« June 2009 | Main | August 2009 »
We are a week into the "Cash for Clunkers" program and the $1 billion is already gone.
As Jeb Bartlett used to always say in the West Wing, "What next?"
I personally know of five people who were planning on taking advantage of this program who are basically saying, "What the flock?!?!? This program only lasted a week. What a bunch of barnacles!"
Now keep in mind that 3 out of 5 of the people I know are dems who voted for Obama, one is an independent who won't tell me how she voted (coward aka obama vote) and the fifth is a guy who voted for McCain.
Now I 100% realize that is not a "scientific poll" & I'm not saying this program was a program designed for dems.
What I am saying is that just about everyone who has heard of "Cash for Clunkers" thinks it is an Obama thing therefore everyone who was planning on taking advantage of it, but who did not act fast enough in the last 7 days who are pissed off are pissed off at Obama.
Barack may not know much about policy (e.g. a stimulus that hasn't worked, a horrific health care reform proposal, cap & trade, the auto czar...and the list goes on...unfortunately), but the dude knows politics and there is NO WAY he is going to let a bunch of people get pissed off at him over this "Cash for Clunkers" program.
If it ends right now then he will feel way more pain than good from it.
So to answer the question: What next?
Watch for a large expansion of the "wildly successful" program known as "Cash for Clunkers"...at least another billion...probably more like another $2-4 billion plus (because what is another few billion when this President doesn't mind spending money like a drunken sailor).
There can't be any "downside" with this "Cash for Clunkers" program now can there be? Say it isn't so...this is like giving a kitten to every American taxpayer so they can be happy because everyone likes kittens and everyone likes to be happy. Sorry to rain on your parade, but please read this:
"The world is your playground! Why aren't you playing???" -- Ellie Katz
Tom sent this to the bloggers on the State of Ohio Blogger Alliance and I thought it was definitely worth sharing (note: photo was my addition not Tom's...felt it was appropriate & think you will too after reading this):
"Y'all might want to digest this on who pays how much in federal income tax from the Tax Foundation just issued today:
http://www.taxfoundation.org/publications/show/23408.html
Indeed, the IRS data shows that in 2007—the most recent data available—the top 1 percent of taxpayers paid 40.4 percent of the total income taxes collected by the federal government. This is the highest percentage in modern history. By contrast, the top 1 percent paid 24.8 percent of the income tax burden in 1987, the year following the 1986 tax reform act.
Remarkably, the share of the tax burden borne by the top 1 percent now exceeds the share paid by the bottom 95 percent of taxpayers combined. In 2007, the bottom 95 percent paid 39.4 percent of the income tax burden. This is down from the 58 percent of the total income tax burden they paid twenty years ago."
"We'd all like to vote for the best man, but he's never a candidate." -- Kin Hubbard
This may all end up being a moot point because I am hearing that Jennifer Lee Brunner will likely be backing down/out (depending on your perspective I guess) of the Senate race and running for re-election in the role of "Savior of the dem party."
That said, let's pretend for a moment that JLB is not running for re-election as SOS thus leaving the dems in the position of having a potential primary battle between Marilyn Brown and Jen Garrison.
I've heard differing accounts as to where the allegiances/backing of Teddy Strickland & Chris "Lobbyists should view me as Competition" Redfern are, but one thing is for certain:
Speaker of the House Armond Budish DOES NOT want Jen Garrison to run for Secretary of State.
No way. No how. He is NOT for his Majority Floor Leader absconding with $$$ he helped her raise to then take said dollars AWAY FROM the efforts to maintain/defend/grow the House dem Majority in 2010.
I can tell you from first-hand experience with former Speakers & Senate Presidents that legislative leaders get really, really pissed off when this sort of thing happens.
It does make me chuckle a little though.
It makes me chuckle because a lot of these numbskulls (aka Jen Garrison in this example) think THEY raised the money all on their own.
We'll see what Garrison's report looks like in a few days, but my guess is that Budish probably helped her raise $75-100,000.
If Garrison runs for re-election that House seat probably costs her $15,000 to defend.
If Garrison runs for SOS and that seat is an open seat then with the GOP Index of that seat the House dems are probably looking at $250,000 to keep that seat (a difference of $235K for the slow ones at math).
Jen's absconding with $100,000 of Armond's $$$ PLUS the $235,000 more he'll have to spend on the seat if she is gone makes this Garrison bid for SOS cost Armond almost $350,000.
Great for Batchelder and the House GOP, but a real kick in the "you know what" for Budish.
Yep, you heard it here first. Marilyn Brown has a best friend...and the name of that best friend is Armond Budish.
Bill Todd is a former Republican candidate for Mayor of Columbus, Ohio State & Notre Dame grad, Husband, Father of two & repeatedly recognized by "Best Lawyers in America" and "Ohio Super Lawyers" as one of the best lawyers around. Here is his take on Issue 1 in Columbus which is on the ballot this Tuesday, August 4th:
Vote NO on Issue One Why I'm Voting Yes for Issue One
Ever
since the idea was first floated to the public back in February, I have
been doing some research not only on the current income tax increase
proposal, but also on the reasons why we have steadily needed these
increases over the past 60 years to begin with. In a perfect world, as
a population grows or shrinks, tax revenues will also grow or shrink to
accommodate that population. Of course, it is easy to run into problems
when city, township, and other boundary lines divide funds strangely
across municipalities. However, due to its heavy land annexation over
the past 60 years, Columbus has managed to avoid some of those types of
problems that have plagued other midwestern cities. During
that same period of time, we have seen the lifestyle of the average
American change drastically all across the country. Cheap oil and the
rise of the automobile made "rural living" an attractive possibility
for anyone who preferred to live further away from the "ills" of the
city and instead commute back and forth from their quiet tree-lined
bedroom community to their job in the city. What
has this lifestyle change meant for Columbus? While our population has
grown along with our land area, the ratio at which we have grown has
caused us to become a less densely populated city over time. Newer
suburban neighborhoods over the past half-century have been constructed
in a low-density manner, slowing sprawling outward, while inner city
neighborhoods have lost population. It
does not take a mathematician to realize that providing speedy fire or
police response times to 10,000 people living within one square mile is
much easier and cheaper than providing those same response times to
10,000 people living spread out over ten square miles.
Similarly, a city water line running to an apartment building of 50
units costs much less to build and maintain than running 50 separate
water lines to 50 separate single family homes spread out through a
winding subdivision. Arguably,
a shrunken 100-year-old inner city neighborhood is going to end up
using an unbalanced portion of maintenance funds out of a city budget
because infrastructure still must be maintained regardless of whether
there are 50,000 people there, or 500. During our country's rush to
build the suburbs, not many left wondering how we were going to
continue to pay for what was being left behind. Cities and suburbs are
complementary of each other, and neighborhoods are not a disposable
commodity that can just be tossed in the trash after use. My
point in explaining this is to emphasize why we need to have a city
income tax at all in Columbus. To rehash it simply, we are a flatter
city now than we were in 1940, and we require more service dollars per
person than we used to. Is
there a way to fix this problem, or reverse this trend? Sure. I think
we are already starting to move in that direction with the
revitalization of former downtrodden residential areas such as
Victorian and German Villages. The slow rise of gasoline prices is
going to force people all over the country to rethink the way they
live. Many will continue to live in suburban areas, and there is
nothing wrong with that. There is plenty of room in Central Ohio for
everyone. What we are going to need to see is the repopulation of our
older, denser neighborhoods. When we increase the tax base in denser
areas, it will help to offset the infrastructure load balance of some
of those newer and less dense areas. That way everyone will have a
smaller percentage to contribute to the city coffers to keep everything
running smoothly.
So ultimately, you could say that my personal solution to the Columbus
city budget issue is to add 100,000 new taxpayers to repopulate our
inner city neighborhoods and then slowly drop the city income tax back
down over the next 50 years. Obviously,
that's the long term solution, and does nothing to solve the very real
problem we are facing with the 2009 and 2010 budgets. So,
as a more immediate fix, I am voting yes for Issue 1 so that we can
continue to prosper as a city in the short term while we work on
correcting the generational problem that we are all faced with over the
long term.
We should oppose the proposed
permanent, 25% increase in the City income tax for the following reasons.
This proposed tax increase should not be
imposed upon average, hard-working families in the middle of a severe recession. Even if a City income tax rate hike proposal
is absolutely required as an emergency measure, it should be limited to a
temporary, minimal increase. There
should also be a requirement that the proceeds be exclusively devoted to
funding basic City services, such as police, fire, trash collection, and
plowing the streets.
In addition, I believe the
City should convene a group of independent experts in municipal finance, to
determine why this City has chronic overspending problems. We need an independent and unbiased answer
for the current financial mess at City Hall.
Columbus is long overdue
for a fresh, comprehensive look at the City’s finances, that includes the
capital and operating budgets, as well as the “off the books” entities. The
City needs a new financial plan that will return the City to a solid
financial foundation – not only in the short-run - but also over the long term.
We should also create a
second group of experts in municipal governance to produce a new City governance
plan, to be submitted to the voters. In
my judgment, the real cure for the disease of fiscal mismanagement at City Hall
is making government more accountable.
The current plan for running Columbus City Hall is nearly 100 years old
and is simply not providing the type of responsive government we need to be
successful in the 21st Century.
If we want to be
competitive in attracting new jobs to Central Ohio, we must create a business
friendly environment, not a high tax locale that will chase new jobs away.
Significantly, in a study released on July
20, 2009 by the Kosmont Companies and the Rose Institute of State and Local
Government, Columbus was rated as the 4th most expensive city in
which to do business, out of the 411 cities studied. That result is based upon current tax rates. The cost of doing business in Columbus will
not improve with a 25% boost in the city income tax.
If we want to rebuild the economy in Central
Ohio, enacting the proposed tax hike is the wrong way to start.
Just like the rest of us
in Ohio, the politicians at Columbus City Hall must learn to live within their
means.
--------------------------------------------------
Walker Evans is the Founder of ColumbusUnderground.com, Franklin U & Columbus State grad, Board Member at Dine Originals Columbus, Trustee of the Dev't Authority Board at North Market, Commissioner at the Create Columbus Commission, blogger at http://www.walkerevanseffect.com/blog/ , Husband, Father of one (with another on the way...congrats!) & was the Columbus Alive's 2008 "People to Watch: Big Thinker" honoree. Here is his take on Issue 1 in Columbus which is on the ballot this Tuesday, August 4th:
"Some people, when they hear an echo, think they originated the sound." -- Ernest Hemingway
Prior to the Redferns being lobbyists (please do not insult my intelligence and try to explain to me that there is some sort of "Chinese firewall" that separates the two of them) I would hazard to guess that probably 80% of the lobbyists were "for" Chris Redfern.
They were either for him because they liked him personally, they were/are dems (who had been hiding their donkey ears under 8 yrs of GVV & 8 yrs of Taft, but dem lobbyists nonetheless) and supported their Chairman/Party or they liked/respected him as someone whom they had dealt with as a former Legislator.
For whatever reason, my point is that prior to Chris & Kim being lobbyists they probably had the vocal, financial, general support of 80% of the lobbying community.
Ask around today and I think you will find that at least 80% of the lobbying community would be fine with the Redferns vanishing from the face of the earth. Get a few drinks in some of said lobbyists and you'll feel like you are hanging out in Hell's Kitchen or on The Deadliest Catch.
Simply put: Competition is a funny thing.
The second Kim put a shingle up as a lobbyist that basically meant that anytime she GAINED a client then someone else was LOSING a client. Everyone was cool with Chris when he wasn't competition, but the dynamics have changed.
They are taking food out of other people's mouths (picture a lobbyist with his/her spouse & kids eat Ramen noodles because Chris & Kim Redfern stole their largest client).
Speaking from experience, I can tell you that winning competitions on a regular basis can be a very dangerous thing. Very dangerous.
"Win" enough and make others "lose" enough then bad things happen...anonymous memos (only cowards take this approach...I know a handful...believe me they are out there), funds for the Ohio Democrat Party start to dry up, people who used to not drag their feet are now dragging their feet & the reception you get from folks just is not quite as rosy as it used to be.
First, it will start to hurt you and then it will start to hurt the Ohio Democrat Party.
Once things start to hurt the Party then people will start talking about "hope" & "change."
Hope & change are all well & good when they benefit you, but "hope" & "change" might turn out to be a real bitch if the hope & change means you losing your seat as Chairman.
Yep, competition...it can really be a funny thing.
It might be a little bit of a crass question, but I believe it to be a valid one.
Senate President Bill Harris and the Senate GOP Majority stood strong for the Charter School folks and I hope the Charter School owners, the Associations, the faculty, the teachers, the students, families of students and those children/families who wish to have the option to attend Charter Schools in the future realize they now have to, as Tom Hanks’ character Captain John Miller (aka GOP Senate) said with his dying breath (in the movie “Saving Private Ryan”) to Matt Damon’s character Private James Francis Ryan (aka Ohio’s Charter Schools):
“Earn this…Earn it.”
The Germans (represented in this analogy by governor Strickland and the House dems) did everything they could to kill Private Ryan, but Captain Miller and his men prevailed and delivered Private Ryan home safely even though 5 out of 7 of the men assigned to save Private Ryan died in the endeavor.
Charter Schools in Ohio would be DEAD if Strickland and the House dems had their way.
Dead. Gone. No longer. A footnote on Wikipedia as being something that was once, but now is not.
Bill, Catherine, Marianne, Susan, Daniel, Greg, Jack, Marshall, Mr B, Mr L & others: As the quote from my favorite movie goes: “You understand me? Catching my drift? … Or am I being obtuse?”
Fast forward to June 2011 with me for a minute…
Look into my crystal ball…
A $7 billion plus hole of one-time money is going to have to be filled and whoever is in charge is going to have to make some very tough decisions.
Do you see where this is going???
Hello???
YOU MUST BE A POLITICAL FORCE ASAP AND HAVE A MAJOR IMPACT ON 11/4/10 OR YOU ARE TOAST.
So…how do you do it?
For one, you have a grassroots army that can be doing a lot of things in both the real world and online.
88,000 students statewide has to mean, I am guessing, at least 112,000 parents and between siblings, cousins, non-elderly, etc. another 100,000+ people (a # which does not include neighbors, close friends, groups on social networks, etc) who could be helpful on some level with grassroots activities…that is 300,000+ people in this state who do not want to see Charter Schools disappear from Ohio.
What are you doing with this grassroots army today? This week? This month? This year?
Tick tock…Tick tock…
Secondly, you do have access to a lot of money. The questions are:
1) Will the people who stand to benefit the most from the existence of Charter Schools part with their money to the extent they need to via all the different avenues available within the law to impact voters and educate voters (keeping in mind that impacting & educating are two very different activities…501 c3’s, 501 c4’s, 527s, PACs, individual & corporate checks, etc)?
2) Will the money be spent in the most effective mediums on the most effective spending schedule on the correct races?
That brings up a very simple question that does not have a very simple answer:
Which races do you play in and which do you avoid altogether?
The correct answer is counterintuitive.
The best answer for the dems and the most natural answer one would probably come up with is 100% for sure, positive, take it to the bank the worst possible place the dollars could be spent:
The Senate GOP Majority
There is no worse place the Charter School grassroots & monetary efforts could go than to the Ohio Senate Majority races.
The correct answer is: the Apportionment Board races.
Any grassroots or monetary efforts diverted from those races by the Charter School folks (or many other individuals, associations, businesses, etc.) is not the most productive use of resources.
For the GOP the years break down like this:
2010: Apportionment Board (win 2 of 3 of Auditor, Secretary of State & Governor)
2012: Win back the House
2014: Keep the Gov seat if Kasich has it OR win the Gov seat if it is open at this time
Any other priorities than these are asinine at best and absolutely moronic at worst.
Think about it for a minute: The Charter Schools crowd could spend all or none of their grassroots & $$ on the Senate GOP Caucus and the end result would be the same (i.e. they would be at 20 or 21 seats). The “worth” of the Charter Schools would not be truly apparent or noticed.
Sure, focusing their efforts solely on the House races could have an impact, but to what end? Playing in a big way in the House this election cycle does not make any sense either. Say the Charter Schools and a number of other associations, corporations, etc. focused on taking back the House, were successful and made Batchelder the Speaker, but lost the Apportionment Board in the process. With the advances in mapping technology over the last ten years don’t you think the dems will be able to draw the House GOP out of the majority for 2012 (or at worst 2014)? No. Focusing on the House GOP is a better place than focusing on the Senate GOP, but still short-sighted and nowhere near as important as the Apportionment Board seats.
Now for a group like the Charter Schools that is trying to show their “worth” on the planet it would definitely seem very attractive to focus on the Kasich v Strickland race since Strickland is your Public Enemy #1. The problem with getting in that race is that although it is going to be the sexiest race to get involved in it is also the easiest race to get lost in the mix as well. In an effort that I hope will be in the $15 million range by Kasich the grassroots and financial aid of the Charter Schools may not get the notice it deserves.
On the other hand, focusing ALL (or nearly all) of your groups grassroots and financial resources on Auditor and Secretary of State makes the most sense. Each of those races will be $3-5 million apiece for the GOP candidates and it is usually harder to put together the grassroots army for these less sexy down-ticket races. Your efforts will get a lot more notice and appreciation in these two races and your long-term survival hinges THE MOST on the success or failure of these two races.
If the GOP wins the Apportionment Board in 2010 (Senate GOP majority safe through at least 2024) they will redraw the lines and the House should go GOP by 2012 or 2014 at the latest.
If the dems win the Apportionment Board in 2010 then the House will go solidly dem with big #s (think 60-39) by 2016 and the Senate dems probably are in control by 2016 as well. Those kinds of transitions within the caucuses mean one thing for you: You no longer exist in Ohio. Done. Finished. Kaput.
Hopefully existing or not existing at all will be a sexy enough “sell” for your grassroots army and money folks to make these races your sole focus over the next 15 months.
You should spend each day as if the existence of Charter Schools in Ohio and the educating of 88,000+ students rests on the Apportionment Board races because in fact that is truly the situation you are in.
Earn this. Earn it.
I keep seeing lots of articles about the different coalitions forming for high speed rail federal stimulus dollars and I hope/pray we will "win" out against the other coalitions, but I have to admit...if Vegas had odds on this one I would not be betting on us.
Look at our 8 state coalition: Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Michigan, Indiana & Ohio
Other than the fact that Illinois is Obama's home state & some of these states are essential to Barack getting re-elected there is not like there is any really compelling reason for Barack to come through for this coalition of eight states.
A more likely scenario is for California to win the bulk of the funding and the "bone" that gets thrown to the Midwest will be to make major upgrades to the Chicago-St. Louis route, the Chicago-Madison, WI route and the Chicago-Pontiac, MI (thru Detroit) route.
That will at least temporarily make Illinois, Wisconsin, Missouri & Michigan happy, but will leave Iowa, Minnesota, Indiana & ...drumroll, please...Ohio shiitake out of luck.
Hope I'm wrong, but we'll see how this plays out.
"Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others." -- Jonathan Swift
My editorial comments included below in red:
Look out, gov - the ex-gov is comin'!
U.S. Sen. George V.
Voinovich says he’ll be “actively involved” in the battle
against proposals to expand gambling in Ohio, and that includes the plan to add
slots at horse racetracks that was approved by the legislature and Gov. Ted
Strickland. Welcome to the fight. Hope you will really travel the state and actively educate Ohio voters!
“We don’t
think what they’re trying to do is constitutional,” said the former
governor, who has long opposed gambling issues, at a meeting with Dispatch
editors. Hope you are right. For the record: I am not anti-gambling. I am against gov't not listening to what the voters have said loud & clear on this issue four times.
Electronic slots at the seven tracks are being counted on to raise $933 million to help heal a gaping wound in the current two-year budget, although the legality of the measure still must be decided by the Ohio Supreme Court.
The high court also must decide a separate issue: whether to allow a November statewide vote on a constitutional amendment that would allow full-blown casinos in the heart of Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati and Toledo.
Voinovich’s said the deal hatched by Strickland is short-sighted.
“This budget
will get him through the election, but then we’ll have hell to
pay,” Voinovich said. I 100% disagree with your first half of your comment & 100% agree with the second half of your comment. There is NO way they do not have to come back pre-11/4/10 to remedy things. This budget does NOT get Teddy through the election. That said, Ohio will have hell to pay...in fact, that is probably an understatement.
Other tidbits from the session with the two-term Republican senator, who is retiring next year:
-Rob Portman will need to raise $20 million and the GOP likely must chip in another $6 million or $7 million if Republicans want to hold onto the Senate seat.
I agree. This number might even not be high enough. Consider what I have been screaming about for some time now:
Benefitting Dems: GOP & Business Answer to this:
ACORN & their illegal/quasi-legal efforts Nothing
SEIU & other labor unions ongoing efforts Nothing
Obama's "Organizing for America" Nothing
Yes. To combat Lee Fisher's campaign's resources PLUS these ongoing efforts will make this race a very expensive one for Portman.
-Barack Obama’s
biggest problem? Two words: Nancy Pelosi. I would have gone with "Generational Theft" if I only had two words, but I think there are a lot of problems bigger than Nancy Pelosi (although she is a very big problem).
-The GOP’s
biggest problem? “We got too many Jim DeMints (R-S.C.) and Tom Coburns
(R-Ok.). It’s the southerners. They get on TV and go 'errrr, errrrr.'
People hear them and say, ‘These people, they’re southerners. The
party’s being taken over by southerners. What they hell they got to do
with Ohio?’ ” About pissed myself when I read the 'errrr, errrr" comment. Frigging hilarious! I think what GVV was so eloquently trying to say was this: When people in REALLY safe seats vomit things out of their mouths that play well in the deep south it oftentimes puts folks in less safe states in a real tough spot. What plays well in a church where people are speaking in tongues does not play well in many places in the Midwest and New England.
-President Bush blew
it by not taking Voinovich’s advice to simplify the U.S. tax code, for
which individuals and businesses now spend $240 billion to prepare their
returns. And in light of the subsequent mortgage crisis, Bush doesn’t
look so good touting the growing ranks of home owners in state of the union
addresses. Yep.
-Voinovich is
stressing nuclear power even more than in the past: “What I’m
trying to do is get Ohio to be the heart of it all in terms of nuclear.”
How about wind power? “You can build windmills from here to the Pacific
and not make a difference in baseload (power) generation.” As early readers of this blog know I am for anything that is going to lead to the demise of the petrodictators. I say do it all! Whatever measures that do not put us at a competitive disadvantage with the rest of the world (can you say "cap & trade = making US businesses non-competitive in the world market") that will lessen our reliance on foreign oil should be pursued ASAP!
Whether you love me, hate me or somewhere in between I would appreciate your help.
Usually when I go on vacation or go out of town for work I am terrible about keeping up the blog and I end up losing some readers.
It is not the end of the world, but it ends up taking two or three weeks to get the readership back to what it was beforehand and it has become a little bit of a pain in the ass...build up, go out of town & fall down, build back up, go out of town again & readership falls down.
I'm putting a plea out to any of you who feel you can fit the following criteria as writers:
*You have something interesting or funny to say
*You can write a blog post without cussing...or not cussing that much
If you fit these criteria and you quite possibly fancy yourself as a writer/blogger then please send me a blog post prior to August 10 (preferably) or during the August 11-20 timeframe.
That is when I will be traveling and your blog post(s) will be running on this blog.
I hope & pray that enough of you respond with potential blog posts that are worth reading that we can make it through those 10 days without a hitch.
Please send potential blog posts to sisk_kyle [at] hotmail [dot] com
Also, let me know if you would like your blog post to appear under your own name or under a pseudonym. Either way, please provide the language for the bio for either your own name or your pseudonym as you would like it to appear at the top of your post.
Thank you to all who participate in this Guest blogging experiment.
Hopefully it goes well and some of you will opt to join up with Eye Spy, An Occasional Thinker, Am I Missing Something?, Tommy Lonn, Stan Mattley, Goose, Daniel Kaffee, Steven Hyland, Kaiser Sosay, Art McGregor, Joe Friday, Shine the Light & It is Eight Belles...by a nose! and post on a semi-regular basis for this blog as a Guest Columnist!!!
