Mr. Mourdock's "Just Say No"

Back in 2010, Evan Bayh left the United States Senate because he believed that American politics were becoming too partisan. Why waste his time trying to get people to work together when they simply won’t listen to each other? Now, in 2012, we have Richard Mourdock running on a ticket saying there’s not enough partisanship in Congress.

Mr. Mourdock might just be the strongest candidate for U.S. Senate this state, nay, the entire country has seen since Ken Buck. Dick Lugar is simply out of touch with what the people of Indiana really want and need: a senator who will stand up for his own point of view and say, “Sorry, I’m not sorry, bitches.”

Mr. Mourdock’s aggressive eyebrows and anti-cooperation sentiment sell his image to our state’s core constituency: people who apparently never went to kindergarten. He must have learned how to be a solid rock of conservatism through his masters degree in geology. You know what can’t be budged by progress or time? Big-ass rocks.

Indiana needs a new beginning. Lugar has been in the Senate for more than 30 years, accumulating prestigious awards and powerful positions in Congress for his ability to work nicely with others. Excuse me, but this is Indiana and we do it big, and we will be damned if other people don’t know about it. We need a charismatic representative who can tell the rest of the nation it can suck a fat one if you don’t agree with us.

What’s most important to Mr. Mourdock’s inevitable success in this election is his unrelenting support of lowering the taxes and converting our current income tax system into one based on consumption taxes. At the same time, he denies the government’s social benefits. According to Mr. Mourdock’s campaign website, “Any new tax system (must) be combined with cuts in spending and a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution that also places a cap on future spending as a percentage of GDP.”

He believes this knockout combination of legislation will be key to permanent economic growth for Americans — this is equivalent to saying the best way to fill up Bryan Park Pool is with a hose attached to your bathroom sink. His idea of what promotes economic growth does seem contingent to someone who has studied rocks his entire life.

If you want to promote the greater health of the American economy you must support all walks of life. Consumption taxes are highly regressive, meaning they hit lower income households more than higher. Yes, consumption-based tax systems promote saving and investment, but that will not help people who don’t make enough money to save in the first place; nothing will change for them. Moreover, placing a cap on future spending as a percentage of GDP and enacting a balanced budget amendment will only restrict our government from reacting to disasters, whether they be military, natural or economic. Combine the above problems with weakened social programs, and what you have is essentially Mr. Mourdock punching poor people in the bank account.

Listen: Since I’ve graduated college and will soon have to file taxes, I don’t feel comfortable voting for the Democratic Party anymore. But right-wing politicians like Mr. Mourdock force me to do so anyway.

­— nicjacob@indiana.edu