Posted on 02/25/2007 2:07:53 PM PST by Al Simmons
One of the major problems I have with Rudy is his Pro-Global Warming stance.
If Duncan Hunter was Governor, or even Senator from CA I might agree with you. But he's not and hasn't been. He has about as much chance of being nominated as you or I.
Great. Just what we need. A Stalinist vs a Socialist.
How about you get off your Rudyesque Rump and push for a real candidate like Hunter?
McCarthy is having trouble getting co-sponcers, HOWEVER, unlike the Republicans, the dems have sent the bill only to the Judical Committee instead of every committee on the hill in order to kill it.
We have an anti gunner dem in charge of both the House and Senate Judiciary Committees, so there is every chance this will see a floor vote.
Thank you for showing up. You are indeed one of the handful of Anti-Rudy-Bot-Kool-Aid-Drinkers who ispired my screed.
..Do not Kool-Aid drinkers represent a blind allegiance to something or somebody--not being against someone or somebody.
I guess today I have discovered a new way to be called, bigoted, stupid, and narrow-minded--very creative...
So a mayor has a shot? A liberal east coast mayor with baggage? LOL.
Or well-informed members of Howard Dean's Flying Monkey Corps - one never knows for sure. ;)
When is the last time a mayor, not even one who will be 6+ years out of office, been elected to the presidency? And by that I mean "highest elected office was mayor", not "was once a mayor but later governor".
Got that RIGHT!
The Real Rudy Record
From the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research:
"Even with the tax cuts of the last several years, New York remains by far the most heavily taxed big city in the country."
TAXES: Giuliani did cut the marginal city income tax rates, reducing taxes by some $2.0-billion from 1996-2001, but those cuts only offset the $1.8-billion increase in city income tax rates put in place by Mayor Dinkins a few years earlier. In the end, income taxes were actually cut by a modest $200-million. Freezing the 12.5% surcharge on high wage earners was good, but Giuliani didn't attempt to abolish that surcharge. Nor did Giuliani attempt to make serious permanent changes to the city income tax code. The primary reason Rudy and the City Council agreed to cut taxes, was to make NYCity more appealing to new businesses thinking about locating/relocating to the Big Apple. A smart move, however, when Rudy left office he left NYCity straddled with some of the highest income taxes, property taxes and utility rates in the entire nation.
GOVT SPENDING: From 1997 to 2001, spending under Giuliani went up 32%. More then double the rate of inflation. Rudy left NYCity with a projected, pre-9/11 deficit of $2.0 billion and an increased debt total of $42-billion. Second largest debt after the federal government. Giuliani also added 15,000 new teachers to the city employment rolls. Increasing the membership of two major liberal organizations, the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT).
"The scope of government was not reduced at all. The mayor abandoned his most visible initiative in this sphere—the proposed sale of the city hospital system—after a struggle with the unions and defeats in the courts. He did cut costs in social services; even before the new federal welfare reforms took effect in 1997, the city had begun to significantly reduce caseloads. But money saved on social services has only helped to subsidize big increases in other categories. Today the array of social services sponsored and partially funded by the city—from day care to virtually guaranteed housing—is as wide as ever.
"In the final analysis, Mayor Giuliani sought to make the city deliver services more efficiently—not to make the city deliver fewer services. Gains in efficiency were offset, however, by a spike in the costs of outsourced contracts (see point 2 below). Thus, in two areas where inroads might have been made, the city instead failed to reduce spending."
"1. Personnel Increases. In 1995–96, the city entered into a series of collective bargaining agreements with its public-employee unions. In addition to granting pay increases that ended up roughly equaling inflation, the city promised not to lay off any workers for the life of the contracts. These agreements were expected to add $2.2 billion to the budget by fiscal 2001. But that estimate didn’t reckon with renewed growth in the number of city employees. After dipping in Giuliani’s first two years, the full-time headcount rose from 235,069, in June 1996 to over 253,000 by November 2000. Thanks largely to this growth in the workforce, the total increase in personnel service costs since 1995 has been $4 billion.
2. "Outsourced Services. The failure to shrink the scope of city government made it all the more imperative that Mayor Giuliani vastly increase its efficiency. In the attempt to increase productivity, the mayor farmed out some city services to private contractors. But as the number of outsourced contracts doubled under Giuliani, contractual expenses also nearly doubled—from $3 billion to $5.8 billion. While it may be argued that the city saved money by outsourcing these services, the net savings turned out to be marginal at best. In practice, outsourcing proved to be more of a bargaining chip in negotiations with unions than a serious means of pruning expenses."
Hard evidence that Rudy Giuliani was NO fiscal conservative. Another run-of-the-mill NYCity liberal.
I love that post!
Congressman Billybob
As President he will represent the people who elected him. He is not a doctrinaire ideologue like his (likely) opponent, but a pragmatic realist who gets thing done.
Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, My GOP.
Thanx for the ping, Al Simmons.
Oh, but he's not just any mayor, he's "America's Mayor".
Oprah Winfrey said so.
</sarcasm>
Jim, is this crap what we are paying for with our contributions?
Will Freerepublic lead the destruction of the Republican party?
Correction: Being against someone or something does not constitute the drinking of fruit flavored beverages
Yes, kind of has a way of grabbing your attention doesn't it? And that is a prerequisite for engaging the old thinker and perhaps taking a look at the situation from a fresh angle.
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