Edward McElroy is the President of the American Federation of Teachers, which distributes a monthly newsletter to its' unionized automatons (teachers). Mr. McElroy wrote a forward piece with a banner indicating "Where We Stand." This is a response:

Dear President McElroy,

As the husband of a school teacher, I am privy to your monthly Union newsletter. I am referring to your article in Volume 92, Number 6, printed for March 2008.

Usually, I read any opinion piece up to the point of disagreement and then I begin “picking” at the piece until I find proof of the fallibility of the author. For your piece, Where We Stand, I stopped at the second sentence.

Bush’s first term was laced with attributes to “a jobless recovery” and the mid-term election campaigns all asked: “Mr. Bush, where are the jobs?” John Kerry also BEGAN his presidential run on that question, but had to abandon the issue once the jobs began flourishing. The economy, stimulated by Bush’s economic policies and 4% unemployment rate (which, according to economists WORLDWIDE indicates FULL employment status), began booming. Like and echo, however, it took time for the sound of “cha-ching” to reach some of the People.

This is the “legacy of risky, ill-advised and ideologically driven fiscal policies” that will leave him remembered as “the little engine that could.” I use that children’s book reference because I am, obviously, dealing with someone whose mind for the economy has been addled to that of a “blame-everyone-else” toddler.

“The economy has been undermined by loss of jobs,”—undoubtedly brought on by the Democrat’s win in the 2006 mid-term elections. Nancy Pelosi’s failures are legend and Harry Reid is equally malfunctioning in his “leadership” role in the Senate. Slowing of the manufacturing sector is directly attributable to taxation policies toward Business, which passes that “burden” on to the consumer in higher prices or Outsources to another country to avoid them altogether. These taxation policies will not only CONTINUE under your chosen Hillary, but will be exacerbated by her further regulations requiring healthcare for all.

“…multiple tax giveaways skewed toward the wealthy…” are what is NEEDED in order for those “wealthy” to provide jobs for the middle and lower classes. Your reference to “(propelling) the deficit into the stratosphere,” while colorful, is completely exaggerated, intellectually weak, and inconveniently untrue.

If you appreciate a good metaphor as much as you seem to (by your article), try this one: Your ilk MAY be dressed in Armani, but you’re no better than the tin-cup hobo at Union Station trying to beg alms from passers-by. What makes you THINK that you are better is the fact that your extortion tactics have worked, in the past, thus, as long as you continue to LIE to your teacher base, you think you can, one day, make the lie TRUE.

Too bad that only worked in Nazi Germany.

Sincerely,

Michael J. Holcombe