Ohio is a bellwether state – as Ohio goes, so goes the Presidency – at least, that has been the case for the past fifty years.
And Ohio is going red, conservative, and center-right, just like the rest of the country.
In 2006, Independent Republican Mike DeWine could not run from his party, a losing brand which also lost control of Congress for the first time in twelve years. His replacement, Sherrod Brown, is an unapologetic progressive, a legislator whose values are out-of-step with the Midwest. Now facing his first reelection battle, Brown has embraced his stock with President Barack Obama, to his greater hurt.
Understandably, the state swung for Obama in 2008. Even top-ranking Republicans were commenting that if the GOP was a brand of dog food, stores would have been taking them off the shelf in large quantities. A party which strayed from its message of limited government and constitutional rule, conservative and liberal voters were seeking “hope and change.”
After four years, voters realize that President Obama has brought change all right, but in the wrong direction. Four years of high unemployment and anemic growth, health insurance mandates which are crippling the industry while driving up costs, and a fiscal policy that is eroding our currency while harming industries across the country must be stopped.
2010 was a sign of better things to come. Rob Portman won the Senate seat from resigning moderate George Voinovich, more a thorn in the side of his fellow Republicans than the opposition. House Rep John Kasich took the Governor’s mansion, signaling a further conservative resurgence.
Ohioans sent a loud message to Congress that year, with five Congressional seats flipping to the GOP column. Following the federal census and reapportionment, the Buckeye state has lost two seats, which forced one of the most outspoken liberals, two-time Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich, out of office following a brutal primary. His defeat is the canary in the coal mine in Ohio for Obama and his progressive brand of liberal politics, the new brand of dog food that is going off the shelf and into the ash heap of history.
Senator Brown is soon to follow Kucinich. A brief review of his voting record should be enough to dissuade voters from giving Brown a second term. At the top of the list, Brown voted for ObamaCare, an overblown and underfunded insurance mandate, now a crippling tax per the Supreme Court, which has driven up the cost of premiums while decreasing the number of available policies. This law imposes overwhelming regulatory burdens on employers and insurance companies. Other deleterious effects of the law include the growing number of illegal immigrants who cannot be tracked down by the IRS to pay the mandate-fee-tax. Hospitals are closing because of ObamaCare’s raid on Medicare, including three hospitals in Pennsylvania. ObamaCare also failed to deal with the lawsuit abuse that is crippling hospitals, preventing them from purchasing insurance to protect themselves.
Other notable failures on Brown’s legislative record include the following:
Appropriations, Tax Law Amendments, and Unemployment Benefit Amendments ("Stimulus Bill")
The most misapplied name of all – the “Stimulus” that did not stimulate!
Financial Asset Purchase Authority and Tax Law Amendments – i.e. TARP – Brown voted against free market and a ready recovery by authorizing hundreds of billions to bail out “too big to fail” financial firms, a bailout gone too far.
Earmark Moratorium – Even Missouri’s Claire McCaskill supported ending earmarks!
Offshore Drilling in Virginia – an easy move to bring more energy independence to country. He also voted against Keystone, putting his party ahead of his state and the best interests of the country.
DREAM Act – a poorly conceived bill which would do nothing to assist undocumented children, instead placing them in a more legally precarious position in this country
Stem Cell Research Hope Act of 2007 – immoral legislation which authorized researchers to break down embryos, conceived children in vitro, for research.
Brown, one of the most liberal members of the Senate, also supported subsidies for Amtrak, yet refused to support limits on spending. He also voted against closing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – two of the prime instigators in the sub-prime mortgage crisis which created the Great Recession.
Brown’s challenger, Republican Josh Mandel has served as both state senator and treasurer. Mandel led the charge to divest Ohio funds from Iran, a flagrant civil rights violator with ties to international terrorism. As state treasurer, Mandel ensured that the Buckeye state never passed the buck regarding financial stability and pension protection. While other states saw their investment ratings go down, Ohio retained the highest rank. Protecting Ohio state workers, Mandel terminated contracts with two banks who were later indicting for overcharging clients.
Mandel wants to repeal and replace ObamaCare with a 10 Point Healthcare Plan. He wants to simplify the taxcode and stop the wasteful spending in Washington, something that Brown has failed to do. His keen attention to fiscal matters, protecting the future of taxpayer and the fiscal well-being of his state, both signal that Mandel can handle the Senate.
On November 6th, vote for Josh Mandel for US Senate.
Stopped reading right there. Obviously can't take this article serious.
Fort Bragg?
Mandel is a joke. He's a lying POS. And Republicans who are supporting this habitual liar are pathetic. If a Democratic lied like Josh did and pulled the crap he did, they'd be all over him. And I'm talking about him promising -- more than once (as I was in some of those debates/meetings) where he PROMISED he was going to fulfill his term as Treasurer and did not have his sights on anything else. Weeks after being elected, he started his campaign for Senator. Ignorant right-wingers like this blogger -- silent. Which also makes you a hypocrite (typical). Mandel has barely done his job -- no wonder he wants to be Senator. How many weeks has Congress actually worked this year? Maybe 10? And then there's Mandel courting and attending fundraisers by predatory lenders. And this "blogger" is just as pathetic (is he related to that uneducated right-wing loser broad Barbara Willing-whatever-her-name is). Just moronic spewing of his talking points ripped from his campaign literature (Ohio's credit ranking was high during the previous Treasurer; and Mandel cut his budget because HE HAD TO!) Mandel is going to have the floor mopped with him on Nov. 6th. As should happen. And it's also quite pathetic (and further highlights the "state" of the Republican party today) that Mandel was the best they could offer up.
I totally agree with you. What's more idiotic, is that no matter who runs on the GOP ticket, who is no where near qualified, they vote for incompetence, anyway! PARTY FIRST, COUNTRY LAST Go figure! BROWN FOR SENATE!
Still, with Dennis Kucinich out of office, plus the 2010 flip of five House seats to the Republicans, the "red resurgence" is not a faulty perception. I would also add that "I LOVE FREE SPEECH!" and I hope that Ohioans do to -- another reason to remove Brown from office, who is leading a wasteful charge on amending the Constitution because of the "Citizens United' decision in 2010. Go Josh Go!
Talk about biased.....HA! GO BROWN!!!!
Why hasn't Senator BROWN proposed cutting the spending and reducing our childrens burden? http://www.usdebtclock.org/ Candidate Obama: "The problem is, is that the way Bush has done it over the last eight years is to take out a credit card from the Bank of China in the name of our children, driving up our national debt from $5 trillion for the first 42 presidents – #43 added $4 trillion by his lonesome, so that we now have over $9 trillion of debt that we are going to have to pay back - $30,000 for every man, woman and child. That's irresponsible. It's unpatriotic." (July 3, 2008) DIDN'T WE ALL BELIEVE HIM?? SO WHAT HAPPENED?? FORWARD to 2012 "The problem is, is that the way OBAMA has done it over the last 4 years is to take out a credit card from the Bank of China in the name of our children, driving up our national debt from $9 trillion for the first 43 presidents – #44 added $7 trillion by his lonesome, so that we now have over $16 trillion of debt that we are going to have to pay back - $50,000 for every man, woman and child. That's irresponsible. It's unpatriotic." Obama on himself – day in day out 2012 http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2011/08/24/flashback_obama_adding_4_trillion_to_
In January of 2010, the Senate voted on PAYGO legislation that also increased the limit on the national debt ceiling to $14.294 trillion. The legislation passed 60-39. Sherrod Brown voted in favor of the debt increase. In February of 2009, the Senate passed the stimulus bill - officially named the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The act contained language to increase the debt ceiling to $12.104 trillion and passed 61-37. Sherrod Brown voted in favor of passing the legislation that increased the debt ceiling to $12.104 trillion. Increasing the Debt Ceiling to $12.394 trillion In December of 2009, the Senate voted to increase the debt ceiling to $12.394 trillion. The measure passed 60-39. Sherrod Brown voted in favor of increasing the debt limit.
In April of 2008, the Senate passed the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008. Included in that legislation was an increase to the debt ceiling to $10.615 trillion. The legislation passed the Senate 84-12. Sherrod Brown voted in favor of the legislation to increase the debt ceiling. TARP - Debt Ceiling Increase to $11.315 trillion In October of 2008, the Senate passed the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act - the TARP. The legislation included an increase in the debt ceiling to $11.3115 trillion. The legislation passed 74-25. Sherrod Brown voted in favor of the legislation to increase the debt ceiling to $11.315 trillion. Increasing the debt ceiling to $9.815 trillion In September of 2007, the Senate voted to pass a measure that increased the debt ceiling to $9.815 trillion. The measure passed 53-42. Sherrod Brown voted against increasing the debt ceiling to $9.815 trillion. Odd, all those YES VOTES TO SPEND AND BORROW but way back in Sept on 2007......
SO WHY IS SENATOR BROWN DOING IT? He cannot be trusted to balance the budget.
The GOP is looking to balance the budget at the expense of seniors and the disabled. If they have their way, the GOP would cut essential programs like Social Security and Medicare in order to fund more giveaways to millionaires. Sherrod Brown has created a petition to tell Washington that we can’t force our most vulnerable citizens to pay for the deficits created by the right. Senator - you are a LIAR. Medicare is the biggest cause of the deficit. Obama even knows that yet you and he borrow $500 Billion a year to spend on Medicare. Where does this money come from Senator? CHINA CREDIT CARDS? According to Obama's 2012 budget which is on the government website Medicare spending for 2012 equals $478 Billon. Medicaid spending equals $255 Billion. That's $733 Billion in spending. Medicare taxes collected equal $226 Billion. That leaves a shortfall for these 2 programs just for 2012 of $500+ Billion. Since we know we have a budget deficit - over $1 Trillion or so, we borrow this money and the debt grows increasing our interest expense and adding more burden to our children and grandchildren.
Why do you blame others for your actions? We need people we can trust and to be responsible and accountable. We balance our budgets at home. You should too.
Obama had four years, and he failed. Brown had six years, and he rubber-stamped the four years of failure with two more years. Brown's vote for ObamaCare is enough to send him packing. Brown is going down, and Obama is going down with him. Ohio for Romney and for Mandel!
The economy is weak, there are no jobs and we have more debt. How does raising taxes create jobs? Brown is a classic flip flopper. One day it's ok like the tax cuts or raising the debt and the next, they are bad. We need honesty and people we can trust. He is not one of them.
"Suspend the principles of the free market in order to save it"- - -? Markets correct if you let them -- Too Big To Fail is Government's Fault, and the less government we have propping up and protecting failed industries, the better. Mandel for US Senate!
With our national debt rising every day and less and less jobs, why did Sherrod Brown support Obama's budget in 2010 to increase welfare spending by 60%? Where did he think this money was going to come from? Senator Brown, you have some explaining to do. • 2009 Mandatory spending: $1.89 trillion (+6.2%) o $644 billion – Social Security o $360 billion – Unemployment/Welfare/Other mandatory spending o $408 billion – Medicare o $224 billion – Medicaid o $260 billion – Interest on National Debt • 2010 Mandatory spending: $2.173 trillion (+14.9%) o $695 billion (+4.9%) – Social Security o $571 billion (+58.6%) – Unemployment/Welfare/Other mandatory spending o $453 billion (+6.6%) – Medicare o $290 billion (+12.0%) – Medicaid o $164 billion (+18.0%) – Interest on National Debt Obama’s and his Democrat Senator pals 2010 budget spent $283 Billion more in just 1 year. That’s a 15% increase……in 1 year!! Look at the increased spending in WELFARE……$211 BILLION!!!! 1 year!!!
California for Romney and for Mandel! Ohio for Obama and Brown!!!