Bachmann ramps up 2012 campaign, adds national spokesperson
Monday, June 13, 2011 at 9:00 am
- 13 Comments
Rep. Michele Bachmann is ramping up her likely presidential campaign with a series of upcoming travel dates and the addition of a national press secretary. The news was announced as she heads to New Hampshire to participate in the first GOP presidential debate Monday evening and as she scheduled a tea party bus tour of Iowa. She also got a huge platform for her economic views in the Wall Street Journal on Sunday, something critics have already vetted.
Bachmann has tapped Alice Stewart as her national press secretary, Fox News reported Sunday. Stewart was Mike Huckabee’s press secretary during his 2008 presidential campaign. Bachmann has already signed on former Huckabee campaign manager Ed Rollins and Huckabee’s old Iowa field organizer Wes Enos.
Fox notes that Stewart will begin her new job today, handling press for Bachmann during the New Hampshire debate.
Bachmann will also be heading to Iowa in two weeks as a part of the Iowa Tea Party Bus Tour, a collaborative event that will bring together the tea party along with anti-gay and anti–abortion rights groups such as the American Principles Project. Bachmann is scheduled to join the tour on June 25 with stops in Indianola and Lamoni. The tour is also aimed at urging GOP candidates to reinstate the gold standard for currency.
The Wall Street Journal conducted an interview and profile of Bachmann on Sunday in which she said, “If I’m in I’ll be all in.” The piece delved into Bachmann’s economic proposals.
Bachmann wants to drastically lower the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 9 percent and recoup the loss of federal revenue by making poorer Americans pay more in income taxes.
As ThinkProgress notes, the result would be more taxes paid by the poor.
The reason so much of the income tax liability has become concentrated at the top of the income scale is because over the last few decades income inequality has skyrocketed. The richest one percent of the country currently earn nearly one quarter of the income, and therefore pay the lion’s share of the income tax. Bachmann would raise taxes on those who have seen their incomes stagnate or even drop over the last ten years, even as she cuts taxes on the ultra-wealthy.
Follow Andy Birkey on Twitter13 Comments
Comment posted June 13, 2011 @ 9:11 am
Is she running for President or Sheriff of Nottingham?
Comment posted June 13, 2011 @ 9:21 am
Define the poor. Who is she suppose to raise taxes on? Those earning less than 40k, 30k, 25k?
Comment posted June 13, 2011 @ 9:51 am
Now, now HG. Using a pseudonym suggests a pseudo point of view. Expose yourself to be taken seriously. “Poorer” is a relative term and you know it. Income needs redistribution in this country. We were all here 90 plus years ago in the lead up to the 1929 crash. De-regulation, the darling child of the GOP, has led to fiscal disparities.
It is time for Labor to rise again in this country.
Jeff Wilfahrt, Rosemount, MN
Comment posted June 13, 2011 @ 9:54 am
Jeff,
So tell me, who are the poor refered to in this article?
Comment posted June 13, 2011 @ 10:17 am
HG,
Since you are so interested in protecting those who have been given everything, I would ask:
Do you
A) support the death penalty for bankers or
B) Think the Bible is fallible and wrong?
Ezekiel 18:13
13 He lends at interest and takes a profit.
Will such a man live? He will not! Because he has done all these detestable things, he is to be put to death; his blood will be on his own head.
Comment posted June 13, 2011 @ 10:31 am
Concerned,
You’re assumptions are nothing more that just baseless and incorrect assumptions.
Comment posted June 13, 2011 @ 10:45 am
HG, again, what is your real name?
You’re looking for a dollar figure, so I’ll just say the poor are those making less than the median income in this country, who, like those above the median, have not seen their purchasing power increase since 1975/Robert Reich, Aftershock, 2010.
Now please, identify yourself by your real name and cite your sources or go blather on the McGrath MinnesotaMajority blog where you’ll find the like minded.
Jeff Wilfahrt, Rosemount, MN
Comment posted June 13, 2011 @ 1:34 pm
Jeff,
Cite sources for what? I asked who Andy refers to as the “poor”. I need a source for that?
Comment posted June 13, 2011 @ 1:42 pm
Since “the poor” for Federal tax purposes means the 48% of U.S. families that pay no Federal taxes, equity and fairness demand that everyone pay at least a minimal Federal tax, even if it is only a symolic $1. Bachmann is right on in her thinking.
Comment posted June 13, 2011 @ 2:13 pm
Does that apply for corporations as well, Charles Wittner? Because corporations take common assets — our oil, our water, our air — and use it to make profits, then don’t pay a dime in taxes. They bilk us for billions, yet you back sticking it to the poorest among us?
DuPont: $3 billion in profits last year , zero federal income taxes paid.
GE: $7.7 billion in profits, zero federal income taxes paid.
Verizon: $32.5 billion in pre-tax profits, zero federal income taxes paid.
Between 2008 and 2010, a dozen major US corporations—including General Electric, ExxonMobil, and Verizon—paid a negative tax rate, despite collectively recording $171 billion in pretax US profits, according to an analysis by Citizens for Tax Justice. Taken together, these companies’ tax burden was -$2.5 billion, and ten of the companies recorded at least one no-tax year between 2008 and 2010.
From a justice perspective, how fair is it to raise the tax rate on the poor, but let the wealthiest companies get off scot-free? From a mathematics perspective, what’s going to dig us out of recession faster, fair taxation of the have-nots or the haves?
Comment posted June 13, 2011 @ 2:51 pm
HG, the writer of unknown identity, I concede your point that it was but a question on your part and no citation is needed, but as to my question of your identity, why the reluctance to have a name?
Why hide?
What is it that scares you so much to be open about who your are?
Are you embarrassed about something?
Do you have reputation you are trying to maintain which is at odds with your written word?
Jeff Wilfahrt, Rosemount, MN
Comment posted June 14, 2011 @ 3:54 am
Anyone know if Bachmann as moved into her DC office yet?
Comment posted June 14, 2011 @ 8:41 am
Michelle Bachmann, putting the “mental” back in fundamentalist. Throw away your history and science texts. Michelle’s got a religion to sell you.
Praise Jebus, God hates the enlightenment, Amen.
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