\n

Kaine\u2019s ad is OK as it starts, accusing Kilgore of distorting his record. By Kilgore\u2019s reasoning if a politician cut sales taxes one cent but somebody bought 10 times as much stuff, then their taxes went up. It\u2019s silly arguing whether a tax rate cut is or isn\u2019t a real tax \u201ccut.\u201d<\/p>\n

But then Kaine wastes the last seconds of the ad saying as governor he\u2019ll cut taxes \u201cfor all Virginians.\u201d One, let\u2019s forget that he hasn\u2019t offered anything that would accomplish that. His property tax plan would be dependent on local jurisdictions and a constitutional amendment. If enacted, most localities would probably offer tax relief based on income, age or assets.<\/p>\n

But he also sounds like he could be saying, \u201cOh yes, I would cut taxes, you liar, liar, pants on fire!\u201d<\/p>\n

Why not say something like, \u201cThe fact is I did cut property tax rates as mayor of Richmond, but more importantly, my policies resulted in a prolonged rebirth of the city based on reasonable taxes and sound investments, just like Gov. Warner and I have done the past four years for the Commonwealth. Unlike what you\u2019ll hear from my opponent, you\u2019ll get no irresponsible assertions that I\u2019ll fix transportation, education and health care but cut all your taxes at the same time. That\u2019s not leadership, that\u2019s pandering.\u201d<\/p>\n

But alas, Kaine tries to out-pander Kilgore. Moderate Republicans want desperately to back someone who\u2019ll continue Warner\u2019s approach. I don\u2019t see how Kaine\u2019s approach accomplishes that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Politically, I think Tim Kaine\u2019s rapid response to Kilgore\u2019s charge that he\u2019s a tax and spend liberal is smart. But the execution of the ad can do him more harm than good. Calling your opponent a liar, as Kilgore\u2019s GOP front group did and Kaine\u2019s similar response also did, is a well-worn political tactic. Yes,… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}