World map

There should be a 4 by 4 world map on every class room wall in America! Children today have no idea where world threats to our country are coming from, where immigrants are coming from. There should be a 4 by 4 map of the United States on every class room wall in America! The average student should know where they are in relation to everyone else.

One Issue Voters

           In local and national elections, voters vote on what they are emotional, passionate or scared about, like the candidates views on the death penalty, or woman's rights, abortion, drugs, religion, closing Guantanamo Bay Prison, ending military involvement somewhere, a union supporter, and many other local and national individual issues. Candidates feed and get elected on those passions or emotions with well chosen slogans or sound bites. 'Change You Can Believe In,' a video of a Atom bomb explosion, a candidate emerging from a tank, 'Win one for the Gypper,' all contributed to the candidate's election. Yet they said nothing of the man's qualifications or values.
Voters should elect a President and a Congress who's party is for lower taxes, smaller government, personal and leadership responsibility, strong national defense, and state's rights.
Voters must cool there individual passions in favor of the national parties interests. And if that party chooses a candidate that also reflects some voters individual heartfelt issues,  consider that a bonus.
Because one parties platform is the opposite of the other, a party of higher taxes, larger government, less personal responsibly, weak national defense, and diminished state's rights. 
Temporally setting aside individual passions in favor of the party of choice gets you where you want to be in the long run. All your singular issues must take a back seat for the greater good of the party and that includes voting for a candidate that belongs to the ex, NRA and you don't.
Is your candidate and experienced executive or legislator?
Lastly, let me say that a candidate is who he or she is surrounded by. Good executive's choose and rely on close friends and supporters in their administrations. Your vote for the candidate is a vote for all those that surround him or her. Examine them carefully, they reflect who the candidate really is, not what he or she says they are.
So it's more that just electing or rejecting candidates that are for or against the your singular passionate issue.
Think the big picture!

Chaos

America is living in chaos. Foreign policy, economics and socially we are unstable and uncertain of much of anything.
Is this deliberate or random chaos? I think it is deliberate. I can't believe that the majority of our government supports a deliberate decline of America. I know that there are many in America that would like to see America collapse.
I know of some that subscribe to theory that the more confused people are about their future the more they are susceptible to someone eloquent who offers stability no matter what the price. First tear down society then rebuild it in the image you believe in.
We the people want stable dependable jobs, secure homes and security for our families. Have we been pushed hard enough to accept a new form of government? What form? Who runs it?
Right now people are not sure of their future. Foreign countries are not sure of America's future. Are we a risk for investment? Sure we are, we are spending like drunken sailors and borrowing like there is no tomorrow. Who is doing all this borrowing and spending? Our government. Are we spending into bankruptcy? On purpose?
Long and short term investors here at home are holding back investing in businesses and securities not because those businesses are failing but because investors are uncertain of the future.
America shows uncertainty in foreign policy by disrespecting our long term friends and encouraging current foes. The vast majority of UN members have voted consistently against America on wide majority of issues raised. These same members receive millions from us in foreign aid. The inconsistency of foreign policy leads to doubt about our commitments around the world. We are either committed or we are not. We either have friends or we don't. Why is that such a hard concept to follow through on?
Socially there many daily examples of public elected officials pushing the bounds of honor. We have leaders that lie like it's a natural thing to do. Anyone can have forgivable faults and hidden agenda, but when caught, to lie about it is unforgivable. Lying by public officials is or should be grounds for immediate dismissal. When very public people come out and support a lying public official because the official was good at his job only supports moral decay and acceptance of dishonest behavior. How can he be good at his job when he is caught lying to the public? The line drawn must be clear to all of us, unfortunately there are many that blur it. We do it almost every day. Just listen or watch the news. Our kids are.
We need new leaders that have honor, stability and a positive unblurred direction for American.
Ask yourself this question.
Was America so confused and uncertain just a few short years ago?

Taxes and Power

        1% of the public pays 34% of all federal income taxes. 5% of the public pay 67% of all federal income taxes. 47% of the public pay no federal income taxes at all. The rest, middle and lower upper class pay the rest.
        It is claimed that the 1% of the public that pays the most income taxes controls anywhere from 60 to 90% of the money in this country.
I ask, if the group that earns the most doesn't control what they make or own who should? Of course the liberal answer always comes back that there should be a more even distribution of wealth. That's where the government comes in. They redistribute the wealth. But who, what person,  in government decides who gets what?
       There are two sides to every argument.
       I say, if 47% of the public does not pay any federal income taxes because they, presumably don't earn enough, then they should be incentivized by being asked to pay some token amount, perhaps 1% to 5%, amount in taxes. Imagine how that would go over in and election. This new incentive tax code might inspire them to reach the 35% tax level the very rich pay, and might even allow states to participate in the new found riches.

       So I say, tax the poor and let them rise up and become something.

       If Democrats keep espousing 'tax the rich' 'tax big business' and Republicans keep espousing tax breaks for those the pay taxes, who among the 47% are likely to vote Republican? All those that want something for nothing will vote Democrat because almost half of all the people in this country do not pay income taxes and they like it that way.
       If Democrats espouse free health care and Republicans say we can't afford it who are the poor going to vote for?
       The answers to all the above questions seem obvious to me but in a democratic society the majority rules, usually, and practical solutions to economic questions seldom get practical answers.
   
        Another subject, as Diritives, Reit's, Shorts, Longs, Puts and Calls are all traded on stock markets around the world they all generate profits and loses and are subject to taxes like any other manufactured product. Be it buggy whips, ipods or mortgage bundles, the world is a competitive place and in it are products and services that are bought and sold  at a ridiculous pace. Fifty years ago people would have had no idea of those products today. But they did know of the flawed governmental system we had then and what we have today is just as flawed. It's a system that tries to control wealth and those that earn it.

The Economy and Politics

The battle on Capitol Hill over the 2011 budget and rising debt continues with politics playing a key roll keeping the real issues as muddy as possible. No apparent solution resulting in something good for the general public seems in sight. Polls indicate by 51% that the Republicans don’t have a clue. Polls indicate that Obama’s approval rating is falling but only to slightly less than 50%.

Those figures baffle me. Explain to me why, when Congress and the White House last year were totally Democratic they didn’t vote and complete a budget for the year 2011, nor address a sky rocketing debt. Why has the Congress offered up Continuing Resolutions, totalling six to date to keep the government operating. Why has Obama and Democrats have stood by and watched us sink deeper in debt? The Democratic Congress did not offer any budget cuts until the new Republican majority in the House pressed for them. Since the new Republican House majority began January the last three of those six CR’s have all included cuts in the budget. And the Republicans don’t have a clue? Seems to me that no cuts would have occurred without the public making their feelings known in last fall’s elections by electing as many Republicans as they did.

The newly elected Republican state’s governors and legislatures have also tried to cut budgets and debt with huge resistance from rising health care costs, deeply entrenched unions, liberal institutions and unfunded pensions. The newly elected Republicans are doing their job and insisting that budgets must be smaller and reflect the governments income. How can Democrats ignore what’s right in front of them? Declining income and rising costs cannot be swept under the rug or by using the usual rhetoric of big business and the wealthy not paying enough taxes.

The New 2012 Budget

Paul Ryan’s proposed budget for 2012 contains many cuts, among them is a cut in the Corporate Tax Rate from 35% to 25% paid for by eliminating many federal subsidies and tax loopholes that allow big corporations from paying any tax at all.

I think that included in the new budget should be a two year, 0% tax rate moratorium on the current 35% corporate tax on specific off shore profits. These profits have been estimated to be about two and a half trillion dollars. These profits are sitting in off shore banks held by US Corporations that could be brought back into this country for job creation, investment and expansion here, instead of overseas. It seems a no brainer.

Some Political Rumblings.

On Libya…

Obama is: hedging, vacillating, and has a bumbling stumbling confusing policy. He is engaged militarily, but wants to duck and cover, let NATO run the show, save the endangered rebels but Gadaffi must go, or not. Believe it or not half of the country supports him and his disengaged, engagement. They don’t want us involved in another war. I can respect that but Libyan people are dying because of their nut-job leader and we are supposed to believe that American’s don’t care or just should stand by and watch?
Those that can stand by and watch are the same isolationist American’s that hated Roosevelt for getting us in the Second World War. They hate any President that gets us in any kind of conflict any where. We Americans get into conflicts because we don’t like bullies, not in school, or in running a country. Everybody agrees with that mindset, right? Wrong. Those that choose to tolerate bullies and stand on the sideline while innocents get beat up are using the NY City mindset of not being involved. “It’s not worth”, it is the feedback. Well BS. We can’t fight back against all the bullies of the world but we can choose when and where to make a stand.

On the First Anniversary of Obama Health Care.

Got a government health care plan? Go find a Doctor, or a specialist, or a test facility, good luck. Doctors and Hospitals by the thousands are abandoning treating senior citizens and those on a government assistance plans. Government mandated fee reimbursements are no longer cost effective for the treatment of patients with government insurance. The first thing medical facilities ask when you call for and appointment is the name of your insurance. Now that’s not new but now when you reply with some form of government plan, Medicare, Medicaid, etc. they say they are sorry they are NOT TAKING NEW PATIENTS. Is the next move that the government is going to force them too? Yes that is the plan. That the government has now claimed that thirty million new people will have insurance coverage that they did not have before is wonderful but reality says what good is the insurance when there are not enough doctors to service them or accept it or have fled the health care business entirely. Why are the best doctors in the world right here in America and not in Canada, or England or in Saudi Arabia?
Because the best chance for a decent living and to pay off their school loans is right here. For now.

On Japan,

The earthquake and tsunami were tragic enough but when six nuclear power plants almost went ‘nuclear’ we started rethinking the advisability of constructing more plants right here at home. Maybe that’s a good thing, to rethink how to build them safer. Maybe we need some new updated safety equipment on the ones’ already in operation. One problem per decade is one problem too many.
The immediate and long term after effects of the three tragedies will be felt world wide. Japan has assimilated itself directly into the fabric of the American way of life though it’s people, it’s manufacturing, its technology, and even the fool chain. They are as close to us as we are to each other.

On the 2012 election.

It’s early and it’s scary. I don’t see a serious GOP candidate the can beat Obama unless he’s a governor from New Jersey. The rest have baggage to heavy to overcome voter resistance. Someone with principals that independents can support like, Walker from Wisconsin or Christie from New Jersey. The old guard Republicans need to step aside and let the young winners step up.

Egypt, The beginning.

Finally it blew, ever since our trip to, ‘The Land of the Pharaohs’ I have been waiting for its people to rise up against Hosni Mobarak. He and his repressive family have clung to power and clogged the halls of government for thirty years and as a result the average income for a days work for some of the best educated people in the Middle East has been two dollars a day. Bribery to some family member bureaucrat to do any kind of business has been the enforced order of the day. I don’t know how the people have been able to stand it this long. If it’s not a family member it’s been a dues paying appointee of a family member that runs every facet of government. The extensive family even lives in a huge, exclusive, well guarded compound, well away from the average citizen. The family has been heavy handed over the years retaining power and repressing dissent. Too heavy handed.

Tour guides, of which we had six, over the course of our stay, spoke in low-checking-behind-their-backs voices about the conditions of everyday life. Guides see people from other countries enjoying and speaking about basic freedoms that Egyptians only dream about. Travel is out unless you are rich and can afford the permit to travel. Buying a laptop, a phone, a business, a car, a motorcycle, a decent paying job, almost everything is done by paying the bureaucrats bribes or 'fees'. It’s better known as corruption. It’s been sucking the soul out of the country.

Egypt’s outlawed Muslim Brotherhood has always been just under the surface waiting to jump in, recruit, and be a new radical form of government if and when Mobarak is pushed aside. Are they pro USA or not is anybodies guess. My guess is the people of Egypt are smart enough to push for a new secular, democratic form of government that allows capitalism and opportunity to flourish will succeed. That will not be the radical Muslim Brotherhood.

The United States has paid Egypt and Mobarak more than a billion a year in aid mainly to keep the peace and not use it’s Army against Israel or its own people, and so far he hasn’t. That is until today, his army is in the streets, so I guess all bets are off when it comes to giving him more aid and support.

The average age of most people in the Middle East is under thirty, they are restless and want what everybody wants and Iraq now has, freedom and opportunity. Who maybe next to riot? Iran, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Syria are certainly candidates. Anywhere there is repression there opportunity for revolution. What fills the revolutionary vacuum after the Kings and repressive governments are toppled? Who is the next Castro, or Ayatollah? Let's hope not.The United States and every other nation wants, above all else, stability with-in governments so that commerce can go on peacefully between nations with out upsetting world markets.

Many in the Muslim world will blame the United States for supporting Mobarack all these years with out understanding our one motoviation, stability in the region. Mobarak offered it at a one billion dollar a year price tag.

Thievery

Liberals, Conservatives, Moderates, Progressives, all with very different ideas on how we, the people, should live in this country. Democrats and Republicans both have moderates in their party but only one has progressives under their roof, Democrats.

The economy in Congress is the current hot issue, whether to tax creators and spend like drunken sailors, or both. There are so many people , about 20%, who believe it’s right to take money from the rich and redistribute it. Bill O’reily called them thieves last night and he’s right.

The idea of robbing from the rich to give to the poor has been popular since Robin Hood. If you were a benevolent robber back in the day and you stopped a coach and asked the three passengers to empty their pockets and one had only a dollar, the second had a hundred, and the third had a thousand, how much would you take from the three of them. Remember you are a benevolent robber. A conservative robber would take the same percent from each, a progressive would take nothing from the poor, most of the hundred and all but a dollar of the thousand. Who is the benevolent one? Neither, they are both robbers and belong in jail. Note; the man with the thousand employed the other two, hired the coachman and planned to finance a business venture they were bound for. Now all four are beside the road, broke, out of work with futures bleak waiting for a Robin Hood to give them a handout. The conservative at least left them with prospects for survival and the coachman may get a little less than he bargained for.

Liberal progressives insist that taking from the rich and giving to the poor is and honorable mission. There is no honor in stealing from anybody. Our government was set up to collect taxes, by force if necessary, and use it to protect us, and build infrastructure, period. Where did it get the idea its mission was to set up a retirement fund, a medical fund, and a safety net for individuals and businesses? Progressives bent those original limited rules to further their honorable agenda but, as usual when you bend the rules things get out of hand. First they rob those they think can afford their robbery then they spend more than they steal. Tell me what is honorable or benevolent in that? Not only are they misguided thieves but they are irresponsibly mismanaging other peoples money.
Congress has no honor and is proving it daily in the way they are stealing and mismanaging our money. That is why it’s approval rating is in the toilet. It will stay there as long it behaves like a drunken sailor. But maybe honor is passe'.

Don't Under Estimate Sarah Palin

The Woman is Sharp. She is playing her cards right so far. By limiting challenging political interviews she has kept herself out of the the negative. The left media would love to have some meat to chew but for now she's not giving it to them. She is staying away from hostile political reporters (no Katy Coric for now) and that's smart. They would love to put her on the defensive, she knows it so why bother with them right now. She hasn't formally announced that she is running for any office and until she does she is building political allies with those through the Tea Party she's helped to get elected.

Instead she's giving them Bristol and dancing, Fox TV, and reality TV on'homey Alaska.' So far it's all good. Her soft interviews and comments through Fox gives her positive exposure and favorable political hay with the political junkies.

In the meantime, as a contributor to Fox and her Alaska reality show, she has the opportunity to slip in her core political values and opinions unchallenged. Pretty smart. Her public office political experience and her differing views versus Obama's aren't to be dismissed to lightly. There is some clever calculation in the mix. Any future candidate would love to have her kind of paid platform to speak from. Can she continue to have this kind of positive exposure for much longer? I think she will find a way to continue to have and effective platform.

Substance, does she have substance? The past two years have shown that she is the only viable political possible candidate that have been effective in the Republican Party. Who else has raised the money she has, and who else has been able to get Republicans elected like she has? Substance equals effectiveness and she has been as effective as Romney, Gingrich, andHuckabee with possibly more political experience, Romney is charming and smart and from the east but old line Republican and a health care failure. Gingrich is a man with statesmanship and ideas but a lot of baggage. Huckabee is not taken seriously as a challenger to anyone, especially Obama. Palin is a clear choice candidate, the opposite of Obama and the left. You can feel the substance of the lady. She means what she says, will follow through and not back down. Sound like anyone in the past you know that was so belittled by established Washington insiders as a potential president? Truman and Reagan come to mind.

She will buck lots of negative labeling and derisive editorials from inside and outside her party but she seems to have the ability to let the negative roll off her shoulders. She is the brightest dark horse in the running.

Obama and the Left.

Newt Gingrich noted recently on the Sean Hannity program that President Obama can't come out and say in so many words that Jihad a bad thing. Hannity was totally lost on why Obama can't face the fact that there are bad people in the world that want to do us harm. Gingrich and Hannity and others on the right know how to call a spade a spade, or a red a red and have had for years no trouble identifying who our enemy's are. It's true that many equate Muslims with bad guys and are scared. Muslim fanatics are the bad guys not Muslims in general. Not to many Muslims are coming forward to condemn fanatics in their religion and there in lies the rub.

Obama blames America for creating those fanatic enemies. In fact, any enemy of America seems to have his sympathy. He believes that America, being a superpower has wielded to much belligerent weight and he is intent on apologising for it. Most others believe we have nothing to apologise for.

The American left tries to look at America from a foreigners eyes, as a bully, greedy, selfish and overly self indulgent nation. We pollute to much, we use to many natural resources, we exploit third world resources like colonialists and our strong military presence around the world intimidates lesser nations. Intimidates so much in fact that it spawns radicals. We, according to the left, are like the great sports teams of the world, the Yankees for example, have many supporters but many more haters. The USA and the New York Yankees are the 'Evil Empire'. Writers love to say how unfair it is that the Yankees have so much and the rest of the league has so little. The US has so much and he rest of the world so little. The US has the number one economy and China number two with China being one forth the economy of the US.
Most Americans are proud of the accomplishments of our country but those on the left try to down play or appease and stroke those that dislike or are jealous (best word) of America.

Sports fans in Pittsburgh are proud of their Pirate ball team and dislike the Yankees, but they will suddenly come out in droves to the their usually half empty ball park when the Yankees come to visit on a rare occasions. Why, because the human condition of admiring or being jealous of success is in all of us, and we just have to be near it. The world might not like us but they do admire us. Obama needs to understand that winning friends around the world by apologising for our greatness will not succeed and his efforts would be better spent by solving problems rather than making empty speeches.

Obama's effort to play down America's success and strengths to the world is witnessed by his sending, and embarrassing, three of his top executives from his administration to the world court to listen to Cuba, Iran, Argentina, etc. accuse America of human rights complaints and abuses. He feels that in the long run America, by this kind of apologetic behavior we will some how, more endear ourselves to the rest of the world. We will be showing our human side more and our bully side less by this Obamaesque form of self- deprecation. People see what you are, not what you say you are. Obama hasn't show that he understands that people are smarter than that.

The left in this country is ashamed of the USA. The left in this country is pointing a finger at America's image and blaming big business, Wall Street, and the military as culprits for why the world hates us. Obama's mission is to repair that image by tearing down and belittling America's successes to the rest of the world. As the lefts offered proof; The UN votes against America on 80% of all issues. Why? Simple answer; the little guy almost always votes against the big guy. Simple reason: They are little.

The left thinks that conservatives in America are so pro-business and reckless in their pursuit of the almighty buck that they will destroy all that is good in America. They fear that the land, air, and water will be destroyed if the pro business community is left unchecked. They believe that conservatives want less government control and a strong military presence around the world to protect those business interests. They fear that conservatives, with their greed and avarice will make more enemies for America than friends. We have been unintentionally creating jealous 'enemies' for generations, it's a side effect of success. I grant that some checks and balances are necessary for every aspect of the business and home community but without successful businesses we would be no better than a third world country, many of which are hungry, unemployed, and with out hope. Big government of the left is strangling energy production, financial management, and global business creation, through demonizing, high taxes and over regulation. The people of this nation finally woke up during mid-term elections and slowed the strangulation. They hope to reverse it in 2012 elections.

Creating big government does not create growth in the economy, businesses do. Government does not pay taxes, big and little businesses do. Government employees do not create products that sell and generate taxes, private industry jobs do. Government should interfere as little as possible with the growth of business.

One Hundred Years Ago

1910, One hundred years ago this country was at peace, had no income taxes, not until 1913, no Social Security, even later than income tax, no Medicare, no federal welfare, no Medicaid, no housing subsidies, no food stamps, no clunker car rebates, no stimulus packages, no bailouts, not much help for the poor and downtrodden. Doesn't sound like a nice place to live for the average poor family.

But during this terrible time to live in the United States people were immigrating by the hundreds of thousands anyway. People were pouring into Ellis Island, New York to start their new lives in America legally, and they paid to get here too. Were they promised anything like food stamps, Medicare, welfare, etc? No, yet they came anyway. Must have come from worse places than here, huh?

Immigration was at a peak, people were clamoring to get into this country from all over the world. They wanted opportunity to improve their lives over where they came from. They wanted religious freedom from persecution, they wanted a chance to have their children have a better life than they did. They wanted out from under stifling, corrupt governments that promised to perpetuate their dead end lives. Some were just tired of being hungry all the time.

Today, we have all the things that should make the lives of the poor and downtrodden much better than a hundred years ago but if you listen to the liberal point of view we haven't done near enough. Federal and state governments need to do more, spend more, tax more, and spread the wealth more to lift the poor and downtrodden up to live better lives. Federal and State liberal governments have invented programs and have had a hundred years to tax and spend to improve lives in this country. They have failed miserably. We spend more to educate our children than any country in the world and still rank near the bottom among developed countries. Fortunately, we still have old fashion 'pay as you go' medicine like a hundred years ago that is world wide respected, (for a few more years). Ask the leaders of most countries where they go for critical medical treatment, the US of course. Now, that too is nearing and end as a liberal government takes control of the medical field for the first time. They are forcing every American to buy health insurance or pay a fine. Not satisfied that every American will have health care, they want control of the health providers, and what, how, and to whom they provide care, and what they can charge for it. The health care system will go the way of education, down, down, and down.

Over these hundred years people still come to America, but we are no longer a pioneer, freedom loving country. We have become staid, stale, and even regressive. Among peoples of foreign countries we still have the luster of a new, exciting, opportunistic country but in reality, liberal minded voters and legislators have torn away at Uncle Sam and what he has stood for. The coat of stars and stripes (freedom and independence) is gone, replaced with hand outs,(dependency) of other peoples money. The spirit(self reliance) of the American people is being replaced with anger, insecurity, fear, apathy, and ignorance, all of which, by design, makes for the perfect liberal voter.

Undaunted, immigration is still going on by the millions in 2010. We had stable immigration for years, every one entering the US was registered and was legal, eventually becoming proud citizens. Today, immigrants are coming in the back door and our government is turning a hypocritical, blind eye. Immigrants of today want the same thing immigrants of a hundred years ago wanted so why do they not come in legally? We have laws that say they don't meet eligibility rules so they can't immigrate. Wow how hypocritical is that? If we don't enforce immigration laws why do we have eligibility laws on the books at all? Why not just announce we are open for any to immigrate? If government leaders don't respect and follow the law why should the people respect their elected leaders? Why are laws ignored so flagrantly? This country and especially it's leaders must respect the rule of law or be guilty of the US being truly known as a decadent society. One that fosters fear, frustration, and disgust.

Immigration to the US is like a funnel, at the top everyone wants in, at the bottom only the few make it with the current rules, fences, officers, troops, and gates. The government seems satisfied with the current flow.

I'm not satisfied with the government.

Angry, Apathitic, Ill Informed

The public is angry with the lack of jobs, government excessive spending, corruption and waste. Promises were made and high hopes were raised for people wanting something for nothing like health care. Or single issue voters who wanted immigration enforcement, or the troops to come home and the war to end or the hope and change crowd, who weren't sure what that meant but wanted something positive to happen. Angry voters wanted to punish banks and Wall Street. Instead, they got wild spending for no return. They got even higher unemployment, huge new government deficits and more confusion with business, banks and Wall Street resulting on current growth stagnation. And the war goes on.

New, yet to be understood government regulations and threats of raising taxes along with still unknown health care costs have put the clamps on business borrowing and risk taking. This is killing job creation. Banks are unsure of yet to be determined government regulations to lend to business and home buyers. Government interference in the market place has created stagnation, fear and uncertainty.

Big business needs to show profit to shareholders and they currently are. Their top line has suffered while everything has been done to shore up the bottom line. But the old business adage of, Grow or Die is always in play and growth is hampered by high taxes and the unknown. Businesses have gotten lean and cautious while building reserves because they are leery of what the government might be up to next. Small business are not as flexible as large corporations, they sometimes operate like the average wage earner, month to month. They need to borrow in the lean times and when lending institutions find themselves in uncertain times like now, they say no to small business loans.

The uncertainty?

What is the government planing next? Are they going to raise taxes by letting the Bush tax cuts run out effecting many small businesses and jobs expire or lower corporate taxes to allow big businesses to be more competitive world wide? Good luck on both counts. Will the Pay Czar or another business Czar step in and cause the top people in banks and business to walk away? Is the current government pro business or not? Take a guess.

Our government is so out of touch with citizen and business needs that this November changes should be made in Congressional and Senate seats. There is hope that the current liberal-socialist trend in this country will be seen by the average voter as counter productive to job creation and economic growth. Changes in government will come because there is too much instability in our daily lives. Whether we own a business, work at a job, retired, or unemployed we don't feel comfortable now or about the future. Even the never-working voter is uncomfortable with and uncertain future. Our comfort level determines how we vote.

Tea party movements nationwide have been a reflection of that discomfort.
Set aside for a moment your political point of view and recognise that the reason so many diverse average citizens have grouped together at Tea Party rallies shows their frustration with government. These are not unruly one-issue-mobs burning flags or defying police lines, or making threats of any kind, they are you and me, unhappy with the way things are with our current administration and trying to tell the administration to change it's ways or be voted out of office. Is the administration listing? I don't think so.

Have you ever seen so many private political emails between friends and acquaintances for and against our current government? That's a Tea Party movement in hyperspace.

Still there are many out there that are angry, apathetic and ill informed and they are the ones that scare me the most. They are voters that vote their emotions rather than with informed minds. More the fifty percent of the public does not pay taxes. Voters that are poor, on welfare, disabled, retired, or rich feel guilty about it, are not likely to vote for candidates that espouse cutting government spending. If anything fifty percent want more goodies, like free health care, free education, guaranteed jobs, housing, food, energy, etc. There is no end to the things that people want for free. There will always be politicians out there making promises to give it to them. It's getting scarier, and scarier when so many are blindly willing to accept a free ride.

The remaining fifty percent has to convince the 'in love with government' public that free goodies are not in their best interest. Good luck with that.

Freedom isn't free.

Our Future and Government


We know where we are or do we? Economically we are headed towards a European style of Socialist country. The only difference is national health care and our current government is certainly pushing us in that direction. People who know how we should live, progressives, have ushered us in a socialist direction for decades. Starting with F.D.R., we have been putting reigns on our economic growth for the sake of the ‘less fortunate’. As Sarah Palin would say, ‘How is that working out you?’
There is, after eighty years, a sizeable portion of the population still living in poverty. So all the years of scaling the economy to give entitlements to help the poor folks hasn’t worked so well, has it. Those entitlement promises are crushing us today. The number of poor and less educated is actually growing daily in this country.
By holding back sucessful people and businesses with more and more regulation and taxes, you not only don’t accomplish helping the less fortunate you actually put more out of work. The job creators are being penalized for creating. The more they create the more regulation and taxes they are burdened with. Are we moving towards being a country of pizza shops and beauty salons? I’m all for small business supplying job creation but I’d like to see the USA be the leader in vibrant big business as well. They are not the enemy as progressives would like us to believe. They don’t deserve to pay the highest taxes of any nation in the world. They don’t deserve to be as constrained by government regulation as they are. Big businesses are composed of stockholders, Americans that have invested their savings and futures in the success of big corporations.
Governments are either for business or against them. That seems to be the simple logic to determine the success or failure of a country. Currently, the most successful growth countries are China, and India. Their central governments have created an environment for a successful business climate with favorable taxes, shackles on unions, and minimal regulation. Sounds too simple doesn’t it. That was the formula for America’s unprecedented growth in the early late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Unfettered capitalism works. Some regulation is, of course, warranted to control the unscrupulous and reckless but in moderation.

So why do governments push for so much control and socialism? I think it’s not so much because they are compassionate or benevolent by nature, I think it’s due to the power trip of high office. Corporations don’t vote, rich are in the minority so it's the rest of the folks who determine who is in government to serve the people. Conservatives selling the idea of less services or entitlements is a tough sell, always has been. In the old days, I’m talking early England in the 1700’s, politicians would bribe and pay voters to get elected. In the thirties elections Chicago started the idea of rigging elections. More recently, organizers were responsible for ‘getting out the vote’ to help their candidates get elected. Rich candidates spend millions of their own money to get elected. Mayor Bloomberg of New York spent untold millions to get elected a job that pays so little compared to what he made in the private sector? Why do he and many others do it?

Power!

Power to push agendas. More than half the voting public thought that Obama’s agenda was their agenda.

‘And how’s that working out for you?’

Most of Europe is going down the toilet from overspending, over regulating, and over growing government with unions dictating benefits and wages. Sound familiar? The only correct thing Europe is doing is holding down the per cent of taxes on big business. This helps growth and generates more tax revenue to keep the governments oversized. They have learned that much.

Who will deliver what the people want? Sarah Palin, Scott Brown or Obama? What do the people want? Smaller government, less spending...living within our means, resonable benovelence and security? Like I said, who will deliver that and not let power corupt?

Political Happenings

The past few months have revealed a lot about the future political direction of the country. Voters have been unhappy with the Obama's vision and they've show their displeasure with a resounding voice. Even with complete control of Congress and the White House President Obama's agenda of social change in health care, global warming carbon management with Cap and Trade, and the stimulus programs for job growth have all been busts.

They failed because they were doomed by bad planning and special interest deals. Health care needed step by step Congressional planning and approvals for laws that would,

A. Allow employees to carry forward their company health plans to another job,

B. Prevent Casino law suits against Doctors and health care facilities, cutting down on defensive, unnecessary, wasteful medicine.

C. Allow insurance companies to sell across state lines to encourage competition and lower insurance costs.

D. Eliminate pre-existing conditions as and excuse for insurance co's claims denials and new policy denials by forming high risk pools. Pools that offer insurance companies manageable risk.

E. Give tax credits to encourage 18 to 30 year olds to have health insurance.

F. Make it a law for medical providers to publish price lists for services.

G. Get rid of the health related lobbyist's and trial lawyers that influence law makers.


Cap and Trade is simply not good business for America and will not happen while India and China are growing their economy's like weeds. Obama should have know that in advance of his wasteful trip to Norway.

The burden on the EU, who have such a law is showing on their countries overburdened economy's. They are faced with very high unemployment rates and extremely high energy costs and slow growth. The Chinese and Indians know this and will distance themselves from anything that will slow there economies.


The $700 billion Jobs Stimulus program is not working and is not going to work because the governments idea of spending our way out of a recession does not work. FDR tried from 1933 until WWII came along he was failed miserably. The war finally brought us out of recession. A second planned stimulus plan will not work either. Obama should have know that if he had studied the history of recessions in this country. The American people know that leaving business alone is the answer for bringing us out of recession.

The Tarp program started by the Bush administration helped see the financial institutions through a difficult time and now most of the money those institutions borrowed from the government has been paid back. Ford survived without it and just announced a 35% growth is car sales year over year. Instead of reducing the debt with these paid back funds as he by law is supposed to do Obama wants to spent it. Stop the spending voters in Massachusetts said. Is he listing?


All of the administrations efforts listed above show that this administration's vision for the future is without understanding of what happened in the past or what the people really want. The American people are smarted than government gives them credit for. They saw eminent failure in the administration's efforts and do not applaud failed efforts, rather they look elsewhere for answers, like newly elected Senator Scott Brown. His election is a rejection of Obama's liberal style of government.

You cannot talk about transparent government then have Harry Reid and some special interest group write a 2000 page health care bill behind closed doors that nobody has a chance to read and insist on a quick vote.

You cannot tell the American people that the government can run health care better than private industries can and expect the American people to believe it.

You cannot promise hearings on health care and other legislation to be on C-Span and deny C-Span access at the same time.

You cannot promise that passage of the Stimulus Bill will keep unemployment under 8% and watch $700 billion be spent and unemployment rise to 10%.

You cannot say that 2 million jobs were saved or created when at the same time 4 million jobs were lost. When stimulus money runs out many of the temporary extra police, city services workers and teachers jobs will be cut.

You cannot promise to close Guantanamo in a year and fail.

You cannot try prisoner's of war as you do American citizens and give them the same protections as American citizens, they haven't earned that distinction of being and American Citizen.


Washington DC has the lowest unemployment by half in the country, that is an open sore to people in Detroit and many other places. Why isn't government cutting labor like the rest of the country has been forced to? Don't they know that they are overwhelming regarded by the American public as doing a poor job?


The American people want the blame game to stop, they want real and sensible plans for cutting waste, cutting spending, cutting the size of government, and real bi-partisan co-operation in government.


To often we put labels on government, what it is to be a Republican or Democrat, a Conservative or a liberal. Scott Brown showed politicians what America wants. A government that is smaller in size, less in control of our lives, more responsive to the wishes of the electorate, lives within it's means and stops blaming industry as the cause for the countries ills.

Downsize Government - Are you crazy?

The unemployment rate is now over ten percent. Ten percent of the working, producing, public has been laid off. Not government workers, in fact, the government work force is growing. The Stimulus Plan pays for the education and training of new government workers.

Does government have a growing problem?
Why is government so big and getting bigger?
Who hires all these government workers and why?
What are they all doing and are we getting our money's worth?

Who is the biggest employer in your town, city, county, state?
Government!
Millions of government employees and more added every day to take care of us.
Who pays the best pensions for their employees?
Government!
Of course there may be and exception or two, a factory, or a corporate headquarters but check your town, who is the biggest or second biggest employer?

Where does all this government get the money to pay all those government salaries and pensions? Income taxes? Yeah, but that's just a drop in the giant tax revenue bucket. The government collects hundreds of different taxes from our pockets every day. You have heard it all before, from property, to school, to sales tax to tax at the gas pump, to telephone, excise, cigarette, booze, power of all kinds, wind, solar, coal, oil, restaurant, hotel, movie, entertainment of all kinds, products of all kinds are taxed by multiple government entities. Looked at your cell phone bill lately? Those are taxes you can actually read about but there are numerous hidden taxes you have no idea about. You pay the taxes for small businesses and corporations because they pass them on in the form of higher prices. Investment profits are taxed to the discouragement of investors. We even tax the dead. Rich people can afford all these nuisance taxes but the poor, who probably don't pay income taxes, feel the 'creative' tax burden.

Every bureaucrat worth his salt is looking to create new ways to invent a new tax, on soda and juice for instance.
Watch out, the Value Added Tax, 'VAT' is just around the corner.

Even setting aside the new government workers being hired every day we must remember that we pay tremendous amounts into pensions for retired military, elected and appointed officials, judges, postal workers, Am Trac workers, Secret Service, FBI, CIA, INS, Homeland Security employees, and the list goes on, and on, and on. Millions of guaranteed pensions, good pensions, most with health benefits. That's just federal employees. What about city, county, and state police, teachers, administrators, garbage collectors, water and sewer department people. Every mayor, councilman, jail keeper and street sweeper gets a salary or a pension.

All of these people provide a service that we vitally need of course, but who decided we vitally needed all these people and services and why?

All of government works on budget plans submitted on a yearly basis. Every department of every branch of government submits a proposed budget within the guidelines of the heads of the departments. Without getting into details, be it understood that every department submits a larger budget every year than the year before. Why, because larger budgets increase the power, security, and incomes of all in the department. It's all about power, money and security. If this year your department has ten people and next year you can sell the idea that the department needs ten more, your power and worth just doubled. That goes for sections, departments, agencies, sectors, regions, cities, counties, states, federal, what ever.

Government grows because everyone that works in government wants it to, and we sit back and expect better services. Translation..., better roads, better schools, better protection. Sounds simple, but when I was a kid a cop was a protector of the community now he is more of a revenue generator, a cop in a high speed cruiser giving out two hundred dollar parking tickets. Teachers who turn out eighteen year old kids ill equipped to earn because they can't read and employment application, qualifiy for college, balance a checkbook, or speak in the language of their country, and most roads have pot holes.

Our priorities should be have the best educated kids in the world, the healthiest population in the world and one of the wealthiest populations in the world. We can't do that with the heavy burden of over sized government weighing down the revenue generating public,. Thing about it, how many non-working, retired senior citizens living on Social Security or disability are there? Add that huge number to government workers, and military, deriving their incomes and pensions from taxes? Add to that, children, teachers, police, firemen, garbage, government contractors, etc, etc, also getting their income from revenue generating tax paying public.

How many people, producers, (producers are those making something for profit), are left to generate taxable revenue to support those working for the government? The ratio is getting worse by the day. As secure government jobs grow, the producer jobs shrink, sort of like the number of people paying into Social Security, (producers) compared to those taking money out. The numbers ratio in the Social Security Ponzi Scheme will eventually be apparent, even to the most hopeful progressive Democrat. That taking from a few to support the many just doesn't work.

It seems like a lot of people want something for nothing like government health care, housing, food, pensions, etc. The sleeping, pacified public keep voting in politicians that promise to give it to them. After all it's a much easier sell to the downtroden, or altrustic, the promise of something for nothing that someone else is going to pay for, than selling responsibility, self reliance, and industry. The last three as being old fashioned and backward looking.

Which political party do you think wants to shrink the size of government.
Are you crazy, why should they eliminate themselves?

Health Care

The Democratic Party has been anxious to take over managing health care for everyone in this country since the sixties. Ted Kennedy made it a life long ambition, Hilliary Clinton jumped on board later on, but Obama with his mandate, expects to make it happen in his first year of office. He has the super majority House and Senate pushing his agenda and success is very close. This tremendous new government run bureaucracy will increase the size of government by and unimaginable, scary amount.

But wait, there seems to be objections to a government run public option, where the government competes with private insurance companies.
And, there seems to be objections to the 1 trillion dollar cost, give or take a hundred billion.
Also, there seems to be objections to taking a half a trillion from senior citizens Medicare benefits.
And, there seems to be objections to eliminating the 8 to 10 million senior citizen Advantage insurance plans that cover the gap between Medicare Payments and full payments to doctors, hospitals and prescription drug providers. It looks like these objections are raised mostly by out gunned Republicans, but there is some support by Democrats too.

The final version of the Health Care bill is not finished or out for the public to read yet, a lot of closed door meetings are taking place to compose the final version but targeting seniors, spending big money and not reducing health costs are expected outcomes of the final version.

I find it strange that a health care measures put forward by this administration does not address the more obvious ways of cutting health care costs and insuring everyone in this country without a public option.

If we eliminate expensive, redundant, defensive medical practices, address tort reform, allow sales of health insurance across state lines, write law to prohibit insurance companies from refusing to insure because of previous conditions, establish a health insurance risk pool for those with prior conditions, require everyone to be insured giving special aide to those in need we could cut health care costs by as much as 50 percent. Where do I get my figures? I made them up because no one knows for sure. What if I'm right, or nearly right? Cutting health care costs at the source is a better plan than the government has put forward.

Most doctors in foreign countries are protected from malpractice law suits. Medical boards of review are established to judge malpractice, clumsiness, mistakes with licence's at risk and compensation amounts pre-determined.
American doctors will still not be protected with public health care reform so defensive, expensive medicine will still be practiced.

Open competition among insurance companies across state lines and requireing insurance for everyone while establishing a pool for high risk policies. These ideas seem like a no brain ers for lowering insurance premiums.

'Insurance companies are the enemy and government can do it better, cheaper' is thinking in liberal Washington and that is at the root of our problem. Trial lawyers are a strong lobby that continues to object to tort reform.
Most elected politicians in Washington are attorney's and the mood is not to upset trial lawyers.

A Ray of Sunshine

Let’s see, we left you a year ago advising you to downsize, chuck your spending plans, and C.Y.A. from the coming change in our government. (Check my 11/08 blog) Did you take my advice and 'consolidate your assets'?

Now that unemployment is almost 10 per cent everywhere and really closer to 13 per cent… we no longer count those who are no longer looking for work, who ran out of unemployment benefits, or decided to continue school because the job picture is so bleak.

My friends, the way I see it the economy is one that is not going to get much better in the near future.

I gave up writing this blog almost a year ago because no one wants to read gloom and doom, and I don’t enjoy writing it. Obama promised ‘Change’ and he has a liberal Congress to go along with his vision. I thought back then, with Obama’s employment history, his voting record in Congress and his core friends and associates that if he were able to get a supporting Congress, which he has, then you wouldn’t hear from me for quite some time.

Last November I put out a warning and it seems I was prophetic. Now I see a slight ray of sunshine, and increasing indication of a new change, one where Obama’s spending agenda will be frustrated and curtailed by a nervous voting public.

A ray of hope now exists for me in the mid-term elections where enough fiscally responsible Senators and Representatives will get elected to check the liberal wave overcoming Congress. I say fiscally responsible because I don’t believe that only Republican Congressmen are fiscally responsible although they seem to have more sensible leaders at the current time.

Currently this government is one trillion, four hundred billion dollars over budget and wants to continue to fight two wars, install a new health plan, hit up senior citizens for a half a trillion cut in Medicare and Advantage insurance, inject a punitive Cap and Trade bill on the public and businesses, and create a new federal army to ‘protect’ us here at home. The costs for these and other ideas in the pipeline are staggering and confidence in the US dollar internationally is reflected in its sinking value. When the dollar collapses, if the dollar collapses, and the dollar is in some danger, then 10 per cent unemployment will look like a booming economy.

This country’s growth and strong economy has always been sustained by aggressive consumer spending. When government uses the peoples credit and spends the people’s money in ever greater amounts that leads to unemployment, a shrinking economy, loss of confidence, and business troubles with recession. Not a pretty sight.

This government must stop spending and borrowing and change course back toward a pro-business, pro-consumer economy. Electing pro -business Congressmen in the mid-term elections will save our futures and our children’s futures.

It's simple really, go with what works and what we are doing now is not working.

Downsize

I did not waste my time writing The Right View this summer because nothing I, or any other right wing ideologue was going to write, or say, was going to change a thing.

All summer the hand writing was on the wall; Obama wins the election. Even the addition of Palin to the McCain ticket would not change the direction the country was heading.

Well, now with Obama’s election the country is headed somewhere, I just don’t know where, and I doubt if anyone else does. We will see change however, and not necessarily the kind most were expecting. These coming changes are economic. They will push us away from capitalism as we have come to know it. I’m talking about federalizing banks and industry, European style. These upcoming changes can not be attributed to Obama although he will make a contribution to exacerbating them. I’m talking about a very big bubble burst in the decades long running growth of the American economy. The bursting of the Dot com. bubble, and the Housing bubbles will be nothing compared to the bursting of the finance bubble together with the wild Washington spending spree. Add Washington’s Congressional influence on the economy and we will be assured of economic problems for the next year or more. The government is going to need money and they will be after you to get it.

So, what to do.

Downsize your life, your company’s and your future.
Pay off all revolving and short term debt while you still have a job.
Refinance and consolidate debt to lower outflow.
Save cash while you still have income, remember what a savings passbook looked like?
Sell off expensive toys you can live without, boats, ski mobiles, third vehicles, motor homes, trailers, etc..
Put off that expensive vacation.
Look for bargains, like foreclosures in multifamily housing for rental income.
Switch to securities that have low P/E’s and have paid dividends for many years, consecutively, and only those with a lot of cash on hand.
Own Treasuries.

Remember, prices go down in a recession so sell high buy low later. When the economy turns around you will be in a great position to run with the bulls.

Vacation

Taking a short vacation this summer from politics and working on my third book.
Obama vs. McCain can wait for me until this fall.

The Democratic Race Is Over

Now we choose between ideologies. On the one hand is Obama the dreamer and the other is a realist-dreamer with experience.

They both seem to think that a stronger Washington is the answer and the solution for all the ills of our democracy.

Democracies are never perfect and history judges them by how long it's people enjoy the freedoms of liberty and individuality. I think liberty with either these two running things is in more jeopardy than ever.

Obama wants a real swing towards European style of government, more hands on and more equalization of living standards among the people. He would like more government control of business , health care and your pursuit of happiness. And with a looming Democratic Congress on the horizon he will get his wishes.

McCain seems to push for more government controls as well but only to mediate social 'fairness'. He wants health care for everyone and that will get him some votes, and he wants the Iraq situation to be resolved in a fashion that will help stabilize a volatile Middle East and that will lose him some votes.

Both candidates are considered liberal by conservative standards with McCain being the lesser of the two evils. So with little choice McCain will receive the Conservative vote and the middle of the roaders. Obama will gain the exuberant youth vote, the black vote and many voters unhappy with America fighting a war. He will gain the intellectual vote, the union vote and 94% of the black vote, oops, did I repeat myself?

The choices are not great from my perspective but I forever hold out the hope that the Republican party of Reagan, conservatives at heart, will keep up the good fight. I hope they will keep in mind that this great country is made of people of stronger stuff, the kind of people that want to earn what they need in life and not have it taken from a neighbor and handed to them, minus a 20% government commission, for doing nothing to earn it. So I vote Republican knowing that there are many politicians left in the party that still believe as I believe, that we want to protect this countries interests around the world, be it for business's sake or for peace sake and we want to keep the drive strong to succeed in life.

I don't vote for a Democrat because they traditionally want a bigger government, stricter control of business, higher taxes, more domestic power, and an isolationist policy for our State Department.

I don't hold out much hope for McCain's success next fall and I'm really scared of the direction that Obama and a Democratic Congress may take this country in the next four years. this country can really fall into the doldrums with poor demoralizing leadership. Just look back at the Carter years.

Barack O'Carter here we come.

News flash:
Canadian doctors are now commuting and practicing medicine in America's norther states from North Dakota to Maine in record numbers. Why do you think that is with patients in Canada waiting weeks and sometimes months for and office visit?