May 7, 2009

Quote of the Day – 5.7.09

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From Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC):

“Marginal tax rates are the lowest they’ve been in generations, and all we can talk about is tax cuts.  The people’s desires have changed, but we’re still stuck in our old issue set.”

The noteworthy thing about this quote isn’t that Patrick McHenry is a Republican, it’s that he’s Patrick McHenry.  This is not Olympia Snowe.  McHenry is a young man who made his bones by insisting loudly and on all occasions that, no matter who else was in the room, he was still the most right-wing guy there.  But he’s also a young man who made his name as a guy willing to do whatever it took to climb the political ladder.  If he’s decided that maybe taxes aren’t the road to electoral glory anymore, the GOP better start looking for another issue.

For more, read “Getting Ahead in the GOP,” Ben Wallace-Wells’s profile of McHenry in the Washington Monthly a few years ago.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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