Message from the Chairman

This is the most important election in our lifetime. The media will promote figures that are detrimental to Republican candidates, no matter who they are. I’ve compiled a list of talking points that can be used to rebut popular statements.

THE RICH. The media speak of them as if they were a PERMANENT CLASS. The FACT is that 80% of today’s millionaires were NOT BORN millionaires; but BECAME millionaires in their lifetime through their own hard work and risks. Examples are:

• The owners of STAPLES, HOME DEPOT, BEST BUY, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. If you know a “millionaire” the chances are that he/she started poor.

THE DEFICIT. When Barack Obama was running for President, he stated that the BUSH DEFICIT was too high, and had to be reduced. In fact, in 2007, Bush’s deficit was $ 161 billion. Since Obama took office, we now talk in TRILLIONS.

BUSH TAX CUTS . We’re told that they favored the RICH. Here are the facts. The largest percentage of cuts went to the lowest brackets.

	15% was cut to 10%		33.3% reduction				
	27% was cut to 25%		7.4% reduction
	35% was cut to 33%		5.7% reduction
	39.6% was cut to 35%		11.6% reduction

BUSH TAX CUTS REDUCED THE TOTAL TAXES PAID TO THE TREASURY. The facts show otherwise. After the Bush tax cuts:

2004 receipts were	$ 1.88 Trillion
2005 receipts were	$ 2.15 Trillion
2006 receipts were	$ 2.4 Trillion
2007 receipts were	$ 2.6 Trillion

NATIONAL DEBT FACT The increase in the nation’s debt under Obama was more than the debt incurred by all the previous presidents COMBINED, from George Washington to George Bush 41.

“THE RICH DON’T PAY THEIR FAIR SHARE. “ Following is a list available from the National Taxpayers Union. Note that the entry level of the top 1% of households, unlike the impression given by the media, is nowhere near a million dollars in income. These figures are from 2009

Category		Threshold $		Percentage of total taxes paid
Top 1%			$ 343,927		36.73%
Top 5%			$ 154,643		58.66%	
Top 10%		        $ 112,124               70.47%
Top 25%		        $ 66,193		87.30%
Top 50%		        $ 32,396		97.75%
Bottom 50%		<$ 32,396	        2.7%

“THE RICH ARE EARNING MORE THAN EVER”. The facts are otherwise. Here are the threshold amounts to become part of the TOP 1% for past years:

2009		$ 343,927
2008		$ 380,354
2007		$ 410,096
2006		$ 388,806
2005		$ 364,657

“MILLIONAIRES AND BILLIONAIRES” Whenever Democrats promote increasing the tax rates on Millionaires and Billionaires, it is followed by the suggestion that we must raise taxes on the TOP 1%. They never mention that THE TOP 1% are all those families who earn above $ 343,000. Certainly a good income; but $ 343,000 in annual family income is far from making you a MILLIONAIRE. If they go after the top 5%, the threshold is $ 154,000.

“REPUBLICANS REFUSE TO RAISE TAXES ON THE RICH IN EXCHANGE FOR SPENDING CUTS.” You’ll hear this a lot in 2012. Before you allow a Republican to be criticized for a 2 to 1, or 3 to 1, or 10 to 1 deal, remember this:

President Reagan made a deal with Tip O’Neal. For every dollar in taxes raised, O’Neal agreed to CUT THREE dollars for every dollar of tax increase. The fact is that taxes went up, but cuts never occurred.

President George H.W. Bush broke his “Read my lips. No new taxes” pledge, with George Mitchell. The deal was for every dollar raised in taxes, they could CUT 2 dollars in spending. The fact is that taxes went up and cuts never occurred.

I would suggest that if Republicans agree to increasing taxes in exchange for CUTS, that the Democrats show their sincerity by first cutting spending, from current levels (not from future increases), and the taxes come the year AFTER the cuts go into effect.

Larry Helminiak
Chairman