Garamendi is Uninformed

By William L. Garvin

The recently published interview with John Garamendi exposed many reasons why he should not be reelected.  To begin with, “forty years of political experience” should be a disqualifier in and of itself.  Our founding fathers never envisioned “career politicians” whose primary goal would be to get reelected.  Many in Congress have been there far too long and many have outlived whatever usefulness, if any, they might have once had.

As is typical with politicians, Garamendi “cherry picked” data to support Obama’s contention that it is “indisputable” the economy is in recovery.  Even the frequently quoted, liberal website Wikipedia points out that Garamendi votes with Obama and Pelosi ninety-eight percent of the time.  That means “politics is the game and Big Government is my name.”  The proof is in the pudding when he cites the low number of unemployment applications but in the same breath laments “We have not seen the growth in the public sector.”

He goes on to say that it is “bizarre” when people complain 92 million Americans are “not participating in the workforce.”  All he has to do is go to his Department of Labor website to see how his own government derives that number.  It’s everyone sixteen years of age or older.  The number was only 80 million when Obama took office.  Furthermore, in 2007, 66% of Americans had jobs or were looking.  Today, the number is down to 62.8%, the lowest labor participation rate in forty years.  Particularly troubling is 24% of those in the 25-64 age group that are not working are not even looking for work!  Additionally, there are 7.8 million working who are “involuntary part time.”  That makes the underemployment rate (U-6) over 13%.  If you also factor in that 4 out of 5 new jobs being created are part time and minimum wage along with the fact that 46.5 million Americans (approximately 15%) are on food stamps along with the fact that household income has decreased $2,500 per annum, his claim of economic recovery is horribly out of touch.  That’s why the U.S. Chamber of Commerce endorsed Dan Logue…not Garamendi!

Garamendi also blames the “majority in Congress” for not recklessly spending even more.  There is a Democrat President and a Democrat Senate but he still blames the Republican House for not passing a sequel to the trillion dollar failure known as the American Recovery Act.  He also forgets that sequestration was a White House proposal adopted by the Democrat Senate and signed by the Democrat President.  After six years, he still tries to blame current woes on George Bush and perpetuate the fallacy that Clinton left with a “surplus.”  Clinton never reduced the national debt a single year!  The Obama deficit may be somewhat reduced this year but it will still add $650 billion to the national debt which is now $17.9 trillion.  Over 40% of the national debt has occurred in the six years of the Obama administration.   Nonetheless, Garamendi voted against the balanced budget amendment and always votes to raise the debt limit in lockstep with Pelosi, Reid, and Obama.

Another questionable position is his continued support of Obamacare despite vociferous opposition by the majority of Americans.  He trumpets the “bending of the cost-curve on health care” while forgetting the Lie of the Year (“if you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan; if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.”) and that we were supposed to save $2,500 per year (another “Four Pinocchio” fabrication).  Additionally, even using Huffington Post numbers, his claim that Center for Disease Control budgets have been cut by a billion dollars a year for four years is highly inflated.  In fact, the CDC budget was increased for 2014 beyond what Obama had requested.  If no Ebola vaccine has been developed by CDC, maybe it’s because they were spending $2.9 million on figuring out why lesbians are obese, over two million more on getting old people to join choirs, another half million on why obese girls have a tough time getting dates, nearly a million on why gay men in Peru get syphilis, and $2.5 million developing “origami condoms”!

Both candidates are personable and well spoken.  However, Garamendi is a proven vote that Obama and Pelosi can count on and he has done nothing but support their out of control spending.   He has done nothing to get to the bottom of the numerous Obama administration scandals.  Logue has a much better understanding of the issues and the economics surrounding them.  I’d like to keep my doctor, keep my health plan, keep my country, and keep my sanity so I voted for Dan Logue. Unless you want two more years of the same liberal policy failures, you need to do the same!  

Forget and Regret

By William L. Garvin

Never have so many done so little against foes so formidable.  By all metrics, this so-called coalition is doing little more than irritating ISIS.  When a bombing sortie returns and reports that it has destroyed a total of three trucks, it can be characterized as nothing short of pathetic.  That miniscule return on investment doesn’t even cover the cost of fuel, let alone time and munitions.  Military minds are still scratching their heads over why the enemy “headquarters” was bombed in the middle of the night when no one was there.  Equally puzzling is why the enemy convoys were never attacked while on the move and out in the open.  It’s equally perplexing as to why when a few endangered Arab states put a few planes in the air on a totally infrequent and inconsequential basis that it’s portrayed as a tremendous political and military achievement.  It’s not.  It’s merely more sound and fury, (more accurately “smoke and mirrors”) signifying nothing of substance.

When an enemy force says they will fly their black flag over the White House, when they publically decapitate Americans and others, when they take over caches of WMD (both biological and chemical which of course never existed—remember “Bush lied; people died”), when they mercilessly slaughter thousands of Christians, Yezidis, and less blood thirsty Muslims, then it doesn’t matter whether or not we are at war with Islam.  They are at war with us.  The enemy cannot be managed.  It cannot be degraded.  It must be destroyed.  There has not been a single retired general or admiral come forward to applaud the military strategy currently being employed.  Bringing a knife to a gun fight is no more effective than naming the campaign “Inherent Resolve” is in inspiring the troops!

Why did anyone think that a state senator with a tawdry history of voting “present” rather than taking a stand could suddenly become decisive in times of crisis?  There is nothing in Barack Hussein Obama’s history that would prepare him for the role of commander-in-chief or even chief executive officer.  He has never led, never managed, and never had ultimate responsibility for anything.  If you ask him today, he still has no responsibility for “Fast and Furious,” spying on reporters, NSA, the IRS Gestapo, and on and on and on.  He is quick to blame the intelligence community for his characterization of ISIS as “jayvee.”  Maybe if he had played a few less rounds of golf and attended a few more intelligence briefings, he might have avoided his “deer in the headlights” reaction to the Middle East conflagration.  Maybe if he’d been in the Situation Room while Benghazi was going up in flames and Americans were being murdered, maybe if he and Hillary had told the truth instead of conjuring up some cockamamie story about a video, maybe if he would have been a leader instead of a political operative, things would have been different.

He can’t fire people who are incompetent because that would require a decision.  So they hang around until their pensions vest and then retire.  He’d rather hire a political hack for another overlapping layer of government apparatus to deal with the Ebola crisis than a proven health care administrator.  Of course, the “Ebola Czar” won’t be reporting to the President because that would again put him in a position of accountability and responsibility.  That is to be avoided at all cost.  It’s better to smile another smile.  It’s better to play another round of golf.  It’s better to attend another union or Wall Street fundraiser.  It’s better to deny reality and claim it is “indisputable” that the economy is better by every measurement.  Forget the 92 million Americans who are out of the labor force.  Forget that we have the lowest labor participation rate in nearly forty years.  Forget the record number of people on food stamps.  Forget the $17.9 trillion national debt.  Forget that household income has declined—unless you’re a member of congress!  Forget that you didn’t save $2,500 in health care premiums, that medical care is more expensive and less available.  Forget that many more policies will be canceled after the first of the year.  Forget that our borders aren’t secure and that 70,000 “children” and untold others have poured across this year alone.  Forget that the Obama/Reid/Pelosi combine will continue if you vote the same old political hacks back into office.  Forget this time and you’ll have two more years for remorse.