I like the old saying attributed to Abraham Lincoln “Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt”. Well it seems US Rep Jim Jordan (R-OH 4) seems not to be familiar with that quote because during a conversation with journalists in Findlay this past week, as he was about to start his second term in Congress, he removed all doubt on a number of issues.
In a question and answer format Jordan ran through the various issues facing the country:
Q: Are we not in different circumstances now? Making more credit available, more money available has not worked. The money has been sitting idle. Does not that argue more for government spending, putting people to work on public works projects who are not at work?
A: I would have to say just the opposite. All the government spending has not worked. When you think about the bailout fever that has grabbed Washington, whether it has been the Fed or it has been the Treasury itself (bailing out) Bear Stearns, AIG, Fannie, Freddie, Citigroup, auto bailout… we have tried this. We have been through a year now, spending.
A better approach, I think, is allowing the marketplace, those people who make the marketplace work, to have tax breaks. That will have a better chance of growing the economy versus additional spending.
and this related answer:
Q: What is the threat to the work ethic?
A: Fifty-three weeks of unemployment insurance… When I was in the (legislature), one of the things we Republicans did for welfare reform was… putting on a time-limits component which said if you are an able-bodied adult after two years of welfare assistance, you are done.
As far as respecting the free market, when you look at all the bailout stuff, that is just anti-free market.
Jim Jordan: Tax cuts make sense, but spending a concern published in The Findlay Courier 01/10/2008
Did he check his e-mail or read the papers? The free market led to the bail out when selfish profit mongers did stupid things because of a lack of oversight and millions of people got hurt. It would be like cake frosting when the so-called free market would burst into flames, that it would take out the people who caused the flame out in the first place, but they seem to be the ones who get away with it every time.
I wonder if Jordan has ever had no money or so little he had to decide between filling the tank with gas or dinner?
I find in these comments someone who is out of touch with people who are poor and the working poor. Those who have no money and those who make so little that they are one check away from falling into the social safety net.
I don’t know of or have ever known anyone who wanted to be unemployed. Even after losing a job the bills don’t stop. There might be a mortgage to pay, electricity to keep on.
Of course at the end of a long day at the Capitol, Jordan can slip into his warm bed and not have to be concerned about the unemployed, afterall the free market will save the day.
