Does Sherrod Share Your Priorities?

Proving once again my amateur partisan hack status, I’m only now getting to a Sherrod Brown “news” item from mid-March. Early this year Senator Brown’s staff posted a survey on the web for Ohioans to tell Sherrod their priorities. Though a web form is an unscientific thing, I doubt Team Brown loved the results:

“Federal Deficit” isn’t a worry Sherrod Brown wants voters to have going into the 2012 election cycle. “Protecting Medicare and Social Security” is a winner for Brown, but only if the GOP is totally inept. Same goes for “Affordable Health Care.”

Visit the Issues section of Senator Brown’s website, and you’ll notice there’s no issue page for the deficit or the budget. Make of that what you will. Here’s a highlight from the generically titled “The Economy” issue page:

Ohio’s middle class will benefit from economic policies that promote our state’s clean energy manufacturers and push our nation to implement fair trade policies. Ohio’s families and small businesses will benefit from health insurance reform that reduces costs for family budgets and improves the sustainability of our national economy.

Green energy boondoggles, trade protectionism, and the government-first fiscal madness of Obamacare. Great. Here are some of Senator Brown’s employment initiatives:

In June 2009, the increase in the federal minimum wage to $7.25 took effect, representing a major step in the right direction for Ohio families.

Yes, a higher federal minimum wage means more pay… for the low-income folks who can find work in an economy where politicians determine the price of labor. But that’s not all!

We must do a better job of providing training and retraining to Ohio workers and matching those workers to jobs that need to be filled. The federal government needs to be fully engaged in this effort, and I am working to strengthen Workforce Investment Act programs that help workers prepare for and obtain good-paying jobs in our state.

I’m sure a 48th federal job training program would be as effective as the existing 47. Sherrod also knows how helpful unions are at creating jobs:

While this legislation has stalled in the Senate, I am working with my colleagues on developing strong labor law reform that ensures employers and workers have a safe, predictable environment to ensure free choice in forming a union.

If legislating “free choice in forming a union” by killing secret-ballot union elections passes for “Jobs” policy in Sherrod Brown’s mind, I shudder to think of his approach to the survey respondents’ other priorities!

Follow me on Twitter: @jasonahart

Cross-posted from that hero.