Thursday, September 27, 2012

A Russian Proverb and Mike Fitzpatrick

I thought I saw two people walking down the road but it was only a man and his wife -- Russian proverb


The  Morning Call posted an interesting story this evening.  "Democrats try to use U.S. Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick's recorded words against him in Bucks," by Scott Kraus (9/26/2012) reports on remarks made by Congressman Mike Fitzpatrick, of Pennsylvania's 8th district (Bucks County).  He spoke at a fund raiser organized by the Kitchen Table Patriots, a Tea Party group.  The remarks were taped and distributed to news outlets (and blogs) by the Pennsylvania Democratic Party.  The tape clip is of Fitzpatrick saying:

And one of the principles is that we need to support people who have a history and know what it is like to sign the front of a paycheck, not the back of a paycheck, the front of a paycheck also includes you took a risk and you build a business on your own without the federal government standing next to you as you're signing a personal guarantee it's just you and your wife and your banker, you know that's it. Taking that kind of a risk.
 The Morning Call article explains that the remarks were referencing the beliefs of a group he sometimes meets with.

There are three things about his remarks that bother me:
1) I am sooooo tired of the "if you don't own a company you don't count" refrain.  
2) How many business owner sign the checks themselves?  After a certain number of employees the signatures are printed on or a company employee signs them.  How many business owners have time to sit down once or twice a month and sign 50 checks?  I thought Paychex and ADP took care of a lot of that.
3) "Your wife." Really?  Only married men own businesses?  Or are married lesbians included?  Language and word choice have meaning.  Was the audience completely male?  Is the group he meets with all male?  Why else would you say "you and your wife and your banker"?   How you word these things matters.

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