THE EAVES PLAN: FALSE ATTACKS
John Arthur Eaves, Jr. has nothing to offer but misleading, false, negative attacks
John Arthur Eaves, Jr. persists in his campaign of negative, false, personal attacks against Governor Barbour. In his latest ad, Eaves continues to ignore the facts and uses biased innuendo and false statements to attack Governor Barbour. “When you compare his attacks to the actual facts, you see that Mr. Eaves will stop at nothing to try to get a vote in his negative campaign,” said Brian Perry, spokesperson for Barbour for Governor.
Eaves – Another False Attack
THE EAVES ATTACK: “Who does Haley Barbour serve? He kicked 65,000 off Medicaid, widows without medicine, children without a doctor, thousands uninsured.”
THE ACTUAL FACT: Haley Barbour saved Medicaid for the truly needy by making sure everyone on the Medicaid rolls is eligible. Medicaid is an important health care safety net for poor and disabled Mississippians, but the taxpayers cannot afford to pay for free health care for someone who is not eligible. Under Governor Barbour, Medicaid started a common-sense anti-fraud effort of requiring Medicaid recipients to verify their eligibility once a year. John Arthur Eaves, Jr. has said “we must remove the face-to-face reauthorization requirement from our Medicaid plan.” (Clarion-Ledger, July 29, 2007).
Under Governor Barbour, 46,000 more people are working today than four years ago. With more people working and earning more than ever before, it makes sense that fewer people are on the Medicaid rolls. When we are creating more and better jobs, it should be the state’s goal for fewer people to have to rely upon Medicaid.
THE EAVES ATTACK: “But Haley found money for casinos; let insurance companies rip us off and he vetoed cigarette tax that would have eliminated the tax on groceries.”
THE ACTUAL FACT: Governor Barbour did not direct any money in any form to casinos. The casino industry never received any tax breaks under Governor Barbour. The casino industry never received any state taxpayer dollars. The Eaves campaign has provided nothing to back up this ridiculous claim.
THE ACTUAL FACT: Governor Barbour has said that if any insurance company committed any criminal act, they should be fully prosecuted. An insurance policy is a contract between the policy holder and the company. Those contracts are regulated by an independently elected Commissioner of Insurance – not any Governor of Mississippi. After Hurricane Katrina, Governor Barbour sought unprecedented federal assistance to help homeowners who justifiably believed they had the necessary insurance coverage, but did not. Since then, more than 15,000 families have received grants worth more than $1.1 billion. This initiative, which Governor Barbour created and implemented, has never been attempted after any other natural disaster in American history.
THE ACTUAL FACT: Governor Barbour did veto the risky tax swap which would have eliminated the tax on groceries without any regard for the bill’s impact on small cities struggling financially after Hurricane Katrina or on the state budget. Cities receive 18 ½ % of sales tax revenue generated within their city limits. Eliminating the tax on groceries would have destroyed the ability for many small towns to provide essential government services such as fire and police protection. The only option for these cities would have been to raise property taxes.
Furthermore, the ad insinuates that the tax on cigarettes would have paid for the elimination of the grocery tax. This bill was not revenue neutral. First of all, nobody has been able to produce an exact amount of how much the state collects in grocery taxes, so it is difficult to gauge the revenue impact on the state. Second, even the proponents of this bill acknowledged the bill was not revenue neutral when they introduced a second bill to reduce the sales tax on groceries by half instead of eliminating the grocery tax. Third, it would have been fiscally irresponsible to make major changes in our state tax code less than six months after Hurricane Katrina made our state fiscal condition murky and unsure.
EAVES ATTACK: “No wonder Barbour’s lobbying firm has raked in millions working for big casinos, big oil, big insurance and big tobacco.”
THE ACTUAL FACT: Even John Arthur Eaves, Jr. knows that on January 13, 2004, Governor Barbour resigned from Barbour Griffith & Rogers. It is completely misleading and incorrect for a television ad to claim that Governor Barbour has a lobbying firm. The only client Governor Barbour has is the state of Mississippi.
“I’m sure this isn’t the last false attack by John Arthur Eaves, Jr. But then, that is all his campaign has. Without a plan for Mississippi, without a vision for our state, without the leadership we need, all Mr. Eaves can do in the campaign is make false attacks,” said Perry.
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