All posts by Wintery Knight

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Rick Santorum wins Fox News Republican primary debate (with video)

Santorum wins, Gingrich came second.

Part 1 of 11:

All the parts:

Here’s a review from Jennifer Rubin at the Washington Post.

Excerpt:

When the Republican presidential contenders debated in Orlando tonight, it was really two debates. In the first third of the evening, a series of disjointed questions without follow-ups, Texas Gov. Rick Perry seemed strong and well-prepared. But he faded over the rest of the debate, appearing to lose his steam just as he was trying to paint Mitt Romney as a flip-flopper.

The big winner of the night, however, was Rick Santorum.

Santorum has been waiting for the chance to supplant Rep. Michele Bachmann (Minn.) as the third-ranking candidate in the race. Tonight he went a long way toward achieving that. Bachmann never managed to make a presence. Santorum, however, socked Perry on in-state tuition breaks for Texas college students who are illegal immigrants, making the point that Perry is subsidizing those people over non-Texan American citizens. On Afghanistan, he hit a home run, telling off Jon Huntsman Jr. over the latter’s suggestion to bug out of a war short of victory. He barked, “Just because our economy is sick doesn’t mean America is sick.” When asked about right-to-work laws, Santorum smartly steered the discussion to public employee unions. As the debate went on, he received more and more questions, a sure sign he was becoming a contender.

And another review:

Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum breathed new life into his bid for the Republican presidential nomination Thursday, issuing a string of critiques at his Republican counterparts

Speaking in a GOP debate hosted by Google and Fox News, the Pennsylvania Republican slammed critics of his campaign, calling for a renewed commitment in Iraq and Afghanistan, and condemning a repeal of the military’s controversial “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy.

Mr. Santorum on Thursday said the military has one responsibility: protecting the country. He says that allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly is a distraction to that role. The former U.S. senator made the statement in response to a video question from a gay soldier that yielded boos from the debate audience.

Mr. Santorum said that “sexual activity has absolutely no place in the military,” adding that the repeal of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, which took effect this week, was injecting “social policy into the military.”

“What we’re doing is playing social experimentation with our military right now, and that’s tragic,” Mr. Santorum said.

The Pennsylvania Republican slammed former Utah governor Jon Huntsman, questioning his recent comments on on U.S. foreign policy in the Mideast. Mr. Santorum took issue with Mr. Huntsman’s suggestion that the U.S. should leave Afghanistan short of victory.

“Just because our economy is sick doesn’t mean America is sick,” Mr. Santorum said.

Mr. Santorum, who continues to trail former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney and Texas Republican Rick Perry in the latest polls, had struggled to gain support in recent months. The Pennsylvania Republican has focused his campaign on Iowa, where recent polls seems to suggest Minnesota congresswoman Michele Bachmann and Mr. Perry as the leading candidates. Still, the Pennsylvania Republican has repeatedly said he remains confident of his chances of securing the 2012 nomination.

The performance at Thursday night’s GOP debate comes as Mr. Santorum has sought to increase his presence within the national debate. Speaking Tuesday, Mr. Santorum launched a scathing rebuke of Mr. Perry’s assessment of U.S. relations with Israel.

“I’ve forgotten more about Israel than Rick Perry knows about Israel,” Mr. Santorum told Politico. “There he is, reading a speech that I’m sure he didn’t write, and has never taken a position on any of this stuff before, and [the media is] taking this guy seriously.”

Preceding the debate hosted by Google, Mr. Santorum made national headlines after issuing a plea to the search engine, requesting that the address search results related to his name. Mr. Santorum’s contacting of Google comes as Google searches for Mr. Santorum’s name have generated some inappropriate results since gay columnist Dan Savage organized an online campaign to link graphic sexual terms to Mr. Santorum’s campaign.

It was a great debate, I recommend watching at least the first half.

Eight Republicans will participate in tonight’s Fox News debate in Orlando

From Fox News:

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35) – Fox News and Google announced today that they will present a presidential debate on Sept. 22 from 9:00-11:00 p.m. ET in Orlando, Fla., in conjunction with the Republican Party of Florida.

In making the joint announcement, Michael Clemente, senior vice president of news editorial, Fox News, said, “For access to news and information, it’s hard to imagine two more powerful brands than Fox News and Google, which is why we are proud to partner with a leader in global technology. The strength and reach of both should ensure a thorough and engaging debate that anyone can participate in.”

Moderated by Special Report anchor Bret Baier with panelists Chris Wallace, host of “Fox News Sunday” and Megyn Kelly, anchor of “America Live,” the debate will incorporate video and text questions submitted by the public on YouTube.com/FoxNews.

Viewers will be able to vote on the questions they want the candidates to answer, and Fox News will use the votes to help choose which questions are posed to the candidates. In addition, Fox News and Google will present public data and Google search trends on air to help provide context to the questions and inform the debate throughout the evening.

Steve Grove, head of news and politics for YouTube, said, “We’re delighted to give voters across the country this opportunity to ask their questions of the GOP candidates. Through this joint debate with Fox News we hope to bring more voices into the arena to create an informed and lively dialogue about the future of our country.”

The Fox News/Google debate will be presented live from the Orange County Convention Center on Fox News Channel (FNC) and live-streamed on YouTube.com/FoxNews, in addition to Fox News Radio, Fox News Mobile, and FoxNews.com.

I’ll be watching, hope you will too! Bret Baier, Chris Wallace and Megyn Kelly are my three favorite people on Fox News.

Do secretaries usually pay more in taxes than their rich bosses?

From ABC News.

Excerpt:

Treasury Secretary Geithner yesterday declined to answer a key question about the president’s proposed “Buffett Rule”:  How many millionaires and billionaires pay lower tax rates than middle-income families?

The answer: not that many.

The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center has crunched the numbers and found that Warren Buffett and his secretary are the exception to the rule.  For the most part, the wealthy pay a significantly higher percentage of their income in taxes than middle-income workers.

The key numbers:  this year those earning over $1 million will pay, on average, 29.1 percent on federal taxes.  Those earning between $50,000 and $75,000 will pay 15 percent.

That’s not to say that there aren’t wealthy people who are even better than Buffett at avoiding taxes.  In 2009, 1,470 people with incomes over $1 million a year paid absolutely no taxes.  But that represents less than 1 percent of those earning over $1 million a year.  Raising their taxes may be the fair thing to do, but it will not bring in much revenue.

The Cato Institute has a lovely graph of income tax rates by income earned.

Well, how much revenue can we generate if we take 100% of everything that people making over earn? (Assuming that they keep working solely for the government, of course, which Democrats would assume)

The Tax Foundation explains.

Excerpt:

So taking half of the yearly income from every person making between one and ten million dollars would only decrease the nation’s debt by 1%.  Even taking every last penny from every individual making more than $10 million per year would only reduce the nation’s deficit by 12 percent and the debt by 2 percent.  There’s simply not enough wealth in the community of the rich to erase this country’s problems by waving some magic tax wand.

Finally, to put everything in perspective, think about what would need to be done to erase the federal deficit this year:  After everyone making more than $200,000/year has paid taxes, the IRS would need to take every single penny of disposable income they have left.  Such an act would raise approximately $1.53 trillion.

George W. Bush’s last deficit, with a Republican House and Senate, was 160 billion. But Obama’s deficits are about TEN TIMES that amount.

See:

Obama Budget Deficit 2011
Obama Budget Deficit 2011

But Obama’s current annual budget deficits exceed 1.53 trillion. So taxing the rich at 100% isn’t enough to pay for All of Obama’s spending. That’s how big a hole Barack Obama has got us into.

By the way, Warren Buffett’s blathering about wanting to pay more taxes is a load of garbage. His company is currently in a dispute with the IRS to avoid paying as much as ONE BILLION DOLLARS in back taxes. You would not have heard of this if all you watched was Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert on the Comedy Channel, or Chris Matthews and Rachel Maddow on MSNBC.