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Monday, July 31, 2006

It's official

Earlier this month, we reported on Politics Extra that President Bush would be headed to Ohio for a Ken Blackwell for governor fundraiser in Kirkland Hills, Ohio.

Typically, the White House keeps the president's schedule tightly under wraps, only confirming travel plans a week ahead of time.

Over the weekend, the White House made the Blackwell event official:

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary
____________________________________________________________

For Immediate Release

July 28, 2006
This Information Subject To Change

THE WEEK AHEAD
Sunday, July 30, 2006 Friday, August 4, 2006

Wednesday, August 2

5:50 pm THE PRESIDENT attends an Ohioans for Blackwell Reception
Private Residence Kirtland Hills, Ohio
CLOSED PRESS


6 Comments:

at 12:41 PM, July 31, 2006 Anonymous Anonymous said...

How is a closed press event news worthy ??

Payback for the elephant dung ink ??

 
at 2:52 PM, July 31, 2006 Anonymous Anonymous said...

Closed Press? Wow! Not only is Taftwell so embarrassed to have Uncle Moneybags here that he won't let the public see him in person, but he won't even let us see him on TV. Figures...the only person in Ohio with approval ratings lower than Bush is Taftwell, himself.

 
at 3:05 PM, July 31, 2006 Anonymous Anonymous said...

Blackwell & Bush:
What Will They Talk About?


Columbus, Ohio – President Bush’s scheduled visit to Ohio Wednesday to host a $2 million fundraiser for fellow millionaire Republican Ken Blackwell has people wondering: what will they talk about?

We have some ideas. Perhaps they’ll discuss…

…how disastrous the president’s economic policies have been for Ohio – the same policies Ken Blackwell has called a “winning prescription”.
In an October 2004 Hardball interview, Ken Blackwell voiced his support for President Bush’ economic policy. Blackwell said, “The president has the right formula. He has cut taxes and that has stimulated economic growth and I think that we ought to do the same. He has a winning prescription.” [MSNBC’s “Hardball,” 10/18/04]

The president has the right formula. He has cut taxes and that has stimulated economic growth and I think that we ought to do the same. He has a winning prescription.” [MSNBC’s “Hardball,” 10/18/04] In fact, 228,656 Ohio jobs have been lost between 2001-2004. Ohio is currently in its 124th month below the national averages in job growth – breaking (again) the all-time record. [Center for Community Solutions analysis]

…Blackwell’s out-of-touch support of dangerous tax schemes, like his plan to cut the capital gains tax in Ohio, which would be a huge windfall for the wealthiest 1% but offer just $1 in tax relief for middle-class Ohioans.

According to a Policy Matters Ohio study, conducted in conjunction with the nonpartisan Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, three quarters of the proposed tax cuts in the first three years would go to the wealthiest one percent of Ohioans. Meanwhile, the average for the middle 20 percent of Ohioans over three years would be just $1.
[http://www.policymattersohio.org/ohio_capital_gains_tax_cut_analysis_2006_07.htm]


…why Bush’s conservative Education Secretary Rod Paige called the education plan supported by Blackwell “one of the worst ideas in education”.
Blackwell's education funding scheme, the so-called 65 percent solution, would mandate that 65 percent of school dollars be spent "in the classroom." Paige called the education plan supported by Blackwell “one of the worst ideas in education”.

According to Rod Paige, who served as President Bush’s Secretary of Education, such a plan would "tie school leaders' hands at a time when they need freedom to innovate." He went on to say in a New York Times editorial that the problem with risky education proposals like Blackwell's "is that such laws won’t actually make schools any better, and could make them worse."
[“For School Equality, Try Mobility”, New York Times, June 27, 2006]

Whatever Blackwell and Bush talk about Wednesday, it is likely to suggest just how out of touch they are with the lives of regular, hard-working Ohioans. And, for two million dollars, the talk won’t come cheap.


__

 
at 6:45 PM, July 31, 2006 Anonymous Anonymous said...

They'll probably laugh about how Ken Blackwell stole the election in 2004 and how he's going to do it again this year.

 
at 10:24 AM, August 01, 2006 Anonymous Anonymous said...

I HATE GEORGE W BUSH AND BLACKWELL! THEY NEED TO BURN IN HELL!

 
at 1:05 PM, August 01, 2006 Anonymous Anonymous said...

Strickland Releases Tax Returns;
Blackwell Still Refusing


Strickland has returned $44,423 in Congressional pay raises
and health care benefits since 1999

Columbus, Ohio – Ohio gubernatorial candidate Congressman Ted Strickland and wife Frances today released their tax returns from the preceding five years and a memo showing Strickland has returned tens of thousands of personal income and health benefits to the US Treasury.

The Stricklands agreed to share their tax returns with voters in response to an Ohio news media request to both gubernatorial candidates.

“I am committed to transparency and accountability in government,” Strickland said. “I believe the voters have a right to know how much money the next governor of Ohio earns and how implementing a flat tax and cutting the capital gains tax would benefit him.”

Voters already know that Blackwell became a millionaire while serving in public office. And while his salary is set by the state, Blackwell has refused to release tax returns that would reveal his other sources of income or how much he stands to make from his own tax proposals.

Also today, Strickland released a memo from the U.S. House of Representatives Members’ Services office. The memo states that “official records of this office indicate” that Strickland, a member of Congress, “has consistently returned monies to the Treasury of the United States for the Member’s Costs of Living Adjustments (COLA) and the government contributions for health insurance.”

From 1999 to March 1, 2006, Strickland returned $44,423.21 of his personal income and health benefits to the U.S. Treasury .

Since his election to Congress in 1992, Strickland and wife Frances have refused to accept the health insurance benefits provided to Members of Congress as part of their benefits package.

“I just don’t think it is right for me to accept the free health care members of congress get while so many of the people I represent go without access to quality care,” Strickland said. “If all legislators had to go without health benefits, the country’s health insurance crisis would be solved overnight.”

Today, more than 1.3 million Ohioans lack health insurance coverage, according to the Ohio Hospital Association. Of these uninsured, 4 out of 5 come from working families.

Strickland, a longtime advocate of increasing the minimum wage, also has returned thousands of dollars in mid-term pay raises as a U.S. Representative from Ohio’s 6th District.

 
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