I was talking with some friends today about the Gas Tax Holiday and heard a very interesting comment. It was proposed that someone should call Clinton's (or McCain's) bluff and tell 'em to pony up.
Basically, the understanding was that as president you have no power to enact such a holiday but as senator you could at least propose legislation to begin a tax holiday.
So, senators, "I call." Show us your hand and begin some work on legislation that will do what you are saying. I want to see a new bill or amendment that proposes what you have been pandering, I want to see a Gas Tax Holiday. Not just the Gas Tax Holiday but I want to see all kinds of proposed legislation.
Clinton and Obama have talked about education ad nauseam, so ...
Obama, propose some legislation that "will streamline the financial aid process." Clinton, show me the work you have done to "(c)ut the minority dropout rate in half."
Caring for those who have given for our freedom has also been a discussion in this campaign, so ...
Clinton, do some legislative work to "increase funding for the Helmets to Hardhats program." Obama, talk with your legislative aides and see what can be done to "fully fund the VA so it has all the resources it needs."
I Call! Clinton, Obama put your money where your mouth is and find your way to the Capitol Building and into the Senate Chambers and do a little work. Don't get me wrong, I know you need to campaign, but actions can speak so much louder than any speech and doing some leg work is a lot better than pandering.
Right now the Clinton campaign sounds like children who aren't getting their way and the Obama campaign sounds distant and unsympathetic when it comes to questions about Michigan and Florida. Their is no good position to take on the situation. Until now!
The Obama campaign can come out smelling like roses and possibly land a blow on Clinton's chin. Obama should tell both the Michigan and Florida legislatures that they want their citizens votes to count and to that end he is willing to donate $5 mill to each state to help pay for the caucuses (which most news sources are citing as costing $10 mill). He should then turn to Clinton and ask for her to pony up the other $5 mill per state. She has the option of saying "no" and looking like chump or dolling out the $5 mill per state from her campaign funds. It's a put up or shut up moment. Let Obama use his pocketbook power to hit Clinton where it hurts.
The caucuses would obviously favor Obama, but if it comes down to it then Obama can probably pony up half of the $20 mill price tag for a "re-primary" in Florida and still won more than a couple "good sport" votes. Obama still has the money and can ask Clinton to put up or shut up.
The real hang up in both states isn't the willingness to have "do-overs" but the availability of funds to run a caucus/primary. Before this turns into a very, very ugly fight at the convention credentials committee and the party loses entire populations of supporters in Michigan and Florida (which will hurt the party in November) this should be dealt with.
This is Obama's argument to win. He has to side with the voters, this is all about hope and change and protecting the rights of every person, this is Obama's campaign in a nutshell. Simply, Obama can tell Clinton to put up or shut up and can win this battle of the war.
Is it me or does it just seem a little off that Aljazeera would cover the race to 1010 Colorado St. And if you don't believe me then take a look here. Of course, our state could be just so damn interesting that the entire world is watching. Hell, here's the headline from Sydney, Aus. Jewish cowboy running for Texas governor. You can also read about Kinky and the race in India, the U.K., and from our neighbors to the north, eh.
A couple of news stories (here's one) have just come out saying Perry only plans to put property taxes on the upcoming special session agenda. Nope, no education reform, no education funding, no teacher pay raise, just lower proprety taxes because Perry only needs to do the bare minimun to get by. As long as Perry can get the lege to lower property taxes he satisfies the State Supreme Court's requirement. "We do just enough to get by." I love it shouldn't that be the new state motto?
From the SA Express-News article (emphasis added):
Perry, after a speech to the Texas Association of Manufacturers, said: "We've got to stay focused on what the Supreme Court has directed ... and that is lowering property taxes. ... That is what we must do so that schools open up."
"Welcome back to school kids. We don't have enough qualified teachers, textbooks for everyone, or adaquate technology to teach you, but your parents aren't paying as much in property taxes and atleast we're open."
Don't aim to high Perry, we might actually fix some problems. Well, I guess we're still part of the Thank God for Mississippi Club.
Forbes came out with thier new list of the worlds richest people today. 793 billionaires in the world, that's a 15% growth over the past year. In the US we have 371 of those billionaires and Texas lays claim to 33 of those people, including two of the top 20. In Houston alone thier are seven billioniares.
As I mention all this I also want to say that almost 3 billion people live on $2 Dollars a day. Half of the worlds children live in poverty. "The combined wealth of the world’s 200 richest people hit $1 trillion in 1999; the combined incomes of the 582 million people living in the 43 least developed countries is $146 billion." (see here for a list of other poverty/wealth realted facts).
I'm not a huge "save the children" kind of person, but when I heard about Forbes new list on the radio this morning it just made me wonder what we could do with the combined $2,600,000,000,000 ($2.6 trillion) of the list.
