The R & R Phenomenon (Lưu V. Trần)

04 Tháng Mười 201212:00 SA(Xem: 28534)
The R & R Phenomenon (Lưu V. Trần)


Wednesday, October 3, 2012 

From: Luu Tran

 

The R & R Phenomenon

 

Two years ago on September 23, then GOP House minority leader John Boehner officially made public what they called GOP's "Pledge to America". Two months later after the Mid-term election, this "Pledge" became the backbone of a newly program of actions for the GOP controlled House of Representatives with John Boehner as the House Speaker. John A. Boehner, 63 this November, has been the U.S. Representative from Ohio's 8th congressional district since 1991. After the Mid-term election in November 2010, Boehner was chosen by the House Representatives to become Speaker of the House in January 2011.

The "Pledge to America" was nothing new to me when I've first become familiar with the American system of government and election process since mid-1978. I truly was excited with the first presidential election in America in 1980 and my favorite "star" at that time was, guess whom, the late Ronald Reagan. But after nine presidential elections and nine Mid-term elections, what were pledged sounded more and more boring cacophony. Except for the health care issue which later became what they called Obamacare the American public was pledged with the tax cut, less social spending, stronger military, smaller government, again and again. Lack of flexibility adaptable to a changing reality, the GOP has in fact transformed itself into an old party, producing such a cultural politico phenomenon dominated by the R & R couple - Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan.

The presidential election observers did spend some time trying to understand why Governor Mitt Romney embraced Representative Paul Ryan as his running mate. Some said Paul Ryan helped Mitt Romney identify himself. Mitt Romney was reportedly a liberal while a governor of Massachusetts. So, to lure the votes of the conservative Republicans and the churches, he had to prove that he's the one parmi-eux. Paul Ryan was his best tool. But that's not easy, the problem was Mitt Romney himself. Taking the conservative pills into his body made him more confused because he's not sure he's a liberal or conservative.

Others believed that, subconsciously, Paul Ryan helped Mitt Romney's dream turned into reality given the fact that Mitt Romney had failed seeking converts to his Mormon faith in the traditional Catholic community in France during nearly two years of his stay in the chic 16th arrondissement in Paris. Paul Ryan's staunchly traditional Catholic could not be converted that easy so they've just has a temporary coalition against Obama. Somebody also thought that in having Mitt Romney as his running mate, Paul Ryan helped bring the noisy rebellious voice of the Tea Party to their camp. The Party already reached the high noon, even the sun should be coming down from that point!

What else could Paul Ryan provide to Mitt Romney for them to wishfully move to the White House in January remained to be seen. But for one thing, it's unimaginable to see a young man like Ryan to possess a very old mind with an ideologically conservative characteristics, lecturing repeatedly the same old lessons of deregulations, less tax, cut in social services, stronger military, less government...Advocating something was fine to everybody and putting it into action was another story to reckon with. Just take this. Yahoo! News citing news from the Christian Science Monitor on 08/18/2012 wrote that, "While Romney and Ryan champion the private over government, the Ryan family business, which goes back generations, has been built to a large extent on government contracts. <A current research of Defense Department contracts suggests that Ryan Incorporate Central has had at least 22 defense contracts with the Federal Government since 1996, including one from 1996 worth $5.6 million>. What funny is that Mr. Anti-spending secured millions of earmarks for his home state of Wisconsin, including, among other things, $3.3 million for highway projects. And Ryan voted to preserve $40 billion in special subsidies for big oil, an industry in which, it so happens, Ryan and his wife hold ownership stakes."

Isn't that enough to draw the difference between the talks and practices! Double standards? Sort of! Then I remembered a friend once asked me "Why they want smaller government and how they get it?" Here's part of the answer.

In "A Conversation with the Romneys", Lynn Sherr of the Parade magazine (Sunday, August 26, 2012) asked Mitt Romney, "On the topic of respect, former New Hampshire Governor John Sununu has said that President Obama needs to learn to be American. You've referred to his policy as 'foreign'. Do you believe that President Obama is un-American in anyway?" Mitt Romney replied that "Governor Sununu was not suggesting he wasn't American, nor do I. I believed he's making us far more like Europe, with a larger, more dominant, more intrusive government. I believe if we keep going that path, we will end up like Europe, with chronic high unemployment, no wage growth, and economic calamity at the doorstep. I think we have to find ways to get government out of the way."

Could you buy it? I don't. Mr. Mitt Romney was just another "mouton of Mr. Panurge" trying to put the socialism label on President Obama. He's out of touch with the strong economic foundations of this country generating energy and resources based on long lasting potentials, sophisticated means of production, high trained troops of workers coming out from colleges and Universities nationwide, on the fabulous system of roads and airports and seaports...America is young and Europe is old. America is more advanced technologically than Europe. America will not end up like Europe.

"The good news is that the American economy remains extraordinarily resilient and dynamic..." Who said so? Who else if not Mitt Romney in the interview with the Parade magazine. So, we are fine to move forward.

Now, how Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan will make a government smaller? Ask Ryan whose job is to cut and cut, and cut to save money. In cutting the budget they should lay off federal workers en masse...saving from wages and benefits of the laid off workers. Who will run the system afterward? Well, the laid-off workers then may be rehired by a private company which obtained the services through bidding...with the government. They would be paid less wages with no or less benefits. That's what I've learned about privatization of the government services. What would happen next to the workers if, for any reason like bad management, that private company went bankrupt? Ask the R & R couple. There's a rumor that Mitt Romney and Ryan were very fond of the privatization of the Social Security. Scary! The R & R couple also wanted to increase the Social Security age for benefit and to reduce the benefit to the rich beneficiaries. They've still kept it a secret!

Together with the public-to-private services, the voucher concept would be another R&R's main dish, privatization of the Medicare via voucher. Mitt Romney in an interview with Nancy Perry Graham of the AARP Magazine/August-

September 2012 was quoted as saying that, "Medicare would also provide seniors with defined financial support to help them purchase a plan that best fits their need. Seniors will be allowed to keep the savings from less expensive options (sic), or they may choose to pay more for costlier plans if they want." I can not believe Mitt Romney could think that seniors could make money from Medicare vouchers. Fishing bait, no more, no less! They just throw the powerless seniors into the hands of the medical insurers.

In discussing the fate of the Social Security and Medicare, one of my friends suddenly mentioned about something that was almost forgotten in the news, the school vouchers, another favorite dish of the R&R agenda but still dormant. Like Medicare vouchers, school vouchers will be granted to parents, if they wish, to enroll their children in a private school of their choice. Now is the good time to ask Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, once and for all, about these kinds of voucher and privatization, and about Mitt Romney's tax return during the past ten years, during his presidential debates this October.

About presidential debates, October would likely be a month of nightmares for Mitt Romney. The more he practiced debating, the more he would become confusing himself. First, sometimes he didn't know what he's talking about. Second, sometimes he forgot what he'd said previously. Ann Romney didn't like debates, too. Answering a question of "What makes you nervous about your husband on the campaign trail," Ann Romney was quoted by the Parade Magazine as saying that, "I am nervous in debates. I don't like debates because-". t this point, Mitt Romney jumped in and said, "She knows she could do better {laughs}. She wants to get up onstage and give it to them." But Ann Romney quickly admitted that, "Because there's so many traps you can fall in..." She knew him best.

And whatever happens to the coming debates or the outcome of the November election, Ann Romney's had a faithful husband. Jean S., a Texas resident once asked Mitt Romney if he "ever felt like a looser. What did you do to overcome that feeling?" Mitt Romney replied as it appeared in the interview with Lynn Sherr of the Parade Magazine, that "I define myself by my relationship with God, my wife, and my family. And in those relationships, I am not a loser. I don't worry about what happens in politics and the opinions of others, or I'd lose my hair."

His hair's still full and I respect his feelings! And how about Paul Ryan? My feeling is embodied in such a question like, are you ready to have such a man like Paul Ryan to be our president should Mitt Romney get elected and later become disabled by sickness or by something else? Absolutely not, sorry Ryan!

 

---Luu V. Tran---

October 3rd, 2012.

 

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