Callahan’s party boss thinks middle class should pay more – where does he stand?

By DENT FOR CONGRESS

As Americans still cope with nearly 10 percent unemployment and a stalled economy, Democratic Majority Leader Steny Hoyer is telling the American middle class to expect a tax increase. In the Fifteenth District, people should know whether Democratic Congressional Candidate John Callahan agrees.

Hoyer said that tax relief for middle-class Americans and small businesses put in place this past decade – scheduled to expire at the end of this year — shouldn’t be made permanent, even though Hoyer admits that raising taxes is bad for the economy.1 So the question for Congressional candidate John Callahan is this: Does Callahan agree that the American people should be forced to open their wallets to fund excessive government spending?

“Raising taxes on American workers and small businesses – to pay for continued overspending in Washington– is not only a mistake, it is doomed to failure as economic policy,” Congressman Dent said. “The question is not whether government can ‘afford’ to let people keep their own money; it’s whether taxpayers can ‘afford’ the government’s reckless spending. And taxpayers deserve to know where John Callahan stands.”

Hoyer has donated more than $10,000 to fund John Callahan’s campaign; perhaps that’s because Callahan is the perfect point-man for more spending and higher taxes. In Bethlehem, Callahan has signed off on four property tax increases plus a $52 municipal service tax, and his own budgets have increased spending by 54 percent in just six years. He reneged on his promise to cut taxes using casino host fees, and instead boosted spending by 12 percent just this year. Don’t forget, Callahan is also the leading proponent of increasing the local sales tax by 17 percent to pay for government overspending.

Voters in the Fifteenth District have reason to believe John Callahan would keep on spending in Washington. He has supported the biggest budget-busters of the past few years, including the failed “stimulus,” which will cost taxpayers $1 trillion with very little to show for it. He also supported the health care law that raises and imposes more than 20 new taxes. Meanwhile, Congressman Dent has stood up to the reckless fiscal policies that have hiked debt by $4 trillion since Hoyer and Callahan’s party took over Congress.

1 “Hoyer: Permanent middle class tax cuts too costly,” by Stephen Ohlemacher, Associated Press, July 23, 2010

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