Utah's Representatives

There was a debate held Wednesday at Dixie State College in St. George between Utah 2nd Congressional District candidates Morgan Philpot and Jim Matheson. It was the first (and probably only) debate between the two candidates. The debate showed clear differences between the two candidates. Both candidates did well, but Morgan Philpot proved to be the stronger debater, plus he had the advantage of having more supporters there (the applause for him was quite loud).

There was one major truth stretcher in the debate, and that was Matheson trying to say that Philpot supports a 23% national sales tax. Matheson based this on an Independence Caucus questionnaire, specifically question number 64. Here is that question in it’s entirety:

64. Yes or No __________
Do you commit to support and work for the passage of a National Sales Tax (“NST”) with no exemptions or
exclusions, plus an attached “pre-bate” feature; which is the only tax system that eliminates favorable tax
treatment of one group over another; while simultaneously creating numerous incentives and benefits for the
growth of the national economy?

Rep. Matheson got the 23% number from the proposed “Fairtax” legislation. On question 67 of the questionnaire, it does mention the Fairtax.

What Matheson doesn’t mention is that the Fairtax legislation would repeal the 16th Amendment (the one that gives Congress the authority to tax income) and eliminates the income tax, social security tax, Medicare tax, corporate income taxes, death tax, self-employment tax, alternative minimum tax, gift tax, an capital gains taxes. It replaces all those with a national sales tax. The proponents of the Fairtax estimate that the rate would have to be 23% to maintain the current tax revenues.

Matheson flat out lied about Philpot supporting a 23% sales tax. Philpot never said he supported that number, he only said he supports the idea of replacing our complicated tax system with a more simple approach, such as a sales tax or a flat tax. 

If you want to watch the debate in it’s entirety, click here. (The actual debate begins at about 21:00)

The race for Utah’s 2nd Congressional District seat is heating up.  Incumbent Jim Matheson’s challenger Morgan Philpot has recently aired some new TV spots. Here they are:

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Senator Chris Dodd’s and Rep. Barney Frank’s Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act bill was signed into law July 21 by President Barack Obama.  Supporters of the bill claim it will help prevent another economic crisis similar to the sub-prime mortgage debacle.  There’s just one problem (well, actually there are many, many problems) – the bill exempts FANNIE MAE and FREDDIE MAC, the quasi-government companies that purchased 40% of the sub-prime mortgages and thereby were responsible for the bubble and subsequent bust.

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Rep. Jim Matheson voted in favor of the bill.  Reps Bishop and Chaffetz, as well as Senators Bennett and Hatch voted against it.

Thomas Burr of the Salt Lake Tribune wrote a story about a letter from Rep. Darrell Issa of California to the Senate Ethics committee claiming that 12 Bennett staffers got special loans from CountryWide Financial Corp.

Senator Bennett has served on the Senate Banking Committee since 1993.  There has been no comment yet from Bennett’s office.

Click here to read the Tribune article.

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Lehi, UT, July 6, 2010 — On the heels of the release of bestselling author Thomas E. Woods’ new book, Nullification: How to Resist Federal Tyranny in the 21st Century , a local political activist has launched a project to put the book into the hands of every state legislator in Utah. In his latest work, Woods, a senior fellow at the Ludwig von Mises Institute, explains the history, purpose, and effective use of state nullification as a check on federal laws and programs that exceed constitutional authority.

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