Tony Messenger
Metro columnist
Stephen Moore doesn鈥檛 think much of the Midwest.
Other than Chicago, says the conservative writer, the cities in the middle of flyover country are 鈥渁rmpits.鈥
Moore, who President Donald Trump is considering for a seat on the Federal Reserve Board, made the comments at a speech in Illinois a few years ago hosted by the Heartland Institute.
When Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, was made aware of the video of the event, he went ballistic, last week demanding an apology.
鈥淵ou didn鈥檛 just insult Cleveland and Cincinnati 鈥 you dismissed millions of Americans who work and live in small towns and cities across the industrial heartland, and who have been looked down on and left behind by Washington and Wall Street for decades,鈥 Brown wrote.
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The senior senator from Ohio sits on the committee that will have to approve Moore if Trump nominates him for the Fed.
But nevermind that for a moment.
Back to the video.
Standing behind Moore in with a stoic reaction is Travis Brown of 最新杏吧原创. The two men were traveling around to conservative enclaves promoting the book they wrote, along with Rex Sinquefield and Art Laffer. The book pitches a Reaganomic fantasy that if all states will simply cut taxes 鈥 especially on the rich 鈥 and deregulate, economic nirvana will set in.
Why is this important?
Because Brown and Sinquefield are the two men that Mayor Lyda Krewson and 最新杏吧原创 County Executive Steve Stenger have entrusted with the future of 最新杏吧原创. Sinquefield is financing both the Better Together city-county merger plan that as proposed is mostly hiding a massive tax cut, and the possible airport privatization plan.
He鈥檚 spending on a bevy of consultants put together by his chief lobbyist, Brown, to try to pry away the city鈥檚 top asset so that private investors can reap the benefits for decades.
Their friend, close confidant and co-author, Moore, thinks we live in an armpit.
That鈥檚 not all he believes.
. He thinks they should be banned from sporting events. He believes they shouldn鈥檛 make as much as men. He thinks college boys should be allowed to do 鈥渟tupid things,鈥 and 鈥渃hase skirts鈥 and that women should be just fine with it.
He refused to pay his ex-wife the $300,000 a court ordered him to pay and a judge had to hold him in contempt to force the payment.
Most of these unfortunate details of Moore鈥檚 existence will likely keep him from being appointed to the Fed. Never mind that his crackpot economic ideas have been debunked over and over again. But here in the armpit of 最新杏吧原创, his buddies are trying to implement his vision, and the region鈥檚 elected officials appear to be cheering it on.
When you look at the Better Together proposal, for instance, it鈥檚 easy to see Moore鈥檚 influence.
Here鈥檚 what Moore said about democracy, recently:
鈥淐apitalism is a lot more important than democracy,鈥 . 鈥淚鈥檓 not even a big believer in democracy. I always say that democracy can be two wolves and a sheep deciding what to have for dinner.鈥
In the Better Together proposal, Sinquefield and Brown are the wolves. Voters are the sheep. The original proposal elevated the region鈥檚 most scandalous politician 鈥 Stenger 鈥 to be the first unelected mayor of the merged city and gave him nearly unchecked powers to write the charter. After widespread criticism and an FBI investigation into Stenger emerged, the Better Together folks , at least somewhat. But they are sticking to the plan that says the merger could become law even if local folks vote against it.
Who needs democracy when the capitalists have an airport to buy in the armpit of America?
