Pelosi should keep eye on Georgia
Thinking Right’s weekend free-for-all. Pick a topic:
● The federal government is borrowing 37 cents of every dollar from the unborn to fund a streetcar project in Atlanta that’s likely to go broke long before the taxes get levied to repay the Chinese for carrying our debt. Surprisingly, and quite commendably, the Macon newspaper, The Telegraph, calls a federal subsidy of $509 per passenger for air service there “cruel and unusual punishment on the nation’s taxpayers” and asks that it be ended. We really must discipline ourselves to stop asking the feds to tax the unborn to pony up for things we wouldn’t finance with our own money.
● A marvelous program that gets too little of the positive attention it deserves is the Georgia Tax Credit Scholarship Program. It offers tax credits to those whose financial gifts enable children in public school to transfer to private and parochial alternatives. The sum is fixed at $50 million per year statewide. But the donations are expected to reach no more than $40 million this year. It’s a near crime to hold children hostages in public schools when parents believe they aren’t getting a solid education.
● A debate rages in Tennessee about whether firefighters should have allowed a mobile home to burn because the family had chosen not to pay the $75 yearly fee for service. The answer, alas, is yes. People do have choices, choices that have consequences — and they make them every day with health and other forms of insurance. Those who decline to pay for protection should arrange alternatives.
● Roger Vinson, the 70-year-old judge hearing the lawsuit filed against ObamaCare by 20 states including Georgia, is wise beyond his years. He’s on to the politicians’ game. Congress was intentionally vague in identifying the penalties against those ordered to buy insurance as taxes, he wrote. “One could reasonably infer that Congress proceeded as it did specifically because it did not want the penalty to be ‘scrutinized’ as a $4 billion annual tax increase,” he wrote. This one’s headed for the U.S. Supreme Court.
● Georgia Supreme Court Justice David Nahmias is a real blue-chipper — a prime candidate, I think, for the U.S. Supreme Court. He was the state’s STAR student while at Briarcliff High School in 1982, excelled at Duke and at Harvard Law, before clerking for two superior judges, Laurence H. Silberman of D.C. Circuit, and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. He was appointed by Gov. Sonny Perdue and faces a challenger in November. On merit, he should be a shoo-in.
● Gov. Sonny Perdue, in Statesboro for a Great Dane plant groundbreaking, was asked about the promise by the two gubernatorial candidates to create jobs. His reply should define Georgia’s economic development policy for the next 100 years. Said Perdue: “Not being on the ballot today I can say with all humility governors nor governments don’t create jobs. Our responsibility is to provide a fertile ground where good companies, good entrepreneurs and good investors want to come and feel like they’ve got a fair shot at being successful.”
● It wouldn’t be a major surprise this year if Republicans pick up the Middle Georgia district represented by U.S. Rep. Jim Marshall of Macon, but if U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop of Albany loses in southwest Georgia — a possibility — the night will end with Nancy Pelosi ousted as speaker. Bishop’s district is 47 percent black. His defeat would be a good indication that Republicans will sweep statewide races in Georgia. His defeat, too, would be an ominous sign for the Democratic Party in the South. All federal, statewide and legislative elections this year are about whether voters want to continue the Pelosi-Reid-Obama course — or to bolster resistance to it.
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47 comments Add your comment
Rafe Hollister
October 21st, 2010
7:55 pm
Bishop is Pelosi’s lap dog. He does exactly as told and deserves to lose. If you do not like Pelosi, how can you justify voting for Sanford. Many of the farmers down there will vote for him for one reason only, he brings home the farm subsidies. What they don’t realize is that if the Reps take the house, he will be in the minority and have much less statue. Keowan will be in a better position to help those farmers.
Lawrence
October 21st, 2010
8:13 pm
If Bishop is re-elected with all his baggage, we will deserve what we get.
Lazermike
October 22nd, 2010
12:33 am
What’s holding children “hostage” in public schools? Is it their family’s inability to afford private school tuition? If so, then I’m confused. Why then isn’t it a “near crime” to make people go to a free clinic or to Grady if they believe they could get better health care elsewhere, or to make families live in subsidized housing if they believe another home would be better? All three — public schools, public health, and public housing — are funded by taxes.
Jim
October 22nd, 2010
6:09 am
when the history of this era is recorded, the tea party movement will be an asterisk.
Ga Values
October 22nd, 2010
6:52 am
What is the difference between Rep. Nathan Deal (R-GA), Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY), & Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA)? Deal resigned rather than face trial.
15 MOST CORRUPT CONGRESSMEN
Rep. Nathan Deal (R-GA)
Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-FL)
Sen. Roland Burris (D-IL)
Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA)
Sen. John Ensign (R-NV)
Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-IL)
Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA)
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
Rep. Alan Mollohan (D-WV)
Rep. John Murtha (D-PA)
Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY)
Rep. Laura Richardson (D-CA)
Rep. Pete Visclosky (D-IN)
Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA)
Rep. Don Young (R-AK)
Dr. Stan (The Black One)
October 22nd, 2010
7:36 am
Governor Sonny Perdue said that neither governors nor governments create jobs. Their responsibility is to provide a fertile ground where good companies, good entrepreneurs and good investors want to come and feel like they’ve got a fair shot at being successful.”
On the other hand, my business associates Abhishek from India, Xiu Ying of China, and Panthea hailing from the Philippines said that Bill Clinton and the American government created good jobs in their respective countries when he signed NAFTA and GATT into law…
Beaves
October 22nd, 2010
7:43 am
I am confused, why do we pay $509 per passenger to Macon? …..Georgia Tax Credit Scholarship Program, what is that? That is why it does not get any praise…..They should have put the fire out and sent them a bill…..Anything with healthcare reform Obozo style is just hidden taxes, all 2700 pages is just hiding in words what they are stealing from every working American…..I do not trust anybody that went to an Ivy League school, if they are teaching their students that you can spend your way out of debt then there is no doubt that the rest of their education was on the same par…..Great statement on government……I can’t wait for November….
maggot turds
October 22nd, 2010
7:47 am
“A debate rages in Tennessee about whether firefighters should have allowed a mobile home to burn because the family had chosen not to pay the $75 yearly fee for service. The answer, alas, is yes. People do have choices, choices that have consequences — and they make them every day with health and other forms of insurance. Those who decline to pay for protection should arrange alternatives.”
Speaks volumnes about who this Wooten character is, and what he represents. You need not know any more than this. Didn’t the Nazis burn all the villages in Russia during Barbarosa? Oh, a revolution is brewing. This latest recession has deepened the divide between the haves and the victims of capitalism. A nightmare country is upon us, a worst case murphy’s law scenario.
maggot turds
October 22nd, 2010
7:58 am
“The federal government is borrowing 37 cents of every dollar from the unborn to fund a streetcar project in Atlanta that’s likely to go broke long before the taxes get levied to repay the Chinese for carrying our debt.”
So THAT’S why Wooten is anti-choice: He wants good and plenty unborn babies to be around as adults to pay for his war profits/deficits. Capitalism and the Accidental Moralist.
Interested observer
October 22nd, 2010
8:22 am
“Speaks volumnes about who this Wooten character is, and what he represents. You need not know any more than this. Didn’t the Nazis burn all the villages in Russia during Barbarosa? Oh, a revolution is brewing. This latest recession has deepened the divide between the haves and the victims of capitalism. A nightmare country is upon us, a worst case murphy’s law scenario.”
Actually, Jim is right. The homeowner had the option of paying for fire protection and chose not to. Why should the responsible people — those who paid — fund his protection? This is a pay-as-you-go service, and only those who pay for it get the service. The owner of the mobile home took a gamble and lost.
If you do not buy homeowner’s insurance, do you expect State Farm to pay for the damage when a tornado hits? Yeah, after reading your comparison of this incident to Nazi Germany, you probably do. Lots of luck with that.
carlosgvv
October 22nd, 2010
8:26 am
You say the Chinese are carrying our debt. They are also engaged in long-term planning in business, education, space and other thing that we are not. Because of this, before the end of the century, they will be the number one country in the world and we will be just another has-been. Count on it.
Ragnar Danneskjöld
October 22nd, 2010
8:27 am
Good morning all. I broadly support military spending, as the only necessary Federal spending. Our freedom is threatened, as I am reminded every time I go through airport security, although I confess I am not certain whether the greater threat is external or internal. All other spending is optional, and none of it should be visited on other generations. I oppose further Federal spending for social security unless Congress lays out a plan to make the program solvent within a generation. Democrats are too weak-spined to do that which is necessary. Non tea-party Republicans probably are too, although I would love to see Johnny Isakson and Saxby Chambliss prove me wrong. As to all other Federal spending, it is merely hiring bureaucrats to lock the barn after the horses escape, shut it down.
That there is any debate on the Tennessee fire is a chronicle of the decline of our culture, into one of whining dependency. I know when my bills are due, and I pay them. We have an underclass for which that is not true.
Nahmias looks promising, but I am not a credentialist. As always, I will be voting against his proven-defective opponent, and hoping that Nahmias lives up to his potential.
Bravo Sonny, rare truth from a politician. Moving into the statesman role nicely. In all fairness, we do not expect Chauncey to create jobs, if he only had the brains to get out of the way. The foolish leftists throw every impediment imaginable in the way of our formerly unstoppable business engine. Sugar does not belong in the gas tank.
Maybe the Republicans will recruit Mr. Marshall for future races; certainly his party does not represent his values, no more than it represents those of any sane person. Mr. Bishop, in contrast, is a typical blue-dog poser, acting conservative while undermining conservatism at every turn in DC; just another Max Cleland.
jconservative
October 22nd, 2010
8:45 am
“We really must discipline ourselves to stop asking the feds to tax the unborn to pony up for things we wouldn’t finance with our own money.”
Jim I agreed completely. BUT!
But, we have been taxing the unborn to pay for things we could not otherwise afford since January 20, 1981. A few of us screamed and hollered. But the vast majority just put the proceeds of the “tax on the unborn” in their pocket and pretended it was a good thing.
Now, after 29 year and 10 months everyone is suddenly on the bandwagon.
Anyway, welcome aboard, even if you are 30 years late. We could have sure used you in the early days of the “tax cut/increase spending” craze when it first started.
Wow
October 22nd, 2010
8:56 am
If Deal is elected with all his baggage, we will deserve what we get. Fixed that for you Lawrence.
Wooten is a donkeys behind. Crazy how he’s in agreement w a house burning down for failing to pay $75, but will defend BP w the billions in damaged they caused.
Tommy Maddox
October 22nd, 2010
9:01 am
The street trolley deal is such a boondoggle. Talk about throwing money away. What boneheads.
Michael B. Shapiro
October 22nd, 2010
9:14 am
Governor Purdue: “governors nor governments don’t create jobs.”
I’m sorry, but did I miss that lesson in English class?
The Ghost of Lester Maddox
October 22nd, 2010
9:22 am
The Streetcar will prove a very convenient way for the panhandlers to move around among the first-time tourists who are crazy enough to want to ride the thing.
As for the folks who work for a living in the downtown area, we’ll avoid it the same way we avoid Marta.
Beaves
October 22nd, 2010
9:54 am
Thank God for Harry Reid, according to him he has saved the world from a great depression, but I guess he forgot to look in his backyard. Arizona unemployment just topped 15%. WOW is this guy delusional, or maybe lives in some alternate reality?
http://www.breitbart.tv/reid-but-for-me-wed-be-in-world-wide-depression/
Harry reid is why people become hard core GOP’ers
Reality
October 22nd, 2010
11:14 am
Am I to understand that you also think that “penalties” are “tax increases?” Really? This is what you say about the Healthcare Reform Bill (you chose to call it Obamacare, but I think that you give Obama too much credit) heading to the Supreme Court.
A speeding ticket is a “tax increase?” Income tax penalties are a “tax increase?” Really?
Wow. Wooten, u r really off your rocker!
Reality
October 22nd, 2010
11:17 am
The Georgia Tax Credit Scholarship Program is a horrible horrible thing.
It allows for the wealthy to benefit from the State to send their kids to private schools. This is a wrong that the republicans support – because they are always for the most wealthy.
So, while these folks get to pay less taxes, guess who picks up the slack? That’s right – it is the middle class and lower class folks.
When will Georgia wake up and smell the coffee?
Reality
October 22nd, 2010
11:20 am
The Street Trolley idea was great when it was to run up and down Peachtree from Lennox Mall to the Falcons games. Many people would use that one.
But I really don’t understand this idea for the route.
Reality
October 22nd, 2010
11:25 am
I really hope that you are wrong (and you are often, so I have great hope) that voters are smart enough to separate the State of Georgia politics from national politics.
Our State has been run by republicans for 8 years and we have been going down a spiral path in most every metric….. education, unemployment, etc. We finish last or near last in most every category. We need a change.
If republicans cannot do better than this for 8 years, we need to kick them out!
Lyle Lanley
October 22nd, 2010
12:02 pm
Streetcars? I feel like I’ve heard this song and dance before…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rB67aChztK8
Dr. Stan (The Black One)
October 22nd, 2010
1:59 pm
Technically, neither governors nor governments can create jobs… But they definitely can move them from one country to another via trade agreements, policies, etc…
My business associates, Abhishek from India, Xiu Ying of China, and Panthea hailing from the Philippines, actually thought our government had created new jobs in their respective countries, @7:36. The reality is those jobs already existed in our country. The government moved them to China, India, and the Philippines.
It’s easy for Americans to determine when their government move jobs from our country to another. We always hear a “giant sucking sound” due east, west, north, and south of the border.
Dusty
October 22nd, 2010
6:21 pm
Thanks, Jim Wooten, for a fine column. You have made many good points. I’ll pick a few.
Pelosi–The sooner she is gone the better. I don’t think she is even truthful in political matters.
Gov. Perdue –good intelligent man who did the best he could in bad times.
Please keep hammering away at any program that keeps our national deficit growing.. The cost of the suggested healthcare program is far greater than it’s producers want us to know. Keep saying it. I commend the judge who wants the truth about the costs and not a cheap coverup..
As to the Tennessee trailer fire, I thought firefighters went to any fire and tried to stop the burning. Most insurance is for rebuilding what is burned. There is something wrong when firefighters stand by and watch a fire.
As to trolley cars, let them build little ones to go under the Christmas tree. That is where toys belong. I think all the little elves must have voted for this one with the sound of $$$$$ ringing in their ears. Where is DOT? Does it not work in Atlanta?
Enjoy your week, Jim. Wish you were here more often.
.
Eric
October 22nd, 2010
6:33 pm
Dusty, I agree with you. I thought fire protection was for all people. Considering the expansion of the local tax base in the last 20 years, I can’t believe that county couldn’t afford to help ONE of its citizens. It’s not like there’s fires everyday. A terrible precedent for this country!
Glenn
October 22nd, 2010
9:34 pm
Smart comments against the tax credit, but in the end that credit is one of the better reason against Roy Junior Junior, because that extraordinarily dubious man can’t be trusted to judge the merits of any innovation but only counted upon to serve his paymasters, the unions. It’s plain. He doesn’t so much as affect a moustache, above or below.
DeborahinAthens
October 23rd, 2010
7:23 am
Tennessee does not have an income tax. Because of that, their roads are falling apart, their services to the people are piecemeal. In most places in GA, if your house catches fire, the fire department will put it out because they are paid for by everyone’s taxes. Think about that when you hear the Repugs screeching about lower taxes.
Mr_B
October 23rd, 2010
8:52 am
Bishop will be re-elected for one simple reason. He listens and responds to his constiuents, and has done so for a long time.
.37 on the dollar? Y’all up in Hotlanta ought to be able to build one helluva trolley on that. How about .37 to pay for tax-breaks for oil companies, dumb wars, military hardware that even the Pentagon doesn’t want, subsidies to mega-agriculture, and yes the Macon airport which should have been relegated to general aviation years ago. Take the $509 per passenger and apply it to highspeed rail to Hartsfield and beyond.
Not So Casual Observer
October 23rd, 2010
9:57 am
You have to love Libs who cherry-pick tax issues and blame Republicans for the sad state of roads in Tennessee or the lack of services for those who decide to birth children rather than earn a living, provide for the future and THEN have children.
Conservatives oppose tax increases, not simply because of the tax but because of the inherit waste involved in sending the money to a faraway Washington (or Atlanta) where more and more bureaucracy is involved and thus less money to fill the need. Government waste is the issue and until politicians address the waste in government and return the tax burden and dollars to the local level where waste and need are more directly measured – there will be opposition to tax increases.
The HealthCare Bill was an attack on personal freedom with not a few but many taxes hidden in the bill as fines, penalties or user costs. The CBO now admits the bill is a huge drain on the budget and does not produce “savings” as Obama and the radical Left claimed.
JIM WOOTEN, please study and write on the CLEAR ACT that has already passed the House and is now in the Senate. This is nothing more than another SELLOUT of the US by the Obama Administration and the Democrat controlled Congress.
Viet Vet
October 23rd, 2010
10:58 am
Wooten, like so many other small minds, can only think in terms of “right” and “wrong”, and all to often, “left” and “right.” The burned house in Tennessee is a perfect example of framing a complex situation as an choice of either burn it down or put it out for “free.” Actually, there was a third, much more sensible solution – make the homeowner pay the full cost of putting out the fire, which in this case he offered to do. Better because it protects the community from the fire spreading, better because it still punishes the homeowner and sets an example for others, and better because while it provides a hefty penalty to the homeowner and his family, it does not ruin them. Since antiquity wise people have recognized the principle called “an eye for an eye” in the Bible, or lex talionis in the Roman tradition. It mandates equivalent punishment for an offense, but also protects against excessive punishment. This quality of mercy seems to be lacking in “conservatives” like Wooten.
btw, funny after all of Wooten’s fear mongering about voter ID fraud, when the AJC has an article about the recent widespread fraud in absentee balloting – the kind that is left unprotected in Georgia’s “tough” voter ID laws – Wooten is curiously silent. Apology window is wide open, Jim, and you’re long, long, long overdue.
J.B. STONER
October 23rd, 2010
11:09 am
Tell Nancy to watch and follow me and my agenda.
Goes for ‘Big Ears’ also.
Yes, change is a coming.
THE NEW SOUTH.com.
Jess
October 23rd, 2010
12:40 pm
viet vet,
The homeowner in Tenn. did not offer to pay the full price to put out the fire. He offered to pay the $75. This is a lot like health care will be when reformed. People will get sick and then go out and buy insurance.
David Granger
October 23rd, 2010
1:05 pm
There are several races that need to be watched real closely. In a few races where the Democrats stand to lose not just an election, but some “face” as well….the “Obama” Senate Seat in Illinois, for example, which has a Democratic governor…the Republican candidate might well win the election but lose the “vote count”.
Viet Vet
October 23rd, 2010
4:29 pm
Jess,
Sorry, you’re wrong. Here’s the answer that a local tv station, WPSD, reported. “The homeowner, Gene Cranick, said he offered to pay whatever it would take for firefighters to put out the flames, but was told it was too late. They wouldn’t do anything to stop his house from burning.”
And here’s the president of the International Association of Fire Fighters association, Harold Schaitberger. The fire department’s decision to let the home burn was “incredibly irresponsible.”
And the only way to make sure people don’t get free health care is to make everyone pay for it, just like fire insurance. The system we had before health care reform let any deadbeat go to the emergency room and get free health care, which the rest of us had to pay for.
Bonus question for you – how many times do you have to repeat a lie to make it true?
Glenn
October 23rd, 2010
8:15 pm
Friends,
I really don’t want to step on toes here but I must agree with Mr. Wooten about the tax credit for private schooling. It’s one of the signal reasons why I’ll hold my nose and vote for Deal next month. Sonny Perdue doesn’t leave a very great legacy, but such legacy as he leaves I don’t want see undone by Roy Barnes, and that tax credit is a big part of Perdue’s patrimony.
While I truly appreciate the remarks offered here in support of public schooling, the fact remains that for too many Georgians public schooling remains a 13-year sentence. I ‘d love to help make it otherwise–so would Perdue and Barnes and Deal love to do–but it ain’t happening. So, rather than viewing the tax credit (an incentive, really) as a de-funding of the common schools, let’s instead consider it as a goad and a challenge to improve public schooling.
The class and racial divide, between those who take advantage of the credit and those who don’t, admittedly is a serious consideration. However, similar concerns were raised about 20 years ago with regard to the phenomenon of charter schooling, yet the first nationwide, third-party evaluation of charter schooling showed counterintuitively that charter schools tend to benefit the rich and poor, the ethnic majority and minority, alike. So let’s give the new tax credit its head, let it run for awhile, and then see.
Please consider the nature of tax credits. Ragnar could explain this better than I, but essentially they amount to confiscating less of a family’s earnings in honor of some investment the family has made which investment is deemed supportive of the common good. If a parent cares so much about her child’s upbringing that she wants to seek what she considers better alternatives, then really that is precisely the kind of care in childrearing that we all should support.
I regret that this debate for 30 years or more has revolved around the notion of a public school “monopoly”, such that some have to oppose this “monopoly” while others are forced to defend it as such. It’s not a monopoly and never was one. Eight years before the USA saw universal public schooling, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that state governments had no monopoly on the schooling of young Americans.
Yes, of course the tax credit means that less money will flow to the public schools. That’s undeniable. But let the hit be a wake-up call; let the interregnum save a cohort of thirsty children; let the public sector at last consider doing more with LESS; and, above all, may the schoolchildren, not the politicians, win.
Glenn
October 23rd, 2010
8:39 pm
…so sorry, I had no idea how to make that short….
VietVet
October 24th, 2010
7:52 am
Glenn, I know how you could have made it shorter – “I want some else to pay for my kids’ private school.”
GB
October 24th, 2010
8:11 am
A previous writer with a vulgar handle wrote this piece of idiocy in reference to the Tennessee fire.
“Speaks volumnes about who this Wooten character is, and what he represents. You need not know any more than this. Didn’t the Nazis burn all the villages in Russia during Barbarosa? Oh, a revolution is brewing. This latest recession has deepened the divide between the haves and the victims of capitalism. A nightmare country is upon us, a worst case murphy’s law scenario.”
Well, as we have seen so often, a Nazi is someone winning an argument with a liberal.
Not giving a service to people who have not paid for it = burning villages in Russia.
This person is a moral defective. We see this a lot, unfortunately. People like this also liken a wall to protect our southern border to the Berlin Wall. A fire is a fire and a wall is a wall. And everything that happens is proof that capitalism is evil.
VietVet
October 24th, 2010
9:15 am
GB, I agree that the Nazi analogy by the writer with vulgar handle was crude, inaccurate, and way over the top. Would you also stipulate the same about the Republican and Tea Party accusations of Obama being a Socialist, Fascist, Muslim and Kenyan are equally untrue and reprehensible?
VietVet
October 24th, 2010
6:01 pm
Thought not, too much to expect a “conservative” to be fair minded. Lie, cheat, lie, deny, lie, misdirect, lie, lie and lie more. Can’t handle the truth, so lie. Never do they stop and look at what the last 30 years of fantasy and lying has done to the American middle class. Never do they stop and think about what their children and grandchildren’s’ lives will be like as virtual serfs to global corporate masters. Kiss the boots kick them, bite that hand that tries to lift them up.
Play china card
October 25th, 2010
5:56 pm
China is NOT carrying our debt, oh they have a small %, but they are not the major creditor, moron.
mdbatl
October 25th, 2010
6:35 pm
Sonny stole that from Arnold Vinick in the 7th season of the West Wing.
That said, I agree. To bad we’ve lost jobs under his watch…
mdbatl
October 25th, 2010
6:36 pm
*too
retiredds
October 25th, 2010
7:23 pm
Dear Jim, seems like the Wall Street firms, many of them bailed out by “the guvmit”, are giving most of their campaign cash to Republicans. Couldn’t be that they want something? Nah, Republicans are honest and above board on everything…. Right? Republicans would never think of compromising their moral stances.
glnhg kgh
October 26th, 2010
8:58 am
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Glenn
October 27th, 2010
10:56 pm
retiredds, your logic is suspect. Had the firms endorsed either way we’d cast aspersions. Too convenient for you to potshot. Allowing liberally that your report of ingratitude viz your Democrats is true, maybe Democrats shouldn’t expect tribute from those who live and die by commerce, not by the vote-buying Democratic protection racket.