Peter Deutsch – 9/7/04

This page was last updated on September 25, 2004.

Lip service to compassion; Peter Deutsch; Beaver County Times; September 7, 2004.

If you think any independent research went into Mr. Deutsch’s letter, think again. It appears Mr. Deutsch merely regurgitated standard Democrat party talking points; I found most of the figures Mr. Deutsch quoted in documents on the Kerry/Edwards web site.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“The Republican National Convention saturated the media with a spirit of optimism about the economy and other related domestic priorities.

“But we are reminded almost daily that things are very different in Pennsylvania.”

[RWC] Is this Mr. Deutsch’s version of the Kerry/Edwards “two Americas?” There’s the rest of America and then there’s Pennsylvania? Perhaps Mr. Deutsch should check his data. PA’s unemployment rate is below that of the rest of the country.

“Since Bush took office, 337,000 people in Pennsylvania have lost their health insurance and 160,000 manufacturing jobs have also been lost. The jobs that are being created in growing industries pay an average of $9,120 per year less than in the industries that are contracting.”

[RWC] Based on a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article, it looks like Mr. Deutsch gets his data from Tony Podesta, Kerry’s Pennsylvania campaign director. Given my experience with numbers provided by Democrats, I believe these numbers are suspect at best.

Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan doesn’t buy the claim that new jobs are of lesser quality than lost jobs. Testifying before Congress, Greenspan said, “We’ve not been able to find a significantly meaningful change in the quality of the jobs being produced relative to the quality of jobs being lost for the nation as a whole over the last year.” Is that true for Pennsylvania? I don’t know.

Mr. Deutsch, for a second let’s assume the numbers you repeated are accurate. How would any president, either Democrat or Republican, “fix” that situation? Lest we forget, the United States started losing manufacturing jobs in 1998, while Democrat President Clinton was in office. Why didn’t he stop it at the time, or better yet, not let it start? The truth is, this stuff is beyond the control of government. As soon as you try to fight the market, you’re in even deeper trouble.

“We need leadership both national and local, and the Democratic Party is focused on helping. Almost daily we see stories about US Airways severe economic difficulties. Within the last week or so, we have heard announced substantial cuts at the power plants in Shippingport.”

[RWC] The US Airways situation is directly attributable to poor company and labor union management for more than a decade. The cuts at the Shippingport power plants are the result of improved productivity. Exactly how would the Democrat party “help” in these cases? Remember, the federal government already “helped” US Airways by providing a $900 million loan guarantee. As each days passes, it looks more and more like we taxpayers will “eat” that guarantee.

“We’ve also seen gasoline prices trend generally upward over the last few months.

“Although they have come down a bit, the price of crude remains at a relatively high $44 with the stock market only moderately rebounding from recent crude oil price shocks.”

[RWC] What do you expect any president to do about oil prices? A president can propose long-term initiatives and that is what President Bush has done. Even if someone had the “perfect” plan and it had been implemented the day President Bush took office, it would have had no effect on today’s prices. Any plan to reduce oil consumption enough to significantly reduce oil prices without wrecking the economy and/or specific industries would take years to implement, possibly decades depending on demand throughout the rest of the world.

“Now, Pennsylvania families with teenagers pay an average of $612 more per year for gasoline than when Bush took office.”

[RWC] What about families outside of Pennsylvania or those without teenagers? Are their gas prices lower? <g>

“And how could I neglect the report of more than 1 million Americans being added to the poverty rolls in late August? That means 140,000 more Pennsylvanians are in poverty than when Bush took over.

[RWC] Read The Data on Poverty and Health Insurance You’re Not Reading by Kirk A. Johnson, Ph.D., of The Heritage Foundation to cut though the hype.

“Many economists are both recognizing and actively acknowledging a significant connection between sluggish job growth and the steeply rising cost of health care.”

[RWC] Sluggish job growth? The unemployment rate is currently the same it was during 1996, the year President Clinton ran for re-election. At that time the press called 5.6% “already low,” and the current rate is 5.4%. As noted above, PA’s unemployment rate is even lower at 5.3%. Job growth for the last 12 months was 1.7 million jobs.

Exactly how would compassionate Democrats address the healthcare price situation? Please don’t say socialized healthcare.

“How can industries justify hiring in such an environment? We cannot fix one problem without recognizing the other. We desperately need relief from these developments and others.”

[RWC] Businesses need to wise up and quit paying for employee healthcare insurance. The third-party payer system – including Medicare, Medicaid, PACE, et cetera – is the primary reason for skyrocketing healthcare prices. Until the vast majority of healthcare consumers – you and I – have to pay directly for their healthcare, prices will be too high. It’s only when we see the money leaving our pockets that we shop around and make responsible economic decisions. Would we care about gasoline prices if our employers paid for our gasoline?

“The Democrats will listen and respond. Bush and his people, sensing that things are just fine for the wealthy top few percent, will turn a deaf ear. At most they will give ‘compassionate’ lip service filled with lies.”

[RWC] Of course Democrats will “listen and respond.” Nothing makes a socialist happier than when someone wants government to “solve” a problem.

Mr. Deutsch, if Republicans are so dead set against everyone but the mega rich, please explain why so many people vote for Republicans. Do you believe all those voters are stupid and/or gullible? If what you believe were true, no Republicans would ever get elected. In truth, as a group, today’s elected Republicans are virtually indistinguishable from Democrats of the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Perhaps Mr. Deutsch can explain the “compassion” in politicians taking money from people who earned it and giving it to people who didn’t. It’s compassion only when you voluntarily reach into your pocket to help someone else.

I wondered when Mr. Deutsch would get around to name-calling. Using a brand new tactic – not exactly, Mr. Deutsch concludes by calling President Bush a liar.