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CHESTERTON A leading advocacy organization for small businesses in Indiana is encouraging Hoosiers this year to reelect the state's incumbent U.S. senator and send to Washington the Republican hoping to represent Northwest Indiana in the U.S. House.

The Indiana chapter of the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) enthusiastically endorsed U.S. Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., and Jennifer-Ruth Green, of Crown Point, during a brief ceremony Monday at Joe's Bread in Chesterton.

"Senator Todd Young has been a steadfast advocate of small businesses during his time in Congress, maintaining a strong voting record and earning NFIBs Guardian of Small Business award in all his terms. We are confident Jennifer-Ruth Green will be a valuable small business supporter in the U.S. House," said Natalie Robinson, NFIB Indiana state director.

"They both have committed to focusing on small business issues such as inflation, workforce shortages and supply chain disruptions, and to oppose any new taxes or mandates on small businesses. Indianas small businesses will benefit with them in Congress," she added.

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Young told the gathering of a half-dozen small business owners and NFIB members that he aims to get the federal government back to clearing away business obstacles and regulations to restore the optimism of entrepreneurs and their confidence in the future.

"I measure success and the growth of our economy by my interactions with small business leaders as I travel the highways and byways of the state of Indiana. They've seen better times than they're seeing now, and they've seen better times just in recent years," Young said.

Young said the COVID-19 pandemic, high inflation and federal spending increases have many small business owners questioning whether to risk new capital or continue investing in their companies amid such uncertainty, and that's not good for Hoosiers or the economy.

"We have to be very cautious at the federal level. When we're spending money in a particular area, if that money is not being used to increase productivity in areas, we ought to think several times before offering our support," Young said. "The last thing we want to do is put ankle-weights on those who help drive our economy."

Green likewise said if she gets the opportunity to represent Lake, Porter and northwest LaPorte counties in Congress, she will help small businesses by lowering taxes, opposing federal regulations, supporting American energy production and minimizing the enforcement powers of the Internal Revenue Service.

"I will fight the reckless spending that is crushing workforce participation, our supply chains and ultimately leading to this 40-year high inflation because small businesses are paying the price while big government, big business and union bosses benefit," Green said.

Joe Grossbauer, a Chesterton native who's operated Joe's Bread at 225 S. Calumet Road for the past five months, said he can relate to some of those concerns, especially price swings related to the baked goods, coffee and teas he sells in his shop.

"Changing food costs, changing prices and supply chain issues impact us,"Grossbauer said. "Changing costs make things a little unpredictable for any small business."

At the same time, Grossbauer said his bakery cafe and event space isn't taking sides in the upcoming elections "We are apolitical. We have a local mill that we'll endorse, but that's about it."

RDA President and CEO Sherri Zillerexpects the Region will see upwards of $2 billion in private investment and thousands of new jobs and residents.

Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb addresses a celebration of the start of the South Shore Double Track Project on Monday in Michigan City.

Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb prepares to hammer in a spike at a celebration of the start of the South Shore Double Track Project on Monday in Michigan City.

Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb said of the Double Track groundbreaking, This is truly a Hoosier moment in history like few others.

Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb addresses a celebration of the start of the South Shore Double Track Project on Monday in Michigan City.

U.S. Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., addresses a celebration of the start of the South Shore Double Track Project on Monday in Michigan City.

Former U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky, U.S. Rep. Frank J. Mrvan, D-Highland, and Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb chat before the start of a celebration of the start of the South Shore Double Track Project on Monday in Michigan City.

Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb takes questions following a celebration of the start of the South Shore Double Track Project on Monday in Michigan City.

Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb addresses a celebration of the start of the South Shore Double Track Project on Monday in Michigan City.

NICTD President Mike Noland, left, takes a photo of Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb and Executive Director of the Dean and Barbara White Family Foundation Bill Hanna.

Mike Smith speaks at a celebration of the start of the South Shore Double Track Project on Monday in Michigan City.

U.S. Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., said credit for the project also belongs to those elected officials who came before and led the way.

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Excerpt from:
Republicans win endorsement of Indiana small business advocacy organization - The Times of Northwest Indiana

Poor Gary Franks! He paints Democrats as all being socialists without knowing anything about either group (Socialists/Democrats is there a difference?, Aug. 12, TribLIVE). Hes just trying to accuse Democrats of doing the very things his own GOP is doing.

The GOP tries to control every state government and every decision. After Donald Trump lost in 2020, Republicans began to create laws to prevent undesirables from voting or having a fair vote count, trying to eliminate drop boxes and mail-in ballots .

The GOP majority on the Supreme Court overturned Roe v.Wade, seemingly without considering the arguments of the pro-choice people and based on the religious view of a minority of the religious spectrum. In my opinion, their decision ignored that Roe v. Wade was settled based upon actual amendments in the Bill of Rights. All conservative justices, when they were interviewed by the Senate, agreed Roe v. Wade was settled law.

It seems that todays modern GOP has adopted the amorality of Trump and Sen. Mitch McConnell. Franks tries to accuse Democrats of packing the Supreme Court. It wasnt us, Gary. It was the GOPs own morally bankrupt McConnell and Donald Trump.

Leo Nagorski

Shaler

See more here:
Letter to the editor: Republicans aim to control everything - TribLIVE

A number of Republican strategists and consultants are growing increasingly dismayed about millions of dollars vanishing at the National Republican Senatorial Committee just when the funds are needed most, The Washington Post reported Friday.

Cash at the national campaign fund is dwindling as candidates head into the final stretch of Senate races across the U.S.

If they were a corporation, the CEO would be fired, a national Republican consultant working on Senate races told the newspaper, referring to the committee.

There needs to be an audit or investigation because were not gonna take the Senate now and this money has been squandered, added the consultant, who spoke to the outlet on condition of anonymity. Its a rip-off.

Florida Sen. Rick Scott, who chairs the NRSC, has been attacked by Republicans for featuring himself in ads and releasing a policy agenda that caused trouble for the GOP, leading to quips that NRSC stands for National Rick Scott Committee.

NRSC funds had reportedly reached $173 million this election cycle but were already down to $28.4 million by the end of June.

The committee spent more than $12 million on American Express credit card payments with an unclear purpose, along with $13 million for consultants and $9 million on debt payments, the Post said.

Now, a number of Republican candidates are struggling to raise money ahead of the general elections in November.

Its surprising and says a lot about the Republican brand that their candidates have struggled to raise money, J.B. Poersch, the president of the Democratic-allied Senate Majority PAC, told the Post.

With extreme candidates and extreme positions, maybe Republican donors are finding these candidates are out of step with where they are, he said. Maybe voters are feeling the same way.

Read the rest here:
Republicans Demand To Know What Happened To Vanishing GOP Millions - HuffPost

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On Friday, Gov. Greg Abbott signaled support for a yearslong call by women's health care advocates to remove taxes on menstrual products like tampons, sanitary pads and pantyliners. His statement comes after Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar and state Sen. Joan Huffman, R-Houston, voiced their support from eliminating the "tampon tax" on Thursday.

Hegar and Huffman said theyd support efforts in next years legislative session to make such products nontaxable.

Other health care necessities, such as medicine and bandages, are exempt from sales tax in Texas. Advocates have called for the repeal of the tax, arguing that menstrual products should be classified as wound care dressings, which prevent bacterial infections and maintain a moist or dry wound environment. Given that wound dressings like Band-Aids are exempt from sales tax, supporters of repealing the sales tax on menstrual products argue that taxing them discriminates on the basis of sex.

Menstrual products are already tax-free in 24 states. Texas is among those states where consumers still pay tax on those products.

Previous attempts to repeal the sales tax in Texas have failed and will likely face more hurdles during next years legislative session. Proposals to eliminate the sales tax on menstrual products, spearheaded by state Rep. Donna Howard, D-Austin, have come before the legislature every session since 2017. None of those bills have made it to the governor's desk.

If next session's legislation reaches Abbott's desk, he would support eliminating the tax.

Governor Abbott fully supports exempting feminine hygiene products from state and local sales tax, Renae Eze, a spokesperson for the governor, told The Texas Tribune in a statement on Friday. These are essential products for womens health and quality of life, and the Governor looks forward to working with the legislature in the next session to remove this tax burden on Texas women.

But Huffmans support of the measure as the chair of the Senate Finance Committee that branchs budget chief is notable. The 2017 bill to remove the feminine hygiene tax died in that committee.

Every woman knows that these products are not optional. They are essential to our health and well-being and should be tax-exempt, she said in a press release Thursday announcing her support.

Hegar pointed to Texas strong economy and state revenues in explaining his support for the tax repeal. Given increasing prices and inflation, Hegar said the opportunity to exempt these products from taxation is a critical need for Texans.

Texas can absorb this lost revenue easily, but for countless Texas women, this will mean significant savings in their personal budgets over time, Hegar said in a press release. This is a small amount of money relative to the overall revenue outlook for Texas.

Hegars latest revenue estimate for the next two years, beginning mid-July, projects Texas will generate $27 billion. The sales tax revenue on menstrual supplies over the next two years would represent about 0.1% of that amount.

In Texas and across the country, institutions are working to improve greater access to menstrual products. Over the summer, the Austin Independent School District spent over $150,000 to provide free menstrual products to students in bathrooms.

Correction: A version of the bill to end taxes on some menstrual products cleared a committee in 2021 but never made it to the governor's desk.

The full program is now LIVE for the 2022 The Texas Tribune Festival, happening Sept. 22-24 in Austin. Explore the schedule of 100+ mind-expanding conversations coming to TribFest, including the inside track on the 2022 elections and the 2023 legislative session, the state of public and higher ed at this stage in the pandemic, why Texas suburbs are booming, why broadband access matters, the legacy of slavery, what really happened in Uvalde and so much more. See the program.

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2022/08/18/glenn-hegar-joan-huffman-tampon-tax/.

The Texas Tribune is a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and engaging Texans on state politics and policy. Learn more at texastribune.org.

Read more here:
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott joins other key Republicans in supporting repealing the tampon tax - KBTX

This weekend, Florida governor Ron DeSantis delighted the crowd at a conference for the far-right group Turning Point Action by proclaiming that the FBIs warrant to seize national-security documents stolen by Donald Trump was yet another double standard against law-abiding conservatives. You look at the raid at Mar-a-Lago, and Im just trying to remember maybe somebody here can remind me about when they did a search warrant at Hillarys house when she had a rogue server at Chappaqua and she was laundering classified information, he announced. I dont remember them doing that.

The Republican rationale for defending Trump despite clear-cut violations of the law is that the FBI has supposedly forfeited all credibility. Trump supporters are mad because the Mar-a-Lago raid fits into a pattern of behavior targeting Trump and his associates by the FBI, the Justice Department, and the intelligence community, argues Byron York. When it comes to the FBIs latest move, he garners near-universal assent and for good reason, writes National Review editor-in-chief Rich Lowry of Trump. It is impossible to over-estimate the effect of the Russia investigation on the Republican psyche. Margot Cleveland argues that its because of the bureaus widespread misconduct that Americans doubt the legitimacy of the FBIs decision to search the former presidents home.

Obviously, the weirdest thing about this trust heuristic is that it assumes the more credible party to this dispute is serial lawbreaker and pathological liar Donald Trump rather than the lifelong Republican he appointed to lead the agency. But the deeper and more twisted belief system being expressed by Trumps allies is the premise that the FBI has engaged in a pattern of political bias against their party since the Clinton saga.

The truth is just the opposite: The FBI has often bent over backward to placate Republicans only to be met with distrust when its results fail to conform to their most paranoid fantasies.

Begin with DeSantiss claim that the FBI never seized Hillary Clintons server: In fact, the FBI took it in August 2015. The seizure of the server, along with electronic copies of its contents maintained by her private lawyer, is in connection with a criminal investigation into the mishandling of classified information, gloated a National Review editorial at the time. It is being dressed up by a reeling Clinton campaign as Hillarys voluntary surrender of the server in connection with a security inquiry.

The fact that DeSantis has a false memory that the FBI somehow never bothered to take her server is itself revealing. Republicans spent a year baying at the FBI and demanding prosecution while agents on the inside of the organization leaked continuously to conservative media sources. Deep antipathy to Hillary Clinton exists within the FBI, reported The Guardian in 2016. Its clear to me that there is a cadre of senior people in New York who have a deep and visceral hatred of Secretary Clinton, said thenFBI Director James Comey privately. The New York Times James Stewart reported that the pressure and threats of additional leaks from right-wing bureau staff drove Comey to violate DOJ protocol by publicizing the Clinton investigation.

In 2016, the FBI made its investigation into Clinton public while keeping its investigation of Trump secret, a choice that very likely swung the razor-tight outcome. The mistreatment of Clinton was so blatant that Trump even used it as a pretext to fire Comey the next year. Yet Republicans have created an upside-down history in which Clinton was coddled and Trump smeared.

The Russia investigation, of course, has loomed large among Republican grievances. Trump claimed, and Republicans came to believe, that the FBIs investigation into Trumps ties to Russia was directed by Democrats to harm Trumps campaign. Of course, such a scheme could work only if the FBI had leaked the investigation instead, it leaked to the New York Times that Trump had no clear ties to Russia.

The Justice Departments inspector general found the Russia investigation was properly predicated. Rejecting this finding, thenAttorney General William Barr appointed his own ally to produce evidence supporting Trumps suspicion that a Democratic cabal originated the Russia probe, but that effort failed miserably.

Indeed, the Russia investigation itself was hamstrung by its conservative decisions. Robert Mueller confined the investigation to direct criminal charges rather than making it a broader investigation of the counterintelligence threat posed by Trumps connections with Russia. He allowed Trump to submit evasive answers to questions in writing rather than testify and decided it would be unfair to Trump to state clearly that he had engaged in obstruction.

One lesson here is that Muellers understandable belief that he needed to maintain legitimacy with Republicans by bending over backward to demonstrate his fairness ultimately backfired. It allowed Trump and his allies to frame Muellers findings as proving no collusion which Mueller did not say and from there to paint the entire probe as a witch hunt.

You can see the same dynamic at work in the current investigation into Trumps refusal to give back documents he illegally took. Trumps supporters have held up the bureaus patient accommodation in the face of Trumps defiance as evidence it cant be trusted. Just to get this straight, were now supposed to believe that the material Trump had stored in his house was nuclear content so sensitive the FBI waited a year and a half to go get it and used the National Archives as a prop to do so? sneers Ben Shapiro.

Should the Justice Department ultimately decline to charge Trump which, barring anything deeply sensitive or incriminating in the documents, would seem to be the most likely outcome conservatives will almost certainly register the FBIs intervention as yet another case of persecution. The reality of the situation will be just the opposite: Trump openly flouting the law and getting away with it. But the alchemy of conservative paranoia will transmute it into more evidence of his innocence and yet another reason for them to rally to his side when he inevitably proceeds to his next crime.

The underlying cause of this pathological dynamic is a right-wing propaganda bubble that pumps conservatives full of rage, cordens them off from any information that would mitigate their sense of persecution, and primes them to be led by demagogues who feel free to act with impunity, knowing their base will stay loyal regardless. This dysfunction produced Trumps rise in the first place. And now every new instance of Trumps misconduct simply confirms to the Republican Party that he was right all along.

Irregular musings from the center left.

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See the article here:
Every New Trump Crime Makes Republicans Angrier at the FBI - New York Magazine