GOP Rep. Berg Faces Town Hall Backlash For Supporting Balanced Budget Amendment, Anti-Tax Pledge
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on August 13th, 2011 4:35 am by HL
GOP Rep. Berg Faces Town Hall Backlash For Supporting Balanced Budget Amendment, Anti-Tax Pledge
During the current August recess, several GOP congressman have felt the heat at town hall meetings from constituents angry over the GOP’s intransigence on tax increases. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) was jeered for supporting huge corporate tax cuts, while Sen. Mike Johanns (R-NE) was told that taxes should go up because “big corporations and the […]
Rep. Rick Berg (R-ND)
During the current August recess, several GOP congressman have felt the heat at town hall meetings from constituents angry over the GOP’s intransigence on tax increases. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) was jeered for supporting huge corporate tax cuts, while Sen. Mike Johanns (R-NE) was told that taxes should go up because “big corporations and the rich have to pay their fair share.” One constituent had a simple message for Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL): “Let’s tax the rich.”
Rep. Rick Berg (R-ND) faced a similar backlash at a town hall in Fargo yesterday, where he was criticized for signing the Americans for Tax Reform’s anti-tax pledge, popularized by the anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist:
Several residents grilled Berg for signing the pledge and for his refusal to consider tax increases, specifically for the wealthiest Americans, like him.
“You work for North Dakota residents, not some guy from another state,” West Fargo resident Don Frost said.
Berg was also grilled for supporting the GOP’s push for a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution (which former Reagan economic adviser Bruce Bartlett called “mind boggling in its insanity“), as residents rightly noted that approving such an amendment would do nothing for the economy in the short-term (and would be incredibly problematic in the long-term):
However, several residents criticized Berg’s position, saying the amendment won’t solve immediate problems – like getting unemployed Americans back to work.
“The balanced budget amendment is like trying to drain a lake to save a drowning person,” West Fargo resident Darrel Lund said. “People are in trouble now.”
While most of the GOP caucus is dedicated to Norquist’s anti-tax pledge (which says that no additional revenue can ever be raised by the government, for any reason), Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE) publicly disavowed the pledge this week. “I don’t care to be associated with it. It’s too constraining,” he said.
VIDEO: West Virginia Department Of Environmental Prostitution
Jordan Freeman shot an extraordinary video that shows officials of the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection trying to convince citizens that mountaintop removal coal blasting near 7 billion-gallon slurry impoundment dams is good (“You can google ‘blasting around dams,’ that’s about it!”), that a collapse of the mines below an impoundment won’t affect it, […]
Jordan Freeman shot an extraordinary video that shows officials of the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection trying to convince citizens that mountaintop removal coal blasting near 7 billion-gallon slurry impoundment dams is good (“You can google ‘blasting around dams,’ that’s about it!”), that a collapse of the mines below an impoundment won’t affect it, and that the citizens should mind their manners.
