Boycott Partrisanship
For those of us who are sick of all the negative political attack ads on television the best way to stop them is to boycott their advertisers and sponsors. Just drop a line, or call the TV stations and tell them that if they keep running the negative ads you're going to boycott their advertisers. Then make a call, or write a letter to the advertisers and tell them you're going to boycott their products. It's that simple. Television stations, media outlets, and the press make a lot of money running these negative ads which only serve to pit us against each other and encourage extreme partisinship. The result is that we end up with politicians who represent narrow minded ideologies. It's up to us to say enough of the childish bickering! Just say no to political divisivemess.
Tuesday, May 20, 2014
Tuesday, March 25, 2014
Putin's claims of American Hypocrisy?
Putin's land grab in the Crimea is very similar to America's invasion of Mexico in the 1840's when President Polk decided to use force to acquire Texas, California, and portions of Arizona and New Mexico. .Polk claimed that it was America's "Manifest Destiny" to own that land. He sent troops into Mexico and forced the President of Mexico to sell the land to America at the point of a gun. This caused an International uproar and our actions were broadly censured. The invasion was preceded by Mexico filing complaints against American citizens who were illegally migrating into Texas -which at that time was owned by Mexico.
We sometimes wonder why other Nations accuse us of hypocrisy. Our blatant land grab in Mexico, our invasion and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan are examples, as is our claim that we alone should be allowed to own nuclear weapons. We are after all the only Nation who so far has used nuclear weapons to kill thousands of non-combatant citizens.
Putin's land grab in the Crimea is very similar to America's invasion of Mexico in the 1840's when President Polk decided to use force to acquire Texas, California, and portions of Arizona and New Mexico. .Polk claimed that it was America's "Manifest Destiny" to own that land. He sent troops into Mexico and forced the President of Mexico to sell the land to America at the point of a gun. This caused an International uproar and our actions were broadly censured. The invasion was preceded by Mexico filing complaints against American citizens who were illegally migrating into Texas -which at that time was owned by Mexico.
We sometimes wonder why other Nations accuse us of hypocrisy. Our blatant land grab in Mexico, our invasion and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan are examples, as is our claim that we alone should be allowed to own nuclear weapons. We are after all the only Nation who so far has used nuclear weapons to kill thousands of non-combatant citizens.
Tuesday, March 18, 2014
Governments are supposed to protect individual freedom and provide for the general welfare of their citizens not repress, subjugate, or spy on their citizens. Money was invented to provide an efficient way to exchange goods and services, not provide a way to allow a few individuals to take the majority of the money out of circulation for their own personal benefit. Politicians are supposed to represent the interests of all of the people not just those with enough money to buy influence.
Friday, March 7, 2014
Mitch McConnell brandishing a rifle is about as childish as it gets. This is the man who said his primary job was to prevent Obama from getting re-elected. What happened to trying to improve the economy and creating more jobs? What happened to updating our infrastructure? What happened to healing the wounds of partisanship? What happened to raising the minimum wage for some of our nations hardest workers?
We're paying McConnell and our politicians above average salaries and they're not even putting in a 40 hour work week.
We're paying McConnell and our politicians above average salaries and they're not even putting in a 40 hour work week.
Tuesday, February 25, 2014
Thursday, February 20, 2014
Big Horn Sheep
Let me get this straight. The Arizona Game and Fish department is killing mountain lions who kill big horn sheep so that hunters can kill the sheep instead.
Monday, August 1, 2011
Simple Budget Solutions
The politicians are making our budget problems unnecessarily complicated when in fact the problems can be solved relatively easily without damage to our economy,without draconian cut back in programs, and without large tax increases. Here are some simple steps we need to take.]
1) The politicians are fixated on the cost of Social Security and Medicare ( "Entitlements) so the first thing we need to do is set those two programs aside and discuss them separately. Neither entitlement program has a place in the discussion about the discretionary portion of the budget because they have a completely different funding mechanism and the money collected for both programs is supposed to be set aside in separate Trust Funds (even though it is common knowledge that the politicians have been taking money out of both Trust Funds to conceal deficit spending for the past several decades). Both Social Security and Medicare are funded by payroll taxes and it's obvious that as more people retire and need more health care those payroll taxes will need to be raised. However, the amount that those taxes will need to be raised to adequately fund Medicare in the future is relatively small compared to the cost of buying a decent health insurance policy in the private sector and it is obvious to even the most casual observer that covering every citizen with Medicare would save hundreds of billions of dollars annually by eliminating the need for Medicaid, SCHIP, and all of the numerous fragmented health care programs at the State and Federal Level. For example, a 4% payroll tax increase on a salary of $40,000 to fund the expansion of Medicare to cover everyone is only $1,600 per year compared to the cost of about $15,000 per year for a decent health care policy in the private sector. Politicians claim there is no "political will" to expand Medicare to cover everyone yet most physicians, health care workers, and voters favor doing so. It's the lobbyists who finance the campaigns of the politicians who object to expanding Medicare- not the majority of the voters or health care workers. We should mention in passing that expanding Medicare and eliminating Medicade would go a long way toward helping the 50 States balance their budgets.
Social Security will also require a slight increase in payroll taxes but that can be moderated by removing the cap on taxable payroll, and by making sure that only people below a certain income level are eligible for Social Security benefits.
2) Now that we've solved the Medicare and Social Security problem, we're faced with the discretionary part of the budget. The biggest component of that budget is the cost of funding our ever growing military industrial complex. Again, those budgets are largely driven by lobbyists for the Defense Contractors and in fact a lot of money allocated to the Defense industry creates jobs here in American. Nevertheless, by any reasonable estimate there is at least 35% waste and corruptions in that area of the budget.
3) Finally we need to discuss ways to increase government revenues. There are two primary ways to do so. The first and most important is to get our economy back on track and create more jobs. The second is to make sure that every American, rich or poor, pays their fair share of taxes. Our economy has stalled in part because of an every increasing gap between those who have money to spend and those who do not. Currently less than 2% of our population control the majority of the money. There are reports that Corporations and financial institutions are holding cash reserves in excess of three trillion dollars. The Republicans, in a brilliant public relations ploy, call those people "job creators" when in fact the wealthy have taken so much money out of circulation over the past several decades that there isn't enough money in the hands of consumers to keep the economy healthy and vibrant. We've seen corporate profits reach record levels in the past two years while unemployment remains near ten percent. Where are the jobs the so called "job creators" are supposed to be creating? While cutting the size of government spending is generally an admirable goal it hardly seems appropriate during this recession to reduce the number of consumers by laying off several million government workers.
The politicians have been extremely successful at hiding behind the cost of entitlement programs as a way to avoid taking responsibility for our budget problems. That's because during flush times they've basically been stealing money from both Trust funds to finance and conceal their deficit spending. They've done that by claiming that the money we've put into the Trust funds from our weekly payroll taxes is actually money they can spend instead of money that was supposed to be put aside in a Trust fund to cover Social Security and Medicare expenses for people who reach retirement age. Now that they've "borrowed" all that money from the Trusts they have nothing to hide behind so they're blaming the entitlement programs for the growing deficit. At the present time our Government is borrowing money to replace the money the politicians took out of Social Security and Medicare and the interest on that borrowing is rapidly becoming one of the biggest contributors to our rising deficit problem. Yet the politicians continue to blame the entitlement programs,, instead of their own mismanagement of the money we paid into those programs , for our budget problems. We'll probably never solve our budget problems until we find a way to keep our tax money out of the hands of the politicians. In the meantime write to your elected representatives and tell them the best way to get our financial house in order is to stop stealing money from the Social Security and Medicare Trust funds and replace "Obama Care" by expanding Medicare to cover everyone. Every poll reveals that this is what the majority of us want. The politicians won't listen if we don't talk to them. It's that simple folks. Get on your phones. Write letters and email. Nothing will change unless we speak up in mass. It's important that "political will" be defined and the will of the people not the will of the lobbyists.
1) The politicians are fixated on the cost of Social Security and Medicare ( "Entitlements) so the first thing we need to do is set those two programs aside and discuss them separately. Neither entitlement program has a place in the discussion about the discretionary portion of the budget because they have a completely different funding mechanism and the money collected for both programs is supposed to be set aside in separate Trust Funds (even though it is common knowledge that the politicians have been taking money out of both Trust Funds to conceal deficit spending for the past several decades). Both Social Security and Medicare are funded by payroll taxes and it's obvious that as more people retire and need more health care those payroll taxes will need to be raised. However, the amount that those taxes will need to be raised to adequately fund Medicare in the future is relatively small compared to the cost of buying a decent health insurance policy in the private sector and it is obvious to even the most casual observer that covering every citizen with Medicare would save hundreds of billions of dollars annually by eliminating the need for Medicaid, SCHIP, and all of the numerous fragmented health care programs at the State and Federal Level. For example, a 4% payroll tax increase on a salary of $40,000 to fund the expansion of Medicare to cover everyone is only $1,600 per year compared to the cost of about $15,000 per year for a decent health care policy in the private sector. Politicians claim there is no "political will" to expand Medicare to cover everyone yet most physicians, health care workers, and voters favor doing so. It's the lobbyists who finance the campaigns of the politicians who object to expanding Medicare- not the majority of the voters or health care workers. We should mention in passing that expanding Medicare and eliminating Medicade would go a long way toward helping the 50 States balance their budgets.
Social Security will also require a slight increase in payroll taxes but that can be moderated by removing the cap on taxable payroll, and by making sure that only people below a certain income level are eligible for Social Security benefits.
2) Now that we've solved the Medicare and Social Security problem, we're faced with the discretionary part of the budget. The biggest component of that budget is the cost of funding our ever growing military industrial complex. Again, those budgets are largely driven by lobbyists for the Defense Contractors and in fact a lot of money allocated to the Defense industry creates jobs here in American. Nevertheless, by any reasonable estimate there is at least 35% waste and corruptions in that area of the budget.
3) Finally we need to discuss ways to increase government revenues. There are two primary ways to do so. The first and most important is to get our economy back on track and create more jobs. The second is to make sure that every American, rich or poor, pays their fair share of taxes. Our economy has stalled in part because of an every increasing gap between those who have money to spend and those who do not. Currently less than 2% of our population control the majority of the money. There are reports that Corporations and financial institutions are holding cash reserves in excess of three trillion dollars. The Republicans, in a brilliant public relations ploy, call those people "job creators" when in fact the wealthy have taken so much money out of circulation over the past several decades that there isn't enough money in the hands of consumers to keep the economy healthy and vibrant. We've seen corporate profits reach record levels in the past two years while unemployment remains near ten percent. Where are the jobs the so called "job creators" are supposed to be creating? While cutting the size of government spending is generally an admirable goal it hardly seems appropriate during this recession to reduce the number of consumers by laying off several million government workers.
The politicians have been extremely successful at hiding behind the cost of entitlement programs as a way to avoid taking responsibility for our budget problems. That's because during flush times they've basically been stealing money from both Trust funds to finance and conceal their deficit spending. They've done that by claiming that the money we've put into the Trust funds from our weekly payroll taxes is actually money they can spend instead of money that was supposed to be put aside in a Trust fund to cover Social Security and Medicare expenses for people who reach retirement age. Now that they've "borrowed" all that money from the Trusts they have nothing to hide behind so they're blaming the entitlement programs for the growing deficit. At the present time our Government is borrowing money to replace the money the politicians took out of Social Security and Medicare and the interest on that borrowing is rapidly becoming one of the biggest contributors to our rising deficit problem. Yet the politicians continue to blame the entitlement programs,, instead of their own mismanagement of the money we paid into those programs , for our budget problems. We'll probably never solve our budget problems until we find a way to keep our tax money out of the hands of the politicians. In the meantime write to your elected representatives and tell them the best way to get our financial house in order is to stop stealing money from the Social Security and Medicare Trust funds and replace "Obama Care" by expanding Medicare to cover everyone. Every poll reveals that this is what the majority of us want. The politicians won't listen if we don't talk to them. It's that simple folks. Get on your phones. Write letters and email. Nothing will change unless we speak up in mass. It's important that "political will" be defined and the will of the people not the will of the lobbyists.
Friday, July 15, 2011
Job Creation
While Congress indulges itself by playing a partisan game of "chicken" with the debt ceiling, most Americans are more concerned with reducing our unemployment rate and finding ways to get people back to work. The highly romanticized concept that the way to stimulate the economy is to reduce taxes on the wealthy doesn't hold up to inspection. It's called the "Trickle Down" effect and is aptly named when one considers the meaning of the word trickle. The concept revolves around the fantasy that the rich will voluntarily use their money to create jobs if we reduce their taxes. Given the fact that the folks on Wall Street, and many of our large corporations, have been making record profits during the current recession, and are reportedly sitting on trillions of dollars in idle cash, one can only ask where are the jobs?
The best way to create jobs is to get more money into the hands of consumers because businesses can't hire unless they have more customers. During the past several decades enormous amounts of cash have been withdrawn from circulation by the wealthy. Without a method of putting some of that money back in circulation our economy becomes a deadly game of Monopoly, where a small group of individuals end up with most of the money and our free enterprise system bogs down.
The best way to create jobs is to get more money into the hands of consumers because businesses can't hire unless they have more customers. During the past several decades enormous amounts of cash have been withdrawn from circulation by the wealthy. Without a method of putting some of that money back in circulation our economy becomes a deadly game of Monopoly, where a small group of individuals end up with most of the money and our free enterprise system bogs down.
Monday, August 23, 2010
Leadership
LEADERSHIP
Leadership involves bringing out the best in people and helping them understand the benefits of working together as a team. It also involves creating an environment that encourages the open exchange of ideas. It's hard to find much evidence of true political leadership from many of our candidates these days. Instead, too many of them spend their energy attacking one another and mocking those with opposing opinions. The press doesn't get high grade either when 90% of the coverage involves reporting all of the grisly details of who attacked who. We can do better than this and maybe the first step in that process is for each of us to take a moment to reflect on how lucky we all are to be living in this wonderful country with this exceptional democracy. For all of our complaining, and all of the things we see going wrong, who among us would rather live in another country? The vast majority of us are here because of a random piece of hereditary good luck. Our parents were American citizens. But being a naturally born citizen is not necessarily the same as being a true American. It's not that easy. Being a true American is hard work. In our brief history as a nation and a fledgling democracy we've had to work and fight to overcome slavery and racial prejudice. We've had to work and fight to give women the right to vote, to allow inter-racial marriage, to provide equal education and opportunity to people of all colors, to make sure that workers are paid fairly and not abused, to prevent the cancer of greed from infecting our free enterprise system, and to live up to the words "We hold these truths to be self evident, that all people are created equal". It hasn't always been easy and it's often been messy but we've made progress. We're a better nation now than we were then, and we'll continue to become an even better nation if we all take personal responsibility to keep the promises of our founding fathers. Personal responsibility and leadership require getting involved in the elective process and choosing leaders for their wisdom and compassion, for their ability to bring us together in common cause, and for their ability to bring out the best in us .Put another way, we must continually be on guard against those who would divide us, those who promote anger and prejudice, those who attack our government, and those pit us against one another.
Leadership involves bringing out the best in people and helping them understand the benefits of working together as a team. It also involves creating an environment that encourages the open exchange of ideas. It's hard to find much evidence of true political leadership from many of our candidates these days. Instead, too many of them spend their energy attacking one another and mocking those with opposing opinions. The press doesn't get high grade either when 90% of the coverage involves reporting all of the grisly details of who attacked who. We can do better than this and maybe the first step in that process is for each of us to take a moment to reflect on how lucky we all are to be living in this wonderful country with this exceptional democracy. For all of our complaining, and all of the things we see going wrong, who among us would rather live in another country? The vast majority of us are here because of a random piece of hereditary good luck. Our parents were American citizens. But being a naturally born citizen is not necessarily the same as being a true American. It's not that easy. Being a true American is hard work. In our brief history as a nation and a fledgling democracy we've had to work and fight to overcome slavery and racial prejudice. We've had to work and fight to give women the right to vote, to allow inter-racial marriage, to provide equal education and opportunity to people of all colors, to make sure that workers are paid fairly and not abused, to prevent the cancer of greed from infecting our free enterprise system, and to live up to the words "We hold these truths to be self evident, that all people are created equal". It hasn't always been easy and it's often been messy but we've made progress. We're a better nation now than we were then, and we'll continue to become an even better nation if we all take personal responsibility to keep the promises of our founding fathers. Personal responsibility and leadership require getting involved in the elective process and choosing leaders for their wisdom and compassion, for their ability to bring us together in common cause, and for their ability to bring out the best in us .Put another way, we must continually be on guard against those who would divide us, those who promote anger and prejudice, those who attack our government, and those pit us against one another.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Job Creation
America's small businesses create over 75% of all new jobs. Yet the small business community is the sector of the economy which has been hit hardest by the current recession. Clearly the best way to create new jobs is to do all we can to bring the small businesses community back to good health. As someone who has owned and successfully operated a number of small businesses in Southern Arizona over the pasts 30 years I offer a few practical suggestions.
Historically, during difficult times, government has come to the assistance of large corporations by offering tax breaks and incentives. Oddly, the government never offers the same tax breaks to small businesses. I suggest that we should consider offering two specific tax breaks to the small business community. One aimed at new business start-ups. The other aimed at existing businesses which need funds to expand. For the new business start ups I propose that we waive taxes on profits for the average period of time it takes a new business to get over the hump and become self-sustaining. That period of time is about three years. For small businesses which are over that hump and ready to expand I propose that we set up a type of business IRA which would allow small business owners to set aside up to 50% of their earnings every year into a tax free account over a five year period of time. Such tax free funds could then be withdrawn at any time during that five year period only for the express purpose of business expansion - such as the purchase of new equipment, marketing, expansion of facilities, etc..
I believe both of these proposals would help solve the biggest challenge most small businesses face. Namely the inability to obtain financing from banks, or investors. In order to make these tax breaks revenue neutral I propose that we use the money we will save by allowing the tax breaks for the super rich to expire to cover the cost of the tax breaks to small businesses. The argument that tax breaks to the wealthy create new jobs
is not valid. Wealthy individuals seldom use their personal income to create jobs, with the possible exception of hiring illegal "nannies" to take care of their children..
Historically, during difficult times, government has come to the assistance of large corporations by offering tax breaks and incentives. Oddly, the government never offers the same tax breaks to small businesses. I suggest that we should consider offering two specific tax breaks to the small business community. One aimed at new business start-ups. The other aimed at existing businesses which need funds to expand. For the new business start ups I propose that we waive taxes on profits for the average period of time it takes a new business to get over the hump and become self-sustaining. That period of time is about three years. For small businesses which are over that hump and ready to expand I propose that we set up a type of business IRA which would allow small business owners to set aside up to 50% of their earnings every year into a tax free account over a five year period of time. Such tax free funds could then be withdrawn at any time during that five year period only for the express purpose of business expansion - such as the purchase of new equipment, marketing, expansion of facilities, etc..
I believe both of these proposals would help solve the biggest challenge most small businesses face. Namely the inability to obtain financing from banks, or investors. In order to make these tax breaks revenue neutral I propose that we use the money we will save by allowing the tax breaks for the super rich to expire to cover the cost of the tax breaks to small businesses. The argument that tax breaks to the wealthy create new jobs
is not valid. Wealthy individuals seldom use their personal income to create jobs, with the possible exception of hiring illegal "nannies" to take care of their children..
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
