Let us not forget...

Michele Bachmann to Address Lincoln-Reagan Dinner

The Hamilton County Republican Party is pleased to announce that United States Representative Michele Bachmann has agreed to be our keynote speaker at the 2010 Lincoln-Reagan Dinner.

The Lincoln-Reagan dinner is our annual fundraising gathering of Republicans from across Hamilton County. The annual dinner is a longstanding tradition for Republicans everywhere. The Lincoln-Reagan Dinner will take place on the evening of Friday, February 26, 2010 with a specific time and location to be announced soon.

Michele Bachmann is in her second term in the United States House of Representatives. She was elected to Congress in 2006 after serving in the Minnesota state legislature for many years. During her public career, she has been a strong advocate for taxpayers and she is a principled conservative Republican. She is a strong advocate for earmark reform and a serious opponent to wasteful government spending. She is the first Republican woman elected to the Congress from Minnesota.

Most recently, Rep. Bachmann has been leading the fight against the big-government, oppressive agenda of the Obama Administration. She has been a vocal opponent to the out-of-control government takeover of health care by appearing on national news broadcasts speaking about the proposed legislation. She has also come to national prominence as a leader for the conservative movement against the explosive growth of government and our burdening debt.

Statement of Chairman Alex M. Triantafilou

"We are very pleased that Congresswoman Bachmann has agreed to visit Hamilton County for our annual Lincoln-Reagan Dinner. She is an outstanding conservative member of the United States House of Representatives and I look forward to hearing her remarks in February.

My vision for the GOP is grounded in the basic conservative tenet of fiscal responsibility and Michele Bachmann is a national leader for fiscal sanity in government. She is leading our party back to its roots and back to success at the polls with her principled conservatism.

Rep. Bachmann represents the future of the Republican Party. I know that her presence here will inspire us to look to a brighter and better future for our party and for our nation.

I urge everyone to come and support the local GOP and hear the inspiring remarks of a great conservative leader."

For more information about Rep. Bachmann, visit her website at www.michelebachmann.com.

To stay current on the events of the Hamilton County Republican Party, visit our blog at: http://hcrp.blogspot.com.

*More information about the specific time and location of our Lincoln-Reagan Dinner will be announced soon.

Merry Christmas

Democrat(ic) Money Burn: Strickland Budget Style

The Democrats passed a budget fix in Columbus yesterday that raises your taxes. Most disappointing is that they did this with the help of a few Republicans. Only a few, though. EVERY single Democrat in both chambers of the legislature voted for this "fix" which is hardly a "fix" of anything other than continuing the tax and spend policies of the Democratic Party. I am proud of the strong majority of Republicans who voted to protect taxpayers.

Want to know the best (or worst) part? The Columbus Dispatch reports, " Income-tax withholdings in 2009 were set assuming the income tax cut would remain, so most taxpayers have withheld too little, meaning they will owe money to the state or get smaller-than-expected refunds when they file returns in the first quarter of 2010." This means Ted Strickland and his Democratic colleagues have made it so that most Ohioans will have to send a check to their state government this year so that Turnaround Ted can continue to kill jobs and make Ohio the least business-friendly state in America.

While I and others are disappointed in the few Republicans who signed-up for this misguided legislation, I am very proud of the strong majority of Republicans who stood for taxpayers. Our candidate for Governor, John Kasich, made the following statement:

"As I have traveled the state over the past three years, it has been clear to me that the people of Ohio understand that raising taxes is counter-productive to job creation and economic growth. The most prosperous states are the ones that are constantly reforming and restructuring, and not raising taxes.

"Today’s agreement is strictly stopgap, and turns a blind eye to the massive shortfalls we will face during the next budget cycle. We better have new leadership and new ideas in place by then. Our state’s future depends on it."

"For far too long Ohio has been stuck in a cycle of tax and spend. Hard choices continue to be pushed off to another day. And today, with this agreement between the Governor and the legislature, we are continuing the cycle and culture of tax and spend. It is a cycle I intend to break."

Governing during a period of economic downturn is difficult. Elected officials everywhere face the challenge of funding the basic operations of government while not asking the beleaguered taxpayers for more money. It is a significant challenge.

John Kasich's message about "breaking the cycle" is almost revolutionary. John Kasich will re-invent state government making Ohio more business-friendly and put faith back in the free market and in the people--not in government. Having gotten to hear John's message and getting to know him some, I have no doubt that he will be a transformational figure for our great state.

Sunday, etc.

We've been ignoring the blog some lately. Sorry to my two loyal readers. I was out of action last week, but ready to get back to things this week.

And...

The above picture is from Corfu, Greece. On a typical, gray, gloomy Cincinnati December day, I thought it made the most sense. And I couldn't find a Democrat to bash this morning. Correction: I could, but chose not to. There's plenty of time for that.

And...

Do you want to be a candidate for Judge in Hamilton County? Let us know by contacting Maggie Wuellner at 513-381-5454. Our screening committee is seeking candidates for every judicial opening. This will be a great year to run for Judge under the GOP banner.

And...

Interested in running for State Representative? We are screening candidates for House Districts 31 (Denise Driehaus), 32 (Dale Mallory) and 33 (Tyrone Yates). Let us know if you have an interest in any of these races!

And...

It is always great to be invited to so many Christmas gatherings this time of year and the GOP groups certainly know how to have great parties. I just wish I could make them all.

And...

I have blogged about this before, but I'm going to repeat myself. The fundamental difference between the two parties (on economics) in the United States is how they view the role of government. Democrats believe that government ought to be part of the marketplace and have greater control over our lives. Republicans believe that government ought to stay out of the way of citizens and let them have greater control over their own affairs without government help or interference. The failure of President Obama's economic plan to create jobs is the best evidence of the failure of their plan. Government should create an environment for business to grow and create jobs. The Democrats just have it all wrong. And America pays the price.

And...

Speaker Gingrich spoke to several hundred people downtown a couple of weeks ago. I had the privilege of speaking with him and introducing him at his Town Hall forum. He is a brilliant man. I took away one great message that night. The Speaker started his remarks by illustrating how America has fallen away from promoting personal responsibility. He did it in an interesting way. He said to the listeners, please finish my sentence , "If you can't AFFORD A HOUSE..." Then, the audience, over 500 strong, finished his sentence, "Don't BUY a house." We've lost sight of this in America. President Clinton and his liberal allies socially engineered it so that "every American could enjoy the dream of home ownership" and pushed lending institutions into making bad loans. Lending institutions are partly to blame for making these loans, but they needed to stay competitive because government was pushing these low-interest loans. The resulting credit bubble burst killing the economy and creating a massive recession. A disaster.

And...

Bengals beat the Vikes today, 17-14.

And...

That little Xavier progr'm gets beat by the angry Bearcats tonight, too.

And...

Have a great week.

Hamilton County Welcomes Speaker Gingrich

Hamilton County is pleased to welcome Speaker Newt Gingrich for his "Real Jobs Summit" in Cincinnati tonight at the Hilton Netherland Hotel at 6:30 p.m. The doors open at 5:45 p.m.

I am honored to be serving as emcee for this event and I hope to see many of our great GOP friends there tonight. Click on the above image for more information about American Solutions, Speaker Gingrich's group.

The Surge II

President Obama sounded like President Bush last night. The President is advocating a "surge" of troops in Afghanistan much like President Bush did in Iraq. The Nobel Peace Prize winner has decided to seriously escalate the conflict in Afghanistan and grow our troop presence to over 100,000.

It is nice to see the President finally acknowledge the success of President Bush's war policy. Imitation is the greatest form of flattery.

Here is a comparison of President Bush's remarks and President Obama's:

Obama: "We Did Not Ask for This Fight"
Bush: "We Did Not Seek This Conflict"
Obama: "New Attacks are Being Plotted as I Speak"
Bush: "At This Moment ... Terrorists are Planning New Attacks"
Obama: "Our Cause is Just, Our Resolve Unwavering"
Bush: "Our Cause is Just, Our Coalition [is] Determined"
Obama: "This Is No Idle Danger, No Hypothetical Threat"
Bush: "The Enemies of Freedom Are Not Idle"
Obama: "We Have No Interest in Occupying Your Country"
Bush: "I Wouldn't Be Happy if I Were Occupied Either"

I certainly didn't do the work of finding these quotes. Guess who did? Michael Moore! Check out his website to see how livid the left is with the President.

In the end, the President is trying to have it both ways because he's trying to fudge how this plays on the left. That will not work. We'll see.

Conservative Democrat? Hardly.

Commissioner Pepper, a Democrat running for a statewide position, has tried to sell himself to the voters as a conservative Democrat who is fiscally responsible. He needs to try harder.

Let me explain. Here are Commissioner Pepper's own words written on his blog one year ago. (Check out the full blog posting here)

A decade ago, as part of the vote on whether to raise the sales tax 1/2 cent to pay for the new stadiums, the citizens were made a clear promise: that 30% of the receipts from the new sales tax would be returned to them through a property tax rebate (the "PTR").

This was a clear commitment made prior to the citizens' vote.

And with that commitment publicly made, and about 60% voting yes, the citizens indeed authorized taxing themselves an additional 1/2 cent to pay for the stadiums/riverfront, and to pay for the PTR that would be returned to them. Just like the promise was clear, the citizens' mandate was equally clear.

And it goes on...

In that light, I consider any move to divert dollars from the PTR to be a deeply illegitimate act. It lacks fundamental integrity....When that has occurred, as their elected representatives, we have no discretion or authority whatsoever but to implement and adhere to their decision faithfully. This is particularly true when citizens have consented to put more of their dollars into government for a specific purpose....To violate those orders now would fundamentally breach our mandate at a time when citizens already have lost so much faith in government.

Mr. Pepper flip-flopped and, in his own words, "fundamentally breached a mandate from the citizens."

The facts on this issue are very clear. The voters were promised a property tax rebate if they consented to a 1/2 cent sales tax increase. Mr. Peppers is prepared to break that promise. A vote to deny the rollback is worse than an un-voted tax increase. It is a vote for a tax increase when a tax rebate was the specific mandate of the people! Only Democrats have the audacity to raise your taxes when you have specifically told them not to do so!

Flip-flopping in politics seems to always work against the taxpayers. Politicians change their minds only when it seems to benefit government and not the taxpayers.

Mr. Pepper voted to raise taxes and violate a commitment to the voters that he recognized a year ago as an "illegitimate act."

The citizens of Hamilton County and Ohio deserve better.