Republicans complain about everything
Some people who know me, mistakenly believe that I that I feel it’s the end of the world, the moment the Pittsburgh Pirates get eliminated from the play-offs.
Nope!
My official day of mourning follows the final pitch of the World Series.
So, long after Andrew McCutchen clears out his PNC Park locker, I still plan my evenings around baseball.
The only way I’ll change those plans is when there’s a good old-fashioned Republican presidential debate.
Last Wednesday night, the Mets and the Royals got DVR’d, while I watched 10 Republican candidates deliver body blows to the CNBC debate moderators.
It wasn’t pretty.
There were silly questions: “Should the day after the Super Bowl be a national holiday?” And, “What is your favorite cellphone app?”
There was lots of bluster. John Kasich goes after Donald Trump; Trump fights back; Jeb Bush verbally slaps Marco Rubio; Rubio hurls a verbal haymaker at Jeb Bush.
And just about everybody complained about CNBC.
And since these are Republicans, the American public gets a chance to see just how messed up the country is – again.
According to each of these Republicans, the country has fallen, is falling or will fall on the scrapheap of history thanks to (alternately) Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.
“We’re running off the cliff,” said Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal during the earlier, “kid’s table” debate.
“Our country doesn’t win anymore,” Trump announces, whom, according to the latest poll numbers, is no longer winning himself.
“I do not want to walk my five grandkids through the charred remains of America,” says Mike Huckabee, who seems poised to become the nation’s first National Fire Chief.
And there was Dr. Ben Carson, who wants everybody to know, “P.C. (political correctness) is destroying our nation.”
The good doctor should be reminded that a ton of political correctness, is always better than a spoonful of dishonesty.
Here’s my case in point.
During the debate, Carson was questioned about his connection to a pharmaceutical company, Mannatech, which has paid $7 million in a deceptive marketing lawsuit in Texas.
It seems Mannatech had made claims about its product’s autism and cancer healing properties, that didn’t pass the sniff test.
“Well, that’s easy to answer: I didn’t have an involvement with them. That is total propaganda. And this is what happens in our society: total propaganda,” the former pediatric neurosurgeon proclaimed.
“It is absolutely absurd to say that I had any kind of relationship with them,” he added for good measure.
But there are numerous sources, well-documented sources, that indicated he’d had a very real relationship with Mannatech.
The Pulitzer Prize winning web site, Politifact.com, immediately rated Carson’s claims “False.”
According to PolitiFact, while he’d never been a paid employee of Mannatech, dating back to 2004, “He got paid to deliver speeches to Mannatech and appeared in promotional videos, and he consistently delivered glowing reviews of the supplements.”
In other words Dr. Carson, Oops.
It had been billed as a debate about fiscal matters.
So, several of the candidates crowed about their proposed tax plans.
Oh, the promises.
They’ll each cut taxes to a nub and the entire Republic will live happily ever after.
Except, even conservative tax experts conclude that slashing taxes the way that Donald Trump, Bobby Jindal, Rick Santorum, Jeb Bush or Marco Rubio have proposed, would balloon the national debt.
Most notable would be Trump’s proposal. According to the conservative Tax foundation, “The Donald’s” tax cuts could cost $10 trillion.
And according to Citizens for Tax Justice, Rand Paul (you remember him don’t you?) has a tax proposal that might cost $15 trillion.
There’s been a lot of talk about Marco Rubio, with his well-placed counterpunch against Jeb Bush, as being the winner of the debate.
That’s because Jeb, just like his older brother, seems to have lots of difficulty thinking on his feet.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump appeared to be more of an interested bystander last Wednesday night, than a fully-engaged participant.
That could become a trend.
Trump’s bluster just isn’t as entertaining as it had been.
Edward A. Owens is a three-time Emmy Award winner and 20-year veteran of television news. E-mail him at freedoms@bellatlantic.net