You probably already know that former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney named Congressional Representative Paul Ryan as his vice-presidential running mate this past weekend. You may also know that Ryan is famous for his budget, which promises lower taxes and lower government spending. In fact, given his budget, I think it’s fair to say that Ryan is actually a Libertarian who lacks the courage to actually run on his true party’s ticket. That said, I’m in no way eager to analyze his budget and prove what a terrible idea it is.
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| I try not to let my distaste for Client 9's personal life influence my judgement of his writing. |
Thankfully, former New York governor Eliot Spitzer did it for me this week on Slate . I’ll spare you the time that Spitzer spared me; the bottom line is this:
“Here is the number that is perhaps the key to his view of the future: 3.75 percent.
That number, according to Ryan’s own analysis, is the percentage of GDP that the government will spend by 2050 on everything other than Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. In other words, as both the Atlantic’s Derek Thompson and the Washington Post’s Ezra Klein point out, the money spent on education, unemployment insurance, food stamps, environmental protection, infrastructure investment, the NIH, the FDA, the FAA, the FBI, veterans benefits, and most notably, defense—all of these expenditures together can cost no more than 3.75 percent of GDP.”
That number, according to Ryan’s own analysis, is the percentage of GDP that the government will spend by 2050 on everything other than Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. In other words, as both the Atlantic’s Derek Thompson and the Washington Post’s Ezra Klein point out, the money spent on education, unemployment insurance, food stamps, environmental protection, infrastructure investment, the NIH, the FDA, the FAA, the FBI, veterans benefits, and most notably, defense—all of these expenditures together can cost no more than 3.75 percent of GDP.”
I point this out because I know that a lot of my friends—probably a majority of my friends—are pretty strong conservatives. That’s fine. But as you’re considering who to vote for, it’s worth learning what it is that these guys actually believe.
Neither Romney nor Ryan have the least shred of either credibility or experience when it comes to security, national defense, or our nation’s military. More to the point, these guys don’t seem to care. As far as they’re concerned, you’re already in their pocket, so at this point, giving you anything you want is not a good return on investment. And as business guys, return on investment is, bottom line, the only thing that they care about.
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From the “All Politics Is Local” Department, Linda McMahon won the Connecticut GOP Senatorial primary this week, beating former U.S. Congressional Representative Christopher Shays. For the record, yes, I am a registered Republican; yes, I voted for Shays.
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| This is the shape of things to come in Washington. |
McMahon won because she outspent Shays 12:1. She also won because she ran as an Outside at a time when the Great American Public (GAP) is fed up with so-called career politicians, preferring instead newbies whom they believe will be more independent thanks to their owing less to corporate and special interests than those who’ve spent a career in Washington. Unfortunately, this last is wrong-headed.
While I get that folks want their politicians to be more independent, I question this idea that new politicians will be less beholden to corporate and special interests than those who are already established in their governmental careers. Personally, I think that the thing that keeps us all in the pocket of the corporate and special interests is the endlessly revolving nature of the election cycle itself—and its attendant never-ending requirement for fund raising. Moreover, I think it’s evident—both in logical terms and in terms of recent national experience—that the new kids are at least as far under their masters’ boot heels as the political incumbent class is. After all, who has more independence? The guy who’s been in the House for twenty years and with whom the public already has a reasonable degree of name recognition, or the guy who had to accept every campaign “gift” that was offered just to get his name and his message out there in the first place?
Also, at what point did it become a good idea to replace a guy with twenty years of experience in his chosen profession with a guy who’s brand new to the job? I mean, yeah, change happens, but this idea that new guys will automatically govern better is simply counter-factual. Given the choice between two heart surgeons, you wouldn’t choose the newbie. Ditto for defense lawyers, tax accountants… Hell, even handy-men. In fact, if you can name any profession where experience is actually a detriment to performance in the comments below, I’ll name the next post on this blog in your honor.
So why, then, is government different?
Well, it probably isn’t.
Now in Linda McMahon’s case, she’s already wealthy, so maybe her wealth will insulate her from some of the temptations of Washington. Or maybe she views the acquisition of a Senate seat as a way for her to push the interests of her family’s business more directly in the halls of power. The truth is, it’s hard to know. It’s hard to know because the positions that she advocates are directly aligned with her own personal interests. Bottom line, there’s plenty of room for cynicism.
Finally, it’s worth mentioning that McMahon is a quasi-Tea Partier running in a state that leans strongly Democratic. A Centrist like Shays might’ve had a chance in the General Election, but I think McMahon is gonna get beat—again. Because yes, this is her second time running for office. So now, instead of being a professional business executive, she’s starting to look like a professional campaigner.
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Did you ever have one of those days? Y’know, when you feel like a lone voice lost in the wilderness?
Hellooooooooooooooooo? Can anyone hear me?
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How can you tell that Obama really wants to win this election? He’s drinking light beer. No one should have to do that.
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The trial of Russian punk band Pussy Riot is coming to a close, and at this point, a verdict is expected any day. The Western media has been following this story closely, with many outlets at least tacitly agreeing with the band’s defense team that the trial itself is a sham, that Russian President Vladimir Putin is using the opportunity of the trial to show the Russian people that he’s still in charge, and they better remember it or else.
That may well be true. Certainly, the trial has been a media circus, and the charges that the girls in the band face are very, very serious. They could wind up in a Siberian gulag for the rest of their lives. And so, yeah, this event serves as a reminder that Russia is still a tough place where the rule of law is a fungible commodity.
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| Bosom buddies, if Wikileaks is to be believed. |
With all of that said, it’s worth remembering that what these girls did would almost certainly land them some serious jail time here in the States, too. I’m not defending Putin here—I mean, if you want to know what kind of man Putin is, consider that disgraced Italian President Silvio Berlusconi is perhaps his best friend outside of Russia (source: Wikileaks), and that’s just a character reference—but still… These girls broke into one of the largest Orthodox churches in Russia in order to play a protest punk rock concert on top of the church’s very altar in the middle of a service! That shocked Orthodox Russians everywhere—as it was no doubt meant to—and also led to charges of Hooliganism, which is how the girls came to face time in Siberia. Next to that, the fact that the girls’ song roughly translated to “Please God, Take Away This Bastard Putin” is just icing on the cake.
To put this into perspective, consider what folks in America would think if an unknown band of lesbian punk rockers broke into the Mormon Temple in Salt Lake City in order to play a song called “Please God, Fuck Mitt Romney in the Ass” right on the altar in the middle of Sunday service. I mean, that’s in bad taste, right? I think most folks would be outraged. We’d be looking for some jail time there, I’m pretty sure. And yeah, maybe some small group of Americans would say, “Well, the guy is against gay rights, so yeah, it’s no surprise that the gays are upset. So yeah, this is their protest, and I get that.” And yeah, the protest message itself might even represent a valid point of view for some, perhaps even a plurality of the population. But it would still be a protest that was in extremely poor taste, and it would also be the kind of thing for which I think most folks would agree our would-be protesters would deserve quality jail time. Maybe not a Siberian gulag but felony jail time nonetheless.
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By the way, I got that picture of Putin and Berlusconi off of Wikipedia, which is where I get most of my pictures thanks to their open-use policy. With that in mind, if you've got the time, I highly recommend spending a few minutes perusing Putin's Wikipedia page. The man is literally an evil genius. They've got pictures of Putin piloting a fighter jet, piloting a submarine, and taking down wild animals with a sniper rifle. Seriously, if the pictures are to be believed, Putin is literally twice the man that Barak Obama is and three times the man that Mitt Romney is. In fact, the only recent American leaders who could even come close would be Eisenhower or George H.W. Bush.
Putin may be a Hell of a bloody-minded bastard, but he is also a renaissance man of the highest caliber.
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Finally, the annual Jets-Giants pre-season game is tomorrow night (Saturday, August 18th), and despite the fact that the Giants won the freakin’ Super Bowl last year, all the talk lately has been about Rex Ryan, the Jets, and of course, Tim Tebow. Even the guys in my office are interested in the game primarily as a gauge of what the Hell is going on over in Tebow-ville.
Me personally? I want to see how the Giants’ new running back, first round selection David Wilson out of Virginia Tech, looks.
And that’s all I’ve got. Have a great weekend!
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