By William L. Garvin
When Bill Clinton needed a central and unifying theme for his presidential campaign, he chose “it’s the economy, stupid.” Any challenger to the Obama administration would probably have similar success along that same line.
In the latest Rasmussen poll, consumer confidence is at its lowest point in two years. No wonder the President is out to “win the future”; he has apparently already “lost the present.” Only 21% of the Rasmussen respondents thought the economy was getting better while an overwhelming 60% thought it was getting worse. Undoubtedly the 21% have the quixotic belief that stock in windmills and high speed trains is the key to economic well being!
For those who forsake fantasy and formulate factually-based conclusions, the data is clear. The Billion Prices Project at the esteemed Massachusetts Institute of Technology says inflation is 3 percent HIGHER than a year ago. The Fed has insured this will continue by pumping (printing) nearly one trillion dollars of new money into the economy. Certainly this has helped the stock market but it has come at the cost of devaluing our money and raising the prices of food and commodities. The dollar dropped nearly 1% last week after following a similar 1% drop against other currencies the week before that. How does this translate to the middle class?
Everyone who buys groceries knows that the prices are up but they may be unaware as to exactly how much. Over the year ending in February, lettuce is up 36%; butter is up 29%; coffee is up 13%, and broccoli is up 21%. The trend line is upwards since in March, food went up another .8% in that month alone. This is the largest monthly increase in three years.
Everyone also knows that the price of oil and gasoline directly affects the price of growing, processing, and transporting food. There is no light at the end of this administration’s energy tunnel. On the day President Obama was inaugurated, oil was $37 per barrel and gasoline was $1.87 per gallon. Today, the respective prices are $111 per barrel and $4.04 per gallon. Again, the trend line is up but domestic oil production is down.
Maybe it’s because five deep water oil rigs have already left the Gulf of Mexico because of interminable Department of Interior delays. One Texas oil producer even declared bankruptcy. More recently, Shell Oil has scrapped plans to drill in shallow water off the coast of Alaska because the Environmental Protection Agency withheld critical air permits. Keep in mind that Shell has shelled out $2.2 billion for the leases alone and then invested five years and $4 billion dollars in exploratory costs. Look for unemployment to jump in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas communities. However the feds did come up with billions to loan to oil companies in Brazil and liquid natural gas projects in Central America. That should certainly help the unemployment problems in those countries.
In the meantime, according to the Department of Energy’s “Energy Information Agency,” domestic crude oil production will decline by 50,000 barrels per day in 2011 and will decline an additional 190,000 barrels per day in 2012. EIA EXPECTS that production in the Gulf of Mexico will fall by 250,000 barrels per day each year over the next two years! There will be some slightly increased production elsewhere that will only partially make up for the Gulf shortfall. In the meantime, Mexico, Cuba, and China happily drill away in the Gulf.
Yes, it is the economy stupid. The United States has accumulated an additional $6 trillion in debt since Democrats assumed control of Congress in 2006. Standard and Poor’s is now likely to drop our AAA debt rating. Other nations are proposing that gold replace the dollar standard. Your house is worth less; your savings are worth less; food costs more and gasoline costs more. Unemployment stays above 8% despite the continually gerrymandered numbers. There is no way to defend a record that puts more and more of its citizens on a “bullet train to bankruptcy”!
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Monday, April 25, 2011
Monday, April 18, 2011
Simpletons, Stooges, and Shysters
By William L. Garvin
President Ronald Reagan said the trouble with liberal friends “…is not that they are ignorant, but that they know so much that isn’t so.” In a world of Alinsky community organizing acolytes, they not only “know what isn’t so,” they go out of their way to deliberately distort what is!
For example, when IAFF Local 311 Firefighters Union sent out its call to membership to disrupt Governor Sarah Palin’s speech in Madison, Wisconsin, they referred to her as a “corporate shill.” Their clarion shibboleth: “Let’s show ‘em how we really feel about big corporations passing the tax burden on to the rest of us.” Only in Liberal-Logic-Land does this hypocrisy pass the smell test. Keep in mind that this is a government union of government employees that is supported entirely by the “tax burden” on the private sector. It is only in Liberal-Logic-Land that “corporate shill” and “Sarah Palin” can exist in the same sentence because it requires a total suspension of reality. It wasn’t Tina Fey that took on and defeated Big Oil, crony capitalism, and the Corrupt Bastards Club in Alaska…that was Governor Palin who did and who put Alaska’s budget in the black! Do at least a tiny bit of research, Pinocchio!
Another simplistic strategy of socialist stooges is to rephrase arguments to imaginary positions which their opponents do not hold. Naturally, that artificial argument is easily defeated. For instance, government unions have recently been criticized for their extravagant pension plans and for contributing over ninety percent of their political contributions to Democrats against the wishes of some of their conservative/independent members. Recklessly disregarding the truth, the dedicated Alinskyite begins to whine “when did teachers, firefighters, public service employees and police personnel become the enemy?” They aren’t now, they never were, but since you bring it up, let’s take a closer look.
Estimates are that New York City spends $65 million each year reassigning teachers to the infamous “rubber rooms” where they have no assigned duties while awaiting disciplinary action. Sometimes they wait for years…at full salary. In California, according to the Los Angeles Times, the Commission on Teacher Credentialing has a backlog of 12,600 cases for revocation. That’s a three-year workload according to the state auditor’s report. One teacher was suspected of showing students pornographic materials in 2008 but the agency did not even request police reports until 2010! Justice delayed is justice denied. The teacher went to work in another school and the case was closed with no action.
The Wall Street Journal reported: “It’s not impossible to get rid of bad teachers, but it’s extremely hard and expensive. A report this month in LA Weekly noted that in the past decade the Los Angeles Unified School District “spent $3.5 million trying to fire just seven of the district’s 33,000 teachers for poor classroom performance.“ The paper also reported that 32 underperforming teachers were initially targeted for removal “but then secretly paid $50,000 by the district, on average, to leave without a fight.”" In Illinois, it costs approximately $219,000 for a school district to fire an incompetent teacher.
The State of California also conducted an audit of the Mule Creek State Prison. They found that teachers spent as little as 33 hours inside the prison even though they were paid for forty. According to the Associated Press, taxpayers paid $272,900 for time that 66 employees did not work during the three-month audit period. That costs out to $1.1 million in overpayments each year for that prison alone. Mule Creek is only one of thirty-three prisons in the state. It is also the only prison to require employees to clock in and out; therefore it is “difficult” to say if the practice is widespread. Union contracts prohibit corrections officials from keeping track of actual hours worked! Also, according to the AP report and the Department, none of the employees have been disciplined nor has the Department tried to recoup the overpayments.
As Sgt. Joe Friday used to say: “Just the facts, ma’am.” They are indeed “such stubborn things.” When good teachers are paid the same as incompetent teachers, it’s a shame. When unions protect incompetence, it’s a disgrace.
President Ronald Reagan said the trouble with liberal friends “…is not that they are ignorant, but that they know so much that isn’t so.” In a world of Alinsky community organizing acolytes, they not only “know what isn’t so,” they go out of their way to deliberately distort what is!
For example, when IAFF Local 311 Firefighters Union sent out its call to membership to disrupt Governor Sarah Palin’s speech in Madison, Wisconsin, they referred to her as a “corporate shill.” Their clarion shibboleth: “Let’s show ‘em how we really feel about big corporations passing the tax burden on to the rest of us.” Only in Liberal-Logic-Land does this hypocrisy pass the smell test. Keep in mind that this is a government union of government employees that is supported entirely by the “tax burden” on the private sector. It is only in Liberal-Logic-Land that “corporate shill” and “Sarah Palin” can exist in the same sentence because it requires a total suspension of reality. It wasn’t Tina Fey that took on and defeated Big Oil, crony capitalism, and the Corrupt Bastards Club in Alaska…that was Governor Palin who did and who put Alaska’s budget in the black! Do at least a tiny bit of research, Pinocchio!
Another simplistic strategy of socialist stooges is to rephrase arguments to imaginary positions which their opponents do not hold. Naturally, that artificial argument is easily defeated. For instance, government unions have recently been criticized for their extravagant pension plans and for contributing over ninety percent of their political contributions to Democrats against the wishes of some of their conservative/independent members. Recklessly disregarding the truth, the dedicated Alinskyite begins to whine “when did teachers, firefighters, public service employees and police personnel become the enemy?” They aren’t now, they never were, but since you bring it up, let’s take a closer look.
Estimates are that New York City spends $65 million each year reassigning teachers to the infamous “rubber rooms” where they have no assigned duties while awaiting disciplinary action. Sometimes they wait for years…at full salary. In California, according to the Los Angeles Times, the Commission on Teacher Credentialing has a backlog of 12,600 cases for revocation. That’s a three-year workload according to the state auditor’s report. One teacher was suspected of showing students pornographic materials in 2008 but the agency did not even request police reports until 2010! Justice delayed is justice denied. The teacher went to work in another school and the case was closed with no action.
The Wall Street Journal reported: “It’s not impossible to get rid of bad teachers, but it’s extremely hard and expensive. A report this month in LA Weekly noted that in the past decade the Los Angeles Unified School District “spent $3.5 million trying to fire just seven of the district’s 33,000 teachers for poor classroom performance.“ The paper also reported that 32 underperforming teachers were initially targeted for removal “but then secretly paid $50,000 by the district, on average, to leave without a fight.”" In Illinois, it costs approximately $219,000 for a school district to fire an incompetent teacher.
The State of California also conducted an audit of the Mule Creek State Prison. They found that teachers spent as little as 33 hours inside the prison even though they were paid for forty. According to the Associated Press, taxpayers paid $272,900 for time that 66 employees did not work during the three-month audit period. That costs out to $1.1 million in overpayments each year for that prison alone. Mule Creek is only one of thirty-three prisons in the state. It is also the only prison to require employees to clock in and out; therefore it is “difficult” to say if the practice is widespread. Union contracts prohibit corrections officials from keeping track of actual hours worked! Also, according to the AP report and the Department, none of the employees have been disciplined nor has the Department tried to recoup the overpayments.
As Sgt. Joe Friday used to say: “Just the facts, ma’am.” They are indeed “such stubborn things.” When good teachers are paid the same as incompetent teachers, it’s a shame. When unions protect incompetence, it’s a disgrace.
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Choke On These Numbers
By William L. Garvin
Chew on these numbers and then see if you can choke them down. The projected revenue for the Federal government in 2011 is $2.174 trillion dollars. The projected spending for the same period is $3.82 trillion dollars. That means the deficit will be $1.65 trillion dollars for this year alone! Last month alone, the Federal government spent eight times more than it received. That is pathetic.
Let’s forget for the moment that last year’s Democrat President, Democrat House, and Democrat Senate were unable (or refused) to pass a budget before the fiscal year started October 1, 2010. Let’s forget that the new Republican House is cleaning up the Obama-Reid-Pelosi fiscal mess that the last Congress left behind. Let’s look at how the parties are reacting to the $14 trillion (and climbing) national debt.
The Democrats proposed ZERO spending cuts and supported raising the debt ceiling so they can continue their profligate spending ways. With Tea Party urging, the Republicans started off with their election charter of $100 million in spending cuts. The predictable liberal outrage gurgled out like clockwork. Nancy Pelosi prophesied that six million shut-in seniors would no longer have meals. Where did you get those numbers, Nancy? They’re pure poppycock. Harry Reid said Republicans wanted to “throw women under the bus” and “prevent them from having cancer screenings.” The King of the Cowboy Poets must have been rolling his own with some of that funny tobacco to even be able to say that with a straight face. Regurgitating the Democrat talking points, Eleanor Holmes Norton said a shutdown would be equivalent to “bombing innocent civilians.” Not to be outdone, Democrat lemming and Representative Louise Slaughter brayed that the newly elected House Republicans were here “…to kill women.” After all these insane verbal histrionics, a “historic cut” of $38.5 billion was agreed upon. Folks, this is a whopping 1% reduction in the gigantic 28% increase in the President’s spending plan for this year. That is beyond pathetic; it’s also insignificant.
The majority of the liberal angst festered because the Republicans targeted National Public Radio and Planned Parenthood for specific cuts. So let’s look at the numbers for the latter. In their annual report for 2009, Planned Parenthood received $363.2 million in government grants and contracts. According to their records, during that same year, they performed 332,278 abortions. That is to say, they terminated an unborn child every ninety-five seconds for the entire year! That is equivalent to eliminating an entire population of a city the size of Honolulu or New Orleans or Anaheim or Tampa one by one by one. The President intervened in Libya for “humanitarian reasons” for a mere fraction of our own human loss.
The most recent polls show that 51% of Americans regard themselves as pro-life. When it comes to whether or not government health care should fund abortions, a whopping 67% oppose such action. Only 27% support the government funding of abortions. Many of the freshmen legislators are responding to their electorate who do not want their tax dollars used to kill someone else’s baby! Of course it’s ideology…but then continuing to fund the war against the most vulnerable members of our society in opposition to the majority of Americans’ wishes is also ideological. The aforementioned (and ironically named) Representative Slaughter is apoplectic about a contrived and imaginary threat to women but absolutely insensitive to the real deaths of female and male babies.
With that type of moral ambivalence it’s no surprise that Democrats would also throw our American servicemen and women under the bus as a bargaining chip in the budget negotiations. Republicans were appropriately incensed when the President said he would veto a bill to insure our military personnel would be paid even in the event of a government shutdown. Holding our military and their families hostage during a time of war to further a political goal destroyed the last shred of confidence that may have existed for this Commander in Chief. Given the callous disregard this Administration displays toward the unborn and the military, don’t be surprised when the seniors become the next target! Can you say “death panels” through bureaucratic neglect?
Chew on these numbers and then see if you can choke them down. The projected revenue for the Federal government in 2011 is $2.174 trillion dollars. The projected spending for the same period is $3.82 trillion dollars. That means the deficit will be $1.65 trillion dollars for this year alone! Last month alone, the Federal government spent eight times more than it received. That is pathetic.
Let’s forget for the moment that last year’s Democrat President, Democrat House, and Democrat Senate were unable (or refused) to pass a budget before the fiscal year started October 1, 2010. Let’s forget that the new Republican House is cleaning up the Obama-Reid-Pelosi fiscal mess that the last Congress left behind. Let’s look at how the parties are reacting to the $14 trillion (and climbing) national debt.
The Democrats proposed ZERO spending cuts and supported raising the debt ceiling so they can continue their profligate spending ways. With Tea Party urging, the Republicans started off with their election charter of $100 million in spending cuts. The predictable liberal outrage gurgled out like clockwork. Nancy Pelosi prophesied that six million shut-in seniors would no longer have meals. Where did you get those numbers, Nancy? They’re pure poppycock. Harry Reid said Republicans wanted to “throw women under the bus” and “prevent them from having cancer screenings.” The King of the Cowboy Poets must have been rolling his own with some of that funny tobacco to even be able to say that with a straight face. Regurgitating the Democrat talking points, Eleanor Holmes Norton said a shutdown would be equivalent to “bombing innocent civilians.” Not to be outdone, Democrat lemming and Representative Louise Slaughter brayed that the newly elected House Republicans were here “…to kill women.” After all these insane verbal histrionics, a “historic cut” of $38.5 billion was agreed upon. Folks, this is a whopping 1% reduction in the gigantic 28% increase in the President’s spending plan for this year. That is beyond pathetic; it’s also insignificant.
The majority of the liberal angst festered because the Republicans targeted National Public Radio and Planned Parenthood for specific cuts. So let’s look at the numbers for the latter. In their annual report for 2009, Planned Parenthood received $363.2 million in government grants and contracts. According to their records, during that same year, they performed 332,278 abortions. That is to say, they terminated an unborn child every ninety-five seconds for the entire year! That is equivalent to eliminating an entire population of a city the size of Honolulu or New Orleans or Anaheim or Tampa one by one by one. The President intervened in Libya for “humanitarian reasons” for a mere fraction of our own human loss.
The most recent polls show that 51% of Americans regard themselves as pro-life. When it comes to whether or not government health care should fund abortions, a whopping 67% oppose such action. Only 27% support the government funding of abortions. Many of the freshmen legislators are responding to their electorate who do not want their tax dollars used to kill someone else’s baby! Of course it’s ideology…but then continuing to fund the war against the most vulnerable members of our society in opposition to the majority of Americans’ wishes is also ideological. The aforementioned (and ironically named) Representative Slaughter is apoplectic about a contrived and imaginary threat to women but absolutely insensitive to the real deaths of female and male babies.
With that type of moral ambivalence it’s no surprise that Democrats would also throw our American servicemen and women under the bus as a bargaining chip in the budget negotiations. Republicans were appropriately incensed when the President said he would veto a bill to insure our military personnel would be paid even in the event of a government shutdown. Holding our military and their families hostage during a time of war to further a political goal destroyed the last shred of confidence that may have existed for this Commander in Chief. Given the callous disregard this Administration displays toward the unborn and the military, don’t be surprised when the seniors become the next target! Can you say “death panels” through bureaucratic neglect?
Monday, April 4, 2011
Extreme Extremist Extremism!
By William L. Garvin
“I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.”
Barry Goldwater
Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) never met a microphone he didn’t like. Last week, he unapologetically disclosed the Democrat playbook by citing orders from the Democrat Caucus to brand every attempted spending cut as “extreme.” We will now be treated to a litany of “draconian” cuts that will result in children dying in the streets, soldiers not having bullets for their weapons, and old people having to choose between eating dog food or paying for their medicine. It will be a veritable apocalypse if government is forced to shut down because of the extremist Tea Party element amongst the Republicans.
Let’s examine this “extremist” meme from a different perspective. Wasn’t it an extreme dereliction of duty that has led to this current imbroglio? The Obama-Reid-Pelosi triune failed to meet their constitutional obligation in passing a budget by October 1, 2010. This malfeasance has led to the current quibbling over continuing resolutions and “chump change” cuts in spending. To date, only about $10 billion in cuts have been enacted. The parties are currently spinning their wheels over the difference between $31 and $61 billion in cuts. That’s equivalent to “emptying the ocean with a thimble” when you’re adding another $1 trillion in debt for the remainder of this fiscal year!
As far as government shutdowns, they’ve happened before. It’s nothing new. Social Security checks were printed and delivered; airplanes took off and landed; and of course, Congress continued to be paid. Lest we forget, NPR, PBS, Planned Parenthood, and the Cowboy Poetry Festival all continued to be funded. It’s only the Doomsday rhetoric that’s extreme.
When the U.S. Agency for International Development says that a nine percent cut in their budget would result in 70,000 children dying, it’s not extreme enough. Representative Pelosi immediately upped the ante to 100,000 because of the impact on the malaria prevention programs. Of course, buried in the historical details is the fact that malaria was well on the way to extinction until the extreme environmentalists, aided and abetted by Rachel Carson, managed to get United Nations and United States prohibitions against the use of the very effective DDT.
When an obscure Florida preacher poached a second fifteen minutes of fame by burning a Koran, that was actually extreme and reprehensible. Even more extreme is the fallout in Afghanistan. After Friday prayers, a mob began torching cars, smashing windows, and rioting for four days (and counting as of this writing). Then these butchers proceed to murder several innocent United Nations employees in Kabul by stabbing, slitting their throats, and beheading. Equally extreme are the liberal contortionists who attempt to construct a moral equivalency between these two actions. It is extreme intellectual hypocrisy.
Speaking of intellectual hypocrisy, where was the liberal outcry when the R & R Gallery in Los Angeles displayed paintings of Jesus Christ portrayed as a monkey? This same gallery displayed another painting of Sarah Palin being crucified. Should galleries be firebombed? Should fatwahs be declared against the artists? Where is the equivalent moral outrage from the left? As usual, their silence is thundering.
Media hypocrisy and double standards are also extreme. During the Bush Administration Iraq campaign, front page news always included the latest histrionics of Cindy Sheehan, Code Pink, or any other anti-establishment movement. Apparently the anti-war and protest movement no longer exists during the Obama Administration. The daily body counts, the posting of every milestone, and the continual tabulation of costs is no longer front page, above the fold news. If covered at all, it is buried in the fine print on page eleven.
Where are the demands for timelines? Where is the demand for clarity of mission? What is the yardstick for success? Do we even speak of victory? What is the exit strategy? Wait! Stop the presses…there’s breaking news on Charlie Sheen! Is anyone available or are they all covering Lindsay?
When Congress and the press begin to actually do their jobs, that will be radical; that will be EXTREME!
“I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.”
Barry Goldwater
Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) never met a microphone he didn’t like. Last week, he unapologetically disclosed the Democrat playbook by citing orders from the Democrat Caucus to brand every attempted spending cut as “extreme.” We will now be treated to a litany of “draconian” cuts that will result in children dying in the streets, soldiers not having bullets for their weapons, and old people having to choose between eating dog food or paying for their medicine. It will be a veritable apocalypse if government is forced to shut down because of the extremist Tea Party element amongst the Republicans.
Let’s examine this “extremist” meme from a different perspective. Wasn’t it an extreme dereliction of duty that has led to this current imbroglio? The Obama-Reid-Pelosi triune failed to meet their constitutional obligation in passing a budget by October 1, 2010. This malfeasance has led to the current quibbling over continuing resolutions and “chump change” cuts in spending. To date, only about $10 billion in cuts have been enacted. The parties are currently spinning their wheels over the difference between $31 and $61 billion in cuts. That’s equivalent to “emptying the ocean with a thimble” when you’re adding another $1 trillion in debt for the remainder of this fiscal year!
As far as government shutdowns, they’ve happened before. It’s nothing new. Social Security checks were printed and delivered; airplanes took off and landed; and of course, Congress continued to be paid. Lest we forget, NPR, PBS, Planned Parenthood, and the Cowboy Poetry Festival all continued to be funded. It’s only the Doomsday rhetoric that’s extreme.
When the U.S. Agency for International Development says that a nine percent cut in their budget would result in 70,000 children dying, it’s not extreme enough. Representative Pelosi immediately upped the ante to 100,000 because of the impact on the malaria prevention programs. Of course, buried in the historical details is the fact that malaria was well on the way to extinction until the extreme environmentalists, aided and abetted by Rachel Carson, managed to get United Nations and United States prohibitions against the use of the very effective DDT.
When an obscure Florida preacher poached a second fifteen minutes of fame by burning a Koran, that was actually extreme and reprehensible. Even more extreme is the fallout in Afghanistan. After Friday prayers, a mob began torching cars, smashing windows, and rioting for four days (and counting as of this writing). Then these butchers proceed to murder several innocent United Nations employees in Kabul by stabbing, slitting their throats, and beheading. Equally extreme are the liberal contortionists who attempt to construct a moral equivalency between these two actions. It is extreme intellectual hypocrisy.
Speaking of intellectual hypocrisy, where was the liberal outcry when the R & R Gallery in Los Angeles displayed paintings of Jesus Christ portrayed as a monkey? This same gallery displayed another painting of Sarah Palin being crucified. Should galleries be firebombed? Should fatwahs be declared against the artists? Where is the equivalent moral outrage from the left? As usual, their silence is thundering.
Media hypocrisy and double standards are also extreme. During the Bush Administration Iraq campaign, front page news always included the latest histrionics of Cindy Sheehan, Code Pink, or any other anti-establishment movement. Apparently the anti-war and protest movement no longer exists during the Obama Administration. The daily body counts, the posting of every milestone, and the continual tabulation of costs is no longer front page, above the fold news. If covered at all, it is buried in the fine print on page eleven.
Where are the demands for timelines? Where is the demand for clarity of mission? What is the yardstick for success? Do we even speak of victory? What is the exit strategy? Wait! Stop the presses…there’s breaking news on Charlie Sheen! Is anyone available or are they all covering Lindsay?
When Congress and the press begin to actually do their jobs, that will be radical; that will be EXTREME!
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Fact, Fiction, and Floundering
By William L. Garvin
As our Peace Prize President opens his “kinetic military action” on yet a third front, many confusing issues rise to the surface. Apparently helping Libyian rebels kill other Libyians serves a strategic United States interest and will save our country from imminent danger. One might pause to consider why Al Queda is also supporting these same rebels. Politics makes strange bedfellows but why we would want to get in bed with terrorists boggles the mind!
So far, we have remained offshore and in the skies but the killing will continue until there are boots on the ground. The President strove to allay the fears by passing the command and control to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Of course, the United States is the Big Dog in NATO, controls the joint forces, and supplies 22% of the NATO funding. This is merely passing the baton from the right hand to the left hand but making it go through an international committee along the way. Good luck with that sort of command and control model!
Then there is the African Union and the Arab League, many of which are oil rich, cash rich, and militarily strong in comparison to Libya. Since they cried out for United States intervention, why aren’t they ponying up the men, money, and materials for this military intervention? They are the ones with the real strategic interest in policing their membership. And yes, Libya is a member of the Arab League. Many of these Middle East and African nations take our foreign aid up front, vote against us at the United Nations, and support terrorism behind our back.
Since several other Arab and African governments are currently killing their citizens, some cynics suggest that this entire Libyan muddle is a “wag the dog” scenario to draw attention away from economic issues. For instance, there’s the one-year anniversary of Obamacare. Sorry, Nancy. We passed the bill, we found out what’s in it, and we don’t like it. Foremost and in particular, we don’t like the numbers. Over 1,040 waivers have been granted to many unions such as the UAW as well as the entire state of Maine. Nevada, Kentucky, and New Hampshire are now standing in line. Second, there are the 16 million people on Medicaid roles who were passed on to the cash strapped states. The Congressional Budget Office says this will cost the states nearly twice its original estimate of sixty billion dollars.
Another CBO number of note is the cost of the Stimulus Bill is now up to $821 billion. For this we got the newly invented “jobs created or saved” category that ranges from 1.4 million to 3.6 million. With that disparate a range, you can be sure that no one really knows or can have an accurate figure. In any event, at its most optimistic number, each job cost $228,055. At the most pessimistic number, each job cost $586,428! In February, 2009, when the bill was passed, unemployment stood at 8.2%. Two years and nearly a trillion dollars later, it’s at 8.9%. Keep in mind that the administration doesn’t count long term unemployed. If we can get everyone to give up looking for a job, then unemployment will be at zero! This is similar to saying there’s no inflation because the Consumer Price Index isn’t going up. Of course, they don’t bother to mention that food and energy aren’t considered in computing the Bernanke Inflation Myth. Virtually all the commodities have skyrocketed over the last year so you can expect food, clothing, and energy to be increasingly expensive.
Some final numbers of note: the New York Times reported that General Electric had worldwide profits of $14.2 billion in 2010 and $5.1 billion of the total came from its United States operations. It paid ZERO in American taxes. In fact, GE claimed a tax benefit of $3.2 billion. The fact that Jeffrey Immelt, GE’s CEO, is a supporter, advisor, presidential traveling companion, and stands to make huge profits from government subsidized green energy initiatives is purely coincidental. Nothing to see here, folks. Move along and check out the latest kinetic military action. Move along. Move along.
As our Peace Prize President opens his “kinetic military action” on yet a third front, many confusing issues rise to the surface. Apparently helping Libyian rebels kill other Libyians serves a strategic United States interest and will save our country from imminent danger. One might pause to consider why Al Queda is also supporting these same rebels. Politics makes strange bedfellows but why we would want to get in bed with terrorists boggles the mind!
So far, we have remained offshore and in the skies but the killing will continue until there are boots on the ground. The President strove to allay the fears by passing the command and control to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Of course, the United States is the Big Dog in NATO, controls the joint forces, and supplies 22% of the NATO funding. This is merely passing the baton from the right hand to the left hand but making it go through an international committee along the way. Good luck with that sort of command and control model!
Then there is the African Union and the Arab League, many of which are oil rich, cash rich, and militarily strong in comparison to Libya. Since they cried out for United States intervention, why aren’t they ponying up the men, money, and materials for this military intervention? They are the ones with the real strategic interest in policing their membership. And yes, Libya is a member of the Arab League. Many of these Middle East and African nations take our foreign aid up front, vote against us at the United Nations, and support terrorism behind our back.
Since several other Arab and African governments are currently killing their citizens, some cynics suggest that this entire Libyan muddle is a “wag the dog” scenario to draw attention away from economic issues. For instance, there’s the one-year anniversary of Obamacare. Sorry, Nancy. We passed the bill, we found out what’s in it, and we don’t like it. Foremost and in particular, we don’t like the numbers. Over 1,040 waivers have been granted to many unions such as the UAW as well as the entire state of Maine. Nevada, Kentucky, and New Hampshire are now standing in line. Second, there are the 16 million people on Medicaid roles who were passed on to the cash strapped states. The Congressional Budget Office says this will cost the states nearly twice its original estimate of sixty billion dollars.
Another CBO number of note is the cost of the Stimulus Bill is now up to $821 billion. For this we got the newly invented “jobs created or saved” category that ranges from 1.4 million to 3.6 million. With that disparate a range, you can be sure that no one really knows or can have an accurate figure. In any event, at its most optimistic number, each job cost $228,055. At the most pessimistic number, each job cost $586,428! In February, 2009, when the bill was passed, unemployment stood at 8.2%. Two years and nearly a trillion dollars later, it’s at 8.9%. Keep in mind that the administration doesn’t count long term unemployed. If we can get everyone to give up looking for a job, then unemployment will be at zero! This is similar to saying there’s no inflation because the Consumer Price Index isn’t going up. Of course, they don’t bother to mention that food and energy aren’t considered in computing the Bernanke Inflation Myth. Virtually all the commodities have skyrocketed over the last year so you can expect food, clothing, and energy to be increasingly expensive.
Some final numbers of note: the New York Times reported that General Electric had worldwide profits of $14.2 billion in 2010 and $5.1 billion of the total came from its United States operations. It paid ZERO in American taxes. In fact, GE claimed a tax benefit of $3.2 billion. The fact that Jeffrey Immelt, GE’s CEO, is a supporter, advisor, presidential traveling companion, and stands to make huge profits from government subsidized green energy initiatives is purely coincidental. Nothing to see here, folks. Move along and check out the latest kinetic military action. Move along. Move along.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Show Me the Money!
By William L. Garvin
“For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil….” 1 Timothy 6:10
When people loudly proclaim that it’s not about the money, you can usually bet that it’s all about the money! Lately we’ve heard many lofty proclamations as to reason and intent, but it’s still all about the money.
For example, there’s the current dispute between the National Football League’s players union and the NFL owners. The height of hyperbole came from Adrian Peterson, the Minnesota Viking running back, who lamented “It’s modern day slavery, you know?” Yo, Adrian, no we don’t know. While it’s hard to pick a favorite when you have multi-million dollar per year athletes pitted against multi-multi-million dollar owners, the reference to slavery is both ridiculous and nonsensical. Mr. Peterson should have spent more time in the classroom while he was in college.
A much more serious example is the flap over collective bargaining for state employees in Wisconsin. Make no mistake about it, the reason unions are spending so much time, effort, energy, and money is because they expect a significant return on their investment. It’s all about power and power stems from money.
Unions are able to finance their operations by union members paying dues. In an agency shop, all represented employees must join the union and pay dues or not join the union and pay a representational fee. In union shops, all employees must join the union and pay union dues. A second matter of extreme economic importance is “dues check off.” In this arrangement, the employer deducts the union dues from the employee’s paycheck and then gives one check to the union, thereby relieving the union of administrative costs and effort. Both practices are at issue in Wisconsin.
It should also be noted that there are twenty-two “right to work” states in which employees cannot be forced to join a union or pay dues. They tend to have slightly lower unemployment and slightly higher growth rates in their private sectors. Somehow they have all managed to hire teachers, police, fire fighters, garbage collectors, maintenance workers, etc. Government workers in these states are still mostly protected by civil service commission and merit system rules and procedures. They have due process and just cause protections and cannot be summarily dismissed as can occur in the non-union private sector.
These states believe they are protecting the individual worker’s freedom of association by not forcing them to support organizations whose policies and politics they oppose. They also believe they are protecting the worker’s right to not have a portion of their wages confiscated by unions. Proponents of right to work states refer to their unionized counterparts as “forced dues” states. In those states, approximately 93% of the union political contributions go to Democrat candidates. Not surprisingly, Brad Sherman, a Democrat congressman from California, has introduced legislation to outlaw “right to work” states. The Democrats also are pushing the very poorly named Employee Freedom of Choice Act that would eliminate the secret ballot and possibly even eliminate elections by workers as to whether or not they want a union. In an even more bizarre turn of events, the United Nations is actively investigating employment practices in North Carolina, a right to work state!
In Wisconsin, workers will have to vote every year on whether or not they want to keep their union. This is a threat to unions and Democrats, because they might just say no. In Wisconsin, unions will have to collect their own dues from their members. This is a threat to unions and Democrats, because they might just say no. In Wisconsin, it will be much more difficult for unions to buy Democrats who buy votes by granting union demands.
Today, unions are a wholly owned subsidiary of the Democrat party. If conservative government workers no longer have to subsidize liberal union leaders and liberal politicians, the latter will lose power. Any time unions are threatened, so is the Democrat party. It takes money to stay in power and unions love to give money to Democrats so they can stay in power. It’s a symbiotic relationship except for the taxpayer, where it can be parasitic.
“For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil….” 1 Timothy 6:10
When people loudly proclaim that it’s not about the money, you can usually bet that it’s all about the money! Lately we’ve heard many lofty proclamations as to reason and intent, but it’s still all about the money.
For example, there’s the current dispute between the National Football League’s players union and the NFL owners. The height of hyperbole came from Adrian Peterson, the Minnesota Viking running back, who lamented “It’s modern day slavery, you know?” Yo, Adrian, no we don’t know. While it’s hard to pick a favorite when you have multi-million dollar per year athletes pitted against multi-multi-million dollar owners, the reference to slavery is both ridiculous and nonsensical. Mr. Peterson should have spent more time in the classroom while he was in college.
A much more serious example is the flap over collective bargaining for state employees in Wisconsin. Make no mistake about it, the reason unions are spending so much time, effort, energy, and money is because they expect a significant return on their investment. It’s all about power and power stems from money.
Unions are able to finance their operations by union members paying dues. In an agency shop, all represented employees must join the union and pay dues or not join the union and pay a representational fee. In union shops, all employees must join the union and pay union dues. A second matter of extreme economic importance is “dues check off.” In this arrangement, the employer deducts the union dues from the employee’s paycheck and then gives one check to the union, thereby relieving the union of administrative costs and effort. Both practices are at issue in Wisconsin.
It should also be noted that there are twenty-two “right to work” states in which employees cannot be forced to join a union or pay dues. They tend to have slightly lower unemployment and slightly higher growth rates in their private sectors. Somehow they have all managed to hire teachers, police, fire fighters, garbage collectors, maintenance workers, etc. Government workers in these states are still mostly protected by civil service commission and merit system rules and procedures. They have due process and just cause protections and cannot be summarily dismissed as can occur in the non-union private sector.
These states believe they are protecting the individual worker’s freedom of association by not forcing them to support organizations whose policies and politics they oppose. They also believe they are protecting the worker’s right to not have a portion of their wages confiscated by unions. Proponents of right to work states refer to their unionized counterparts as “forced dues” states. In those states, approximately 93% of the union political contributions go to Democrat candidates. Not surprisingly, Brad Sherman, a Democrat congressman from California, has introduced legislation to outlaw “right to work” states. The Democrats also are pushing the very poorly named Employee Freedom of Choice Act that would eliminate the secret ballot and possibly even eliminate elections by workers as to whether or not they want a union. In an even more bizarre turn of events, the United Nations is actively investigating employment practices in North Carolina, a right to work state!
In Wisconsin, workers will have to vote every year on whether or not they want to keep their union. This is a threat to unions and Democrats, because they might just say no. In Wisconsin, unions will have to collect their own dues from their members. This is a threat to unions and Democrats, because they might just say no. In Wisconsin, it will be much more difficult for unions to buy Democrats who buy votes by granting union demands.
Today, unions are a wholly owned subsidiary of the Democrat party. If conservative government workers no longer have to subsidize liberal union leaders and liberal politicians, the latter will lose power. Any time unions are threatened, so is the Democrat party. It takes money to stay in power and unions love to give money to Democrats so they can stay in power. It’s a symbiotic relationship except for the taxpayer, where it can be parasitic.
Monday, March 14, 2011
Short Circuiting the Power
By William L. Garvin
“I place economy among the first and most important virtues and public debt as the greatest dangers to be feared.” Thomas Jefferson
If he were alive today, Thomas Jefferson would be frightened to death. Our national debt is over fourteen trillion dollars and rising; this year alone, our states will have a cumulative shortfall of $175 billion; state and local governments have another $3.5 trillion in unfunded pension liabilities. The Obama administration even managed to run up a $223 billion deficit in February of this year which was more than what the Bush administration ran up for all twelve months of 2007. You may remember the Democrats demagoging this issue throughout 2008 and President Obama calling it a “failure of leadership” to raise the debt ceiling. My how times have changed!
When Republicans proposed a $61 billion cut in a $3.47 trillion budget, the Democrats began shrieking like hysterical banshees full of “tiger blood.” According to Senator Harry Reid, if the Cowboy Poetry Festival was not fully funded “tens of thousands” of people would cease to exist. Come on, Harry, please engage brain before putting mouth in gear. As for cutting the funding to NPR and PBS, wasn’t that also recommended by the President’s own bipartisan debt commission? And by the way, how about using that $105 billion dollars you so cleverly hid in the Health Care Reform bill to reduce the deficit? I’m sure it was just an inadvertent oversight on your part to fail to tell members of the House or Senate about those encumbrances.
Harry’s histrionics were nothing compared to the concerted union and Democrat campaign of incendiary and manufactured outrage in Wisconsin. Jesse Jackson showed up and demonstrated a complete lack of understanding of the issues (and his usual flair for hyperbole) by equating the restrictions on the scope of bargaining to a civil rights issue. It was somewhat surprising that he didn’t also claim it was the Eleventh Commandment on the stone tablets! Michael Moore and Rachel Maddow (MSNBC) declared that neither the United States nor Wisconsin was broke. Moore pointed out that the rich people had plenty of money. “That’s not theirs, that’s a national resource, that’s ours!” spouted the liberal opponent of private property. Of course he has yet to renounce his personal fortune. He also failed to explain why he used non-union workers in making his last film when union crews were available. He also failed to provide his non-union workers with health insurance according to ABC News.
By any standard, this was hardly organized labor’s finest moment. First, fourteen Wisconsin Democrat Senators ran to Illinois rather than argue the merits of their positions. Wags quickly coined the term “fleebaggers” for these miscreants. Their three weeks AWOL allowed their union bosses enough time to organize the usual “uncivil disobedience.” Marchers carried signs saying “Death to Tyrants” and “Hitler + Mubarak = Walker” as well as similar new math equating Mussolini to Governor Walker. One particular frightening sign carried the Liberal castigated slogan “Don’t retreat, reload” but accompanied it with a picture of the Governor with crosshairs superimposed over his face. Where were the condemnations from the left wing champions of civility? Once again, they are blind to their own breaches of decorum. Things became even more sinister when the Governor and Republican members of the legislature began receiving multiple death threats against themselves and their families. Then the local police found about forty rounds of .22 caliber long rifle hollow point bullets by one of the capitol entrances.
If this blatant attempt at intimidation wasn’t enough, the union protestors then occupied the state capitol building by overrunning police lines and transformed the people’s house into a hybrid union hall, smelly gymnasium, and fraternity house of the animal variety. Do you expect the union will pony up the $347,500 it will cost to repair the damages? Not likely.
For these unions, it’s all about the money. In the words of Bob Chanin, a past National Education Association general counsel: “It is not because of our creative ideas. It is not because of the merits of our positions. It is not because we care about children and have a vision of a great public school for every child. NEA and its affiliates are effective advocates because we have power, and we have power because there are more than 3.2 million people who are willing to pay us hundreds of millions of dollars in dues each year.” Wisconsin just short circuited their power surge and government unions just lost a major battle .
“I place economy among the first and most important virtues and public debt as the greatest dangers to be feared.” Thomas Jefferson
If he were alive today, Thomas Jefferson would be frightened to death. Our national debt is over fourteen trillion dollars and rising; this year alone, our states will have a cumulative shortfall of $175 billion; state and local governments have another $3.5 trillion in unfunded pension liabilities. The Obama administration even managed to run up a $223 billion deficit in February of this year which was more than what the Bush administration ran up for all twelve months of 2007. You may remember the Democrats demagoging this issue throughout 2008 and President Obama calling it a “failure of leadership” to raise the debt ceiling. My how times have changed!
When Republicans proposed a $61 billion cut in a $3.47 trillion budget, the Democrats began shrieking like hysterical banshees full of “tiger blood.” According to Senator Harry Reid, if the Cowboy Poetry Festival was not fully funded “tens of thousands” of people would cease to exist. Come on, Harry, please engage brain before putting mouth in gear. As for cutting the funding to NPR and PBS, wasn’t that also recommended by the President’s own bipartisan debt commission? And by the way, how about using that $105 billion dollars you so cleverly hid in the Health Care Reform bill to reduce the deficit? I’m sure it was just an inadvertent oversight on your part to fail to tell members of the House or Senate about those encumbrances.
Harry’s histrionics were nothing compared to the concerted union and Democrat campaign of incendiary and manufactured outrage in Wisconsin. Jesse Jackson showed up and demonstrated a complete lack of understanding of the issues (and his usual flair for hyperbole) by equating the restrictions on the scope of bargaining to a civil rights issue. It was somewhat surprising that he didn’t also claim it was the Eleventh Commandment on the stone tablets! Michael Moore and Rachel Maddow (MSNBC) declared that neither the United States nor Wisconsin was broke. Moore pointed out that the rich people had plenty of money. “That’s not theirs, that’s a national resource, that’s ours!” spouted the liberal opponent of private property. Of course he has yet to renounce his personal fortune. He also failed to explain why he used non-union workers in making his last film when union crews were available. He also failed to provide his non-union workers with health insurance according to ABC News.
By any standard, this was hardly organized labor’s finest moment. First, fourteen Wisconsin Democrat Senators ran to Illinois rather than argue the merits of their positions. Wags quickly coined the term “fleebaggers” for these miscreants. Their three weeks AWOL allowed their union bosses enough time to organize the usual “uncivil disobedience.” Marchers carried signs saying “Death to Tyrants” and “Hitler + Mubarak = Walker” as well as similar new math equating Mussolini to Governor Walker. One particular frightening sign carried the Liberal castigated slogan “Don’t retreat, reload” but accompanied it with a picture of the Governor with crosshairs superimposed over his face. Where were the condemnations from the left wing champions of civility? Once again, they are blind to their own breaches of decorum. Things became even more sinister when the Governor and Republican members of the legislature began receiving multiple death threats against themselves and their families. Then the local police found about forty rounds of .22 caliber long rifle hollow point bullets by one of the capitol entrances.
If this blatant attempt at intimidation wasn’t enough, the union protestors then occupied the state capitol building by overrunning police lines and transformed the people’s house into a hybrid union hall, smelly gymnasium, and fraternity house of the animal variety. Do you expect the union will pony up the $347,500 it will cost to repair the damages? Not likely.
For these unions, it’s all about the money. In the words of Bob Chanin, a past National Education Association general counsel: “It is not because of our creative ideas. It is not because of the merits of our positions. It is not because we care about children and have a vision of a great public school for every child. NEA and its affiliates are effective advocates because we have power, and we have power because there are more than 3.2 million people who are willing to pay us hundreds of millions of dollars in dues each year.” Wisconsin just short circuited their power surge and government unions just lost a major battle .
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