Texas GOP Vote

Welcome to 2013! May God smile on you, your families, your businesses, and our country.

If you can, please come with us to Austin this Tuesday to watch the noontime swearing in of our new Texas House representatives. It’ll be wonderful to celebrate the success of our election work, and to reaffirm our partnership with our conservative legislators when they vote our values. They need us, and we need them.

For the politically minded, the 2012 holiday season was defined by frenzy as Washington, D.C. prepared to go over “the fiscal cliff.” With the self-induced crisis solved in the thirteenth hour, all working Americans will see their taxes rise by two percentage points.

But none of this matters. Regardless of tax increases, spending cuts or combination of the two, the fiscal situation of this country would

Say what you want, Obama may be an economic illiterate but his team can be masterful when it comes to politics. And he managed to get the Republicans to raise marginal tax rates on the “rich” and screw the middle class. At least 77% of Americans will see their taxes go up after this deal, and that is a fact. We should not forget that 75% of the taxes supporting Obamacare will hit the middle class. So much for protecting the middle class. Don't be fooled, the middle class got to keep their Bush tax rates, but they are getting hit by the double whammy of seeing Social Security and Medicare taxes go up by 2 percentage points, and of course, Obamacare.   Read more »

The fiscal cliff deal in America involves higher taxes, and virtually no spending cuts. On January 1, Americans were hit with a $1 trillion Obamacare tax hike. And, the tax penalty under Obamacare will hit nearly six million uninsured Americans.

In related news, the scholarly and widely respected 2012 Index of Economic Freedom verifies that America is marching steadily and insistently away from freedom.

The Index is an annual international study of 184 countries around the world that focuses on 10 measures of economic freedom, including property rights, investment freedom, and business, trade, fiscal and monetary policy

Texas got four new Congressional districts in 2012. One of the new districts is District 36. Republican Steve Stockman won the election for this new Texas Congressional District 36. Steve is a conservative activist. Congressman Stockman has released a statement saying that he will be voting NO on Speaker Boehner.   Read more »

U.S. Congressman Pete Sessions (R-Dallas), a Member of House Republican Leadership, today released the following statement regarding House approval of the American Taxpayer Relief Act:

I am pleased to join my colleagues from both sides of the aisle to make critical parts of our tax code permanent for all North Texans. As job-destroying taxes from ObamaCare hit families and businesses this year, it is crucial to provide permanent tax certainty in the marketplace to allow our economy to grow and for small businesses to invest and hire.   Read more »

Here in Washington, Congress rang in the New Year, but it was certainly not a happy one. After months of debate, the House voted last night on the “American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012.” I voted "no" because this so-called “deal” is toxic for American families and small businesses. Make no mistake about it: this bill is not intended to pay down the deficit. It is just another massive Washington spending bill in disguise. And the American people will once again be left to pick up the tab.

According to the non-partisan Tax Policy Center, this "deal" in effect would raise taxes on 77% of U.S. Households

I hope you’re sitting down for this: coverage of the “fiscal cliff” is a lot of hype.

Bob Murphy looks at the numbers and concludes that if the government goes over the “cliff,” then some $9 billion in cuts will take place. That’s three-tenths of one percent of government spending. By 2014 U.S. government spending will be above where it was this year.   Read more »

As Congressional leaders and President Obama continue to work on a plan to avert the fiscal cliff, I remain committed to a solution that protects as many families and small businesses in Texas as possible from seeing an automatic tax increase on January 1. Additionally, I believe it is imperative that we take serious steps towards reducing our nation’s unsustainable spending and address the long-term drivers of our debt.   Read more »

French actor Gérard Depardieu elicited a barrage of criticism for leaving France and settling in Belgium on the grounds that he has had it with “redistribution” and “paying, in 2012, an 85 percent tax-rate on my income tax.”

Writes Forbes: “The actor was heavily criticized. The Prime Minister called him a ‘pathetic’ character; the minister of labor, Michel Sapin, said he went into ‘personal degeneration’; the minister of culture, Aurélie Filippetti, was ‘totally scandalized’; the minister of the relations with the parliament, Alain Vitalies, was ‘shocked’; and the head of the Socialist Party, Harlem Désir, was ‘saddened.’”   Read more »