Op-Eds

Billings Gazette
Senator Daines Promotes Corporate Socialism

The greatest irony of Sen. Steve Daines’ latest howls against “socialism” — including his PR stunt on the U.S. Senate floor condemning socialism — is that Daines’ policies are leading to exactly that: Multinational corporate socialism. How so?

There is not simply one form of capitalism. There is a capitalism that is dynamic, fair and sustainable – the kind that built America’s middle class after World War II. As well, there is a capitalism that undermines the country as a whole by giving corporations and billionaires dominion over public policy. The latter option is Daines’ notion of capitalism — a system by, and for multinational corporations, special interests, and his major donors – not one for hard-working Montana families, individuals, and small- and medium-sized businesses.

Today, America faces some of the most daunting challenges in its history:

  • Economic inequality has never been greater in the United States, eroding our democracy.
  • Climate change, hardly a controversial topic in other nations, has been politicized in America.
  • Multinational corporations and America’s wealthiest families, compared to teachers, truck drivers and small business owners, pay a much lower tax rate if they pay at all.
  • Drug addiction and suicide rates are on the rise, indicative of a growing national hopelessness.
  • The federal debt ($22 trillion) is now greater than our own gross domestic product ($20 trillion).
  • Our nation’s infrastructure is not only far behind that in other modern nations, undermining our global competitiveness, it is collapsing.
  • Our students are performing near the bottom of industrialized countries, hurting our global competitiveness.
  • Our seniors increasingly need to choose between their prescription medications or food but can’t afford both.

These are solvable problems, but not by Senator Daines.

Daines just does not get it. Despite unprecedented economic inequality, Daines voted to give America’s wealthiest corporations and families massive tax breaks. He voted to add trillions of dollars to the national debt, without anything to show for it. Then, Daines voted to slash Medicare and Social Security, though our seniors are already struggling. Throughout his career in politics, Daines votes to take away health care from countless Montanans and Americans, in order to satiate his wealthy corporate political action committee donors who have already donated more than $535,000 to his re-election campaign.

He is just as bad on national security issues. Daines voted to support the installation of corporate lobbyists with extreme political views and conflicts of interest into governmental agencies. He supported America’s withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accords and the Iranian Nuclear Deal, effectively doing the bidding of Saudi Arabia, which encouraged each. He supports a trade war without any end game and having frayed international alliances critical to effectively standing up to China, hurting Montana’s farmers and ranchers.

Daines’ record is that of one who does not favor a dynamic, fair, and sustainable capitalism, but rather an unsustainable socialism for the ultra-wealthy that quickly stuffs the pockets of the few while weakening our nation as a whole. After the middle class has — after consecutive decades of economic stress, uncertainty, and marginalization — finally succumbed to this perverse notion of capitalism, what would result?

Certainly not freedom.

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The Missoulian
Daines comments damage Montana

An open letter to U.S. Sen. Steve Daines:

Recently, Senator Daines, you called four young newly elected congresswomen of color — Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, Ayanna Pressley, Ilhan Omar, and Rashida Tlaib — on Twitter, “Anti-American” and “Anti-Semite”. Rather than retract your statement, you then went onto Fox News, doubled down, and even threw around the word “terrorist.”

A U.S. senator’s words can have real meaning. Given your position, a number of people follow and trust you. In your epithets against these women — on Twitter and Fox News — you have effectively called for action, even violence, against them. After all, according to you, they are “Anti-American,” “Anti-Semite” and somehow connected with terrorism.

Yet, these women have done absolutely nothing wrong. Their perspectives on public policy are different than yours because of the diversity and inequities of the communities that they represent. But they are each as American as you or me, and they love their country every bit as much as we do. I would know, as I served as an Annapolis-commissioned naval officer alongside brave Americans from a multitude of backgrounds, whose diversity improved our teams’ effectiveness. In contrast, you have put these young women in harm’s way.

This is not an outlying example, senator. You have turned a blind eye towards neo-Nazis and neo-fascists marching in Charlottesville, though countless American World War II soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen perished vanquishing the Third Reich, and though a young woman was murdered at the march by one of the neo-Nazis; the president’s borrowing of a phrase used by the Soviet Union’s Stalin to characterize the media as the “enemy of the people,” thus chilling free speech and placing journalists in our country and around the world in grave danger; the murder of an American-based journalist by Saudi Arabia, an oppressive regime which was then rewarded by retrograde policies you support; U.S. Rep. Greg Gianforte’s body-slamming of a journalist for simply asking why he, as you, supports taking away affordable healthcare coverage from countless Montanans and other Americans; the president’s siding with Vladimir Putin, a former Soviet-era KGB officer, over our own intelligence agencies, with which I’ve worked; and, the 20-plus credible women whom have accused the president of sexual harassment or worse.

One’s voting and policy advocacy record is also a window into one’s character.

Yours has done damage to Montana and the United States. For instance, in this age of unprecedented economic inequality, you voted for a tax bill that widens that gap between the absolute wealthiest in America and the vast majority of us, straining our democracy. You voted to blow a multi-trillion-dollar hole through the nation’s pocketbook in order to give your major donors permanent tax cuts. You voted to transfer money from Montanan and American taxpayers into the pockets of wealthy foreign investors. You voted to cut Medicare and Social Security, though our seniors in Montana and throughout our country are already struggling. You supported President Trump’s withdrawal from both the Paris climate accords and the Iranian nuclear deal, seemingly doing the bidding of Saudi Arabia, which encouraged both actions. You voted for “short-term plans,” essentially fake insurance plans, in order to sabotage what little health care Montanans and Americans already have. You support President Trump’s trade war without having any end game and having trashed the international alliances we need to effectively stand up to China, hurting our farmers and ranchers.

I look forward to debating our competing visions in the coming months. Until then, I ask that you consider this open letter and be a better representative of Montana through your term.

Thank you,

John Mues

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The Mountain Standard
Op-Ed: Anaconda, MT Job Corps

While stationed overseas as a naval officer, I became close friends with a local family. They loved America, loved what it represented in terms of opportunity and justice for all, and, in turn, they loved Americans. Because I was their neighbor, because, perhaps, I diligently (though not entirely successfully) tried to learn their language and communicate with them — except for their son, no one in the family spoke English — and, frankly, because I was an American, they loved me. Fifteen years later, we remain close.

As a fourth-generation Montanan who was raised in a single-parent household in Deer Lodge, among other Montana towns, just down the road from Anaconda, the fate of the Anaconda Job Corps was of deep concern to me. And, as a former high school math and English teacher in an underserved community in Montana, I understood how critical the Job Corps is to providing real training and economic opportunity to people and communities in need.

If anything, the Job Corps footprint and other vetted programs that help struggling communities should be strengthened and expanded. After all, we are in an age of unprecedented economic inequality, in an age where — based on the data — the American Dream and socioeconomic mobility are now less vibrant and alive in our own country than they are in other modern nations. It doesn’t have to be that way, and the way out starts with extending and strengthening vehicles of opportunity for all folks.

Let’s take a step back here, and return to that family overseas during my days in the military to whom I had become close. Their English-speaking son, one day, had had his wallet stolen by several large bullies. The next day, they came up to him and handed back his wallet, which had been, of course, emptied. Then one of the bullies said to the boy, “What do you say?” The boy was confused. “What do you say to someone who returns your lost wallet to you?” “Thank you?” the boy said. “That’s right,” the bully replied, smirking. “Thank you.”

I couldn’t help thinking of this story when media reported that Senator Daines had saved the Anaconda Job Corps vis-à-vis a personal discussion with President Trump.

Senator Daines, in nearly a decade in Washington, D.C., has voted countless times to take affordable health care away from countless Montanans and Americans, in hopes of ever so slightly lowering the tax rate of his major donors. He has voted to destroy what little health care we have by inserting “short-term plans” into the Affordable Care Act’s marketplace, the equivalent of rolling a grenade with pinned pulled into a crowd; in each case, lives will be lost. He has voted to blow a multi-trillion-dollar hole through the nation’s pocketbook — not during a time of deep economic recession but rather late in the business cycle when it makes the least macroeconomic sense — therefore burdening generations of Montanan and American taxpayers. He has voted to exacerbate economic inequality, already at unprecedented, democracy-testing levels, by extending large tax breaks to cash-laden billionaires and multinational corporations — again, his donors.

He has voted to transfer money from U.S. taxpayers to the pockets of foreign investors. He has stood by, weakly and complicitly, as an erratic president sides with murderous dictators over the U.S. intelligence community – with which I once worked to target illicit global WMD programs and terrorist cells – and provokes trade wars impacting Montana’s agricultural community and small businesses with no real end game and having broken the international alliances America needs to effectively stand up to China. He has voted to place individuals with deep conflicts of interest — those who have been historically hostile towards public education, affordable health care, quality senior citizen and veteran care, and renewable, clean energy — into critical governmental roles.

But, thank you, Senator Daines, for your efforts in saving the Anaconda Job Corps.

John Mues

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Montana Standard
Guest view: Some perspective on ‘saving’ Job Corps

While stationed overseas as a naval officer, I became close friends with a local family. They loved America, loved what it represented in terms of opportunity and justice for all, and, in turn, they loved Americans. Because I was their neighbor, because, perhaps, I diligently (though not entirely successfully) tried to learn their language and communicate with them — except for their son, no one in the family spoke English — and, frankly, because I was an American, they loved me. Fifteen years later, we remain close.

Read More →