Wisconsin’s junior senator has been on my mind lately—not because I think he’s doing a great job as one of this state’s two U.S. senators or that I’ve initiated any thoughts about him at all. It’s that his name has appeared a couple of times in the news and he was the subject of an email exchange someone I know had with Ron Johnson’s office staff.
First, the email exchange. My acquaintance contacted Johnson’s office about the debt ceiling/national debt and the need for a balanced solution of spending cuts and increasing revenue.
After seven paragraphs of explaining that the country was in dire fiscal straits, denigrating the President and Democrats for being irresponsible and not being serious, his staff email responder finally wrote, “I agree that we need a balanced approach which includes spending controls and increased revenue. But we need to increase revenue the old fashioned way, by growing our economy.”
That really set my friend off.
“After reading that,” she said, “I had to contact his office again. I asked how the heck were we to raise much needed revenue "the old fashioned way" when all of the policies he is pursuing put a stranglehold on economic growth. The policies he is pursuing cut public sector jobs, so those folks don't have money to spend to grow the economy. He pursues limits to social security, unemployment benefits and other social safety nets, so those people don't have money to spend to grow the economy. He pursues policies that undermine private sector wages, so those people have less money to spend to grow the economy. He is all for putting money in the pockets of people who already have more money than they need, and for ensuring those who would increase their spending of possible don't have enough to even cover the basics. 70% of our economy comes from consumer spending, yet he consistently pursues policies that guarantee consumers have less to spend. Then he turns around and makes a comment in his email to explain why he's against raising revenue by closing loopholes and letting the Bush tax cuts expire. From where, in God's name, does he expect the revenue our country needs to come??? Companies have plenty of capital with which to expand...they are sitting on mounds of revenue...but there is no demand for their goods and services 'cause none of us have any money to spend. It's all fine and good that Ron Johnson wants to raise revenue "the old fashioned way," but it's disingenuous (at best) to make such a statement in light of his concerted effort to take money out of the hands of those who actually can grow the economy and redistributed upward to those who are already hoarding significant ill-gotten gains.”
The first news mention. Johnson's name appeared on an opinion piece in Sunday’s Journal Sentinel Crossroads section. His was the anti position opposing President Obama’s judicial appointments, with U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl of Wisconsin saying that long-vacant federal judgeships in Wisconsin need to be filled. The headline on the Johnson column was, “These nominees aren’t qualified.”
Whether they are or aren’t, all I could think was, here’s a plastics man who achieved his position as company CEO after marrying into the family that owned it before becoming a U.S. senator only six months ago. So what the heck would he know from who would be qualified to be a federal judge? Does he even know what a federal judge does?
The second news mention was the subject of a Wisconsin PolitiFact Check in which Johnson was rated him almost off the meter “True” to his statement that, “The federal government is spending 25% of our entire economy vs. 100 years ago we spent only 2%.”
I could only think, who would want to turn the clock back to those days?
A guy who posts at Toritto's blog gives a hint of what that might have been like, although he goes back only 70 or 80 years. His post about that was picked up by Salon.com, which can be seen here: http://open.salon.com/blog/toritto/2011/07/25/life_before_social_security
The truth of Johnson's statement is like saying the sky is always blue. That's true. It always is -- even on the cloudiest days. Above the thickest cloud layer, the sky is perpetually blue. That, like the virtures of an unfunded federal government, all depends on a person's point of view -- and access to government resources any way.
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