The Smiths and Joneses by Ira Tabankin Page A

Again I’ll say the crime didn’t happen in the USA, we weren’t asked for help by the LSA. It was and remains none of our business.”
                  Getting angry Wolf presses his question, “Mr. President, do you know where the terrorists are? If the LSA asked for help would you help arrest them? This crime is a black eye worse than the 9/11 attacks.”
                  “Wolf, I’ve been out of office for over ten years. I have no idea where or who these people were. I suggest you have President Bloomberg ask President Paul for help.”
                  “I’ll suggest that to him. I think you know who attacked us, and you’re hiding behind an excuse of it’s not my backyard for not helping bring these people to justice.”
                  “Wolf, if you want these people brought to justice, why hasn’t the LSA asked for the USA’s help?”
                  “I don’t know they we didn’t.”
                  “I can tell you that no help was requested while I was President.”
                  Sean says, “Mr. President, I’d like to discuss the economy. When you left office, the unemployment rate was higher than the rate in the LSA, how do you explain that your programs worked?”
                  “Sean, we counted everyone who was unemployed in our employment numbers. By that I mean, we counted everyone who was out of a job for any reason and those underemployed. In Obsma’s administration they only counted those unemployed who collected unemployment insurance, once someone stopped collecting, they fell off of the system. They were no longer counted. The same carried over to the LSA. The key between us is not the published unemployment rates. The two of us counted differently. It’s not a fair comparison. I suggest you look at the employment ratio. We lowered the rate to be less than 50% while the LSA’s ratio increased to 64% of the population not having a job. We wanted people to be off of government programs; the LSA wanted people to be on government entitlements. Today, twelve years later, our ratio of employed is sitting at 42%. That means 58% of the available workforce is employed. It’s not where the current administration wants it, I know they are working on further tax cuts to stimulate the job market.
    “The short answer about the basic difference between our philosophies are, the USA believes everyone should be equal at the starting line; everyone should have an equal opportunity, and the LSA believes everyone should be equal at the finish line.  If everyone is equal at the finish line, you remove all incentives. I don’t believe everyone wins a trophy for just showing up, I play to win, winning isn’t taught in the LSA. There people are rewarded for showing up and trying. They don’t have boys and girls sports teams; they have a single team that everyone plays on. Touch football has a new meaning in the LSA. President Cruise and I tried to remove regulations, to reduce government involvement in people’s lives; the LSA believes in more regulation and a greater involvement in their people’s lives. I used my executive powers to close the EPA, the Department of Education, I broke up the DHS and sent back the surviving departments to other agencies. We removed thousands of hours of regulatory paperwork and bullshit from our companies.” 
    Wolf asks, “Mr. President, don’t you think everyone should be treated fairly and the same? Should one class of people be treated differently than others? Shouldn’t everyone pay their fair share?”
    “Wolf, I believe everyone should be treated equally; the laws of the land should be applied to everyone the same, it shouldn’t make a difference in one’s upbringing or their income how laws are applied to people. Wolf, the rich in America, did pay their fair share. The top 1% paid more than 60% of the taxes. The ones who didn’t pay their fair