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.
Tuesday, April 05, 2011
Thursday, March 24, 2011
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.
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.
Friday, January 28, 2011
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.
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.
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