Kentucky state Senator David Givens has voted to raise your taxes repeatedly in Frankfort. But in a newspaper ad he purchased for his re-election, he says he "consistently opposes tax increases." That's like Massachusetts Senator John Kerry, who said he was personally opposed to abortion but voted for it anyway.
Then Givens said he is for open and honest government. He is probably talking there about his vote for Senate Bill 7 in 2011, a toothless "transparency" bill that hasn't changed anything in closed, secretive Frankfort. Voters may well conclude he "believes taxpayers deserve to know how their money is being spent," but only until they read and understand the next bullet point in the newspaper ad.
Givens' biggest whopper in the ad is his claim that he "has voted to cut billions in government spending." That only works if you can ignore the many billion more in spending that he voted for regardless of our state's ability to afford it. Givens voted to spend every dime of the $3.4 billion in Obama stimulus funds the federal government sent, the $2.4 billion in general fund appropriation-supported debt he voted for and the untold billions more in unfunded pension liabilities he will helped create by failing to properly fund the Kentucky Retirement Systems. Given these facts, the the slogan "A true conservative we can count on to protect our liberty" really doesn't make much sense, does it? David Givens had four years to come up with a better ad, but his sorry record dictates that he try to get by on subterfuge and slippery language.
Fortunately, Givens is opposed in the Republican primary by tea party candidate Don Butler, the former county judge in Metcalfe County. Butler has campaigned on a pledge to never vote for a tax increase, to never vote for an unbalanced budget and to refuse a legislative pension. Notice the difference between that and just stating that he opposes tax increases, debt and unbalanced budgets and our state's pension mess?
