Archive for the ‘taxes’ Category
Rubio and the Hispanic Vote
Oct21
By John Feehery
Marco Rubio
Chris Matthews thought he would get me with his question on Marco Rubio. He asked me, breaking news style, what I thought about the revelations that Rubio’s family fled Cuba two whole years before Castro came to power.
I didn’t scratch my head on camera, but I did so in my mind.
What the hell is the big deal, I thought.
Not knowing a thing about this “breaking story”, I didn’t give much of an answer. I mumbled something about Rubio being a rising star in the party and then the segment ended.
But having read the story this morning, I have a better sense of what is going on here.
The Democrats are desperately afraid that Mitt Romney is going to pick Rubio to be his Vice Presidential candidate, and they are getting the Washington Post to do its bidding.
I don’t know if Romney is going to pick Rubio and I don’t know if Rubio would accept such an offer (he says he won’t), but I do know that the R and R ticket would spell the doom of Mr. Obama and his ill-fated administration.
The Hispanic vote is critically important in this election, and even more important in coming elections. Putting Rubio on the ticket is no guarantee that Hispanic voters will somehow flock to the GOP (in fact, the Cuban vote already swings Republican), but it scares the Democrats enough that they are digging through each inch of the Marco file to see what’s in there.
The Obama Administration is vulnerable when it comes to this key voting bloc. He promised a comprehensive immigration bill, but failed to live up to his promise, and nothing got done on the issue. Instead, he has kicked more Hispanics out of the country than any other President in history (almost half a million). And the Obama economy has hit the Hispanic community harder than anybody else, with the exception of African-Americans.
Republicans have an opportunity, but they have to stop beating the hell out of the immigrant community. The Alabama law is especially offensive (and really stupid, too).
Alabama is not exactly the first choice for most Hispanic immigrants, and they have a pretty low number of them in their state. The Hispanics that are there are critically important to Alabama agriculture sector and they are the only ones who have the patience to work in chicken factories.
Because they couldn’t help themselves, conservative Alabama legislators passed the toughest immigration law in the land, and now all the Hispanics are leaving the state, and going to other places. And now, Alabama farmers and poultry companies have nobody to do the jobs necessary to make their businesses run. Nice going, guys.
I appreciate the idea that illegal immigrants shouldn’t get federal (or state) benefits. If you are in the country illegally, you shouldn’t get welfare, Medicaid, or education benefits. That should be reserved to those who play by the rules.
But going on witch-hunts against illegal aliens and the businesses that hire them seems to me to be a bit counter-productive, as long as they otherwise follow the laws.
Republicans should stick to the message of keeping government benefits away from illegals, which I think is especially powerful with the Republican base, without demonizing and prosecuting non-documented workers who otherwise are playing by the rules.
Marco Rubio is a rising star in the Republican party and on the national stage, and this story in the Post shouldn’t in any way diminish his star-power. But Republicans shouldn’t put all of their eggs in the Rubio basket if they hope to win more Hispanic votes in the future. They have to stop demonizing hard-working people who are doing their best to achieve the American dream.
Is the Private Sector Doing Just Fine?
Oct20
By John Feehery
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said yesterday: “It’s very clear that private sector jobs have been doing just fine, it’s the public sector jobs where we’ve lost huge numbers, and that’s what this legislation is all about.”
He was talking about his plan to give more money to states so they can give more money to teachers unions and public safety unions.
Joe Biden breathlessly said yesterday that if you didn’t support this plan, the chances that you might get raped (if you are a woman) or held up at gunpoint (if you run a 7-11) will go up dramatically. He said yesterday in Washington:
“In many cities, the result has been — and it’s not unique — murder rates are up, robberies are up, rapes are up and folks, there’s a simple reason for it. There’s been a perfect storm out there — these God-awful Ponzi schemes that the last outfit allowed Wall Street to engage in resulted in this gigantic collapse of the financial industry. Housing — the bottom fell out. Foreclosures increased, particularly in poorer neighborhoods. Abandoned homes are created. Drug lords move in. Arson increases. Budgets fall because the property taxes fall. Cops and firefighters get laid off. Response times increase from five minutes to 30 minutes, and people die, and people’s homes burn to the ground.”
So, according to Reid and Biden, the private sector is doing just fine and if we don’t pass the President’s jobs plan, you are more likely to get raped or murdered or have your house burn down.
In the meantime, Bloomberg New reports that the D.C Capitol region is now richer than Silicon Valley and is now the richest place on earth: “Federal employees whose compensation averages more than $126,000 and the nation’s greatest concentration of lawyers helped Washington edge out San Jose as the wealthiest U.S. metropolitan area, government data show. The U.S. capital has swapped top spots with Silicon Valley, according to recent Census Bureau figures, with the typical household in the Washington metro area earning $84,523 last year. The national median income for 2010 was $50,046. The figures demonstrate how the nation’s political and financial classes are prospering as the economy struggles with unemployment above 9 percent and thousands of Americans protest in the streets against income disparity, said Kevin Zeese, director of Prosperity Agenda, a Baltimore-based advocacy group trying to narrow the divide between rich and poor. “There’s a gap that’s isolating Washington from the reality of the rest of the country,” Zeese said. “They just get more and more out of touch.”
So, how do you think the private sector is doing? Who do you think is telling the truth?
