Progressive loon Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has argued time and again that unemployment benefits are a great way to create jobs. As Big Government readers know, Pelosi isn’t the only congressional Democrat to build a career coaxing the masses into Washington’s crushing embrace.
Where there’s a Progressive economic fallacy, Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) is never far away. Sherrod seems to think the U.S. economy performs best with bureaucrats working all the levers. This is his 20th year in Congress, so maybe we should forgive his ignorance of how a free market works!
As an Ohioan, Chris Matthews fawning “you’re the best there is on this argument” is not what I hope for from my senator.
I am impressed, though, with the way Sherrod Brown knows what every wealthy American is going to buy! I wonder how long he had to look into his crystal ball to be absolutely sure extending unemployment benefits is better for the economy than letting citizens keep and invest our own money.
The Right Scoop has footage of Sherrod making a more detailed (but equally laughable) case on the Senate floor around the same time as this Hardball spot.
Like Pelosi, Sherrod also argued for the “stimulus” effects of unemployment benefits in the summer of 2010:
Many have lost their job and, as a result, they lost their health insurance. After that, they lose their home or apartment because they can’t afford the mortgage or rent. Passing an extension of unemployment insurance isn’t just the right thing to do – it will also help stimulate the economy and serve as a critical part of a jobs agenda that puts the middle class first.
Emphasis mine. Sherrod’s solutions for the crises in health care, housing, and unemployment are one and the same – government redistribution, paid for by “The Rich” with a wave of the hand.
Self-righteous demands for shortsighted spending are exactly what we should expect from a Progressive who can’t even manage his own property taxes. The silver lining: Sherrod Brown is up for reelection in November, and Ohio is not California.
Transcript from the Hardball clip follows.
Sherrod Brown: These tax cuts for the rich that Bush did twice, Chris, in ‘01 and ‘03 as you know, resulted in very little economic growth. We saw only 1 million jobs created in the Bush years, 22 million created in the Clinton years, when we reached a balanced budget with a fairer tax system, and there is no, there’s no real history illustrating that these tax cuts for the rich result in jobs. It’s extending unemployment benefits that creates economic activity that creates jobs – not giving a millionaire an extra 10 or 20 or $30,000 in tax cuts that they likely won’t spend because they’re already buying what they’re gonna buy anyway.
Chris Matthews: You’re the best there is on this argument. Sorry, I’ve gotta ask you one last question…
News broke Wednesday that Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) was delinquent on his property taxes due September 2011 until last week. Sherrod, who angrily demands bigger central government and higher taxes from “The Rich,” paid the nearly $900 in taxes, penalties, and interest due for his $222,000 D.C. condo only after being questioned by a reporter.
“I was late,” he said on a conference call with reporters when asked about the recent delinquency. ”I misplaced the bill and I paid it as soon as I found out. I paid a penalty for being late, and it won’t happen again.”
Senator Brown lost a tax statement and forgot to pay until a reporter came calling months later, but there’s no cause for alarm! He paid the penalty for his delinquency, and it won’t happen again.
When a reporter noted that it also happened five and six years ago, Brown said, “I misplaced it then. This is a small apartment. I’m not in D.C. nearly every week, I’m here when the Senate’s in session, I’m here three or four nights a week. I paid the penalty. And in no way, obviously, was I avoiding taxes.”
Because “the dog ate it” worked so well the first time around, Sherrod tries the same excuse for three consecutive property tax bills in 2006 and 2007. With no reporters reminding him, Sherrod actually fell so far behind on property taxes his condo was listed for public auction! Odd that a U.S. Senator would forget the existence of taxes for months on end, springing into action only when his property is on the line.
I love Sherrod’s volley of additional excuses. It’s a small apartment! He’s there less than 57% of the time! He’s been serially delinquent with payments, but was in no way avoiding taxes by not paying taxes! Obviously.
Since his election to the Senate, Sherrod has paid over $850 in penalties and interest for his failure to submit D.C. property taxes on time. That’s peanuts for a millionaire who promises trillions to interest groups and insists soaking the rich & slashing the military will pay for it.
Remember, Sherrod is a Progressive who thinks a republic of 300 million can – and should – be ruled by a few thousand bureaucrats in Washington. He’s unable to keep track of his mail and pay his taxes on time twice a year, but that doesn’t stop Sherrod from making big plans with your money!
Demanding bigger government while failing at his most basic civic duty: one more way Sherrod Brown resembles President Obama’s worst cabinet appointees and staff.
I’m relieved Obama for America is pushing every class warfare chip to the middle of the table. If Americans get a better look at Progressivism’s ugly mug and still vote Democrat in November, the country deserves to go bankrupt!
To simplify mockery of their candidate for those of us with apolitical day jobs, Obama for America has assembled “Truth Teams” – Attack Watch in more sheepish clothing – in a handful of swing states. At the Ohio Truth Team announcement, it was suggested that crashing GOP events may be on the Obama cheerleaders’ agenda.
“We’ll do it in an appropriate, mindful way, recognizing the importance of the conversation,” said Ohio Democratic chairman Chris Redfern, also a truth team member. “The truth team, we envision, will be more of a rapid response, taking a message directly at locations where those individuals who align with super PACs or organizations in support” of GOP presidential hopefuls are present.
Emphasis mine. Given his history, Ohio Democratic Party Chairman Chris Redfern is a hilarious addition to an Obama group allegedly aiming for mature conversations. In the waning days of the 2010 campaign:
[...] the camera was rolling as Redfern leveled the expletive at critics in the Tea Party, who, in his words, believe health care is a privilege, not a right.
“If your kids are going to graduate from college, now he or she gets health care, your heath care, while he or she looks for a new job,” Redfern said. “It’s in the very base terms we win these arguments. Every time one of these (expletive deleted) says, excuse my language…”
In the e-mail, Redfern then asks for a $10 donation to his “swear jar” to “help the Ohio Democratic Party and its candidates get our message out and stick it to our opponents.”
He wrote, “I have been amazed by the outpouring of support the Ohio Democratic Party has received after I spoke out forcefully and unapologetically on behalf of working families.”
What a mindful, appropriate brush for Chris Redfern to paint his political opponents with! Now that the Super Obama Truth Squad has recruited the hateful creep who called the enemies of Obama’s totalitarian health insurance plan F-ers at a 2010 union event, they’re armed to the teeth with truth!
Tell us, Ohio Obama Truth Ninjas: How many of the 2.2 million Ohioans who voted to block Obamacare’s key mandate last November are F-ers? If it’s true that Ohio voters who oppose your preferred statist policies are F-ers, what is it we’re guilty of effing?
For more from Ohio, follow Jason on Twitter: @jasonahart. Apologies to Cheddar the Bulldog, whose owner submitted an un-doctored version of the above photo to Wikimedia Commons with a public domain license.
When Sherrod Brown (D-OH) spoke at the Ohio Education Association Representative Assembly last spring, he had a receptive audience for his class warfare routine. Since Sherrod is the most extreme leftist in the U.S. Senate and must face Ohio voters this fall, the state’s public union fight was a perfect chance to remind Big Labor he’s their man.
By the end of his 40-second detour into the Progressive causes and glorious federal programs conservatives are attacking, Sherrod had built up a 9x attack multiplier! This sort of word power makes Sherrod Brown a rhetorical king, so long as no one ever asks how to pay for the bankrupt boondoggles he adores.
Similar to the speech where he slammed the faith of the governors on Big Labor’s enemies list, Sherrod gets so wound up talking about conservative attacks that he forgets to explain his alternative! It’s a shame, because Sherrod Brown has had decades in Congress to cook up the perfect tax-and-spend formula.
Still, think how grateful young Ohio teachers should be that Sherrod Brown is protecting their union bosses. If not for Sherrod, Ohio teachers might be paid based on merit! Public layoffs would consider factors other than tenure! Teachers would be asked to cover slightly more of their benefits so schools could avoid layoffs altogether! What a dystopian ruin Ohio would be if the Ohio Education Association had slightly less power.
Sherrod Brown is consistent, at least. He always credits Big Labor and bureaucracy with America’s success, while treating union bosses as the backbone of American society.
I’d like to extend a special thanks to the Columbus Education Association for sharing Sherrod Brown’s energetic pandering to a crowd that demands the impossible from Ohio taxpayers. You can see Sherrod’s keynote and footage from his Q&A session on the union’s YouTube channel (for now).
Transcript follows of the clips featured above.
Clip 1, Sherrod Brown: The vote in November on SB 5 [the union reform bill] repeal is the most important election in the country, the most watched election in the country, because of the attack – the attack on worker and collective bargaining rights, the attack on voting rights, the attack on women in Columbus, in the state legislature. In Washington, the attack on Head Start, the attack on Pell grants, the attack on public radio, the attack on Medicare, the attack on Social Security. All these things, I think, are absolutely hostile, absolutely enimical to what we, as a nation, have stood for for 75 years. The reason we have a prosperous middle class in this country, more than anything, is in the 1930s Congress passed, with Franklin Roosevelt signing, collective bargaining rights.
Clip 2, Sherrod Brown: How can young people not have second thoughts about a profession when the politicians that run our state – the conservative politicians that run our state – are attacking their profession and attacking what they stand for?
Are Wisconsin and Ohio still presidential swing states? Republicans swept to power in the Badger State and the Buckeye State in 2010. During the past year, Governor Walker and Governor Kasich have refused to settle for taxation & spending trends that drove away hundreds of thousands of jobs between 2000 and 2011.
If Midwestern voters see the benefits of free-market reforms at the state level, it’ll be bleak news for Barack Obama’s 2012 class warfare roadshow.
Early results for Walker and Kasich have been mixed, as they’ve both been demonized relentlessly by Big Labor. Wisconsin Democrats fled to protect their union financiers, but Walker and the Wisconsin GOP prevailed. How’s that working for taxpayers?
According to a report by the MacIver Institute, as of September 1, “at least 25 school districts in the Badger State had reported switching health care providers/plans or opening insurance bidding to outside companies.” The institute calculates that these steps will save the districts $211.45 per student. If the state’s other 250 districts currently served by WEA Trust follow suit, the savings statewide could reach hundreds of millions of dollars.
If Big Labor’s failure in Wisconsin Senate recall races is any sign, voters can do the math. The Walker budget has caused what any sensible observer would expect: freed of suffocating union control, Wisconsin schools are saving money and avoiding layoffs.
With Democrats kicking and screaming (hardly a bill has passed in Ohio that Democrats haven’t brought a referendum or lawsuit against), Kasich and Walker seem intent on staying their respective courses set last year. Fortunately, union reform isn’t the only item on the agenda.
It’s no coincidence Scott Walker and John Kasich are attacked by the collectivist agitators who compose President Obama’s base. Competition vs. collectivism is the battle of the hour. Thanks to governors in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan who understand the centrality of competition to the American idea, millions of voters in America’s heartland will have tangible evidence to weigh against the federal dependency peddled by Barack Obama!
For Ohio Governor John Kasich, Tuesday’s annual State of the State address offered an important venue to talk up his administration’s achievements and goals. Kasich gave this year’s speech at Wells Academy, a school in Steubenville, instead of the traditional Statehouse venue.
State Rep. Bob Hagan (D – Youngstown), a Progressive kook’s Progressive kook, bused in 35 protestors for the event. Worse, Hagan handed out several tickets for Kasich’s speech to Occupy protestors ranting outside.
Rep. Bob Hagan (second from left) and Rep. Dennis Murray (second from right) are thanked by Occupy protestors for Hagan's tickets to the State of the State address.
2:36 [...] Cat calls and chants have started from the balcony from protestors.
2:38 [...] People have been removed from the auditorium, but more calls coming from the balcony. [...]
2:39One particularly loud woman has just been led out…”John Kasich is selling out Ohio!” she yelled as she was led out the back. Now a male voice can be heard.
2:40 [...] Meanwhile, man is led out of the room. Things seem to have quieted down now.
Rep. Hagan, too pathetic to face the derision that comes with disrupting a state event, sent in Occupy protestors to attack Governor Kasich. Wonder if he’s any relation to the “Hagan” who rallied protestors before Kasich’s speech?
“Governor Kasich has crossed the line many times,” Hagan said to the crowd.
When Big Labor, environmental activists, Democrats, and Communists are all equally enraged by your governor, it’s likely your state is on the right track!
Last April, Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) took a few minutes from his schedule to talk to a Planned Parenthood group from Cleveland about Ohio Republicans “going after women, and reproductive rights.” Sherrod went to great lengths to make abortion sound like a reason America needs bigger government.
For pro-life Ohioans like myself, the “Heartbeat Bill” to ban abortions after a baby’s heartbeat can be heard sounds like a great idea. According to pro-choice Ohioans, it’s terrible. Surely a U.S. senator with a diploma from Yale and two master’s degrees can dissect the legislation on its merits and explain why abortion on demand is a vital “reproductive right” …right?
Sherrod Brown being Sherrod Brown, what we get instead is a jumbled diatribe making frequent nods to Big Labor. He treats any conflict with his cartoonish Progressive mindset as an example of conservatives “going after” the rights of men, women, and children (wait, scratch that last one) everywhere.
Small wonder Sherrod considers abortion limits, voter ID, union reform, and civil rights “all the same.” Sherrod is a radical without a cause, so whatever he opposes is twisted to fit a tired class warfare narrative. Sherrod Brown should instead be hunting down whoever stole his sense of irony: cheering government-improved life expectancy in a pep talk to Planned Parenthood?
Cut 1 – Sherrod Brown: You know, you see what’s happening in Columbus, they’re trying to take away bargaining rights. [Audience members: Yes. BOOO!] And they’re going after women, and reproductive rights. They’re going after voting rights now, they’re trying, Ohio, if the Senate passes what the House passed, it’ll be the most restrictive voter laws in the country. [Audience: BOOO!] That’s going backwards, not going forward, so your, your voices really matter on choice, on women’s rights, on worker rights, on, on voting rights, on human rights, on civil rights, it’s all the same.
Cut 2 – Sherrod Brown: And, over the last 100 years, look what we’ve done in this country, um, in terms of, of, of civil rights and women’s rights and Social Security and Medicare, and, and minimum wage, and workers’ compensation, and prohibition of child labor, and clean air, and safe drinking water, and auto safety – seat belts, air bags. All these things have made, they’ve made, they’ve given people the ability to live 30 years longer. Back 100 years ago the average American, when you were born in this country you lived to be about 45 on the average. Today people live 30 years longer than that, and it’s because of government doing the right thing when you push government to do the right thing.
The Senate Bill 5 campaign proved Ohio voters remain too receptive to union rhetoric. Trying to rehash the same arguments during a presidential campaign already focused on Progressive class warfare would be a nightmare.
Class: During a 2010 strike, Ohio Education Association staff hung a banner telling the OEA boss to kill himself.
The ridiculousness of public unions prompted me to start writing and researching with a purpose beyond, “here’s what annoys me today, and I know my friends wouldn’t want to hear this rant.” I wish I were more effective at making the case for union reform! If you could find another sap who spent more free time than I did over the past year arguing for the need to reform Ohio’s government union law, I would be amazed. On this subject, Ohio conservatives have a lot of work left to do.
Big Labor’s pockets are deep, and any attempt at union reform means attacking the strength of people who get rich pushing class warfare for a living.
This brings us back to Ohio.Ron Paul supporter and Tea Party consultant Chris Littleton is spearheading an effort to put Right-to-Work on Ohio’s November ballot. If successful in getting enough signatures to have the initiative placed on the ballot, Littleton and his compadres will likely do nothing more than ensure an Obama victory in Ohio.
With unions collecting more than $8 billion per year in union dues, no amount of money Littleton can raise will be enough to outspend the unions on the issue Right-to-Work—as evidenced by the recent fight over SB5 (Issue 2) in November.
In fact, union bosses and Democrats are likely hoping for Littleton to get enough signatures to put Right-to-Work on the ballot. [Don't be too surprised if unions, either directly or indirectly through third-party operatives, quietly encourage people to sign the petitions.] Once Right-to-Work is on the ballot, unions can turn Ohio into World War IV (again).
Regardless of the amount of money Littleton and his associates may make from putting Right-to-Work on Ohio’s ballot, his efforts put the rest of the nation at risk of seeing Barack Obama win Ohio and, as a result, likely re-election. This is something that, hopefully, even Littleton’s presidential pick, Ron Paul, would see the practical ramifications of avoiding if it meant putting Obama back in the White House for four more years.
Even though Ron Paul has been cagey on stating he would not run as a third-party candidate, his son, Rand Paul, has stated that it would be impractical, knowing that it would ensure an Obama victory. Hopefully, his Ohio supporters are as practical in that regard when it comes to placing Right-to-Work on November’s Ohio ballot.
As the saying goes: “Pick battles big enough to matter, small enough to win.” Or, in the case of Ohio, another way to put this is: Forego the battle for now, if it helps you win the war later.
With the nation nearing $16 trillion in debt and owing $117 trillion in unfunded liabilities, despite the legislature in Indiana winning Right to Work, putting a Right-to-Work initiative in Ohio is not worth the risk. Not now. Not this year.
I’ve got no beef with Chris Littleton. The 1851 Center and the Ohio Liberty Council do good work, as brilliantly demonstrated by the success of the Ohio Healthcare Freedom Amendment last November. I don’t expect many people to care about my opinion, but I will not be signing a petition to get Right-to-Work on the 2012 ballot.
Based on the fact that you’re reading this online, I assume you’ve seen the online outcry over Komen for the Cure cutting off grants to Planned Parenthood. In the words of CBS News:
Many suspect the cutoff is linked to the abortion debate. Komen has been under fire by anti-abortion activists, after its connection to the pro-choice organization was publicized.
I’ve ruined the trademark CBS subtlety by marking in bold the network’s refusal to frame the debate as “pro-life” vs. “pro-choice,” or “pro-abortion” vs. “anti-abortion.” Pro-lifers should be glad the reporter didn’t label Live Action and its allies “anti-choice,” I guess!
Unyielding sympathy for Planned Parenthood isn’t limited to fossilized media outlets and your NPR-loving Facebook friends. Many of the senators and representatives up for reelection this fall support abortion so strongly, they’ve voted repeatedly to make you pay for it.
All five of these incumbent Democrat senators are rated 100% by the Planned Parenthood Action Fund. Among the extreme pro-abortion votes earning Bill Nelson (FL), Claire McCaskill (MO), Sherrod Brown (OH), Debbie Stabenow (MI), and Jon Tester (MT) their perfect Planned Parenthood scores:
All five voted against SCHIP language which, in Planned Parenthood’s words, “unnecessarily personified the fetus.”March 14, 2008, Allard Amendment to S. Con. Res. 70, Roll Call vote 81
All five voted against reinstating the Mexico City policy, which – until President Obama abolished it by executive order – prohibited federal funding of foreign abortion providers. January 28, 2009, Martinez Amendment to H.R. 2; Roll Call vote 19
All five voted against preventing Obamacare from subsidizing abortion coverage. December 8, 2009, Nelson-Hatch Amendment to H.R. 3590, Roll Call vote 369
All five voted against ending federal funding of Planned Parenthood. April 14th, 2011, H. Con. Res. 36, Roll Call vote 60
With Obamacare looming larger every day, conservative voters must remember what Planned Parenthood is all about – and recognize how far outside the mainstream the group’s enablers are. Susan G. Komen for the Cure is right to stop funneling donations to the nation’s top abortion provider, and it’s past time for Congress to do the same with taxpayer funds.
If you live in Montana, Michigan, Ohio, Missouri, or Florida, help make your incumbent Democrat senator’s pro-abortion record known by all!
When not attacking American companies, President Obama gets downright romantic about the grand things American companies do with the Washington’s guidance. China is frequently a source of envy (see: passenger rail boondoggles), because China’s statist capitalism-lite floats Obama’s boat. As America’s most statist senator, Sherrod Brown (D-OH) is on board for anything involving more government!
Sherrod asked President Obama about his plans for a federal manufacturing and energy policy during a February 2010 Democrat meeting:
President Obama knows what’s best, and seems annoyed by the democracy blocking his path. For all his worries of “falling behind” autocratic China in the race to throw money at unmarketable products, we have to wonder how much of the New York Times coverage he was briefed on the week before!
In the United States, power companies frequently face a choice between buying renewable energy equipment or continuing to operate fossil-fuel-fired power plants that have already been built and paid for. In China, power companies have to buy lots of new equipment anyway, and alternative energy, particularly wind and nuclear, is increasingly priced competitively.
[...]
As in many other industries, China’s low labor costs are an advantage in energy.
Emphasis mine. Impromptu poll: Do you think Sherrod Brown or President Obama comprehend how expensive capital is, or realize China’s population and infrastructure are different from ours? Do you think they would cross Big Labor in order to compete with Chinese manufacturing in a meaningful way?
What the average person might call “reality” is only a cloud of pesky details for Barack Obama and Sherrod Brown to wave aside. Green energy is A Good Thing, so taxpayers should happily spend money on green energy while coal & oil companies take their medicine and ask for more. Pipelines are right out. Sure, we’ll lose the occasional half billion or so funding the endeavors of Obama donors, but that’s part of the fun!
In matters of manufacturing and green energy – as with most everything else – Sherrod Brown is a cheerleader for Obama’s worst Progressive tendencies. For a Senate seat the GOP can retake this November, look no further than Ohio!
Monday, 02-20-12, 05:26:31pm 
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