Thursday, October 30, 2014

No There There in Alison's Job Plan


Alison Lundergan-Grimes showed up to the KET debate with a prop:  her supposed job plan.  She clutched it and waved it at very points; she has done this on the campaign trail, as well. But she never says much about what's in the plan.

So I checked out her website for the specifics.  Like the entire Grimes campaign, it's just platitudes. She asserts that Kentuckians are hurting.  This is not news. Grimes attempts to pin that pain on McConnell rather than the Obama economy -- just like Obama has spent the last six years blaming everything on George W. Bush.  At some point, Obama and Grimes cross the line of reality.

She promises to cut red tape.  I am all for cutting red tape. Yet when was a Democrat ever in the history of the two parties better at cutting tape than a Republican?  Not even Bill Clinton can triangulate that issue.

She says she will remove " federal regulation of Kentucky's energy sector, allowing our state to create new middle-class jobs across the state."  This cannot be squared with the EPA regulations that Obama has issued by Executive Order.  Not only do those regulations make it impossible to build a new coal plant, regulations to be implemented in the coming months call for 18 coal plants, including in Kentucky, to be closed.  That is, Democrats plan to take the depression that plagues Eastern Kentucky and bring it to Western Kentucky, as well.  Republican Leader Mitch McConnell told the coal miners of Western Kentucky to not think they'd evaded the scrutiny of Obama's EPA:  they are coming for you.

Even if Grimes sincerely opposes what Obama's bureaucrats in the EPA are doing, she will have no seniority, no clout to stop them.  None.

Grimes says she wants to bring manufacturing back to Kentucky through tax reform.  Again, this is cheap advice.  McConnell has pointed to tax reform as an area where Congress might be able to get something done, if Obama moves to the center.  The difference between Grimes and McConnell, however, is that he will not use "reform" as a pretext for a tax increase.  America's corporate tax rate is now the highest in the developed world. No wonder corporations look to other countries to base their operations.

 It is the same within this country as states compete with other states:  jobs flow to the lowest tax rate.  That's why Kentucky is losing out to Tennessee.  That's yet another reason why Kentucky must #fliptheHouse.










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