Biden Throw Down with Hillary as he Came Clean on his Class War Rhetoric

It looks like the Veep is ready to play the Huey Long class warrior that President Obama was so effective at in 2012.

"Come on you two, knock it off now."
(Photo credit: Blogs.America.gov)

Parts of Joe Biden’s private speech Friday in Columbia, S.C., a key early primary state for 2016, was spent attacking the Clintons – and a little bit of it came from being fact checked by The Washington Post.

From The Hill:

Biden, a potential 2016 candidate, said the unraveling of middle-class financial security began in "the later years of the Clinton administration," not under George W. Bush, CNN reported Saturday … In recent months, the vice president has focused on revving up liberals on issues of income inequality, as he prepares for a possible run against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, though many Democrats don't think he'd run against her. … One attendee said it was an “Elizabeth Warren-type speech” blasting income inequality.

Biden gave a similar red meat speech at George Washington University last month about income inequality, where he said that when he first became a U.S. Senator in 1973, “The discrepancy between the salary of the average CEO in America and the lowest-paid worker in that company was 22 to 1 … Now, today, the average CEO in America makes 273 times as much as a person working on a line. What happened?”

ThePost pointed out however that during the Clinton administration, the disparity was 400 to 1 for the CEO to lowest paid worker.

 

“A large part of the reason for the growth in the gap during the Clinton presidency is a soaring stock market and the increasing practice of awarding stock options to corporate executives. Recessions — and the subsequent decline in stocks — made those options less valuable, so the disparity declined a bit,” the Post said in correcting Biden.

So “what happened” was economic growth, which there was plenty of during the Clinton years. Biden’s skewed presentation of CEO to lowest paid worker was a clever way to rile a crowd, but it’s in no way the same as saying the rich got richer and the poor got poorer. 

Typically when an economy expands, CEOs get much wealthier than before and in expanding their companies most workers earn more. So a larger gap between a CEO and worker could still mean everyone is doing better, while a smaller gap could indicate an economic downturn, bad for everyone. 

What we’re seeing in the Obama administration – or for 2016, let’s call it the Obama/Biden administration – is only the wealthy doing well enough because they’re insulated from this economic downturn and fewer and fewer opportunities for the poor and middle class.

Bad News for Obama, and Romney Too – ObamneyCare Down

The Massachusetts health care system was held up as the national model for Obamacare, and it made perfect political sense because it had the blessing of the 2012 Republican presidential nominee.

Mitt Romney and Barack Obama (Credit: WhiteHouse.gov)

Now the exchange for RomneyCare, signed into law in 2006 by then-Gov. Mitt Romney, has collapsed. While it might have been the pioneer laying the groundwork for the national boondoggle, it’s only the third state system to collapse since the federal government moved in. 

But Massachusetts carries major significance on the health care issue because as recently as last year, President Obama was heralding his own health care plan in Boston by proclaiming the similarities between the state and federal laws.

Even though Romney campaigned in 2012 on repealing Obamacare, the collapse doesn’t reflect well on his legacy as governor. And nothing seems to reflect well for the president regarding Obamcare, except the sketchy enrollment figures that no Democrat outside the White House seems anxious to touch.

From the New York Times:

 

Massachusetts will stop trying to fix its deeply flawed health insurance website and instead buy new software to help its residents enroll in coverage, officials there said Monday. But the state will also prepare to join the federal insurance marketplace by the next enrollment period, which starts in November, in case the new system is not working in time.

In fairness to Romney, the Times says:

The site worked well until it was revamped last year to comply with the Affordable Care Act, President Obama’s health care law.

Since Obamacare was enacted, the health care exchanges in Oregon and Maryland imploded. Meanwhile the states of Hawaii, Nevada and Vermont have experienced extreme difficulties in getting their sites going.

Can Kerry Continue?

Sen. Ted Cruz likes to be out ahead on things.

Secretary of State John Kerry (Credit: State.gov)

The Texas Republicans has called for Secretary of State John Kerry to resign for his slander of Israel reported by the Daily Beast, comparing the country’s defending itself to South African apartheid.   

But Cruz won’t stand alone this time around. 

There is already bipartisancondemnation from Democratic Sens. Barbara Boxer of California and Mark Begich of Alaska. Though like most Republicans who condemned the remarks, they stopped short of demanding a resignation – for now. 

From the Daily Beast:

“A two-state solution will be clearly underscored as the only real alternative. Because a unitary state winds up either being an apartheid state with second-class citizens—or it ends up being a state that destroys the capacity of Israel to be a Jewish state,” Kerry told the group of senior officials and experts from the U.S., Western Europe, Russia, and Japan. “Once you put that frame in your mind, that reality, which is the bottom line, you understand how imperative it is to get to the two-state solution, which both leaders, even yesterday, said they remain deeply committed to.”

Kerry of course has attempted to walk back the comment, but one wonders if that works any better than walking back the “botched joke” in 2006. This surely won’t be forgotten.

Some are calling this anti-Semitism. I won’t judge Kerry’s heart. It doesn’t help that the reports surfaced on the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day.

But one has to question his judgment and whether he can function in a role of leading U.S. foreign policy. When he became Secretary of State he gave up the option of speaking for himself. Now, he is always speaking for the country. And in doing so, he attacked America’s most valuable ally in the Middle East in a way that the U.S. 

As Boxer said, “Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East and any linkage between Israel and apartheid is nonsensical and ridiculous.” Yet this administration is not making similar slanderous comments about very undemocratic countries. The worst we've heard about Russia's thuggery that it's a "regional power."

He may be somewhat insulated from demands for resignation given his chumminess with most members of the Senate – including many Republicans he served with.

But Sen. John McCain and some other Republicans who found his former GOP colleague Chuck Hagel unacceptable to be Defense Secretary – in part because of Hagel’s views on Israel – will have a tough time going to bat for Kerry.

Kerry had sought a historic role for himself, with deals to de-nuke Iran and broker a long sought after peace deal between Israel and Palestine. Those ambitions could unravel. It’s difficult to imagine he can continue leading peace negotiations after these remarks. The question is less: Should he resign? It’s really; can he even continue to function effectively in the job?

Well Deserved Sainthood

Pope John Paul II’s canonization as a saint was fast tracked, but is nevertheless well deserved.

Pope John Paul II and President Reagan (Credit: Poland.USEmbassy.gov)

At a time when Russia is behaving aggressively, John Paul’s actions in helping topple the Soviet Union are even more memorable, all of which is detailed in John O’Sullivan’s excellent book, “The President, the Pope and the Prime Minister: Three WhoChanged the World.”

 

The book explains how former archbishop of Krakow Karol Józef Wojtyla’s role was equal to that of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher in crushing communism as a global threat. The godless ideology didn’t die (i.e. North Korea, China and Cuba), but it is no longer an inherent danger.

The first non-Italian pope in 400 years eagerly helped Poland’s Solidarity Movement’s opposition against communist control in his home country. As a native of Poland, it is such a privilege to live through such a historic moment.

Outside of geopolitics, Saint John Paul II demonstrated a Christian example to the world. He was a man of the people and realized we are all the creations of a loving God. In December 1983, he not only forgave but visited Mehmet Ali Agca, the man who shot him in an assassination attempt.

 

“I spoke to him as a brother whom I have pardoned and who has my complete trust,” the Pope said after the visit.

Living out his faith and the assist in thrusting the Soviet Union on the ash heap of history is incredibly significant but not the miracles that warranted his sainthood.

French nun Marie Simon Pierre was cured of Parkinson’s disease and Floribeth Mora Diaz of Costa Rica was cured of a brain aneurysm, miracles attributed to Pope John Paul’s prayers.  

Pope John XXIII’s who had a short but influential papacy brought us Vatican II and was also deserving of being canonized on the same day.

"They lived through the tragic events of that century, but they were not overwhelmed by them,” Pope Francis said Sunday. “For them, God was more powerful; faith was more powerful -- faith in Jesus Christ the Redeemer of man and the Lord of history.”

  

Pope Francis said Saint John XXIII was “the pope of openness to the Spirit” and Saint John Paul II was “the pope of the family.”