Nikola Drobac – 3/21/08

This page was last updated on March 21, 2008.

Will God let McCain win?; Nikola (Nick) Drobac; Beaver County Times; March 21, 2008.

This is at least the 29^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, Republican candidate George W. Bush said his economic plan and tax cuts for the rich would result in long-term financial/economic growth and opportunity for all.”

[RWC] I guess Mr. Drobac believes repeating his “tax cuts for the rich” BS makes it true. 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. At first I figured Mr. Drobac was just ignorant about the facts. I now believe Mr. Drobac knows the truth and simply chooses to repeat his myth for political purposes.

“Last week, rumors circulated through the financial community that Bear Stearns was strapped for cash. A run on the bank forced Bear Stearns to beg the Federal Reserve for a bailout. Friday, concerned with the affects [sic] of a Bear Stearns collapse on other financial institutions, the Federal Reserve agreed to the bailout.”

[RWC] A little background is useful here. When traditional banks experience a “run,” they can borrow from the Fed using their less-liquid assets (loans, mortgages, property, et cetera) as collateral. Financial institutions like Bear Stearns didn’t have that option until this week. Therefore, even if Bear Stearns had enough total assets to cover their liabilities, their liquid assets weren’t sufficient to cover everyone who wanted to pull their investments from Bear Stearns. FYI, this is true for almost every financial institution. No matter how strong it is, if everyone ran down to their local bank and immediately wanted to clean out their checking accounts, savings accounts, et cetera, that bank (and its depositors) would be in deep “doo doo” without the ability to get a short-term loan from the Fed.

“Monday, St. Patrick’s Day, Republican President Bush said, ‘Our financial institutions are strong.’ Bush said this with a straight face as the Federal Reserve was still organizing a bailout of Bear Stearns.”

[RWC] What does Mr. Drobac expect the President to do, encourage a run on our financial institutions by talking them down? Besides, President Bush was correct.

I believe Mr. Drobac’s description of a Bear Stearns “bailout” is inaccurate and here’s why. The “bailout” consisted of two parts. First, J.P. Morgan Chase bought Bear Stearns for $2 per share. According to Voice of America, “Bear stock had traded at seventy dollars last week [week of 3/10/08], and one hundred seventy last year.” I don’t know about you, but essentially forcing shareholders (the company’s owners) to give away the company for next to nothing doesn’t sound like much of a “bailout” to me. Second, the Fed agreed to lend J.P. Morgan up to $30 billion to cover Bear Stearns “less-liquid assets. The loan will be secured with those assets, and the Fed will take responsibility for them.” In other words, the Fed will incur a liability only if in the end these assets end up being worth less than what J.P. Morgan paid for them. I don’t know if this action was appropriate, but it wasn’t anything near what Mr. Drobac implied.

“There seems to be a disconnect between what Bush says and reality. It reminds me of his statements about the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.”

[RWC] Oh man, the WMD thing again! Perhaps Mr. Drobac is correct. Maybe President Bush was the only person in the world who knew the truth about WMD in Iraq. Even Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, John Kerry, the CIA, the UN, et cetera believed Iraq had WMD.

“Ronald Reagan once said ‘government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.’ Would Reagan have approved of this bailout?”

[RWC] Mr. Drobac quoting Ronald Reagan as if he agrees with the quote? What a hoot! Given Mr. Drobac’s body of work, you know he hates Mr. Reagan even more than he hates President Bush.

“Now, the Republicans have chosen John McCain as their party’s presidential candidate. McCain has already admitted that he doesn’t really understand economics. McCain also wants to make the Bush tax cuts permanent.”

[RWC] Mr. McCain didn’t say “that he doesn’t really understand economics.” Mr. McCain actually said, “The issue of economics is not something I’ve understood as well as I should.” Frankly, I don’t know how much Mr. McCain knows about economics but his actual statement is true for almost everyone. If Mr. McCain is the typical politician, he probably doesn’t know as much as he should, just like Mr. Drobac. Even so, Mr. McCain appears to understand economics better than Mr. Drobac.

Though I’m not a fan of Mr. McCain on some issues, he’s been solid when it comes to government spending. According to press reports, Mr. McCain has never sponsored any pork-barrel (earmark) spending, has consistently introduced/supported amendments/bills to expose pork-barrel spending, has a lifetime Citizens Against Government Waste rating of “Taxpayer Hero,” never voted for a tax increase, consistently supported tax rate cuts, and has consistently lobbied for balanced budgets. When Mr. McCain opposed the Bush tax rate cuts, he did so only because the rate cuts were not accompanied by spending cuts. I agreed with Mr. McCain. That said, when it became clear there wasn’t enough support for spending cuts, Mr. McCain should have voted for the rate cuts simply because during a recession, tax rate cuts without spending cuts vs. doing nothing is the lesser of two evils.

Finally, the “Bush tax cuts” were tax rate cuts, not tax cuts. Tax collections today are far higher than before the rate cuts. In any case, Mr. Drobac once again exposes his political bias and/or economic ignorance. Does Mr. Drobac – a self-described “high school accounting and business teacher” – really believe it makes sense to raise tax rates in a weak economy? History shows keeping money – or putting it back – in the hands of the taxpayers is a fundamental successful treatment for an ailing economy. Mr. Drobac appears to believe otherwise.

“With the help of Rush Limbaugh and the right-wing Republican propaganda machine, there’s a real chance that McCain could win the 2008 presidential election.”

[RWC] Translation: If the leftist candidates don’t win, it won’t be because of their shortcomings and policies history has shown don’t work.

Face it; if any talk show host can affect an election so your candidate loses, you have a pretty lame candidate. That’s especially true when you consider the vast majority of the media is pulling for the leftist candidate.

“My parish priest tells me that our God is a merciful God. Do you really think God would let McCain win?”

[RWC] How did God get dragged into this? What makes Mr. McCain any less or more “God-worthy” than Mrs. Clinton or Mr. Obama?

I’m not the person to get into theology, but here’s what I learned – or at least as I remember it – during my eight years at St. Titus and my four years of high school CCD classes. While God is omniscient, he doesn’t direct our decisions. For example, God may know you will vote for Bob, but He doesn’t make you vote that way. How you act is your choice and yours alone. I can’t speak for what Mr. Drobac learned.

If you don’t believe in free will/self-determination, folks like Mr. Drobac have a problem. For example, is God not “a merciful God” because He allowed the likes of Osama bin-Laden, Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin, Mao Tse-tung, et cetera to do their deeds?