The Occasional Political Rant
Well, we are less than six months from the all-important midterm Congressional elections, and I can only say one thing about what I see in the shaping political landscape:
Apparently, the Democrats don't want to keep control of the Senate.
I say this because it's only May, and they are already shooting themselves in the foot repeatedly, with the chance of it only getting worse before it gets better. By November, they may be blowing off legs. First of all, the one Democrat who seems to be getting the majority of the press in terms of wanting to get elected is the one who isn't even in a race this year: Al Gore. Some members of the press and some columnists are pleading for Gore's return as the mouthpiece of the Democratic Party, and some Democrats are bickering over the lack of attention their last presidential nominee is getting. They'll, of course, be quick to remind you that Mr. Gore won the popular vote in the 2000 presidential election; some, of course, still refuse to believe that Gore lost Florida, and conspiracy theorists seem to still be working hard to try to create new ways that George W. Bush "fixed" the election. More and more these days, we see stories about how Gore criticized President Bush's record on this and that, but it barely seems to put a dent in our perception of things and we don't really much seem to be letting Gore's views influence our opinions, and the Democrats demand to know why. OK, I'll tell you, and it might be hard for you to swallow, but take it with however many grains of salt you wish: Al Gore is no longer relevant. Al Gore ceased to be relevant the moment he stood before us all and announced, "It's time for me to go." At that moment, he joined the ranks of Mike Dukakis, Walter Mondale, and all the other presidential hopefuls who lost their attempts at the White House.
Right now, the image of the Democratic Party unfortunately (for them) is Al Gore. The other image of the Democratic Party is a bunch of whiners. They've whined about how much attention and press President Bush is getting, even from CNN (forgetting of course that when their man was in the White House, CNN lavished so much attention on him that Republicans called it the Clinton News Network). When Bush got his tax cut, we were treated to days, if not weeks, of Dick Gephardt and Tom Daschle whining about how we had just wrecked the economy (which oh by the way was already a quarter-deep into a recession). The grumbling that continues over the tax cut continues even today when Democrats whine about how the tax cut wiped out the projected surplus. While economic factors took care of a lot of it, the fact is it's a case of simple mathematics... there was a surplus, which is defined as an excess of tax money; there was a tax cut, which is defined as giving that tax money back to the people. Excess tax money minus tax money given back equals no surplus.
Now here's where I attack both parties. Not long ago, we were looking at a situation where we could actually break even on the budget this year: no deficit, no surplus. However, that evaporated when the stimulus package was rammed through by Bush and the Republicans. How ironic that the amount of the package equaled the exact estimate of how big the deficit would be. Then, the spending curbs instituted by Congress in the 80s under President Reagan (which is actually what paved the way for our finally turning deficits into surpluses) expired. There are no efforts underway to reinstitute them, which means it's time for Congress to start doling out pork like never before. They just dropped a $360 billion slab of bacon on the farmers of America; a totally unnecessary one. Now I understand the plight of American farmers, but these are tough economic times. We are barely starting to nose our way out of the recession, and it's been time for belt-tightening all around. The least we could hope for was that our government would do that too. However, that isn't the case. With no spending curbs and districts to win, congressmen are racking up the pork projects like never before. It's all about getting re-elected, and somehow these people think that if they don't "bring home the bacon", so to speak, that they can't just explain that the Congress tightened its purse strings like the American people have. The sad thing is they may be right; call us hypocrites.
The Democrats have to be loving the free-wheeling spending, however; think about it, the higher Congress runs up the deficit with pork spending, the more they can try to blame it on Bush. However, some left-wingers are starting to suggest a solution to what looks to be no more than a year or two of deficits that will kill the Democrats' shot at keeping the Senate should they pursue it. They want to repeal the tax cut. Never mind that to do so would be, in effect, passing the largest tax increase in history on the eve of Congressional elections. They want Bush to wind up with egg all over his face for even daring to cut taxes of hard-working Americans (otherwise known as "the rich" to Democrats).
As much as I don't want to give aid and comfort to "the enemy" (me being a Republican, of course), I'll offer the Democrats a simple saying that has been repeated throughout time: "Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it." Let me take you back to 1993, right after Bill Clinton took office. The economy is just starting to improve and we're pulling out of the 1990-91 recession, and Clinton enters the White House and promptly raises taxes on everyone who makes over $30,000 a year, what currently stands as the largest tax increase in American history. The economy did not drop back into recession; however, it did come close to flat-lining over the next two years while Democrats in Congress gleefully spent the new influx of tax money and the deficit failed to drop. In 1994, the Republicans won the Congress, Clinton was forced to move his policies to the middle, and the deficit soon evaporated. Right now, we are in the same economic position we were in then, just pulling out of a recession. I will tell you now, Democrats: start advocating the repeal of the Bush tax cut, and you will lose the Senate in November, and lose big.
You've been warned.
Apparently, the Democrats don't want to keep control of the Senate.
I say this because it's only May, and they are already shooting themselves in the foot repeatedly, with the chance of it only getting worse before it gets better. By November, they may be blowing off legs. First of all, the one Democrat who seems to be getting the majority of the press in terms of wanting to get elected is the one who isn't even in a race this year: Al Gore. Some members of the press and some columnists are pleading for Gore's return as the mouthpiece of the Democratic Party, and some Democrats are bickering over the lack of attention their last presidential nominee is getting. They'll, of course, be quick to remind you that Mr. Gore won the popular vote in the 2000 presidential election; some, of course, still refuse to believe that Gore lost Florida, and conspiracy theorists seem to still be working hard to try to create new ways that George W. Bush "fixed" the election. More and more these days, we see stories about how Gore criticized President Bush's record on this and that, but it barely seems to put a dent in our perception of things and we don't really much seem to be letting Gore's views influence our opinions, and the Democrats demand to know why. OK, I'll tell you, and it might be hard for you to swallow, but take it with however many grains of salt you wish: Al Gore is no longer relevant. Al Gore ceased to be relevant the moment he stood before us all and announced, "It's time for me to go." At that moment, he joined the ranks of Mike Dukakis, Walter Mondale, and all the other presidential hopefuls who lost their attempts at the White House.
Right now, the image of the Democratic Party unfortunately (for them) is Al Gore. The other image of the Democratic Party is a bunch of whiners. They've whined about how much attention and press President Bush is getting, even from CNN (forgetting of course that when their man was in the White House, CNN lavished so much attention on him that Republicans called it the Clinton News Network). When Bush got his tax cut, we were treated to days, if not weeks, of Dick Gephardt and Tom Daschle whining about how we had just wrecked the economy (which oh by the way was already a quarter-deep into a recession). The grumbling that continues over the tax cut continues even today when Democrats whine about how the tax cut wiped out the projected surplus. While economic factors took care of a lot of it, the fact is it's a case of simple mathematics... there was a surplus, which is defined as an excess of tax money; there was a tax cut, which is defined as giving that tax money back to the people. Excess tax money minus tax money given back equals no surplus.
Now here's where I attack both parties. Not long ago, we were looking at a situation where we could actually break even on the budget this year: no deficit, no surplus. However, that evaporated when the stimulus package was rammed through by Bush and the Republicans. How ironic that the amount of the package equaled the exact estimate of how big the deficit would be. Then, the spending curbs instituted by Congress in the 80s under President Reagan (which is actually what paved the way for our finally turning deficits into surpluses) expired. There are no efforts underway to reinstitute them, which means it's time for Congress to start doling out pork like never before. They just dropped a $360 billion slab of bacon on the farmers of America; a totally unnecessary one. Now I understand the plight of American farmers, but these are tough economic times. We are barely starting to nose our way out of the recession, and it's been time for belt-tightening all around. The least we could hope for was that our government would do that too. However, that isn't the case. With no spending curbs and districts to win, congressmen are racking up the pork projects like never before. It's all about getting re-elected, and somehow these people think that if they don't "bring home the bacon", so to speak, that they can't just explain that the Congress tightened its purse strings like the American people have. The sad thing is they may be right; call us hypocrites.
The Democrats have to be loving the free-wheeling spending, however; think about it, the higher Congress runs up the deficit with pork spending, the more they can try to blame it on Bush. However, some left-wingers are starting to suggest a solution to what looks to be no more than a year or two of deficits that will kill the Democrats' shot at keeping the Senate should they pursue it. They want to repeal the tax cut. Never mind that to do so would be, in effect, passing the largest tax increase in history on the eve of Congressional elections. They want Bush to wind up with egg all over his face for even daring to cut taxes of hard-working Americans (otherwise known as "the rich" to Democrats).
As much as I don't want to give aid and comfort to "the enemy" (me being a Republican, of course), I'll offer the Democrats a simple saying that has been repeated throughout time: "Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it." Let me take you back to 1993, right after Bill Clinton took office. The economy is just starting to improve and we're pulling out of the 1990-91 recession, and Clinton enters the White House and promptly raises taxes on everyone who makes over $30,000 a year, what currently stands as the largest tax increase in American history. The economy did not drop back into recession; however, it did come close to flat-lining over the next two years while Democrats in Congress gleefully spent the new influx of tax money and the deficit failed to drop. In 1994, the Republicans won the Congress, Clinton was forced to move his policies to the middle, and the deficit soon evaporated. Right now, we are in the same economic position we were in then, just pulling out of a recession. I will tell you now, Democrats: start advocating the repeal of the Bush tax cut, and you will lose the Senate in November, and lose big.
You've been warned.
Labels: politics
posted by Dave | 11:47 PM
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