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Blog: Purple Ground Topics:Politics, Conservative, Liberal Twitter Updates
Tweets by jamierudolph
Si se puede ser un pais de leyes (Yes we can be a nation of laws)
I know I said I was going to write about flushing my Social Security Insurance savings down the drain or the effect that power has on government, but I can’t remain silent on the Arizona craziness. I was fuming most of the last 2 days as “friends” of mine on Facebook compared the new law in Arizona to Nazi Germany and called those who support it racists. I guess the term “racist” is the go-to slander now for all things not in alignment with Progressive thought. But be warned race-baiters, the more you throw that term out willy-nilly the less effective it will become and the less attention people will pay to actual instances of racism, a la “The Boy Who Cried Wolf”.
But it’s not just lefty kool-aid drinkers on Facebook hurling these slanderous and fallacious comparisons. Here’s just a few gems that I picked up from news stories this week:
* “There is now a racial reign of terror spreading across the country and it has to be stopped,” Joshua Hoyt, director of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights and one of those arrested, told the Chicago Tribune.
* “We cannot go back to the slave trade, slave patrol era, where … free men or African Americans that were free were arrested, put in jail and then sent back to the plantations,” said Juan Carlos Ruiz, advocacy director of the Latino Federation of Greater Washington. – Reuters
* Even some Republicans joined the bandwagon: “This law of ‘frontier justice’ – where law enforcement officials are required to stop anyone based on ‘reasonable suspicion’ that they may be in the country illegally – is reminiscent of a time during World War II when the Gestapo in Germany stopped people on the street and asked for their papers without probable cause,” said Rep Mack (R) Florida. – The Hill
I feel like I woke up in the Twilight Zone (not the one with Edward Cullen), where a law that makes something illegal a crime is suddenly the same thing as slavery and the Jewish Holocaust.
So let’s all calm down, take a deep breath, and look at the facts.
1. The new AZ law does not allow for race to be a determinant in asking to verify someone is here legally. Matter of fact, it expressly forbids it.
2. The officer has to have had some other lawful reason for coming into contact with the person before asking to verify legal status (i.e. pulled over for a traffic violation or detained for another crime).
3. The vast majority of illegal immigrants in Arizona are from South of the border. So therefore the majority of illegal immigrants affected by this law will be from south of the border. It doesn’t mean that the law targets Hispanics, it means that the majority of the people being affected are Hispanic. A HUGE difference. If I was pulled over and couldn’t provide a driver’s license, green card or visa and spoke little English, I would expect the officer to inquire on my legal status as well. Equal justice means that nobody is too white, black, brown, rich or poor to be subject the law equally.
Roughly 65% percent of Americans support this law according to a Rasmussen Poll. But Rasmussen found in another poll this week that also 65% favor “a welcoming immigration policy”.
Let me ‘splain.
Posted in Uncategorized
15 Comments
Who’s your daddy?
My mom just called me on her way to sign paperwork with a new tenant in a building that we own together. She was calling me to vent. Let me introduce her new tenant to you. We will call her “Alice” since I think we have all gone down the rabbit hole…
Meet Alice:
Alice is a 40-something year-old single mother of two daughters. My mom said she is sweet and well-spoken and friendly. Alice is renting our 3 bedroom apartment in Huntington Harbor. It’s a very nice place. I used to live there. We remodeled the kitchen. Spared no expense. Alice is moving in with her two daughters, age 15 and 23 and her two grand kids (from the 23 year-old). Alice’s “proof of income” statement for my mom showed her and her older daughter getting a combined $1000+ in welfare, $600 per month in food stamps and $2100 per month in housing (that’s $3700+ total if you are counting). By the way, Alice has been receiving housing subsidies from the government for 12 years.
My step dad Gil noticed a wedding ring on Alice’s hand and asked her if she was married. “We don’t live with our men,” she replied, “because then we wouldn’t get government assistance anymore.” So Alice chooses not to get married or live with her long time boyfriend because then she and her husband would have to start taking responsibility for their own financial needs.
And the reason they are moving? When her 23 year-old daughter had another baby a few months ago, Alice qualified for a 3 bedroom apartment instead of a 2 bedroom apartment. By the way, the daughter that has two children by two different men chose not to live with or marry either of her baby daddies either.
Before my mom called me, I was watching a show called “Life” on the discovery channel. A mama orca was teaching her baby how to hunt for seals in shallow water and avoid getting beached. The commentator mentioned that one of the things that makes mammals unique is how we pass down information from generation to generation; teaching our young by example. It then is easy to understand how Alice never graduated high school and neither did her daughter. Alice never married the father of her children, and neither did her daughter. Alice has lived more than a decade on government assistance. What should we expect from her daughter?
So then I read today that the FDA wants to outlaw too much salt in foods. (Stay with me here, I promise it’s connected). The government can now mandate that we buy health insurance. Maybe they should mandate that we all buy gym memberships too?
Here’s my point: The government cannot legislate good decisions. All they succeed in doing is stripping away at the sense of personal responsibility and accountability that teaches good decision making through positive and negative consequences. The federal government got involved in providing school lunches decades ago because kids were malnourished. Now the government wants to try to fix the fact that kids in school are obese because the government has been feeding them processed food high in fat, salt and calories. How about this? Let the parents feed their kids and take responsibility for their weight. Let local government fill in any gaps in a smaller community setting where parents can get involved in the decisions of what foods are provided to their children.
Now back to Alice. The government cannot legislate common sense or good decisions. But the government can and does encourage bad decisions though enabling those behaviors. The government inadvertently encouraged Alice and her daughter not to get married to the fathers of their children by providing them a financial incentive not to. The government made the decision not to graduate high school easier by providing a means of income that requires no diploma and no work. And the government encourages people everyday to not go look for a job when they extend unemployment benefits from weeks to years.
My money, your money is being involuntarily collected to enable unproductive and unhealthy habits and behaviors. Even worse, we are creating a class of people dependent on the government for their every need, regardless of ability or desire to better themselves.
I believe in charity. I believe in giving to those less fortunate. I give to causes and organizations all the time that support people (and animals, because I’m a sucker for animals) in need. Every dollar that the government takes out of my paycheck and wastes in their misguided attempts to help “Alice” is a dollar that I don’t have to donate to a charity that gives a hand up out of a bad situation. The government’s hand holds people in a bad situation: dependence and lack of responsibility.
Next blog (you pick):
Why I will never see a dollar of the $80,000 I have paid into Social Security Insurance
or
What happens as government’s power grows?
Choose your own adventure.
Posted in Uncategorized
14 Comments
Why the government thinks that Americans suck
You will have to excuse the hyperbole in the title of my blog this week, but allow me to explain. The policies of this administration and progressives in general are based on an idea that Americans need the government to take care of us, tell us right from wrong, and protect us from ourselves. The foreign policy of this administration holds the hint of the suggestion that America doesn’t deserve to be the largest military super power on the planet. The growth of government entitlement programs infer that Americans cannot be counted on to take care of the needy in our society unless the government takes our money and does it for us. Let’s look at each one of these things individually, shall we?
1. We need the government to take care of us:
There’s a video circulating around schools taught as part of the curriculum called “The Story of Stuff”. In this video the narrator says that “it’s the government’s job to take care of us.” Do you believe that? Is that the government’s job? When did we move from our founders’ principle that the government is the protector of our freedoms, not the provider of our needs? Matter of fact, it was Thomas Jefferson who said “I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.”
2. The government needs to help us make the right decisions:
With freedom comes personal responsibility. That liberty is the freedom to make good choices and reap the rewards, or to make bad decisions and pay the consequences. I don’t need the government outlawing trans fats or alcohol (as progressives did in the 20’s). If I eat or drink things that are bad for me, then I will pay the consequences. If I become an obese, out-of-work alcoholic who then expects the government to pay all my health care costs and treatment options along with my housing and food stamps, then the government has sheltered me from the consequences of my actions and I will never learn.
Another aspect of this lack of confidence in Americans is seen in environmental policy. I bet that one day in the not too distant future all cars will be hybrid of some sort. That is because the demand for fuel efficiency and the public’s awareness of energy conservation and the environment drives us to be more “green”. Give people the facts and an affordable solution like compact florescent light bulbs or hybrid cars and people will buy them. When solar energy reaches that sweet spot where the benefit outweighs the cost, people will adopt en masse. We don’t need government nanny to force us towards environmental friendliness, people will move there on their own.
3. America is not deserving of military dominance:
Since the early 20th century America has been a military super power with little rivalry. We have used our power to defend and protect but never to colonize or destroy. We haven’t been perfect in all our military decisions, but we have a core principle that America’s might would not be abusively used for imperialism or terrorism. We live in a world that includes some evil people. Unfortunately some of those people hold positions of power in the world. Some have and would use military power to colonize or terrorize. Others would like nothing more than to see “the great Satan” wiped off the map. Obama’s new nuclear policy for America limits our options for defending ourselves and our allies and reduces the deterrent created by nuclear weapons. In a time where nations with very dangerous leaders, like North Korea and Iran, stand on the cusp of nuclear armament, why on earth would we chip at America’s status as the country willing and able to do anything to stop threats to ourselves and the world? I wonder if Iran actually believes at this point that we will do anything to stop them besides the last 6 years of resolution begging and bartering in the UN and with Russia and China.
4. Nowhere is the government’s lack of faith in Americans more evident than in the transition from charity towards entitlements as a source for the needy. Americans have proven time and time again that we are the most generous people on planet earth. We take care of our neighbors, our family, our friends, our community, our country and even other countries’ needy and desperate.
While some safety net is good to catch those who fall through the cracks, we are moving from a safety net to a government harness on each and every one of us. The government will take our money and use it to help with the causes that they see deserving. And since huge bureaucracies are never good at nuance, the government will offer enormous entitlement programs that will act as the teat that the American public will nurse from. Did you know that a baby mammal will nurse far longer than it needs to if their mother does not forcibly wean it?
My real concern about this unconstitutional shift away from personal responsibility to government care and control is that people become what others expect of them. We all know the kid who was told by abusive parents that he would never amount to anything. Then when the kid turned into a loser or a criminal the parent would say “I told you so”. It’s a self fulfilling prophesy. We are losing the generation that truly understood personal responsibility – the “up from your bootstraps” generation. We are raising a new generation that believes that the government will take care of them and that it’s “the government’s job” to do so. Our liberties will disappear as politicians realize that they can buy the votes of the lazy and entitled with the money of the hard-workers.
We must be vigilant to never believe the lie that government can or will take care of us. We must live the principles of charity, military might with honor, self-reliance and acceptance of the consequences. We must never become the people that the progressives expect us to be.
Posted in charity, entitlements, freedom, government, nuclear
15 Comments
You don’t know me
I was astounded to read an opinion piece by Frank Rich of the NY Times last week claiming that Tea Partiers are not really upset about the growth of the size and power of the federal government, or out of control and unsustainable spending. We are apparently really upset that a black man is president, a woman is speaker of the house and the openly gay Barney Frank holds a position of power. (You can read the outrageous claims for yourself here: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/28/opinion/28rich.html ).
Likewise I have heard those on the left opine that people who watch Glenn Beck must just agree with what they call “his doomsday hate speech”. It had me completely confounded. We are absolutely spending at a rate that will lead to economic disaster if drastic measures are not taken. Moody’s has warned that we are in danger of losing our AAA credit rating as a country. The CBO said last week that within 10 years our debt will equal 90% of GDP.
Nobody can deny that the process used to pass this health care bill was shady at best and unethical at worst. And even if you believe that health care is a right of all people in America and that it is our government’s job to ensure that “right” for all, where does that end? Will it be the government’s job to provide housing? Food? Clothing? Transportation? This is the model that has been widely accepted in Europe. However, this model runs counter to everything that this country was founded on: personal responsibility, limited government, and private charity.
For every suffering person in America without adequate food, shelter or medicine, there are private charities, generous individuals and businesses looking to help our neighbors and fellow countrymen. Private donations to Hatti from US business and individuals topped 1 billion within a matter of weeks. That is the strength of the United States of America and that is the spirit that you will kill if you try to run all people’s needs through the breadline of the federal government.
Giving not only blesses the recipient, it blesses the giver. How much blessing and sense of community do we get out of having the government stick their hands in our pockets and then redistribute to the less fortunate as they see fit?
On the other side, if a person receives assistance from the government, some will come to see it as their due and never pick themselves up and move forward the way they might after getting a helping hand from a neighbor, friend, colleague or private company.
The company that I work for does more philanthropic work then anywhere I have ever worked. That makes me proud to work there and my associates and I feel a sense of team and community when our company hosts drives to raise money for causes and charities. The government taking money from my paycheck and giving to similar needs lacks all those benefits of giving that inspire us to want to give more and do it again.
Add to that the fact that everything the government does the private sector does better, cheaper and more efficiently and I think you have a strong argument against growing the scope of government in people’s lives.
People are mad. Not because a black man is in the white house. I rarely think about the president’s race unless someone is accusing me of not liking him because he is black. I could care less that Pelosi is a woman or Barney Frank is gay – never even crosses my mind. I have enough to think about with trillions in new debt, bailouts of “too big to fail” car companies, banks, Fanny and Freddie, government run health care, privatization of student loans, government subsidized mortgages, and, well, I could go on and on.
So Mr Rich, smart guy NY Times writer extraordinaire, you don’t know me at all – not one little bit. I am hard working, and I want to keep what I work hard for and I choose to give to those in need and causes I believe in. I am deeply proud of my country, especially those men and women who put on the uniform of our country and lay their lives on the line for my freedom. I am involved in politics now as never before because I hope to be a mom someday soon and I want my children to have the exceptional America that I grew up in. But Mr Rich thinks I am protesting our government actions because I am a racist who fears losing the white man power structure in this country. I have decided that I don’t care what Frank Rich thinks. I am done defending myself and my fellow Tea Party patriots against ridiculous labels of racist, misogynistic red neck. The truth is on our side and more see it every day. Mr Rich’s argument holds no water, because he doesn’t know a thing about me.
Posted in Uncategorized
7 Comments
What’s the real debate here?
I have been thinking about who the people are that make up the 35%-40% that support this health care bill. I think One group will never have their minds changed because they understand what they are supporting and it is exactly what they want. The other group is sincere, but what they think they are supporting is not really what they will be getting. Let’s be honest here, this a massive new government entitlement program, any way you slice it.
Here’s what I think: 15%-20% of those who support this bill have been burned by an insurance company, or frustrated by rising health care costs. They just want the problem fixed and they either don’t understand or don’t care that this 2700 page bill is like treating a broken finger by amputating the entire arm and replacing it with a 2.5 trillion dollar mechanical arm to which the government holds the remote control. The other 20% genuinely want the USA to be more like the social democracies of Europe with more federal government control of our lives. They believe that government taking care of citizens’ every need is more important than the individual freedom and responsibility and that this country was founded on. It honestly does not bother them in the least that this bill adds 16,000 new IRS agents to the government payroll to inforce insurance mandates on individuals and businesses. These are the progressives that want to see America transformed into a new kind of Nation where the collective is valued above the individual. Having spoken to many of these people, I believe that they are sincere in their belief that the United States, collectively, will be better for this transformation. Individual freedom and free market economic success may suffer for it, but they believe that it is all for the greater good of America as a whole. The problem is that they are dead wrong.
America has been the most prosperous and free nation since our founding because of the very differences that progressives seek to eradicate. As yourself, what are we “progressing” towards? What are we “progressing” away from? I suggest a new course for America, a u-turn back towards the principles that we were founded on and that have made us so strong. The same principles that have been slowly muted, diluted, and refuted by progressives since the turn of the 20th century.
You have all heard the adage that those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it. If you look at history you will see that the further a country moves towards socialism, the less free and prosperous it becomes. From extreme examples like Stalin and Mao, Castro and Chavez to the more subtle slide towards socialism like what is currently happening in places like Greece and Spain, bigger government has always led to economic turmoil at best and mass murder at worst. So the question is, which direction do we want to slide down that scale? Remember, government power is only as good as those wielding the power. So ask yourself, what happens when the wrong people get that power, even if it’s 50 or 100 years from now?
Also, if private enterprise is the horse pulling the economic engine and social welfare program recipients are the cargo, what happens when the cargo outweighs the horse by 100 fold? Who will pull that cart?
Posted in freedom, health care reform, progressive
10 Comments
The hypocracy of politics
Maybe it is human nature to pick a side in a “battle” and then view facts through the foggy lens of that side of the debate. There are ideologues and Kool Aide drinkers on both sides of the political spectrum. Our leaders in the White House and Congress need to start being intellectually honest with the American People. The reason that many Americans and Tea Party participants are distrustful of politicians on both sides of the isle is that we see that many Republicans standing up for fiscal responsibility now that did not do so when it was their congress and their president with the excessive spending. Democrats that whined about the irresponsibility of the budget under Bush are now unable to find the political courage to cut spending themselves and have in fact increased spending.
Well the game is over. Our debt and our deficit are now at levels that are not only unsustainable, they are dangerous. Medicare and Social Security are unfunded and going to be out of money in the next decade. Also in the next decade the interest on our massive debt will take up more of our budget than national defense. The amount of money that we owe China could compromise decisions for our national interests as we become beholden to the will of our lenders.
The wisdom of our founding fathers has long been ignored by both parties. And it is these founding principles that have made America the strongest, most prosperous country on Earth for generations.
Thomas Jefferson said “We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and liberty or profusion and servitude. If we run into such debt, as that we must be taxed in our meat and in our drink, in our necessaries and our comforts, in our labors and our amusements, for our calling and our creeds…[we will] have no time to think, no means of calling our miss-managers to account but be glad to obtain subsistence by hiring ourselves to rivet their chains on the necks of our fellow-sufferers… And this is the tendency of all human governments. A departure from principle in one instance becomes a precedent for[ another]… till the bulk of society is reduced to be mere automatons of misery… And the fore-horse of this frightful team is public debt. Taxation follows that, and in its train wretchedness and oppression.”
Leaders from the right or left or both need to find the courage to admit to the American people that our course of Government taking care all aspects of citizens’ lives is not only unsustainable, it puts our country in danger. No politician wants to take on the albatross of Social Security or Medicare reform. No leader hungry for re-election and approval points wants to cut government programs that have promised money and financial security to future generations. But it is a lie. The money will not be there. The same is true of unions in the public and private sector. They have promised billions in pensions that have no source of funding.
The responsibility also lies with the people. We have to be willing to stand up and say that we will take care of our own futures, our families and our communities and relieve the government of the perceived and and unfulfillable promises that were given.
We have to start now. We cannot cut healthcare or Social Security support for those already reliant on the failing system. So my generation and those not yet in the systems have to be willing to say that we will cut the cord that is strangling our budget, our economy, and our future.
If political leaders will not have the courage to tell Americans the truth then regular Americans who see the path that we are will stand up and yell from the mountaintop until we are heard. Movements like the Tea Party are just a reflection of the fact that many Americans have not been fooled into believing that bigger government can or will keep this nation prosperous and free. We have read the history books and we know what happens when government tries to be all things to all people. We can do math and we realize that America is truly in danger and on a path that leads to national bankruptcy. If yelling from the mountain top does not work then we will excise through the ballot box those politicians who refuse to speak the truth or follow the courage of their convictions. We will replace them with leaders who will do the hard thing, the right thing. I don’t care if those leaders have a (D) or an (R) next to their names. I only care that they care about America more than their own political power.
Posted in debt, deficit, Medicare, Social Security, Tea Party, Thomas Jefferson, unions
7 Comments
Can’t we all just get along?
Something jumped out at me as I watched the President’s State of the Union address last week. It was the line where President Obama said that the reason that the healthcare bill had hit roadblocks is because it is very complicated legislation and he hadn’t explained it well enough. While I admit that healthcare reform can be complicated, the president gave over 40 speeches on the subject last year. So the reality is that the American people didn’t like what was being explained, not that it wasn’t explained well enough. Polls show that only 38% of Americans supported the specific plan that was being debated even though a majority of Americans want some kind of healthcare reform to bring down costs and help those who are falling though cracks in our imperfect system.
Then the president said that he wants to nationalize student loans because he doesn’t like banks making profits of educational lending. Furthermore he said that the government would then forgive any outstanding student loan debts after 10 years if you went to work in the public sector and after 20 years for those who work in the private sector.
There are so many things backward about this kind of thinking that I almost don’t know where to begin. First of all, profits are a good thing. Profits are what drives our economy, business growth, jobs, competition, supply and demand and innovation. Wherever there is a profit to be made there will be people stiving to make that product or service better for consumers and therefore capture larger marketshare and more profit.
Secondly, we want to give people a financial incentive to work for the government instead of the private sector? Because what we need in this country is more beaurocracy? It has always been the private sector that brings innovation, new products and technologies and that revitalizes the economy. Not so in this “recovery”. This adminstration is pumping money into the public sector like never before. According to USA Today “Federal workers are enjoying an extraordinary boom time in pay and hiring during a recession that has cost 7.3 million jobs in the private sector. And to add public-sector insult to private-sector injury, data from the Office of Personnel Management show the average federal salary is now roughly $71,000 – about 76 percent higher than the average private salary.”
[http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2009-12-10-federal-pay-salaries_N.htm]
So what progressives like our president do not understand is that Americans don’t want the government to run everything nor do we think that the federal government can run anything (except the military) better than the private sector. That is the fundamental roadblock that this administration’s agenda is running up against. And I do not think that the president or his advisors or Senator Reid or Congresswoman Pelosi understand that distinction.
This country was founded as a “grand experiment” on the principles of a very limited federal government. It was an experiment that has succeeded for over 200 years in a way that no other government philosophy has. One has only to look to the words of our founding fathers to see how they felt about a large or powerful federal government:
“A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned – this is the sum of good government.” – Thomas Jefferson
Jefferson trusted the people to take care of their own lives. Progressives think that we need government to take care of us. But as Ronald Reagan pointed out, “as government expands, liberty contracts.”
So maybe we can’t all just get along when fundamental differences exist in the view of the role of government in America. Maybe one philosophy has to win the day. My vote is for liberty.
Posted in liberty, Obama, progressive, state of the union, Thomas Jefferson
1 Comment
Handicapping the Economy
Everyone is frustrated with how little progress (if any) we have seen in the US economy in the past year. I have to wonder if the current White House and Congress has any common sense in regards to economic policy. I am not an economist, but even I can see that the kind of “stimulus” that we are currently attempting at the cost of hundreds of billions in taxpayer dollars is doomed to fail.
Here’s the math:
The Obama Administration claims that the stimulus program has saved or created 640,329 jobs since it was enacted back in February through the end of October. This number is updated and posted on the Administration’s recovery.gov web site. That amounts to $246,436 per job based on the $157.8 billion that has been awarded so far. Total compensation earned by the average payroll employee during October, on an annualized basis, was $59,867. If the government had simply used the funds awarded so far to pay for a year’s worth of labor, that would have paid for 2.6 million jobs.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not suggesting that the government start funding payroll. They are already doing that anyway. According to a USA Today article from September 2009, the stimulus program was responsible for 25,000 new federal jobs year-to-date.
[http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2009-09-23-stimfed_N.htm]And that’s just federal jobs, that doesn’t include state and local tax payer-funded jobs. So really the main thing that the federal government is stimulating is the size of the federal government.
Here is the basic reason why this type of distribution of tax payer dollars to stimulate the economy has not worked and will not work: it is not the job of the government to create (or save) jobs… and they stink at it. The government is not a good manager nor spender of money because it is not their money. I like to tell the story of my first job working for a PR firm where we had mostly corporate clients but also the state agency of Cal Trans as a client. Or corporate clients pushed us to give them the best return on their investment for public relations services. Cal Trans meanwhile paid our public relations firm $80 – $100 per hour to pass out fliers in neighborhoods announcing upcoming construction projects. Government agencies have a “spend it or lose it” mentality that would never fly in the private sector. I see it all of the time in my current job responding to government bids that have to be awarded by a certain date so that the funds will be allocated again the next year, and the next year, and the next year….
Besides the gross mismanagement of funds, the Government also hurts the economy by artificially handicapping the market. The government picks winners and losers in industries, sectors and among competitors that have no basis in economic Darwinism or supply and demand.
Examples:
1. Cash for Clunkers succeeded in getting some people to buy a car a few months or a year sooner, but they were going to buy a car eventually, so we get growth in the auto industry one month followed by a slump the following months. And maybe that car buyer was incentivized by Cash For Clunkers to buy a new car that month instead of a new washer and dryer, thus taking the money away from the washer and dryer company and the stores that sell washers and dryers. And since when is destroying good working cars and all of their parts a good idea? Gas guzzling cars are incrementally being replaced by more fuel efficeint cars because of demand and fuel savings. When the government tries to artifically speed up that process, the unintended consequences outweigh the positive effects.
2. Demand, not government intervention, creates lasting growth in an industry. If the government wants to grow “green jobs” they may prop up a product that is simply not in demand yet due to the cost / benefit ratio. Consumers have proven with hybrid cars, compact flourescent light bulbs and programable thermostats that when the cost of a product or technology produces relative benefits, we will adopt that green technology. As soon as solar panels on houses becomes affordable, the technology will be adopted in mass. But if the government subsidizes that technology to artificially boost the sector they will slow down the timeline for that to happen.
3. Government economic gerrymandering leads to cronyism. Case in point: there was only one energy-efficient window company in the US to get stimulus dollar tax breaks. What do you know, the window company’s policy director is married to Cathy Zoi, Asst. Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy in the White House. Zoi is the administrations “weatherization boss.”
[http://www.businessandmedia.org/articles/2010/20100115161050.aspx]
What effect does the money and promotion given to the hand-picked Serious Materials window company have on its competitors that might make as good or better windows? This is not capitalism.
I fear that this administration and congress will continue to play these stimulus games in lieu of doing what is proven to stimulate the economy. Give across the board tax breaks to the small and medium businesses that create jobs in this country and remove any burdensome regulation that hampers business growth. Then let the private sector do the rest. In essence: get out of the way.
One more thing: let companies that make bad decisions go out of business. Better companies will take their place. artificially propping up bad companies just leads to more bad companies. I don’t want to own a car company, and if I did, it wouldn’t be one destined to fail because labor unions have driven legacy costs to unsustainable levels. But that’s a blog for another time.
Posted in ecomomy, green jobs, stimulus
2 Comments
The Awakening
I spent awhile this morning talking to a business contact about the state of our Union. He was less optimistic that I am that the corruption and back room deals that have ruled Washington for decades can be changed back into what our founding fathers envisioned: a republic ran by the people and for the people.
I read yesterday that the White House made a deal with labor unions to exempt them from the health care taxes proposed in the current legislation. And I thought, why aren’t more people outraged by this? Are we accepting the premise now that if you contribute money and help get a candidate elected then you will be cut sweetheart deals down the road? How is that “for the people and by the people”?
Then today I read that Scott Brown is statistically tied with Martha Coakley for the MA Senatorial race. Scott Brown has campaigned on being the 41st vote necessary to stop this travesty of a health care reform bill. The bill is so bad that even Democrats with a filibuster-proof majority have to cut deals with Democratic Senators and Representatives just to get it passed. Add to that the fact that Democrats outnumber Republicans 3 to 1 in Massachusetts and it is really remarkable how well Scott Brown is polling.
So yeah, I am optimistic that there is an awakening in this country. People see 14 plus trillion dollars in debt and realize that we are indebting our children’s children with liabilities that can’t be paid. People see that it is no longer the will of the people, but rather the agenda of the large pocket book special interests and big business that are shaping policy. It is interesting to note that Scott brown has raised nearly 1 million dollars a day from small online donations from individuals across the country. Martha Coakley held fund raisers this week with lobbyists from health insurance companies and big pharmaceutical companies.
But the people are catching on. We saw government getting too big to succeed under the last couple presidents and it seems to only be accelerating. We don’t want cradle-to-grave entitlement programs that keep people dependent on the government for everything from food to jobs to health care. This country was founded on individual freedoms, responsibility and opportunity. That is who the United States of America is. Good morning America. Rise and shine. We have a country to take back; not from Democrats or Republicans or from a particular politician. Once removed, those powers will sneak back in. We must remove the culture of Washington that has been perverted over the decades into something George Washington would not recognize. We must replace it with people who share the values that we hold dear as Americans. As a fan of Superman, I like to call it “Truth, Justice and the American Way”.
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Jamie Bryant
Chris Perez
Where Red and Blue Americans Find Common Ground 
Arizona was driven to this law by a federal government that for decades has been unwilling to address the politically tenuous topic of border security and immigration. Republicans and Democrats alike have done nothing because either they don’t want to upset millions of potential future voters or millions of current voters. Drug and border violence is out of control and our borders are a weakness that terrorists, criminals, and drug traffickers use against us. Did you know that Arizona is now 2nd largest kidnapping capitol of the world, behind Bogata Colombia. Phoenix averages 1 kidnapping per day. An Arizona Rancher was killed on his property by an illegal. Just today, a sheriff’s deputy was shot in the stomach with an AK-47 by illegal human or drug traffickers along a corridor known be be used for both. What racists we are for wanting to put an end to the insanity!
So when you see rallies this Saturday with signs that say “Si se puede“, let’s ask “yes we can…. what?” Ignore the law? Call people who support the law racist Nazis?
1. Secure the border, 2. enforce the law, and 3. have a good legal way for people to enter our country that are decent, hard-working people wishing to become Americans. That is the proud heritage of this country: people coming from all over the world to join our land and culture of freedom, hard work and values begetting success and happiness. That is what it means to become an American. The more the merrier.I say Si se puede to being a nation of laws applied equally to all and enforced for all. Si se puede secure our border and keep the criminals, vagrants and terrorists out. Si se puede create a welcoming system of legal immigration to allow the law-abiding, hard-working people of the world aspiring to become Americans a better, easier path to that goal.
Yes we can.