It’s tempting to want to respond point by point to Frank J. Morelli’s one-and-half-column-foot long list of Fox News–generated complaints against President Obama (“Support For Mitt Romney,” Sept. 21). All are easily refuted, but there’s a more important idea to think about when deciding your vote on Nov. 6. It’s who got us into the mess the president found when he took office and whether we really want to hand the keys to the country to the same crowd again.
The Republicans bang the drum loudly for “freedom” and “independence,” but we need to understand what these code words mean in the Republican lexicon. Since the days of Herbert Hoover, the GOP has been a wholly owned subsidiary of the rich and the corporations. The “freedom” they seek is the unhindered ability of business to do what it likes, even if that includes polluting the earth and cheating consumers and workers alike.
The “independence” is the idea that each of us is on our own in life, and should therefore not depend on anyone else, or society in general, when we age or should misfortune strike. This idea has advantages to the party’s backers. If there were no Social Security, Medicare or other safety net programs, taxes could be lower, a benefit that gets larger as the rich get richer. Or better yet, these programs could be privatized, creating billions in new profit opportunities.
The weakening of these protections have marked virtually every GOP administration, and especially that of George W. Bush. Romney would be no different, and would likely be worse, as he has even stronger ties to the worlds of wealth and big business.
The Republicans have built their campaign on the question, “Are you better off now than you were four years ago?” The real question is, “Will you be better off four years from now if Mitt Romney is elected?” Given the beliefs he and his party have always held, and continue to hold today, the answer is pretty obvious, isn’t it?
Look beyond the sniping and the pretty red, white and blue wrapping the GOP uses to hide its true intent, and vote in your own self-interest. Vote Obama in 2012.
Jay Schleifer
Wellington
Jay, you say it is easy to refute the list of “facts” which you think of as FOX News generated, but you didn’t and probably won’t, because these are facts and not opinion.
I’m looking for facts in your letter. I couldn’t find any. What I found was exaggerations and patiently false characterization, but no facts.
I believe both houses and the presidency will be controlled by Republicans. Then we can test your assumptions.
Contrary to this free-market model, the Democrats have destroyed the industrial machine through onerous regulations and mandates which increases the cost of production and devalues money. The Democrats raise taxes on business which increases the cost of commodities. The result is that money is worth less. To maintain the same standard of living, Democrats impose wage increases on businesses, which also increases the cost of production and the wage increases are off-set by increases in the retail price of commodities. The only way for the consumer to be able to increase demand and raise his standard of living is to create debt. Debt is not taxable as are wages, so the government looses revenue. When the government looses revenue it must borrow, and that creates more debt. Democrats have no aversion to creating debt, and Obama is proving to be the king of debt.
The government guaranteed loan [Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac] that was heavily supported by the Democrats, has a malevolent inclination to destroy the free-market, as do government bailouts. In a free market, consumer demand is based upon savings from wages, and loans are based on the ability to repay. Borrowing money from China was not the only culprit in the collapse of economy. Obama is now simply printing money by selling bonds to the FED on worthless credit.
The proximate cause for the failure of the largest financial institutions in the country was due to a “moral hazard”. In other words, government guarantees. The certainty of government bailouts encouraged banks to make improvident loans. Financiers earned income on the loan, and then passed the risk off onto the taxpayers.
Now the Obama administration is suing Wells Fargo for making those loans. This administration doesn’t know how to take responsibility for their insane policies that have increase the national debt more than all previous presidents. Obama has borrowed from $9 trillion to now $17 trillion dollars and the real U6 unemployment rate is 12%. Put that in your pipe and smoke it progressives!
I have suggested a 12 step program to repair the damage caused by liberal government policies. They are as follows:
1. A Strong National Defense: In these times of nuclear threats from rogue nations, America needs a strong national defense machine, the ability to deal with terrorists, not as common criminals, but as representatives of the nations that support them. These oil rich nations should not be allowed to develop nuclear power plants. They need nuclear power as much as a fish needs a boat.
2. Revise the Federal Reserve. Congress should require greater transparency and oversight. Reestablish a sound monetary policy that keeps the U.S. Dollar strong. A currency that is backed by gold can not be monetized. Limit the FDIC to individual depositors, and require that lending institutions have full asset protection for the loans they make.
3. Appoint judges to limited terms in office who will strictly interpret the Constitution. Federal Government must be limited to the expressed powers granted to it by the original States, and each State must have sovereign power over all commercial activities that take place within its borders
4. Establish liability for false news reporting, similar to the liability that exists for false advertising. The freedom to express opposing political points of view is meaningless if the FCC is permitted to censor content. The power to regulate is the power to destroy.
5. Amend the Constitution to allow national public referendums that will return to the people the control of their government by overturning taxation legislation passed by Congress, and social welfare programs that invite single parenthood and fatherless homes, and the decisions of the Supreme Court that are contrary to the will of a majority of Americans.
6. Healthcare will require deregulating the insurance industry to promote competition and give consumers the choice of which company offers the best coverage for them. Open the field to international participants, and return to doctors the right to make medical decisions they believe are best for their patients. Medicare and Medicaid are relics of a failed policy of government performing proprietary functions that belong to private enterprise.
7. Revise the Clean Air Act to immediately remove carbon dioxide as a toxic gas subject to regulation by the EPA. Create a public global warming database where scientists from the United States can publish their findings and gain access to all of the research on the subject. Hold public hearings to inform Americans, by presenting testimony from scientists who disagree on global warming and required a preponderance of evidence through a general consensus among experts before a regulation is place into effect, and if the economic consequences prove to be burdensome on industry, then public hearings should be held to resolve the dispute giving industry leaders and private citizens an opportunity to make their case. This certainly will depoliticize the process and allow greater transparency and voter participation in the ultimate decisions. The power to cast a vote every 2 or 4 years for a candidate who will deal with a multiplicity of issues can immunize public officials on issues that do not directly effect a majority of his constituents, or on issues about which the general voting public is ignorant.
8. Place a temporary moratorium on EPA regulations on manufacturing, mining, and fossil fuel production that do not directly contribute to the quality of air at the surface of the globe or the ground beneath until the effect of the proposed regulation on global warming can be quantified in the short term. Permit oil companies to build new refineries, drill for domestic oil, while they devote a portion of their profits to developing renewable energy resources. Return Bethlehem Steel to Americans as well as other industries that have fled from under the weight of the Code of Federal Regulations.
9. Prohibit the use of Federal funds for bailouts of private industry, including failed State and Local Governments. Competition among the States for tax revenues and credits will provide incentives to encourage economic growth and create high paying jobs, especially when the resources of those industries are not overburdened by both Federal and State imposed mandates and high taxes. The one-size-fits-all mentality of the congressional plutocracy has produced a failed economy, declining dollar, and is in the process of bankrupting the United States.
10. Prohibit government ownership or control of private enterprise. Currently we have incompetent bureaucrats running national concerns and these neophytes are dictating policies to highly qualified executives who have weathered the storms of government intervention, high taxation, and foreign competition.
11. Level the playing field by developing trading partners who impose the same mandates to combat global warming as are imposed upon U.S. domestic concerns. It is imperative for America to insure that the global community is able to freely trade their commodities and natural resources.
12. Return to free market principles. Central government planning has never proven to be effective and history has recorded a long list of its failures. Establish a flat tax that is proving to be successful in 24 foreign countries, which include those of the former Soviet Union.
Mr. Morelli, Your obvious hatred for anything Democrat is so obvious. You don’t understand. You believe that all Democrats are alike and believe in the same things. Are all Republicans alike? Are all radicals, such as yourself, alike? Of course not. I have tried to interact with you in person, and asked you to call (you said you would be interested to see if I have some books you might not have read on Colonialism – I venture a guess I do). You don’t actually seem to be willing to follow through with this though!
I actually think that if we sit down we can have a frank discussion and still find some points of agreement and maybe you would learn that all people who usually vote Democrat are not alike. Contact me.
The free market cannot function when government becomes so powerful that it can dictate what products must be manufactured. It cannot function when the government determines how much smoke can be emitted into the air, or how much labor will cost etc. Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed into law the National Labor Relations Act which is a monster that has over the years destroyed industry. Union strikes amount to nothing less than government sponsored mob rule, and the EPA resembles the Nazi Gestapo. Environmental extremists like Al Gore will not tolerate an open and frank discussion on the effects of man-made activity on global warming. The verdict is in, the book is closed, and the government has executed industry that traditionally paid high wages and supplied commodities that were competitive in a world economy.
In And the Wolf Finally Came, McKeesport native John P. Hoerr examines the collapse of the American steel industry. http://pittsburghinwords.org/john_hoerr.html
“Indeed, the steel industry is the best example of what has gone wrong with union-management relations in the United States. Such poor relations are one reason why organized labor is declining in most industries, and why American companies have lost their competitive edge in the new international marketplace.”
“In the late 1940s, … a dozen great steel plants lined the banks of the Monongahela, extending forty-six miles up the valley from Pittsburgh. The mills worked twenty-four hours a day and provided jobs for nearly eighty thousand men and women”
Democrats love labor unions because they fund elections, but they put workers out of work.
“In 1952, about 80,000 Chicago-area steelworkers walked out for two months. An even more serious work stoppage occurred in 1959, when tens of thousands of workers in the Chicago area joined 500,000 steelworkers nationwide in a four-month strike to win changes in work rules, wage levels, and benefits.”
“Chicago-area steelworkers were represented by the USWA, relatively high wage levels did not prevent labor conflict. Between 1945 and 1959, there were five industry wide strikes. In 1952, about 80,000 Chicago-area steelworkers walked out for two months. An even more serious work stoppage occurred in 1959, when tens of thousands of workers in the Chicago area joined 500,000 steelworkers nationwide in a four-month strike to win changes in work rules, wage levels, and benefits.”
Unions created such impossible demands that steel could not innovate and update their equipment. Thousands and perhaps millions lost their jobs. Thank you progressives!
During the 1970s and 1980s, the U.S. steel industry suffered a sudden collapse that threw thousands out of work. U.S. Steel and other American steel companies that still depended upon large numbers of older, inefficient plants failed to withstand the combination of a decline in demand and the rise of international competition in the 1970s. The sudden decline of American steel stunned the employees of mills across the Chicago area. Between 1979 and 1986, about 16,000 Chicago-area steelworkers lost their jobs. Wisconsin Steel closed abruptly in 1980 after attempts at a financial bailout failed. South Works endured a prolonged shutdown before closing its doors in 1992. Inland Steel cut thousands of workers. Republic Steel dismissed half its employees. In 1984, it merged with LTV Steel, which declared bankruptcy in 1986. The closures left many steelworkers without jobs or health care and decimated communities in northwest Indiana and the Calumet district.
It is simply a matter of Socialism vs. Capitalism. The GOP’s “true intent” is in support of capitalism. Big government doesn’t work…never has…never will, as is apparent all over the world. Obama didn’t create the entire mess himself, but his incompetence, inexperience and lack of leadership ability has caused it to go from bad to disastrous! Let’s remember, Bush had a Democratic House and Senate during his last two years in office, as did Obama in his first two years…total control…and how did that work out? Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are the epitome of socialism at work. We need an experienced, knowledgeable and capable person like Gov. Romney to begin the huge task of turning this country around. Ryan was the perfect VP choice to further the goals of “repairing” America, including Medicare.
A devastating $16 trillion debt, high unemployment, high food and gas prices, dependence on foreign energy from unstable countries, failure to compromise and a failure to heal and unify this country are good enough reasons for new leadership.
Governor Romney has demonstrated his ability to lead and be successful. He knows how to turn failing businesses into successful businesses, he has demonstrated his ability to work with democrats, he wants to make America energy independent and to put people to work. Romney was the first leader, the first Governor to implement statewide healthcare for the people of Massachusetts, the schools in Massachusetts were at the top in our nation. That is proven leadership. And that is what America needs.