Democrat Promises ... Broken Of Course

In October, I ran the Virginia Governor and US Senate candidate Joe Manchin campaign commercial in which he ran as a conservative, even shooting a rifle at the cap and tax bill. He made seriously rational campaign promises like the following:

To Fox in September, Manchin said, "Whatever side you might be on, whether I think you're too rich, or you think someone's too poor, whatever it may be... and you think well you can afford it but you can't, the bottom line is, until you can run the government as efficiently and as effectively, and you start paying attention to the debt that this nation is carrying and you're passing on - until you really get serious about that - I wouldn't (raise taxes)."

He got elected. Now guess what he voted for last week. You guessed it, he voted in favor of the Senate bill to raise taxes "on the rich" (over $1 million per year) who create jobs. And buy expensive stuff and services made and sold by everyone else.

Source: Fox News. In fairness, Sen Manchin joined Republicans on defeating the House-passed bill to raise taxes on everyone making over $250,000 per year.

Moral of the Story: Never trust what a Democrat says to get elected. That moral extends to Republicans as well.

All those promises of fiscal conservatism in the 2010 campaigns. We must watch them closely. All the time.