Ralph Reed visits Oconee and no one cares
It was not so much who was in attendance in the less than two dozen people present for Lt. Gov. candidate Ralph Reed's appearance in Oconee County, it was who was not there. Not a single member of the local government, not even the sheriff. Now there were some other elected officials and candidates for certain; Comer's own State Senator and father of a billboard man Ralph Hudgens was there and endorsed Reed, Bill Cowsert and son ? (not sure about him) - I will defer to Jay Hanley who ran a good meeting and the Rev. Larry Davison who made me feel welcome and shook my hand upon exit.
Ralph Reed spoke eloquently about a variety of topics. The mechanics of his school voucher program made me wonder why people who are in counties where more than 50% of the people DON'T fail won't get the government money to go to private schools or homeschool. And one member of the audience remarked that the several thousand dollars Reed was proposing would not even cover a third of the expense at some area private schools. He was excited to have Sean Hannity pimping the Fair Tax in Gwinnett in a few weeks. Reed talked about not wanting to have net tax increases but one thing the Fair Tax crowd will never admit is that the vast majority of people's taxes actually will experience a net increase, especially for the poor and middle class. They also discussed elderly tax abatement and I found it especially hard to believe there are only 650 tax paying senior citizens in Oconee County. Reed did not appear all that enlightened to the nuts and bolts of Oconee County government or politics, but spoke in great and sweeping generalities and vague proposals.
Ralph Reed accused the AJC of having a fixation about his gambling casino money. He was paid money by a law partner in Bill Gates' father's firm through Jack Abramoff to try and keep casinos out of Alabama, and he said he would not have worked for them. He calls his lobbying consulting and claims it is OK because he worked for Fortune 500 companies. Too bad the statute of limitations expired on his criminal wrongdoing in Texas.
Ralph Reed spoke eloquently about a variety of topics. The mechanics of his school voucher program made me wonder why people who are in counties where more than 50% of the people DON'T fail won't get the government money to go to private schools or homeschool. And one member of the audience remarked that the several thousand dollars Reed was proposing would not even cover a third of the expense at some area private schools. He was excited to have Sean Hannity pimping the Fair Tax in Gwinnett in a few weeks. Reed talked about not wanting to have net tax increases but one thing the Fair Tax crowd will never admit is that the vast majority of people's taxes actually will experience a net increase, especially for the poor and middle class. They also discussed elderly tax abatement and I found it especially hard to believe there are only 650 tax paying senior citizens in Oconee County. Reed did not appear all that enlightened to the nuts and bolts of Oconee County government or politics, but spoke in great and sweeping generalities and vague proposals.
Ralph Reed accused the AJC of having a fixation about his gambling casino money. He was paid money by a law partner in Bill Gates' father's firm through Jack Abramoff to try and keep casinos out of Alabama, and he said he would not have worked for them. He calls his lobbying consulting and claims it is OK because he worked for Fortune 500 companies. Too bad the statute of limitations expired on his criminal wrongdoing in Texas.
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