Politics Journal

Tea Party: What the Future Holds

2010-09-05T13:55:26Z

The Tea Party movement will have no choice but to engulf the Republican Party from the inside and take control, if there is to be a future for limited government. The Tea Party movement is the heart and soul of conservatism in America today. The Tea Party movement has the passion, the boots on the ground, and the vision. The Republican party has the national structure, the funding, and a functioning political organization. The two must become one, but only with the Tea Party movement in control.

How to Trample the U.S. Constitution in 100 Days

2009-06-21T11:18:55Z

1. Establish government czars to run private sectors of the country. In bankruptcy cases, reward unsecured political patrons like labor unions by moving them ahead of secured creditors like bondholders. Arbitrarily close independent, successful businesses like car dealerships. Establish compensation levels for private citizens.
2. Federally fund partisan political groups. Give stimulus money to groups like ACORN, who lobby only for a single political party and who gather fraudulent voter registrations that make a mockery of our democracy.
3. Declare the very breath of American citizens to be an environmental pollutant. Declare carbon dioxide, the gas that we exhale and the gas that is the very “food” green plants use for photosynthesis, to be toxic to the planet. Create bureaucracies and new taxes to “save” us from this horror.
4. Evangelize a secular state religion. Involuntarily impose a one-party dogma, which includes the supremacy of the state over the individual, unionism, radical environmentalism, and socialism, on public school students. Propose to expand this indoctrination program by establishing publicly funded zero-to-five education and youth service camps.
5. Abdicate responsibility to defend U.S. citizens. Neuter our secret service agencies during a period of extreme clandestine activity against our nation. Telegraph weakness and passivity to friends and foes alike. Snub our historical allies and pay homage to enemies who have already demonstrated a willingness and ability to inflict great harm on us. Aid and abet known enemies with taxpayer money. Acquiesce as weapons of mass destruction are developed and deployed by rogue nations.
6. Diminish the value and purpose of lawful citizenship. Aid illegal aliens with drivers’ licenses, free public services, and proposals for amnesty.
7. Openly violate the Tenth Amendment. Empower bureaucrats and politicians in Washington to dictate and regulate how governors run their states. Transfer enormous wealth from prudent states to cover the reckless debts of profligate states held captive by favored special interests and public service unions who suckle on taxpayer dollars.
8. Openly violate our right to free speech. Use taxpayer money to support media that propagate the one-party dogma. Offer bail-outs to newspapers in exchange for control over “editorial content”. Propose to implement rules and regulations that will limit the impact of media voicing opposition to the secular state religion.
9. Openly violate our right to free association. Propose Orwellian legislation that will allow union thugs to intimidate citizens into joining organized labor against their will, without the protection of a secret ballot.
10. Impose on citizens a public debt beyond all comprehension. Make eternal debtors out of current and future generations with public expenditures and obligations so enormous as to exceed the value of all assets in the country. Destroy our AAA credit rating, devalue our currency, drive interest rates up, and lay the foundation for a future inflationary period that will ruin the value of our assets and investments.
11. Appoint justices who will dishonor the Constitution. Nominate Supreme Court Justices who believe the Constitution should be interpreted with non-objective “empathy” based on certain “life experiences”, and who intend to legislate from the bench.
12. Weaken our very right to life by nationalizing health care. Insert the government in our lives as the agent that rations vital health care and, in effect, determines who ultimately lives or dies.
13. Harass citizens peacefully expressing fair-minded views. Treat honest, hard working citizens as potential enemies of the state for being committed to their faith, to the Second Amendment, and to the general integrity of the U.S. Constitution. Use the Department of Homeland Security to monitor these “extremists”, rather than to monitor activities of potential foreign terrorists.
14. Transfer wealth arbitrarily and without regard to merit. Establish laws, tax policies, programs, and bureaucracies to arbitrarily and capriciously transfer wealth from citizen to citizen, from business to business, from state to state, from future generations to the current generation, and from taxpayers to the government. Replace meritocracy with political expediency, patronage, and systemic dependency. Destructively separate the rights of citizens from the responsibilities of citizens.
15. Openly violate the Second Amendment. Propose restrictions on the rights of citizens to bear arms and to protect themselves from foreign or domestic assaults on their property and their safety.

Tea Party Talking Points

2009-04-01T00:29:52Z

(The talking points below were drafted for potential media interviews with participants of the National Tea Party protests taking place on April 15th, 2009. These talking points are in no particular order. They cover a range of topics illustrating the staggering growth in government spending and taxation.)

As an indication of how far left Barack Obama’s economic policies are, we are being warned by former Socialist countries to avoid the same mistakes that they made. Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek called the U.S. stimulus package the "way to hell". Russian President Vladimir Putin warned "Excessive intervention in economic activity and blind faith in the state's omnipotence is a mistake." Embarrassingly, even Communist China warned the U.S. not to devalue the dollar through reckless government spending.

President Barack Obama's intelligence chief confirmed that some Guantanamo inmates may be released on U.S. soil and receive assistance from taxpayers to return to society. "If we are to release them in the United States, we need some sort of assistance for them to start a new life," said National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair. "You can't just put them on the street," he added.

To put President Obama’s proposed budget deficits in context, if you added up all of the debt put on the government books by all of the presidents from George Washington through George Bush, Obama's proposed debt exceeds that amount in just his first term.

If you like having your taxes ending up in the hands of terrorists, then you will be ecstatic to know that the U.S. government is going to give $900 million to rebuild Gaza, which is another way of saying that we will be funding the terrorist organization Hamas.

As a possible warning sign of how unstable the dollar is likely to become when the government’s massive spending plans are executed in the next four years, Treasury Secretary Geithner shocked global markets by revealing that Washington is "quite open" to Chinese proposals for the gradual development of a global reserve currency to be run by the International Monetary Fund. That the U.S. Treasury Secretary is even entertaining allowing the dollar to cease to be the anchor of the global monetary system caused the dollar to plunge against other world currencies.

The Obama administration appears likely to use tax dollars to continue the assault on the First Amendment. As if the "Fairness Doctrine" and the increased FCC regulation of local content and media diversity are not enough, the Democrats are proposing to get the government involved in the newspaper business. Senator Benjamin Cardin (D-MD) wants the federal government to fund newspapers, providing the faltering industry with subsidies in exchange for control over their editorial decisions. He introduced a bill that would allow newspaper companies to restructure as nonprofits with a variety of tax breaks.

Barack Obama has promised the American people that he will cut the budget in half by the end of his first term. His clever strategy for doing this is to create a budget deficit so massive in his first year that it will be easy to cut it half by his fourth year. Obama's budget deficit in 2009 is projected to be $1.75 trillion, which is more than the last FIVE Bush deficits combined. So, his 2012 deficit only needs to be a paltry $800 billion or less in order for him to keep his promise.

Obama’s promise that no one earning less than $250 thousand per year will experience a tax increase is impossible to deliver on. The group of taxpayers who earn more than that simply do not make enough money to cover the trillions of new spending launched by the administration. All taxpayers will eventually be tabbed to help foot this bill, either directly through tax increases, or indirectly through inflation as the government prints money to fund the deficit spending.

Obama's Universal Health Care plans will cost at least the $634 billion set aside in his first budget, because in Obama's own description, that amount is just a "down payment". This does not include the 7% annual increase for Medicare funding and the 6% annual increase for Medicaid funding. It also does not include the lost productivity of Americans standing in lines or filling out paperwork to get on waiting lists for services from the soon-to-be socialized health care industry. If we really want to have health care for everyone, we will have to give it to many people for free. Once we start doing that, we will never stop, at least until the government (which means the taxpayers) runs out of money.

There is no one alive who can tell you what happened with the entire $700 billion that the government allocated for the first TARP emergency fund. And there is no one alive who will be able to tell you what will happen with the additional $750 billion dollars in TARP spending planned in Obama’s budget.

After all of Obama's rhetoric lately about boosting pay for military personnel, including a statement to the joint session of Congress about a large pay increase being necessary and deserved for the brave men and women who defend this nation, his budget only allows for a scant 2.9% pay raise. This is coincidentally the MINIMUM that the law requires.

It is entertaining to observe the massive spending, record deficits, huge tax increases, and budgetary socialization of America being implemented by the Obama administration, and then to listen to his administration lecture Wall Street, the banks, the automotive industry, and the American people about fiscal responsibility.

85% of the government stimulus package is a wish list for special interests, paybacks for political patronage, and subsidies for politically correct pet projects. Almost 40% of the stimulus is earmarked for large urban states like New York and California, so that they can continue to fund their own government employee payrolls to support salary increases, bloated pensions, and health plans that not available to most of the private sector.

During a recession, citizens feel a terrible burden. They face pay cuts, shortened hours, lay-offs, reduced benefits, and deferment of discretionary spending. In short, they sacrifice to balance their personal budgets. What do government bureaucrats and politicians do during a recession? They increase taxes and spending, and go deeper into debt, of course. Their pay and benefits are never cut. And if they do threaten to lay-off government workers, it is usually the brave public servants that defend your life and property, like policemen, firemen, and soldiers.

Almost $60 billion of the stimulus bill is earmarked for states to increase their welfare expenditures. However, this funding is available for only a limited time. When that money runs out, the states will still feel internal pressure to support the higher level of benefits set by the stimulus precedent. This will strain local budgets and lead to state and local tax increases.

Ronald Reagan told us that "A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have." We are about to find out how true that statement really is.

Margaret Thatcher told us that "The trouble with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money." We are about to find out how true that statement really is.

The perfect field of play for socialists is a media onslaught of "economic crisis", "banking crisis", "war crisis", "climate change crisis", "infrastructure crisis", "social security crisis", "health care crisis", and "global poverty crisis". After the middle class is sufficiently frightened by these crises, the socialists will target capitalist institutions such as banks and global corporations as the evil straw men responsible for the mess, because Wall Street and Big Business are often resented by the middle class anyway. From this fertile ground of crisis and condemnation of capitalism will come the inevitable big-government solutions, which will invariably involve broad new government powers and a transfer of wealth from increasingly overburdened taxpayers and property owners. Thus, the death of capitalism and the rise of socialism will result, not from violent revolution, but from a thousand bureaucratic paper cuts.

The threat of global warming is the perfect ruse for advocates of Big Government. The threat of it, whether real or imagined, sounds dire enough to frighten citizens into action. The actions needed to slay the "monster" will, of course, require higher taxes, more bureaucrats, and increased regulation of business and individuals. And what makes it the perfect ruse is that there will never be any objective way to know if the government power grab actually helped or not.

When Obama declared, "We are the ones we have been waiting for," it was a politically incestuous allegory to the 50 year old leftist dream to control America. Now that the radical leftists have seized power, they will first come for the rich. And then, realizing that the rich don’t have nearly enough money to conquer all of the "crises" that the leftists have manufactured, they will come after the vast middle class. Even now, at the very beginning of Obama’s administration, the leftists have proposed over $8 trillion dollars of new spending. Those in the middle class should do some simple math. The "Haves" in this country don’t make that much money. Thus, the "Have-a-Little’s" are going to pay for it, one way or the other.

Simple math will tell you that your middle-class standard of living is about to collapse. You are about to become a slave to government solutions for exaggerated or imagined "crises". You are going to pay taxes or fees for something called "carbon emissions", to combat global warming. You are going to pay higher utility costs as the government circumvents the energy markets to push expensive alternative energy sources. You are either going to pay dramatically higher taxes, or deal with dramatically increased prices due to inflation, in order to cover the costs of the banking crisis. Your Social Security and Medicare taxes are going to go up, as the reality of our ponzi-scheme retirement plan crashes down upon us. You are going to pay higher taxes for teachers’ unions and universities that demand more and more money each year for fewer and fewer results. You are going to see your access to quality health care decline as more and more non-paying consumers, including illegal immigrants, are added to nationalized health care rolls. You will be confronted with more and more shortages as increasingly militant labor unions, fueled by the obsequious Employee Free Choice Act, drive up labor costs and push more and more suppliers into bankruptcy. This is merely an incomplete list of the bottomless pit of government initiatives that are going to swallow you up in the coming years.

What do you suppose Obama meant when he wrote that the laws of our country are too focused on "sacrificing conscience to expedience or greed"? Perhaps we are finding out as he exercises his own "conscience" by nationalizing businesses, terminating CEO’s, cancelling bonuses, taxing away profits, dictating executive salaries, and imposing nationalized health care to ration medical services. One begins to fear that "conscience" means to him that the state gets to ignore the U.S. Constitution and impose its will on free individuals and businesses.

As if Obama’s stupendous domestic spending orgy isn’t enough, he continues to support the Global Poverty Act, which if enacted will execute the mandate imposed by the United Nations on Americans to spend 7% of our GDP, or $843 billion over 13 years, to ameliorate poverty overseas.

If you spent $2 million dollars every single day during every single year from the birth of Christ until today, you will still not have spent as much as Obama’s budget deficit planned for 2009.

At the top of Obama’s 2008 campaign contribution list are large investment bankers that are benefitting from various government bail-outs and stimulus plans. These include Goldman Sachs, UBS, JPMorgan, Chase, Citigroup, Lehman Brothers, and Morgan Stanley.

A monumental change is taking place in the relationship between the state and the individual in America. America is rapidly descending from a representative Constitutional Republic to a collectivist Socialist state that is larger and more burdensome than the autocratic monarchy we revolted against two centuries ago.

Obama fully supports the very deceptively named "Employee Free Choice Act", which abolishes the secret ballot and forces employees to reveal how they vote on union issues. This is truly Orwellian legislation that runs counter to our fundamental notions of democracy and secret ballots.

If the government confiscated 100% of the income of everyone making $75,000 or more, it would barely have enough to cover planned expenditures for 2009.

The tax burden on a typical middle class wage earner, including income taxes, property taxes, sales taxes, and other user fees, is approaching that of a medieval serf, who was forced to contribute one-third of his labor to his feudal baron.

Here are some things in the stimulus bill that taxpayers should find appalling:

$1 billion for Amtrak (which hasn’t earned a profit in four decades).

$400 million for research into global warming (which has become global cooling in the past few years).

$600 million to buy a new fleet of cars for federal employees, even though the government already spends $3 billion per year managing a fleet of 600,000 vehicles (which makes you wonder how many federal employees there are).

$2 billion for national parks (the chief lobbyist of the National Parks Association is the son of Rep. David R. Obey, D-Wisc).

$750 million for ACORN (which Obama used to work for, and which is being investigated for voter fraud in 14 states).

$20 billion over five years for an expanded food stamp program (which your local government will have to fund when the federal funding expires).

Funds to install 40 million smart utility meters to control energy usage in homes (which means Big Brother will be running your household).

$6 billion for mass transit (most urban transit systems are so badly managed that their fares cover less than half of their costs—you’re paying the rest already).

$8 billion for renewable energy (which, if it really had a good ROI, somebody would already be doing).

$252 billion in Medicaid, unemployment benefits, food stamps, and tax rebates to people who pay no income taxes or do nothing at all (How can this be a stimulus? It’s just moving money from one pocket to another--from someone who did something to someone who didn’t).

$54 billion for federal programs that the Government Accountability Office has criticized as being ineffective. (How can this be a stimulus? It’s just taking money from productive people and giving it to ineffective people).

$141 billion more for education (If you think the intention of this is to help kids learn, the House declares on page 257 of the bill that "No recipient….shall use such funds to provide financial assistance to students to attend private elementary or secondary schools." This means that it is only a "stimulus" if money goes to union teachers rather than non-union teachers).

The stimulus package will add 32 new government programs at a cost of $136 billion. Many of these programs, once established, are likely to continue indefinitely. As Ronald Reagan once observed, a government program is the closest thing we have to eternal life.

Most media outlets are reporting the cost of the stimulus package at $819 billion. The Congressional Budget Office calculates that the interest on the debt generated by the bill’s spending will cost another $347 billion.

60.7 million people who have no federal income tax burden at all will receive a "tax credit" from Obama. Speaking in plain English, this means that they will receive welfare.

White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel told the New York Times right after the election that crises "are opportunities to do big things." Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told an audience at the European Parliament, "Never waste a good crisis." President Obama explained in a Saturday radio and internet address that there is "great opportunity in the midst" of "the great crisis" befalling America. Our leaders appear to be thrilled about our crises. Perhaps they should ask the taxpayers how they feel about it.

Numerous commentators have pointed to this never-waste-a-crisis mantra as evidence that Obama’s budget priorities are not so much about fixing the crises as they are to implement the longstanding liberal agenda on health care, energy, education, and wealth redistribution. Not only do many of his proposals have nothing to do with addressing the housing and toxic-debt problems that are the direct causes of our predicament, many economists argue that his policies are making the situation worse.

Obama’s $3.6 trillion budget blueprint, by his own admission, redefines the role of government in our economy and society. It increases non-defense spending (relative to GDP) to the highest level in U.S. history. And this does not include the impending explosion in Social Security and Medicare costs.

Powerful House Democrats are looking at eliminating most of the $80 billion annual tax breaks for 401(k) investors. Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Washington, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Income Security and Family Support, and House Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller, D-California, are studying how to alter the nation’s 401(k) system to eliminate investor tax breaks and force worker’s money into obligatory retirement accounts.

On October 8th, 2008, 100 distinguished and experienced economists at major American universities and research organizations, including five Nobel prize winners Gary Becker, James Buchanan, Robert Mundell, Edward Prescott, and Vernon Smith, signed a statement explaining why Barack Obama’s proposals, including "misguided tax hikes", would "decrease the number of jobs in America." The economists concluded that "Barack Obama’s economic proposals are wrong for the American economy".

We are at a dangerous tipping point in our democracy. Roughly fifty percent of eligible voters pay federal income taxes, and the remaining fifty percent don’t. Once that ratio becomes unfavorable for the taxpayers, they will be exposed to an electoral majority that could choose to simply vote their wealth away. We are starting to see that happen now, with Obama, Pelosi, and Reid spending a trillion here and a trillion there.

We conservatives need to explode out of our shells. The radicals that have taken over the federal government have a powerful grassroots organization. Using groups like ACORN, Media Matters, Project Vote, and MoveOn.org, many of which are funded in part by the federal government, the radicals have flooded the voting booths with armies of "victims" who will vote Democratic in hopes of leeching onto American taxpayers to get all of their needs and wishes fulfilled.

Conservatives need to become radicals, too, but not in the unethical and sometimes illegal ways of their leftist adversaries. For every dead person ACORN registers three times to vote, conservatives need to motivate ten honest American taxpayers to join tax protest groups. For every young American that Obama bribes with federal money to become "a community organizer" in Americorps, conservatives need to motive ten hard-working, civic-minded young Americans to radicalize conservative fellow students in high schools and on college campuses.

Conservatives need to stand up now and confront this socialist threat to our country. If Obama, Reid, and Pelosi are still running this country eight years from now, the American way of life will be irretrievably lost. The programs that they are implementing day after day in Washington will be irreversible once they take hold. For example, once nationalized health care is fully implemented, there will be no undoing it. There will only be signing up on waiting lists for procedures that the government will ration for the middle class, but will give away for free to illegal immigrants. Once illegal immigrants are waved across the border and given free education, health care, and other social benefits, there will be no undoing it. There will only be a reduced standard of living, class warfare, and bi-lingual signs everywhere.

The true deficit of the federal government is actually $65.5 trillion in total obligations, which exceeds the GDP of the entire world. The total U.S. obligations, including Social Security and Medicare benefits to be paid in the future, effectively have placed the American government in bankruptcy.

The real 2008 federal budget deficit was $5.1 trillion, not the $455 billion previously reported by the Congressional Budget Office, according to the 2008 Financial Report of the U.S. Government, as released by the U.S. Department of Treasury. The difference between the $455 billion "official" budget deficit numbers and the $5.1 trillion budget deficit cited by "2008 Financial Report of the US Government" is that the official budget deficit is calculated on a cash basis, where all tax receipts, including Social Security tax receipts, are used to pay government liabilities as they occur. The numbers in the 2008 report are calculated on a GAAP basis (Generally Accepted Accounting Practices) that include year-for-year changes in the net present value of unfunded liabilities in social insurance programs such as Social Security and Medicare. In a post-Enron world, if the federal government was a corporation such as GM, the President and senior Treasury officers would be in a federal penitentiary.

Obama says "you are selfish" if you want to keep your income instead of allowing the government to take it from you in the form of increased taxes. Biden says "it’s our patriotic duty to pay more taxes." Perhaps it is time for taxpayers to realize that it is our moral duty to remove these tyrants from office.

An enormous fiscal issue is whether the spending bonanza of the Obama administration will become part of the annual "budget baseline" that Congress uses as the new floor when calculating how much to increase spending the following year, and into the future. Democrats insist that it will not. But it’s hard to believe that Congress will cut spending next year on any of these programs from their new, higher levels. The likelihood is that this allegedly emergency spending will become a permanent addition to federal outlays, thus increasing pressure for further tax increases.

Of the $180 billion that AIG has received in bail-out funds, $11.9 was forwarded to Societe Generale, a bank in France; $11.8 billion to Deutsche Bank in Germany; and $8.5 billion to Barclay’s, a bank in England. I wonder if any American taxpayers received a "thank you" card for this.

The original provision in the stimulus bill to require companies receiving funds to use E-Verify to certify the legal working status of their employees was removed from the bill by the Democrats at the last minute. This increases the possibility that jobs created by stimulus funds will be used to hire illegal immigrants, rather than American citizens.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced a new scholarship program to help Palestinian students. Clinton announced the Middle East Partnership Initiative during a visit to the Palestinian town of Ramallah. Taxpayers can now breathe easier knowing that future Hamas suicide bombers will be well-educated at our expense.

Obama and the Democrats Should be Ashamed

2008-10-20T22:47:30Z

Obama and the Democrats should be ashamed that this is even a close election.

For the past eight years, the leader of the Republican Party, George W. Bush, has been inept, to the delight of his opposition and the disappointment of conservatives. His ineptitude has been magnified ten-fold by a relentless media assault. We have seen eight years of a continuous daily megaphone-like shoutdown by the left. As a result, half of a generation of youthful potential voters have heard nothing but the liberal mantra that "Bush did it" (refering to any of a number of real or imagined calamities that occurred during his Presidency, such as Hurricane Katrina, global warming, and competition from the Chinese).

Making matters worse for the Republicans, the economy and the stock market have collapsed. It is normal for the economy to experience peaks and valleys. Did Bush help or hurt the current trough? A thousand economists will have a thousand and one opinions. My own perspective is that Bush's policies probably exacerbated a tidal wave that was already destined to sweep us all away. The wave started in the Clinton Administration as an equities bubble, then morphed into a real estate bubble, then morphed into a commodities bubble, and is now crashing on our shoreline. Greenspan was probably the biggest culprit in creating this wave, but since the Democrats are not in the White House as the wave pummels us, they gain the benefit of the national angst against the presiding Republicans. It really wouldn't matter whether Obama or Mickey Mouse was the Democratic candidate, people want "change" and "hope" in times like these.

There are some who give Obama street cred for blowing the Clintons away during the Democratic primaries. The truth, however, is that the Clintons blew the Clintons away. Their time has come and gone, and now they are reviled in many corners. Soros and the left wing media latched onto Obama as their darling and their counterpoint to the Clintons. All Obama had to do to be successful in this environment was to flash his winning smile, hug a few Code Pink activists, and mouth vapid slogans like the "change" and "hope" mentioned above. Sure, he is bright, articulate, and likeable. So are a thousand other people that Soros and the media could have carried along in a similar manner.

John McCain and his decades of military and public service are due respect, but he is a weak candidate put forward by a wounded party presiding over a brutal economic crisis and an unpopular war in a media environment that is heavily antagonistic. That McCain is even close in this election should be an embarrassment to the Democratic Party and perhaps an indication that their superstar candidate-who-would-be-emperor is perhaps without clothing.

Obama's Change (in Strategy)

2008-09-10T14:00:50Z

The Democrats are confronted with an immediate need to change strategy. They assumed that they could win this presidential election simply by leveraging dissatisfaction with the war in Iraq and the Bush administration in general, with the star power of the young, dynamic politician from Illinois who trumpeted the visionary hope and change messages.

This might actually have been an effective strategy if Obama had been able to maintain a comfortable lead in the polls right up to election night. The high road is a safe and scenic route, if events allow it to be travelled. With his radiant persona, along with the fawning national media and Hollywood glitterati shamelessly huckstering it, it seemed possible that he could do an unscathed victory tour to the White House.

Unfortunately for the Democrats, the Surge in Iraq and the Palin Phenomenon have swerved the Obama Express off the high road. Recent polls suggest that McCain has overtaken Obama, and media attention has whipsawed over to the Republican side. This means that Obama will have to abandon the visionary high road and wade into the bloody trenches of political warfare, trading blows with McCain/Palin on such tawdry topics as policy and experience, in order to claw his way back to the top of the heap. Obama may be ill-prepared for this dirty work of politics.

Here is a whimsical look at how a Team Obama strategy meeting might sound right about now:

Obama: “USA Today has me down by eight points. We have to change, or all hope is lost! How about if we focus on my legislative accomplishments?”

Staff: “We could play up your highly visible opposition to the Iraq war in the Senate, but….”

Obama: “Yeah, I know. The Surge is working, even though I’ll never admit it publicly. What else have we got?”

Staff: “We could play up your firm resolve as a leader in the Senate, but….”

Obama: “Yeah, I know. I voted ‘present’ more than I voted ‘yeah’ or ‘nay’ on anything. Anything else?”

Staff: “We could play up your aggressive support for the Global Poverty Act to show your compassion for poor, starving people of the world, but….”

Obama: “Yeah, I know. They’ve got pictures of my brother in Africa who makes a dollar per day and who I referred to as a ‘stranger’. Come on, give me something to work with!”

Staff: “We could emphasize your position on live birth abortions, but….”

Obama: “Yeah, I know. I’ve already publicly declared that difficult issues like that are above my pay grade. Okay, how about if we skip the legislative accomplishments and focus on my experience. What have we got there?”

Staff: “Well, you are a junior U.S. Senator, but….”

Obama: “Yeah, I know. We just concluded that my legislative accomplishments are suspect, and I’ve spent most of my time as a Senator campaigning for President instead. What else have we got for experience?”

Staff: “You were a State Senator for a while, but….”

Obama: “Yeah, I know. Even their number two pick has executive experience as a Governor, and I’ve got none. I have to stop these comparisons of my experience with Palin’s. I’m running against McCain! Give me something else.”

Staff: “You were a community organizer for while, but….”

Obama: “Yeah, I know. Every time someone mentions community organizing, some asshole pulls out Saul Alinsky’s book on community organizing tactics and makes me sound like a socialist. And then some other asshole points out that Palin’s experience as a mayor, with budgetary responsibility, hire-and-fire authority, and buck-stops-here responsibility for a community, is far more substantive than me going around knocking on doors with pamphlets. Allah Akbar! Haven’t we got anything?”

Staff: “We could try to resurrect your appeal with women in the electorate, but…”

Obama: “Yeah, I know. I dissed Hillary and her supporters by not picking her as VP, and then I dissed the Palin supporters by suggesting that you can’t put lipstick on a pig. (Sigh). Anything else?”

Staff: “We could play the religious angle, but….”

Obama: “Yeah, I know. My father was a Muslim, my step-dad was a Muslim, I was raised in a Muslim country, my siblings are Muslims, and I publicly declared that there are 57 states in the U.S. And then when people actually focus on my conversion to Christianity, all I get in return are video images of the Reverend Wright saying ‘God damn America!’ with a crowd of black people dancing and cheering in the background. Please, please, please…there must be something else….”

Staff: “We could leverage your speaking skills by going on a town hall tour, but…”

Obama: “Yeah, I know. I sound pretty eloquent when I can read from a teleprompter, but I sound like a dyslexic Ivy League professor with a stuttering problem and a random thought generator for a brain when the teleprompter is turned off. Hey, if you guys don’t come up with something quick, I’m gonna throw pig’s blood on you!”

Staff: “There’s Biden, but….”

Obama: (Hangs head in despair).

Oil and the New Cold War

2008-08-22T15:28:36Z

A new cold war is quietly escalating around the world. The basis for the conflict is the control of oil and the fortunes and power that come with it.

America imports 70% of the oil that it consumes. By itself, this statistic is not alarming, because global commerce is ubiquitous, and generally a good thing. Unfortunately, most of the world’s supply of fossil fuels is controlled by rogue states that are like Cerberus, the three-headed dog that guards Hades. It is impossible to talk about oil without also discussing terrorism, totalitarianism, radical Islam, and military adventurism. Oil is so intertwined with situations teetering on the edge of catastrophe that our security and standard of living will depend on fundamentally changing our anachronistic approach to energy supply.

Let’s begin by candidly examining our predicament. Here is the stark battlefield assessment of this nascent cold war:

The world is running out of cheap oil. It is only a matter of time, because the supply is dwindling, extraction is becoming more challenging and costly, and the demand is growing dramatically as India and China go through their own industrial revolutions. Conservation should be part of our strategy, but it is like spitting into the wind when two billion Indians and Chinese are contemplating buying cars. The biggest oil fields in the world have passed their peak and are becoming more difficult to harvest, including Ghawar in Saudi Arabia, Cantarell in the Gulf of Mexico, and the North Sea fields. When the world runs low on oil, the price will rise, tensions will escalate, and all of our economic, political, and military entanglements with oil will become potential nightmares.
We are addicted to low-priced fossil fuels. Whenever the price of oil increases, we throw a collective tantrum and demand that our politicians and businessmen somehow fix the matter. Unfortunately, there is no long-term fix for the price of oil, and our addiction to cheap oil is life-threatening. It suppresses the development of alternative solutions, it encourages over-consumption, it entices automotive companies to design and market inefficient vehicles, it leaves us dangerously exposed to purveyors of fossil fuels who are our enemies, and in the most tragic of all ironies, it forces us to transfer enormous sums of money to these enemies.
Totalitarian regimes now control most of the oil. The extraction and production of fossil fuels is becoming increasingly nationalized, often by totalitarian regimes. We are familiar with the control that OPEC exerts over this market, but other nationalistic forces are moving to center stage. Foreign national oil companies now control 90% of the world’s reserves. In comparison, Exxon produces only 3% of world output. Examples of nationalized energy operations include Petrochina Ltd. (China), Gazprom (Russia), PetroBras (Brazil), Petroleos de Venezuela, and Oil and Natural Gas Corp. (India). Each of these are expanding rapidly and gaining control of larger and larger shares of world oil production. When oil supplies tighten further and the crisis escalates in years to come, these nationalized monopolies will serve their masters and not us.
Many of the people we import oil from hate us. Let’s take a frank look at where much of our imported oil comes from. Some comes from the Orinoco Valley in Venezuela, led by Castro-wannabe Chavez, who hates America. Some comes from Iraq, which is embroiled in a religious civil war between Muslim factions that both hate America. Some comes from Iran, led by the chief Islamic fascist Achmadinejad, who hates America. Some comes from Russia, led by Putin and his gang of ex-Marxist Mafioso, who have always hated America and who want to reinvigorate the old USSR. Some comes from Nigeria, which is becoming infested with Islamic provocateurs. Even King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, our biggest supplier and nominally an ally, is trying to stave off radical Shiite factions that surreptitiously funded and manned the 9/11 attacks.
Islamic Terrorists are trying to kill us. Osama Bin Laden officially declared war on America in the 1990’s, issuing a formal statement calling all Muslims to jihad. Al Qaeda and other surrogates of Islamic Fascism have been attacking America and the West ever since. Some argue that their hatred of us is because of our recent military adventures in the Middle East, but the truth is that the first World Trade Center assault, the USS Cole attack, the bombings of our embassies, and the despicable plane crashes into the WTC and the Pentagon, all occurred before our invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. Islamic Fascists have a much broader agenda that is fundamental to radical interpretations of their religion. Their mission, fueled by centuries of xenophobia, is the destruction of Christianity, Judaism, and Western Democracy. This manifest destiny of Islam is being taught in thousands of madrassas around the world, in which millions of future militants are being indoctrinated. These terrorists may soon have access to nuclear weapons via Iran and Pakistan. They are funded by wealthy Arabic and Islamic individuals and governments who squat atop lucrative oil deposits. Their wealth comes from us, when we buy oil from them. We transfer $700 billion every year to regimes that behave like our enemies.
We are in a shooting war in the Middle East. Our sons and daughters are being killed in a cross-fire between factions who have hated each other for 1500 hundred years, and will hate each other for another 1500 years. Our noble goal is to instill democracy, with the hope that peace and stability will follow, in a region that is vital to the economic well-being of the free world. Their detestable goal is to kill us and each other. There will never be peace, because we value life and they do not. Are the lives of our citizens the price we want to pay for an uninterrupted supply of this limited commodity from such an inimical region of the world?
Our politicians are helplessly posturing while all of this unfolds. While we wait for a Churchill or a Reagan to emerge, we get instead Pelosi, Obama, and an endless host of other small-minded, parochial, bickering, and gridlocked puffer fish. The oil crisis is a situation so sinister and dire than it cannot be about Democrats or Republicans. It is time for all of those entrusted as our representatives to stop being politicians and to become leaders. No one will remember party affiliations when this pterodactyl of a disaster spreads its awful wings.
Our government bureaucrats are inept. If we expect the various government departments to solve this dilemma, we may as well expect pigs to fly. We will get nothing but hollow guidelines like CAFÉ standards, higher taxes on the very businesses that must innovate us out this mess, rules and regulations that discourage rather than encourage energy development, special interest groups buying influence that is adverse to our national interests, toothless international treaties, and a gut-wrenching slowness to any progress that always results from government control of an endeavor. As Reagan put it, the surest way to kill an initiative is to put the government in charge of it.

Escape from this dire predicament requires a bold plan, a dramatic change of course, an immediate shift in paradigms. We need a revolution in our thinking, along with an executable strategy that can accomplish the following critical objectives:

End our reliance on imported oil
End our co-dependence with despots around the world
Stop the flow of money going to our enemies
Disentangle us from terrorists and rogues overseas
Unleash American innovation and enterprise
Incentivize the development of alternative sources of energy
Protect our economy from unplanned chaos promulgated by foreign provocateurs

This cannot be a political gambit. It cannot be a façade foisted by candidates trying to win the next election with shallow campaign promises that will be abandoned shortly after the oath of office. Our leaders must think like military commanders, because we are at war, in every sense of the word, and our future hangs in the balance. In the heat of battle, military commanders are not politicians or panderers. They are strategists and tacticians. They are mission-driven, cold-hearted arbiters of risk and reward. They are what keep the enemy from raping our women and pillaging our homes.

So what strategies will save America from impending tragedy? Here is a proposed plan:

Immediately skew the marketplace to abhor imported oil. This is an imperative matter of national defense. We must end our addiction in a controlled manner that serves our strategic interests, before our addiction tragically spins out of our control. The simplest, most effective way to do this is to tax oil imported from outside North America. Specifically, we must gradually increase the tax on imported oil over the next ten years. At the end of these ten years, the tax rate should be so high that no rational person or company in the United States would consider importing oil. The steady and predictable escalation of import taxes will give our economy time to systematically re-allocate capital and labor, and to develop alternative energy technologies, based on market indicators and forces.
Immediately end all other government involvement in the energy marketplace. The government should influence no other prices for energy, either by taxation policies or by legislation. The government should remove all restrictions on fossil fuel exploration and refinery and nuclear power plant construction. The government should not decide what alternative technologies to pursue. Carter’s disastrous Synfuels program in the 1970’s and Bush’s equally inane focus on corn-derived ethanol should dissuade us from allowing the government to pick winners and losers. The government should not fund any company or institution to study alternatives, to develop alternatives, or to establish the infrastructure for alternatives. The free market should be allowed to allocate venture capital to promising ideas, and to appropriately reward successful ventures. The free market will move far faster, with dramatically greater innovation, than any government agency, as long as the players in the market have certainty that the cost of imported oil has been permanently skewed higher at a pre-determined rate. The government should simply get out of the way as urgently and as completely as possible, because governments don’t invent or innovate, they just impede. The gradually increasing tax on imported oil will provide the proper market signals and incentives for financiers, risk-takers, and people of genius to find and develop viable alternative solutions. It is not fruitful to even attempt to predict what these solutions might be. The answers will emerge if we let the market do its unfettered work during the next decade. This is exactly what America does better than any other country in the world.
Use the revenue from the oil import tax to protect ourselves . Specifically, earmark this money to fund the war on terror, to provide for homeland security, and to position our military to end its involvement in the Middle East when the proper time comes. Instead of the awful irony of paying our enemies for oil so that they can kill us, we will gradually transition to paying ourselves to kill our enemies and to disentangle from them. This tax will be self-limiting, because after ten years, the tax-inflated price of imported oil will be so dear that no one will buy any, thereby obviating import taxes.
Resist the urge to buffer the pain. There will undoubtedly be profound disruptions and transformations in our economy as we execute this strategy. However, we cannot subsidize industries or products that consequently lose their relevance, because it will impede the changes that must occur. We cannot subsidize consumers when petroleum prices rise, because it will fuel our gluttony and impede the transition to alternatives. New industries will arise. New technologies will emerge. New skills will be required. New jobs will be created. The market will send the proper signals to facilitate all of this. We must let those signals be heard. We will then leap ahead of a world that is still wallowing in oil dependence and the horrors that will come with it. The transition will be painful to some. Wars always are, and so are revolutions in technology. Keeping our national will in the face of these transitional disruptions is a matter of life and death. To paraphrase Thomas Jefferson, we cannot expect to be transported from hardship in a feather bed.

Is skewing the price of imported oil isolationist, and does it run counter to free market principles? Consider the following points, which are corollaries of the general recognition that we are already engaged in a cold war and therefore must act accordingly:

The strategy is indeed isolationist, with specific regard to the international oil marketplace. However, the purpose of this isolationism is not to disavow the merits of world commerce and interaction, which are many and diverse, but to specifically insulate us from a broad terrorist and fascist threat that is a near and present danger to our livelihoods. In all other matters, we must remain committed to world commerce, and to remain peacefully and politically engaged with all civilized nations.
The strategy does indeed run counter to free market principles, in a very narrow sense. We will be intentionally influencing the price of one commodity from one group of suppliers. Again, the purpose of this market intervention is not to disavow the merits of unfettered free trade, which are also many and diverse, but to once again insulate us from a grave threat. In all other matters, we must continue to recognize the power of free markets. Ironically, this particular intentional market intervention will trigger other markets in our economy to solve the imported oil problem permanently.

The strategy of taxing imported oil can end our addiction to it, insulate us from enemies abroad, unleash market-driven innovation of alternative energy solutions, and stop our economy from being held hostage by inimical forces outside of our control. It is a strategy that is administratively simple and targeted with laser-like precision. The only ones to fear it should be our enemies. We must act immediately, before the Strait of Hormuz is closed by Iran, before Russia invades Georgia and cuts off the pipelines there, or before….

Fixing Michigan

2008-08-20T19:41:07Z

The state of the state is no longer cause for mild concern or ordinary political handwringing. It is cause for dramatic action unpolluted by special interests and partisan politics. It is no longer important whether Democrats or Republicans get their way or stubbornly resist change. The ship is going down while the officers debate whether to paint it red or blue. It is time for the people of Michigan to demand an end to such superficial nonsense. We have fundamental structural problems that must be addressed honestly and directly. If we are unwilling to do so, we will be faced with choosing between staying and living out a diminishing lifestyle beset by turmoil and perhaps even violence, or abandoning our homes and families and leaving for greener pastures.

Let’s assess our situation honestly. Our flagship industry, the automotive business, may be already fatally wounded by aggressive competitors in not-so-foreign lands known as Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Texas, and Tennessee. Our flagship city, Detroit, is a burned out shell of its former self and is being humiliated by mayoral malfeasance. Our public education system is an expensive, unresponsive dinosaur that churns out well-paid teachers and administrators and a disturbing number of functionally illiterate students. Our business and property taxes are scaring away companies and forcing property owners to sell. Falling property values are triggering bankruptcies and devastating families that once believed they had a foundation for financial security. Our unemployment rate is the highest in the nation, forcing greater numbers of citizens to either resort to public assistance or go elsewhere for work. Labor unions choke huge sectors of our economy, including private industries such as automotive and retail, public services such as civic administration, police work, education, and quasi-public institutions such as railroads, road construction, and utilities.

It is frighteningly grim, but let’s resolve to slay the dragons that torment us. Half-hearted measures need not be summoned. This is a time for bold moves that radically alter the foundation and direction of this state. If you are not interested in joining in to help save the state, at least have the good grace to step aside and let others roll up their sleeves and get the job done.

None of the necessary measures will be easy. All of them will offend one or more political factions. However, this is not a time for the scorekeeping of insults and affronteries, or for kowtowing to the depth and reach of special interests. When a ship goes down, none of that matters, because the captain drowns with the deck hand, the debutante dies with the stevedore, the black suffocates with the white, and the young and the old perish alike. Here are the measures that must be taken:

Resuscitate our Automotive Industry

Our heritage is intimately entwined with Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler. Going forward, we need to also embrace Toyota, Nissan, and the other transplants. Huge chunks of capital assets in our state are tied to this industry. Hundreds of thousands of our citizens are trained and experienced in this endeavor. It is our identity. It is has been the source of great wealth and opportunity for all of us, directly or indirectly. In order to resurrect it, the following must be done immediately:

1. Make Michigan a right-to-work state , and guarantee this with a constitutional amendment. The outdated work rules, entitlements, and confrontational attitude of the union monopoly on labor is killing this industry. The historical tide in labor relations has turned, to the point where more cars are now built by non-union workers than union workers in America. There is no stopping this momentum. We either need to climb on board this train, or wave goodbye to our heritage as car makers. Some will say the UAW has a fresh and benevolent attitude. It doesn’t matter. We don’t need them, just as Alabama, Tennessee, and Georgia have decided that they don’t need them. If we can’t summon the will to do this, then we will have to move south if we want to work on an assembly line. And it will be a non-union assembly line anyway. It is obvious that Asian and European automotive companies are avoiding putting assembly plants in Michigan because of the pernicious presence of the UAW.

2. Clear the thorns and brush away from our state business environment to make it easier for car manufacturers to set up shop. Eliminate punitive taxes on businesses, relax environmental restrictions, ease zoning ordinances, and dramatically reduce the regulations that raise the cost of doing business. Sure, we can cluck and moan that those villainous car makers will do evil things without government regulation, but this opinion is not shared by the states down south that are now reaping the rewards of a healthy industry that once belonged to us. Regulations and restrictions mean nothing if there is no industry to regulate and restrict, which is the specter that confronts us now. Michigan was recently rated by Forbes as the 5^th worst state in the union to do business in. That is an appalling statistic for a state that is historically, emotionally, and humanly invested in manufacturing.

Completely Revamp our Education System

Michigan’s cost per pupil is among the highest in the nation, yet the results are disappointing and, in some cases, tragic. Barely 25% of public high school students in Detroit graduate. The only conclusion that can be drawn from this is that we are engaged in a stunning waste of money. We fund fancy buildings, elite athletic facilities, high-powered administrators, consultants, overly generous salaries and benefits for teachers, and high-tech computer networks. Unfortunately, none of these money-guzzlers actually cause students to become more educated. The cost of our public universities unexplainably goes up by double digits each year, while families that live on less and less sacrifice more and more, only to see their college-educated children leave the state anyway to find jobs elsewhere. Some say that we need to invest more in education to attract industry. If that’s true, why is Toyota’s latest plant is going up in Mississippi, and why did Comerica leave Michigan for Texas? Many of our university graduates are leaving for other states, due to lack of work in Michigan. More investment in college educations will accomplish nothing but higher taxes and frustrated graduates. In order to make our education system effective again, the following must be done immediately:

1. Fully transition to privatized education over the course of five or ten years. Fund the system with vouchers for each student in the state, to be spent on the school of their choice. Schools that have to compete to survive will deliver a better product. Parents who can choose where their children get educated will suddenly have some control.

2. Make Michigan a right-to-work state , and guarantee this with an amendment to the state constitution. This will refocus the teaching community on educating students rather than using union leverage to extract personal gains from the state education monopoly.

3. Give privatized schools full latitude to set their own standards, establish their own curricula, and dismiss students that disrupt the learning environment. This will ensure education that is relevant, focused, and effective.

4. Eliminate all state subsidies for colleges and universities , including subsidies paid to students. These post-secondary institutions will have to adapt to delivering value to students in order to survive, rather than suckling off taxpayers and delivering statist propaganda. Students will have to decide whether a college education is truly worth their investment, rather than coasting for four years in a state-funded orgy of parties and classes with no practical application taught by graduate students who cover for professors who are away on sabbaticals studying arcane nonsense.

Facilitate Detroit to Become a Viable City Again

Detroit’s population has shrunk from two million to nine hundred thousand. A majority of those who fled were productive citizens. The majority of those remaining are on public assistance of some kind. Worse still, those remaining have cloaked themselves in victimhood, blaming their circumstances on everyone but themselves. The leaders of the city are corrupt, ineffective, and focused on their own aggrandizement. Taxes are oppressive, yet there is never enough money to feed the governing monster. Civic unions have paralyzed decision-making and have created a culture of entitlement and inactivity. The infrastructure of the city is crumbling. Crime is rampant. Sheriffs have to ride on buses to protect the drivers. Postal workers refuse to deliver mail in dangerous zones. Drug and alcohol use is pervasive. A whole generation is nearly unemployable. In order to make Detroit viable again, here is what must be done immediately:

Make Michigan a right-to-work state , and guarantee this with an amendment to the state constitution. It is repugnant that civil servants can continually use the monopoly power of unions, combined with the monopoly power of civic governments, to hold citizens hostage for profligate pay, plush benefits, and unproductive work rules, while delivering service that is usually ineffective.

Privatize every service that is reasonable to privatize . This includes such venerable institutions as the Detroit Zoo, the water department, maintenance of city infrastructure, garbage collecting, and snow removal.

Declare the city in receivership . Appoint a board of trusted business and community leaders, reporting to the governor, to oversee the operation of the city until the situation stabilizes. Hire a reputable national auditing firm to take responsibility for ensuring proper execution of the city’s finances, including the proper award of city contracts. The cycle of corruption and cronyism must be stopped cold.

Deputize the Michigan National Guard to restore order and security in the city. The guard should be empowered to eradicate the thugs, drug dealers, gangs, vandals, and derelicts that currently terrorize the city. The Guard should also be assigned to protect external executors from retaliation. The Guard should stay on active duty until such time as people and property in the city are reasonably safe from harm.

Engage the Army Corp of Engineers to raze every abandoned structure and home. This will free up real estate for development, improve the image of the city, and destroy the havens for dope dealers.

End all state subsidies and revenue sharing to Detroit . It is nonsensical to continue to funnel external money into an entity that is so fundamentally non-functional. The external support is just an enabler for the dysfunctional situation to continue unabated. The city must stand on its own, or should not stand at all. It is time for the citizens of Detroit to face up to the responsibility of their own existence, or leave for friendlier venues elsewhere.

Radically Alter Tax Structure at the State and Local Levels

Our tax system currently is a disincentive to do business, own property, and earn income in Michigan. We are living in a fiscal dreamland, apparently unaware that we are no longer one of the wealthiest states in the union, and that we are mired in a one-state recession teetering on depression. Citizens are making do with less and less each year, and yet the government operatives of the state believe they are entitled to even more revenue than before. As long as the bureaucrats are protected and well-fed, there is no cause for alarm in Lansing, but the rest of us need to be alarmed! In order to restore fiscal sanity to the state of Michigan, here is what must be done immediately:

1. Dramatically reduce the scope of state government . Anything less than a 50% reduction in the state budget will not get us there. Our state bureaucracy multiplied during a more prosperous era. That era is gone. The bureaucracy must go with it. If any unemployment should be tolerated in the state, it should be the unemployment of bureaucrats.

2. Follow the simple rules of economics when developing tax policy. What you tax, you get less of. What you subsidize, you get more of. For example, if we tax business, we will get less business. If we tax sales, we will get fewer sales. If we tax hotels, we will get fewer visitors. Commerce is our life-blood, so let’s stop strangling it. We should tax things that we want less of. Less gas consumption would be good. Let’s tax that. Less drinking, smoking, and gambling would be good. Let’s tax those things.

3. Privatize state functions and assets wherever reasonable. The private sector is inherently more efficient and oriented toward effective client service.

4. Move beyond the mentality that fueled the Cuban and Soviet economic model, whereby income was evenly distributed by the government, and people stood in lines to get their fair shares of the output. The problem with that model is that nobody is producing output at the other ends of the lines that everyone is standing in. We have to shed the belief that it is sufficient to give money to people via the government for wealth to come to us all. Here is how the food chain works in the real world. People need goods and services. Therefore, they need income. Real income can only come from jobs, because “income” from the government does not require anything to be produced. Real jobs can only come from businesses, because government “jobs” don’t actually produce anything. Real businesses will only do business in a state that is friendly to them. That is our choice now. Or, we can stand in lines with our government “income” and vainly hope that somebody somewhere is producing something for us.

It is time to take back the State of Michigan and to restore it to its proper status as a place where citizens can work hard, enjoy a healthy standard of living, and keep what they earn. The battle for the future of Michigan is raging. Become a soldier. Challenge your leaders and stand up to the special interests. Join a local taxpayers’ association, because as with all things, money talks.

Where are the Cuts?

2008-08-18T19:41:51Z

(All of the budgetary data in this article was obtained from audited statements issued by the State of Michigan).

During the recent political circus to determine whether to raise taxes or cut spending, many spurious claims were made. The purpose of this article is to examine some of the fictional public positions held by the Chief Executive of the State of Michigan.

Fiction: Governor Granholm says she has cut the Michigan budget as deeply as possible. She frequently articulates this notion when arguing for increased taxation.

Fact: Revenue for the State of Michigan increased each year since 2002. Revenue increased from $35.4M in 2002 to $38.8M in 2006, a 10% increase. Further, the 2007 budget is $41.5M, and the yet-to-be-settled 2008 budget will be over $42.0M. In Granholm’s vernacular, the word “cut” is an Orwellian euphemism for “did not increase as much as I wanted to”. Certain departments or funds may actually have been cut, but those cuts were dwarfed by increases elsewhere.

Fiction: Governor Granholm’s mantra is that we need to invest in education in order to solidify the future of Michigan. In this proto-typical liberal plea on behalf of “the children”, taxes must be increased so that the next generation can compete.

Fact: Granholm has not increased spending on education a single penny. In 2002, the state spent $14.7M on education. In 2006, the state spent $14.7M on education, the exact same amount as four years earlier. Granholm’s public beatification of education is a smoke screen to play on the heartstrings and fears of Michiganders. The increased revenue is going somewhere else.

Fiction: Governor Granholm claims that Michigan must invest more in itself, in order to remain competitive with other states.

Fact: Michigan is the only state in the entire union that has experienced a reduction in real GDP over the past five years. We are ranked in the bottom 10% in the nation in attractiveness to businesses. We have the highest unemployment rate in the nation. Granholm has no idea how to attract businesses to Michigan. Increased spending by the state is certainly not the prescription. Here are some comparisons with more successful states:

The government of Texas only spends $2842 per capita, whereas Michigan spends $4009. It is worth noting that Comerica pulled up stakes from Michigan and relocated to Texas.
Closer to home and in size, the government of Illinois only spends $3279 per capita. What is Michigan getting for spending 30% more per capita than Illinois? Certainly not more jobs. What would Michigan get by spending even more than it does now? Certainly not more jobs.
Florida, one of the fastest growing states, only spends $3280 per capita. What is Michigan getting for spending 30% more than Florida? Certainly not more sunshine.

Fiction: Michigan is a growing state with a solid manufacturing economy.

Fact: Michigan’s population is growing more slowly than almost every state in the union. In 2002, we numbered 10.0M. In 2006, we numbered 10.3M. That’s a population increase of 3% over four years. In that same period, the revenue of the State of Michigan grew 10%. In other words, the government is growing more than three times as fast as the population, to the point where there are now as many state and local government workers in Michigan as there are manufacturing workers. And it’s not because our economy is growing. In fact, our real GDP shrunk from $341B to $338B from 2002 to 2006. If you want to be a government worker or an unemployed union worker, Michigan is the place to be. Pure Michigan.

It is tragically disingenuous for Granholm to publicly declare that there is no more room to cut in the state budget. First, no cut has ever been made year-over-year in the total budget. Second, our situation begs for real cuts, given the stagnation in our population growth, the shrinkage in our GDP, our uncompetitive position with other states, and the continued growth of the state government. Third, it is an insult to the folks of Michigan to experience a diminishing lifestyle while the potentates in Lansing take bigger and bigger bites out of the economic pie.

Perhaps it is time to start “cutting” our leaders.

Fixing Democracy

2008-08-06T15:20:07Z

Democracy is hailed as one of the great advancements of modern civilization. When asked to describe the general political structure of our country, most citizens proudly reply that it is a democracy. Strangely, though, democracy is not mentioned in the U.S. Constitution or the Declaration of Independence. This is because our political structure is more precisely described as a Constitutional Republic. How did we arrive at this strange dichotomy, and is this dichotomy a problem?

First, some very brief history. This country is structured as a Constitutional Republic. As such, there is a defined and limited role for government, with federal power dispersed among three branches and with states empowered with great latitude to exercise their individual political wills. This is the theory, at least. For some of our history, this theory was close to reality, notwithstanding some pushing and shoving between the federal branches, and between the states and the federal government.

Of course, governments are not robotic organizations. They require legislators, executives, and judges. And these professionals require a method for appointment into office. This is where the concept of democracy has edged its way into our political framework. It is not so much the heart of our political philosophy, but rather the method by which we have gradually come to execute it. In the beginning, a very limited subset of our population participated in the selection of leaders. Today, there is widespread involvement by the general population. Unfortunately, time and ignorance have served to blur the distinction between philosophy and method, to the point where now democracy, per se, is seen as the moral and intellectual foundation of our government.

Is this a problem? This author proposes that it is one of the most grievous problems facing our nation. Democracy is simply a method for choosing, such as between candidates for office or proposals on a ballot. There is nothing inherently good or bad about it, and it does not inherently protect anything or provide any wisdom or guidance. The democratic choices made can be good, bad, or even abhorrent. Tyrants can be voted into office. Incompetent legislators who coincidentally have a lot of money or strong family connections can be voted into office. Ballot proposals that are abhorrent and that violate basic rights can be enacted. Mob rule can overwhelm the rightful interests of a minority group. The most villainous policies can be empowered by a simple majority. It is worth noting at this point that the National Socialist (Nazi) Party of mid-20^th Century Germany was elected into office.

The mere power to vote does not provide sufficient moral and structural integrity for a nation. As citizens, we are endowed with certain inalienable rights, according to our Founding Fathers. These rights are protected in our Constitution, which likewise limits the power of our government in favor of these inalienable rights. These rights cannot, and should not, be voted away. And yet, we have become so enamored with democracy, so enamored with building enough of a mob to change the direction of the country to suit our blind, short-term, single-issue collective needs, that the concept of individual rights protected by a Constitution is slowly ebbing into obscurity. The result is a continually growing government presence, a larger and larger share of wealth flowing to the government, and quiet erosion of individual privacy and security.

Sadly, this was predicted by the Founding Fathers, and was one of the reasons why the initial methods for choosing leaders were not as democratic as they are today. Quite simply, the belief was that a large enough mob will always form in a democracy to confiscate the wealth of the minority and to destroy the protections of individual rights. The great fear of our founders was that power would be siphoned into a central government from individuals and states, like a giant sucking vortex. History has demonstrated that their fears were well founded. The federal government today is a leviathan that dwarfs any nightmare the Founders may have lost sleep over. State and local governments have likewise exploded in scope.

The problem is that in a widespread democracy, it is simply too tempting and too easy for candidates for political office to bargain away the wealth and rights of individuals and minority interests for the favor and votes of the majority. You cannot win office without the most votes, and the most efficient method to obtain the most votes is to offer programs and transfer payments that benefit the largest number of voters. This creates an unavoidable bias toward bigger government and eroded individual rights. This has been the history in our country, and will only get worse as more time passes. Eventually, producers will cease to produce, wealth will disappear, rights will be lost, and we will all wallow in the fetid abscesses of our democratic excess.

If too much democracy is the problem, what is the fix? It is important to assess this question in the context of the balance of powers that the Founders envisioned. They created a legislature to make laws and fund the government, an executive to represent the nation in foreign affairs and to carry out the laws of the legislature, and a judiciary to ensure that the laws and the manner in which they are executed are within the limits defined by the Constitution. Checks and balances are established between these branches, so that one does not become dominant over the other.

This is elegant in theory, but the method by which the players in each of these branches are chosen can dramatically skew the outcome. Today, both the legislature and the executive branches are chosen democratically, by simple majority of the associated voting populations. The judiciary is appointed by the executive branch, and approved by the legislature. In practice, therefore, there really is no effective balance of power. All of these appointments are directly or indirectly made by simple majorities of all voters. It is pure democracy, and subject to the biases described above that will lead to our eventual collapse into mob rule. The checks and balances are an illusion. We will inevitably end up with bigger and bigger government. Our constitutional protections will slowly be voted away.

In order to fix it, balance must be restored between the power of the mob and the power of certain individual citizens whose wealth and rights are targeted by the mob. A very simple tactic for accomplishing this is to create separate and distinct methods for choosing each of the three branches of the government. For example, let us argue that is proper for the entire population to choose our chief executive. The executive is charged with representing our country in foreign affairs, and with making sure that laws are properly executed. It seems right and proper for all citizens to be invested with the power to choose this person. Let us further argue that the judiciary should not be chosen by popular vote at all. The judiciary is charged with ensuring that our Constitution is honored, so therefore judges should not be pressured or tempted by the demands of the mob. Their job is not to represent the current popular opinion, but to ensure the protection of our inalienable rights. Lastly, let us argue that the legislature should be chosen by a subset of the voting population. This subset should be the one most impacted by the activity of the legislature, which to a very large extent is involved with the raising of funds and the expenditure and allocation of these funds. It is through this fiduciary power of the legislature that the explosive growth of the government is fueled.

The subset of the voters that should choose the legislators is the property owners. This is the group that the mob would dearly love to target, and the group that the politicians would most quickly bargain away to the mob, if they could. It is the exploitation of this group by the democratic process that is the Achilles heel of democracy. In order to solve the problem of democracy, it is necessary to restore the status of property owners to their rightful place in the balance of our political powers. Since they are the ones that primarily fund the government, let them be the ones who select the representatives that determine the proper levels of taxation and the proper allocation of funds.

So, let the mob choose the president. Let the property owners choose the legislature. Let the president nominate judges, and let the legislature confirm (or reject) them. This will restore true balance between the mob, the property owners, and the Constitution that is designed to protect them all. This will make the balance of powers envisioned by the Founders a real force, rather than an illusory sham. Some may call this approach undemocratic, and by implication, un-American. This author challenges them to read the Constitution, which does not mention democracy, and to consider the logical extension of its premises. That’s what true Americans would do.