Nikola Drobac – 3/6/08

This page was last updated on March 8, 2008.

Let’s talk accountability; Nikola (Nick) Drobac; Beaver County Times; March 6, 2008.

This is at least the 28^th anti-Bush and/or anti-Republican rant Mr. Drobac has written since July 1, 2004. In a letter entitled “GOP messing things up” (October 29, 2002), Mr. Drobac expressed a wish to be able to laugh as all Republicans face financial ruin in retirement, calling them fools because they may have more confidence in themselves than in government bureaucrats and politicians.

According to his website, Mr. Drobac attended CCBC, Pitt, and USC.

Mr. Drobac appears to spam his letters to multiple papers, including newspapers in eastern Pennsylvania and Maryland. Some of the papers in these locations include The Republican, The Patriot News, The Ephrata Review, and the Cumberland Times-News. At the same time he wrote letters to the Times and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette claiming to live in Aliquippa, Mr. Drobac sent letters to these other papers claiming to live in Oakland, MD, and/or Stevens, PA. You can see examples on Mr. Drobac’s website.

Mr. Drobac appears to be a journeyman secondary school teacher – at least three school districts over the last several years – who has taught in the aforementioned locations. As of this writing, Mr. Drobac appears to be on the Reading School District staff. In a previous letter Mr. Drobac described himself as a current/former “high school accounting and business teacher.” Does anyone doubt the stuff he writes in letters like this also finds its way into Mr. Drobac’s classes? Mr. Drobac also appears to serve as Vice President Information Systems for DiCenzo Personnel Specialists of Pittsburgh.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“During the 2000 presidential election, the Republicans wanted to hold President Bill Clinton and the Democrats accountable for everything.”

[RWC] Hmm, assuming Mr. Drobac’s assertion is correct, could it be because the Republican candidate was running against the then current VP? The question is, why didn’t VP Al Gore run on accountability? After all, if he and his administration did such a great job, wouldn’t accountability have been a strong selling point?

“Fast forward to 2008: To date, Republicans have not brought up the word ‘accountability.’”

[RWC] Hmm, could it be because the Republican candidate isn’t running against the current administration?

“Under George W. Bush’s watch, the size of the federal government has grown significantly. Bush inherited from Clinton an annual federal budget of $1.9 trillion dollars. It’s now $3.1 trillion.

“The Bush tax cuts for the rich were to provide long-term economic growth and opportunity. Are you better off today than you were eight years ago?”

[RWC] As I’ve had to point out in previous critiques of Mr. Drobac’s letters, he fails to note everyone received tax rate cuts, not just the evil rich. To answer Mr. Drobac’s question, yes I am.

“When Clinton was in office, he put in place a plan to pay off the national debt by 2010. In 2001, Bush refused to stay the course. Bush said that after the tax cuts for the rich, there would be enough money left over to pay off the national debt.”

[RWC] Mr. Drobac fails to Mr. Clinton also left the Bush administration with a recession. I don’t blame Mr. Clinton for the recession; I’m just pointing out the situation. In any case, cutting tax rates is a tried and true method to dampen a recession. What would Mr. Drobac have preferred, President Bush sit by and do nothing?

Regarding Mr. Clinton’s “plan,” that’s a stretch. The “plan” was simply an estimate based on estimated budgets for the following 10 years. Even then, the budget surpluses were already dropping (by 50% in Mr. Clinton’s last budget). Had President Bush done nothing, the deficits would still have occurred as a result of the decrease in tax revenue caused by the recession.

“The facts: Bush inherited from Clinton a national debt of $5.7 trillion. Under Bush’s watch, the size of the national debt has grown significantly and is expected to top $10 trillion by the time he leaves office in 2009.”

[RWC] Have you read a letter from Mr. Drobac calling for spending cuts to balance the budget? Don’t get me wrong; I’ve written previously that I felt President Bush and elected Republican didn’t do enough to rein in spending and cut extraconstitutional federal programs. My point is this; leftists like Mr. Drobac who bash Republicans for deficit spending and an increasing debt do so only because it’s not happening on their watch.

“Bush also said that he would make America more competitive in this global economy. Since 2000, the trade deficit has increased steadily from $379.8 billion to $711.6 billion in 2007.”

[RWC] There is only one way for the President to help “America more competitive in this global economy.” That’s by getting government out of the way of business as much as possible. President Bush did this in one way by cutting tax rates. What President Bush did in the way of cutting unnecessary regulation, I don’t know. In any case, these are actions leftists tend to oppose.

“The Commerce Department told us that America loses 20,000 jobs for every billion-dollar increase in the trade deficit. Under Bush’s watch, America has lost 6.6 million jobs as a result of foreign trade. Can you say recession?”

[RWC] Mr. Drobac appears to make up his data. Check the Bureau of Labor Statistics and you find employment has increased by about 6 million jobs since 2000 and the current unemployment rate is 4.8% (lower than the average of the 1990s).

“Bush led the Republicans and the right-wing Christian coalition to believe that he would abolish abortion in America. Never happened.”

[RWC] Nice try, but I don’t recall President Bush making that promise and here’s why he couldn’t make that promise. Making abortion illegal can take place in only two ways. The first way would take a constitutional amendment and the President has absolutely no role in that process. The second way is for the Supreme Court to reverse Roe v. Wade. The only way the President can affect Supreme Court decisions is indirectly via appointments. By appointing Justices John Roberts and Samuel Alito, President Bush did just about all the law allows.

“Surprise! Fifteen million more illegal aliens today than in 2000. No weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Recognizing an al-Qaeda based terrorist government in Kosovo.”

[RWC] Yep, Mr. Drobac’s correct about the illegal alien problem and it’s true President Bush hasn’t been helpful on this issue. That said, I’m not sure how serious Mr. Drobac is. You see, Mr. Drobac is a partisan Democrat and elected Democrats tend to favor the equivalent of open borders and amnesty for illegal aliens. Had President Bush done something about illegal aliens, I suspect Mr. Drobac would have found a reason to bash President Bush anyway.

Yep, there were no significant caches of WMD found in Iraq.

Regarding Kosovo, this is the only topic for which I’ve seen Mr. Drobac criticize Bill Clinton (here and on the Drobac website), though he didn’t do so here.

“Accountability. Do you think the Republicans will use the word accountability during the 2008 presidential election?”

[RWC] Has anyone told Mr. Drobac that President Bush isn’t running for reelection this year?