Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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Praying for Bad Things to Happen by D.G. MARTIN forthcoming decision on the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, commonly called Obamacare? Here is a short answer to the first question. Whenever things are going bad for our country, it hurts the political disaster plaguing the country. Although George W. Bush was not running for reelection, the Republican candidate, John McCain, rep- resented the party that controlled the presidency. Both Republicans and Democrats knew that the worse things party trying to retain control of the presidency. And it helps those out of power who seek to turn out those in power. Back in 2008, some Democrats secretly rejoiced at the economic got for the country, the better chance Barack Obama and the Democrats had to win. Can you blame some Democrats for wishing for the worst in 2008? They thought a bad economy was a small price to pay for the changes an Obama victory would, they hoped, bring about. Were they actually praying for bad things? I do not know for sure, but I would not be surprised. This year the shoe is on the other foot. The economy is still struggling to recover Why are so many people these days praying for bad things to happen to good people? And what does the answer to that question have to do with the Supreme Court's real or perceived, really does determine the outcome of our presidential elections. For answers to such a question, North Carolinians turn to N.C. State's wise With all this political posturing about the economy, we need to ask if it's condition, economist and columnist, Mike Walden. In a recent column he explained how fac- tors in the economy were part of a model developed by Ray Fair of Yale University to predict correctly the outcome of every presidential election since 1916, except three (Kennedy-Nixon, Clinton-Bush I, and Bush II-Gore). Fair's model has lots of factors, but according to Walden, "The Do prayers for bad things make a difference? from the 2008 downturn that helped get Obama elected. Republicans have been lick- ing their chops at a chance to turn the tables and take advantage of the down econo- my. They think they can take away the presidency from Obama the same way he took it from them. They will blame the bad economy on the president and his party. Their greatest fear in the next few months is that the uptick in the economy will Obamacare. Why would they want to lose their crowning achievement, something they still believe is critical for our county? Overturning Obamacare would, they say, take away one of the big emo- something that they think would be bad for the country, but good for Obama's reelection chances, even if the economy is in trouble this fall. These Democrats hope the Supreme Court will strike down tional issues that would otherwise motivate Republican workers to get out the vote in November. And, they think, that the loss to many people of their benefits condition of America's economy in more frightening terms than an old-time revival preacher's most vivid portrayal of a fiery Hell. When Truth Lost Its Temper by JOHN HOOD If Gov. Bev Perdue and liberal activists want to know why their Edu-scare campaign last year to balance North Carolina's budget without a tax increase, their budget spent less money than Gov. Perdue had proposed. And it was true that this lower spending level brought with it a lower number of government jobs than the Democrats would have funded. What was also true, however, is that the differences between the two budgets — both in spending levels and government positions — were modest. The GOP budget spent about 2 percent less than the gover- nor's General Fund budget, and about 1 percent less on education. As for positions, we are talking about a difference of a few thousand overall, including full-time and part-time, and a few hundred teach- ing positions. Just to put these numbers in perspective, North Carolina employed some 180,000 people in public schools alone in 2010-11, including about 95,000 teachers, and tens of thousands more in other state departments. against the Republican-led General Assembly hasn't worked, they need only to con- sider the insight of essayist Kahil Gibran, who once wrote that "an exaggeration is a truth that has lost its temper." It was undeniably true that, because Republican lawmakers decided Carolina's level of education funding to 49th in the country. That, too, proved to be a silly claim. Because most states in the nation underwent fiscal stress last year, most of them also found it necessary to adjust their education budgets. The Republican budget was actually more protective of education funding than many other states were, which is why North Carolina's nationwide ranking actu- ally went up, not down, in 2011-12, according to National Education Association estimates. It would never do for Perdue and her liberal defenders to stick to these facts, however. They were true — but they were also unlikely to anger or move average voters. Even on the controversial question of teachers, where the GOP budget restored many but not all of the positions temporarily funded by fed- eral stimulus funds, the difference between the Democratic and Republican education budgets amounted to less than 1 percent of teaching positions statewide. So the Left collectively lost its temper. Truth became exaggeration, and exaggeration became embarrassment. First, the governor and key Democratic legislators predicted last summer that the Republican budget would result in the loss of as many as 18,000 government jobs and 30,000 jobs in the state's overall economy. These predictions were risible at the time and disproven by subsequent events. Next, the Left resorted to the claim that the Republican budget had reduced North 20 UCW APRIL 11-17, 2012 Carolina's real per-pupil spending dropped about 3 percent in 2009-10. It dropped about 2 percent in 2010-11. And what was the drop in real per-pupil spending in 2011-12, under the GOP budget? Just over 1 percent. None of these qualifies as a big decline. North Carolina public schools still have slightly more operating money this year, about $8,400 per pupil, than they did in 2005-06. Add in capital spending, and the total comes to nearly $9,000 per pupil — a level of education spending still higher than that of nearly all of our Asian and European competitors. North Carolinians would never find these truths scary. So instead, they got exaggeration. JOHN HOOD, Contributing Writer COMMENTS? Editor@upandcomin- gweekly.com WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM largest decrease in education funding in North Carolina history. Again, this is a case where an undeniable truth — total per-pupil spending did go down — was exaggerated into an untruth. In fact, the 2011-12 drop in school spending isn't even the largest one recorded during what we now know will be Gov. Perdue's single term. During the 2008 session, outgoing Gov. Mike Easley and the Democratic legislature approved a budget that modestly increased edu- cation spending. During the subsequent 2008-09 school year, North Carolina spent about $8,700 per student in federal, state, and local operating funds — or about $9,000 in today's dollars. During the 2009 session, recessionary pressures led Perdue and Democratic lawmakers to cut state funding. So did many counties. Federal education funding grew, but not enough to compensate. North The Left's latest claim is that the Republican budget constituted the continue or that people will begin to think things are finally getting a lot better. So, are some Republicans praying that the recovery will slow down or even reverse? I would not be surprised. Even those not praying for a bad economy are preaching one, describing the pays no attention to such politi- cally motivated appeals. from Obamacare will drive those people to action this fall and put Obama back in office. Do these prayers for bad things make any difference? I hope not. Surely a good God real wild card is economic growth," which has been slow under Obama, "as a result of the deep recession and slow recovery. But growth appears to be picking up in 2012, and if it accelerates, voters could enter the election booth with more optimism about their eco- nomic future … pointing to a close election!" Meanwhile, some Democrats might be beginning to pray for D.G. MARTIN, Columnist COMMENTS? Editor@upandcomin- gweekly.com