Edward Hum – 2/20/11

 


This page was last updated on February 21, 2011.


Republicans like Reagan needed; Edward J. Hum; Beaver County Times; February 20, 2011.

Mr. Hum has written more than 58 letters since mid-2004, including a 10-month hiatus from September 2007 to July 2008.  Most of Mr. Hum’s letters are 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.  Mr. Hum wrote three letters in support of a government-run, taxpayer-funded healthcare monopoly (here, here, and here), then he reverted to his Bush-bashing habit, as in “Bush earns status as ‘most liberal.’”  I guess some addictions are too tough to overcome.  Mr. Hum’s last letter was entitled “Military spending must be cut, too.”

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.


“In a previous letter, I proposed a 1 percent surtax on the income tax.”

[RWC] That letter (“Military spending must be cut, too”) was less than three weeks ago.

“On second thought, we need a 5 percent surtax.  If the income tax is $1,000, pay $50 more.  If it’s $1 million, pay another $50,000.  This would pay for the wars and more.”

[RWC] As I wrote about his one percent surcharge proposal, though I oppose Mr. Hum’s proposal, I need to point out his recommendation would be a drop in the bucket.  This is a clue most folks don’t know how bad our spending problem is.  Based on 2008 IRS data, a one percent surcharge would raise just over $10 billion and a five percent surcharge would raise about $52 billion.  President Obama’s FY 2012 budget has a deficit of about $1.1 trillion.  That’s over 21 times the amount Mr. Hum’s five percent surcharge would raise.

Another problem with Mr. Hum’s proposal is one most lefties seem to have.  Lefties seem to live in a static world in which increasing tax rates doesn’t change taxpayer behavior.  That’s why leftist revenue estimates from increased tax rates rarely materialize.  When confronted with higher tax rates, we greedy taxpayers take actions to minimize our tax liability.  This lefty blind spot is odd given they seem to know increasing the tax rate on something results in less of that something.  Isn’t that the reason we get for the outrageous tobacco taxes, to cut tobacco usage?  (No, I don’t use tobacco products.)

“It’s fair because rich and poor would pay the same percentage.  However, the problem is that my Republican Party only wants to cut Social Security, Medicare and taxes.”

[RWC] Why is paying “the same percentage” “fair?”  Why wouldn’t paying the same amount be “fair?”

“We need Republicans like Ronald Reagan, who had the guts to raise taxes when necessary.”

[RWC] What a load of hooey!  If Mr. Reagan were President today, do you have any doubt Mr. Hum would bash Mr. Reagan even worse than he bashed/bashes George W. Bush?  In November, Mr. Hum wrote a letter entitled “We need more John Wayne Republicans.”  Who will be the next deceased Republican we need more of? 

Mr. Hum didn’t say, but I believe he is referring specifically to TEFRA (1982), not the overall effect of the Reagan-era tax bills.  President Reagan agreed to TEFRA on the promise Congress (Democrat-majority House, Republican-majority Senate) would eventually approve $3 in spending cuts for every $1 of tax increase.  It’s funny how Mr. Hum failed to mention the spending cut part of the TEFRA deal, isn’t it?  The overall effect of the Reagan-era tax bills was a net decrease in taxes relative to GDP.

I get a kick out of what we’re supposed to believe is a lefty love affair with Mr. Reagan.  Despite their best (worst?) efforts to demean Mr. Reagan in the eyes of the people for decades, the left has been unsuccessful.  That’s why they are trying to rehabilitate Mr. Obama’s image by linking Messrs. Obama and Reagan and/or claiming Mr. Obama is “Reaganesque.”  People aren’t that stupid, though, and the effort will fail.

“My fellow Republicans should be calling for an independent commission to list Pentagon contracts that should be cut, and Congress should have to vote up or down on the recommendations like the military base closing bill a few years ago.”

[RWC] Wow!  We got both a “my Republican Party” and a “My fellow Republicans” in the same letter.  Mr. Hum’s really laying it on thick.  As noted above, Mr. Hum may be a registered Republican, but his letters indicate he’s no more a Republican than is Dennis Kucinich.

As far as his “Pentagon contracts” comment, this appears to be the first time Mr. Hum made this suggestion for either political party.  Why didn’t Mr. Hum make this suggestion for Democrats as well?  After all, Democrats are still the majority in the Senate.

“Instead, they introduce bills on sex, abstinence, virginity, abortion and celibacy that are aimed at keeping the church vote from going to the Democrats.  Let’s leave all that to the clergy.”

[RWC] I must be getting my news from the wrong sources.  I haven’t heard of any of these bills.

“Some Republican politicians should be arrested for practicing medicine without a license.  If I were a woman, the last thing I would want would be these clowns coming into my hospital room to tell my doctors what to do.”

[RWC] If I were Mr. Hum, I wouldn’t use a “politicians … practicing medicine without a license” analogy.  As I noted above, Mr. Hum wrote at least three letters in support of a government/politician-run, taxpayer-funded healthcare monopoly and it was Democrats – without a single Republican vote – who passed Obamacare, recently ruled unconstitutional by two federal courts.  The last I knew, Republicans are the guys trying to get politicians out of the healthcare industry.


© 2004-2011 Robert W. Cox, all rights reserved.