Daniel A. Bosh – 1/8/06

This page was last updated on January 8, 2006.

Hart sides with the fat-cats; Daniel A. Bosh; Beaver County Times; January 8, 2006.

This is the third letter from Mr. Bosh since October 2004 going after Ms. Hart. This should not be a surprise given that Mr. Bosh supported Dennis Kucinich in the 2004 Democrat presidential primary campaign. Mr. Bosh also writes letters to various newspapers bashing President Bush and pushing socialist programs like taxpayer-funded healthcare.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“Regarding the Dec. 26, letter (‘going after the fat-cat pensions’), I have a few observations.

“It appears that the writer must have gotten her information about the pension bill passed on Dec. 15, from the press release put out by U. S. Rep. Melissa Hart’s office since she uses many of Hart’s words in her description of the bill and its impact.

“The writer also seems to be unaware of the negative features of the bill, such as freezing workers’ accruals and eliminating shut-down benefits in underfunded pensions. She also repeats Hart’s claim of having fought for the bill, even though Hart is not listed as a cosponsor.”

[RWC] Is “fat cat” a new term for Mr. Bosh? I assume he repeated it 11 times in his letter so he would not forget it.

While we’re on the subject of fat cats, as of 2002 Democrats were the fat cats in the Senate. Roll Call reported in 2002 the four richest U.S. senators, and nine of the top 12, were Democrats. The richest Democrat (John Kerry) had over 13 times the wealth of the richest Republican (Lincoln Chafee), and even Sen. Chafee is a liberal.

“The part that really grabbed my attention though was casting Hart as a fighter against corporate fat-cats, considering Hart is the darling of fat-cats. She has voted in the interests of fat-cats continuously since arriving in Washington. Fat-cats line up to contribute to her campaign, and she delivers for them.”

[RWC] “Fat cats” contribute to everyone, but let’s look at Mr. Bosh’s allegation. In 2002, Democrats raised more contributions than Republicans did in the high-end $10,000+ and $100,000+ ranges. Republicans raised more contributions in the low-end <$200 and the $200 - $999 ranges than Democrats. In other words, “fat cats” tended to support Democrats while “little guys” tended to support Republicans.

Center for Responsive Politics (CRP) data shows the top 20 contributors to the Democrat Party during 2002 contributed almost two and a half times as much as the top 20 contributors to the Republican Party. The top Republican contributor would rank only number 10 on the Democrat Party list. Again, more of those “evil” <g> rich guys supported Democrats than supported Republicans.

“For corporate fat-cats looking for ever cheaper labor, she voted to export jobs to Central America and to strip overtime from many hourly workers here.”

[RWC] Democrat talking points BS.

“For HMO fat-cats, she voted to set up obstacles for people trying to enforce their rights.”

[RWC] Why not provide specific examples?

“Hart voted for the Medicare drug bill, a subsidy for insurance company fat-cats, and also benefits pharmaceutical industry fat-cats by preventing Medicare from negotiating for better prices on drugs.”

[RWC] The idea that business can negotiate with government is a fantasy. Government’s idea of negotiation with a private business is to arbitrarily set a price. That’s what happened with the flu vaccine during the Clinton years and the result was to kill the U.S. flu vaccine industry.

“For Wall Street fat-cats Hart also supports the Republicans’ planned phase out of Social Security.”

[RWC] What planned phase-out of Socialist Security? If it were true we would be so much better off.

“For fat-cats of all breeds, she has supported every tax cut for the rich that the Republicans have dreamed up.”

[RWC] Mr. Bosh is fully aware all of the tax cuts benefited everyone regardless of income. Even those who didn’t pay any income tax received a greater “tax credit” (read: handout). So-called fat cats (top 5%) pay over 53% of income taxes while the lower 50% pay only 3.9%.

“These are only a few examples of Hart putting the greed of fat-cats ahead of the needs of workers. Cheerleading for a pension bill that is, at best, a mixed bag doesn’t make her Franklin Roosevelt.”

[RWC] Who in their right mind would want any representative to emulate FDR?