In many of his TV ads, US House Republican candidate Dr. Larry Bucshon wears blue jeans, is spending time with his family in a run-of-the-mill Indiana back yard, in a clear attempt to show that he is just a regular Southwest Indiana 8th District guy.
But let’s test that to see if this is a real middle income, blue collar kind of Indiana Bloody 8th District guy. Let me cite just for now a couple of items I discovered about candidate Dr. Bucshon.
…..He is a very gifted heart surgeon, and has been Physician President and Medical Director of Cardiovascular Surgery of Ohio Valley Heartcare (OVHC) since 2003. OVHC has eight locations in three states. OVHC has eleven Cardiovascular Physicians, five Clinical Directors, and six Nurse Practitioners. When I extensively study heart surgeons on the web, my hunch is that a heart surgeon, who is President of this very prosperous, prestigious cardiovascular health care company with such a broad reach, must be averaging probably at least a million dollars a year in his personal total income plus benefits for at least each of the past eight years. In all fairness and in a sense of financial transparency, I think he should disclose to voters the precise amount of his total annual income plus benefits.
.…..He lives in what I would call a just beautiful mansion on Outer Lincoln Drive in Newburgh, a very nice suburb of Evansville. In all fairness, I think he should disclose the fair market value of his home.
…..He lives in the Castle High School District of Newburgh. From very favorable personal experience with two daughters who attended school there, Castle High School is probably one of the best ten public high schools in the State of Indiana, with many exceptional teachers, and with an exceptionally strong and very extensive Advanced Placement program. Castle’s Junior Highs are also very educationally strong schools, with many gifted teachers. I can understand why someone living in Newburgh would have their kids go to the public charter school, Evansville Signature School, one of the best charter schools not just in the State, but also in the country. I also can clearly understand why someone living in Newburgh would have their kids go to Evansville Memorial, a very high quality Catholic high school on Evansville's East Side and not really that far from Newburgh, and with very reasonable tuition. So what school does the Bucshon family decide to attend? Neither of the public schools, Castle or Sig School, but instead the elitist, very expensive Evansville Day School, located way on the other side of town. This is Dr. Bucshon’s idea of public education reform....abandon public schools?
…..He is a strong US Big Multinational Corp supporter, so much so that he wants to reduce the corporate US federal income tax rate on them, along with on all other corps, from 35% to 20% immediately, which is an amazingly high 43% tax reduction. The stated US federal income tax rate on these large US Multinational Corps of 35% is meaningless, since from exhaustive study of SEC annual report filings, the most recent average US federal income tax rate actually paid presently by the roughly 100 largest US Multinational Corps is just under 10%, already a 71% discount to the 35% artificially high stated corporate federal income tax rate. This 71% discount is due mainly to the many huge corporate tax loopholes that many large US Multinational Corps take advantage of, including the very favorable impact of shifting income, along with the related US jobs, overseas. Given that substantially reducing the US federal income tax rate of Big US Corps by an incredible 43% is such an extreme and exceptionally economically-sensitive position, particularly so since it is in addition to the present 71% deeply discounted tax rate, I think it is only fair for voters to know if any of either his or his anesthesiologist wife's personal common stock holdings include, either directly or indirectly, any Big US Corp common stock, or other corp common stock, which would benefit significantly from this 43% reduction in the Federal Income Tax Rate proposal of Dr. Bucshon. Thus, to show that he clearly does not have a conflict of interest on his critical tax proposal here, I think that in a sense of full financial transparency, Dr. Bucshon should disclose to voters the fair market value of each of his and his wife's stock, mutual fund, and other asset holdings, both regular holdings as well as holdings included in any of his or her retirement plans. Voters in Indiana's 8th District value highly financial transparency.....if a candidate proposes a dramatic change in taxes, just how does that effect him personally?
From just all of the above items, I have to conclude that in fact Dr. Bucshon is not one of us...his privileged world is nothing like that of 99% of those in the Bloody 8th District. I am very impressed with all of his life’s accomplishments, but how in the world could he truly know who we in the 8th District are....struggling every day to make ends meet, for the unemployed to find jobs, for the underemployed to find better jobs, for the full-time employed to keep their jobs, for our kids to get the best education they can get at an affordable cost.
On the other hand, Dr. Bucshon's Democratic opponent, Trent Van Haaften, a former prosecutor from Mt. Vernon, is clearly one of us. I have yet to hear anyone say anything bad about this guy. He is very smart, cares deeply about people, and is just a flat out class guy. He can be counted on to serve all of the citizens in the 8th District.
Frankly, I think the majority of Tea Party candidates would understand the essence of who Indiana 8th District people are much better than Dr. Bucshon does.
I also think another good question to ask is whether Todd Young, a wealthy Carmel lawyer, recently carpetbagged to Bloomington, is really one of them in Indiana’s Ninth District. I know much of this Ninth District, getting very familiar with it in the 2008 Presidential Election, and having left more than my share of money at nearby horse race tracks at Churchill Downs and at Louisville Downs over the many years. Also, I have a daughter who recently graduated from the very prestigious Indiana University in Bloomington….she is now in law school in Florida, but her heart is still in Bloomington and at IU…..and she campaigned heavily for Baron Hill, when she was at IU…..and it is very difficult for a candidate to impress her. Unlike Todd Young, Baron Hill has a very clear understanding of the essence of citizens in his Ninth District.....my gosh, this guy Baron Hill was even a basketball star at Seymour High School decades ago.
