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Last thing we need is more Tea-Publicans; Thomas M. Finch; Beaver County Times; November 16, 2014.
The BCT has published at least 40 letters from Mr. Finch since December 2004. At least 31 of these letters were anti-Bush and/or anti-Republican and they never disappoint. Here is one example. You can find the remaining Finch letters I critiqued in the critique archives. As usual, this letter is little more than a string of leftist talking points. I wish he could get a regular column in the BCT. I also wish he could get at least five minutes per day on a local radio and/or TV station. The most recent letter was “Blame Teapublicans.”
Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.
“Sorry, but I take exception to the letter published Nov. 11 that the ‘Wrong Tom Won.’
“For me, the only bright spots in this election were Al Franken holding onto his seat in Minnesota and throwing Corbett out of office in Pennsylvania.
“The reason Corbett’s campaign ads were so negative was because he had no credible positive accomplishments to run on -- he didn’t deserve to be re-elected. Even his own Republicans in Harrisburg disavowed him. Appealing to all of the ‘Obama-haters’ that electing Tom Wolf would be like making ‘Obama governor of Pennsylvania’ was the only ploy he had -- and obviously some people believed it. It’s a good thing the majority of voters were smarter than that.”
[RWC] In case Mr. Finch missed it, both campaigns used negative ads.
“Obama-hater” is leftyspeak for anyone from the right who disagrees with President Obama’s policies. It’s easier than defending leftist ideology. You are not an “Obama-hater,” however, if you think Mr. Obama is not lefty enough. Given his letter-writing body of work, I wonder if Mr. Finch thinks of himself as a Bush-hater, or simply someone who disagreed with President Bush’s actions and policies.
While I think Gov. Corbett is a good man and attempted to do the right things, his political skills – and those of his advisers – weren’t great and even doing the right thing requires solid communication and political skills. Allowing the “Corbett cut education spending by $1 billion” myth to gain traction is only one example. As for “no credible positive accomplishments to run on,” here are a few. Mr. Corbett inherited a $4 billion deficit yet came up with a balanced budget without increasing tax rates. Mr. Corbett staved off the push to load up Marcellus gas production with taxes. Even the BCT conceded taxing Marcellus gas is “a tax that is paid by consumers” and acknowledged “Raising taxes could slow the economy.” Remember, gas producers pay the same taxes as other businesses. Mr. Corbett signed a transportation bill that increased fuel taxes to fund road and bridge work. Unfortunately, some of those taxes paid by motor fuel consumers also goes to subsidize mass transit freeloadersriders. Mr. Wolf’s position? Mr. Wolf bashed the tax increase yet said he would not seek its repeal, and his running mate voted for it. This is just one example of why I dislike politics and a good number of politicians.
As for Mr. Finch complaining about the Corbett campaign linking Mr. Wolf to Mr. Obama, check Mr. Wolf’s positions and you find they tend to align with those of Mr. Obama. Countrywide, voters didn’t increase Republican seats because they liked Mr. Obama’s results and policies and wanted Congress and the states to help him.
“Corbett can thank the Koch brothers for supplying the money to run that ad every 10 minutes on TV before the election.”
[RWC] I have no idea who funded each campaign’s ads and I doubt Mr. Finch does either. What matters is the truthfulness of those ads.
In case you don’t know, the Koch (pronounced “coke”) brothers are boogeymen to the left because they are wealthy and make their ideological/political contributions primarily to conservative and libertarian candidates and causes. If the Koch brothers contributed primarily to lefty candidates and causes, as do wealthy lefties like Peter Lewis (Progressive Insurance), George Soros (Wall Street hedge-fund manager), Tom Steyer (Wall Street hedge-fund manager), et al, they would be lefty heroes. For example, USW CEO Leo Gerard (a foreign national) once wrote of “Democratic benefactor George Soros.” The Kochs are primary owners (84%) and operators of Koch Industries ($115 billion in annual revenue and about 60,000 employees as of July 2013). Here’s a summary of charitable donations made by the David H. Koch Charitable Foundation. Lefties are so deranged about the Kochs they (1199 SEIU, New York State Nurses Association, NAACP …”) actually staged a protest (3/8/14) at the site of the future David H. Koch Center, a new ambulatory care center at New York – Presbyterian Hospital in NYC to which Mr. Koch donated $100 million! When the Kochs donated $25 million to the United Negro College Fund (UNCF), lefties went even more nuts than usual. Some prominent leftists and leftist groups wanted the UNCF to return the donation, including AFSCME (a large public employee union) management who cut its ties with the UNCF and encouraged other leftist organizations to do the same.
“The ‘fix for stupidity’ certainly isn’t to elect more Tea-Publicans to office -- especially ones like Corbett who have already proven themselves to be incompetent. If you doubt that, watch what kind of job your new Republican Congress does of ‘governing,’ now that the Republicans are in control. More tax breaks for the rich, while making cuts to everything else -- and the ‘common good’ be damned.”
[RWC] Mr. Finch needs a refresher course on the federal government. Though Republicans will be the majority party in both houses of Congress, they will not be “in control” because they don’t have a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate and there’s still a Democrat President and Republicans don’t have veto-proof majorities. In other words, if evil Republicans go for “More tax breaks for the rich, while making cuts to everything else -- and the ‘common good’ be damned,” these actions can be made law only with a lot of cooperation from Democrats.
As for “more tax breaks for the rich,” Mr. Finch apparently counts on ignorance and short memories. Several years back the Tax Foundation reported, “Despite the charges of critics that the tax cuts enacted in 2001, 2003 and 2004 favored the ‘rich,’ these cuts actually reduced the tax burden of low- and middle-income taxpayers and shifted the tax burden onto wealthier taxpayers.” In 2010, Democrats finally had to admit the “tax cuts for the rich” BS was a lie. On December 6, 2010, President Obama said the following about the Bush income tax RATES: “Make no mistake: Allowing taxes to go up on all Americans would have raised taxes by $3,000 for a typical American family. And that could cost our economy well over a million jobs.”
You’ll note Mr. Finch didn’t give his definition of “common good.”
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