Tarrant's New Ad

Rich Tarrant’s new Bernie ad is up, here. It is of a single mom who is upset that Bernie voted against extending the Child Tax Credit, which was set to expire and revert back to $700/child (from the $1000/child it was raised to as part of the Bush tax cuts).

It also mentions that Bernie voted against pension portability.

In the ad, the voice over, which I like to refer to as the Fact Check Lady, came on and said that only 24 people voted against the pension bill. The problem was that Fact Check Lady started talking about that vote while the screen was still showing the text of the Child Tax Credit bill. I felt like she was trying to imply that he was in a small minority on that vote, too.

Let’s check Fact Check Lady’s facts. The Child Tax Credit bill passed by 271-139. That means that Bernie was in the company of 138 others in that vote - hardly a radical position.

The group “Fair Taxes for All,” which uses the word “fair” loosely, lobbied representatives to vote against the bill. Their reasoning was that the bill also raised the income one could earn and still get the tax credit. They, much like Bernie, consider a “fair” tax system to be one that redistributes wealth.

There is plenty there to criticize, Rich. Plenty. In fact, maybe I will write my own ad on this issue just to show those folks you’ve got working for you how to do it right.

How about one that features a couple like my parents-in-law, who struggled hard when they were younger, but after decades of hard work and sacrifice, finally have achieved a comfortable lifestyle. They were unable to save for retirement when they were struggling to raise a family, so now they are working extra hard and extra long hours to save enough for retirement.

When Bernie Sanders talks about “taxing the rich” to help out hard working Vermonters, he is talking about them! Bernie wants to tax them more, after they worked their whole lives to try and make a good life for themselves.

The ad would have to show their house, which is really nice, but small – not extravagant at all. Maybe it could show the man working on the house, since the reason it is so nice is that he did all the work himself.

Of course, my husband is a Masshole, so they couldn’t really show my parents-in-law, but there are others out there that fit the description.

The point is that the tax policies of Sanders and others working for a “fair” tax policy are punishing people who have worked all their life to get what they are.

The Child Tax Credit bill did not extend the tax credit to billionaires, not even to millionaires. The people Sanders considers rich are not just the trust fund babies like Paris Hilton. Most of them are hard working Americans who struggled their whole life to get where they are.

Obviously, people like my in-laws, who are nearing retirement age, do not have minor children. I know. It is the “tax the rich” philosophy that I am disagreeing with here. To Bernie Sanders, the “rich” are not only millionaires and billionaires. This vote reflects that. I was just connecting the dots.

The reason people keep voting for Bernie is that they do not take the time to extend what he is saying to its logical end. If he voted against the extension of the Child Tax Credit because he wanted to keep the cut-off at $110,000 for a married couple, then that is his cut-off for “rich.” Two veteran teachers would make more than that. I have never in my life heard anyone consider public school teachers “rich.” I thought they were underpaid.

If you take Bernie’s entire philosophy and look at it together, he is very far out of the mainstream, even in Vermont.

There is no need to twist his record. Tarrant does not need to paint the picture of the Bernie who loves child molesters and terrorists and doesn’t care about children or single mothers. No one is going to believe that anyway.

As I said before, show Bernie as people know him and explain why you are a better alternative.

If you are.

(HT: PoliticsVT)