Tag Archives: Obama

Sherrod Stands for Bigger Government

Posted in ohio, politics on November 17th, 2011 at 10:30 am
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Sherrod Brown (D-OH) is the most liberal member of the United States Senate, according to NationalJournal vote rankings. Senator Brown supports the freaks of Occupy Wall Street, opposes free trade, and was the deciding vote for Obamacare.

That vote could be… problematic, as explained by likely 2012 challenger Josh Mandel:

We must not overlook the truly significant blow that Ohioans dealt Obamacare last week, with a mix of 2.2 million Democrats, Republicans and Independents rejecting this intrusion on individual liberty and family control over health care decisions.

Indeed, you would be pressed to find a statist boondoggle Sherrod Brown doesn’t love. Check out this rant from a Q&A session Sherrod held this spring with Ohio’s largest government union:

According to Senator Brown, privatization is always driven by “greed” and always makes “the services get worse.” Hearty red meat for a government union crowd, but keep in mind this was an unscripted response. Bigger government, higher taxes, and demonizing The Rich are the only things Sherrod knows.

Sadly for Sherrod, every county in Ohio voted to amend the state constitution against Obamacare’s individual mandate – even after a $30 million Progressive smear campaign against union reform. With huge turnout for an off-year election, the citizen-driven Health Care Freedom Amendment passed by a wider margin than the union issue failed! Brown claims the amendment was “confusing,” which would be a great explanation for the opposite result.

Think class warfare will convince Ohio to retain America’s most liberal Senator, a freshman who rode into Washington on a 2006 Democrat wave in the Buckeye State? Not if I have anything to say about it.

Follow me on Twitter: @jasonahart

Cross-posted at Big Government.

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Help Ohio Fight Union Bosses and Obamacare!

Posted in ohio, politics on November 7th, 2011 at 8:00 am
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From 2000-2010, Ohio lost 595,200 private industry jobs, faring better than only Michigan and California. In 2010 the state had the 7th-highest tax burden and 47th-best business climate. Although Governor Kasich has been working since January to get Ohio back on track, the forces of statism are deeply entrenched.

As public record proves, many of these folks get rich portraying big government as a moral imperative:

You have a chance right now to help a Midwestern swing state escape leftist control! Two Ohio ballot measures up for a vote on Tuesday deserve the full support of conservatives nationwide.

Issue 3 represents an unprecedented citizen-driven effort; its passage would amend the state constitution to block Obamacare’s individual mandate in Ohio. Conventional wisdom is that Issue 3 will pass, but efforts to kill Issue 2 may claim Issue 3 as collateral damage. If conservative Ohioans stay home Tuesday, union propaganda could prevent a repudiation of Obamacare.

Issue 2 has been the focus of a $30 million smear campaign, with an alphabet soup of unions framing government union reform as an “attack on The Middle Class.” There are many reasons to support Issue 2, but the best is also the simplest: Issue 2 restores a little power from union bosses to taxpayers.

Ohio’s status quo ensures that unions – instead of our elected officials – set the rules of public employment. Public wages are garnished for union propaganda and professional agitators’ pockets, while taxpayers are demonized over any effort to restrain spending. Their own employees describe Ohio union bosses as “rife with hypocrisy,” but $30 million buries a whole lot of dirt!

Far from theoretical, Ohio’s need for reform is rooted in fiscal urgency. Based on forecasts prior to Kasich’s election, 260 Ohio school districts will have deficits amounting to more than $500 per resident by 2015. Passing Issue 2 would ensure fewer layoffs, fewer tax hikes, fewer service cuts… as well as fewer six-figure union salaries. Any questions as to why AFL-CIO, NEA, AFSCME, and SEIU are dumping millions into a state ballot issue?

Like the broken law Issue 2 amends, I’ve been part of Ohio since 1983. Will you help me do good where decades of bureaucracy have done so much harm? Will you encourage Ohioans to free themselves from President Obama’s terrible policies and dishonest financiers?

Citizens of the Buckeye State, vote Yes on Issue 2 and Yes on Issue 3. Everyone else, please help counter union lies on your social media network of choice!

Follow me on Twitter: @jasonahart

Cross-posted at Third Base Politics and RedState.

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NEA Attacks Ohio Union Reform

Posted in ohio, politics on October 12th, 2011 at 7:15 am
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I’ve reported previously that We Are Ohio, the group lying its pants off to kill Senate Bill 5, is funded chiefly by D.C. unions. Yesterday, Hot Air noted that the National Education Association (NEA) plans to spend as much as $5 million more to block the reforms passed by Ohio’s elected leaders.

If NEA is genuinely concerned about Ohio teachers, they are saints compared to their Ohio affiliate, the Ohio Education Association (OEA). Don’t believe me? Consider OEA pay, the words of OEA staff, the treatment of OEA retirees, and smears against non-union teachers, for starters.

Maybe NEA is different…

Why is NEA desperate to keep Ohioans from voting Yes on Issue 2? In addition to instituting merit pay, putting a stop to last-in-first-out firing policies, and requiring government workers to pay for a small portion of their benefits, Senate Bill 5 ends mandatory “fair share” dues taken from non-members.

Take a look at NEA pay and tell me it’s not about the money:

Dennis Van Roekel, President $397,721
John Wilson, Executive Director $384,129
Becky Pringle, Secretary Treasurer $340,845
Lily Eskelsen, Vice President $326,563
Carmen Quesada, Director $308,773
John Stocks, Deputy Executive Director $277,613
Dorothy Harrell, Director $270,529
Cynthia Swann, Sr Policy AdvDir $258,751
Michael McPherson, Chief Financial Officer $249,499
HT Nguyen, State Affiliate Exec Dir $246,403
Len Paolillo, Executive Committee $241,556
John Yrchik, State Affiliate Exec Dir $228,786
Kimberly Anderson, Org Specialist $228,356
Julie McGinnis Garcia, CLO $224,117
Barry Melamed, Assoc. Director $222,951
Tamara Hamilton, Dir CareerDev ExelEd $222,220
Sheila Simmons, Director $221,934
Andrew Linebaugh, Director $221,733
Armand Tiberio, RegionalDir $220,416
Segun Eubanks, Director $214,015
David DuVall, RegionalDir $212,649
Dennis Friel, RegionalDir $212,160
Janet Dade, Director $210,970
Kathleen Lyons, RegionalDir $208,009
Leona Hiraoka, Director $206,885
Roxanne Dove, Director $206,816
Bouy Te, Director $206,751
Ronald Henderson, Director $206,161
Willard Raabe, Director $204,717
Daniel Hand, Director $204,343
Philip McLaurin, Director $203,845
Michael Edwards, Sr Policy AdvDir $203,778
Donna Healy-Dean, Director $202,462
Harry Lawson, RegionalDir $201,658
Jacob Sweeney, Org Specialist $201,191
Maurice Joseph, Deputy General Counsel $200,682

View complete spreadsheet, pulled directly from the union’s 2010 report to the U.S. Department of Labor.

36 NEA employees & officers were paid more than $200,000 last year. 97 NEA employees were paid more than $175,000. 183 were paid more than $150,000. 441 were paid more than $100,000!

Let me make sure I’ve got this right:

  1. Teachers are grievously underpaid.
  2. Corporations – who make “products” and “services” and sell them in a “marketplace” where people have “choices” – are to blame.
  3. Teachers in Ohio and across the country pay NEA hundreds of dollars every year so NEA can elect big-government politicians, cheer on deficit spending, agitate for higher taxes, and become millionaires in the process.

Does NEA even allow math teachers to join?

Like all government unions, NEA is in the business of self-preservation at taxpayer expense. Opposing Senate Bill 5 won’t help get Ohio back on track… but that’s of no consequence to D.C. union bosses. Vote Yes on Issue 2!

Cross-posted at Third Base Politics and RedState.

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AG Holder: I Don’t Read Memos – and it’s Bush’s Fault

Posted in politics on October 8th, 2011 at 7:00 am
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The “Fast and Furious” scandal downplayed by Obama loyalists in the media for the past several months is becoming a serious liability for President Obama, with Attorney General Eric Holder appearing to commit perjury during a House Oversight Committee hearing. Justice Department memos released this week contradict Holder’s sworn testimony.

How bad is this situation for the White House? Even CBS News has been forced to show an interest in the story!

The question asked by House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) was trimmed from the CBS News report: “When did you first know about the program officially, I believe, called Fast and Furious?” Simple question. No ambiguity. Same goes for Holder’s response: “I’m not sure of the exact date, but I probably heard about Fast and Furious for the first time over the last few weeks.”

The CBS News clip above lets Holder slide with an incredibly weak line about not understanding the question, but I doubt the average citizen will be so willing to drop the issue. With Republicans on the attack, Holder sent a letter to members of Congress on Friday:

“I have no recollection of knowing about the operation, called ‘Fast and Furious,’ or of hearing its name prior to the public controversy about it,” Holder said in a letter to key Republican and Democratic members of Congress.

He added that before early this year, “I certainly never knew about the tactics employed in the operation, and it is my understanding that the former United States Attorney for the district of Arizona and the former acting director and deputy director of ATF have told Congress that they, themselves, were unaware of the tactics employed.”

Because this is Barack Obama’s Attorney General we’re talking about, Holder’s letter was also required to meet a minimum threshold for Stuff Blamed On Dubya.

The attorney general noted the flawed tactics employed in Fast and Furious “were actually employed in an investigation conducted during the prior administration.”

In review, Obama’s Attorney General hadn’t heard about Fast and Furious until this spring… even though he received several memos mentioning the program dating back to early 2010. So maybe he heard about the operation, but it was probably a different one – which he made no attempt to clarify in his testimony because… ? Holder definitely doesn’t remember knowing anything, and what he did know but almost certainly forgot is really Bush’s fault anyway.

How many mulligan-years are we supposed to give the Obama administration, and at what point do Bush policies that Obama continues become “Obama policies?” Is it unfair to expect that the Attorney General read the briefings deemed important enough to cross his desk?

Cross-posted at Third Base Politics.

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Sherrod Shills for Another Union Bailout

Posted in ohio, politics on October 7th, 2011 at 8:15 am
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President Obama is so concerned about the economy, he sent three major Bush-era free trade agreements to Congress after less than 3 years!

The deals, which were originally negotiated during the Bush administration, would boost U.S. exports by $13 billion a year; both the White House and congressional Republicans have touted the three pacts as a means of creating tens of thousands of jobs without requiring additional federal spending.

Our own Senator Sherrod Brown is clear about his stance on free trade: he’s against it.

“With an exploding trade deficit that has caused massive job loss, now is not the time to pass more wrongheaded free- trade agreements,” Brown said in a statement released after the White House sent the measures to Congress on Oct. 3.

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is a frequent pinata for Senator Brown, as it was for candidate Obama. Sure, the preponderance of evidence supports NAFTA and makes Brown & Obama look like demagogues, but there are competing figures for any issue. Sherrod also finds it convenient to talk about China instead of out-of-control spending – and to smear every trade partner as if they were the Chinese.

While common sense suggests we should do our best to compete in the global marketplace, Sherrod Brown would rather spend more of your money on union bailouts:

“This extension of Trade Adjustment Assistance and the Health Coverage Tax Credit is long overdue,” Brown said in a statement.

Sherrod Brown rails against free markets as if the purpose of government were to smother everything else, but there’s one industry Sherrod adores: unions. Maybe D.C. union bosses have a Sherrod-Signal on the roof! Whenever union clout is threatened, they throw the switch and Sherrod swoops in – with bags of taxpayer cash.

"Competition?! Light the Sherrod-Signal, boys!"

Senator Brown acts concerned about the trade deficit with China, but his only answer to much worse federal budget deficits is to soak the rich. At the moment, Ohioans can’t do much to prevent Sherrod from fighting free-market policies while throwing our money at union bosses… but 2012 is right around the corner.

Cross-posted at Third Base Politics.

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Soak the Rich: Exelon Corp.

Posted in soak the rich on September 18th, 2011 at 10:00 am
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Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and President Obama know that filling the $1.62 trillion U.S. budget deficit for Fiscal 2011 means forcing big corporations to pay their fair share. As a white-guilt-ridden capitalist pig, the least I can do is help with the calculations!

President Obama may be hedging on the EPA’s righteous destruction of American polluters, but that doesn’t mean dirty corporations are off the hook. Sure, we’ve already soaked several of the oil & gas giants, but the ill-gotten gains of a few more polluters will cover the nation’s budget deficit. Electric companies rely heavily on coal-powered plants… electric companies must pay!

Now Soaking: Exelon Corp.

None of Exelon’s 19,214 employees will lose their jobs if Sherrod Brown and Barack Obama work their not-at-all-socialist magic. The only funds & individuals holding Exelon’s 662 million outstanding shares of stock who suffer will be the ones who deserve to.

Don’t worry: this punitive tax policy won’t increase utility costs for the millions of Americans who buy electricity from Exelon subsidiaries or competitors!

We, The People who support Sherrod Brown’s fiscal policies, hold these leftist conceits to be self-evident.

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Obamarang

Posted in miami university, ohio, politics on September 16th, 2011 at 8:15 am
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Like a bad penny – or a good boomerang – President Obama keeps turning up in Ohio, transparently campaigning in what the White House hopes will still be a battleground state this time next year. After Tuesday’s Columbus visit demanding more deficit spending, the big guy is making a stop in Cincinnati next week… to demand more deficit spending.

 

As right-wing kooks warned long before Obama’s inauguration, the president has nothing to offer besides unsustainable government dependency. His latest spending bill is another case study in how to be Campaigner-in-Chief: a huge pander to unions and public employees, with just enough temporary tax relief to provide a centrist veneer.

In Ohio and throughout the country, local governments are grappling with the reality that governors can’t continue shoveling money their direction, because Washington can’t keep throwing money at the states. We can barely argue about spending public funds on “guns” versus “butter”: years of butter-budgeting have us buried in debt.

On this key issue, the Obama administration has been an abject failure. Congressman Paul Ryan, a Miami University alum, sets this fact into stark relief in a series of videos discussing his Path to Prosperity budget. Check them out, if you haven’t already – the third was just released this week:

Compare the GOP plan with Obamanomics, which hinges on complete denial of the most avoidable financial crisis mankind has ever seen.

Cross-posted at Third Base Politics.

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Soak the Rich: ConocoPhillips

Posted in soak the rich on September 14th, 2011 at 10:00 pm
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Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and President Obama know that filling the $1.62 trillion U.S. budget deficit for Fiscal 2011 means forcing big corporations to pay their fair share. As a white-guilt-ridden private industry lackey, the least I can do is help with the calculations!

President Obama may be hedging on the EPA’s righteous destruction of American polluters, but that doesn’t mean dirty corporations are off the hook. Sure, we’ve already soaked Exxon and Chevron, but the ill-gotten gains of a few more polluting fat-cats will cover the nation’s budget deficit!

Now Soaking: ConocoPhillips

None of ConocoPhillips’s 29,900 employees will lose their jobs if Sherrod Brown and Barack Obama work their not-at-all-socialist magic. The only funds & individuals holding ConocoPhillips’s 1.37 billion outstanding shares of stock who suffer will be the ones who deserve to.

Don’t worry: this punitive tax policy won’t increase the cost of travel, heating, shipping, or plastics!

We, The People who support Sherrod Brown’s fiscal policies, hold these leftist conceits to be self-evident.

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Obama’s Hostage Hypocrisy

Posted in politics on September 8th, 2011 at 6:41 pm
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As noted at Third Base Politics and elsewhere, there are limits to the “new tone” called for by President Obama amid efforts to blame a deranged individual’s violence on the tea party movement. Strangely, the dividing line varies depending on your political beliefs. It’s almost as if the moderate king of hope and civility wants to silence opposition to his lefter-than-left policies.

Words are one thing, but actions are another. Surely the President of the United States is against taking hostages in service of a political goal?

Hundreds of Longshore workers stormed the Port of Longview, overpowered security guards, damaged rail cars and dumped grain at the center of a labor dispute that also stopped work at four other ports on Thursday, officials said.

[...]

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union believes it has the right to work at the facility, but the company has hired a contractor that’s staffing a workforce of laborers from another union, the Portland-based Operating Engineers Local 701.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union is one of many under the AFL-CIO umbrella. How forcefully do you expect President Obama to decry the union’s actions?

The White House has announced that nearly two dozen guests will sit with first lady Michelle Obama to watch President Obama deliver his jobs speech to a joint session of Congress.

The list of business, labor and political leaders includes GE Chairman Jeffrey Immelt, AOL co-founder Steve Case, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley.

Remember, this is the same president who claimed Republicans were holding America hostage during the debt ceiling debate. It’s the same president who is holding trade agreements -ahem- hostage because the GOP won’t agree to another union bailout.

When her president has friends like these, America’s economy hardly needs enemies.

Cross-posted at Third Base Politics.

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Soak the Rich, Week 18

Posted in soak the rich on September 4th, 2011 at 1:00 pm
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Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) has a Progressive’s grasp of economics: corporations are evil, and bureaucrats could micromanage the world perfectly given a little more money.

Sherrod – like President Obama – isn’t specific about his approach to sustainable big government, so what if we used the class-warrior’s dream scenario of doubled corporate income taxes and fully “reclaimed” CEO pay? Starting with just the 2011 deficit of $1.62 trillion, how fast could we balance the budget with a bit extra from the kings of the S&P 500?

After a decidedly non-Progressive lapse in weekly recaps, we’re back on schedule. Now that we’ve soaked 36 of America’s largest employers, we’ve covered 6.587% of the 2011 deficit! That’s a reduction from $1,620,000,000,000 to $1,513,286,096,569 (view source workbook).

If hiking taxes on a few hundred more corporations could cover the remaining 93.413% of the 2011 deficit, would it be worth it?

Sure! As Sherrod would insist, soaking The Rich has no negative effects. Among the things that won’t happen if Sherrod Brown and President Obama tax their way to the chart above:

  • None of the corporations’ 6,505,112 employees will lose their jobs.
  • None of the corporations’ products or services – health insurance, prescription drugs, medical devices, food at supermarkets & restaurants, purified water, appliances, gasoline, business & consumer lending, checking accounts, savings accounts, construction equipment, air travel, shipping, national defense, cell phone service, broadband access, fast food, soda, sports drinks, snacks, the thousands of items available at Amazon.com & Wal-Mart, toothpaste, diapers, detergent, baby soap, Band-Aids, movies, television, newspapers, computer software, iPods, laptops, servers, networking equipment, etc. – will get more expensive.
  • None of the funds or individuals holding the corporations’ 87,648,800,000 shares of stock will be ruined… unless they deserve it!
  • None of the world’s entrepreneurs or executives will stop investing in American businesses.

Good thing raising taxes is an all-around win… otherwise, Ohioans would have to find a senator with more sense than Sherrod Brown!

Cross-posted at Third Base Politics.

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