Daniel A. Bosh – 10/11/04

This page was last updated on October 11, 2004.

If this is success …; Daniel A. Bosh; Beaver County Times; October 11, 2004.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“When told that some of the loudest cheering from Democratic stalwarts at the recent opening of the John Kerry-John Edwards campaign office to Ambridge came when she was verbally bashed, U.S. Rep. Melissa Hart said, ‘I’ve been a Republican successful in (Democratic) territory, and they don’t like it.’ (‘Drobac takes another attempt to unseat Hart in 4th Congressional District,’ Sept. 21).

“Since Melissa Hart, George Bush and the right wing seized power in January 2001 their successes include:”

[RWC] If Mr. Bosh truly believes President Bush and Rep. Hart are “right wing” conservatives, Mr. Bosh himself must be to the left of Karl Marx. <g> In reality, Mr. Bosh is probably just a yellow dog Democrat repeating words he heard somewhere.

“* A 4.3 million increase in the number of people in poverty.

[RWC] Please read the following papers for a discussion of this topic.

Understanding Poverty in America (Backgrounder #1713); Robert E. Rector and Kirk A. Johnson, Ph.D.; The Heritage Foundation; January 5, 2004.

Poverty and Inequality; The Heritage Foundation; August 25, 2004.

The Data on Poverty and Health Insurance You’re Not Reading (WebMemo #556); Kirk A. Johnson, Ph.D.; The Heritage Foundation; August 27, 2004.

“* A 5.2 million increase in the number of people without health care.”

[RWC] Mr. Bosh apparently doesn’t know the difference between “healthcare” and “healthcare insurance.” Everyone in the United States receives healthcare.

The Census Bureau acknowledges its figure overstates the uninsured because the survey is not primarily designed to gather this data. If you went without insurance for even a few days between jobs, you are counted as uninsured for the entire year. This alone greatly inflates the uninsured figure. The number of persons covered by Medicaid is underreported. For some reason, the number of persons who report they are covered by Medicaid is lower than that shown in Medicaid records. Another reason is some persons eligible for Medicaid don’t sign up.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates the chronically uninsured is roughly 9.1 million persons. Of that 9.1 million, approximately one million simply choose not to purchase health insurance because they don’t feel they need it.

How many chronically uninsured people want but can’t afford insurance? The CBO doesn’t have this figure. A lot of those persons surveyed complain about the expense, but there are no figures to say how many of the 8.1 million really can’t afford insurance vs. how many simply choose to spend their money on other things.

In any case, the number of chronically uninsured people who want but truly can’t afford insurance is less than 18% of the uninsured figure liberals like to throw around. That’s less than 3% of the population. Not having health insurance is not the same as not having health care. As with education, however, providing healthcare or healthcare insurance is definitely not a federal responsibility and should not be a responsibility of any level of government.

“* The loss of almost a million private sector jobs.”

[RWC] More Americans are working now than at any time in history and the 5.4% unemployment rate is 0.1% lower than it was when we re-elected President Clinton in the “good old days” 1990s. 5.4% is lower than the average for the 1970s, 1980s, and the 1990s.

“* A record $422 billion budget-deficit.”

[RWC] Though I don’t support deficits regardless of who is in office, as a percent of GDP, the current deficits are nowhere near all-time highs. Since 1962, at least 10 other deficits were higher than our current deficits on a percent-of-GDP basis.

John Kerry’s proposals will only make things worse because of the additional spending required for his programs. Dollars spent on government programs are dollars not spent in the private sector. Contrary to the belief of most socialists, the private sector drives the economy, not government programs.

“* A record $490 billion trade deficit.”

[RWC] I don’t like trade deficits myself, but we’ve run a trade deficit every year since 1975 and they increased every year of the Clinton administration. If Mr. Bosh can describe the Bush policies he believes caused the current trade deficits, I could evaluate them.

“* Staggering increases in the cost of college (31 percent), health insurance (49 percent) and gasoline (33 percent and climbing fast).”

[RWC] What control does the President have over the cost of these items? The quickest way to reduce the price of college and health insurance would be to eliminate college and healthcare funding programs by government, but I’m willing to bet that’s not what Mr. Bosh wants to hear.

Regarding the price of petroleum, again what could any president have done? The marketplace determines the price of energy and right now worldwide demand outstrips worldwide supply.

“* A decline in median annual family income of $1,535.”

[RWC] The real disposable income of American workers has increased every month since at least January 2003 with the exception of September 2003.

“* More than 1,000 American GIs killed in Iraq.

“* More-than 7,000 American GI’s wounded in Iraq.

“* More than 13,900 Iraqi civilians killed.”

[RWC] My opinion is Mr. Bosh doesn’t care one whit about Iraqi civilians and I have my doubts that he cares much for our servicemen other than to provide statistics he believes he can use to bash our military’s commander in chief.

Our men and women in harm’s way volunteered to defend their country and us. It makes me angry when the anti-Bush crowd attempts to use the sacrifices made by our servicemen and servicewomen and their families for political purposes.

You’ll note Mr. Bosh conveniently didn’t mention the successful Afghanistan election less than three years after we ousted the government that hosted al-Qaida.

“This is a very short list and does not even get into to loss of freedom under the so-called Patriot Act, the decline in the security of our nation from the Republicans’ refusal to recognize reality or the unbelievable corruption of this regime. This is what Melissa Hart thinks is success.”

[RWC] Did you note Mr. Bosh provided no support for the claims in his penultimate sentence? This is nothing more than “drive by” name-calling. It is truly sad.

Though he tried to give us “reasons” to vote against President Bush, did you notice Mr. Bosh gave us no reasons to vote for John Kerry? This trait is a common feature of nearly every anti-Bush column, editorial, and letter.