NY-26: Jack Davis, You Don’t Know Jack About Economics
by Matt at Jul 19th, 2008
On the campaign trail, Jack Davis touts his credentials as a businessman, but his rhetoric on the economy suggests he knows as much about business and economic as I know about brain surgery:
Congressman hopeful Jack Davis stood outside the former injected rubber plant on Platt Street in Albion on Thursday morning with a political message.
“Free trade is not free,” he began. A placard on his podium read “Save Jobs,” the Democrat’s campaign mot
to. “It’s time to put working people first.”
GM, Ford and Chrysler have announced the closing of more plants, he said. The loss of jobs is devastating to families.
“In our region, too many working men and women have had to explain to their families that they lost their job because it was cheaper to do the work in China or Mexico,” Davis said. “We don’t need more of the same policies that have given us the worst economy since the Great Depression.”
The worst economy since the Great Depression? If Jack Davis thinks the current economy bears any resemblance to the economy during the Great Depression or can justifiably be compared to it, then he’s just crazy, especially if he’s going to blame free trade. The raising of tariffs during the Great Depression significantly reduced international trade, making the depression even worse.
Ending free trade would effectively impose a tax increase on other countries, which would discourage trade between the United States and foreign countries, and causes prices of goods to just go up.
The solution, he believes, is good-paying jobs that will keep taxes low and communities safe. Lobbyists, corporations and trade associations have too much power in Washington as they push Congress to pass more free trade deals, he said.
“Special interest money doesn’t impre
ss me,” Davis said. “I am the only candidate to have joined Barack Obama in rejecting lobbyist and PAC money for my campaign, and I am the only candidate pledging to work for a dollar a year. … We cannot keep doing the same thing … and expect different results.”
It’s amusing to see Jack Davis trying to ride on Obama’s coattails, but let’s be honest here, if Jack Davis couldn’t afford to fund his own campaign then Jack Davis would be accepting campaign contributions from voters, lobbyists and PACs alike… just like Barack Obama, who, contrary to his own rhetoric, has enjoyed support from PACs and lobbyists:
Using campaign appearances, e-mails to supporters, and Iowa TV ads, Illinois Senator Barack Obama has repeatedly reminded voters that his presidential campaign does not accept contributions from lobbyists or political action committees, casting his decision as a noble departure from the ways of Washington.
[...]
But behind Obama’s campaign rhetoric about taking on special interests lies a more complicated truth. A [Boston] Globe review of Obama’s campaign finance records shows that he collected hundreds of thousands of dollars from lobbyists and PACs as a state legislator in Illinois, a US senator, and a presidential aspirant.
In Obama’s eight years in the Illinois Senate, from 1996 to 2004, almost two-thirds of the money he raised for his campaigns — $296,000 of $461,000 — came from PACs, corporate contributions, or unions, according to Illinois Board of Elections records. He tapped financial services firms, real estate developers, healthcare providers, oil companies, and many other corporate interests, the records show.
Obama’s US Senate campaign committee, starting with his successful run in 2004, has collected $128,000 from lobbyists and $1.3 million from PACs, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonprofit organization that tracks money in politics. His $1.3 million from PACs represents 8 percent of what he has raised overall. Clinton’s Senate committee, by comparison, has raised $3 million from PACs, 4 percent of her total amount raised, the group said.
In addition, Obama’s own federal PAC, Hopefund, took in $115,000 from 56 PACs in the 2005-2006 election cycle out of $4.4 million the PAC raised, according to CQ MoneyLine, which collects Federal Election Commission data. Obama then used those PAC contributions — including thousands from defense contractors, law firms, and the securities and insurance industries — to build support for his presidential run by making donations to Democratic Party organizations and candidates around the country.
And, oh yes, even Obama’s presidential campaign has ties to lobbyists that cannot be ignored:
Though Obama has returned thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from registered federal lobbyists since he declared his candidacy in February [2007], his presidential campaign has maintained ties with lobbyists and lobbying firms to help raise some of the $58.9 million he collected through the first six months of 2007. Obama has raised more than $1.4 million from members of law and consultancy firms led by partners who are lobbyists, The Los Angeles Times reported last week. And The Hill, a Washington newspaper, reported earlier this year that Obama’s campaign had reached out to lobbyists’ networks to use their contacts to help build his fund-raising base.
If Jack Davis wasn’t funding his own campaign and refusing lobbyist and PAC money at the same time, then it be more fair of him to criticize his opponents for not doing the same. And while his criticisms of Jon Powers for taking contributions from strip-club owner Rick Snowden are legitimate criticisms, he would have gladly accepted the sleazy money if he had to raise money for his own campaign.
Tariffs helped build American industry. Great Republicans like Abe Lincoln insisted on using American steel to build the railroads. Once America had become the leading industrial power, free trade policies worked well for a number of years. After all, it was the U.S. exporting most of the big ticket items like vehicles and appliances. That isn’t true anymore and we have had twenty five years of growing trade deficits.
I don’t care what your free market economists say. They know theory - not reality. It is time for a change in direction if the American middle class to survive. We need to save what is left of U.S. manufacturing. Any hardship to lower and middle income consumers could be eased by rebates from the revenues created by tariffs.