Romney Shows Spine...Picks Ryan For VP

Sensing the need to change the political narrative Mitt Romney has chosen seven term Wisconsin House Representative Paul Ryan as his Vice Presidential running mate.  In making this controversial pick Romney has drawn a very broad line in the sand separating his world view from that of the President.  The Ryan pick also makes it clear that his campaign is all about focusing on the conservative base rather than courting moderates and independents.

From day one the Team Romney had worked diligently to make this campaign a referendum on Obama’s record and the failing economy.  But it wasn’t working.  The Obama Campaign had successfully framed the narrative around Romney’s wealth and tax returns.  They portrayed Romney as an out of touch rich guy disconnected from the plight of the average American.  Recent polls showed that the Obama strategy was working as his lead in key battle ground states slowly increased beyond the margin of error.  Instead of attacking Obama’s record Romney found himself defending his own.  And there is an old adage in politics…if you’re defending you’re losing.  The Ryan pick is a bold attempt to change the narrative…to move the conversation back to the economy.

The problem with the Ryan pick is that it brings the controversial Ryan Budget Plan into the forefront of the conversation.

For those who are unfamiliar…the budget proposed by Paul Ryan would lower taxes for all Americans and increase defense spending.  In order to pay for these items without increasing the deficit, Ryan would implement massive cuts in social programs and end Medicare and Medicaid as they currently exist.  Medicare would be turned into a type of voucher payment where recipients would get a lump sum payment out of which they would be expected to buy health insurance and pay for any deductibles and co-pays.  Any expenses incurred over and above the lump sum would be the recipient’s responsibility.  Ryan would disband Medicaid as a federal program and turn it over to the states as a block grant program.  The individual states would then be responsible for administering Medicaid payments as they saw fit. 

While the Ryan Budget Plan is wildly popular among the base, it is reviled by most Americans. Americans love Medicare and they don’t want to lose it.  Even radically conservative Tea Party members get confused in their small government loyalties.  Tea Party members attending rallies protesting against big government and the President’s Affordable Health Care Act have been seen brandishing signs that scream: “Keep your government hands off my Medicare.”  

Romney openly supported the Ryan Budget when he was courting the base in the Republican primaries.   But Romney moved to the middle once the nomination was secured and the Ryan Budget ceased to be part of the conversation.  Now that Romney has picked Ryan, the Obama Campaign will make sure that Romney wears the Ryan Budget like a second skin; a fact Romney has apparently embraced.

The other controversy with the Ryan pick concerns his current employer and his past voting record.  Ryan is the House Budget Committee Chairman serving in the congress with the lowest approval rating in history.  And in spite of the fact that he is considered a true believer of conservative values, his voting record says something quite different.  Ryan voted for the Bush tax cuts, for the Iraq War, for the Afghan War, for Medicare Part D and for the extension of the Bush tax cuts.  None of these votes were funded.  Collectively they added trillions to the debt and deficit.  You can be sure that the Obama Campaign will bring this bit of hypocrisy to the country’s attention.

In spite of the controversy surrounding this pick we think Romney made the right move.  Ryan is a super star in the Republican Party; and his well articulated, fiscally conservative views resonate with the party faithful.   Romney had to change the narrative and he had to once and for all define himself with an uncommitted base.  Picking  Pawlenty or Portman would have only added more “dull” to the yawn fest.  Adding Ryan to the ticket and wrapping himself in the Ryan Budget will excite the party and accomplish those goals.  And it answers the one question that has been a millstone around his neck:  "Is he a true conservative." 

We like the pick because it gives voters a clear choice as to the direction they want the country to move.  While we disagree with Romney’s vision for the country; we applaud him for having the courage to take a stand.

                         

Politics and Plumbers

Mitt Romney says that he is going to cut our federal taxes.  Yoohoo!  Who doesn’t want lower taxes?

Mitt Romney says he is going to cut wasteful federal spending and reduce our deficit.  Yipee!  Who doesn’t want to cut wasteful spending?

Mitt Romney says he is going to balance the budget. Woohoo!  Who doesn’t want a balanced budget?

Break out the party hats and champagne…Mitt Romney has the answers!!!

There is an old adage in the plumbing business. It says simply that: (please forgive us) “shit runs down hill.”  And when you examine what is happening on the state level you will see that this adage holds true in government as well. 

Many state governments are heavily dependent on federal funding to stay afloat.  As federal funds diminish, state governments are forced to take on their own cost cutting measures in order to survive.  Naturally this means there is less money to pass down to the local communities.  Local cities and municipalities rely on these funds to provide basic services like fire and police.

Dale Butland, Communications Director for Innovation Ohio, illustrates how this trickledown theory ultimately affects the taxpayer in his home state.

Ohio Republican Governor John Kasich is a fervent disciple of the Romney economic theory.  He has imposed a host of austerity measures designed to cut taxes and funding while balancing the state budget.  The Kasich two year budget cut school funding by $1,8 billion and the Ohio Local Government Fund…which Ohio cities, towns and municipalities use to pay for things like police, fire, parks and emergency response…by 50%.  He also repealed the estate tax (which applied only to Ohio’s richest 7%) which took another $230 million from local governments in 2010 alone.  These cuts proved to be devastating for schools and local communities.  The only way local communities could survive was to raise local taxes.  So while Kasich, like Romney, boasts about balancing his budget without raising taxes the reality is that he has simply passed the burden on to the local taxpayers.  He poses as the responsible fiscal hero while local mayors and county commissioners shoulder the blame for the inevitable tax increases.

Butland cites Shaker Heights, Ohio; a community just outside of Cleveland as an example of how this toxic economic strategy flows downhill.

Shaker Heights was facing a $6 million dollar reduction in state funding.  The mayor did everything Kasich said he should do.  He renegotiated labor agreements, froze wages, tripled employee contributions for health insurance, outsourced and consolidated services and eliminated jobs, including 10 police officers and 14 firefighters.  Nevertheless he was still forced to ask tax payers to approve a 0.5% tax increase.

Governor Kasich boasts that as a result of his policies Ohio now has a surplus of $550 million dollars.  Will he return any of the money to the local communities who are struggling to survive?  Nope!  Kasich intends to use the surplus to offset another round of tax cuts for corporations and job creators.

These are the very real consequences of the Republican economic theory; consequences that will only become more dramatic if Romney is allowed to fully implement his ideas.  Because the simple fact is these basic services aren’t free.  Somebody has to pay for them.  The question is who.

So when you hear Mitt Romney talk about balancing the budget by cutting spending and lowering taxes… just remember that he is not taking on the burden that these cuts will bring.  He is simply passing the burden down to you.  Because in the world of government, just like the world of plumbing, the nasty stuff always flows downhill.         

             

 

    

The "Seinfeld Campaign"

Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse…

You would think, given current circumstances, our political discourse would be about skyrocketing debt, high unemployment, increased poverty, failing education and crumbling infrastructure. But our politics has traveled so far down the path to stupid that the top story in today’s news is about a political ad that accuses Mitt Romney of causing the death of a woman.

The ad in question was created by pro-Obama Super Pac Priorities USA.  The ad features steel worker, Joe Soptic who lost his job and his health insurance when Bain Capital shut down his plant.  Soptic’s wife became ill a short time after that and eventually succumbed to cancer.  Soptic tells us that his wife never said anything about her illness because without health insurance they could not afford to pay the bills.   Soptic closes the ad saying:  “I don’t think Romney realizes what he has done to anyone.  Furthermore I don’t think that he is concerned.”  The viewer is clearly led to believe that Mitt Romney’s actions led to this women’s death.

No doubt because air time is limited the ad leaves out a few key facts.  It fails to mention that the plant closed in 2001…long after Romney left to take over the Olympics.  It also fails to point out that Mrs. Soptic had insurance through her own employer until 2003 when she left her job due to injury; and that the diagnosis of her cancer and her subsequent death did not occur until 2005.

Bill Burton, founder of Priorities USA says the Super PAC stands by the ad.  Robert Gibbs, David Axelrod, Jay Carney and a host of other high level Obama Campaign staffers and White House officials have feigned ignorance over the ads details and parroted the line that the campaign has no control over the inner workings of the Super PACs.  They also failed to remember that the Obama Campaign had interviewed Mr. Soptic three months ago and used him in one of their own campaign ads.

As you might suspect, the Romney Campaign wasted no time pouncing on this huge slab of red meat.  Unfortunately the response only served to highlight the campaigns’ inherent ability to step on its own…tail.  When asked about the ad Romney Campaign press secretary Andrea Saul gleefully pointed out that had Mr. and Mrs. Soptic lived in Massachusetts they would have been covered under the mandatory universal health care plan program that the former governor enacted into law.

Oops!  You could hear the rattling of Tums bottles at Romney headquarters. 

Nothing says “dysfunctional” like a Romney press secretary singing the praises of what may be in Republican circles the single most reviled piece of legislation in American history…while at the same time highlighting the main reason your candidate cannot run on his record as Massachusetts Governor.  Talk about going off message…

In closing we would like to thank the United States Supreme Court for allowing this farce to occur.  For it is through their Citizen United decision that Super PACs, staffed blatantly by campaign surrogates and funded by rich anonymous donors, are permitted to publish these outrageous lies with impunity.

We should be talking about the big problems that face this country.  Instead we talk about…nothing.

One pundit put it best when she said: “This is a Seinfeld campaign…a campaign about nothing.”             

      

GOP Mastering The Art Of Voter Suppression

Republican strategists suffer from a reoccurring nightmare.  In the dark recesses of their dreams they see long lines of eager voters snaking their way through the major urban communities of our country.  The faces they see in these lines are not those of white faced corporate execs and stay at home moms.  No, these faces are black, and Hispanic, and young…they are blue collar, they are working poor, and they are students.  These are the faces of Obama supporters.  Reality sets in; and the strategists awaken in a cold sweat.

To combat this nightmare scenario Republicans have spent the last two years in a concerted effort to deny these Obama supporters their right to vote.  Republicans used their right as the new “majority” party to redraw key voting districts to more favorably support Republican candidates and policies.  Citing the need to curb rampant voter fraud; Republican state legislatures passed a host of new voter identification laws specifically designed to make it harder for the poor, the elderly and the disenfranchised to cast their vote.  (The fact that voter fraud historically represents less than 0.00001% of all votes cast has done little to dampen their resolve.)  More recently we see a developing pattern on the part of Republicans to limit pre-election voting hours in large urban counties which tend to vote Democratic while extending voting hours in smaller counties that tend to vote Republican. 

The key swing state of Ohio offers perhaps the best example of these shenanigans.

Ohio voters have traditionally enjoyed extended voting hours during October and early November.  The purpose was to make it easier for folks to get to the polls…especially blue collar workers with 8-5 jobs.  In 2008, 93,000 votes were cast statewide on the Saturday, Sunday and Monday before the election.  Last year the Republican controlled Ohio General Assembly passed legislation preventing county elections boards from keeping polling places open the three days before  Election Day.  Republicans claimed tight budget constraints as rationale for the decision. 

The Obama Campaign, the Democratic National Committee and the Ohio Democratic Party have filed a federal lawsuit seeking to restore those three days.  While waiting for a decision in that case, some of Ohio’s 88 county elections boards have extended…or tried to extend pre-election day voting hours.  Several of these county board efforts have resulted in deadlock, with the impasse…in accordance with Ohio law…decided by the Ohio Secretary of State; in this case Republican Jon Husted. Husted’s record here is telling.  The counties where Husted joined with other Republicans to DENY expanded early voting strongly backed Obama in 2008.  However, in those counties that heavily supported McCain; Husted allowed the expanded voting hours to continue.

The right to vote is the very cornerstone of our democracy.  It is a right that hundreds of thousands of Americans have died to protect.  We should be making it easier for people to vote not restricting their access to the ballot box for political gain.

The Republican Party loves to wave the flag and spew platitudes about America’s “exceptionalism.”  Yet when it comes to protecting an individual’s right to vote they act like third world dictators.

                             

Do Nothing Congress Takes A Break

Yesterday two commercial airliners passed within 800 feet of each other endangering the lives of several hundred people.  This “error” was caused in part by the fact that the radar technology we use to monitor these planes is the same technology we used in WWII.

If you travel across our nation you will come across tens of thousands of crumbling roadways, bridges and damns that were constructed in the 1950’s and 60’s.  They do not meet current safety standards and have not been attended to in decades.

The biggest single threat to our national security lies in our susceptibility to cyber attack.  While we have provided our military with the most advanced weaponry known to man we have all but ignored this gaping hole in our defense.

A large portion of our country’s heartland has been declared an agricultural disaster area.  Our farmers and ranchers are suffering from a year of drought and frost.  They are in desperate need of a comprehensive emergency farm bill to help them through this crisis.

The Bush Tax Cuts are due to expire at the end of this year.  As are the payroll tax cuts.  The debt ceiling needs to be raised to keep the country from defaulting on its obligations.  And $109 billion in sequestration budget cuts are scheduled for January 2nd unless a compromise can be found.    

These are just some of the issues left unresolved as the most inept and ineffective congress in the nation’s history leaves for summer recess. 

You might wonder why they are going on recess when so many important issues require their attention.  They are returning to their districts to do what they do best…campaign for re-election.  They are returning to their districts to explain to you why, in spite of their ineptitude and ineffective leadership, you should return them to Washington so they might “continue doing the people’s business.”

Republican Representative Tom Cole explained the unresolved issues to the New York Times this way:  “We are not going to be able to make a lot of decisions until the American people decide who the decision makers are going to be.”

Didn’t the American people decide that in 2010?

The legislative process in this country has been reduced to eighteen months of partisan gridlock followed by six months of re-election campaigns...interspersed with tax payer junkets and fund raising galas.  This farce will continue until we interject term limits into the equation.        

   

        

Occupy Chick Fil-A

Just when you thought that the political discord in this country could not get any more ridiculous a chicken franchise rears its ugly head.

Yes, you heard right, a chicken franchise!  Amidst all of the enormous problems that we have in this country a chicken franchise has grabbed center stage in our political debate.

You have probably heard the story by now. 

Chick Fil-A is national fast food chain whose owners hold a wildly publicized commitment to their Christian beliefs.  Their stores remain closed on Sunday’s to celebrate the Christian Sabbath.  Their mission statement reads in part:  “To glorify God by being a faithful steward to all that is entrusted to us.”

The Chick Fil-A firestorm was ignited by an interview published in the Baptist Press. In the interview Chick Fil-A Chief Operating Officer Dan Cathy expressed the company’s support for the traditional family unit as opposed to gay marriage.  The Baptist Press portrayed Cathy’s comments as “anti-gay.”  CNN, which picked up the story, did the same.  Pro gay protesters began to congregate at various Chick Fil-A stores encouraging the public to boycott. They were met in kind by an anti-gay crowd.   It wasn’t long before lines were drawn in the sand and host of elected officials were weighing in on both sides…including the mayors of Boston, Chicago, San Francisco and New York.  Boston Mayor Thomas Menino sent a letter to Cathy which read: “There is no place for discrimination on Boston’s Freedom Trail and no place for your company alongside it.” Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel allegedly suggested Chick Fil-A should take its business elsewhere because the company does not share “Chicago’s values.” 

When we left the carnage, local officials were threatening to impede the company’s expansion through zoning restrictions and withholding permits.

This is truly a “Jump the shark” moment.

First of all Mr. Cathy has the right to express his religious beliefs.  He has the right to run his company in accordance with those beliefs as long as the company does not discriminate against gays in terms of in terms of whom they hire or who they serve.  People have a right to disagree with Mr. Cathy and peacefully boycott his stores if they so choose.  And government needs to make certain that the rights of both sides are protected. 

But when we allow government to use religious and political beliefs to decide who can and cannot do business within a community; we have crossed the Rubicon.                     

GOP Tactics Killing Romney In Key Swing States

Ohio Republican Congressman Steven Latourette announced that he would not seek a tenth congressional term. A close friend of House Speaker Boehner, Latourette cited the political gridlock in Washington as cause for his decision.  Latourette had already won his primary and was running unopposed in the general.

Congressman Latourette is just another in a long line of Republicans who have become disillusioned by the choke hold the conservative base has on the Republican Party.  He joins a list of moderate House members who have resigned in frustration over Washington’s inability to get anything done; each in their own way blaming Republican intransigence as the root cause of gridlock. 

The partisan stubbornness is not limited to the Republican controlled House.  Republican Senator Olympia Snow of Maine has tendered her resignation citing partisan gridlock.  Her frustration over Republican's use of the filabuster to block legislation is well documented.  Several Republican Senators have said off the record they would gladly vote for a piece of legislation “that gave me 60% of what I wanted” but they are prohibited from compromising by their base. 

So what happens if members defy the Tea Party led base?  In Texas, an incumbent Republican congressman was lampooned in REPUBLICAN sponsored television ads for being a “moderate.”  Latourette claimed he was being ostracized by party members and blocked from important committee assignments.

The Republican Party currently holds a miserable favorability rating of 36%; and recent polls show that that the electorate’s disapproval of Republican intransigence has spilled over onto their presidential candidate.  Quinnipiac, CBS NEWS and the New York Times just released polls of likely voters in the swing states of Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida.  All show the President with a healthy lead:

PA:  Obama 53% Romney 42%  

OH: Obama 50% Romney 40%

FL:  Obama 51% Romney 45%

Given the sputtering economy and high unemployment you would expect the President to be barely treading water.  Yet he is polling strong in these key states.

There is no question that many of Romney’s difficulties are self inflicted.  He is a poor political athlete.  He is stiff and disconnected from 99% of the electorate.  But he is also the presumptive leader of a party with a 36% approval rating.  And these polls show that the negative feelings the electorate has toward the Republican Party are spilling over onto the candidate.

Mitt Romney needs all the help he can get.  But the Republican Party is just dragging him down.