Dede Scozzafava, the has been former Republican candidate for NY-23, voted for tax increases in the New York legislature 198 times. But, when Dede wanted to get in good with the Republican and conservative establishment, she signed the Americans For Tax Reform pledge — a piece of paper saying she would not vote for tax increases. She did not need 30 pieces of silver to get in good with the establishment.

All of a sudden the lights from Heaven shined, the Angels sang, and Dede Scozzafava was acceptable. Except she wasn’t.

Last night on Twitter, Ryan Ellis, Tax Policy Director for Americans for Tax Reform, went out of his way to heap scorn on conservative activists and tea party activists for daring to defeat Dede Scozzafava, the woman who signed a piece of paper to absolve her of all her sins.

The twittering must make conservative activists question whether Americans for Tax Reform is on our side any more. I cannot believe Grover Norquist, after all he has done for the movement, could be happy with or approve of staff treating the conservative movement so contemptuously. Yet, with that much contempt — and a pledge by ATR’s Tax Policy Director to support tax hiker Charlie Crist — one must wonder where ATR stands these days. Is it with the establishment that sunk $900,000.00 into the losing bid of Dede Scozzafava, or with the conservative movement that defeated her.

This is, after all, ATR’s Tax Policy Director, writing these things.

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The MSM would like the American public to believe that the Senate Finance Committee bill was scored by the Congressional Budget Office. After all, WaPo, the NYT and the WSJ reported:

WaPo: “The bill would cost $829 billion over the next decade.”

NYT: “The budget office analyzed the bill … its newly projected cost — $829 billion over 10 years.”

WSJ: “The latest Senate health bill will cost $829 billion over a decade.”

But it is a score of a vapor bill — a bill that has no legislative language — and so with much fanfare and pomp the CBO has delivered a Vapor Score of a Vapor Bill. CBO has stated publicly and repeatedly that it cannot accurately score any bill without the legislative language — which does not exist so CBO cannot have it.

Heritage tagged this correctly its Bait and Switch blog:

As the Politico reported yesterday: “While the media and lawmakers often shorthand a CBO letter as a “score” or “cost estimate,” today’s CBO letter is neither. Because the bill is still in “conceptual,” or layman’s terms, CBO’s letter today was a “preliminary analysis.” For it to be an official cost estimate, the bill has to be translated into legislative language.”

And here is a thought from Ryan Ellis at ATR, the reason the latest ObamaCare bill scores so low is because of all the taxes. Here is the list.

For a more wonky analysis of the Vapor Score, see the blog by Donald Marron, a former CBO economist here, and from which the quotes from the MSM above were taken.

Stimulus spending. Bank and auto company bailouts. Cap and Tax. Obamacare….just what will Obama cost you?

The answer is roughly one month of your life—this year.

Americans for Tax Reform has calculated and “celebrated” Cost of Government Day each year for the past 20 years.  We add up total government spending and total government regulations–federal, state and local and divide by the national income to calculate how many days you and I work to pay the total cost of government.  The well known Tax Freedom Day–usually about a third of the way through the year–only calculates the tax burden, leaving out the costs of deficit spending and regulations.

Last year Cost of Government Day was July 16.  This year it is August 12.  Twenty-six days, almost one month more for the cost of government. And to cheer you up, this doesn’t count the costs of “Cap and Trade” taxes on energy use or the additional one, two, or three trillion dollars to “reform” our health care system by the noted physicians Obama, Reid and Pelosi.

The growth in the cost of government comes largely from the bailouts, the “stimulus” and the dramatic spending hike in the first Reid/Obama/Pelosi budget.

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You probably have seen this article in the Politico today. Basically, the American Conservative Union, the organization that brings us CPAC each year, appears to have involved itself in a “pay to play” expedition with FedEx and UPS.

For the $2 million plus, ACU offered a range of services that included: “Producing op-eds and articles written by ACU’s Chairman David Keene and/or other members of the ACU’s board of directors. (Note that Mr. Keene writes a weekly column that appears in The Hill.)”

The conservative group’s remarkable demand — black-and-white proof of the longtime Washington practice known as “pay for play” — was contained in a private letter to FedEx , which was provided to POLITICO.

You can read the whole thing here.

First, throw no stones at Mike Allen. I know the inclination of some of you will be to attack the messenger and not the message. But what Mike Allen is reporting on is a dirty little secret among a number of organizations, both right and left, in Washington, D.C.

Second, for perspective on the FedEx v. UPS fight and why ACU should have gotten behind FedEx without charging a penny see George Will.

The swamp is not getting drained because the corruption and money is damning up the drain. (spelling was intentional)

And it is not just the American Conservative Union. Left (I’m looking at you MoveOn.org) and right, our progressive and conservative “grass roots” organizations in Washington, DC are a hotbed of “pay to play” scandals waiting to boil over.

Before you decide to purge me from the conservative movement, read on to find out what I’m talking about.

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