VOINOVICH NOW CONCERNED ABOUT DEFICIT HE VOTED TO CREATE FOR BUSH & RICH
By Roldo Bartimole
Is Republican Sen. George Voinovich’s middle name Hypocrite?
It should be.
Constituents receive a scare e-mail message from Senator that starts with line in bright red: “Currently, the U. S. Debt is estimated at
And then the answer goes green and says this month: $13,274,281,889,041.”
That’s a lot of money.
Then the parsimonious – or so he claims – Sen. Voinovich gives us another red line:
“Your share of today’s public debt is: (back to green) $42,350.”
That’s a lot of money, especially if you have children.
Voinovich can scare the hell out of you.
Well, the Senator then paints himself as a man with “management experience as Mayor of Cleveland and Governor of Ohio,” as well as telling us his personal mantra to “work harder and smarter and do more with less.”
I wonder what he was thinking then when he voted for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars WITHOUT PAYING FOR THEM. Without putting a penny aside.
The cost – rising by the millions daily – is at $734.7 billion. The George Bush war, backed by Sen. Voinovich, had nothing about paying for the war. It wasn’t in the budget.
George, where are your principles?
He used his claimed principles recently when he refused to vote to extend unemployment benefits until there were offsetting spending reductions. He voted “NO.” We’ve got to have fiscal responsibility! Now, not then.
George showed again what a hypocrite he is when he voted in 2001 for the Bush tax cuts to the rich. For the Unemployed, NO! For the Fat Cats, YES. I remember Voinovich declaring he like Fat Cats when he ran against Dennis Kucinich for mayor back in 1979. He has never changed.
“Since 2001, changes in the tax laws have cost the federal government $929 billion, including $860 billion in direct costs and $69 billion in interest. Proponents of these tax cuts promised stronger economic gains than were typical of the past, but that did not occur. Unfortunately for most Americans, almost every broad measure of economic activity GDP, jobs, personal income, and business investment, among others – has fared worse over the last four years than in past business cycles,” said an October 2005 report of the Economic Policy Institute.
See the full report here:
http://www.epi.org/economic_snapshots/entry/webfeatures_snapshots_20051026/
It was all a give-away to rich friends.
The gifts to the wealthiest Americans didn’t help our economy at all. We see the mess Voinovich helped create.
But George Voinovich – who plays his cards as if he’s a conservative watchdog of our government resources – voted for the two largest and costly money issues in his eight year term.
But he had to live up to his “convictions” and vote against a piddling – in comparison – money issue that would help unemployed families.
Voinovich was saying “go screw yourself” to 181,000 unemployed Ohioans. The figures don’t show how many others depended upon the 181,000.
How’s that for a good acting Christian?
Why couldn’t he – and all except two Maine Republican Senators – vote? Because Voinovich was concerned about the deficit. Now he’s all concerned. Why can’t I believe him?
It took all Democratic votes to finally pass relief for out of work families.
Of course, Voinovich gets a pass from the Plain Dealer. The PD gave a glancing critical comment. But none of the slapping around he deserved. Who cared about the 181,000 unemployed? I guess Sen. Sherrod Brown did.
The deficit Voinovich helped dig with his vote allowing two wars go without paying for them and for tax cuts for the richest Americans has been killing jobs in American and Ohio. Yet, George still gets treated as a non-corrupted politician.
George Voinovich has paid off the Fat Cats he said he loved and who have financed him throughout his career.
I wonder how the guy can live with himself.
Roldo Bartimole celebrates 50 years of news reporting this year. He published and wrote Point of View, a newsletter about Cleveland, for 32 years. He worked for the Plain Dealer and Wall Street Journal in the 1960s.
He was a 2004 Cleveland Journalism Hall of Fame recipient and won the national Joe Callaway Award for Civic Courage in 1991.
2 Responses to “Roldo: Voinovich: How Can The Guy Live With Himself?”
Matt
The tax cuts, which went to all of us, not “the rich”, would be permanent today if only Voinovich had voted differently two years ago. He, and he alone, stopped the bill which would have made these cuts permanent.
The cuts stimulated the economy and created jobs. They increased federal revenues. They made the tax code more progressive. But you can go ahead and ignore all of the facts if it makes you feel better.
Next year, the marriage penalty comes back, tax rates go up, and you can be sure, as a result, the stock market, the job market and the economy as a whole will tank. Obama will be responsible for making a bad situation even worse.
Roldo Bartimole
The tanked the respondent above talks about have already happened – under the Bush administration. President Obama has been attempting to correct some of the ills left behind. George Voinovich has been among the obstructionists that have tried to sabotage Obama.
George Voinovich can speak out now by telling us that the Bush tax cuts to the rich – mostly the top 3 to 5 percent of the wealthy – should be ended.
He can show us how he is really concerned about the deficit by starting now and then voting to rescind the Bush gifts to his wealth supporters.