4. The bailouts. Mike’s against the Cash-for-clunkers program that provided some stimulus for the economy and got a lot of high polluting vehicles off the road. Mike’s against the auto industry bailout that saved thousands and thousands of jobs as well as a lot of small businesses that supply parts to the auto manufacturers. And he claims the public was “overwhelmingly against the health care bill which is misleading. About twice as many people think the bill didn’t go far enough compared to those who were against reform.
5. Mike is against the stimulus that helped keep us out of another depression.
6. Mike doesn’t mind the flood of money into our campaigns.
7. Mike thinks the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is a “neutral group.” The Chamber of Commerce has been running an aggressive campaign to get Republicans elected and accepted a million dollars over the summer from News Corp., the parent company of Fox “news.” I suppose Fox “news” is actually “fair and balanced.”
8. Mike claims the government has taken over our health care, which is pretty far from the truth. Health insurance has been getting more and more expensive over the past dozen or so years and the reform was an attempt to make it more affordable and stop the abuse. It does that to some extent.
9. Mike wants the free market to take care of the out of control health care costs.
10. Mike: History tells us that when you decrease taxes, our economy grows and jobs are created. Look at the Kennedy response.
Ben: Right-wingers like to site the Kennedy tax cuts as proof that they stimulate the economy. While he did cut taxes, the tax rates were a lot higher back then due to a more fiscally responsible government. The top marginal tax rate was 91%. High taxes were needed to pay for WWII, the rebuilding of Germany and Japan, and the New Deal programs. Kennedy also eliminated a lot of tax loopholes and deductions. Today the top rate is 35% so cutting taxes more isn’t going to have much of an effect. Also, the Bush tax cuts did very little to stimulate the economy. Same with Reagan’s. Clinton raised taxes and the economy soared!
11. I don’t see anything we agree with in Mike’s response. I wanted to change the tax structure and payouts to the wealthy and Mike wants to raise the eligibility age.
12. Mike:Whatever happened to taking the best ideas from both sides of the aisle and coming up with compromises? I don’t see a lot of that happening — on either side.
Ben: 1/3 of the stimulus was tax cuts, which was a huge compromise. The Democrats didn’t push for the public option, which was a huge compromise. The financial reform bill is loaded with compromises. Compromise means watering down legislation in order to garner two or three Republican votes. Even with all the compromise, nearly every Republican votes against all legislation just for political gain.
13. Now Mike has some good ideas here. Last time I checked, almost half of all tuition goes to administration, which is ridiculous. But funding for state colleges has dropped during the past dozen or so years, which is a major cause of tuition increases.
Summary
While Mike Fallon comes across as a nice enough guy, he really offers nothing new. His solution to everything is tax cuts and deregulation. Those things have destroyed our economy and put our country deep in debt.
DRUDGE RETORT 