Beaver County Reds – 1/25/12

“On the Topic of Obama, the GOP Can’t Even Blush Anymore

“If Hollywood gave Oscars for shamelessness, the Republican responses to President Obama’s State of the Union speech last night, Jan 24, would have swept the field.”

[RWC] There was such an Oscar, but it was retired after lefties won it 11 straight years for 2001 through 2011. <g>

“Take Indiana’s Gov. Mitch Daniels, who gave the official GOP response:

“‘No feature of the Obama presidency has been sadder than its constant efforts to divide us, to curry favor with some Americans by castigating others,’ he said.  ‘As in previous moments of national danger, we Americans are all in the same boat.’”

[RWC] Here’s the rest of that paragraph: “If we drift, quarreling and paralyzed, over a Niagara of debt, we will all suffer, regardless of income, race, gender, or other category.  If we fail to shift to a pro-jobs, pro-growth economic policy, there will never be enough public revenue to pay for our safety net, national security, or whatever size government we decide to have.”  Below you’ll see there’s a reason Mr. Davidson omitted this portion of Mr. Daniels’ comment.

“Amazing.  One top GOP candidate, Newt Gingrich, is running around the country attacking Obama as the ‘Food Stamp President,’ while the other, Mitt Romney, whose newly released tax returns show he takes in more in a day than a well-paid worker does in a year, critiques Obama’s business skills using a shuttered factory as a stage prop.”

[RWC] Let’s give Mr. Davidson the benefit of the doubt and assume a political activist for about 50 years really didn’t know what Mr. Daniels meant.  Agree with the Gingrich or Romney comments or not, they were directed at an individual, President Obama.  Mr. Daniels meant Mr. Obama’s propensity for pitting group vs. group.  For example, during his push for Obamacare, Mr. Obama demonized doctors by claiming they were unnecessarily removing tonsils for the money and were raking in all kinds of big bucks for amputations.  The objective?  To pit the rest of us against doctors.  Remember 2004/2008 presidential candidate and former Sen. John Edwards (D-NC) and his “two Americas?” And who’s responsible for the 99% vs. 1% BS?  Though he may not have personally started the Occupy groups, Mr. Obama’s comments and those of other Democrats indicate their support.  A hallmark of the left is to split us along lines of ethnicity, income, sex, skin color, et cetera and then pit the groups against each other.

Unless you’re envious, who cares if “Mitt Romney … takes in more in a day than a well-paid worker does in a year?”  Mr. Davidson failed to note Mr. Romney also paid $3 million in federal income taxes for 2010 (a little less than 14%) and made charitable donations of about $2.9 million.  When looking at the tax rate, it’s misleading because at least some of the income was already taxed at the “corporate” rate of 35% before it became income for Mr. Romney.  Some folks like to overlook the double-taxation aspect of some kinds of income.  Have you noticed lefties don’t seem to have a problem with high-income and/or wealthy lefties?  Of the 10 wealthiest members of the House, three are Democrats [including former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (CA) at #6] and seven are Republicans.  Of the 10 wealthiest members of the Senate, the top seven are Democrats and the remaining three are Republicans.  Finally, do you recall lefties complaining about Sen. & Mrs. John Kerry’s (D-MA) income/wealth during the 2004 presidential campaign?

As for criticizing Mr. Obama’s “business skills,” what’s there to critique?  Prior to being a politician, Mr. Obama was a community “organizer,” part-time college lecturer, and a lawyer at a law firm specializing in civil rights cases.

“Obama, of course, never shut down a single factory, yet that was precisely the business Mitt Romney and his outfit, Bain Capital, was famous for, including shutting down a factory in Florida, where his video message was being recorded.”

[RWC] Given his pre-government résumé, it may appear obvious “Obama … never shut down a single factory.”  After all, his private-sector job history would indicate Mr. Obama was never been in a position to build, run, or shut down a business.  Nevertheless, is it true “Obama … never shut down a single factory?”

Unfortunately, you don’t have to be in business to kill a business; being a politician will do just fine.  Did Mr. Obama support the policies leading to the subprime mortgage mess?  Aren’t new regulations issued by Mr. Obama’s EPA forcing the closure of some coal-fired power plants?  Will Mr. Obama’s opposition to the Keystone XL Pipeline result in higher-than-necessary domestic energy prices that may drive domestic businesses to shut down?  Does Mr. Obama support closed-shop labor laws?  I could mention a lot of other positions, but I think you get my point.  Whether “good” or “bad,” regulations tend to increase the cost to produce goods and services.  Usually it’s not a lone regulation that hurts a business/industry, but the cumulative effect of many regulations issued over time.  Regulations grow in number and are almost never repealed.  Sooner or later, an incremental regulation becomes “the straw that breaks the camel’s back.”

“‘All in the same boat’ and ‘castigating others’ indeed.  Governor Daniels uttered these words as the state he presides over is currently engaged in a notorious ‘right to work for less’ battle to strip Indiana’s workers on their ability to bargain collectively.”

[RWC] Right-to-work legislation doesn’t “strip … workers on their ability to bargain collectively.”  It’s mostly about making it illegal to make union membership a condition of employment.  You can learn more about this in my critique of “‘Right-to-Work’ and the Jim Crow Legacy That Affronts King’s Memory.”

“Like many Americans, I watched the President’s speech with a critical eye.  As he detailed a number of manufacturing and alternative energy industrial policies, I thought, finally, he’s giving some voice to his ‘inner Keynesian’ and forcing a crack in the neoliberal hegemony at the top.  I cheered when he took aim at Wall Street and declared, ‘No more bailouts, no more handouts, and no more cop outs.’  On the other hand I winced more than once at the glorification of militarism and the defense of Empire - I’m one quick to oppose unjust wars and who has long believed a clean energy/green manufacturing industrial policy needs to trump a military-hydrocarbon industrial policy.”

[RWC] Leftists tend to favor Keynesian economics because it favors government intervention in the economy like that of Presidents Hoover and Roosevelt in the 1930s during the Great Depression and Presidents Bush and Obama during 2008-2012.  Of course, we know intervention didn’t end the Great Depression and likely extended it.  One point where lefties and Keynesian economics part ways is when it comes to taxes.  In “The Means to Prosperity” (1933), Keynes recognized increasing tax rates can provide the double whammy of damping an economy and reducing collected taxes, leading to deficit spending and debt.  To this day, most – but not all – leftists appear to believe increasing tax rates has no effect on the economy and always increases collected taxes.  One lefty even told me President Clinton’s 1993 tax rate increases were actually responsible for the economy we had during most of the 1990s.

As for “‘No more bailouts, no more handouts, and no more cop outs,’” Mr. Davidson and I agree to a point.  I don’t believe in taxpayers bailing anyone out.  I believe you’ll find Mr. Davidson is OK with bailouts, handouts, and so on as long as he approves of who’s paying and who’s receiving.

“This speech was also Obama in campaign mode.  One thing we’ve learned over the last four years is that his governing mode is not the same thing, and requires much more of us in terms of independent, popular and democratic power at the base to make good things happen.

“But one thing is clear.  My critical eye has nothing in common with what’s coming from the GOP and the far right.  The first Saturday of every month, the pickups [sic] trucks from the local hills and hollows, growing numbers of them, fill the parking lot of the church on my corner, picking up packages from the food pantry to help make ends meet.  In these circumstances and lacking better practical choices, I’ll go with the ‘Food Stamp’ President any day of the week.”