Most Popular Choices
Share on Facebook 29 Printer Friendly Page More Sharing
OpEdNews Op Eds   

Rodger Cook for Congress

By       (Page 2 of 2 pages) Become a premium member to see this article and all articles as one long page.   2 comments
Message John Pagoda

What I found particularly troublesome was that Mr. Cook claimed "these are the facts" to support a free market economy - less taxes and less government when in reality either he didn't "know" the facts or he deliberately mislead his constituents with his version of the facts. After 30 years of a failed economic policy i.e. Reagan's trickle-down economics which in fact is more like "trickle on economics" for most people working for a living from paycheck to paycheck in today's uncertain economy here's Mr. Cook prescribing the same failed solutions i.e. less taxes and less government regulation while telling his constituents to expect a different result thus meeting Einstein's definition of insanity of doing the same thing over and over again while expecting a different result.

 

Mr. Cook claimed that the current administration stifled jobs with taxes and over regulation yet under President Obama most Americans have experienced fewer taxes. Indeed Obama even extended the Bush tax cuts but only because the Republican Party threatened to cut off unemployment benefits for millions of Americans. Republicans only give half the truth when they claim President Obama extended those tax cuts on the "job creators" because they don't want to remind Americans why President Obama broke that campaign promise and as long as no one in the mainstream media is asking them how many jobs did those "job creators" create with all that extra income they don't have to explain how their financial portfolios were fattened when jobs were shipped overseas with legislative approval.

 

During the interview Rodger Cook also praised the Republican Congress and President Clinton for doing away with banking reforms that were designed to control the kind of speculation that occurred during the Bush unfettered free market years when they repealed the Glass-Stegall Act which reestablished the conflict of interest within the financial industry and created the "too big to fail" institutions that led to the housing market collapse and its associated financial crisis. It came as no surprise to read Mr. Cook's bio includes his work in the banking industry.

 

In addition, Mr. Cook made the mendacious claim that people on the other side of the aisle don't even admit we have a problem with the deficit without supplying any factual evidence and says in order to address that problem one first has to admit that the deficit is a problem. Apparently Rodger Cook as well as the interviewer conveniently forgot that people on Mr. Cook's side of the aisle most notably Dick Cheney who said that "deficits don't matter". Rodger Cook also claimed that we haven't passed a budget since Obama has been president apparently he forgot that the 2010 budget was passed without any Republican support.

 

Mr. Cook also took the time to mock Obama's mantra of "hope and change" by saying his children and presumably other young people have learned their lesson because there are no jobs and young people are paying more attention today as such 30 percent of the youth vote left the president presumably the other 70 percent was paying attention to the reality that it is the Republican Party that has blocked every job creating initiative introduced by this president and I suspect the other 30 percent that left had higher expectations and little familiarity about the way government works when one party believes "government is the problem" rather than asking what they can do for their country.

 

Meanwhile my friends on Facebook responded to my comments by claiming Rodger Cook would represent their interests while implying those interests weren't the same as my district in New York to which I replied that the needs of people in Albany NY are really no different than those of people in Southern Illinois - people here want living wage jobs, affordable health care, opportunity for equal education and for our children to have a better future than our present with some semblance of economic security. We want less government too - we don't want government telling us who can marry who, we don't want government controlling a woman's right to choose in essence we don't want government involved in our right to privacy but we do want government to regulate an avaricious economic system based on the excesses of greed for profits.

 

My response generated one last comment from a thin skinned conservative "friend on Facebook" claiming he was insulted by my "condescending bullshit" which prompted me to realize that America does indeed get the gridlocked dysfunctional government it deserves when misinformed and easily manipulated voters fall for the failed policy solutions and empty rhetoric of those candidates like Rodger Cook who claim to possess historical facts on their side without fear that their followers will ever question authority even when their own reality demands otherwise.

 

In Rodger Cook's closing statement he said his constituents should vote for their children's future and vote Republican but American already voted for change in 2008 and got nothing but obstructionism from Republican conservatives like Rodger Cook whose idea of change is nothing more and nothing less than more of the same "trickle on" economics of the past with lower taxes on job creators and fewer regulations on business which is eerily familiar to the path we've already traveled to the edge of the abyss in 2008. Voting Republican won't bring about change but it will certainly bring us closer to proving Kafka's observation that there is hope, but not for us.

 

 

Next Page  1  |  2

(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).

Well Said 1   Interesting 1  
Rate It | View Ratings

John Pagoda Social Media Pages: Facebook page url on login Profile not filled in       Twitter page url on login Profile not filled in       Linkedin page url on login Profile not filled in       Instagram page url on login Profile not filled in

"tomorrow is guaranteed to no one" compells this fellow traveler to describe the way of life that requires a new way of living where something is left behind which decreases the suffering of all forms of life that follow.
Go To Commenting
The views expressed herein are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.
Writers Guidelines

 
Contact AuthorContact Author Contact EditorContact Editor Author PageView Authors' Articles
Support OpEdNews

OpEdNews depends upon can't survive without your help.

If you value this article and the work of OpEdNews, please either Donate or Purchase a premium membership.

STAY IN THE KNOW
If you've enjoyed this, sign up for our daily or weekly newsletter to get lots of great progressive content.
Daily Weekly     OpEd News Newsletter
Name
Email
   (Opens new browser window)
 

Most Popular Articles by this Author:     (View All Most Popular Articles by this Author)

ANTHONY WEINER'S SHAME AND OURS

OWS - The Message, The Response, THE Demand

Collective Interest Vs Self Interest

From Bundy to Benghazi

Do As We Say, Not As We Do

Rodger Cook for Congress

To View Comments or Join the Conversation:

Tell A Friend