Nikola Drobac – 4/23/08

This page was last updated on April 23, 2008.

McCain is living in the past; Nikola (Nick) Drobac; Beaver County Times; April 23, 2008.

This is at least the 31^st 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.

“Before business leaders in a warehouse in Wisconsin, U.S. Sen. John McCain promoted his economic agenda of free-trade, lower taxes and a smaller government.”

[RWC] Much of this letter is a regurgitation of “Will God let McCain win?” and “Don’t buy deficit bunkum.”

“America has been practicing free trade for the past 50 years. In 1965, one in three Americans worked in manufacturing positions. Today, as a result of free trade, the service economy represents approximately 90 percent of all American economic activity.”

[RWC] Actually, Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data shows the 1965 figure (27%) was closer to one in four Americans. The service categories used by the BLS are “trade, transportation, and utilities,” “information,” “financial activities,” “professional and business services,” “education and health services,” “government,” and “other.”

Mr. Drobac tells us manufacturing job reductions (from 16,617,000 in 1965 to 13,884,000 in 2007) are the “result of free trade.” Mr. Drobac appears to forget about automation. In many cases, automation has eliminated jobs, while in other cases automation meant fewer employees could produce more.

“Since we have switched from a manufacturing-based to a service-based economy, our foreign trade deficit has ballooned. We have lost 14 million more jobs than we have gained, our standard of living has declined, the value of the dollar is sinking like a rock on the world money market, more American workers now find themselves without health insurance or a pension plan, and American workers now work more days and hours a year than any other workers in the world.”

[RWC] The second sentence in this paragraph is one reason to doubt the facts Mr. Drobac presents. Mr. Drobac claims “[w]e have lost 14 million more jobs than we have gained” despite the fact more Americans are working today than ever before. According to the BLS, employment since 2000 increased from 131,785,000 to 137,623,000 in 2007.

“[O]ur standard of living has declined?” Where and for whom?

Finally, if the 1965 jobs were 73% non-manufacturing, how can Mr. Drobac claim it was a “manufacturing-based” economy? The U.S. has always had a predominantly service-based economy.

“Free trade is great if it benefits all Americans. Instead of being a consumer- driven economy, we might want to switch to an export-driven economy. An export-driven economy will at least bring more desperately needed money back into the American economy.”

[RWC] So Mr. Drobac believes we should do something only “if it benefits all Americans?”

This paragraph makes no sense. I’ve had my share of undergraduate and graduate level economics classes, and I haven’t got a clue what Mr. Drobac is talking about. It seems like Mr. Drobac just strung together some words he thought sounded good. Of course, Mr. Drobac’s discussion could just be over my head.

For whatever reason, Mr. Drobac appears to believe manufacturing is the only way to generate wealth. Unless I missed something, you need people to consume what you manufacture. Jim Bob Wrench Manufacturing Co. can make as many wrenches as it wants, but it won’t generate any wealth unless plumbers (a service job) buy and use the wrenches and generate their own wealth.

“Since 2001, lower taxes during the George W. Bush administration have increased the national debt from $5.7 trillion to $9.5 trillion, an increase of 66.67 percent. As a nation, we cannot afford a further increase in the national debt.”

[RWC] As a reminder, our overall (local, state, federal) tax rate (32.7%) is already near its historical high (34% in 2000).

There have not been “lower taxes.” The increased economic activity spurred by the tax RATE cuts everyone received actually resulted in greater tax collections than ever before. The deficit problem is with spending, not a lack of tax revenue. Have you seen Mr. Drobac ever recommend a spending cut?

“The 1994 Republicans Contract With America promised a smaller, leaner government. In 1995, when the Republicans gained control of the House and Senate, they cut spending to the CIA, FBI, NSA and other government security agencies. The result was 9-11.”

[RWC] Since the budgets of the CIA, NSA, et cetera are classified, I don’t know were Mr. Drobac got the data to make this claim. The only thing I found related to this claim was on FactCheck.org. That piece said $1 billion was cut from the fiscal year 1996 budget “to recapture funds that had been appropriated for spy satellites, but which had gone unspent by the National Reconnaissance Office.”

There is a Homeland Security line item in budgets. From FY 1996 through FY 2001, the HS budget increased from $9.4 billion to $15 billion, an increase of nearly 60%. I have no idea how much – if any – of the HS budget goes to the intelligence agencies Mr. Drobac mentioned.

Finally, even if what wrote Mr. Drobac were true, what about the Democrat president? Unless I missed it, Mr. Clinton didn’t veto any budgets on the basis of insufficient national security funding, and Republicans weren’t even close to having the two-thirds vote required to overturn a veto.

“McCain is living in past, promoting an antiquated system of government that maintains the status quo for the very rich at the expense of the very poor. Maybe U.S. Rep. John Murtha is right. Maybe McCain is too old to be president.”

[RWC] “[A]n antiquated system of government?” The last I heard, Mr. McCain supported the “system of government” defined by the U.S. Constitution. Did I miss an announcement?