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Volume XII Number 21 - November 22, 2013     RSS Feed   

A Periodic Newsletter for Committed Texas Conservatives

In This Issue

New TV ad: Obama's March to War

Lessons From Houston Mayor's Race

Why Not Reduce Houston's 10.6% Property Tax Increase?

Advice To GOP Statewide: For 2014 We Need Meat On The Bone

The Shutdown Hurt GOP Congressional Approval, Now GOP Fortunes Have Come Back Up!

Red, White and Blue
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New TV Ad: Obama's March to War

As the Obama administration continues its push for a deal with Iran, the Emergency Committee for Israel released a one-minute TV ad (shown below) titled "Obama's March to War."

Airing multiple times this week and next on CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News, the spot shows why Americans and our allies have reason to doubt President Obama's promises on Iran.

"The administration may be able to fix a broken promise on health insurance, but it won't be able to fix a world in which Iran has nuclear weapons," said Noah Pollak, ECI's executive director.

Lessons From Houston Mayor's Race

The 2013 Houston Mayor's race was interesting to say the least. A 16-year incumbent won reelection for mayor. Annise Parker's 2013 campaign for the most part was a negative campaign about leading challenger Ben Hall. The negative campaign brilliantly accomplished two things. First, it defined Ben Hall before he defined himself. Second, it suppressed turnout among voters not likely to vote for Parker by making it seem as if there was no viable alternative.

Parker also benefitted from the strong regional economy.

For conservatives, given the political makeup of Houston, the best hope of success is in a coalition with other interest groups. Further, conservatives need to show up at the polls to vote.

As for Parker, she will abandon any pretense of non-partisanship in her next term as she prepares to run down the line as a Democrat.

Why Not Reduce Houston's
10.6% Property Tax Increase?

Let's be clear, any tax increase, whether by an increase in appraisals or by an increase in the tax rate, is still a tax increase.

The City of Houston City Council, led by Mayor Parker, voted overwhelmingly to keep the over 10% property tax increase for itself.

This needs to be revisited. Councilmembers Hoang, Brown, Pennington, Costello, Burks, Bradford, Christie and Martin all have told TCR they support a 5% cap in appraisal increases.

Translated, the City needs to reduce the tax rate for 2014 to reflect the over 10% increase by half, which is a 3-cent reduction in the increase to make it the equivalent of a 5% cap.

TCR hopes the fiscal conservatives on the Council get to work on a tax increase reduction.

Advice To GOP Statewide:
For 2014 We Need Meat On The Bone

At this point in the 2014 campaign many of our candidates are busy arguing who is the "best" conservative or the "most" conservative.

What we at TCR would like to see is a discussion of the challenges facing Texas and what the conservative solutions to them are.

For effective conservative government to continue, problem solving must be part of it. If we don't do this, someday, sooner rather than later, we will get the liberal solutions!

The Shutdown Hurt GOP Congressional Approval,
Now GOP Fortunes Have Come Back Up!

The government shutdown ended just over a month ago on October 17th. During the shutdown the GOP in Congress lost 9% of its popularity.

But the disastrous Obamacare rollout has accomplished two things: (1) the GOP has fully recovered its lost popularity, and (2) Obama's popularity numbers continue to decline now with just a 39% approval rating!

Charles Krauthammer in a recent column in The Washington Post laid out the disaster that has befallen Obama in the rollout of Obamacare:

"Every disaster has its moment of clarity. Physicist Richard Feynman dunks an O-ring into ice water and everyone understands instantly why the shuttle Challenger exploded. This week, the Obamacare O-ring froze for all the world to see: Hundreds of thousands of cancellation letters went out to people who had been assured a dozen times by the president that 'If you like your health-care plan, you'll be able to keep your health-care plan. Period.'"

"The cancellation lay bare three pillars of Obamacare: (a) mendacity, (b) paternalism and (c) subterfuge.

"(a) Those letters are irrefutable evidence that President Obama's repeated you-keep-your-coverage claim was false...

"So a law designed to cover the uninsured is now throwing far more people off their insurance than it can possibly be signing up on the nonfunctioning insurance exchanges. Indeed, most of the 19 million people with individual insurance will have to find new and likely more expensive coverage. And that doesn't even include the additional millions who are sure to lose their employer-provided coverage. That's a lot of people. That's a pretty big lie...

"(b) Beyond mendacity, there is liberal paternalism, of which these forced cancellations are a classic case. We canceled your plan, explained presidential spokesman Jay Carney, because it was substandard. We have a better idea...

"(c) As for subterfuge, these required bells and whistles aren't just there to festoon the health-care Christmas tree with voter-pleasing freebies. The planners knew all along that if you force insurance buyers to overpay for stuff they don't need, that money can subsidize other people.

"Obamacare is the largest transfer of wealth in recent American History. But you can't say that openly lest you lose elections. So you do it by subterfuge: hidden taxes, penalties, mandates and coverage requirements that yield a surplus of overpayments...

"And then when you find your policy canceled, your premium raised and your deductible outrageously increased, you've learned the real meaning of 'free' in the liberal lexicon: something paid for by your neighbor - best, by subterfuge."

TCR Comment: Outstanding in its clarity, Charles Krauthammer lays out the true disaster for Obama and Democrats (good) and for the nation (bad).


TCR on the Air

Red, White & Blue featuring TCR Editor Gary Polland, liberal commentator David Jones and moderator Linda Lorelle on Fridays at 7:30 pm on PBS Houston Channel 8.1, replaying Saturdays at 6:30 p.m. on Channel 8.1, Mondays at 11:30 pm on Channel 8.2 and on the web at www.houstonpbs.org.

Upcoming Shows:
11/22/13: Dallas 1963 authors Bill Minutaglio and Steven L. Davis.
Coming soon: Big Political Stories of 2013.

The current show as well as past shows are available on YouTube.

About Your Editor

Gary Polland is a long-time conservative and Republican spokesman, fund-raiser, and leader who completed three terms as the Harris County Republican Chairman. During his three terms, Gary was described as the most successful county Chairman in America by Human Events - The National Conservative Weekly. He is in his fifteenth year of editing a newsletter dealing with key conservative and Republican issues. The last twelve years he has edited Texas Conservative Review. As a public service for the last 10 years, Gary has published election guides for the GOP primary, general elections and city elections, all with the purpose of assisting conservative candidates. Gary is also in his twelfth year of co-hosting Red, White and Blue on PBS Houston. Gary is a practicing attorney and strategic consultant. He can be reached at (713) 621-6335.

© 2013 Texas Conservative Review
The Texas Conservative Review is published as a public service by Gary Polland
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