Drew Carey: Saving Cleveland the Libertarian (Reagan) Way!1!!

[HughBeaumont]

Note: No link since the PD (who, of course, put this on their front page this morning) hasn't posted this yet.

Seriously. The homegrown comedian creates a series of documentaries offering ideas and solutions for getting the city back on track.

(Too bad most of these ideas have proven to be miserable failures for 28 years solid. But hey, never let facts get in the way of fantasy . . .)

Cleveland's woes - population loss, failing schools, lack of economic spark - are no joke to comedian and native son Drew Carey, who advocates less government, more competition and lower taxes to bring the city back.

Carey took time off from his gig as host of TV's "The Price is Right" to help produce and star in a series of Web reports detailing Cleveland's woes and a number of proposed fixes that will be launched next week on reason.tv, the Internet arm of the non-partisan, libertarian-leaning Reason Foundation, on whose board Carey serves.

Did y'all catch that? "Non-Partisan"? Whenever ANYthing says that . . . THEY'RE NOT!

Oh, you'll love this one . . .

The series, reported and produced by reason.tv's editor Nick Gillespie, explores problems in Cleveland and other Rust Belt cities and offers solutions using examples from other cities - such as Houston - that are enjoying success and population growth.

Bottom line? As the web site's motto reads, "Free minds and free markets." In other words, move out of the way, government. In a town like Cleveland, with big government bureaucracies, cumbersome regulations and old-school unions, the series argues, it's no wonder times are tough.

Uh, times are tough because quarterly-profit-happy corporatists gutted this city and moved all industry south or overseas. 28 years of Reagan Laissez-fail turned this country into a boarded-up ramshackle heap. The wealthy currently enjoy the lowest top marginal tax rate in 75 YEARS and rewarded ("Trickled Down", if you will) the people with ZERO NET JOB CREATION IN A DECADE and stagnant real-dollar wages.

Republican solutions cannot CURE Republican problems.

When was the last time this was tried? Oh yeah, The Great Depression.

The straw that breaks:

"My only experience in running a city is SimCity, the computer game," Carey says in one of the episodes. "I know that when you raise taxes, all the Sims leave the city."

:eyes: :eyes: :eyes: Yes, because the example of fantasy city-buildin' could absolutely apply to real life planning! Why didn't I see that?

This guy should be in a sitcom starring him, Victoria Jackson, Chuck Norris and Patricia Heaton.

[YOY]

1. Drew may be a funny guy but it's a fuckload more complicated than his solution.

There are no jobs in Cleveland. Lowering taxes won't bring the jobs back.

[bullwinkle428]

2. I think he's sowing the seeds for a possible run at a public office -

he thinks it's probably a perfect time to strike while the iron is hot, when the Republicans supposedly have all of this momentum going for them.

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

8. To be honest, I like Carey alot.

And if it were between Carey or Jackson (incumbent)... I'd vote for Carey withuot blinking. Jackson sucks and Cleveland needs change. I don't think many would agree that cleveland has been doing even marginally acceptable for the last decede, much less the last 5 years.

Hey, at least we're not Detroit.

[blue_onyx]

9. Just had to throw in the Detroit comment, huh?

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

10. ROFL,. Don't worry, you guys have the odd years and we get the even years, remember?

Have you seen that "Cleveland Promotional Video"?
It's so sad it's funny. It'll be somewhere on youtube for sure.

"... Here's the place where there used to be industry. "
"... If you visit you might even see this guy "

[HughBeaumont]

11. Have you read the article?

Privitization, lower taxes (and lower and lower and lower and lower till there just ain't no taxes no more ha ha ha hah aAHAAAA!), less gubmint, laissez-fail . . . how will these "solutions", which have ubiquitously failed America and left the country in a morass of joblessness and zero hope, help ANY rust belt city?

[marmar]

15. "I'd vote for Carey withuot blinking"

Or thinking, apparently.

[blm]

3. Bush1, Bush2 sent TONS of federal tax dollars to Houston and all of Texas - THAT is why they're

looking good to you, Drew.

How did that climate of deregulation work out for all those Houston folk who worked at Enron, btw?

[Berry Cool]

4. Drew Carey can be very funny. But he's never more funny than when he advocates how to run Cleveland.

Because THAT is a real joke.

As for Patricia Heaton, I'd rather see her brother who writes the column in the PD Friday magazine in charge. He'd probably do a better job.

[unblock]

5. also in simcity, if you don't tax enough, your city crumbles, and again the sims all leave.

raising taxes isn't always wrong, raising taxes TOO MUCH is what's bad.

anti-taxers seem to think that taxes are ALWAYS too high and therefore cutting taxes is ALWAYS right and raising them is ALWAYS wrong.


the reality is that taxes have been FAR higher in the past, going back to wwii, and the "sims" did not leave the "city" even when the top tax rate was over 70%. the idea that the top tax rate can't be raised from the irresponsibly low levels of today is ridiculous.


i personally support raising taxes on higher incomes considerably, while lowering the payroll taxes. this gives businesses an incentive to hire workers, which we sorely need right now.

[HughBeaumont]

6. And that's what I don't get about the Wrong Wing:

They all claim that "the environment is right for a SOSHULIST takeover!1!11!!!! Never in HISTORY has American been less industry-friendly!!1!!! These Commies want to punish SUCCESS!!!!"

How can they even SAY this with a straight face?

The Wealth-To-Worker inequality gap is nearing an all-time high.

Corporations get bailed out by the government before the people do.

The Top Marginal Tax Rate is the lowest it's been in 75 years.

Wages in real dollars have been stagnant since 1979.

They've been the recipients of the most corporate friendly policies, loopholes, tax breaks and bailouts for decades.

They own all the media channels.

Unions and anyone trying to even put a slight rein on their runaway destruction are being decimated.

They're allowed to search for the lowest-cost-possible labor without hem or haw.

There hasn't been ONE NET NEW JOB created in 10 years, so they can't really use the whole "labor costs" thing as to why we're "industry unfriendly".

They continue to staunchly oppose universal health care, mainly because that would step on the toes of their cronies/golf club buddies in the insurance mafia (yet they continually cite high health care costs and don't see the disconnect).

Whatever the wealthy and corporations WANT, the wealthy and corporations GET, without question, without precedent.

They operate under one motto and one motto only: "It's not enough that I succeed, but everyone else must FAIL".

Short of abolishing ALL of their taxes and surrendering all wealth over to the rich, WHAT more do they WANT?

WHAT more could they POSSIBLY want???

We bend over backwards to please them and please them and it still is NEVER ENOUGH!!

HOW is America even remotely "Not Industry Friendly"???

[unblock]

7. lies are all they have. the honest truth, that they're simply greedy fucks, wouldn't go over well.

they lie so much about policy that it has become a part of their worldview, that the ROLE of the media and of politicians is to lie, to sell unpalatable policies to the masses.

[upi402]

13. +1 ^

Colonel Sanders lovin' chickens can't get to the frypot fast enough. I blame the corporate media traitors, people are easy to fool.

[Yavin4]

14. Bush Got TWO Tax Cuts Passed

And he left with a negative new job creation rate.

Clinton raised taxes during the first year of his presidency, and we had the highest rate of new job creation in history.

Ergo, tax cuts do not lead to job creation.

No one is going to put new businesses in Cleveland simply because of its tax policies. This is a myth of epic proportions.

[upi402]

12. "a sitcom starring him, Victoria Jackson, Chuck Norris and Patricia Heaton"

That would clear a damn city.

These idiots 'seem' smart but have a blind spot preventing them from seeing facts that disprove their opinion. Maybe he should follow Dennis Miller to Faux News. Talk about blinded by arrogance!

[Javaman]

16. There are two types of libertarians...

those that are rich and feel that they should keep all that they earned even though it was the system they fight so stupidly against that allowed them to earn their riches and the moronic small minds of people who have no idea that taxes pay for our basic infrastructure and emergency services.

They should be called the selfish party, but the repukes have that one cornered.