The Flat Tax Rears Its Ugly Head In West Michigan Again-- And Fred Johnson Is Here To Smack It Down

If a woman is raped by her grandfather, Bill Huizenga believes she should be forced to have the child

Fred Johnson is running for the West Michigan congressional seat currently occupied by Pete Hoekstra who ran an unsuccessful race for governor and is trying to replace himself with one of his cronies, Bill Huizenga, a shady real estate agent, climate change denier, anti-choice fanatic and anti-healthcare zealot. Even Republicans in the area are mistrustful of Huizenga after a sketchy record in the state House, where he voted for an unpopular business tax and an unpopular tourism tax. We asked to catch us up on the race and here's his report:

My campaign manager and I were sitting in the office the other night, just talking about the campaign and going over our calendar, when I asked him, "What's Huizenga up to?" He said, "I haven't looked at his site for awhile-- let's have a peek." So we went to his site and-- lo and behold... he had a new issues page up. Well, when we got done looking it over in detail, we were appalled. After the usual rubbish about cutting taxes and regulations, denying climate change, full blown anti-choice, and all the rest of it, we got to the one that floored me: the flat tax.  

How in the world these people can still be pushing this completely ridiculous idea is beyond me. How many economists are they willing to ignore? I really thought this was an idea that was starting to be revealed as bogus, even to the right wingers. Does he really mean this seriously, or is it just pandering to something out of a poll? We've got high unemployment here in Michigan. The middle class has already endured years of hammering, with our manufacturing jobs being shipped overseas because of the idiotic tax code that promotes off-shoring of jobs. Now he wants to institute a flat tax, and finish off the middle class. I just can't get over it.

This is a totally discredited idea, which would not only crush the already overwhelmed middle class with a new tax burden, but would blow a huge hole in the deficit. I find it odd that these folks are deficit hawks when it comes to extending unemployment benefits, or continuing the incredibly ill-conceived Bush tax cuts, but when you want to enact a payroll tax holiday, or invest in infrastructure and clean energy technology, all of a sudden there's a big, huge deficit problem. The hypocrisy is staggering. I suppose when you're nominating folks like Christine O'Donnell and Sharron Angle, you've pretty much given up on any sort of consistency.

We're working really hard to present West Michigan with a serious choice. On the one hand, voters can do what they usually do-- send a hard-right climate change ostrich, with crazy ideas like the flat tax, or they can choose our team, and our vision of restoring the middle class, standing up to the big money special interests, and investing in the economic future we all know we have to embrace. It's a very clear choice, and we're starting to get traction with our message.  

Blue America's endorsement was the start of the progressive movement joining my campaign.  Moveon.org is voting on our race right now, and I expect that endorsement after the close of voting at 11:59 tonight. The Sierra Club will be officially announcing their endorsement of our campaign at a press conference on the Lake Michigan beach on Monday. Things are starting to come together for us, and we're fighting hard. We really appreciate the netroots support we've gotten-- we're the fourth highest ActBlue account out of the 15 congressional districts in the state. We have organizers in place in the key urban areas, and we'll be running a campaign that combines grassroots organizing with low-budget radio and cable advertising, to get our positive message of change out to the voters. So, a big thanks needs to go out to you and the netroots world, because you all are what keeps us going.

UPDATE: Contribute to Fred's Campaign Today And Win A Middle States CD

Minneapolis-based band, The Middle States, has contributed 30 autographs CDs, Happy Fun Party, for the first 30 people who donate at least $25.00 to Fred's campaign through Blue America today. Here they are playing "Winds of Eiderdown" from that album live: