Are We Really Exceptional?

One of the most frequently used phrases during any election season is: “American Exceptionalism.”  Wherever you find bunting and a flag draped backdrop you will find “American Exceptionalism.”  It is a phrase used by every hopeful politician to elicit patriotic feelings of mom, apple pie and country.  It’s a throwaway line that has become the all encompassing catch phrase of who we are as a country.  Exceptional!  To disagree is to be labeled “unpatriotic” or worse.

We would very much like to believe that it’s true.  That among all the nations in the world we are in fact “exceptional.”  But at this moment in time there are far too many things that say otherwise.

In twelve short years we have a amassed a national credit card debt of over $16 trillion dollars.  Our spending is out of control.  And our elected leaders just kick the can down the road; passing the problem along to our children and grandchildren.  That’s not exceptional…that’s irresponsible.

We are the wealthiest nation in the world.  We have the world’s largest economy.  Yet 60 million Americans are living at or below the poverty level.  That’s $23,000/year for a family of four.  That’s not exceptional…that’s inconceivable.

Our infrastructure is crumbling.  We lag behind most modernized nations in terms of mass transit and high speed rail.  Yet 8.1% of our population is unemployed.  The real unemployment number is double that because millions of Americans have simple given up the search.  There is desperate work that needs to be done and millions of Americans willing to do it.  But for some reason we can’t seem to put the two together.  That’s not exceptional…that’s unimaginable.

We have some of the greatest institutions of higher learning in the world.  But our primary and secondary schools are in disarray.  Our schools are crumbling and our best educators are often let go in favor of less effective teachers who have tenure.  The results are evident in our children’s performance.  Our children lag behind most of the developed nations in terms of math, reading and science skills.  That’s not exceptional…that’s unconscionable.

We pride ourselves on being a nation of laws.  Yet we violate the Geneva Convention as we deem necessary.  And to this date not one of the persons responsible for the banking travesty that nearly brought down our economy has been prosecuted.  That’s not exceptional…that’s unfathomable.

We have the largest military in the world.  We are the self proclaimed “world’s policeman.”  Congress spends billions in borrowed dollars on our military and procures million dollar weapons that they don’t even want.  We spend more on our military than the next seventeen nations combined.  Yet our infrastructure is outdated, our schools are crumbling and millions of our children are literally starving.  That’s not exceptional…that’s unreasonable.

One of the cornerstones of our democracy is the right to vote.   Millions of Americans have suffered great hardship and many have given their lives in pursuit of the right to voice their opinion via the ballot box.  Yet today we see a blatant racist attempt to suppress the voting rights of a certain segment of our society.  Citizens who have voted for decades are finding their names purged from the rolls.  Poor folks are suddenly told they need to spend money they don’t have to procure documents they never needed if they want to exercise their voting rights. All orchestrated under the guise of preventing voter fraud; instances of which have historically been infinitesimal.  That’s not exceptional…that’s unthinkable.

There are those who will say that we are wrong.  There are those who will say that every other nation suffers from these same problems and deficiencies.  They will tell us that in spite of all our faults millions still flock to our shores to enjoy the freedoms of the greatest nation on earth.

To those we ask this question…does that make us “exceptional”…or simply the best of a sorry lot.

We can fix our problems.  We can do big things.  We can once again be what Ronald Reagan called “That shining city on a hill.”  But until are willing to do the hard work that is necessary to be “exceptional” …”American Exceptionalism” is nothing more than a campaign throwaway line                   

                   

"Taps"

The bugler is warming up in the wings.  He’s about to play “Taps” over the Romney campaign.

The latest Quinnipiac/New York Times/CBS News poll shows the president widening his lead over the former governor in key battleground states.  Among likely voters Obama leads Romney by 10 points in Ohio, 9 points in Florida and 14 points in Pennsylvania.  Romney trails the president on “likeability,” “ability to handle the economy,” “foreign affairs” and “understands my issues.”  Obama’s lead closely mirrors his standing in the polls at this time in 2008.

As if the polls weren’t bad enough; several Republican Party leaders along with a number of rank in file members are beginning to distance themselves from Romney.  They see the top of the ticket as a drag on their re-election prospects. 

Romney and his surrogates continue to put out a positive spin.  Romney says the campaign is going well and sees no reason for panic.  His surrogates question the validity of the polls and blame the biased main stream media for their woes.  You know a campaign is in trouble when they start blaming their shortcomings on the media.

So what happened?  Why has this successful CEO found himself trailing so badly in the polls?  There are actually two basic reasons for the campaign’s current predicament.

The struggling economy and massive unemployment should have given Romney more than enough ammunition to take down the president. But rather than stay on this message the campaign chased the daily news cycle like a shiny object.  Instead of talking about jobs, jobs and jobs they tried to spin every comment made by the president.  The result has been a muddled message that has failed to resonate with voters.  Meanwhile the president‘s campaign began with a defined message…and they stuck to it.  In fact they continue to stay on message today.  Their consistency has borne fruit in the polls.   

Then there is the candidate himself.  While Romney is undoubtedly a good husband, good father and outstanding CEO; he is a flawed politician.  He made the calculation to adopt the policies of his base rather than running on who he really is and what he really believes.  Romney is a moderate trying to appease a radically conservative base.  The result is a stiff and cautious candidate who has to think about what he should say rather than speaking from the heart.  The voters can easily sense that his remarks are not genuine.  And when a video catches him in an unguarded moment the repercussions are devastating.

Is it over?  Not yet!  But it is getting close.

Early voting has already started in 16 states so to some extent the die is already cast.  Romney may be able to alter the course of things in next week’s first debate.  But he will need to do extremely well and have the president implode to have any impact on the current course of events.

So how will we know after Tuesday if Romney still has a chance?  Karl Rove, John Boehner and Mitch McConnell will tell us. 

Republicans went into this campaign believing that they could take the Oval Office, increase their advantage in the House and maybe even take control of the Senate.  They are now acutely aware that if Romney continues to lag by these margins they may lose all three.  Karl Rove is no fool.  If Romney falters next week you will see Rove moving substantial amounts of his Crossroads GPS PAC money away from the presidential race to bolster tenuous House and Senate candidates.  Follow the money.

 The same is true of Boehner and McConnell.  Boehner wants to keep his House Speakership and McConnell wants to hang on to his Majority Leader position in the Senate.  If they think Romney is finished you will see both of them ramping up their support for House and Senate candidates while backing off their support for Romney.  Rove, Boehner and McConnell will let you know where Romney stands.

Mitt Romney can spin this current state of affairs  all he wants.  He can blame the biased main street media, inaccurate polling or the stars in the heavens.  His campaign and consequently the Republican Party are in serious trouble.  As they say:  “You can put lipstick on a pig…but it’s still a pig.”

Romney is whistling past the graveyard.

The bugler is getting ready.                  

 

 

Ryan, Redistribution and Gas

PAUL RYAN – Mr. Ryan spoke out against the president’s policy on space exploration and demonstrated once again the Republican hypocrisy on the role of government in our society.  The President has all but pulled the government out of the space exploration business.  He wants private industry to step in and take the lead in our efforts to explore outer space.   Paul Ryan disagrees.  He says that if government gets out of the space business it won’t be long before “we see China looking down on us from the moon.”  Whatever happened to the good old American entrepreneurship that Mr. Ryan is so fond of?  Mr. Ryan wants government to fund our space exploration efforts to enable our future generations to compete in the race for space.  Yet he wants to cut government funding for teachers, education and Pell Grants that enable our future generations to compete here on earth.

REDISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH – Nothing sets conservatives’ hair on fire like a conversation about the redistribution of wealth.  Any hint of taking the hard earned money from one individual and handing to another is like waving a red cape in front of a raging bull.  But conservatives ignore the fact that redistribution of wealth has been an integral part of our economic structure from the beginning.  According to Jeffrey Bruner of Gannett News; the best example of this is the progressive federal income tax system that has been in place since 1913.  The system taxes the wealthy at a higher rate than poor.  Most Americans think that’s fair.  There are other examples of redistribution that play an important part of our society.  Congress collects taxes and then distributes that money as it sees fit.  Some funds may go to help only a few…research for the cure for rare disease…while other funds go to help everyone…roads, bridges, health care for seniors and weapons for the military.  When you rail against the concept of redistribution of wealth you are venting against one of the cornerstones of our capitalist society.

GOVERNMENT AND BUSINESS CAN WORK TOGETHER – There is a natural gas boom going on in our country.  Geologists have discovered that we have natural gas resources beneath the ground that rival the oil resources in Saudi Arabia.  Drilling companies are stumbling all over themselves to mine that gas for profit.  The process is called “fracking.”  It involves injecting large amounts of water and chemicals into the ground to break up the shale and free the gas. The development of this process has been hailed as a historic achievement by private industry.  The boom happened “away from the greedy grasp of Washington” claimed the American Enterprise Institute.  “The free market has worked its magic.” claimed the Barnett Shale Energy Education Council.  What these private industry advocates ignore is that from 1916 until the 1970’s the federal government was providing subsidies focused almost exclusively on increasing the production of natural gas and oil.  The Department of Energy began funding research into fracking and horizontal drilling in 1975. But it took more than 20 years to perfect the process.  The Department of Energy invested $137 million in gas research over three decades and the federal tax credit for drillers amounted to $10 billion between 1980 and 2002.  In 2010 gas and petroleum industries received $2 billion in federal subsidies with another $14 billion going to renewal energies.  What was once considered a “stupid” idea in 1981 is now a viable component of "energy independence." Our thanks to Kevin Begos of “Associated Press” for his work on this important story.                    

Romney Has Problem Telling The Truth

If you have followed the presidential campaign as closely as we have you cannot come away without the unsettling notion that Mitt Romney has a real problem with telling the truth.  It not so much what he says that we find disconcerting.  It’s more about the things that he conveniently leaves out when making his points.  The governor’s recently released tax returns offer a case in point.

Romney has repeatedly told us that over the past decade he has not paid less than 13% of his income in taxes.  His recently released 2011 returns show that he paid taxes at an effective rate of 14.1%; slightly more than the 13.9% he paid in 2010.  But what Romney doesn’t tell us is that he manipulated his 2011 return to conform to his political rhetoric. 

According to Brad Malt, the trustee of Romney’s blind trust, Mitt and his wife “limited their deductions of charitable contributions to conform to the governor’s statement in August, based on the January estimate of income, that he paid at least 13% in income taxes in each of the last 10 years.” 

The Romney’s gave $4.6 million in charitable donations in 2011 but claimed only $2.25 million in charitable deductions.  Had they taken the full amount in deductions the Romney’s would have paid a lower percentage in taxes than he had previously claimed; far lower than the percentage paid by average Americans.  Romney conveniently omitted that little tidbit of information.

This strategy of omission has become a pattern in the Romney narrative.

Romney granted CBS NEWS an interview which aired last night on “60 Minutes.” 

Romney criticized the president for adding $5 trillion dollars to the national debt.  He left out that a large portion of that debt increase came from the two unpaid wars, the unfunded prescription drug plan for seniors and the unfunded Bush tax cuts; all initiated by the Republicans under George W. Bush.

Romney said that he will reduce federal income tax rates across the board by 20%.  He said that he will make these reductions revenue neutral by eliminating loopholes.  What he left out was specifically which loopholes he intends to eliminate.  The only loopholes that would have any economic impact are very popular with the American people:  deductions for mortgage interest, charitable deductions, health care costs and state and local taxes.

Romney said that he would reduce the debt and deficit by either eliminating programs or turning them over to the states.  He neglected to tell us which programs he was talking about.  He also neglected to tell us that while moving some programs to the states will reduce the federal budget, the funding has to come from somewhere.  That means state and local taxes and fees will have to go up if we want to keep the programs alive.

Mitt Romney has a problem with “fudging” the truth.  He would probably call it a "difference of opinion." 

We would call it a lie.

             

Mitt Being Mitt

“95% of life is set up for you if you are born in this country.”

This is another quote from the now well documented tape of Mitt Romney addressing a group of well heeled supporters at a private gathering last May.  This is the same fund raiser where Romney dismissed 47% of the country as a bunch of government dependent moochers who are unwilling to take responsibility for their own lives.

There’s really nothing left to say.  The quotes speak for themselves.  Its Mitt being Mitt.  The man has lived in privilege for his entire life.  He has no concept of how to connect with the 99% of Americans that have never known “privilege.”  And he never will.

His campaign is a train wreck.  Instead of providing a clear, specific consistent view of where he wants to take the country, the Romney campaign spits and sputters; chasing the daily news cycle like a St. Bernard chasing a beach ball. He won’t give us any specifics because he doesn’t really understand what we need.

Yet he wants to be OUR president.

Mitt Romney is by all accounts a very successful businessman who has accumulated an enormous amount of wealth.  He has absolutely no idea why the rest of us haven’t done the same. 

After all: “95% of life is set up for you if you are born in this country.”

Just so we're clear...according to Mitt…if you run a successful business…then you DIDN’T build that.  It was all set up for you.  All you had to do was walk through the door.

          

Congress, Romney and the Middle East

CONGRESS - The most incompetent and ineffective Congress in our nation’s history will adjourn today to allow members time to campaign for re-election.  Congress usually adjourns in early to mid-October in election years.  But this Congress will go home earlier than any other Congress since 1960.  And why shouldn’t they take some extra time off.  It’s not like they have any interest in accomplishing anything.   This past week they failed to pass a bi-partisan farm bill that would have helped Midwestern farmers struggling due to the severe draught.  They had bi-partisan support for a jobs bill that would have helped returning veterans. But it failed by two votes when the Republicans who sponsored the bill chose to vote against it rather than give a win to the president.  So now they will return home to persuade voters to return them to Washington so they can do nothing all over again.

In fairness they did pass one bill before leaving.  They passed a continuing resolution to keep the government running…and their $174,900 paychecks coming…until next March.

ROMNEY – The Romney campaign is shifting gears…again.  Reeling from an avalanche of criticism over divisive remarks in which he wrote off 47% of the country; Romney now says that he wants to be president of “100%” of Americans.”  He also said that he embraces the president’s charges that he is the grandfather of “Obamacare” and that he would never round up 12 million immigrants and send them packing…statements that are directly contradictory to those has made throughout the campaign.  Clearly the Romney campaign is chasing the daily news cycle; a historically losing strategy that seems to envelop every failing campaign.  Ultimately the blame falls on Romney, who insiders say is micromanaging the day to day campaign operations.  Conservative Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan, in a column titled:  “Romney Campaign Needs a New CEO”   called the Romney campaign a “rolling calamity.”

How is it that the guy who was supposed to be this incredibly successful CEO can’t run his own campaign?

MIDDLE EAST – Comedian Charles Krauthammer is at it again.  In his Washington Post opinion piece he shortsightedly blames the president for all the unrest in the Middle East.  In essence he says that Obama, by offering mutual respect to Muslims, has emboldened them toward acts of violence against the US and its allies.  The result of Obama’s belief “that his very election would revolutionize Middle East relations” is the “black flag of Salafism, of which al Qaida is a prominent element, raised over our embassies in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen and Sudan.”

Krauthammer’s attempt to lump all Muslims among the radical minority that are causing violence throughout the Middle East is nothing more than anti-Muslim bigotry.  He ignores the fact that 60% of all Muslims are under 25 years old, uneducated and unemployed.   56% of all Egyptian women cannot read.  These are young, uneducated impressionable people easily swayed by zealots and miss-information. 

The Middle East is going through a very chaotic time.  The Arab Spring has witnessed an uprising against the ham fisted rule of cruel dictators.  Change is messy, chaotic and often violent.  Did the fact that the United States elected its first minority president play some role in convincing the youth of the Middle East that change was possible?  Absolutely!  Did this president arrogantly believe that he, like all his predecessors, Democrat and Republican alike, would be the guy to bring peace to the Middle East?  Absolutely!  Could this president or any of his predecessors controlled the series of events that have transpired over the past several months?  Absolutely not!

So to Mr. Krauthammer we ask this one simple question.   What is your solution?  It is easy to fill a column with criticism; much more difficult to offer a slate of solutions.  Mr. Krauthammer’s buddy Mitt Romney is finding that out.

We suspect that Mr. Krauthammer would like us to return to the good old days of the Bush policies on foreign affairs.  The days when we used Hellfire missiles to till the fertile soil of the cradle of civilization in order to plant the seeds of democracy. We have seen firsthand just how well those policies worked. 

They are building a monument to them in lower Manhattan.   

            

"%"

We were watching one of the national news channels yesterday and all they talked about was “%”.  It dawned on us that all this presidential campaign seems to be focused on is “%”.

The top 1%!

The remaining 99%!

What % Romney paid in taxes!

8.1% unemployed!

Obama’s #*% approval rating!

Romney’s #* disapproval rating!

The president #*% lead in battleground states!

Etc…etc…

Thanks to Governor Romney the latest “%” to flood the airwaves is the 47% that Governor Romney says do not pay taxes.  He went on to “in artfully” describe this 47% of the country as folks who “believe that they are victims, who believe the government has the responsibility to care for them , who believe they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing...you name it.”

We should point out that Romney is correct; 46.4% of Americans do not pay any federal income tax.

So who are these people that the governor says “don’t take care and responsibility for their own lives.”  According to the Tax Policy Center that 46.4% is made up of the following:

28.3% are WORKING Americans who due to tax credits and deductions DO NOT pay federal income tax but DO pay payroll taxes.

10.3% are elderly who don’t pay taxes because they are on social security

6.9% are non-elderly making less than $20,000 per year.

1% or “Other” which include some of the top 1% wage earners who do not pay any taxes due to losses or loopholes in the tax code.

This does not seem to be a bunch of moochers bent on scamming the system.

In keeping with our “%” theme party here’s another “%” for you to consider.

Romney and a lot of conservatives say that the top 1% wage earners pay an overwhelming % of all the taxes paid in this country.  That is factually not true.  We do have a progressive federal tax system in this country.  The more you earn the higher % of your earnings you pay in federal taxes.

But that is not the case with state and local taxes.  State and local taxes are regressive.  Those making under $20,000 pay 12.3% of their income in state and local taxes while the top 1% wage earners pay 7.9%.

The bottom line is those at the top earn 21.0% of all income generated in the country and pay 21.6% of all federal, state and local taxes.  Those at the bottom earn 3.4% of the nation’s income and pay 2.1% of the nation’s taxes.

The Romney campaign has tried to make this campaign about two things: 1) a referendum on the president’s policies and 2) tax cuts.  He hasn’t given us anything in the way of specifics as to how he would run the country.  He just wants us to believe that half of the country is mooching off the hard work of the other half.  The moochers support the president and his big government ideas.

So here are one more set of “%” for you and the governor to consider…

According to the latest polls the governor trails the president by 7 percentage points in Ohio and Virginia and by 5 percentage points in Florida.  He trails the president by 7 percentage points nationally.

Romney’s strategy isn’t working.  If he wants to win he needs to stop insulting the 47% and provide some specifics on how he intends to run this country.