Saturday, September 4, 2010

U.S. on verge of electing the Anti-government government. Joe Miller can thank Government for Success.

Even as zealot right wing candidates chalk up a few wins here and there, the voter mood of the country is following the media created theme that government is so bad and big, that even psychopathic loners might help save our Constitution. But a closer look reveals that even these libertarian outsiders depended on government “handouts.” Take the case of recluse Joe Miller, who wouldn’t be where he is today without taxpayer dollars. It’s really amazing:

The Myth: NY Times: The man with the best chance of becoming the next senator from Alaska lives at the end of a long gravel road … Tribulation Trail … Signs warn against trespassing … A dog’s baritone bark rattles the aspens when car wheels, unexpected, churn the driveway. Joe Miller, 43 … comes across as a self-confident iconoclast but wraps his message in the Constitution … Even as Miller vows to drastically scale back the size and spending of the federal government; he has spent much of his life in some form of government employment or service.

Joe Miller the Taxpayer Parasite: The military helped educate him. For seven
years, until last September, he worked part time as a salaried assistant attorney for the Fairbanks North Star Borough, roughly equivalent to a county government. His work with the borough allowed him to complete a master’s degree in economics from the University of Alaska. “We paid his tuition,” said Rene Broker, the borough attorney who first hired him.

He worked 20 hours a week for the borough, enough to receive health care benefits for his family of 10, Because Mr. Miller is married and has eight children, his family is eligible to receive 10 dividend checks each year from the Alaska Permanent Fund, an account that pays dividends from state oil revenues to residents of Alaska. The amount changes yearly and is often between $1,000 and $2,000. In 2008 Palin pushed through a one-time increase to $3,269. That would have meant more than $32,000 for Mr. Miller’s family.

Joe Miller the Carpetbagger: In 2004, two years after moving to Fairbanks, he challenged the city’s lone Democrat in the State Legislature, David Guttenberg. Mr. Miller lost, 52 to 48 percent. “He’s a carpetbagger,” Mr. Guttenberg said. “He moved into my district to run against me because I was the only Democrat in Fairbanks.”

Joe Miller federal welfare slayer?: Miller has faced repeated questions over how he will square his views on federal spending if he becomes a senator from a state that depends on government for one-third of its economy. He argues that ending restrictive federal regulation will free Alaska to reap more from its natural resources “in an environmentally responsible way.”

Which means what, that he will end the biggest return on the dollar from federal coffers, and/or add to Alaskan pockets with oil money? Think Progress found this on Miller's hypocricy on the New Deal:
Today on ABC’s Top Line, host Rick Klein asked Miller to expound. “Do you think those programs are constitutionally authorized?” Miller dodged, first — noting that his parents benefit from Social Security and Medicare — arguing that they should be preserved now, but “transition” to a privatization model in the future.
Joe Miller, WRONG on the Constitution:

Then, Miller again suggested the programs are not constitutional:

MILLER: "I think we have to look at transferring power back to the states in such a way that states can then look at solutions that may be more appropriate. Then ultimately, when you look at the Constitution and you evaluate what the plan was originally, it was for states to take on more power than the federal government, particularly in the areas of, such as those things that may promote the general welfare. It was not a federal role."

Miller’s claim that the Constitution gives states the sole power to provide for general welfare is exactly wrong. In fact, Article I, Section 8 specifically states:

“The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States.”
Miller appears to be embracing what the Wonk Room’s Ian Millhiser describes
as “tentherism,” the belief adopted by many on the right that posits that progressive policies such as health care reform and entitlement programs are an unconstitutional infringement on states’ rights.

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1 comment:

  1. This guy is the bottom of the barrel. Only he thinks he is the cream.

    ReplyDelete