Gordon Gekko in the movie “Wall Street” was based on Sir James Goldsmith. Surely, many area residents remember Goldsmith.
Back in the “hostile takeover” days, he was the driving force in Goodyear’s decision to close the Cumberland Kelly-Springfield Tire plant.
It was reported he took a $90 million payoff. For that payoff, more than 1,000 people from our area were thrown into what is now the 47 percent.
A recent reader commentary in the Times-News (“Agenda is gnawing at our republic’s future,” Oct. 1) argues, that if you are in that 47 percent and “looking to move forward” a “greed is good” Bain Capital president is for you.
If somehow we can continue to fire people, close plants, lower wages, deprive workers of unionizing, send jobs overseas, or in the case of Mitt Romney’s host at the 47 percent remarks fund raiser, Marc Leder, push 6,000 Friendly’s restaurant employee pension obligations onto the taxpayer while jamming those savings into these so called “job creators” pockets, there will be some sort of magical reversal of fortune.
VP candidate Paul Ryan’s political hero is the novelist Ayn Rand. Rand was a self professed atheist and ideologue.
In her book “Atlas Shrugged,” her ideology professed her heroes must be free to advance their business models without regard or restraint.
If regulated, or as is in trend now, pick up their marbles and go offshore, society and we commoners will devolve into chaos.
Apparently, we the people who will not take personal responsibility for ourselves, cannot be responsible for our own governance either.
We haven’t the intelligence to realize that giving Grandma health care, her grandson an education or regulate our businesses, is bad for us.
It’s counterproductive in Ryan and Rand’s eyes. They would enlist their hero Mitt Romney to reverse our mistakes and save us from ourselves.
Grover Norquist, without whom no Republican congressman or senator gets elected, said on 60 Minutes he would like government spending at no more than 8 percent of GDP.
When it was pointed out we’ve not been that low since before Social Security was enacted, his intent became clear. His big money donors have no appetite to abide by our regulatory laws or pay for not only Big Bird but Social Security, Medicare, or education.
The Romneys of the world already pay a much lower rate than the average Joe and less than many of the 47 percent they disdain.
The right wing Heritage Foundation rejects the recently posted position that the 47 percenters only pay 7.65 percent in payroll tax.
They say, “in reality, the employee pays the entire 13.3 percent, because the employer’s portion of the tax does not affect the cost of labor. The employer would pay the employee 7.65 percent more if there were no employer’s portion of the payroll tax.”
But still that is not enough! Be assured as an ever increasing percentage of wealth goes to the “job creators,” Grover’s “no tax pledge” that nearly every Republican including Romney, Ryan and Roscoe Bartlett have signed, will continue to work to lower their share of contributions. It’s already had a devastating affect on our economy and national debt.
If the above players continue their success, a day of reckoning will come.
Fox “not the news” may have convinced many it will be less food stamps for some no good, gay, teacher, Muslim, illegal immigrant, tree hugging bum down the street but the reality is, “it will” come out of your Social Security, Medicare, child’s education and more!
Update! In yet another change of position, Mitt Romney now loves the 47 percent!
Clay Ingram
Cumberland
Editorials
Would there be a magical reversal of fortune?
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High priority
Maryland school officials on Tuesday put an exclamation point on the need to take student-athlete concussions more seriously.
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Cashing in
As anyone who lives in the area knows, economic gains have been hard to come by in recent years. The opening of the Rocky Gap Casino Resort is one of the biggest boosts the region has seen in some time.
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Why have the media been silent all this time?
When I read the Cumberland Times-News Editorial this morning, Friday, May 17, entitled, “Outrageous,” I laughed like a kid at a birthday party!
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What are chances this much money will be spent on road?
I was intrigued by cost data summarized in reporter Kathy Mellott’s recent article, “Completing southern link of U.S. Route 219 said to be best use of highway funds,” which appeared in the Cumberland Times-News on Tuesday May 14 (Page 1A).
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School board should be doing better job with less money
The Allegany County Teachers Association (ACTA) board of directors recently submitted a letter to the editor asking the Allegany County commissioners to fully fund the Board of Education’s budget request for the upcoming fiscal year (“Commissioners should fund school board request,” April 29 Times-News).
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Better ‘Click It’
If you notice more police on the highway this week, it’s for a couple of reasons.
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They do bite
This week is National Dog Bite Prevention Week. For anyone thinking that is not such a big deal, consider that 4.7 million Americans annually are bitten by dogs, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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Stop buying licenses; let them find the money somewhere else
A few months ago, I received two cards from the National Rifle Association. These were dealing with a legislative alert.
They asked that I should contact Sen. George Edwards and Delegate Kevin Kelly concerning the anti-gun legislation. -
Strength of gun laws is not reflected in grisly statistics
According to the FBI’s uniform crime reports, California had the highest number of gun murders in 2011 with 1,220, which makes up 68 percent of all murders in the state that year and equates to 3.25 murders per 100,000 people.
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An old story
What for years has been an on-again, off-again battle over funding between the Allegany County Commissioners and the Allegany County Board of Education seems to be growing even uglier.
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