NOT THAT YOU ASKED

Before getting into this week's rant, I have to correct a couple of mistakes I have made lately about some of the tax laws inflicted on us during the recent legislative session, that has mercifully ended. For one thing, I was wrong when I wrote that the Walton heirs would pay no state income tax. They will have to pay taxes on the first 10 million in capital gains income, but that rate has been lowered. Everything they earn above that is tax free. When you consider that each of them is worth more than 30 BILLION that's still a heck of a deal.

I was also wrong on the middle class tax cut. It kicks in for all incomes of at least $21,000, not the $40,000 I have been reporting. However, since the median income in Arkansas is $40,000 almost half of the workers in Arkansas won't get a tax cut, including hourly associates at Walmart.

I'm sorry about those mistakes, and I don't make any excuses for them. All I can do is remind you that I will never print anything misleading, and when I make a mistake, I will admit it.

Now, on to bigger if not better things. Just as I was beginning to recover from the 2014 election, not the results, just the hard work trying to get Mark Pryor re-elected. The 2016 presidential election is starting. I've already noticed something curious about some of the Republican candidates. Big surprise, right?

Back in 2007 when Barack Obama first announced for the Presidency, two of the main arguments against him were his lack of experience, and whether or not he was an American citizen. Well, it turns out you could make one or both of those arguments about each of the three announced Republican candidates. Rand Paul, Marco Rubio, and Ted Cruz are all in their first terms in the U.S. Senate. Cruz is just in his second year, the same point Obama was when he ran.

As for their citizenship, they are all American citizens, but Cruz and Rubio have some factors in their birth stories that, if they weren't Republicans, would have that party questioning that fact. Cruz's father is Cuban, and he was born in Canada. Rubio was born in Miami, but his parents were Cuban immigrants. Paul is the son of American citizens, and born in Texas, which unfortunately, is still an American state.

Like I wrote above they are all U.S. citizens because if your parents are citizens, as Obama and Cruz's mothers were, you are a citizen no matter where you are born. Rubio is a citizen because if you are born in the United States you are automatically a citizen even if your parents aren't. This also applies to Obama since he was born in Hawaii.

Now the politicians and leaders in the Republican Party as well as the political operatives working for them were all aware of these facts back in 2007. They also knew that there were plenty of gullible voters out there who would believe them if they cast doubts on Obama's citizenship. The only reason they planted those doubts was to beat him.

Here's my first prediction of the 2016 election. If anyone questions the citizenship of Cruz or Rubio, those same politicians, political leaders, and operatives will be the first ones to defend them using the information I just gave you. The same information they knew about in 2007. This just proves one of my core beliefs about politics. The arguments in Washington never change, just the sides people are on.