Tag Archives: specifics

GOP Agenda: Meaningless Generalities and “Going Back”

19 Monday Jul 2010

Posted by in budget, Congress, Conservatives, economy, financial reform, Obama administration, Politics, Republicans

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It appears that Republicans are following the advice of Rep. Peter King (R-NY) about laying out their agenda for what they would do should they regain control of the House in the November mid-term elections. On Bill Bennett’s radio program last Thursday, Rep. King said this:

“I don’t think we have to lay out a complete agenda, from top to bottom, because then we would have the national mainstream media jumping on every point trying to make that a campaign issue.”

Yesterday on Meet the Press Rep. Pete Sessions and Sen. John Cornyn, both of  Texas (sigh) continued with that theme. When David Gregory asked Sessions to explain what the GOP would do to cut the deficit, Sessions replied with meaningless generalities like these:

“We need to live within our own means.”

“We need to make that sure we read the bills.”

“We are going to balance the budget.”

“We need to make sure that…we look at all that we are spending in Washington D.C.”

Sessions added something which stood out to me when Gregory pressed him for specifics. “He [Rep. Chris Van Hollen D-MD who remarked earlier about removing tax incentives for employers who ship jobs overseas] wants to diminish employers’ ability to be able to be competitive across the world…We need to go back to the exact same agenda that is empowering the free enterprise system rather than diminishing it.”

“Employers’ ability to be competitive across the world.” For instance Hanes:

“As recently as 2006 when Hanes was spun off from its parent Sara Lee Corporation, the company had 19 plants in the US and Puerto Rico. It currently has seven with one (Forsyth, NC) more scheduled to close by year-end 2010. Hanes now manufactures its wares across 17 plants and production facilities scattered across the Caribbean and Central America (Haiti, El Salvador and Honduras) to South East Asia (Bangladesh, Thailand, Vietnam), Micronesia (Saipan, Marshall Islands), a China manufacturing hub and one plant in Mount Airy, North Carolina.

…two thirds of the growth in earnings for Hanes came as a result of moving its production offshore and from financing activities.

Who benefits? Well management certainly does as do the shareholders. Its stock closed today at $25.97 up 78.3 percent year-over-year. Its CEO, Richard Noll, was paid $5.7 million in 2009. Not bad for a manufacturer of underwear and hosiery. Meanwhile, the company’s average wage in Bangladesh is $0.33 cents an hour. Of its 50,000 employees worldwide, less than ten percent work in the US.”

This is the “free enterprise system” that Sessions and his fellow Republicans want to “empower rather than diminish.” Great for creating jobs in Bangladesh, not so much in America. Not to mention the “go back” remark. There’s the GOP agenda in a nutshell.

Cornyn’s answer to the question was much the same, adding that he wants to wait and see what the debt commission has to say. Way to face up to those tough choices, Sen. Cornyn. Watch:

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John McCain: Putting Himself First

05 Friday Sep 2008

Posted by in Election 2008, McCain, Obama, Politics, Uncategorized

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Senator McCain’s acceptance speech last night was just about what I expected, judging from the theme of the other speakers at the Republican Convention. It was long on generalities and platitudes and short on specifics. It was a speech that could have been given by any Republican candidate for president in the last 20+ years.

Lower taxes, reduce spending, cut government programs, the usual suspects. He also found time to misrepresent Barack Obama’s proposals on taxes and health care, although he presented no health care plan of his own, and even get in an “anointed one” reference.

What McCain’s speech had plenty of was his autobiography. You know, the one he doesn’t like to talk about that much. For someone who claims that his experiences made him realize “I wasn’t my own man anymore, I was my country’s” and that he has been his country’s servant “first, last and always”, Senator McCain certainly spends a lot of time attracting attention to himself and his personal ordeal.

I would think that servant’s spirit might include a dose of humility, but then again I could be wrong.

Senator McCain also proclaimed his hatred for war, which is strange coming from the man who less than a month after 9/11 expressed his desire to take retaliation against Al-Qaeda beyond Afghanistan, and on January 2, 2002 said “Next up, Baghdad.”

McCain also continued his assertion that Obama would raise taxes, again leaving out the fact that it would only affect those making over $250,000 a year.

But he didn’t stop there, saying this:

“His plan will force small businesses to cut jobs, reduce wages, and force families into a government-run health care system where a bureaucrat stands between you and your doctor.”

To coin a McCain phrase, my friends, that is not a misrepresentation, that is a lie. Here is Obama’s health care plan. Someone please find for me where it says anything about forcing people into a government-run health care system. Remember the debate between Hillary and Obama over health care mandates? How her plan contained them and his didn’t?

Then there was this:

“I’m not running for president because I think I’m blessed with such personal greatness that history has anointed me to save our country in its hour of need.”

Another cheap shot, but not unexpected. No, Senator McCain is running for president because he wants to “serve a purpose greater than himself.” Hmmm, serve a purpose greater than yourself. That sounds to me like the job description of a community organizer. Nah, couldn’t be.

Finally, on the issue of “changing the way Washington works.” Refresh my memory, but hasn’t John McCain has been in Washington for nearly 30 years? Yet he talks like he has never even seen the place. He is going to suddenly reform something he has been hip-deep in for almost 3 decades. Does anybody see a contradiction there? But excuse me, who am I to question a former POW. Never mind.