* Do you think Ohio voters are fed up the the lies from Josh Mandel? Is it possible that voters are just disgusted that Josh Mandel has paid little attention to his day job as Ohio Treasurer? It might even be the case that Ohio voters are just so turned off by the extreme right wing mantra coming from Josh Mandel's mouth. Mandel is --- for more tax cuts for the wealthy (aka "job creators"), for repealing regulations that protect our air/water/environment, against public schools, against women's reproductive freedom, against pay equity for women, against equal rights for LGBT, and wants to adopt the Paul Ryan budget! Josh Mandel sounds positively radical.
Josh Mandel's crazy right wing campaign explains how he is doing in the polls.
Realclearpolitics:
Polling Data
| Poll | Date | Sample | Brown (D) | Mandel (R) | Spread |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RCP Average | 5/17 - 6/25 | -- | 48.5 | 38.0 | Brown +10.5 |
| Quinnipiac | 6/19 - 6/25 | 1237 RV | 50 | 34 | Brown +16 |
| PPP (D) | 6/21 - 6/24 | 673 RV | 46 | 39 | Brown +7 |
| Rasmussen Reports | 5/29 - 5/29 | 500 LV | 47 | 42 | Brown +5 |
| NBC News/Marist | 5/17 - 5/20 | 1103 RV | 51 | 37 | Brown +14 |
....Here's what happened with Stericycle. In November 1999, Bain Capital
and Madison Dearborn Partners, a Chicago-based private equity firm,
filed with the SEC a Schedule 13D,
which lists owners of publicly traded companies, noting that they had
jointly purchased $75 million worth of shares in Stericycle, a
fast-growing player in the medical-waste industry. (That April,
Stericycle had announced plans to buy the medical-waste businesses of
Browning Ferris Industries and Allied Waste Industries.) The SEC filing
lists assorted Bain-related entities that were part of the deal,
including Bain Capital (BCI), Bain Capital Partners VI (BCP VI), Sankaty
High Yield Asset Investors (a Bermuda-based Bain affiliate), and
Brookside Capital Investors (a Bain offshoot). And it notes that Romney
was the "sole shareholder, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and
President of BCI, BCP VI Inc., Brookside Inc. and Sankaty Ltd."
The document also states that Romney "may be deemed to share voting
and dispositive power with respect to" 2,116,588 shares of common stock
in Stericycle "in his capacity as sole shareholder" of the Bain entities
that invested in the company. That was about 11 percent of the
outstanding shares of common stock. (The whole $75 million investment
won Bain, Romney, and their partners 22.64 percent of the firm's
stock—the largest bloc among the firm's owners.) The original copy of
the filing was signed by Romney.
Another SEC document
filed November 30, 1999, by Stericycle also names Romney as an
individual who holds "voting and dispositive power" with respect to the
stock owned by Bain. If Romney had fully retired from the private equity
firm he founded, why would he be the only Bain executive named as the
person in control of this large amount of Stericycle stock?...
How can Romney be against abortions yet profit off of a company that disposes of abortions?
* Have you heard some right wing talking heads and Republicans say that the Affordable Care Act will cause the largest tax hike in the history of the world? The Republicans are wrong. Just because the Republicans say something does not make it a fact. The Washington Post has this info from Ezra Klein (you might want to take notes for further discussions with your right wing brother-in-law) that sets the record straight.
Washington Post:
Since the Supreme Court decision, Republicans have been calling the Affordable Care Act “the largest tax increase in the history of the world.” Politifact rates this false. Kevin Drum’s got a table
of the 15 significant tax increases since 1950, and the Affordable Care
Act, which amounts to a tax increase of 0.49 percent of GDP, comes in
10th. Austin Frakt took Drum’s table and made a chart:
So no, the Affordable Care Act isn’t the “biggest tax hike in
history.” It’s not even the biggest tax hike in the past 60 years. Or 50
years. Or 30 years. Or 20 years....
Of course, Erik Fehrnstrom clarified Mitt Romney's statement that the money paid by people refusing to get health insurance was a "penalty" under the Massachusetts health plan that was designed by Romney.
Boston:
Mitt Romney’s campaign added one more spin Monday to the dizzying
debate over what to call money owed to the government by people who
flout the national health care law’s individual insurance mandate.
Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom said the presumptive Republican
presidential nominee agrees with the Obama administration’s insistence
that the “shared responsibility payment,” as it is called in the
Affordable Care Act, should be described as a penalty, or a fee, or a
fine -- but not a tax. Romney’s gripe, Fehrnstrom said, is that the
president changed his tune when the time came to defend the health care
law before the Supreme Court....
Did you get that? It is a PENALTY!!!!!