Edward Hum – 2/3/10

This page was last updated on February 3, 2010.

Bush earns status as ‘most liberal’ ; Edward J. Hum; Beaver County Times; February 3, 2010.

Mr. Hum has written at least 48 letters since early 2005, including a 10-month hiatus from September 2007 to July 2008. Mr. Hum came out of the hiatus to bash then-President Bush’s Air National Guard service with two letters in less than two weeks. It will be no surprise most of Mr. Hum’s letters have been no more than exercises in bashing President Bush and/or other Republicans. Mr. Hum’s letters are also flame-throwing exercises. I don’t know if Mr. Hum actually believes what he writes, or if he simply likes to stir things up to call attention to himself.

Mr. Hum frequently includes “fellow Republicans” or something similar in his letters and is one of a group of local Republican impersonators (The group also includes Messrs. William A. Alexander, Arthur Brown, William G. Horter, and George Reese.) who write claiming to be disgruntled Republicans. You have to give Mr. Hum “credit,” however, for going the extra mile to further his impersonation. As of September 2006, Mr. Hum was actually registered as a Republican despite the fact he’s no more a Republican than is Dennis Kucinich.

Given his body of work, for a while I wondered what Mr. Hum would use for subject matter now that Barack Obama is President. Though his previous three letters were in support of a government-run, taxpayer-funded healthcare monopoly (here, here, and here), in his last two letters Mr. Hum reverted to his Bush-bashing habit. I guess some addictions are too tough to overcome.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“What’s a liberal? What’s a conservative?

[RWC] As you read, you’ll find this letter is simply a sad cry for attention. Even sad cries need to be addressed, however.

“Liberal [sic] spend; conservations [sic] save.”

[RWC] An interesting portrayal.

“The United States has spent $750 billion in Iraq and hundreds of billions on a drug program with no provisions for paying for them.”

[RWC] As for “no provisions for paying for” Iraq, I’m not sure what Mr. Hum means. Does he believe there should have been an Iraq war tax? As far as I can tell, that would have been something new. I haven’t seen President Obama call for such a tax, yet.

I opposed Medicare Part D and still do. That said, this program has actually come in significantly under estimates, from $694 million over 10 years to about $395 million over 10 years.

“I guess that shows that George W. Bush was the most liberal president in generations.”

[RWC] While I always referred to Mr. Bush as a Rockefeller Republican, it would be completely inaccurate to refer to him as “the most liberal president in generations.” Among others, you would have to ignore über spenders FDR and LBJ. Between these two presidents and their Democrat-majority congresses, they implemented two Ponzi schemes (Socialist Security and Medicare) breaking the U.S. According to the Medicare Trustees in their report to Congress in 2009, Medicare is now in deficit (outlays exceed Medicare tax revenue) and will be bankrupt in 2017. Regarding Socialist Security, SS will go into deficit in 2016, the Disability Insurance portion of SS will be bankrupt in 2020, and the overall SS “trust fund” (the equivalent of a stack of federal government “IOUs” for revenue already spent by the feds for other programs) will be exhausted by 2037.

Finally, you’ll note Mr. Hum doesn’t criticize President Obama for doing the same things he claims Mr. Bush did.