It’s imperative that write something today, just to break the lazy hangover I have enjoyed all week following the frantic, emotional stress of Mike Jr.’s wedding last week. I promise to follow-up with details and pictures of the great time we had; but that would require sorting through 8000 photos (my estimate) to pick those that would best tell the story of our Lost Weekend in Williamsport. (Trust me. That title connotes a very favorable experience within the crazy motions and emotions of a son’s (or daughter’s) wedding. More on that later … )
I could write about my recent lawn treatment. But that would require an uptick in my Lawn Geek Level that I’m not willing to invest in this Sunday morning.
And so I’ll turn to more recent news, and one of my favorite pastimes … Cranky Political Observations.
First, let’s look at Mitt Romney and some of the absolutely ridiculous claims President Obama‘s campaign and supporters continue to make when it comes to Romney’s wealth and tax history. The important thing to keep in mind is every minute spent defending Romney against such nonsenseical attacks is time diverted from hammering away at the sorry state of The Obama Economy.
Afterall, with almost four years of President Obama’s stewardship, the Economy – or lack thereof – is rightfully his to won! (You only get to blame your predecessor for so long, and certainly not through a full term in The Oval Office when – as President – you have shown no Leadership whatsoever on Issues of Economic Recovery.)
Now Mitt admittedly caused himself a self-inflicted wound with his meanderings on the “47% of Americans who do not pay taxes”. Not paying taxes does not automatically make you a slouch. There are plenty of people, rightfully classified as disabled, aging veterans, etc. who fall into that very broad 47% category. Mitt might have bitten off more than he could chew; but let’s be honest, he was at least 53% correct about that 47%.
Regardless of the dangers associated with judging-by-percentages into which Romney stumbled, we ALL KNOW what he meant. Within that group is a hardcore class of people who have not the slightest interest or desire to break their dependence on the REDISTRIBUTION of other people’s hard work and income! And within that sub-class is another that not only shows little-to-no interest in self-sufficiency, they REVEL in their status as Economic Sponges!
Even Bill Clinton recognized the need to fix this when he joined with Congressional Republicans to pass the Welfare Reform Act of 1996. So this is not news to even the most hardened of Liberals.
Sunday’s Philadelphia Inquirer attempts to make the claim that REDISTRIBUTION of income is not a “bad word”. They try to soft sell this idea by stating that REDISTRIBUTION is used for small business loans, Pell Grants for college education, veterans’ benefits, etc. Of course they also throw in food stamps and welfare, but almost as an afterthought.
Intelligent, reality-educated people can distinguish between good uses for REDISTRIBUTED INCOME and other programs that simply rely on the toils and work ethic of the majority of Americans to fund the never-ending cycle of handouts to perpetual non-contributors. And that’s what MOST objectors to the Welfare Mentality think of when they hear INCOME REDISTRIBUTION … not Pell Grants, small business loans and taking care of aging veterans.
Liberals – and Obama supporters – KNOW this; but it suits their intentions in this 2012 election year to make it about the whole of benefits that come from INCOME REDISTRIBUTION, not the perfectly acceptable Social Contract that expects those who work at good jobs to provide TEMPORARY assistance to those who need a hand up in tough times or even those with legitimate long-term disabilities and maladies that prevent even part-time employment.
Do not allow them to suggest that there is no difference between Good Income Redistribution and the ugly realities of the Welfare State of Mind!
As for Mitt’s tax records, one observation is enough to put that entire subject into perspective. If President Obama’s proxies, like the half-baked Liar from Arizona – Harry Reid, are so desperate as to criticize Romney for tax rates and wealth shelters that were perfectly acceptable for Al Gore (2000) and John “Heinz 57” Kerry (2004), then you must recognize them for what those attacks are … Deperate attempts to distract you, me, and all voters from the Unemployed Economy.
So the more we spend talking about this, the less time we have to address what the REAL PROBLEM is in 2012, the stagnant National Economy and the broken stewardship of a Leadership-challenged President! Those of us longing for REAL Economic Leadership need to ignore these straw men and do what we can to refocus on the horrible state of President Obama’s own Economic Malaise!
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Tom Smith for U.S. Senate
Will Pennsylvania U.S. Senate candidate Tom Smith ever get the chance to smoke out do-nothing U.S. Senator Bob Casey in his race to challenge a man who has nothing on his resume’ other than a famous father?
You can’t find anything on Bob Casey’s re-election campaign without a brace of media savvy internet bloodhounds. Casey refuses to come out into the open, like any politician with little track record, and a recognizable name. (How many voters still think they are voting for his father?) Casey continues to hide behind Barack Obama, even while doing anything to avoid endorsing him too much, too often.
He and Congressional REP Allyson Schwartz (See Joe Rooney) are probably sharing the same remote Pocono cabin; waiting for election day to come so they can sneak into their neighborhood polling location and hope for the best … meaning of course, voters who don’t bother looking at how their support of a poor Presidential leader has contributed to the Economic Stagnation we still face after four years of Democrat control over the U.S. Government.
For that reason alone, Bob Casey, Jr. would gladly spend this election cycle hiding under his bed! Add to that his opposition to the Liberal Litmus that is Abortion, his obvious implied stance against Gay Marriage, (Go ahead and try to find any reference to Gay Marriage on his official campaign or Senate websites!) and you have a Liberal Democrat’s biggest nightmare … Supporting a family values candidate that disdains everything a Good Liberal loves all because he has a “D” connected to his father’s name!
The REAL Bob Casey
Fortunately for Pennsylvania Liberals, Casey’s middle name is not “Fracking”!
Tom Smith stands for Ending Out-of-Control Federal Spending, Reducing Job-Killing Regulations, Promoting American Energy to Provide American Jobs, Simplified Tax Codes, and reasonable solutions to Healthcare and the long-term viability of Social Security and Medicare. These are the issues of the day that need discussing. But Bob Casey will not be found this election season discussing anything you care about in the presence of Tom Smith, and that’s a shame for all Pennsylvania voters!
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Finally, if you get the chance, read Trudy Rubin’s column on The Real Muslim Movie Outrage in the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Opinion page this Sunday. I rarely agree with Ms. Rubin’s view on domestic politics, but her concise, honest review of the radical Islamic elements working to inflate Muslim tensions is enlightening.
Cranky Man's Lawn 
(For the sake of clarity, Cranky Man responds within this post.)
Hmm, let me break out the dubunk-o-maticR and see how your reply computes……
-“There is PLENTY a President can do to affect an economy that does not require the consent of Congress.”
…Like what? you offer no examples.
(Well, there are official instruments like Executive Orders. There is also the more direct method of instilling confidence in those who normally invest in the Economy. But President Obama and his surrogates see it more politically expedient to attack those of wealth as selfish or to threaten their wealth with higher taxes.
Those tax threats do the opposite of instilling confidence. So now those with the power to invest, including small business owners and large corporations, will sit the market out and wait to see what might happen in November. Then if reasonable interests lose, i.e. an investor-friendly Republican leadership, then you will see investors rushing to hide and protect their assets and business people refusing to invest in facilities, equipment, and HIRING due to the continued unfavorable economic climate.)
-The thought that the “poor President’s” hands were tied by a Republican Congress is a cop out.
…It’s not that they weren’t doing anything, they have been actively obstructionist..an all time record for filibusters and a stated plan to keep him from getting anything done.
(Yes, because the Democrats made it very plain from the beginning that there would be no bipartisanship in COngress when they shoved the ACA down the House’s throat. After that happened, exactly why would Republicans be willing to give any further ground?
Any President who whines about not having Congress on his side is not worth his salt as a Chief Executive!)
-Many a President, including Reagan and Clinton, were more than willing and able to reach across the aisle and compromise or – God forbid – actually LEAD the way towards Economic solutions. The President had his own part in killing any inclination in political compromise by the way he tried to bull-rush the Democrat’s prized program – universal healthcare – through the Legislature.
…what’s the problem? he had the votes, the bill passed, get over it…
(Exactly … Nancy, Harry and Barack made their beds. Now they lay in them.)
-Compromise?!? Really?!? As in “We have to pass this bill to find out what’s in it!”??? Please . President Obama only has himself to blame for his predicament with Congress! You should really be thanking Harry and Nancy for his Congressional disconnect.
… in the spirit of compromise, who has walked away from the table? when did our President say ‘nothing to talk about, I’m outta here’?..meanwhile didn’t the House leadership (leadership, that’s kind of a stretch) agree to a budget deal and then walk away from it? How about last week’s Veteran’s jobs program, fully paid for, the Senate filibustered it (even 4 of the GOP co-sponsors) because it would give the president a win. No, it would have given some veterans a win.
(Asked and answered.)
-More often than not, Economic Performance is a function of Confidence in what the future holds. Confidence by those who invest, Confidence by those who hire and expand, Confidence by those who buy and spend . Not a single one of those segments has much in the way of Confidence in the American Economy.
…actually this sort of proves how much ‘supply side economics’ is a failure. our economy is actually demand based and those who would like to have the demand have had their buying power crushed by 30 years of breaks to the top…those job creators are only creating jobs for Swiss bankers (yeah, and the Caymans) and low wage workers through out the world. they aren’t waiting for some better economic plan to come along, they’re going to blow up a new bubble…concentrations of wealth at the top create bubbles.
(That is such BS, Jon! How much long-term Economic recovery is going to result from redistributing wealth from the top to the bottom? What you will have is a short-term spending frenzy once the checks hit, likely on crap people really don’t need to improve their lives.
Investment from the top is what fuels long-term economic health, by investing in capital improvements, technology development, housing, infrastructure improvements through Government bonds, etc. etc. The bottom of the economic pyramid NEVER invests, they consume.
Keep making the wealthy out to be the Bad Guys, but EVERYONE benefits from a strong Economy.)
-Do you REALLY think that’s affected more by what Congress does or by the path laid out by The Chief Executive? Most people would tell you that the Economy does much, much better when a President shows at least an inclination towards Economic Leadership AND Congress stays the hell out of the way! 8.5% unemployment . STILL! And the real effective unemployment rate is much higher once people who have just given up looking are added in!
…yet congress has obstructed at record levels, they’ve not stayed out of the way, they’ve been jamming a stick into the spokes of the wheels of progress.
(Asked and answered several times now.)
-President Obama does not even enjoy the confidence of his own Party in Congress, based on reports that show The White House and Congressional Democrats barely on speaking terms!
…don’t know what to tell you about this one, I’ve not heard these reports (source?), i spoke to Rep Pelosi at a birthday party for a relative earlier this year and she gets along with our President just fine.
(Oh … well then … what am I thinking??? Nancy’s at the top of that hierarchy. Of course she’s going to say that! Check out some of the reports of almost total disconnect between the working levels of Congress and The White House … even on the Democratic side!)
-Like Jimmy Carter (Thanks for bringing him up!) President Obama says all the right things, but couldn’t lead this country out of a wet paper bag. Economically speaking.
And by the look of things, even the Unions are starting to notice .
…funny how you skip right past the fact that Reagan spent most of his presidency running against Carter. I don’t know what you mean with the union crack.
(I don’t remember Reagan ever mentioning Carter once he spanked him in 1980.)
The union crack pertains to news reports that Unions were beginning to seed money to Republican candidates because they felt let down by their Favorite Son President.)
I notice you can’t even bother to pay lip service to the documented fact that this cabal of GOP legislators put the interest of their political concern above that of the country. Go Team!
(Well, they got a good lesson in that during passage of the ACA. Democrats playing to their base by passing Healthcare legislation that does NOTHING to control healthcare costs! Every medical entity got a piece of that pie, except maybe doctors.)
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I might be willing to play along with your claim that a president owns his economy after a while, however, I’d think the 11 GOP members of congressional leadership (& Newt Gingrich) who met the evening of Jan 20, 2009 to agree that they will not only do nothing to forward anything our President might want or need, they will obstruct in any/every manner possible, as well as the Senate Minority leader’s comments mirroring that sentiment (I guess his invite to dinner with the treasonous 11’s dinner was lost in the mail), would give me a little more pause on taking your claim to heart. The 11 + McConnell’s obstruction isn’t just a reasonable disagreement; they set out to obstruct any forward progress for we the people however they could for political purposes.
I think the old analogy plays perfectly here: the right drove the car into the ditch, Obama came along trying to drive the car out of the ditch, and the right is turning the steering wheel back toward the ditch and leaning on the brake AND blaming Obama for not getting the car out faster- despite the fact that he is moving the car forward.
What are you offering in his place? More of what had put us in the ditch., Thanks but no thanks.
Oh and if you think a President owns his economy, why was Reagan whining about Carter in each year of his first term?
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J.O.N.
There is PLENTY a President can do to affect an economy that does not require the consent of Congress. The thought that the “poor President’s” hands were tied by a Republican Congress is a cop out. Many a President, including Reagan and Clinton, were more than willing and able to reach across the aisle and compromise or – God forbid – actually LEAD the way towards Economic solutions. The President had his own part in killing any inclination in political compromise by the way he tried to bull-rush the Democrat’s prized program – universal healthcare – through the Legislature.
Compromise?!? Really?!? As in “We have to pass this bill to find out what’s in it!”??? Please … President Obama only has himself to blame for his predicament with Congress! You should really be thanking Harry and Nancy for his Congressional disconnect.
More often than not, Economic Performance is a function of Confidence in what the future holds. Confidence by those who invest, Confidence by those who hire and expand, Confidence by those who buy and spend … Not a single one of those segments has much in the way of Confidence in the American Economy. Do you REALLY think that’s affected more by what Congress does or by the path laid out by The Chief Executive? Most people would tell you that the Economy does much, much better when a President shows at least an inclination towards Economic Leadership AND Congress stays the hell out of the way!
8.5% unemployment … STILL! And the real effective unemployment rate is much higher once people who have just given up looking are added in!
President Obama does not even enjoy the confidence of his own Party in Congress, based on reports that show The White House and Congressional Democrats barely on speaking terms! Like Jimmy Carter (Thanks for bringing him up!) President Obama says all the right things, but couldn’t lead this country out of a wet paper bag. Economically speaking.
And by the look of things, even the Unions are starting to notice …
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