More Bloggers Questioning Billy Long's Abilities to Lead Southwest Missouri in Congress

Billy Long opened up the door for more questions about his leadership ability and his knowledge of issues when he failed to answer a question about the war in Afghanistan declaring he didn't have a grasp on the issue. I hope Long does know it's the job of Congress to declare war, so he should at least know something about our troops and where they are fighting.

As Billy Long left the last round of big debates before the August primary, more and more people began asking the question. Is Billy Long qualified. More blogs came out examining if Billy Long is truly the best choice in Missouri 7. Many of those bloggers figured it out very quickly. Billy Long doesn't have the knowledge on issues and is not prepared to go to Congress even after more than a year and a half running for the job.

Anson Burlingame writes, Now for our prospective “citizen legislator”, Billy Long. That is the key point of his campaign that I have heard that sets him aside from his main opponents. He calls for term limited business men to represent us in Congress. That is not a bad idea in my mind IF those business men have a deep and abiding knowledge of government both at the levels of principles as well as specifics.

Billy has not shown me such knowledge. I won’t challenge him on his attempt to bring in new blood with an honest attempt to make a difference. But as such “new blood” there are some basic ingredients needed to sustain life, in this case the life of legislation for the good of all Americans, not just businessmen.

I also wonder exactly what political machine is behind Billy and how he got so much money to run the “richest” of the 8 campaigns for this seat. Not challenging him ethically, just wondering. I sent his headquarters an email asking to speak with someone on that and other issues and they have not bothered to get back in touch. Guess Joplin takes a back seat to his more important campaign in Springfield which is a political calculation that is his right to make.

Hey Anson, does it really set him apart considering Mike Moon, Jeff Wisdom, and Michael Wardell have never sat in an elected office either? It's funny that Billy Long's headquarters are keeping hush they are using James Harris and Jeff Roe to run their campaign. Jeff Roe loves to get dirty in races going as far as digging through garbage of political opponents as written many times on the internet. As for the "richest" of the campaign, Billy Long looks more like a career politician not only because of Roe and Harris, but also because he plays the same big money politics Americans are sick of.

In the first couple months of Long is Wrong, I also examined how weak and how contradictory Billy Long's actions have been on helping get a fairer tax system in the United States. Now Straight Up American makes many of the same points only to leave out Long's campaign contributions to candidates who wish to kill the Fair Tax like the Springfield mayor. Here's what Straight Up American writes:

Billy Long seems to be leading the pack of the Republican candidates so I decided to take a look at his position first. Mr. Long seems like a strong candidate in most respects, but unfortunately when it comes to the FairTax his position is a little weak and muddled. In his ads online and in print he indicates that he is in favor of “Fair Tax” (with the space between the two words). There’s a big difference between “Fair Tax” and the FairTax plan. Everyone claims to be in favor of “Fair Tax.” That is not specific support of the FairTax plan. In fact, Mr. Long’s stance on the issue of taxes states, “Billy is open to either a flat tax or a fair tax as a way to fix our tax system.”

This is like saying, “I’d be happy to take more poison or the antidote as a way to recovery.” The tax on income is the fundamental problem, and no amount of tinkering with it is going to fix it. Mr. Long’s openness to a flat tax indicates that he either doesn’t truly understand the problem, or he wants to ride the wave of support for the FairTax into a Congressional office.

I placed a call to the offices of ‘Billy Long for Congress’ to confirm his position on the issue, and was told that although his first choice would be the FairTax he is also open to a flat tax on income because of the difficulty of getting the FairTax passed. I’m sorry, but this is exactly the kind of wishy-washy stance we do not need in Washington.

There is no ‘either, or’ in the issue of tax reform. This Country will crumble under the weight and corruption of the income tax system, and we need representatives that understand that and are eager to fight for a new future. Accepting more of the same just because something is better than nothing isn’t going to cut it any longer. The only solution to our Country’s fiscal woes is to rid ourselves of taxes on income. Anything less is just politics. I wish Mr. Long all the best, but at this point I couldn’t vote for him.