At a Jan. 5 community meeting in Grand Junction, Colo., 3rd District Congressional candidate and state Rep. Sal Pace, D-Pueblo, relied on the same tired talking points that have been pounded by Democrats and Occupiers alike. When in discussion with Mesa State Board of Trustees member Daniel Robinson, Pace said [at 2:08 of the video above]:
“I think the big issues that is underlying our political discourse is this concept that people are just frustrated with a government that just can’t seem to work together,” Pace said. “The gridlock and the hyper-partisanship and the 10-second sound bites. And you look at all these debacles over the last year, from the payroll tax, to the supercommittee, the debt ceiling, one after another. And while people are really suffering and hurting, we have an ineffectual Congress who seems more focused on beating each other up than actually trying to fix these problems.”
Ah, another reformer who’s going to change the culture of Washington. And how exactly did Pace (before he announced for Congress in May) express himself in the purple state legislature of Colorado?
As we noted a year ago, he was “setting the Pace for partisanship,” thanking newly-installed Speaker Frank McNulty, R-Highlands Ranch, for “keeping the podium warm for the next two years” and later went on a rant about about alleged slash-and-burn budget cuts.
That same month, Pace said at a union rally, “I’m willing to put my fist where I need to put it. I’m willing to fight. I’m willing to get in and rumble to make sure that we’re fighting for good jobs.”
So no, we don’t think Sal Pace would do much to bring consensus solutions to Washington.
He, however, claims bipartisanship in state governance, as in this recent Durango Herald editorial board meeting.
Also in the recent video from Grand Junction, Pace said…
“There’s 400 people who have more net worth than 150 million Americans combined,” he said. “There’s more income disparity than there’s ever been.”
Funny how the other angles of that pyramid are rarely noted by the class warriors of the left: that “the top 10 percent of earners paid 70 percent of Federal Income Taxes” in 2008, according to a Heritage Foundation analysis of IRS and Tax Foundations data. Or that “Forty-nine percent of U.S. households paid no federal income tax at all” that year.
And here’s trend data from 2009 back to 1999, according to the National Taxpayers Union.
Don’t get us wrong, we’d like to everyone to pay lower taxes. But when Pace and others play the 1 percent against the 99 percent (or the 10 percent against the 90 percent), they ignore economic reality. And why would Colorado send someone like that to Congress?
Villifying those who have been successful (and pay the bulk of the taxes) is no way to win an election. See this Reason analysis for more on “The facts about Income Inquality.”
Pace may sound like he’s going to transcend partisanship and liberal ideology, but repeating the mantra of the Occupiers reveals he can’t stay away from the hard left.
[Updated 1/24/12]
