The Angry Left and
the legacy of Johnson and Carter by Captain Daniel W. Merrick, Ph.D.
Position Paper and response to Thom Hartmann Interviews 9-25-06 & 9-26-06
In the late 1960’s I grew up under the Johnson and Carter
administrations when the ‘Great Society’ of Johnson had culminated into the
great recession of Carter.
Thom and many of his listeners may be to young to remember
how the government was going to be our daddy and solve all our problems, tuck
us in at night, and spend all our money through higher taxes to feed us three
square meals a day. Interest rates were 26% at the bank and America
was failing on the plans of the Democrats who held congress and the senate for
63 years. That is when they gutted Social Security and wrote a big IOU to the
trust fund so they could pay for their social programs and pork spending
projects to line the pockets of their union buddies.
Unfortunately at that time as a 13 year old boy, I was
working at Bob’s Big Boy restaurant, a division of Marriott Corporation for
$3.65 an hour to feed myself because the Great Society had to have 73% of my
check to pay for the addict on the corner who has since died of an OD and left
nothing to his family, community, or even a thank you to the left wing liberals
who failed to show up to his funeral.
So I bought into the democratic mantra and headed right to
the Humphrey rally to cheer on my next president. Then the checks started
coming in, and my $250.00 turned into a $96.50 a week check. Great money at the
time for a 13 year old, you think? Let’s break it down: $10.00 in bus fare,
$20.00 in lunch money, Since Mom was struggling I shopped for groceries at the
grand total of $45.00 a week and the sales tax on food of $3.00 for a grand
total of $73.00. That left me $23.50 a week to help with the bills. I got the
pay stubs to prove it. (My mom saved everything).
In 2000 my father died. He was a World War II veteran. He
was in a nursing home and to pay for the bill the Medicare/Medicaid program
seized all his assets in land and household goods about $980,000.00. The bill
for his care was about $300,000.00 over a few years and when he died you would
think that if the Insurance Company had taken almost a cool million from you
that you would get a refund, YEH RIGHT!
Now on top of that fine liberal pickle, I had been on
welfare from when I waited for my Veteran’s benefits for service connected
disabilities. So when Dad’s and Mom’s Insurance came guess what happened?
That’s right, the Medicaid Recapture Act from Johnson’s ‘Great Society’
Recaptured all my inheritance and left just enough to bury dad.
Thom Hartmann makes it sound like my becoming a Republican
and believing in God is EEEEEVILLLL. Worse yet, lets punish success and tax the
rich more so there are no great endowments like the ones supporting moveon.org.
I’m sorry Thom, you nice guy for a liberal but the truth is that the mutual
inherited sharing of poverty is a communist ideal THAT NEVER WORKED. It is the
failed policy of the former Soviet Union and I believe
in more than that for America.
I will give you this Thom; we do need to lower the national
debt. Many Republicans are steamed at recent departures from the Reagan Legacy
which Bill Clinton upheld to lower the debt and reduce welfare. Still we should
not do these things at the expense of our national defense. We must learn to
balance our governing officials to prevent overspending and still insure the
nation’s security.
My Book is about the
transition from welfare to millionaire. My purpose is to empower the poor with
business ideals of icons like Carnegie and Zig Ziglar who teach and preach a
positive attitude and how to achieve wealth. If we reward the least productive
while punishing the most productive with ever greater burdens of regulations,
taxation, and a climate of negative attitudes toward faith, we get what you
got, Bankrupted businesses running for the cheap labor over seas. Thom wants to
call my efforts and ownership of 22 investment properties as being a “Robber
Barron”. The government in the real world for those of us who work and earn
what we have has never been able to manage their own money let alone tell us
how to keep a budget. During the Reagan administration, the democratic
controlled congress and senate duped Reagan into a policy of taxing borrowed
money that resulted in the failure of banks and left a budget deficit that will
take generations to overcome. The only hope to overcome these inequities is
ideas like the ones in my book of bond based funding programs that create
wealth and fund a safety net for those who are unable to work; The ones in
wheel chairs Thom, Not the ones with ADD and anger management issues.
My Dad fought for the Unions in the 1970’s at Bailey Meter
Corporation and was run out on a rail. Later the Unions got in, but my Dad
never got his job back.
The Union only cared about their extortion
money on the backs of the worker like a dictator who says ‘let share everything
for our mutual benefit’, then hoards it all to himself and his special interest
buddies in Moscow, Peaking, and Havana.
Unions are OK if they really help the worker when he is sick or unjustly
treated. But all I have seen of unions is that they want their money to give to
liberal causes and mafia friends and when the worker needs it, tough.
While Idiots like Danny Glover embrace Chavez who killed one
of my friends who was a fine officer in the Army until that dictator maniac had
him killed because he spoke out against the government. I had met him while in
officers training at Fort Knox.
He was taking classes under the agreement the US
has with the Organization of American States. He gave me a key chain to give to
my son with muscular dystrophy when he heard that he was collecting key chains
from around the world. And Chavez calls Bush Satan! What did you mean Thom when
you said: “Chavez made his point”? On judgment day he won’t make that mistake
again. I miss the good old days when actors just entertained and didn’t embrace
communists who want to destroy our country. And by the way, buy this commie
book on how we can all share nothing together and form a murderous government
with over intellectualized use of obscure words from some left wing loon
Professor.
That’s what I call Chavezing BEEP!. (Can’t say that on the radio)
In Pennsylvania
we got a Democrat Governor who has been called on the carpet several times for
giving friends who have alleged ties to organized crime big positions on the
gaming commission. Even the liberal press got a verbal lashing from Ed for
bringing up the subject. Gambling, Great, now the little man can get a piece of
the pie right?…..WRONG! Governor Ed Scan-del insured
that only his big corporate big bucks could get licensed by charging 50 Million
in fees to have a Pennsylvania Casino gaming license. Who is giving breaks to
the rich here Thom? Help the poor? Sure we call it the Special Kids Network. A
ORDER LINEnumber to help Kids like mine with Muscular Dystrophy get help. By
calling the number you get a bunch of referrals to non-governmental “help”
organizations that have 300 more forms for you to fill out and like me, you’ll
never get a cent to help your sick kid! Jobs for friends of politicians at the
phone lines abound to the tune of millions a year. Still not one dollar of that
money goes to actually help and disabled child in Pennsylvania.
I have over 40 DPW turn downs for simple
things for my son like a respirator and a physical therapy tub. Yet the
geniuses’ (democrats) in Harrisburg
will gladly pay over $63,000.00 a year in tax payer’s money to send my son over
120 miles a day to get Aqua Therapy. I can do the same thing here for a one
time cost of only $2,500.00. Like I said Thom, your folks have a problem with
addition. $63,000.00 for ten years is $630,000.00 VS $2,500? So I went out and
bought Real Estate and built a business so I could afford what the red tape of
the failed communist policies of democrats and the Johnson administration
‘Great Society’ said wasn’t allowed. Stepping over dollars to get to dimes so
democrats can give their friends jobs in Harrisburg.
My experience is if you want help, help yourself by doing.
You are part of the problem or part of the solution. Complaining that Bush is
wrong and that his great grand dad did business with Germany
won’t change anything. I don’t see your mega rich liberal friends cashing in
their fortune to give it all away to the poor. I do see lots of very rich men
leaving endowments to help with education, health care, and even the Clinton
Global program. Wealth is not evil Thom. What some people do with it is evil.
The problem is you need to get saved! If you had a heart toward God you would
understand where real charity comes from: a heart felt belief.
The negative democrats can not trust our money in our own
pockets deciding where to help feed the poor. We have to limit the wealth of
the rich so we can tell them where to put it. If you people like you had your
way Thom, where would moveon.org get its support from? Not George and Barbara.
Got to get them excessive robber barons to stop getting rich!
THIS IS WHAT I KNOW TO BE TRUE:
God is merciful. Yet He is still a law giver. Upholding his
faith and principals is not evil it’s a mirror that we all can use to better
ourselves.
Business Success comes from Positive and constructive
efforts. Republican Economic Policies that Reagan taught were admirable ideals
that embodied the heart of winning and the success of a dreamer who holds on to
his goals in the face of insurmountable odds. We need to return to the faith
and policies that reduced government and encouraged business with the Christian
principals of charity. Truly successful rich men help others to feel proud
about achievement. When I give, it is to help the truly helpless, give a hand
out of despair, and inspire goals and dreams to come true. I don’t need a
democrat or republican to tell me how to share my wealth to help others, my
conscience tells me, because I know right from wrong. I don’t appease evil and
sin that rips families apart and spreads despair. My answer to problems holds
more common sense than some conspiracy theory nut twisting facts to blame all America’s
problems on Bush.
WHAT WORRIES ME.?
The same political dogma climate as the 1960’s,
that is all the Democrats have as a platform. Like the Communist
propaganda of the 60’s the democrats are buying the bash-Bush campaign. Johnson
was in the White House then and China
and Russia had
sent thousands of agents into the USA
to inspire decent for the war in Vietnam.
They shipped tons of pot and left wing nuts into the colleges and painted a
picture of failure into the mind of America.
You should go see the mass graves in Iraq.
Perhaps you would have left him in power so his son’s could rape your daughter.
I have a Shiite friend who lives in Erie
who would be glad to tell you about life in Iraq
before our troops liberated the country. He narrowly escaped with his life. His
family was tortured and killed by So-Damn-Insane. If Democrats give the enemy a
chance, he’ll have the knife in their back just like on 9-11. They don’t care
if you’re a democrat or republican, they just want to kill you and they don’t
care if they die trying. We have seen this kind of propaganda before from ultra
rich democrats from New England and the Left
Coast. Ever seen the movie In Harms
Way with John Wayne? Remember when the Rock meets his son and they talk about
Woodrow Wilson’s War? Same thing happened in WWI and WWII. Little wonder that
it happens in WWIII. If we don’t meet the Islamic Fascists with all we got now,
we will watch our cities melt in a nuke blast. Then we can welcome the new
dictator Osama who will cut our whoa off for looking
at a woman’s ankle and put our wives in tents from head to toe in 120 degree
heat.
To sum it up Thom, your opinion is just wrong. Buffalo
New York has lost multitudes of businesses
because the taxes killed them. People are not stupid. They come to PA to shop
where there are not taxes on food and clothing. The parking lots in Erie
and Bradford are full of NY plates in the shopping malls. The NY Democrats
raised taxes and tax revenue WENT DOWN. Businesses moved out to PA and Ohio.
Their communist ideal to raise funds for needed public services resulted in
what I said: “Getting 9¢ taxes on a dollar when they could have had $7.00 tax
on $100.00” Look at Niagara Falls.
The US side
dead. But the Canada
side has businesses for as far as the eye can see. Why? Because they gave
special tax incentives and cut red tape and building fees to stimulate the
tourist trade.
I won’t even get into the facts on the commie smoking police
in New York now who spend
taxpayer dollars to insure that you don’t smoke in bars. When the democrats in Buffalo
passed that one more restaurants and bars went out of business leaving large
bills for the owners to pay for law compliance in the years before for air
purity machines and smoke eaters which was the law before they hired the
smoking police. Going to a bar without smoking is like going to a library
without books. And if you read one, the book police will slap you with a fine.
Democrats like Spitzer broke treaty laws to tax the Seneca
Indians of their religious practices when he illegally collected taxes at the
distributors. If elected, he will run New York
into poverty, despair, and a tax burden that will destroy small business. Big
corporations will just move or pay. Small businesses that have to compete with
Wal-Mart will just close the doors and add to the unemployment lines. Democrats
are buying the enemies propaganda just like in the 60’s. The thing I don’t get
is, if you hate The United States Of America so much,
why do you stay? Move to Cuba.
Go live with Chavez. I do know your problem though Thom. I learned it in
college psychology, neurotic obsession concentrating on problems instead of
solutions. Democratic obsessing with no solutions, combative and argumentative
communication, like an old married couple who hate each other the extremes on
both sides polarize into anger which leads to violence. We see it in the news
when Ann is attacked in public speaking venues and simple republican college
clubs are overrun with leftist nuts.
THERES HOPE:
My book shows how I overcame the adversities of life to grow
a business into wealth inspiring success. There is a way we can overcome the
war between the poor and rich, the culture war, and the terror war. Start
building a better tomorrow using the principals in my book to overcome poverty
thinking with successful doing.
I believe we can empower the poor and working poor to have
more and achieve their dreams. I did it
through knowledge and action. The truth about business is that low start up
costs and positive thinking that I write about in my book, are the ideas that
came from Republicans who were men of faith like Dexter Yeager, Norman Peal,
and Ken Gaub. Mentoring is the answer to helping a dream come true. My book and
methods have been proven right time after time in successful results. As were
Reagan’s when the wall across Europe came down and small
businesses began an economic growth that has not stopped yet. Even Democrats
like Sarian Bouma have profited by a more bi-partisan cooperation for mutual
benefits to society and success oriented thinking. Robert Dole wrote the
forward to her book. JFK did the same thing when he set a goal to put a man on
the moon. That is in my book also Thom. Thom’s show and Air America
want the old world good-old-boys thinking back when the unions ran America,
the mafia ran the unions, and the democrats like Ted Kennedy got away with
drunk driving. Who cares if somebody gets killed as long as they get power and
money for special interests. I think
that people have forgotten that Lincoln
was a republican and that the Democratic Party was formed by rich southern
slave owners who wanted a party to promote their agenda.
Buy my book and see for yourself: The proof is in the
results that lifted me from poverty on welfare to successful actions which gave
me a positive attitude and a net worth over 4 million. And Thank God! I have 3
more children to go to college at a price tag of $50,000 a year at just a state
college and that’s only $600,000.00 to go. Thom, please tell your liberal
college professor friends to stop being so greedy. The reality of it all is
that if we continue arguing and fighting each other like this in America
then our enemies have already defeated us. We are the corporations Thom. Our IRA’s & 401K’s and companies like sub-chapter S corps
are what is driving economic growth world wide. Even Clinton
said it in his interview with Chris Wallace: getting rich people like Bill
Gates to help the world imbalance between the rich and poor. By the way, is Air
America a
corporation? Who writes your checks Thom?
That is why Sarian Bouma and I have formed a bipartisan
partnership to help mentor the underpaid and poor into the means of production.
She is a democrat and I am a republican. Both of us are committed to healing
racial, religious, political, and economic barriers in America
to overcome adversity with success. Both of us have Bible based faiths and
believe in the Messiah. Sarian is a Christian and I am a Messianic Jew. Here
are some facts: There are more white folks on welfare than African Americans.
According to the HUD set standards, families of four who earn less than $36,000
a year are poor. The average house on the east and west coasts costs over
$350,000.00. The construction industry sites that to build a home the average
cost across American is $125.00 to $250.00 per square foot. That means that if you don’t do something now
to expand your income, learn to cooperate with others, and increase your net
worth, you will live in poverty unable to buy a house. Working for others has
its merits. The truth is that people need education to stop working to make
others rich and learn how to overcome challenges in life and own their own
business. Part time or full time makes little difference. Do something extra to
help improve your economic condition. As my friend Jeff Johns in Erie
says: ‘There are lots of books published every year about thinking positive;
you don’t see any books on how to think negative’. Shows like Thom’s center on
the negative re-expressing the problems with little offers of solutions. The
show that Sarian and I are working on expresses the dreams, goals, and
inspiration toward motivation with action and the importance of positive
thinking, Godly morals, and a return to the ideals of the good Samaritan. For
more information on our show and your chance to be mentored into wealth
oriented thinking, see our web page at: www.Welfare2Millionaire.TV
“The only way to surly fail; is never really try” Dan Merrick.