This one's for my Facebook buddy Pierre Menard, who first
brought this WP article to my attention:
* * *
Republican presidential candidates on Saturday turned
their attention away from border walls and terrorist threats and birth
certificates, if only for a day, to focus on a topic that is dear to the hearts
of some leading conservative thinkers but has remained far from the center of
the GOP race: poverty in America.
* SEMI-BULL. THE "POVERTY" DISCUSSION IS PART
OF THE LARGER ECONOMIC POLICY DISCUSSIONS THAT HAVE BEEN TAKING PLACE ALL
ALONG. THE AUTHOR IS SIMPLY TAKING A SUBTLE SHOT AT THE GOP.
(*SHRUG*)
It created a spectacle that seemed far removed from the
tumult of the campaign at large: A low-octane discussion of conservative policy
that was short on candidate sniping and red-meat applause lines and long on
mentions of block grants, school vouchers and the Earned Income Tax Credit.
* AGAIN... THE PURPOSE OF THE NARRATIVE SPIN... TO SET AN
ANTI-GOP TONE... VIA A "NUDGE" THAT MOST READERS WILL NOT EVEN
CONSCIOUSLY REALIZE THEY'VE REACTED TO.
(*PURSED LIPS*)
That was the intent of the event’s sponsors, the Jack
Kemp Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute, and its leading
moderator, House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), who has promised to use his
office to make the 2016 election into a battle of ideas rather than
personalities. The Kemp Forum on Expanding Opportunity, as the event was
billed, was focused on issues near to Ryan’s wonky heart and that of his
mentor, the late Rep. Jack Kemp (R-N.Y.).
“We’ve been fighting a war on poverty for over 50 years
now, and I don’t think you conclude anything other than this war is a
stalemate,” Ryan told a packed room at the convention center here at the outset
of the forum.
* ACTUALLY... THE "WAR" HAS BEEN A DISMAL FAILURE - A
COUNTER-PRODUCTIVE FAILURE IN MANY REGARDS, PARTICULARLY IN SOCIAL
RAMIFICATIONS.
“We’ve treated poverty like they’re potholes that need to
be filled up and then we move on. … We now have a safety net that is designed
to catch people falling into poverty when what we really need is a safety net
that is designed to help get people out of poverty.”
* NOTE: "WE." IS THIS THE LANGUAGE OF A TRUE
CONSERVATIVE? OR IS THIS THE MINDSET OF A COLLECTIVIST?
While the forum was notable for delving into the policy
weeds, it was also notably missing the two most aggressive Republican
candidates, front-runners Donald Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.)...
(*SMIRK*)
* IN CASE ANYONE MISSES THE "SEED" THAT THE
AUTHOR IS HOPING TO PLANT... THE "NUDGE" HERE IS ABOUT DISCREDITING
BOTH TRUMP AND CRUZ IN ONE FELL SWOOP.
(*RUEFUL CHUCKLE*)
...offering a glimpse at what the 2016 GOP campaign might
have looked like without the Trump-fueled rage against the Republican
establishment.
* AND "RAGE" IS... BAD... RIGHT?
(*SNORT*)
* SO... FRIGGIN'... TRANSPARENT...
The six candidates who attended — former Florida governor
Jeb Bush, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie,
former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Sen. Marco
Rubio (Fla.) — spent much of their time discussing tax plans that would, to
varying degrees, cut federal government revenue and require significant cuts to
long-standing social programs.
* WELL... AT LEAST THAT WOULD BE A MOVE IN THE RIGHT
DIRECTION! (BUT... CONSIDER... THEY'RE STILL FOCUSED ON A "TOP-DOWN"
APPROACH WHEREBY IT'S GOVERNMENT ACTIONS THAT "INFLUENCE" THE
ECONOMY.)
But their approaches differed sharply, even if the format
did not make for camera-friendly clashes.
Christie, for instance, touted his initiative as governor
to increase New Jersey's Earned Income Tax Credit — a program that boosts the
income of the poorest workers — while Carson argued for a biblically inspired
flat tax without any loopholes.
* CHRISTIE IS WRONG; CARSON IS RIGHT.
(*WINK*)
Carson criticized low-income workers that do not pay
federal income tax. “Everybody has to have skin in the game, and it doesn’t
make any sense to me for half the people not to pay any taxes but have a say in
how much the others pay,” Carson said, drawing applause.
* Er... THAT'S A STATEMENT... NOT A CRITICISM; THAT'S A
POLICY PRESCRIPTION - AND COMMON SENSE - NOT A CRITICISM. (AGAIN... SO FRIGGIN'
TRANSPARENT...)
Huckabee pitched his “Fair Tax” plan, which would replace
all income taxes with a national sales tax.
* SO MUCH FOR FEDERALISM... SO MUCH FOR 50 SOVEREIGN
STATES... (WHY NOT JUST REMOVE THE 50 STARS ON THE FLAG AND REPLACE 'EM WITH JUST
ONE - GET IT OVER WITH?!)
Kasich and Christie discussed plans to improve treatment
for non-violent drug offenders, Rubio floated a plan to allow high schoolers to
access federal Pell grants...
* STOP... RIGHT... THERE...
(*MASSIVE MIGRAINE HEADACHE*)
* SO... RUBIO WANTS TO INCREASE EXPENDITURES... AND
DEFICITS... AND DEBT...
(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)
...to pay for vocational training...
* IT'S CALLED "BOCES" - AND IT ALREADY EXISTS!
(AND IT'S ALREADY FUNDED!)
* FOLKS... RUBIO IS A FRIGGIN' MENACE...
...and Bush discussed his experience establishing a
charter school in Miami and his desire to replicate the model widely.
* SO... BECOME A HEADMASTER AT A CHARTER SCHOOL.
(*SHRUG*)
All agreed on one notion: the failure of existing federal
social programs to address the root causes of poverty.
* AGAIN... THE MINDSET... THE HUBRIS THAT THE FEDERAL
GOVERNMENT CAN (OR SHOULD EVEN TRY TO) ADDRESS THE "ROOT CAUSES" OF POVERTY.
AGAIN... THE COLLECTIVIST TOP-DOWN APPROACH...
(*PURSED LIPS*)
Each candidate called for reforms that would give aid
recipients more incentives to work, going beyond the major welfare reform of
1996 that made the central federal program for poor families into a program
offering only temporary aid in most cases.
* THESE REFORMS HAVE BEEN GUTTED UNDER OBAMA...
(*SHRUG*)
Several floated reforms that are popular in the
conservative policy sphere, including devolving federal programs by delivering
block grants that states would have wide latitude to administer as they wish.
* QUESTION: WHY TAKE THE MONEY IN THE FIRST PLACE IF
YOU'RE SIMPLY GONNA SEND IT BACK - MINUS A "HANDLING FEE" OF COURSE?!
“Our safety net in America today does not cure poverty,”
Rubio said. “It treats the pain of poverty, the symptoms of poverty, but it
does not cure it. The only cure for poverty is a good-paying job.”
* TRUE! (BUT WHAT'S THAT HAVE TO DO WITH WASHINGTON?!)
The forum was co-moderated by Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.),
who grew up in a low-income family in South Carolina, where the poverty rate of
15% is the nation’s 10th highest. Other participants included noted
conservative thinkers Arthur Brooks, the AEI’s director, and Robert Woodson, a
MacArthur “genius” grant recipient. They sought to combat the notion that
issues of poverty and opportunity lie far afield from the GOP agenda.
“Republicans have always thought about it, but they
haven’t always said it, and that’s what we want to do,” said Gov. Nikki Haley
(R-S.C.), a possible running mate for the eventual nominee, in brief remarks at
the event.
But the specter of Trump — and his dog-eats-dog worldview
of “winners” and “losers,” leaving little compassion for the latter — hung over
the event.
* Er... FOLKS...
(*GUFFAW*)
* Hmm... YOU DON'T SUPPOSE THE AUTHOR HAS A GOAL IN MIND VIA
SPOUTING SUCH VITRIOL - DO YA?!
(*STILL CHUCKLING*)
* FOLKS... THIS IS MODERN "JOURNALISM."
(*SPITTING ON THE GROUND*)
* SERIOUSLY... I HOPE YOU FOLKS ARE FOLLOWING MY
DECONSTRUCTION OF THE "GAME" AS PLAYED BY MODERN
"JOURNALISTS." THE GOAL IS TO MANIPULATE YOU. THE GOAL IS TO USE
"NEWS" AS BASICALLY... MARKETING... "PROGRESSIVE" PROPAGANDA.
Friday night, Trump held a standing-room-only rally in
South Carolina, an hour’s drive from Columbia.
Jimmy Kemp — the event’s master of ceremonies and the son
of the late congressman, who died in 2009 — said in an interview that Trump’s
attendance at the forum would have been “fascinating.”
“Would he come here and badger and point fingers? I don’t
think he would,” Kemp said. “He would have to talk about actual ideas. ... It
would have been really revealing and could have been really good to see how he
performs. But I think we had a great conversation, and it didn’t diminish at
all that he wasn’t here.”
* AGAIN... BASICALLY TAKING POT-SHOTS AT TRUMP UNDER THE
GUISE OF "ANALYSIS."
The hurly-burly of the broader campaign intruded at one
point, however, when immigration activists protesting Rubio’s support for
deportations...
* THIS IS CALLED A RED HERRING, FOLKS; RUBIO IS NOT FOR
DEPORTATIONS; RUBIO'S RECORD IS CLEAR - HE'S PRO-IMMIGRATION... LEGAL OR
OTHERWISE. PERIOD.
...shouted at the senator repeatedly as he spoke. The
first two times, Rubio smiled and continued describing his plan to increase the
Child Tax Credit as the protesters were removed. By the third interruption, his
patience had thinned.
“We're going to enforce our immigration laws, guys,” he
told the protesters, and the crowd roared.
* FOLKS... IN OTHER WORDS... THIS "ENDING" TO
THE PIECE... A TRANSPARENT ATTEMPT BY A "PROGRESSIVE" (NO DOUBT
DEMOCRAT) "JOURNALIST" TO BOOST RUBIO. NOW THINK ABOUT THAT... IF
RUBIO IS THE REPUBLICAN THE PROGRESSIVES WANT...
* READ CRITICALLY, FOLKS! THAT'S ALL I'M TELLIN' YA!
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