Posted on 06/02/2015 11:00:21 AM PDT by Kaslin
Martin O'Malley, former Baltimore mayor and Maryland governor, announced his presidential candidacy on Saturday, and said some things that could be taken as criticism of President Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
"Today, the American dream seems for so many of us to be hanging by a thread," said O’Malley, adding "We must save our country now. ... Tell me how it is that you can get pulled over for a broken taillight in our country, but if you wreck the nation's economy, you are untouchable."
Who is he blaming for "wrecking" the economy? Big banks and Wall Street, not the Obama administration, which has presided over slow economic growth, an increase in the number of Americans who want to work but can't find jobs and more than 46 million people on food stamps. Last month, the Commerce Department reported the economy contracted 0.7 percent in the first quarter of 2015.
Wasn't President Obama elected to fix all this? When he promised to "fundamentally change" the country, I doubt most Obama worshippers had this kind of country in mind.
Unlike Hillary Clinton, O'Malley's chief rival for the Democratic nomination, he has a record of sweeping, identifiable initiatives, which did little to improve conditions for the poor in Baltimore.
As Baltimore's mayor, O'Malley promised to reclaim the city's abandoned and uninhabitable buildings. Yet, between 2002 and 2007, the number of vacant and abandoned residential properties in the city actually increased by 2,570, to more than 15,700, according to The New York Times, which cites statistics from the Baltimore Neighborhood Indicators Alliance.
Poverty and unemployment remain high in Baltimore. A survey released in April by two Harvard economists ranked the city at the bottom among the country's 100 largest cities as the jurisdiction least likely to allow children to escape poverty. One contributing factor could have been O'Malley's refusal to allow school choice so poor parents could exercise an option available to wealthier and more influential people.
As governor of Maryland, O'Malley was a serial tax hiker. As summarized by The Daily Caller, O'Malley raised the top personal income tax rate from 4.75 to 5.75 percent. Adding local taxes gave Maryland a top tax rate of 8.95 percent. O'Malley also presided over a corporate tax hike from 7.0 to 8.25 percent. He raised the sales tax from 5 to 6 percent, increased taxes on beer, wine and spirits by 50 percent, raised the gas tax by 20 cents over four years, almost doubling the rate from 23.5 cents, doubled the cigarette tax from $1 to $2 a pack, imposed higher taxes on vehicle registration and created a "stormwater mitigation fee" on property owners, derided as a "rain tax." And what did the people most in need get from all this extra tax money? Not much it appears.
This constant taxing and overspending contributed to the defeat of O'Malley's handpicked successor, Anthony Brown, and the election of Republican Larry Hogan. It also caused an exodus from the state by some fed-up taxpayers. In 2012, CNBC cited a study by the anti-tax group Change Maryland that found that "a net 31,000 residents left the state between 2007 and 2010, the tenure of a 'millionaire's tax' pushed through by Gov. Martin O'Malley. The tax, which expired in 2010, imposed a rate of 6.25 percent on incomes of more than $1 million a year."
At least O'Malley can say he was consistent on some issues, unlike Hillary Clinton. O'Malley consistently favored same-sex marriage and opposed the Iraq war. Clinton was against same-sex marriage and for the Iraq war before reversing herself.
One of O'Malley's problems is that if he tracks too far left he runs into the socialist gadfly Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT). Instead, O'Malley seems to be positioning himself like the British monarchy, which has an "heir and a spare." For now Hillary Clinton is the "heir" to the nomination, O'Malley's the "spare." That could change if questions about the Clintons' finances persist.
If O'Malley doesn't win the nomination, he will at least have raised his profile for another run in four or eight years. By then, maybe he can find a better platform to run on than the one he has now.
O’Malley is a moral atrocity.
Typical rubber-stamp, leftist DemocRat. Where ever they go, what ever they touch, is always destroyed — and that is always their legacy. Aside from the lies and distortions. They are nothing, they have nothing for America. Except MORE disaster.
OMally will transform your life such that moving into Ballmere will be an improvement.
The strange thing is Martin O’Malley could very well be the D.N.C. nominee.
Hillary is not going to be the D.N.C. nominee.
I still think Fauxahontas will be the nominee, at least on the ticket.
We're going to wish Hillary was still on the ticket.
Fauxahontas, O'Malley, Sanders strike the right message for the near majority that want the government to take care of them.
Political opium.
Cal is incorrect on the gas tax increase. O’Malley and the sycophantic General Asylum (I mean Assembly) instituted a 6 PERCENT tax on gas.
Because tax revenue is then tied to gas prices, not gallons, there is no incentive for lower gas prices.
Consequently, the Asylum shoved through a veto proof moratorium on hydraulic fracturing (fracking) which will keep prices high.
Agreed, which is why we don't want a GHW Bush style candidate who can be flummoxed by someone pleading for the president to be his daddy. You need a Ted Cruz in that situation.Your candidate has to say that while it is true that Eberhard Faber® does not make a pencil without help, it is society rather than government which does the significant helping - and, no matter how much socialists try to conflate the two, we've known since 1776 (Common Sense) that "society" and "government" are entirely different things. "Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness."
The difference between a government which is content with controlling our wickedness and a government which seeks to provide our wants is the difference between Detroit circa 1945 and Detroit circa 2015. And that is the difference between "It is not the critic who counts . . . the credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena," and, "You didn't build that."
Thanks Kaslin. He's a legend in his own mind.
Thanks for the post/ping to the thread, c_I_c (scrolling back through my pings the week I was out of town and out of touch). Good article and posts.
It’s always good to see your posts, and that screen-name…one of the philosophically greatest names ever on the forum. BTTT!
Ditto
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