Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, who is strongly considering challenging Hillary Clinton for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, had some choice words for Clinton as well as the Republican Party in an interview he conducted with NPR on Monday—at least one of the words was bleeped out.
O’Malley, a hard leftist whose record of raising taxes leaves no stone unturned in enriching the state of Maryland from private coffers, called the GOP’s contention that excessive regulations burden Americans and leave them unable to progress economically “patently bulls—.”
True to his own leftist philosophy, he channeled Occupy Wall Street, asserting that large corporations get breaks unavailable to small businesses, intoning, “our tax code’s been turned into Swiss cheese… And certainly the concentrated wealth and accumulated power and the systematic deregulation of Wall Street has led to this situation where the economy isn’t working for most of us. All of that is true.”
He continued, “But it is not true that regulation holds poor people down or regulation keeps middle class from advancing. That’s kind of patently bulls—.”
O’Malley said he would decide whether to run for president by the end of May and would compare his record as a “progressive executive with a record of accomplishments” to Clinton’s “experience as a legislator and secretary of state,” adding they had a “perspective difference.” He argued, “I see, having spoken to younger people, people under 40, where our country’s headed. And it is not the sort of siloed and bureaucratic and ideological world of many of us baby boomers and our older siblings. It is a more connected world and it is a more collaborative and open and transparent world.”
O’Malley stated clearly that his executive experience sets him apart from Clinton, saying, “I think that Secretary Clinton and I bring different backgrounds and different experience to the task of getting things done. I have been a big city mayor and I have been a governor. In other words, I’ve been an executive and a progressive executive with a record of accomplishments.” In a final shot across the bow, he added that the presidency is “not some crown to be passed between two families.”
O’Malley will have his own baggage if he decides to run, including the Tax Foundation’s estimate in October 2014 that Maryland ranked 40th on the list of worst states for taxes, 45th for the individual income tax, and 41st in property taxes. He’ll also have to confront his history of lying when it serves his purpose, such as his 2012 denial that Obama had added more to the national debt than any other president. He would have to address the 2014 Gallup Poll that revealed 47 percent of Maryland voters would move out of Maryland if they could, the third-highest rate in the country. In addition, O’Malley’s budget increases of more than $1 billion a year were the highest in the region, and 40,000 jobs were lost since 2007.
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