No surprise. Corrine Brown soundly wins another term in Congress.
As we expected (please see my response to Bo’s comment pertaining to my ‘Yost Is Toast’ blog post) she handily beat Mike Yost. Ms. Brown received 61% of the vote. Mr. Yost received 36% of the vote and the remaining crumbs went to Terry Martin-Black.
These results line up with what our research predicted. As we noted 20% of the voters were undecided, but these voters lived in the inner city. These voters believe (correctly) Corrine Brown has accomplished little and more importantly feel she is an ineffective representative of the African-American community.
However, these voters chose her over Mr. Yost primarily because of Yost is of the 'wrong' party affiliation and that he did little to court their vote. I think the axiom, tried and true: "rather do business with the devil you know", holds true here.
Even though Ms. Brown won this election, her actions leading up to the election may put her in hot water. It seems she offered free meals for early voters. If this seeming ethics violation does not sink her career then we think the release of the Census results, and the decennial redistricting that follows, along with two amendments requiring the Florida Legislature to draw district boundaries without regard for partisanship that were approved by voters yesterday will go a long distance down the path of ending her vacation in Washington DC.
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
If True To Their Word, Republicans Will Cut Jobs
With the general election upon us next week, politicians seeking office are performing a full court press to deliver their message. Most Republican candidates seem to be stating popular catch phrases such as, will reduce government spending, lower taxes, reduce the size of government, etc.
Those phrases sound great, but the phrases are not new. Politicians have been stating them for ages, but our government is bigger today than it was 200 years ago, which leads me to wonder whether Republicans will have the backbone to 'walk the walk'.
Republicans can sure 'talk the talk'. However, if they are serious about reducing the size of the government and lowering taxes then I think they better start telling folks they will need to cut jobs, more specifically, jobs within the Federal government.
The Federal government is no different than most organizations. Arguably one of the largest cost centers for the government is wages and benefits (which include the hidden 'timebomb' of unfunded retirement benefits); therefore, to reduce spending - and the need for taxes, the number of positions will need to be cut.
Time will tell whether the Republicans will address this dirty little secret and more importantly, follow through on their rhetoric to reduce the size of our government.
When President Obama had to walk the walk by seeking to raise taxes to pay for his talk about providing benefits to all, he lost some of the goodwill he generated on the campaign trail. I suspect the same may happen to the Republicans once the press starts to publish news articles which contain stories of human suffering as a result of job cuts within Federal government agencies.
Therefore, I think the Republicans need to state a truthful, fair and balanced plan to the American people, a plan that will detail opportunities provided by a smaller government as well as the challenges to arrive at a smaller government. This plan needs to acknowledge possible financial setbacks by those who may lose their Federal government job. By articulating such a plan sooner rather than later and addressing the human element, I think the Republicans could gain the respect of the American people and in the process ward off any bad press that may come about from job cuts within the government sector.
Those phrases sound great, but the phrases are not new. Politicians have been stating them for ages, but our government is bigger today than it was 200 years ago, which leads me to wonder whether Republicans will have the backbone to 'walk the walk'.
Republicans can sure 'talk the talk'. However, if they are serious about reducing the size of the government and lowering taxes then I think they better start telling folks they will need to cut jobs, more specifically, jobs within the Federal government.
The Federal government is no different than most organizations. Arguably one of the largest cost centers for the government is wages and benefits (which include the hidden 'timebomb' of unfunded retirement benefits); therefore, to reduce spending - and the need for taxes, the number of positions will need to be cut.
Time will tell whether the Republicans will address this dirty little secret and more importantly, follow through on their rhetoric to reduce the size of our government.
When President Obama had to walk the walk by seeking to raise taxes to pay for his talk about providing benefits to all, he lost some of the goodwill he generated on the campaign trail. I suspect the same may happen to the Republicans once the press starts to publish news articles which contain stories of human suffering as a result of job cuts within Federal government agencies.
Therefore, I think the Republicans need to state a truthful, fair and balanced plan to the American people, a plan that will detail opportunities provided by a smaller government as well as the challenges to arrive at a smaller government. This plan needs to acknowledge possible financial setbacks by those who may lose their Federal government job. By articulating such a plan sooner rather than later and addressing the human element, I think the Republicans could gain the respect of the American people and in the process ward off any bad press that may come about from job cuts within the government sector.
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