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by Rep. Scott Beck, St. Johnsbury
I would like to extend my thanks to the Caledonian-Record for allowing Caledonia Senate district candidates to submit letters up until the week prior to the August 13th primary. This region is fortunate to have a daily newspaper and we are a better community for it.
Issues matter, as do solutions to thorny public policy problems pushing Vermont in the wrong direction, especially as they relate to affordability and taxes, housing, flood recovery and resilience, and public safety.
My 10-year voting record as the only candidate in this race that has ever held any elected public office is clear. I am a moderate fiscally pragmatic public servant and have taken bold positions and offered creative solutions to thorny issues, and many have been adopted because I understand how to effectively collaborate in a bi-partisan way. My record is extensive and public, and I am willing to discuss it with any Vermonter.
A lot of discussion to date has been focused on the impact that a super majority of legislators in Montpelier are having on policies that impact Vermonters. To some degree the concept of a super majority is insider legislative speak. Let me explain how Vermont’s super majority works.
The super majority has to keep their members in line to accomplish the super majority’s goals: 14% property tax increase without reform, $17B Clean Heat Standard, $1B Renewable Energy Standard, and a whole host of other really damaging legislation that is supported by the super majority’s left leaning base and special interest groups.
Their methods to keep members in line isn’t terribly sophisticated or public, but it is effective. It goes like this. If you want to be on this committee, you have to support this super majority bill. If you want to advance your legislation, then you’ll support this bill. If you want a leadership position or committee chair, make sure to vote for these bills. If you don’t want to be primaried, make sure to support this bill that the super majority wants. If you want election support, make sure to support super majority bills. I could go on, but if you attended middle school, you get the idea.
The end result is policy that doesn’t support Vermonters, it supports the super majority at the expense of Vermonters. Don’t be fooled, members of the super majority and those that want to join will say they are moderate. They have to say they are moderate to get elected. Look at their policy statements or voting record, if they even have one. It isn’t moderate to increase property taxes by 14% with no reform, every single super majority Vermont Senator voted to override Gov. Scott in May. It isn’t moderate to impose $17B in carbon fees or increase electric rates by $1B, the super majority voted for these over the Governor’s veto too.
You have a choice in this election, I would appreciate your vote to be the Caledonia District’s next senator. Please be in touch with any questions. I will be holding town hall meetings throughout the Caledonia District in September.
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Categories: Commentary, Taxes
Great information explained concisely and clearly, but with the end of America’s free press & the advancement of America’s “Pravda” or what former POTUS Trump has justifiably termed “fake news”, the odds of this & similar messages from opposing parties reaching the masses is slim. The lack of unbiased news & social media companies is true treachery, and this itself remains the greatest threat to “democracy” (let’s not get riled: this is of course a Constitutional Republic that utilizes democratic practices).
Not only are these agencies purely partisan in terms of the information which they choose to report or not report – wherein they readily lie through omission – but the companies work specifically at the behest of particular branches of the US GOVERNMENT & their affiliates including the White House administration under Obama & Biden/Harris as well as very obviously the Democrat National Committee which authoritatively picks & chooses the specific narratives themselves, & even keywords that must be used repetitively – for indoctrination purposes.
There MUST be a word for these ruthless DNC tactics and their own latest favorite keyword “weird” doesn’t aptly describe them ——– though “oppressive” and “tyrannic” certainly can.
But in order to incite broad-based change, this subterfuge must be exposed and truthful information made more widely & easily available – and I hope that Representative Beck makes use of all the opportunities he has to get this message across with the FULL financial support of the VT GOP.
Mr. Beck: Allow me to add to Kathleen Gaffney’s missive. It’s time to name names and cite specific circumstances when the political fraud you see comes to the fore. Who are the politicians using committee assignments and leadership positions as leverage. If we truly have a choice in this election, let us choose appropriately. Political politeness fell by the wayside long ago. We know their voting records. But we don’t know who is using the backroom coercion to threaten otherwise reasonable legislators. Please. Name names and describe specific circumstances.
Ditto to Ms. Gaffney. The Democrats’ lockstep shuffle was inflicted upon my cousin U.S. Senator Walsh (D-MA) 80 years ago. Actually, his troubles began when he was Governor of Massachusetts: He tried to kick the Ku Klux Klan out of the state. He was considered for the Vice Presidency sometime in the late 1920s; for Al Smith, I think, but the Klan-loving D’s would not hear of it. It gets worse: as U.S. Senator, he objected to how Roosevelt’s Lend Lease Program was being carried out: Instead of sending decommissioned Naval craft to England for its defense, America was giving away brand-new, taxpayer-funded ships that were used to defend British interests in the Middle East. As a founding member of America First, Senator Walsh tried to find a peaceful “workaround” for thwarting Hitler without killing 70 million people in the process, or at least a way to keep America out of another foreign war. As a reward, he was accused of being a Nazi spy (sound familiar?), a smear that the FBI of the time qualified as “almost certainly a complete fabrication.” Take out the “almost” and you have the truth, which did not stop FDR from telling my cousin to “do the honorable thing and shoot yourself.”
You may remember our chat at Senator John Rodgers’ party at the Cow Palace a couple of weeks ago. I was happy to meet you, and I am very enthused about John’s run for Lieutenant Governor as well as his future prospects. Brave man, to switch parties, which is of course better than the alternative. I think you might enjoy my book about Senator Walsh and his affect on all our lives (e.g., he created the U.S. Minimum Wage with the Walsh-Healy Act). Best wishes and good luck in the fall. St. Johnsbury is a wonderful place, and I wouldn’t mind living there as a senior after some flood mitigation is in place.
https://www.lulu.com/shop/ellin-anderson/the-third-hill/paperback/product-q9evrr.html?q=The+Third+Hill&page=1&pageSize=4
Re: John Rogers and Scott Beck’s caution.
“Don’t be fooled, members of the super majority and those that want to join will say they are moderate. They have to say they are moderate to get elected.”
I’ve listened to Mr. Rogers debate with Mr. Thayer twice now. And in both instances, I came away with the distinct impression that Mr. Rogers, moderate as he claims to be, is a big government advocate.
Of course, the proof is in the still unfinished pudding. If Mr. Rogers would unequivocally support the H.405 School Choice bill currently stuck in the Education Committee, I could reasonably change my opinion.
Rep. Beck, I fully support your candidacy for the Senate seat and I am a Democrat.
The Senate’s 7 Republicans need four or more Republicans to assure Governor Scott’s next veto of the “affordable heat act” next Ma