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Hernando Today

Who Got Us Into This Mess?

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By FRANCES EARL, Call to Patriots

Hernando Today

Published: October 1, 2008

Sen. John McCain claimed he was suspending his campaign to "rush" to Washington, D.C., to save us all. Well, some "rush," folks!
He did cancel an appearance on the Letterman show, saying he was on his way to Washington, but instead, appeared with Katie Couric. Letterman has been having a field day with that lie. Still not "rushing" to D.C., McCain the following morning gave the opening speech in New York at Clinton's Global Initiative.
So, what happened to the urgent need for his help in D.C., and how come all his campaign ads continued to be aired? Why did Gov. Sarah Palin arrive in Pennsylvania and, according to Gov. Ed Rendell, "asked the press to be there to meet her?" Does this sound like a "suspended" campaign to anyone?
Why does everything these guys say a series of nothing but lie after lie? Maybe it's because Palin thinks that because planes taking off from Russia fly over Alaska's air space constitutes her foreign policy experience, and McCain says he needs to "be educated" about the economy? McCain, as of last Tuesday, saying he had not yet read the three-page proposal by Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson is beyond belief!
With our country experiencing bank failures, perhaps threatening not a recession, but another Great Depression, some of us intend to elect a 72-year-old liar with a history of cancer, who thinks Spain is in South America. Along with McCain you will get Palin, totally unqualified for the vice presidency (even in good times), never mind the presidency. Her minister and spiritual guide is a witch hunter from Africa — yikes!
McCain insists Obama will raise taxes but leaves out that the increase will be only for those making over $250,000 per year, $200,000 if filing single, while he continues to lie that Obama will raise taxes on all making $42,000 per year (an already disproven lie). That's where the money will come from for Obama's plan to put $1,000 in the pockets of the middle class/workers and his proposal to eliminate taxes for seniors with less than $50,000 yearly income. Seniors — pay attention!
Due to the mess being left to the next president by the Bush administration, largely caused by the greed and deregulation of their corporate buddies, some of the benefits to the middle class may need to be implemented more slowly than originally planned, but the Obama plans are totally to help most of the citizens of our country, otherwise known as you and me. How can anyone believe that McCain, a deregulator for three decades in Congress, has now evolved into a populist for the everyday folks?
McCain continues to insist that raising the tax on entrepreneurs making $250,000 and more will prevent them from expanding their businesses and hiring more workers. Well, last figures I saw for August show an additional 600,000 jobs lost in America, so these guys are not reinvesting their largesse; they are just buying bigger yachts! How many times do some of us have to get hit in the head before we figure out who is hitting us?
McCain suggests instituting a spending freeze except for military and veterans — funny since he was against passage of the 2008 Veterans Bill and did not show up for the final vote, even though he was in his office in D.C. at the time and then attempted to take credit for it after the fact. He also wants to privatize health care, which will eliminate most regulation. Privatizing and deregulation are McCain's and Bush's (Jeb too!) favorite policies and got us where we are today. McCain's idea of a tax cut is to give yet more of our money to corporations by decreasing their tax base from 35 to 25 percent. They are laying off Americans by hundreds of thousands – do we give them a bonus for that?
In an attempt to place blame for this disaster on Democrats, there are those claiming that nothing was done by a Democratic Congress in 2001 when warnings about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac surfaced. Sorry guys, that was a Republican Congress in 2001. Warnings again in 2003 came when the Congress was also Republican controlled. Democrats now have only a one vote margin, that one vote being Lieberman who supports McCain, so without bi-partisan support, a Democratic Congress does not have the necessary votes to stop the sins being committed against us the people. So, vote for Democrats running for Congress if you want this to stop.
McCain criticizes Obama's willingness to talk to our friends and enemies alike (Obama never said without conditions beforehand), otherwise known as diplomacy rather than preemptive strikes. An old saying warns us to keep our friends close and our enemies closer, which takes calm, even-tempered use of your intelligence, something an increasingly angry McCain may not be capable of.
Oliver Wendell Holmes said, "I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand as in what direction we are moving."

Frances Earl, former vice-chairwoman of the Hernando County Democratic Executive Committee, may be contacted at fearl@tampabay.rr.com.

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