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From: Ron Crane
To: Madison County Republican Central Committee
Subject: Platform Pledge / Ron Crane
Date: Sun, 23 Feb 2014 18:36:35 -0700

I want to commend the central committee from Madison County for requesting the platform pledge from candidates and office holders.

In my opinion, you have a right to expect your office holders to uphold the Idaho Republican Party Platform.  If a person is going to run under the Republican banner then they need to be willing to uphold the platform of the party.  If they don’t – then they shouldn’t run under the GOP label.

I believe in the Idaho Republican Party Platform.  I have upheld it in the past and I intend to continue to upholds its principles in the future!

God bless you for standing by the principles of the GOP!

Ron Crane

State Treasurer

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this…

The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing
The fifth would pay $1
The sixth would pay $3
The seventh would pay $7
The eighth would pay $12
The ninth would pay $18
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59
So, that’s what they decided to do.

The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve ball.

“Since you are all such good customers,” he said, “I’m going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20″. Drinks for the ten men would now cost just $80.

The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes. So the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men ? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his fair share?

The bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man’s bill by a higher percentage the poorer he was, to follow the principle of the tax system they had been using, and he proceeded to work out the amounts he suggested that each should now pay.

And so the fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% saving).
The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33% saving).
The seventh now paid $5 instead of $7 (28% saving).
The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% saving).
The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% saving).
The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% saving).
Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to drink for free. But, once outside the bar, the men began to compare their savings.

“I only got a dollar out of the $20 saving,” declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man,”but he got $10!”

“Yeah, that’s right,” exclaimed the fifth man. “I only saved a dollar too. It’s unfair that he got ten times more benefit than me!” “That’s true!” shouted the seventh man. “Why should he get $10 back, when I got only $2? The wealthy get all the breaks!”

“Wait a minute,” yelled the first four men in unison, “we didn’t get anything at all. This new tax system exploits the poor!”

The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.

The next night the tenth man didn’t show up for drinks so the nine sat down and had their beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn’t have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!

And that, boys and girls, journalists and government ministers, is how our tax system works. The people who already pay the highest taxes will naturally get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas, where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.

President Obama famously promised that, under theAffordable Care Act, “If you like your health care plan, you will be able to keep your health care plan, period.”  He made that promise at least 29 times.  And yet, here we are, in the early stages of the Obamacare rollout, and what are the results so far?

According to the Associated Press, 4.2 million Americans have lost their health insurance because of Obamacare.  Meanwhile, only 106,185 have signed up for the exchanges.  That means, for every American who bought a plan on the exchanges, nearly 40 had to lose their plan.

Who are these 4.2 million Americans who lost their insurance?  They’re friends, neighbors, family members, good people who lost their insurance through no fault of their own.

I have received many letters from Idahoans who lost their insurance.  Here are four stories I wanted to share:

 Read More…

President Barack Obama is suffering the worst season of his presidency because people are mad that critical parts of the Affordable Care Act are not working the way they are supposed to work.

The larger longer-term threat to his signature legislative achievement — and to his presidency generally — is different. It is the growing backlash over Obamacare working precisely the way it is supposed to work.

The broken HealthCare.gov website, while an excruciating embarrassment, is on the path to repair. If Amazon and the airlines can manage millions of transactions a day over the Web with ease, say experts, the federal government’s class of slow students surely will solve the problem in due course.

Read more…

Idaho Senator Mike Crapo, along with other western colleagues, are sponsoring a measure led by Senator John Barrasso (R-Wyoming) to prevent federal agencies from requiring the transfer of privately-held water rights to the federal government.

“Recently, federal agencies have begun to violate and undermine state water laws throughout western states, including Idaho,” said Crapo.  “This power-grab by the administration to hold public land-use permits hostage is threatening our local communities and could very well set a precedent that could spread to other land-industry sectors, such as agriculture.  The private water rights of our western states must be upheld before long-standing businesses are put in serious jeopardy.”

Read More…