The Republicans that broke their "No Tax Pledges"

By: Rob
Published On: 2/27/2007 3:05:50 PM

Here are the Republicans who both (1) signed an oath to never vote for tax increases and (2) voted for the new tax increases last week:

Ken Cuccinelli
Stephen H. Martin
Steve Newman
Mark Obenshain
Jay O'Brien
Frank M. Ruff
David Albo
Robert Bell
Kathy Byron
Vincent F. Callahan, Jr.
Ben Cline
M. Kirkland Cox
Allen Dudley
C. Todd Gilbert
Frank D. Hargrove, Sr.
Tim Hugo
Bill Janis
R. Steven Landes
Scott Lingamfelter
Harvey B. Morgan
Samuel A. Nixon, Jr.
Chris Peace
John S. Reid
Chris Saxman
Terrie L. Suit
Leo C. Wardrup, Jr.
John J. Welch III
Tommy Wright
That's a lot of broken pledges!

And toss in Bill Bolling, too.  He didn't literally break his pledge because he didn't cast a vote for the taxes as Lt. Governor, but he hails this bill for "increas[ing] funding for transportation by more than $1B a year." That would be partly through new taxes of course.

Heck, even the right wing (and obsessively anti-tax) Club For Growth is slamming these guys for breaking their pledges:

Phillip Rodokanakis, the President of the Virginia Club for Growth said: "A man's word used to be his bond; unfortunately, one can no longer trust the word of Virginia politicians even when they sign a pledge guaranteeing to the voters that they will not raise taxes."

"Like a bad chapter from George Orwell's novel `1984,' a pledge against taxes has been reduced into a newspeak quote: `Tax is prosperity, unaccountability is freedom, collective voting is strength" said Rodokanakis.

Or, as Russ Potts, explained, a fee is not a tax!

There will be a lot of explaining to do this election year for the pledge breakers!

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