Friday, December 8, 2017

Washington, DC News Conference - GOP congressional candidate Andy Martin calls the proposed Ryan/McConnell tax cut a “lump of coal” for the American people and asks President Trump to tear up the current 550+-page tax proposals and start fresh with a clean sheet of paper and “simple English” provisions

New Hampshire First District congressional candidate Andy Martin calls the proposed Ryan/McConnell “tax cut” a “lump of coal for the American people” and asks President Trump to rip up his “Christmas present for the American people” and start from scratch with a clean sheet of paper and an honest approach to legislating financial fairness. Andy says the proposed tax cut plan will devastate the people of New Hampshire (and Florida).

News from:
ANDY MARTIN /2018        
Republican candidate for Congress
New Hampshire-
First Congressional District
           

                    www.AndyMartin2018.com
www.AndyMartin.com
www.FirstRespondersOnline.us
Headquarters:
E-mail:AndyNewHampshire@aol.com
P.O. Box 742
Manchester, NH 03105-0742
Tel. (603) 518-7310
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Blogs:
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Announcement of Washington, DC news conference today, Friday, December 8, 2017

Attention: New Hampshire, Washington, National daybook/assignment and Political editors

December 8 news conference details:

Who:                                                      

New Hampshire First District GOP congressional candidate Andy Martin

What:

Andy Martin calls President Trump’s proposed “Great Christmas Present for the American people,” a proposed tax cut, in reality nothing more than a “lump of coal” for New Hampshire citizens

When:

Friday, December 8, 2017; 5:00 P.M.

Where:

Andy Martin suite, Capital Hilton, 1001 16th Street NW, Washington, DC, 20036 [check with (917) 664-9329 for suite number]

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New Hampshire congressional candidate Andy Martin says the proposed 2018 “tax cut” is the “greatest scam in American political history” and will lead to the downfall of the Republican Party

Andy says President Trump’s “Great Christmas Present for the American people” is in reality nothing more a lump of coal for New Hampshire citizens”

Andy says congressional leaders are pursuing a cynical two-step approach of “exploding the deficit and then using the massive deficit as a pretext to gut Medicare and Social Security”

Andy details some of his objections in a letter to the president which is published below.

(Manchester, NH) (December 8, 2017New Hampshire First District GOP congressional candidate Andy Martin will hold a Washington, DC news conference today, Friday, December 8th to announce he has asked President Trump to junk his proposed tax cut. Andy says Trump’s tax cut is not a “great Christmas present” as Trump claims but rather a “lump of coal” for New Hampshire citizens. Andy has been and continues to be a Trump supporter.

Andy will hold his news conference at the Capital Hilton, two blocks from the White House. He may be reached both through the hotel switchboard after 4:00 P.M. as well as on his cell phone (917) 664-9329.

Andy detailed his objections to the “lump of coal” Ryan/McConnell tax cut, mistakenly styled by Trump as a “Christmas Present for the American people,” in a letter to the president which follows (the header on the letter has been removed):

December 8, 2017


President Donald Trump
The White ouse
Washington, DC House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20500

Dear President Trump:

I supported you and voted for you in 2016. You were clearly the better candidate. And, if you run for reelection I expect to support and vote for you again. I don’t see a credible opponent on the horizon. The fact that I am a supporter, however, does not mean that as a newly-elected U. S. Representative I would write you a blank check. I will support your policies when they are good for the people of New Hampshire, and call you out when you propose legislative solutions that will hurt the Granite State.

Unlike many of your opponents, I have known you for almost forty years, since I approved your lease to move into the building where I served on the board of directors, the Olympic Tower Condominium in New York. Over the decades our paths have crossed, so I have a great deal of familiarity with your earlier modus operandi. During the 2016 campaign you were commendable honest in admitting you built your real estate business on puffery and inflated claims.

But running the presidency is not like running a private corporation. Truth is the coin of the realm when you hold the trust of the American people.

Which brings me to your proposed “great Christmas present,” a proposed tax cut for 2018. In reality, your “Christmas present” is a big, fat lump of coal for all the people of New Hampshire.

My suggestion: tear up the obscene 550+-page tax law and direct Congress to come back with a simplified tax cut for the American people and for American businesses. I want a tax law short and simple enough so that a New Hampshire high school graduate can read it and have a fair understanding of what Congress is doing.  Why is it that legislatures pass laws mandating “simple English” for consumer contracts, but then don’t apply the same principles to themselves?

The use of handwritten additions to the tax proposal in the Senate, and senators voting on a bill that was not even in final printed form, were and remain an obscenity. That is no way to legislate and, more importantly, that is no way for you to lead.

Many of the claims you have made in support of the tax law monstrosity are simply untrue. The law will not lead business executives to favor their employees with higher pay; only markets can do that. You didn't give away inflated salaries to your employees; why claim that executives will act contrary to the practices they have established over decades?

My poster girl for corporate greed is a lady who should be familiar to you because you encountered her handy work in 2016: Irene Rosenfeld. Rosenfeld is the chief executive of Mondelez International, formerly the National Biscuit Company or as we both grew up knowing it, ”Nabisco.” She makes cookies, but she keeps the plums for herself.

Rosenfeld was a competent chief executive and she improved the company’s profits. She is retiring soon, having paid herself almost a quarter of a billion dollars over the last decade. How much of her increased profits at Nabisco did she share with Nabisco employees? Probably none. May I remind you she fired her workers and moved cookie production to Mexico. You promised to boycott Oreos. Are you keeping your promise? Last I heard she still had her cookie factories in Mexico. So Rosenfeld got rich by firing her employees. How much of the “tax cut” will she or her successor share with her employees” None. Greed won out. Sound familiar?

So the claim that giving corporate leaders more money will empower them to pay their employees better is utter nonsense. I could go through all of the provisions of the tax cut proposal, such as the billion-dollar estate tax gift to your own company, but why bother? Be real. And be honest. You are a smart man, and you know that the claim that the tax cut will benefit the middle class is sheer bunkum. The tax it is a giveaway to millionaires and billionaires, with a lump of coal left behind for ordinary working families. Some Christmas present.

Usually, Democrats are dead wrong on public policy. But in criticizing the Ryan/Connell/Trump tax cut they have the better of the argument. The “tax cuts” may even hurt working families. They could overheat an economy that you have already, successfully, taken to full employment and strong growth. In other words, the tax cuts could end undermining your own success in improving the economy. As Episcopalians say, “be careful what you wish for…”

The politics of the tax cut are also toxic for your political future. Ironically, ordinary Americans know the tax cut proposal is a corporate scam, so why are you trying to deceive them?

If you sign the tax cut, you will very likely be guaranteeing a Democratic majority in the House in 2019, and an almost-guaranteed article of impeachment for your presidency.

“Swamp Republicans,” moreover, have been candid about their goals: to repay demands being made by “contributors and the donor class.” I did not see anyone saying they were under pressure to help ordinary American families rebuild heir finances.

The reason the tax cuts are utterly cynical, and suicidal for the Republican Party, is that from Speaker Ryan on down the bill’s supporters have told the truth about their real goal: they want to explode the deficit by giving away a trillion dollar windfall to corporate America, and then use the ensuing deficits to eviscerate Medicare and Social Security.

Don’t Mess with my Medicare!

And don’t mess with the Medicare and Social Security of New Hampshire citizens. New Hampshire has one of the oldest populations in the nation: congress is pointing a dagger at our senior citizens by planning to use the tax cut deficits as a basis to destroy Medicare and Social Security.

You ask too much of me and too much of any New Hampshire Republican when you ask me to betray our people so that Wall Street business executives can get richer, while ordinary senior citizens are impoverished.

What Ryan and his supporters in congress are proposing is the greatest political scam in American history: build a bigger deficit, and then try to force the middle class to subsidize their own financial ruin. It’s greedy and it’s crass and it will destroy all of the gains the GOP made during the Obama era.

So, by all means, pass a tax cut bill his year. I support you in doing so. Tell congress to pass a bill with no more than 25 pages, all printed in advance, with simple English language provisions, and with no secret “special sauce” for donors and corporations. Pass simple, straightforward tax cuts for individuals and, yes, even for corporations. I am not against tax cuts or tax reform for businesses, I strongly support them. But I equally strongly oppose the tax cut fraud that is being legislated by the Republican leadership today.

If you follow my advice, which is not protected by the attorney-client privilege, you will ensure that you enjoy a bigger majority in 2019. Who knows, I might win and be there to support you, the same way I have been getting along with you for almost forty years. Forty years ago when I approved your lease, who knew?

Merry Christmas and please make it a Happy New year for the American people, with an honest tax cut, not the monstrosity that is current being processed by Ryan/McConnell & Co.

Sincerely,

Andy Martin

AM:sp

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ANDY MARTIN - A BRIEF BIO:

Andy Martin is a legendary New Hampshire-based muckraker, author, Internet columnist, talk television pioneer, radio talk show host, broadcaster and media critic. With forty-nine years of background in radio and television and with five decades of intelligence, investigative and analytical experience in Washington, the USA and around the world, Andy provides insight on politics, foreign policy, military and intelligence matters. For a full bio, go to: www.AndyMartin.com; also see www.BoycottABC.com/executive_director.htm

Andy has also been a leading corruption fighter in American politics and courts for fifty years and is executive director of the National Anti-Corruption Policy Institute. See also www.FirstRespondersOnline.us; www.AmericaisReadyforReform.com.

He holds a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Illinois College of Law and is a former adjunct professor of law at the City University of New York (LaGuardia CC, Bronx CC).

He is the author of “Obama: The Man Behind The Mask” [www.OrangeStatePress.com] and produced the Internet film “Obama: The Hawaii’ Years” [www.BoycottHawaii.com]. Andy is the Executive Editor and publisher of the “Internet Powerhouse,” blogging at www.contrariancommentary.wordpress.com and www.ContrarianCommentary.com.

Andy’s family immigrated to Manchester, New Hampshire over 100 years ago; today his home overlooks the Merrimack River and he lives around the corner from where he played as a small boy. He is New Hampshire’s leading corruption fighter and Republican Party reformer.

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