Sherrod Brown says Trump-Putin meeting taped by Russians

In his weekly Wednesday call with reporters, Ohio's senior senator in Washington said he "would love to know more about that meeting," the details of which no one but Trump, Russian leader Vladimir Putin and two translators supposedly know about.

Brown: Russians Taped Private Trump-Putin Meeting

Sen. Sherrod Brown (right)
talks to me in 2016

Brown told reporters that the intelligence officials he's talked with all believe the private meeting was taped by Russia. "They have Trump's reaction on video tape," he told me.

When I asked Sen. Sherrod Brown this question, "Do you believe Trump would have won without Russia's interference?," he paused, then responded, saying "Clearly, Russia intervened on one side."

Brown, who's running for a third term this year, said he doesn't know the answer to my question, but hopes the special council investigation undertaken by former FBI chief Robert Mueller into the issue will provide the evidence that proves or disproves the belief held by many, especially Democrats, that Russia's vast meddling in the 2016 presidential election tipped the table to favor Donald Trump.

When asked if anything the President Trump has done or said so far justifies anyone leveling a charge of treason against him, Sen. Brown asked cautiously. "I did not levy that charge and I'm not going to judge what others say about him (Trump)."

Brown did say he doesn't understand Trump's attacks on long-standing allies and why he would make comments that undermine NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) and then "throwing in with the KGB (Russia's equivalent of the CIA). Why would the president do that?"

Brown's view is that the nation is "overwhelmingly disturbed by this" and that the only people not disturbed by it  are members of congress (virtually all Republicans) and a sliver in trump's political base.

"Virtually everyone I talk to is concerned what trump does for and with Russia," he said, adding, "NATO is the best idea post war that keeps Europe safe ... and more prosperous."

Responding to my question on the call that "Rob Portman said he takes Trump at his word that the president misspoke in his press conference with Putin. Do you agree with Portman's hold harmless comment on what Trump said he should have said about Russian interference in the 2016 elections?," Brown did not respond directly. He chose instead to say "the stakes are too high ... when talking about national security."

Meanwhile, Sen. Brown is still waiting for President Trump to say Russia hacked the election, as every Republican he said he's 's talked to believes happened.

Poll: Brown-Renacci tied among 'definite voters.'

President Barack Obama speaks to a
large crowd at OSU in 2012.

In the most recent Axios/Survey Monkey poll of over 12,000 people, Sen. Brown's once large advantage over his Republican rival Congressman Jim Renacci has narrowed to within the margin of error among definite voters. This means that the race that Brown once enjoyed a comfortable lead in has narrowed considerably with this metric. Among just registered voters, Brown holds an eight-point lead over Renacci, whose name ID across Ohio is relatively poor compared to Brown's.

"Would it be a plus or minus for Democratic candidates including yourself if Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton hit the campaign and didn't go into hiding as some might want them to do?"

Brown responded to my last question of the day by not responding to it. He said the question fell into the category of a political question and he wasn't going to use public resources to answer it, although he might do so if we were to meet in person.

Rob Portman ignores his own history on tax cut benefits

The worst economic meltdown since 1929 happened in 2007, at the end of President George W. Bush's eight years in office. Bush's billions of unnecessary and un-budgeted tax cuts were enabled by his then budget direction, former Ohio Congressman Rob Portman from Cincinnati.

Ohio Sen. Rob Portman at an

energy conference at The Ohio

State University. Portman served

President George W. Bush as his

budget director when $2.3

trillion in un-budgeted, 

unnecessary tax cuts

were approved. 

Winning in 2016, Portman crafted a campaign that distanced himself from close association with Donald Trump without being tagged as an opponent. Portman moves through his second term as Ohio's junior senator in Washington.

A leader in the vanguard of those who advocated for robbing the national treasury nearly two decades ago, Portman, quite wrongly in hindsight, promised job and growth miracles would result from the approval of $2.3 billion in tax cuts convenient charged on the national credit card by a compliant and equally deceived GOP congress that believes, despite ample economic history to the contrary, that tax cuts to the wealthy, or the top 20 percent of earners, trickles down to those 80 percent below.

Texas Gov. Bush when he became president after a conservative Supreme Court effectively appointed him when they prohibited a recount of votes in Florida, inherited an expanding national economy from policies and programs pushed by then President Bill Clinton that produced an astounding prize: the virtual elimination of the national debt.

That Holy Grail of policy performance, adored by so-called fiscal hawks like Portman or Ohio Gov. John Kasich who based their political careers on it, was at hand. Members of the Grover Norquist "no new taxes" crowd includes Portman and Kasich, career politicos who prefer Norquist's famous calling "to starve the beast" of government rather than feed it so tens of millions over their lifetimes can enjoy economic and social justice.

When the Bush-Portman tax cut debacle teamed up with other congressional attempts to deregulate certain industries, including the financial industry, the worse economic meltdown since 1929 happened. It dealt mortal blows to virtually every state in the nation, as jobs disappeared by the tens of thousands overnight. The Reagan tax cuts, among the biggest in history, pushed the door open to income inequality, stagnant worker pay checks, and the resurgence of corporations as more important to people.

Never ashamed of how wrong his support for tax cuts in the past has been, Sen. Portman now highlights the benefits of President Trumps tax reform bill after six months of its passage and more than a year of demonstrating how scary he will be to our teenage democracy.

Reports say Portman recently spoke on the Senate floor highlighting the sixth-month anniversary of tax reform. The commonsense conservative he claimed to be two years ago said he's visited "nearly two dozen businesses across Ohio that have benefited from the new tax code and either created more jobs, increased wages, expanded benefits or reinvested in their businesses as a result." Some business, he said, "have done a combination of these things."

Reality Ranch

Meanwhile, back at reality ranch, one Noble Prize winning economist wrote that Trumps "tax cut isn’t producing the promised surge in business investment, let alone the promised wage gains; all it has really done is lead to a lot of stock buybacks." New York Times editorial writer Paul Krugman, said about reflecting on this reality, "the tax cut is becoming less popular over time."

Portman may or may not be aware of an internal report done by the Council of Economic Advisers that conclude that Trump's "trade policy will cost jobs, not create them. If he's ignoring this report, because he's back in the saddle of proselytizing about the magic of tax cuts, he ought to stop deceiving everyone else, especially the media who offers little if any pushback on what the senator says or does. In contrast to the false or fake news promulgated by Trump's top economic official, that the budget deficit is “coming down rapidly” as “those revenues come rolling in,” the exact opposite is happening. "Actually, the deficit is rising fast, mainly because of a plunge in corporate tax receipts — the direct result of the tax cut," Krugman, the economist, writes.

Portman Safe With Ohio Media Reporting

It's hard to imagine Ohio media, so enthralled with Portman's stump about overdosed Buckeyes, questioning Trump and company's claims about how good things are going, But Krugman has no such shyness, arguing the results of Trumps policies bear no relationship to reality. "But reality has a well-known liberal bias. Will Trump’s habit of making things up, and his advisors’ willingness to celebrate imaginary policy triumphs, make any difference?" he asks.

He answers his own question, this way: "Actually, I think they might. The trade war is rapidly escalating, with our trading partners retaliating against US actions and reports that Trump wants to withdraw from the World Trade Organization. The best hope for breaking the cycle of retaliation would be for Trump to realize that the trade war is going badly, take a deep breath, and step back from the brink."

But who will tell Trump how things are really going? he wonders? Certainly not Rob Portman, who was on the GOP-only Senate committee that brought a bill to the floor devoid of Democratic input, then passed by party line voting.

Obhof Takes On Kasich

And simultaneous to Portman cheering on Trump and his tax reform bill, it seems Gov. Kasich's eight years of deregulation and tax cuts aren't working to the satisfaction to Sen. Larry Obhof. Obhof, President of the Ohio Senate, blessed the passage of two bills by the Ohio Senate designed to reduce government bureaucracy and encourage job creation.

Ohio's imperial commander, Gov. John 

Kasich, seen here at the Ohio State House in 

the Lincoln Room is like Portman since each

thinks tax cuts trickle down to the poor, when

they don't. America's and Ohio's income 

inequality is the largest in history.

"Unnecessary red tape and regulation stifles the potential of Ohio's small businesses, limiting job opportunities for Ohioans," Obhof said. "The legislature has a responsibility to make sure any rules or regulations created by state government have a specific purpose and intent to protect our citizens and do not create needless barriers to growth and opportunity.”

What has Gov. Kasich been up to these past eight years? he promised voters that if they elected him in 2010 he would make Ohio move "at the speed of business" and rain down good paying jobs for all those people who stilled one, even after Portman and Bush's terrible economic policies produced the second worst financial meltdown since the Great Depression of 1929.

Ohio under Kasich has failed for over five years to even meet the national average for job creation. The jobs he can claim credit for mostly pay minimum wage or slightly above. Meanwhile, he gave a way billions in tax cuts that have done little if anything to make state revenues roll in. In fact, the last budget cycle came up a billion short, a gap which Obhof and company filled with more cuts instead of revenue.

Portman Ignores His Own History

Portman like Kasich knows media seems incapable of challenging their actions by holding them accountable for how their policies don't pan out for the average Billy Buckeye. What they say or do today, whether it's what they said or did yesterday, makes today's headlines, leaving readers ignorant of how their policies turned out not to their benefit before.