Finneran: A Drunken Nation
Tom Finneran, GoLocalProv MINDSETTER™
Finneran: A Drunken Nation
The country is a legless drunk, singing boisterous barroom songs with fellow legless drunks.
Can some sober adult please show up and declare closing time?
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTThree Presidents in a row have flunked the grown-up test of fiscal sobriety. George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump are slovenly failures when judged by their own words. And Congress is not much better. In fact, Congress is an active accomplice in hosting the eternal happy hour.
It appears that our “leaders”, so-called, are intent on avoiding any semblance of leadership. Thus the non-stop party.
It’s a curious party, akin to an Alice-in-Wonderland tale. No one at the party is asked to pick up the tab. The bill is simply left on the table, to be paid sometime in the future by “others”. Nor are there any head-pounding hangovers for those in the throes of spending what we don’t have. The hangovers are also passed on to “others”.
Those “others” of course are our children and grandchildren. And our professed love for them is a sham. We are leaving them with an enormous pile of debt along with an embarrassing example of reckless leadership.
Two recent events illuminate the degraded scene. As the curtain opens we note a multi-trillion dollar national debt, much of it due to the fiscal foolishness of Bush the younger and Obama the poet professor. Neither one should ever have been let near the nation’s checkbook.
Enter Donald Trump, the purported private sector titan who was to show the D.C. swamp creatures the error of their ways. What does he propose as the cure for drunken spending and ballooning deficits? Why a tax cut of course. It’s standard operating procedure when you’re dead broke to make yourself even poorer right? If I don’t have enough money coming in to support my lavish unsustainable lifestyle, then it makes sense for me to take in even less money, right? Right?
Look, I understand the attraction of tax cuts. I enjoy having extra money in my pocket. We all do. And there’s an argument to be made for goosing the economy and stimulating growth at certain points in the economic cycle. There’s also an argument to be made about screwing with your children’s futures and locking them into a political debtors’ prison.
Trump might have been the honest broker on this accumulating mess if he had pushed for spending cuts on an equivalent scale. But lo and behold, the private sector wizard embraced a spending spree instead. Forget basic finance and economics. Did any of these three Presidents pass first-grade math? Can they add and subtract? Would you put them in charge of a shoeshine stand?
The national debt now approaches twenty trillion dollars. We’re bingeing away our credit. We are bingeing away our credibility. We are bingeing away our children’s futures. Both parties and the last three Presidents should be ashamed. The citizens they purport to represent pay their bills and live within their means. Those citizens would not fight wars on a credit card. They would not spend what they do not have. They would not take in less and spend more. They would not ruin their children’s dreams. And sadly, such citizens will not be President any day soon.
Apparently it takes a certain Ivy League gumption---Yale, Harvard, and Penn being the alma maters of Bush, Obama, and Trump---to pretend a possession of common sense. As for me, I’d take any mother and housewife from the mid-West to shout “last call” and to end the national nonsense. It’s time to sober up.
GoLocal: Benchmark Poll, October 2017
Sponsor: GoLocalProv
Sample: N=403
Rhode Island General Election Voters Margin of Error: +/- 4.9% at 95% Confidence Level
Interviewing Period: October 9-11, 2017
Mode: Landline (61%) and Mobile (39%)
Telephone Directed by: John Della Volpe, SocialSphere, Inc.
Are you registered to vote at this address?
Yes: 100%
When it comes to voting, do you consider yourself to be affiliated with the Democratic Party, the Republican Party, Moderate, or Unaffiliated with a major party?
Unaffiliated: 49%
Democrat: 32%
Republican: 15%
Moderate: .4%
Next year, in November of 2018, there will be a statewide general election for Governor and many other state offices. How likely is it that you will vote in this election?
Will you definitely be voting, will you probably be voting, are you 50-50...
Definitely be voting: 78%
Probably be voting: 13%
50-50: 9%
In general, would you say things in Rhode Island are headed in the right direction or are they off on the wrong track?
Right track: 39%
Wrong track: 45%
Mixed: 10%
Don't know/Refused: .6%
What would you say is the number one problem facing Rhode Island that you would like the Governor to address?
Jobs and economy: 21%
Education: 12%
Taxes: 12%
Roads: 12%
State budget: 9%
Corruption/Public integrity: .8%
Healthcare: 3%
Governor: 3%
Homelessness: 2%
Immigration: 2%
Other: 7%
Don’t know: .9%
Over the past three years or so, would you say the economy in Rhode Island has improved, gotten worse, or not changed at all?
Changed for the better: 35%
Changed for the worse: 16%
Not changed at all: 43%
Don't know/Refused: 5%
Over the same time, has your family's financial situation improved, gotten worse, or not changed at all?
Changed for the better: 26%
Changed for the worse: 19%
Not changed at all: 54%
Don't know/Refused: 1%
Recently, a proposal has been made to permit the issuance of $81 million in bonds by the State to build a new stadium for the Pawtucket Red Sox. If there was an election today on this issue, would you vote to approve or reject issuing $81 million in financing supported moral obligation bonds to build the stadium?
Net: Approve: 28%
Definitely approve: 15%
Probably approve: 14%
Net: Reject: 67%
Probably reject: 19%
Definitely reject: 48%
Don't know: 4%
Could you please tell me your age?
18-24: 7%
25-34: 15%
35-44: 15%
45-54: 20%
55-64: 17%
65+: 25%
Don't know/refused: 1%
What was the last grade you completed in school?
0-11: 2%
High school grad: 16%
Technical/Vocational school: 1%
Some college: 23%
College grad: 34%
Graduate degree: 24%
Don't know/refused: 1%
The next question is about the total income of YOUR HOUSEHOLD for the PAST 12 MONTHS. Please include your income PLUS the income of all members living in your household (including cohabiting partners and armed forces members living at home).
$50,000 or less: 27%
More $50,000 but less than $75,000: 13%
More $75,000 but less than $100,000: 13%
More $100,000 but less than $150,000: 17%
$150,000 or more: 13%
Don't know/refused: 17%
What particular ethnic group or nationality - such as English, French, Italian, Irish, Latino, Jewish, African American, and so forth - do you consider yourself a part of or feel closest to?
American/None: 21%
English: 13%
Italian: 13%
Irish: 12%
Black or African American: 6%
Latino/Hispanic: 6%
French: 6%
Portuguese: 3%
Jewish: 3%
German: 1%
Would you say that Donald Trump has done an excellent good, fair or poor job as President?
Excellent: 13%
Good: 12%
Fair: 14%
Poor: 57%
Never heard of: 0%
Cannot rate: 3%
Would you say that Jack Reed has done an excellent good, fair or poor job as a United States Senator?
Excellent: 22%
Good: 29%
Fair: 23%
Poor: 15%
Never heard of: 6%
Cannot rate: 6%
Would you say that Sheldon Whitehouse has done an excellent good, fair or poor job as a United States Senator?
Excellent: 17%
Good: 22%
Fair: 21%
Poor: 28%
Never heard of: 6%
Cannot rate: 7%
Would you say that David Cicilline has done an excellent good, fair or poor job as a Member of Congress?
Excellent: 9%
Good: 29%
Fair: 21%
Poor: 27%
Never heard of: 6%
Cannot rate: 8%
Would you say that James Langevin has done an excellent good, fair or poor job as a Member of Congress?
Excellent: 7%
Good: 30%
Fair: 20%
Poor: 18%
Never heard of: 13%
Cannot rate: 11%
Would you say that Gina Raimondo has done an excellent good, fair or poor job as Governor?
Excellent: 6%
Good: 28%
Fair: 30%
Poor: 31%
Never heard of: 1%
Cannot rate: 3%
Would you say that Daniel McKee has done an excellent good, fair or poor job as Lieutenant Governor?
Excellent: 3%
Good: 16%
Fair: 21%
Poor: 8%
Never heard of: 26%
Cannot rate: 25%
Would you say that Peter Kilmartin has done an excellent good, fair or poor job as Attorney General?
Excellent: 3%
Good: 20%
Fair: 28%
Poor: 17%
Never heard of: 13%
Cannot rate: 19%
Would you say that Seth Magaziner has done an excellent good, fair or poor job as General Treasurer?
Excellent: 4%
Good: 18%
Fair: 24%
Poor: 13%
Never heard of: 21%
Cannot rate: 21%
Would you say that Nellie Gorbea has done an excellent good, fair or poor job as Secretary of State?
Excellent: 5%
Good: 21%
Fair: 21%
Poor: 10%
Never heard of: 20%
Cannot rate: 23%
Would you say that Jorge Elorza has done an excellent good, fair or poor job as Mayor of Providence?
Excellent: 4%
Good: 24%
Fair: 24%
Poor: 22%
Never heard of: 9%
Cannot rate: 15%
