Nikola Drobac – 4/14/08

This page was last updated on April 23, 2008.

Don’t buy deficit bunkum; Nikola (Nick) Drobac; Beaver County Times; April 14, 2008.

This is at least the 30^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.

“When George W. Bush took office in 2001, the national debt was $5.7 trillion.

“Today, it is $9.5 trillion, an increase of 66.67 percent or $3.8 trillion.

“Bush and the Republicans have tried to convince American taxpayers that the war on terror has caused this balloon in the national debt.

“Not true.

“Before two Senate committees, top U.S. military commander in Iraq, Army Gen. David Petraeus said that since 2003, the cost of the war in Iraq has now exceeded $500 billion, or $0.50 trillion.

“If you work the numbers, $3.8 trillion minus $0.50 trillion equals $3.3 trillion. Excluding Iraq, the national debt would still have increased by $3.3 trillion. Bush and the Republicans are lying to all Americans by blaming the war on terror for the significant rise in the national debt.”

[RWC] I haven’t heard President “Bush and the Republicans” try to convince us the war on terror is behind our deficit spending, but Mr. Drobac may be correct. Regardless, it’s clear the deficit spending and the debt are the result of spending on extraconstitutional programs (Medicare, Medicaid, Socialist Security, welfare, Education Department, et cetera) that leftists like Mr. Drobac favor.

“The U.S. foreign trade deficit for 2007 was $708.5 billion. The United States has not run a foreign trade surplus since 1973.

“Combining our national debt and foreign trade deficit, trillions of dollars have left this country and are now being held in foreign banks (China, Great Britain, Japan, etc.).”

[RWC] I’m not sure how the trade deficit links to a discussion of excessive government spending. Spending and trade deficits aren’t remotely related, except as talking points.

“Let’s apply supply and demand economic theories to the above.

“Foreign countries have trillions of American dollars. Supply of dollars is high.

“The demand for the U.S. dollar is low because we have switched from a manufacturing-based economy to a service/consumer-based economy.”

[RWC] BS alert! Whether it’s a service or a manufactured good, it’s still a product that can generate wealth. We’re still a big manufacturing economy, but there’s nothing inherently economically better about a “manufacturing” economy vs. one based on services. Of course, I believe the optimum is a mixture of both manufacturing and services. Remember, services include engineering, computing, medical, science, education, et cetera.

“High supply of U.S. dollars and low demand, the value of the dollar drops on the world money markets. As the value of the dollar drops, foreign companies increase the prices of their goods to offset the drop in the dollar value.”

[RWC] Surprise! Mr. Drobac presented only half of the picture.

The lower value of the dollar makes U.S. goods and services cheaper for foreign customers. This means foreign demand should increase for U.S. goods and services and result in more exports. The lower dollar value also increases domestic demand for U.S. good and services because foreign goods and services are now more expensive. The cheaper dollar is also one reason why tourism to the U.S. is up.

“That’s why the price of a barrel of oil now sells for over $110. And that’s why the cost of a gallon of gasoline is expected to reach $3.60 this summer.”

[RWC] While the value of the dollar is a component of the price of oil, it’s far from the only reason and isn’t even the major reason.

Did you notice what’s missing from Mr. Drobac’s letter? That’s right, Mr. Drobac didn’t tell us how he or fellow Democrats would address the issue.