Michael Torbic – 10/7/04

This page was last updated on October 7, 2004.

Kerry and Serbia; Michael Torbic; Beaver County Times; October 7, 2004.

Though he claims a number of groups should vote for John Kerry, Mr. Torbic simply lists what he believes are reasons to vote against President Bush. If this letter were pro-Kerry instead of anti-Bush, Mr. Torbic would have told us what Mr. Kerry planned to do to address the issues.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“There are a number of groups that should be voting for John Kerry.

“* Seniors, because of the high cost of health care. The prescription drug card is useless, and there has been a 17 percent increase in Social Security costs that must be paid by the elderly for health care.”

[RWC] Why is this reason only for “seniors?” Doesn’t everyone require healthcare?

How did President Bush cause the high price of healthcare? If Mr. Torbic believes any government run program will reduce the cost of healthcare, history shows he is wrong. I don’t approve of Medicare at all, but why is the prescription drug card useless? Regarding the Medicare – not Socialist Security – increases, they would have happened regardless of who was president. According to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, “Medicare deductibles and premiums are updated annually in accordance with formulas set by law.”

“* Labor, because of the loss of jobs and because of jobs going overseas for cheap labor and high profits for industry and big bonuses for chief executive officers.”

[RWC] Democrats like to say we lost 2.7 million jobs since President Bush took office. What they don’t tell you is that we also generated 1.8 million new jobs. Therefore, using the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) payroll survey, we lost a net of 0.9 million jobs, 1/3 of that claimed by Democrats. I don’t claim this is cause for celebration, but even this doesn’t tell the whole story.

Each month the BLS actually conducts two job surveys, the household and the payroll surveys. Historically, the payroll survey underestimates employment because it doesn’t count the self-employed or those persons who work at home or on farms. When you use the household survey data, there has been a net employment increase of 1.9 million jobs since President Bush took office.¹ The household survey is also the basis for the official BLS unemployment figures. Now you know why Democrats like to quote the payroll survey.

Regarding “jobs going overseas,” here’s a quote from FactCheck.org. “There are no official figures on the total number of jobs that have gone overseas, but in May 2004 the Labor Department made its first-ever report on the portion of ‘mass layoffs’ attributable to ‘overseas relocation.’ Their survey showed that only 2.5 percent of major layoffs in the first three months of 2004 were a result of outsourcing abroad. That survey only covers companies that have laid off 50 or more workers at one time for 30 days or longer, and so may not be representative of all companies and all job loss. But it gives scant support for Kerry’s theme.”

“* Veterans, due to the loss of health care and closing of veterans hospitals.”

[RWC] Consider the following:

· VA funding is now higher than at any point in the past ten years, and it’s going up twice as fast under President Bush as under President Clinton.²

· Funding for veterans in the first three Bush budgets increased 27%. If President Bush gets what he proposed for the 2005 budget, the total increase will be 37.6%. That’s 37.6% in four years compared to 31.6% during Clinton’s eight years.

· The number of veterans receiving health benefits is going up 25 percent under President Bush’s budgets² No, it’s not because of the Iraq War.

“* Border states, for being unprotected from drugs and aliens crossing borders coming to provide cheap labor causing job losses. Troops should be pulled from Germany, France and Japan to guard the borders against drug traffickers and illegal aliens.”

[RWC] Workers – legal or illegal – coming into the country don’t cause job losses. Depending on the market, they may put downward pressure on wages for affected jobs, but they don’t make jobs go away. In fact, “cheap labor” usually results in job generation. Don’t get me wrong; I strongly oppose illegal immigration. I’m just pointing out Mr. Torbic’s claim is flawed.

The United States has no troops in France and hasn’t for decades, except for the thousands buried there from World Wars I and II. Regarding Germany and Japan, Mr. Torbic hopes we haven’t been paying attention. In August, President Bush announced a troop realignment that would bring home a significant number of troops stationed in Germany, Japan, and South Korea.

As for using the military to guard the borders, I believe you’ll find current laws generally prohibit the Army, Navy, et cetera from direct participation in domestic law enforcement. The military can provide technical assistance a proscribed by law. I agree we need to do a better job with our borders but we need to do it by adding the appropriate number of personnel, not by taking away from our armed forces.

“* General public, because of the tax breaks for the 1 percent rich, putting the burden to maintain the economy on the people to buy consumer goods.”

[RWC] Though partisans like Mr. Torbic like to claim the Bush tax cuts were only for the wealthy, nothing could be further from the truth. Everyone received tax cuts. In some cases, even those low-income persons without a tax liability received a “refund.” Further, the tax cuts eliminated the income tax liability for 7.8 million families.³ Another fact inconvenient for Mr. Torbic is that despite the cuts, the “rich” pay a greater portion of income taxes than they did before the cuts.

“Putting the burden to maintain the economy on the people to buy consumer goods?” What does Mr. Torbic believe drives the economy?

“The general public should vote for Kerry because the United States has entered into a war due to lies about weapons of mass destruction and the Sept. 11, 2001, incident.”

[RWC] What lies? I’m sure Mr. Torbic finds it inconvenient, but before the Iraq War, John Kerry made exactly the same WMD claims as President Bush and he sat on the Senate Intelligence Committee for eight years. If Mr. Torbic wants to claim President Bush lied, he must also concede John Kerry lied and therefore Kerry doesn’t deserve Torbic’s vote.

9/11 is now an “incident?” It was an attack on defenseless civilians by terrorists – al-Qaida – who want to kill all of us. Was Pearl Harbor an “incident?” It’s talk like this that makes it tough to take liberals seriously with respect to national defense.

“The power to declare war should be made by the Congress and not the president’s advisers, who are industrial CEOs of large industries or capital investors for profit.”

[RWC] In case Mr. Torbic missed it, Congress gave President Bush authorization by approving the Iraq War Resolution just as required by the Constitution. Sens. Kerry and Edwards both voted for the resolution.

“In the final analysis, in order for the above groups to vote for John Kerry, he should be required to take a position in Kosovo that ensures fairness and safety for the Serbian people, their churches and monasteries, holy sites and properties.”

[RWC] If we shouldn’t be in Iraq because there were no WMD, why in the world are we in Serbia? Did anyone ever claim Serbia was a threat to the United States? Both President Bush and John Kerry should commit to get U.S. troops out of there. Let Europe take care of its own mess.

1. Why Are the Dems Griping About Jobs?; Robert J. Barro; BusinessWeek; October 4, 2004. A subscription is required to access this web site.

2. Special Report – Political Grapevine; Brit Hume; Fox News Channel; February 23, 2004.

3. Bush Tax Cuts Erased Income Tax Burden for 7.8 Million Families; Scott A. Hodge and J. Scott Moody; Tax Foundation; August 17, 2004.