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De Omnibus Dubitandum - Lux Veritas

Tuesday, August 11, 2015

Election 2016

Gov. Kasich has a$14 billion Obamacare problem
Jake Tapper of CNN is not sold on Gov. John Kasich’s Obamacare expansion spin. Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s habit of telling voters“Ohio money” pays for his Obamacare Medicaid expansion is about to catch up to him. To silence conservative critics, Kasich says Obamacare expansion is bringing $14 billion of Ohio money back to Ohio from the federal government. But that’s not how the expansion works — a fact Kasich’s opponents in a crowded Republican presidential primary are certain to point out. span> There is no vault of “Ohio money” set aside to pay for Kasich’s Obamacare expansion, which has already increased federal welfare spending by $4 billion. Matt Mayer, president of free-market think tank Opportunity Ohio, expects the governor’s message to fall apart when it’s challenged by other presidential candidates.......“Kasich’s balanced state budget and false claim of ‘getting Ohio money back’......Without the federal funny money that increases America’s national debt, John Kasich’s ‘Ohio miracle’ utterly collapses,”........Defending Obamacare expansion as a way to reclaim Ohio money from the feds has worked for Kasich so far, as his poll numbers have jumped following his official July 21 campaign announcement. That’s likely to change in the near future.......

Hillary Clinton has proposed a $350 billion education plan that would enable American undergraduates to attend public colleges without needing student loans. In exchange for a pledge to end higher-education budget cuts, states would receive grants to allow students to study without taking on debt. The proposal would be funded through a cap on itemized deductions on wealthy families' tax returns. ……

Let’s clear up a potential misunderstanding from the very beginning: the uniqueness of the strategy behind the election campaign 2016 of the former Secretary of State Clinton involves two layers of silence. The first one is practiced by Ms. Clinton who for the first time in the history of presidential elections rejects any form of contact with the press. As far as the second layer is concerned, it involves deliberate silence of the sycophantic press with regard to the problem areas plaguing the record of the Senator or Secretary of State Clinton........Hillary Clinton was wrong about radical Islam and she is wrong in her lack of understanding the immense complexity of the American-Russian relations.........

If you're tired of President Obama and his supporters playing the race card at the drop of a hat, fear not. Bernie Sanders is giving us a preview of Democrats who won't hesitate to play the gender card in service to Hillary Clinton's campaign. "I think for a variety of reasons, Hillary Clinton has been under all kinds of attack for many, many years," Sanders said during an interview with CBS's "Face the Nation." "In fact, I can't think of many personalities who have been attacked for more reasons than Hillary Clinton. And, by the way, let me be frank — and I'm running against her: Some of it is sexist." The comments came in response to a question about Clinton's private e-mail server and whether her handling of the controversy surrounding her e-mail raises questions about her trustworthiness. Sanders declined to criticize Clinton on the issue. "I don't know that a man would be treated the same way that Hillary is," he said. "All that I can say is I have known Hillary Clinton for 25 years. I admire her. I respect her. I like her. She and I have very different points of view on a number of issues."

Donald Trump, facing a Republican backlash over comments he made about the hosts for the first GOP debate, came out firing over the weekend, denying that he'd done anything wrong and doubling down on his previous threats to embark on a third-party bid for the White House. The brouhaha came as Trump faced divisions within his own camp, with longtime adviser Roger Stone departing amid concerns over the campaign's direction. The New York Times (free-article access for SmartBrief readers)

As I have been suggesting for some time, the first Republican debate has begun the more serious stage of the 2016 GOP presidential race. Donald Trump has provided a mixture of entertainment and self-indulgence prior to the curtain going up, but now that Carly (Fiorina), John (Kasich), and Chris (Christie) have shown their faces before the audience, we will have a different theater of political operations. Mr. Trump, incidentally, will continue to obtain high poll numbers and media attention, and the Republican establishment should welcome that. An early departure by Trump from the race while his numbers are high could enable him to run more credibly as a third-party candidate and do some damage to the GOP. When he fades, as he will in the coming months, his interest in an independent candidacy will also fade as it becomes obvious such a run would likely hurt no one except perhaps the Democratic nominee (from whom he would likely draw more votes (especially if that nominee is Hillary Clinton) in November 2016…..

"We have never succeeded in shrinking the size of government," Republican Carly Fiorina told "Fox News Sunday." She said she would do it. "We have a bunch of baby boomers who are going to retire out of the federal government over the next five to six years. I will not replace a single one," she promised. "And yes, we need to actually get about the business of reducing the size, the power, the cost, complexity and corruption of this federal government." Host Chris Wallace played a video clip of Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) criticizing Fiorina for nearly driving Hewlett-Packard, a Fortune 500 company, "into the ground." Schultz noted that Fiorina "fired 30,000 people when she was CEO."…….

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