** In case you missed Plunderbund's take on it, Sen. Sherrod Brown and Josh Mandel met at an interview at the Dispatch. After reading the article, a sane person would conclude that Sen. Sherrod Brown was the grown up candidate with facts on his side. However, Josh Mandel sounded a lot like a kid with over memorized talking points as his answers for everything.
Dispatch:
....When Mandel was asked by
The Dispatch what he would have done differently at the time the federal loans were
offered to the auto companies, as well as what health-care alternative he would offer to “
Obamacare,” Mandel offered a five-minute response about the free-enterprise system, government
regulations and Greece before steering to an environmental regulation he has criticized Brown for
supporting.
When he was asked again to answer the initial question, Mandel offered general remarks on
regulations, energy production and the U.S. tax code. Twelve minutes after Mandel was asked what he
would have done differently during the time of the bailout — and it had been suggested to him that
he either did not have or was not offering an alternative — Mandel said: “You can write, ‘Josh’s
plan would’ve been, and Josh’s plan continues to be, to reform regulations and create a better
economic environment for auto manufacturing and manufacturing in general.’ ”
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* If you are thinking about voting for a Republican, remember that they are targeting Social Security, and Medicare. Through a pledge, Cut, Cap, and Balance, signed by Republican Senators (including Rob Portman, etc. see LINK), House Members (including Paul Ryan, Todd Akin, Jeff Flake, Darrell Issa, Thad McCotter, Patrick McHenry, Ben Quayle, Jim Rinacci, Steve Stivers, Joe Walsh, Allen West, Joe Wilson, etc. see Link), candidates for the Senate and the House (including George Allen, Josh Mandel, Heather Wilson, etc., see LINK), and Mitt Romney (and the rest of the Republican presidential candidates, see LINK), they've vowed to make cuts no matter how many people get hurt.
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities evaluated the Cut, Cap, and Balance Act and the conclusion is frightening:
...The “Cut, Cap, and Balance Act” that House Republican leaders are
circulating achieves these results through a multi-faceted attack on the
federal government. It would require that total federal spending
shrink to about 20 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) starting
in 2015 (by writing the Ryan budget’s year-by-year expenditure levels as
a share of GDP into law, as caps to be enforced through automatic
across-the-board budget cuts if the caps otherwise wouldn’t be met).
The Ryan budget would slash non-security discretionary programs by 33
percent by 2021 (relative to CBO’s January baseline), cut Medicaid by
$1.4 trillion over the decade, and cut an array of other programs from
Medicare to Pell Grants, while shielding the defense budget and further
cutting taxes for the wealthiest Americans.
...“Cut, Cap, and Balance,” by contrast, specifically subjects all such
programs to across-the-board cuts if its spending caps would be
exceeded....
...an impoverished elderly widow living on Supplemental Security Income —
which provides benefits that lift people to just 75 percent of the
poverty line — could have her assistance cut back under the measure’s
across-the-board budget cuts even as millionaire hedge-fund managers
retained their lucrative carried-interest tax breaks.
Let me repeat------Republican candidate, Josh Mandel, signed the pledge.