31 Comments
Facebook
Fark
Digg
Reddit
Stumble
Published Tuesday, Oct. 26, 2010 | 11:09 a.m.
Updated Tuesday, Oct. 26, 2010 | 11:12 a.m.
With one week to go before Election Day, both Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and his Republican rival Sharron Angle have begun their closing arguments with a pair of new ads out today.
Reid’s ad stresses the same theme: Angle is extreme and dangerous.
But the ad closes with Reid’s last minute push to put stress on the fractures already evident in the Republican Party.
“As a Republican, I can't see voting for Sharron Angle,” Las Vegas executive Morgan Bunker says in the ad.
Meanwhile, Angle’s campaign borrowed a tactic broadly employed by Reid’s campaign this year: Using the candidate's own words against him.
Pulling from a long list of Reid gaffes, the ad attacks him for his remarks including the war is lost, Hispanics shouldn’t be Republicans and a racially insensitive description of President Obama.
Enough of this quibbling of who saw who do what, when, where and to whom....Let's talk about some real issues that matter to Nevadans and Americans as a whole. Like the economy.
Harry Reid likes to quote the president, when he says "Tax cuts alone can't solve all of our economic problems". Nobody had said they could. This is a straw man put up by the Democrats. But tax incentives would have helped and might already have begun to stimulate the economy had Harry Reid allowed them to be voted on before he allowed Congress to go home a month ago.
Instead Harry Reid, continues at the behest of the president to rely on government spending and some small, one-time tax rebates (with no incentive power). Theirs is a progressive agenda that plays a BIG role here...... The stimulus, if you remember correctly, was drafted by congressional Democrats, who loathe tax cuts. Obama, Reid and Pelosi could have insisted that tax incentives be added. They did not. They continue to seem oblivious to what the stimulus palpably lacks: incentives for private investment...... A fair conclusion: They either don't understand the economic value of a tax incentive or they're too entrenched in their own dogmatic ideology to give a damn. No matter the reason, their policies have failed to stimulate the economy.....and in so doing each of them, Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid have also failed the American people.
Vote Republican in 2010/2012
I find it very funny for Harry Reid to accuse Sharron Angle of being "extreme and dangerous".
Now, Harry Reid, there is a candidate whose record and actions while in office have proven to be extremely more than extreme for the majority of the voters not only in the state of Nevada, but also the majority of the voters in the nation. Drafting of legislation BEHIND closed doors with the help of "SPECIAL INTERESTS GROUPS" after both himself and Obama prmoised voters transparency. Calling for immediate votes without posting legislation so there is no time for voters to read it, much less the Senate Members. Now that's extreme and dangerous. So was the "Stimulus" in February and the so-called "Health Care Reform" which is little reform, but alot of control over voters health care.
The direction toward socialism which the Obama Administration (which Harry Reid is a MAJOR PART OF) has/is leading this country. That's extreme and dangerous to voters lives and rights under the Constitution.
The fact that under Harry Reid's watch and "powerful position" the State of Nevada ranks 50th in dollars received from federal government programs. How can this be, but it is? That is extreme and dangerous to the citizens of Nevada and has added to state costs/expenditures and helped swell the state budget deficit in Nevada.
The lack of enforcement on illegal immigration under Harry's watch as he seeks amnesty for illegal aliens who take the jobs of Nevada residents. That is extreme and dangerous.
Sorry, the candidate that I see as extreme and dangerous to the residents of the state of Nevada is none other than Dirty Harry Reid. The Senate Majority Leader that bribed numerous Senators to vote the Administration and Harry Reid's Agenda.
A vote for Harry Reid is a vote for bigger government, more government control over the people, a higher deficit, a decline in Nevada's Senior Citizen quality of life and benefits.
It's very simple. Harry Reid stopped representing Nevada when he became Majority Leader. He works only for the Democratic Party and Obama now, not Nevada.
Rev Pettibone:
Your comment about the tax cuts is misplaced for at least 2 reasons:
1. The "tax cuts" aren't really tax cuts. What they are is an extension of current tax rates that, absent the vote you want, are scheduled to go up on Jan 1, 2011. Whether the current rates were extended via a vote last month or next month has zero impact on when people have more or less money to spend. The extended low rates, if there is a vote next month, or the new higher rates if there is no vote or if the vote fails, only affect peoples taxes from and after Jan 1, 2011.
2. Sen. Reid as majority leader of the senate cannot bring this matter to a vote unless 60 senators agree to bring it to a vote. Since none of the republicans would agree to bring extension of the current rates to a vote and since there are fewer than 60 democratic senators in his caucus, it doesn't matter there was no vote. If you think it should have been voted on, then blame the republicans who refused to agree to bring it to a vote.
RevPettibone:
Your comment about "incentives" is as misplaced as your comment about the tax cuts, again for at least 5 reasons:
1. The stimulus bill that the GOP likes to villify and call a failure, despite the fact that the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office says saved over 4 Million jobs, contained substantial tax incentives to create investment, in addition to an ongoing reduction in federal tax withholding rates for individuals so that taxpayers have more money to spend, increasing demand.
2. While an argument can be made that tax incentives and all tax cuts tend to stimulate investment, the premise of that agrument is that, absent those incentives or cuts, there is little available investable dollars and the incentives will create a pool of investment dollars. The current economy does not match up with that assumption. Corporations over the past 10 years of the Bush tax cuts have accumulated huge amounts of retained earnings so there is already a huge pool of investable dollars. While incentives might make that pool slightly larger, they would not add significantly on a percentage basis.
3. Investment only creates jobs where the investment dollars are placed. Over the past 10 years, most investments by the larger US corporations have been oversees.
4. A Democratic proposal to take away current incentives for overseas investment by those companies was filibustered by the GOP in the Senate and therefore those incentives are still in place. Therefore even if the investment pool was increased, and even if there were, as a result, an increase in corporate investment, it is likely that, the investment would result in exporting of jobs.
5. Investors only invest where there is demand for the goods or services which will be produced by their investment. In a strongly growing economy, that demand can be assumed. However, in an economy still growing sluggishly due to high unemployment, investors are leery that the demand will exist. Putting people back to work so they have money to spend on those goods and services is a necessary percursor to increases in investment. Unfortunately, the best way to put people back to work, i.e. spending on infrastructure, has been stopped by the Republicans.
to hss46
Hey Hank.... like the administration you're skirting around the issue in order to further a lame posture instead of acknowledging the real stimulative effect allowing the tax cuts to continue would have on the economy. Businesses are waiting in the wings for certainty...and all they get from Reid and the administration is rhetoric.
Know this: If the Congress fails to pass legislation extending the Bush tax cuts before January 1 2011; when they end, they instantly become the BIGGEST tax increase in history.
Secondly, as Leader, Harry Reid had every opportunity to bring up, to force if necessary, a vote on the issue before he allowed Congress to recess. I don't know where you're getting your info, but the Republicans did not refuse to vote on it. You can't refuse to vote on a piece of legislation if it's never been brought up for a vote by the Leader to begin with. Nice try Hank, but those false democratic talking points of yours ain't gonna cut it with me.
to hss46.........
I'm not gonna dog Obama and Reid all together. It's true government can create jobs by funding infrastructure and other civil projects. But that's as far as I'm willing to go, because they're never anything more than temporary jobs.
Come on Hank, surly you remember it was Mr Obama who "finally" admitted a few weeks ago, it takes many months, sometimes years, for government to get its act together and actually start hiring..... Oh and by the way, the $787Billion dollar stimulus is nearing it's second B'day and in most instances we're still waiting for the jobs from that to appear. So why should you pretend to be angered now, when the moment Harry Reid brought up another bogus stimulus bill funding infrastructure and claiming it too will provide jobs, people immediately saw it for the lame political ploy it was and said, "Hell No"???
tarbox60 said "The lack of enforcement on illegal immigration under Harry's watch as he seeks amnesty for illegal aliens who take the jobs of Nevada residents. That is extreme and dangerous."
Actually the reverse is true. There has been nothing approaching a lack of enforcement. As a matter of fact, enforcement has increased both in terms of dollars spent, staffing levels and by reference to a dramatic decrease in the numbers of new illegal immigrants. Over recent years, enforcement budgets have gone up 10 fold while border patrol staffing has quintupled and has been reinforced with national guard/army reserve staffing. And with the huge increase in staffing, border crossing appear to have dropped drematically as evidence by a since apprehensions at border crossings have dropped by more than half since 2001.
Its ironic how Angle supporters like to take positions that aren't supported by the facts.
Rev:
The only possible votes from the GOP to extend the tax cuts were from the Maine senators and both stated publicly that they would not vote for cloture. So, in reality, you are blaming Sen. Reid for not conducting what would have been a charade. Further McConnell stated categorically that the GOP would not support cuts for the bottom 98% without them being tied to cuts for the top 2%.No one believe that the Nation can afford the tax cut for the top 2% given the state of the debt. Some even suggest that the cut for the bottom 98% is ill advised.
As to businesses waiting on the tax cuts, thats just nonsense. Corporations have huge swaths of cash, record amounts. Exxon alone has more than $40B in cash and what investing it is doing is predominantly foreign. The tax cuts for individuals, whether for 98% or 100%, have absolutely no impact on decisions to invest in the US.
As to Stimulus, I believe that Obama and Reid made a huge mistake in not having more of the $787 as infracture but "politics is the art of the possible" and given the absence of cooperation from the GOP, the bill was necessarily imperfect.
While you are technically correct that infrastructure jobs, in and o of themselves are temporary, lasting only a few years (not like the census bureau jobs which lasted months), putting the construction industry back to work full time for several years and the ripple effect of all that additional income in the hands of workers that are currently unemployed has, over prior recessions, resulted in a substantial net, long term, increase in employment.
As to your comment that it takes years to start hiring, I assume you did not mean for the government to start hiring but rather for employment in general to rise. If that is what you meant, check the unemployment history for every major recession and you will see that, under both democrats (74-75) and republicans (81-82) including the massive Reagan tax cut in 81, it still took 6 years for unemployment to return to 6%. The slowness in hiring, i.e. a 'jobless recovery' is the norm.
As to a new stimulus bill, every major economist (even some at republican sponsored think tanks) say that more infrastructure spending is needed, both for purposes of aiding employment and to ensure long term economic stability that is jeopardized by the crumbing infrastructure that was ignored for the 16 years of republican control of congress and even back to years of democratic control.
Did Harry Reid every find his closing arguments???
Ideally I'd like to not vote.
But...being that Nevada gets 2 votes in the Seante, it can't go to waste.
I'm not married to any party. I voted for Giuliani twice for mayor, Bloomberg once (then I moved to LV). I also voted for Pataki for 2 times. I also voted for Bill on both terms, and Obama this one. So off the bat I want to get straight that I don't care about parties, I just care about competence to do such an important job.
Watching Angle talk to a Latino group of kids that were part of a Hispanic Student Union and say that "some of you look a little Asian to me", is beyond ignorant. Not to mention saying that she was once known as Nevada's 1st Asian Legislator. It just blew my mind.
Also the way she avoids the media. It's pretty obvious her campaign managers are telling her to avoid talking to media outlets like the plague because it's pretty obvious she's not that bright.
Sorry, but a woman like that CAN NOT, and DID NOT, get my vote for the US Senate. Quite frankly, I don't think she should even be in politics.
Question, how do you run ads blaming Reid for Nevada's unemployment, but then tell him to his face during the debate "Mr. Harry Reid, it's not YOUR job to CREATE jobs". So then why blame him for the unemployment, right?
If you think that it is Harry Reid's job to create jobs, then you must give him an "F" for failing miserly...
to hss46.....
What are you talking about ? Hank, we both know President Obama is an economic illiterate. Harsh as that sounds, the evidence shows he understands little about economics and even less about economic growth or job creation. Yet, as we see when he opens his mouth on the issue, he's undeterred from holding forth, with seeming confidence, on economic issues.
Obama professes to believe in free market economics. But no one expects his policies to reflect the unfettered capitalism of a Milton Friedman. Hell, even that would be too much for me to ask. However, demonstrating a passing acquaintance with free market ideas and how they might be used to fight the recession... that's not too much to ask. Clearly Obama has no intention of accommodating me there either.
Face it Hank, this president talks as if free market solutions are nonexistent, and in his mind they may be. Three weeks after taking office, he said only government "has the resources to jolt our economy back into life." He has yet to retreat, in words or policies, from that view.
Another tax hike... not only on business, but especially on top of the increased taxes on individual income, capital gains, dividends, and inheritances that Obama intends to go into effect in 2011... is sure to impede investment across the board. It's an anti-growth measure, as those with even a sketchy grasp of economics know. But Obama doesn't appear to......... And I suspect he wouldn't care even if he did.
It's ridiculous to think the building of infrastructure in this day and age of mechanized construction is an efficient way of stimulating employment. This is not the Days of FDR and the New Deal. when roads and damns were bulit of mostly sweat equity. Companies today employ very few people per each million dollar spent. If you wanna give people money to put into the economy, press for tax reductions and people across the the private sector will get this economy back on it's feet.
Lastly, I think the most troubling portion of your most recent remark, was when you postured your position by saying, "As to businesses waiting on the tax cuts, thats just nonsense. Corporations have huge swaths of cash, record amounts."
I find it reprehensible that you or anyone else, would have the audacity to think you some how possess the right to decide how others use what belongs to them. The problem with progressives in this country, is with the election of Obama, you folks some how think you've acquired untrammelled dominion over others. As a result, you're hell bent on leveling the field to your perspective; regardless of what you have to do in order to achieve it........ Even going as far as to step on the Constitution if necessary.
A fair share of the rewards should always go to the makers in a society. Not as you would have it, to the "takers" in society. That's why Socialism and the policies you support, will never survive in the USA. Not now. Not ever........ Not in America.
Rev
I won't comment on most of your post because its just opinion and you are certainly allowed to have yours. But I never suggested that anyone has the right to decide "how others use what belongs to them". What I suggested is that, if it hasn't been used, there's no need to give them more!
In terms of stepping on the constitution in order to have "untrammelled dominion over others", what are you talking about. So far no court has held that any federal law enacted in the past 2 years was unconstitutional. The only holdings have been of laws passed in prior administrations or by states. Again you are certainly entitled to your view that Health Care Reform is unconstitutional, but to date, the only holding was that it is constiutional (admittedly there's more to be heard). I personally think McCain Feingold (a bipartisan bill passed during the Bush years) is constitutional and that Citizens United is ridiculous but it is currently the law of the land.
Your comment about "makers and takers is also opinion. I think that the workers are the makers, not the bosses. When corporate CEO's (who are mere "elites" who take no risks but not their investors who took the risks) earn 1000's of time what the average worker gets, the system is broken. When hard working families are forced into bankruptcy after years of unemployment, they aren't 'takers' but victims of both CEO's that earn 10's of millions while companies are run into the ground laying off their workers and of a Bush Administration that lied us into 2 wars, gave unfettered rights to oil companies to polute and allowed Wall street to rip apart the financial system.
Whats up with Sharon Angle is she going to take her own advice and woman up and answer some questions about her stand on the issues. or continue to hide like some coward.
"It's very simple. Harry Reid stopped representing Nevada when he became Majority Leader. He works only for the Democratic Party and Obama now, not Nevada."
So the new $700/M VA hospital in N. Las Vegas that Sen. Reid funded and got built is not for Nevada? No republican vets will be allowed to seek treatment there?
Relax. Take a DEEP breath. Make a cup of TEA!
You mean this one, Maverick? Look at date it was announced on the official VA website ( http://www1.va.gov/opa/pressrel/pressrel... ):
"VA Announces North Las Vegas Site for New Medical Center - September 27, 2004"
And the first paragraph has some interesting info, too:
"WASHINGTON -- Fulfilling a commitment to Nevada veterans, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Anthony J. Principi today joined with Interior Secretary Gale Norton and U.S. Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) to announce the location of a new $295-million, full-service medical center in North Las Vegas, near the intersection of Pecos Road and Route 215."
I might be wrong, but Reid (who isn't even mentioned) didn't become majority leader until 2007.
By the way, from the Sun over 2 years ago ( http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/oct... ):
"Ensign worked on the VA Committee to helped secure the hospital for Southern Nevada."
Looks like Reid did what he does best nowadays, show up for a PR photo after the work was done by someone else.
to hss46.....
First of all Hank, it was government... namely the Democrats; going as far back as Jimmy Carter, who provided the vehicle for a financial system to side step propriety in order to put people in homes that had no business being in them at all.
The rest of your comment is total conjecture... so I don't understand how you can minimize what I said earlier when voicing my opinion. I question the veracity of your reasoning just as I am concerned every time Obama's economic shallowness rears it's ugly head and he talks about that damn $787 Billion dollar stimulus.
It's unfortunate, because unlike most other presidents, Obama has no second thoughts. On most issues, he's proven to be a one trick pony. He says he wouldn't change a thing about the stimulus. Ok; it's not hard to figure out why. Hell, the guy doesn't understand the stimulus to begin with. Harry Reid and Pelosi don't either.
I get a kick out of the way Obama always falls back on one of his favorite lines about the stimulus.... you know the one that goes something like. "It has saved or created 2 million jobs". Please explain to me how exactly you quantify a "saved or created" job ????
All those saved or created jobs. Yet millions of jobs have been lost since Obama became president: Raising the unemployment numbers to almost 10 percent.
Who exactly do we blame for that ? Remember it was both the Congress and the administration that promised unemployment would not go above 8 percent. I think the voters have made up their minds where to direct their anger.. and Harry Reid is at the top of their list..... Admit it Hank, you know I'm right.
Its very simple:
ANGLE is a pathetic idiot and an embarassment to Nevada political life.
Reid is the most powerful senator that Nevada has ever had or will have for at least a generation. He has the ability to do the most for the state.
If we remember the old cliche about power corrupting, then notacon has just said that Reid is the most corrupt senator Nevada has ever had.
Some people might agree with that.
Sharron Angle is one of the key defenders of discriminatory measures Against Hispanic People. She has radical thoughts and positions. Please Do Not for her.
she has radicals positions and retrograde ideas. Sharron Angle Go home to bake a cake.
So Harry Reid funded the new $700/M VA hospital in N. Las Vegas?
not a con is trying to con us again when he says:
"Reid is the most powerful senator that Nevada has ever had or will have for at least a generation. He has the ability to do the most for the state."
Morgan Bunker's comments are irrelevant. Reid's own words, agenda, voting record and self-enrichment tell a much bigger, more relevant story about why he has to be given his retirement pink slip.
Thank you citizens of Nevada. Angle is beginning to extend her lead over Harry Greed. This lady is a fighter. She has proven she has the will to stand up against the professinal political clowns like gReid/Obama and the Republican liberals aka RINOS. 6 more days and Harry can retire to his cactus farm.
If Sharron Angle wins Las Vegas will be deserving of the dumbest in america title. To all Angle supporters can even one of you tell me what she plans to do if elected specifically. The saying birds of a feather will ring true of you guys.
@pettibone;
"Know this: If the Congress fails to pass legislation extending the Bush tax cuts before January 1 2011; when they end, they instantly become the BIGGEST tax increase in history."
This is the absolute LAMEST of the arguments from the NutJob crowd.
So, if I get a deal on a 12-pack of Coke this week at Albertsons, and next week it returns to it's normal price, "IT'S THE BIGGEST INCREASE IN THE PRICE OF COCA COLA IN HISTORY!!!"
How do you people come up with this fallacious propaganda, and WHY DO PEOPLE BELEIVE IT???
Confounding.
Educate yourselves, people...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con...
If you think that extending the tax cuts for the uber wealthy is GOOD, you are BENEFITING FROM THEM.
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2...
If you ACTUALLY LIVE IN NEVADA, and care about it's future, you would vote for Harry Reid.
There IS NO OTHER CHOICE.
Has Harry Reid found his "closing argument ad" yet?
Maybe his fired corrupt aide has it...
gmag:
The am prog link and the underlying CBO report are both well written, accurate and present the proper policy alternatives. THe problem is either that they are not writtin in only one syllable words and therefore most of the commenters on this site get lost by the end of the first paragraph or that the conclusions fly in the face of peoples cast in stone beliefs and don't about analyis or facts.