Family Values, Iowa Style

Des Moines, Iowa October 4, 2004

THE PRESIDENT: Overall, 94 million Americans will have a lower tax bill next year, including 70 million women and 38 million families with children. The money they keep will make it easier to save for their retirement, or their children's education, invest in a home or a small business, or pay off credit card debts. One of those families is the Hintz family, from Clive, Iowa. Thank you all for coming. (Applause.)

It's a special day for Mike and Sharla, not because they're with the President or with Chairman Grassley, but because it's their 13th wedding anniversary. (Applause.) Theirs is a typical story. See, last year they received a child tax credit check for $1,600 for their four children. And under all the tax relief we've passed, they saved about $2,800 last year. With this extra money they bought a wood-burning stove to reduce their home heating costs. They made a decision for their family.

They also made home repairs and improvements. They took the family on a vacation to Minnesota. Next year when you get your check, you may want to come to Texas. (Laughter.) Without the tax bill I'm signing today, the Hintzes would have paid $1,200 more in federal taxes next year. Think about that. Here's a family of four, working hard to raise their kids, the money would have been going out of their pocket. I believe they can spend that $1,200 better than the federal government can. (Applause.)

OK, so maybe that wasn't all they were doing with that extra money.

Des Moines, Iowa December 7, 2004:

KCCI learned that the married father of four recently turned himself in to Johnston police.

Rev. Mike Hintz was fired from the First Assembly of God Church, located at 2725 Merle Hay Road, on Oct. 30. Hintz was the youth pastor there for three years.

Police said he started an affair with a 17-year-old woman in the church youth group this spring.

Church officials fired Hintz immediately after hearing the allegations.

Oops. I guess that extra money may come in handy, what with Mike being out of a job, and the court costs and all.

I don't know what bothers me most: the fact that this guy was having an affair with someone in his youth group, the fact that he was cheating on his wife, the mother of his FOUR children, the suspicion there was previously some sanctimony about "Christian" values around that house, or the fact that our President can't hire advance men capable of avoiding embarassing stuff like this.