Politicians in Washington clueless about economics

If you haven't noticed, the American economy, my friends, is still in shambles. Some of the jobs which have vanished into thin air like the morning dew will never return. There are roughly six applicants for every job opening. Social Security? Going broke. Medicare? Going broke. Kansas City, after squandering billions of dollars in brighter days, is set to close nearly half the schools in the district. The state of Missouri, seeing the so-called federal "stimulus" teat about to go dry, may actually see its Democratic governor and Republican legislature work together on spending cuts. Your government (yes, yours!) at every level is hungry for cash -- your cash. Lest you think I exaggerate, consider this:

In Sacramento, Calf., two IRS agents in dark suits paid the owner of Harv's Car Wash a visit. An alleged four-cent error on a 2006 tax payment ballooned to $202.35 with interest and penalties. That in itself is intriguing enough, but the fact that the local IRS office felt compelled to dispatch two agents in person to collect the debt is illustrative of where we are heading in this new millennium of "hope and change."

Anyone who has been paying scant attention the last couple of decades can discern that the individuals we send to Washington -- both Democrat and Republican -- are clueless about real-world economics. Spending? Doesn't matter. It isn't their money anyway. Do you understand that charming Charlie Rangel, the former chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, the chief entity that writes tax law, either willfully avoided paying taxes or does not understand his own tax code? (I shall refrain from stating my opinion on which he is.) Mr. Community Organizer, through both statement and action, has exhibited that he does not have the economic understanding of a 5-year-old with a piggy bank. And, yes, the Republicans, prior to losing control of Congress, spent our money like drunken cowboys in Dodge City at the end of a cattle drive; no argument.

Revenue generation? Tax this. Tax that. Income tax. Property tax. Sales tax. Estate tax. Tourism tax. Excise tax. Capital gains tax. Corporate tax. Payroll tax... In this area, your representatives are not clueless and when it comes to how the government raises money, they do not hope for change at all. Your representatives love the 60,000-page federal tax code because they control it. Yes, even many "conservatives" truly love it although they would never admit it. Again: see my Youtube page for John McCain's response to my question about the Fair Tax during Campaign 2008. Closer to home, it is obvious that Springfield's mayor, too, loves his part of the tax code.

When you hear politicians and others who feed off you, the taxpayer, call the Fair Tax the "Mega Tax" consider the source. At the federal level, instituting the Fair Tax would absolutely represent the greatest return of power to the American people since 1776. I suggest you educate yourself about the Fair Tax, watch to see which politicians blast it ... and remember in November.

 

Strong central governments want best trees for themselves

 Last week, I attended a seminar about hybrid vehicles and how to service them. Although I have worked primarily in automotive service for the last 25 years, the class was most enlightening: Suffice to say, hybrids are a different breed. One particularly intriguing and complex system pre-heats the cylinder head of the internal combustion engine to assure low emissions when starting.

"Wait a minute," I asked. "Would the manufacturer have gone that direction if not mandated -- forced -- to do so by the federal government?"

The answer, of course, is a resounding "no".

Don't misunderstand. I am pro-clean air (I breathe it), pro-clean water (I drink it), and even pro-clean socks (I wear them), but please consider this: The world has witnessed the meltdown of most of the auto manufacturing industry, a bulwark of the American economy and a component of our global power since the early days of the 20th century. Think of the government mandates that our former "Big Three" and others must contend with and the costs they add: Safety, emissions, fuel economy, etc. Last May, the Obama administration mandated that by 2016 the average fuel economy will be 35.5 miles per gallon. I hope this can be done, and that the resulting products are cars that people will actually buy.

Are you at all troubled that powerful central governments exercise so much control over private businesses -- not to mention individuals?

If you are a lefty, I know your answer: "There must be an 'authority' to oversee and 'protect' us all." After all, we're incapable of making it without the wise guidance of those well-intentioned souls Reagan often referred to as "do gooders."

Consider the massive number of public service announcements with which the feds bombard you. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services -- remember, this is a bureaucracy -- teaches us about "fatherhood involvement," "preventing childhood obesity" and "mental health recovery for an African-American audience," which I find particularly strange and condescending to that racial group. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (first I have heard of that one) wants men to know that we should visit the doctor ... and that goes for Hispanic people also. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (huh?) wants us to know that kids shouldn't drink alcohol.

Good call.

I have heard the radio spot about lupus so many times that I recently became convinced that I had it -- until I found that 90 percent of the people it impacts are "women of childbearing age."

You can visit the Ad Council's Web site to see the list of all these beneficial campaigns, mostly dreamed up by government agencies that you have never heard of.

In the 1700s in colonial America, representatives of the king of England surveyed the forests and marked the best trees for his majesty's use.

The colonists, in typical American character, made sure to harvest those trees first ... and not for the king.

Have a great week; think for yourselves; and keep your chain saw sharpened.

 

Climategate should cool believers of 'climate change'

 

The Mark Twain quote, "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics" perfectly summarizes the issue of "climate change," formerly known as "global warming," particularly in the wake of the "Climategate" scandal.

Since "Climategate" has been, shall we say "lightly" reported in the national media, allow me to summarize: November 19, 2009, the credibility of climate science was dealt a major blow by the publication of e-mail messages, along with considerable data, that were hacked and released by a whistle blower from the University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit, a key center of global warming research. The released information suggests that data has been manipulated, faked and fibbed. Since then, each day brings more delightful revelations.

This past weekend, the London Daily Mail reported that Professor Phil Jones, director of the soiled East Anglia CRU, conceded that there has been "no global warming since 1995" (that's 15 years for you lefties). Additionally, Professor Jones admits that he has trouble "keeping track" of information, and colleagues informed the Mail that the reason Professor Phil Jones has refused Freedom of Information requests is that he may have actually lost relevant papers.

Do tell.

Let me get this straight:

On the word of some folks who have been caught lying for obvious financial reasons and can't "keep track" of their own data, we are to destroy our economic system, and therefore our nation. We are to live in huts, eat nuts and roots, ride bicycles, and crown Al Gore King of the World.

I don't buy it, although our president does, as evidenced by his continued headlong dive into the global warming waters.

I don't begrudge anyone the right to believe what they want about "climate change." Similarly, I think that if you want to believe your distant grandpa was an ape, that too is your prerogative.

A friend recently told me that she was on board with manmade climate change because there had been a great deal of information about it on television, so it must be true.

I informed her that I too have been on television; therefore that was not enough for me.

A local university professor told me that someone in his position has to be extremely careful of what they say about the subject, because it is "like a religion" and indeed, we are being asked to take a great deal "on faith." We now have proof that we cannot put faith in those who would be scientists.

As for Al Gore, exactly what are his credentials for expertise on this issue? Just as we have a leader in charge of our economy who has never held an actual private sector job, our resident expert on climate science is a phony ex-politician who has zero credibility on the issue.

The fact is, our snapshot of climate data is tiny in the scheme of the earth's unknown timeline, and right now my idea of climate change would be a trip to Ocho Rios, Jamaica.

Laying blanket of guilt on U.S. ignores history as force for good

"The United States of America is the greatest force for good in the history of the world."

The preceding is a pretty straightforward statement and sports quotation marks because I said it, and now I've written it as well.

I am generally able to "consider the source" of most all the goofy things liberals write and say, but I must admit, I get extremely tired of hearing and reading about this terrible, despicable place known as America. In just the last two days, a couple of locals, representing the Howard Zinn/George McGovern/Al Gore/Barack Obama (where does one stop?) wing of the "I Hate My Country" party expounded about slavery, conquest, the Mexican and Indian wars, abuse of labor unions (whatever that means), wars to control oil, etc.

This has been a fashionable pastime since the 1960s when I was growing up, which may explain why I am so weary of it.

These learned souls never mention that it was the USA who kept much of Europe from literally starving to death during and after WWI (for those of you might care, the effort was led by a then-obscure mining engineer named Herbert Hoover.) They never mention that it was Americans who sailed to Europe and pulled France and England's chestnuts out of the fire and saved their countries from true conquest. They neglect the fact that prior to our entry into WWII, it was American goods and money that literally kept Britain, and therefore western civilization, from falling into the abyss of Nazism. Following the war, it was, once again, the USA, that saved Europe from starvation via the Marshall Plan. Our wheat kept millions of Soviets from starving many times even though we were engaged in the Cold War with their leadership.

I personally remember countless disasters, famines and conflicts where Americans were on the scene, feeding, fixing, fighting and usually financing...and the only territory we asked was enough room to bury our dead.

My country is imperfect. Because governments are made up of human beings, they are not only imperfect, but are also capable of evil, because human beings, my friends, are flawed and are not perfectible...at least on this earth.

To those of you who are ashamed of my country, I would ask: Would you have preferred to live under Josef Stalin? Hitler? Pol Pot? Chairman Mao?

And to those hand-wringers among us who agonize about "enhanced interrogation" of those who would behead us and despair because our carbon footprint is too large, are you equally concerned about the 1.37 million innocent human babies that are willfully killed in America each year? Seems I never hear your crowd mention that little statistic.

If you really want to continue down the tired path of perpetuating guilt among Americans for admittedly horrible things such as slavery, oppression and war casualties, please; do some mental and intellectual housecleaning on the issue of abortion, or kindly shut up.

I'm tired of it.