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Obama speech backs beliefs of Republicans
I disagree with pundits on the right. I thought President Obama did an excellent job in his Democratic Convention speech. It was a great speech. The centerpiece was his favorite oft-repeated mantra which actually contains the core of the beliefs held by the Republican Party.
“We insist on personal responsibility.” Agreed. Responsibility is the very essence of freedom. Without responsibility there can be no freedom. We cannot eat what we want if everyone else is paying for our medical bills. We cannot have the freedom to ride bikes without helmets or drink to excess or play on the sand hills with dune buggies if we expect others to pony up and pay the bills incurred by our reckless behavior.
No Republican would argue with the mantra he repeats at every speaking opportunity. “I want to live in an America where hard work pays off, where everyone gets a fair shot, everyone does their fair share, and everyone plays by the same rules.”
The problem is that he doesn’t want to live in that world. What he really wants is a world that punishes the success. He would probably agree with many of the Democrats at that convention who said they wanted Obama to pass a law that would “outlaw corporate profits.”
He doesn’t want a world where “Those with the most pay less.” He wants to lower taxes for the middle class. However, he knows full well that you cannot lower taxes for people who pay no taxes. The lower 50 percent of wage earners pay no income tax at all and many get “earned income” dividends that the rest of us pay for. The top 10 percent earn 43 percent of income earned and pay 70 percent of the income tax collected by the IRS.
“We honor the entrepreneurs.” Really? “They didn’t build that!”
“I worked with Republicans.” Even White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said, “We know what they are going to say, so talking to them would be a waste of time.”
He wants “a country where families aren’t tricked into signing for a mortgage they can’t afford.” How many times did George Bush tell Barney Frank, “You have to rein in Fannie Mae.” Barney refused and accused Bush of racism.
As a lawyer Barack Obama himself contributed to the sub-prime loan fiasco by bringing a discrimination lawsuit against Citibank on behalf of 186 clients, almost all of whom eventually defaulted on their loans.
He was delighted to announce that his administration had cut oil imports by millions of barrels a day. That, of course, was the result of his pre-election promise in 2008 that his energy policies “would necessarily cause energy prices to skyrocket.” And they did, so we drive less; so we import less. Big whoopie.
Cora Lee Schingnitz
Yuma
