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Obama demands better; Jerry Miskulin; Beaver County Times; October 14, 2012. At the time of this writing, this letter had not yet appeared in the online edition of the BCT. I apologize for any transcription errors.
I encourage you to review Mr. Miskulin’s body of work in the archives. Mr. Miskulin has written at least 84 letters since 2004 (I didn’t critique all of them.). Most (all?) are illogical and full of falsehoods (not just wrong).
Mr. Miskulin expressed displeasure with the tea parties (here and here), proclaimed
Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.
“The ancient Greeks, many of them very wise, said when it came to wine that one or two are very good, five, six, seven and eight are usually disastrous.”
[RWC] How are modern-day Greeks doing?
“When it comes to deficit spending, a couple of billion dollars is good, $15 trillion of deficit spending is very bad.
“It’s come to where balancing the budget and continuing to deficit spend will produce exactly the same bad results.”
[RWC] What?
“Go figure.
“President Obama believes it’s demand that drives the economy.”
[RWC] How did Mr. Miskulin come to this conclusion? President Obama has made it clear through his actions he believes government drives the economy. That’s why Mr. Obama keeps throwing our tax dollars at things like solar energy businesses, auto-industry labor union management, Obamacare, and so on.
“Romney is on the side of producers, which may have been good if it weren’t for the flood of imports entering the country everyday.”
[RWC] From what I’ve seen, Mitt Romney is on the side of both consumers (“demand”) and “producers.” You can’t have an economy without both.
“Romney’s economic theories are mainly suited for college debate, where no winners ever come to the fore.”
[RWC] Other than his claim “Romney is on the side of producers,” Mr. Miskulin doesn’t specify “Romney’s economic theories.”
“The Greeks always said ‘know thyself’ and ‘nothing to excess.’ I laugh at the Republican budget deficits through the years and how they deceive themselves into thinking their voodoo economic theories would actually work.”
[RWC] There’s no doubt most elected Republicans aren’t exactly my idea of a conservative’s conservative. That said, at the time the subprime lending mess happened, the deficit had been shrinking and was “only” about $160 billion. You may recall the subprime lending program was the cause of this mess and it was a sacred cow to Democrats even after the alarms started going off over 10 years ago. Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) was a big defender of the subprime lending program. In 2003, Mr. Frank said, “These two entities -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- are not facing any kind of financial crisis.” It wasn’t until he decided not to seek re-election in 2012 that Mr. Frank conceded, “In 2004, with regard to subprime loans, I was slow to see the crisis.” As a reminder, the Bush administration started raising alarms in 2001. Mr. Frank wasn’t “slow to see the crisis;” he and fellow Democrats simply chose to ignore the multiple warnings.
You’ll note Mr. Miskulin didn’t specify the “voodoo economic theories” to which he referred.
“The only work they do is when they’re working us over. President Obama demands better.”
[RWC] You’ll note Mr. Miskulin didn’t tell us what Mr. Obama “demands” that’s “better” and of whom he “demands” it.
© 2004-2012 Robert W. Cox, all rights reserved.