This Is The Way I See IT….GOP

CPAC came and went like a super train, and it didn’t stop to leave anything worthy. This year's convention put a giant spotlight on the differences between the two factions of the party. Rand Paul is clearly the leader of the libertarian wing and Marco Rubio might have an edge on the other half, but we’ll never know because Chris Christie did not attend. It is interesting that Christie beat out Paul Ryan.CPAC is a meeting of conservative minds and is attended mostly by young college students. Liberals and Democrats have Net Roots, but it doesn’t have near the national appeal that CPAC has.

The gang on “Morning Joe” dubbed the convention as the meeting of the “Whacko Birds” and Joe Scarborough kind of agreed but then he couldn’t stand it anymore. He said the democrats had their own “whacko birds” and the panel nonchalantly agreed; knowing that there is no moral equivalence at this time. Joe said the first time he ran for Congress he only had 3% of the African -American vote but the next time he ran he received 50% of their vote I don’t have the energy but I hope someone researches that and puts it in better context. Joe might have left out some important facts like that he ran against a former Klan member but that’s an exaggeration on my part.

Rand Paul’s speech was mostly about liberty (no surprise), but he needs a lot a work on his economic plan. He won’t find one economist who will agree with his plan to balance the budget in five years. Rand Paul, like his dad never met a government program to his liking. His economic plan is as follows:

• Cut $9+ trillion from the budget over the next decade
• Eliminate 4 departments (Energy, Education, Commerce, and HUD)
• Repeal ObamaCare in its entirety
• Reform entitlements
• Balance the budget in five years, and
• Stop the debt

It’s a libertarian wish list that will never see the light of day.

The crowd was enthusiastic about Marco Rubio’s plan but to me it sounded like superficial rhetoric like when he said“As soon as I'm done speaking, I'll tell you what the criticism on the left is going to be," Rubio said. "Number one, he drank too much water. Number two: that he didn't offer any new ideas.
"And there's the fallacy of it. We don't need a new idea. There is an idea: the idea is called America, and it still works."
That’s a plan,Senator Rubio? Bill Clinton could have said those words with much more eloquence “There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America.”

How ironic, after mocking President Obama for being a community organizer, RNC Chairman, Reince Priebus rolled out his plan to spend $10 million for community organizers in Black, Hispanic and Asian communities. The chairman admitted that the GOP of the past, parachuted their operatives into those communities four months prior to an election but continued to get trounced because the Obama campaign lived in those communities. Joe Scarborough said that many republicans will be surprised by the lack of outreach of his party. Come on Joe, they are not that naïve, as long as they were the majority it didn’t matter. The republican community organizers will have a tough job in states where GOP governors and legislators are making it harder for minorities to vote. The GOP is seen as a party that aches for the days of old. The country has given up on supply side trickle-down economics, so good luck trying to rebrand it as a plan for upward mobility. They’re going to have to explain why there is money in the Ryan budget for tax cuts for the wealthy but no money for Pell Grants and grandma’s Meals- on- Wheels program.

I don’t know why people like RNC Chairman, Reince Priebus, can’t figure out the obvious. People vote for candidates who they can relate to; whether it’s appearance, rhetoric or basic trust. The reason for winning elections might be creative gerrymandering or lack of interest. For example, Victoria usually has a 17% voter turnout in non- presidential elections. Under those conditions, it’s not hard for the same people or political party to maintain their power. Victoria has an older population, so it’s only natural that they consistently vote for conservative republicans. Protecting the wealthy and being seen as less tolerant will not win many national elections. And that’s just a start because being the anti-science, anti-government, anti-women’s rights doesn’t appeal to our nation as a whole and the election results bear that out. Comparing local and state elections results to national ones is a classic “apples to oranges” ordeal.

Charm Offensive?

The media has termed the president’s recent outreach to republicans and as being a charm offensive tactic. The president is supposed to be all smiles as he listens attentively to the GOP concerns. Last night, Lawrence O’Donnell said that the president received a standing ovation from the Republican wing when he entered the house chamber and received the same as he was leaving. That’s good, those gestures offsets the warning of not getting too close to the president because it might hurt their chances of reelection. Doe we really have that many small mined hateful voters in America?

Last week, the house voted to defund ACORN even though it has been out of business for three years. The GOP also renewed their sights on repealing Obamacare, and are currently taking steps to ensure that the work provisions in the welfare program are strengthened; even though they were never weakened. The other day, Born2Bme enlightened me of their motives. I couldn’t understand why we were revisiting the issues of the 2008 and 2012 election. The house GOP is on a permanent reelection campaign, so they must constantly feed the red meat to their base. As I was watching a TV host explain the "free phone for votes" hyperbole being used as an Obama political strategy,  I decided to do a little fact checking. I was wrong because I didn’t think such a program existed, but I was right because it wasn’t an Obama “phones for votes” program. This is how Forbes magazine (no liberal rag) explained the program “The federal program wasn’t started by President Obama. It dates back to 1996, as part of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. The Act did a number of things, including increasing internet access to doctors and patients in rural hospitals (for consults with specialists); subsidizing internet and phone coverage for schools and libraries and providing free or subsidized coverage for families who can’t afford it so that they have links to emergency and government services. The Act was not taxpayer funded… exactly. Taxpayers do pay for coverage but not via federal income taxes. Instead, the Act “mandated the creation of the universal service fund (USF) into which all telecommunications providers are required to contribute a percentage of their interstate and international end-user telecommunications revenues.” So that little fee on your phone bill labeled USF? That’s what you’re paying for.”

As we go back and forth on what will and won’t get done, I can see the wheels turning on both sides, so we might get a small bargain but the differences are too huge to be reconciled in one or two legislative sessions. Paul Ryan and the GOP thinks that since they presented their plan to balance the budget in ten-years, the president should use the same parameters to counter their proposal. I’m glad that the president said that balancing the budget is not a priority but the path to bringing down the cost curve of the debt is. Republicans in the house and the senate are open to tax reform by eliminating tax loopholes but they differ on what to do with the savings. The GOP wants to cut tax rates with the savings but that’s just like moving around the deck chairs on the Titanic to keep it from sinking. They don’t mind eliminating the loopholes that the wealthy receive because they give it back to them in a form of a tax cut. The democrats want to use those savings to further reduce the deficit. The deficit is coming down on its own with the newly enacted tax revenues, so the democrats aren’t that keen on trading tax increases for a big entitlement reform package.

And yet we have another local yokel, Mike Beeson, who wrote a letter titled “Victoria doesn’t need federal grant money.” The writer takes a local teeny weenie solar project and compares it to the problems with our nations alternative fuels in a “drill baby drill” fashion. I don’t think anyone expected the grant to produce the next solar boom and besides energy experts all agree that solar will certainly be part of the mix as we continue our path to get off fossil fuels and our dependency on foreign oil. The writer doesn’t mention the tax incentives the oil companies receive nor does he mention their tax shelters in the Cayman Islands which are designed specifically to legally avoid U.S. tax.

Yesterday my trusty iPad broke so I'm going to Houston Saturday to hopefully get it repaired. While  I'm there I think I'll go to Costco and get me a jumbo bag of popcorn to enjoy as I watch the CPAC circus this weekend . I'm taping the whole event because I don't want to miss a word...:-)