Mitt’s Little Gusher And Grandma’s Purse
Mitt Romney is unveiling a new energy plan, “The Romney Plan
For A Stronger Middle Class: Energy Independence.”
Since I am a card-carrying member of the middle class, I was
feeling more than a little patriotic, and decided to peruse its high
points. Just a few minutes with it took
me back to the simpler and more innocent pleasures of my childhood.
When I was about nine years old, my grandmother went down to
the basement, opened the safe, brought up a small and tattered cloth purse with
a steel clasp and handed it to me.
Together we sat at her kitchen table and examined the
treasure trove. Roughly a dozen American
coins that my Grandfather, who had owned a candy store, had put aside because
they were old or interesting.
I was hooked. Even at
nine I was already a history junkie, and these things were history. There were a couple of half dollars from the
early part of the 19th Century, and a two-cent piece, a large penny from
1803 (1803-Jefferson and Adams!) a half-dime, and a commemorative coin from the
Columbia Expedition. I also got a lesson
in capitalism. When I took out my “Red
Book of American Coins” I found that the best looking coin in the bunch was
actually less valuable than the more worn one.
Scarcity drives prices.
Before you start thinking that Grandma’s purse is paying for
my kid’s college educations, there weren’t any Antiques Roadshow moments. But they were just so cool they brought me
this sense of being in a place and time with muskets and three-cornered hats
and great speeches, and brave men and women carving out the country. I had devoured Sandberg’s biography of
Lincoln-perhaps one of these had somehow found their way into and out of his
hand, or one of his cabinet members-anything was possible.
Those great men led me back to Mitt Romney, because Mitt
Romney has an excellent chance of being the next President, and perhaps he,
too, might cup a half-dollar in his hand.
For someone who may be only a few months away from being the
most powerful person on Earth, we know little detail about his plans, beyond a
sense that he wishes to take us back to the Gilded Age.
His tax plan disproportionately helps people like him at the
expense of the middle class. Just how
much it would help him personally we cannot know, since he refuses to share his
tax returns. And just how much it will
hurt us, is hard to tell, since he refuses to identify which tax deductions he
plans to eliminate. Most likely are the
mortgage interest deduction and that of employer-financed health
insurance- both of which aim directly at the middle and working classes. But we can't be sure.
Entitlement reform is also somewhat vague-he promises
seniors (who vote in high proportions) that he won’t touch either Social
Security or Medicare-even though the Ryan Plan changes Medicare in two
years. The savings seem to come from
everyone else, who will continue to pay, but should expect very little. However we can’t be sure of that, since he
won’t really tell us that either.
But, what we do know is that we are getting Mitt Romney,
Olympics’ Fixer and Bain Capital Uber-Capitalist. A man who knows his way under the hood of an
economy, and who is going to make it all better.
And now we are fortunate to finally have his
new Energy Policy to fill in the blanks.
Mitt is indeed going to bring his special Bain talents to the White
House. Find someone’s undervalued
assets, take control, and monetize them.
Mitt’s Energy Plan is an unconscionable give-away to the
special interests so large it is hard to take in in one reading. Drilling off of Virginia and the Carolinas. A roll back of safety and environmental
regulations. Giving up Federal control
of public lands to the states and the oil and gas industry. And additional Federal subsidies to help them
extract our assets for their profits.
It’s the mining part that brought me back to Grandma’s
purse. I thought of those coins, and one
in particular. The 1826 Liberty Capped
Bust silver half. Just absolutely beautiful,
crisp lines front and back, superb, classic design, well struck, and in really
nice condition. How did my grandfather
come into possession of this really fantastic looking coin-how did he get any
of them? He surely wasn’t a collector.
I asked my Dad, who owned a pharmacy, and who would also
occasionally come home with something nice like a (real) silver dollar. Why would anyone give up these treasures as
nothing more than loose change?
Because they had to, he explained. The man who walked into my grandfather’s
candy store in 1938 and handed over that beautiful 50-cent piece had absolutely
no choice. Maybe he needed a carton of
cigarettes, or a treat for a child, or to get a notary stamp. So, with not much else to use, he went into
the back of a drawer, or a coffee can, or some other hiding place, and put the
coin in his pocket for spending.
Is that where we are?
Digging into our coffee cans for anything to sell? Or is it just Mitt, dressing it up as help
for the middle class, but selling at ten cents on the dollar to his
friends? He’s already bringing those
Bain skills to this particular transaction.
Reports are he’s raised $7 Million fresh dollars from the oil and gas
interests. Now that’s a good business;
taking a commission before you even have the signed agreement.
I don’t think my grandfather would have been comfortable
with that.
MM
