Is Gov. Crist a "good Conservative"? He may think so. To be honest, there have been enough "good conservatives" of this nature in Washington. We cannot afford another one. by EJ Moosa
(libertarian)
Monday, March 29, 2010
The March 29th debate between Florida Gov. Charlie Crist and challenger Marco Rubio held a lot of interest for me. Crist is trailing Rubio in the polls by double digit percentages. When a sitting governor is trailing in the polls by that much for a Senate seat, I want to hear for myself what is happening. We all know how much impact Senators from other states can impact you or me in the long run.
Crist described himself as a good conservative. But is he really?
Much has been made about of Gov. Crist's support of Obama's stimulus plan. Not to mention the photos of Crist and Obama embracing while campaigning for the stimulus plan. Crist made it clear that he would still support the plan today, despite it's clear failure to do what it was advertised to do. Frankly, I had hoped for an admission that in retrospect it was not wise to support it. That would have earned some of my respect.
Instead, the decision was defended. He even cited the governor of my state, Sonny Perdue of Georgia as example of another good conservative governor who also supported and took the funds. I knew then he did not know a good conservative when he sees one. (I've voted libertarian longer than Perdue has been a member of the Republican Party)
It would be easy to dismiss the stimulus plan as an error even if he was unwilling to admit it. But Gov. Crist's replies to Marco Rubio's proposals to eliminate Florida property taxes and replace them with a sales tax could not be dismissed. Crist characterized Rubio's plan as a tax increase. Crist then claimed that all of the renters in Florida would then be subject to new taxes. Crist clearly did not understand the issues here, whether or not he agrees with the proposals by Rubio.
First, renters pay property taxes. They are embedded in the rents they pay to the landlord. That is simple and should be easily understood. It wasn't.
Second, Florida real estate is very unattractive to investors out of the state because of the punitive nature of property taxes in that state. Four years ago, I looked into condos in the panhandle of Florida. The taxes were so high that it was not affordable to buy for just for my own use. So I declined(and that in retrospect was a very good thing).
Had I purchased, however, and had a neighbor who lived full time in the unit next to me, who would have paid higher property taxes? The resident there full time, or the one there 6 weeks a year? The one using the state's services gets a tax break. The out of state property owner in Florida gets fleeced.
That reduces demand for real estate, which clearly Florida does not need. That is a concept Gov. Crist must understand to be effective. He doesn't seem to get that.
The sales tax proposal of Rubio's is "revenue neutral" meaning that the dollars not collected by property taxes would be collected in sales tax. For example, $3 billion in sales taxes would replace the $3 billion in property taxes. Crist claims that is a tax hike. It isn't.
In fact, Florida residents would have paid even less, because Florida's sales tax would have been collected from out of state tourists, paying a great portion of the sales tax collections. (I have my own issues with this sort of proposal-but the issue is that Crist does not understand how the proposal works. If you cannot understand, it is impossible to then debate the merits of the proposal).
Finally, on the issue of Social Security and it's impending crisis ( running out of money sooner rather than later), Gov. Crist simply did not want to address it. And this is one of the toughest problems we are facing. Marco Rubio was willing and ready to discuss several proposals on ways to deal with Social Security. Gov. Crist wanted to steer clear of any changes because so many of his residents are collecting it.
Marco Rubio stated that if something was "not good for the country, how could it be good for Florida?" Marco Rubio was looking at the long term, not the short term, as so many politicians do.
Is Gov. Crist a "good Conservative"? He may think so. To be honest, there have been enough "good conservatives" of this nature in Washington. We cannot afford another one.
If you do not understand the issues, if you cannot address the difficult topics, if you are not willing to look at the long term costs relative to the short term benefits, then that is not the sort of "good conservative" we need in Washington.
It's the "good conservatives" that have led us to the edge of a disaster in this nation. We need some "real conservatives" to step up and make a difference. Marco Rubio may be a major step in the right direction.
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Several years ago I coined the term "Cino" as opposed to Rino to describe the dominant subspecies of republican that for all intents and purposes appear to be good republicans but in reality are merely ne'er-do-wells, typical politicians.
