Category Archives: Our Economic Mess

Why Do Liberals Hate Romney?

Posted on by Standard 1

Ask any liberal why he or she doesn’t like Mitt Romney.

You likely won’t get any reason based on policy – most liberals don’t do the homework required to articulate any policy position.  The main complaint I hear is, “He’s just another rich white guy, who got his money by taking advantage of poor people.”

A few will say they just can’t support him because he’s a Mormon.  And now, after the debate, some say Romney is a liar, although anybody who looks closely sees a straight-laced family man, and the accusations are based on what his opponents claim about him, rather than anything he has said himself.

Throughout history there have always been rich people.  Always will be.  Admittedly, some people became wealthy by taking advantage of others – including many public officials.

Harry Reid, for instance, came from very humble beginnings.  He never held a private job, choosing instead a career in politics.  He is now one of the wealthiest members of Congress, on the modest salary of a public servant, leaving a slime trail of corruption behind him .

Ask any liberal why he or she likes Harry Reid.  Again, you likely won’t get any reason based on policy.  They just like him.

Barack Obama is also wealthy.  Liberals love him.  He’s a rich, black guy.  He was briefly employed in the private sector, but his legal work mainly centered on government-related issues.  He made some money writing and selling two autobiographies which were successful because of his involvement in government.

So, liberals.  Do you dislike Romney because he is rich?  No, Obama is rich and you like him.  Do you dislike Romney because he is white?  No, Harry Reid is white and you like him.  Do you dislike Romney because he is a Mormon?  No, Reid is a Mormon, too.  And rich.

Maybe liberals dislike Romney because they now think he is a liar.  Well, no, that can’t be right – they love Bill Clinton, and he was impeached by Congress for lying.  Oh, and he is rich.  And white.

Some say liberals vote for the candidate who promises them the most stuff.  I pray for the future of our kids if it’s true.  That’s just immoral.

I have no problem with a person becoming wealthy.  In fact, deep inside, I think even most liberals believe in the American Dream.  What is important, though, is how a person becomes wealthy.

I rather like the idea of having a leader who has built wealth with his own skill, judgment, and hard work, and especially if he helped others achieve wealth and success.  We need leaders who possess economic skills and don’t need to enrich themselves via government.

Why does that bug liberals so much?

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

I had the privilege of meeting
David Clayton-Thomas a few years ago –
a great musician and a very, very nice man

Yes, the strong get more,
While the weak ones fade.
Empty pockets don’t ever make the grade.
Mama may have, Papa may have,
But God bless the child that’s got his own!
That’s got his own.

God Bless the Child – Blood Sweat and Tears

The New “Misery Index”

Posted on by Standard Reply

Remember the Misery Index?   The simple formula – unemployment percent plus inflation percent – was created by an LBJ advisor and used for a while as a campaign tool.  Jimmy Carter set the record of 21.98, in June of 1980.  I remember those days – we were forced to turn down our thermostats and wear sweaters, drive roller-skate cars made of tin foil and wait in line for rationed gas, and pay 18% interest on our mortgages.   For you youngsters: no I’m not being sarcastic – it’s the truth.

The Misery Index was rendered useless in more recent times when the Federal Reserve decided to artificially hold interest rates to zero to hide the extent of our economic crisis.

US Economic Freedom Index

But there still is an indicator of how well our nation is doing for its citizens, and it compares us to other countries: the Economic Freedom Index.  It’s a broader measurement of each nation’s citizens’ well-being, measuring such things as property rights, freedom from corruption, limited government, regulatory efficiency, and open markets.  The aggregate is an indicator of how easy, or difficult, it is to do business and make a living.

While other nations move up the scale, in the last few years the United States has slid down.  Hong Kong, a semi-autonomous state of communist China, has moved up to number one.  Singapore, Australia and New Zealand follow close behind.  Canada is number six. Norway, the darling nation of liberals, is number 40.

According to the Heritage Foundation:

The United States’ economic freedom score of 76.3 drops it to 10th place in the 2012 Index. Its score is 1.5 points lower than last year, reflecting deteriorating scores for government spending, freedom from corruption, and investment freedom.

What would it take to get us back in the leadership position we were accustomed to?

Restoring the U.S. economy to the status of a “free” economy will require significant policy changes to reduce the size of government, overhaul the tax system, and transform costly entitlement programs. By boosting growth in the private sector, such freedom-enhancing policies are the best hope for bringing down high unemployment rates and reducing public debt to manageable levels.

Seems to me that’s what Romney and the conservatives are proposing. The other guys? Well, they would like us down there with Norway. Or Uganda. It would be more fair that way.

If the Misery Index made us cry in the Carter years, our declining  Economic Freedom Index under Obama should have us reaching for a XXL hanky.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Take a minute for this fun clip –
a 60’s garage band classic:

And when the sun comes up
I’ll be on top
You’ll be way down there
Lookin’ up
Cryin’

96 Tears – Question Mark and the Mysterions

Walk the talk, Democrats!

Posted on by Standard Reply

Our nation faces a two-pronged economic problem.  We no longer produce the wealth or the jobs that our growing population requires.

That’s mainly because we don’t manufacture like we used to.  The USA has become a service-based economy, and most of our service activity does not create wealth – it merely pushes it around from one pocket to another.  We have abdicated our manufacturing prowess to developing countries, and according to the economic concept of “comparative advantage”, that should be a good thing – but only if we still have a way to make a living.

We have agricultural output that is the envy of the world.  But technology and corporate consolidation of farmland have largely eliminated employment in that sector.

We still are recognized as the world’s top producer of intellectual property – ideas, concepts, programs, designs, inventions.  Some of us are creative, and that generates wealth.  But not enough wealth to carry those of us who aren’t – the ones who used to work in factories and on farms.

So what does that leave us?  How will the US build employment and create wealth in the new world economy?

It always comes back to supply and demand, as I pointed out in a recent post.  Wealth comes from producing what the customer wants and needs.  Scarcity has value.  And in the United States, we have something scarce and valuable that the rest of the world desperately wants and needs:  Energy.

We are reminded every day how rich our homeland is in energy resources.  And we have the technology to extract, convert, and transport energy safely and efficiently.  It would generate much needed wealth and employment.  What’s holding us back?

Intransigence.  Bull-headed stubbornness.  The inability on the part of the liberal half of our nation to admit that they have been wrong.

Those who still oppose developing our traditional energy resources can’t admit that wind and solar are a colossal failure.  They won’t face the fact that nobody wants electric cars because they suck.  They hide the fact that more than half of the solar companies the federal government has subsidized have collapsed.  They pretend that today’s oil, gas, and coal industries still operate with ancient, polluting facilities and methods.

President Obama feigns concern about our energy dependence, the cost of fuel, and the sour economy.  He brags about how oil and natural gas production are up on his watch.   But he won’t admit that he has significantly cut oil leases on federal land.  And at the same time he announces that he has unilaterally (without Congress) decided to further restrict leases in the National Petroleum Reserve of Alaska, which was created 90 years ago specifically for oil production.

The Democrats say they want to create jobs.  They say they want to improve the economy and reduce our debt.

Why don’t they do what they say?

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Enjoy some of the best rock of the 80’s

Why don’t they do what they say?
Say what they mean?
One thing leads to another.
You told me something wrong,
I know I listen too long,
But then one thing leads to another.

It’s Not a Game – Politicians Can Hurt People

Posted on by Standard 1

The debates and the surrounding hoopla have the flavor of a football game.  After the battle, the winning side cheers and the losing side retreats, licking its wounds and vowing to “get ’em next time”.  Monday-morning quarterbacks natter about body language, game plans, and alpha males.

It’s so much more serious than that.  Politicians can, and do, hurt people.

I have a friend who lives in the Central Valley of California.  He has been sending me heart-wrenching letters over the last two years about the devastation that politics has wrought on the Valley and its residents.

In January of 2010 Congressman Tom McClintock (R-CA) made an impassioned plea to the US House of Representatives for relief from the man-made drought brought on by the Obama administration, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), and Senator Diane Feinstein (D-CA).  In a shameless appeasement to their environmental extremist lobbyists, this group of all-stars diverted 200 billion gallons of water away from Central Valley farms into the Pacific Ocean, leaving only 5% of the water the farmers were entitled to.  All for the benefit of the Delta Smelt, a tiny, useless fish – listed as “endangered” by the EPA, but not even indigenous to California.

The loss of irrigation water destroyed 500,000 acres of what was once considered the richest and most productive farmland in the nation,  and put 37,000 families out of work, leaving proud fathers standing in bread lines to feed their families.

California Representative Devin Nunes (R-CA) could not hold back his frustration as he called out the Democrats in Congress for bankrupting thousands of families and businesses tor a fish.  And the situation is not getting any better.

Today I talked with Brian Whelan (R-CA), California candidate for US House of Representatives.  “Our valley is now called the Appalachia of the West”, Whelan said.   “We’re still getting only a small percentage of the water we are entitled to.  Having half the allotment of water that a grove of pistachio trees needs to stay alive is as bad as no water at all.  Fields have been left fallow.  Meanwhile my opponent, Jim Costa (D-CA), hands out carrots grown in China to destitute families at a food bank.”

There are real families suffering here at the hands of politicians.  My California friend laments that, like thousands of others, his daughter’s Central Valley family has been pretty much destroyed.

“She had a daycare and her husband had a good job.  They had a very nice home two blocks from a nice school in a beautiful neighborhood.  It didn’t happen all at once, but her husband had less and less work.  They lost their home, then their rental home.  Because his employer was broke too, her husband was only receiving his earned pay intermittently.  Finally he “snapped” from the stress and the family broke up.  Sick kids.  Power and water shut off.  It’s like a bad dream.”  The daughter and children have moved back in with her father.

Look back at the names of the politicians in this article.  Notice the “R” after the guys who are trying to help.  Notice the “D” following the names of those who caused the problem and won’t back off.   Am I a partisan?  Damn right.  I’m calling you out, too, Democrats.  You talk big about caring for the “middle class” and the less fortunate.  But yet you can do this kind of damage to real families and brush it off on the way to your next DC cocktail party.

As a nation, we voters had better get it right this time around.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

My Chevrolet just made steam,
Your crop is laying foul,
My grass skirt’s lost its green,
I’m alive but I don’t know how.
I need water, good good water,
They need water.

Water – the Who

How Good Are You At Dumpster Diving?

Posted on by Standard 1

The reports from Spain are heartbreaking –   well-educated, young professionals hiding their faces in shame as they pick through dumpsters for scraps of food.

I have been wailing for years about America’s sucking chest wound – our failing economy.  The debt, the deficit, our plunging individual earnings and net worth, the unemployment rate, the huge government share of GDP – all components of  a dying economy.  Nothing is more threatening to the future of our nation and our kids.

And still, the media dwells on Mitt Romney’s tax returns, and who should pay for Sandra Fluke’s birth control pills.  The Senate leader, Harry Reid, who doesn’t bother to write a budget or perform any other meaningful work for years, questions Romney’s religious purity.  President Obama yuks it up with Whoopi Goldberg instead of finding solutions and leading.  The progressives and their special interest groups stop every attempt at economic development, including our amazing energy opportunity.  The Fed prints more money and freezes interest.  No serious attempt is made on any front to stop our nation’s bleeding.

I know how passionate both conservatives and liberals are about social issues.  But they don’t make a damn bit of difference if our economy fails.  Our government must recognize and solve the fiscal crisis before we spend one more dollar or one more ounce of effort on anything else.

Here’s the cold reality, our choice is stark and clear.  We can drop the political correctness, the victim-worship, and the lame excuses, and make a serious effort to put America back to work.  Or we can continue our headlong lurch into socialism, larger and more intrusive government, increased entitlements, and disdain for wealth creation.  Just like Spain.

See you at the dumpster.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Oh – think twice
It’s just another day for you and me in paradise

Another Day In Paradise – Phil Collins

Ugly Racism – Randy Newman Votes By Color

Posted on by Standard Reply

A few weeks ago I posed the question: Do You Vote By Color?

Today I learned, sadly, that Randy Newman does.  It’s a bitter pill – Newman is a great songwriter, a thoughtful man, and a champion of the little guy.  I have always loved his musical craftsmanship, and he seems to get better with age.

But now it turns out that Newman chooses his political leaders by skin color.  Purely based on race, nothing else.  No consideration of experience, knowledge, leadership abilities, economic dexterity, or understanding of the nation and its citizens.

Just pigmentation.

Newman’s new song “I’m Dreaming of a White President” is an attempt to skewer people who may have voted for someone only because he (all past presidents, inferred) is white – which is reprehensible.  But in doing so, he advocates voting for someone only because he (Obama, inferred) is black.  Just as reprehensible.

Mr. Newman, Obama got elected.  The race card is no longer valid.  Please burn yours and start thinking about the future of the nation and your grandchildren instead of the harm done to blacks many generations ago.  You do no one any favors by fanning the flames of racism, or revealing your own.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

And now a child can understand
That this is the law of all the land
All the land!

Black and White – Three Dog Night

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun!

Posted on by Standard 4

A new Pew Research Poll says women prefer Obama over Romney by 19 points.

I am trying to process this tidbit of information.  I wish I could channel my “feminine” side, but I guess I am just not a metrosexual.  This will be difficult.

Let’s see, why on earth would women prefer Obama?  Could it be because he is strongly in favor of abortion?  No, it seems to me that women like babies – at least all the women I know love babies and are appalled at the thought of killing them.

Well then, is it because women are better off under Obama’s economic leadership?  Well, no, in this era of unemployment, it seems that women have been hit harder than men.

I went to the “Women For Obama” website to try to understand why they are for Obama. I didn’t learn anything there – they wanted my credit card information on the very first page, and I was not quite ready for that level of commitment.

Maybe the girls just think Obama is “cool”.   I mean, the Middle East is melting down, our ambassador is dead,  the Federal Reserve decides to hold interest at zero percent for the rest of our natural lives,  the federal debt rolls past $16 trillion – and the big “O” is yucking it up on David Letterman.  That’s cool.  I guess.  Maybe?

Well, I suppose the girls are impressed with how Obama understands their struggle to pay the bills, raise the kids, and stay afloat in these tough times.  I mean after all, he is one of us, the working class – oh, wait, there’s that thing with the Hollywood jet set, Beyonce and Jay-Z and the $40,000 a plate dinners (not exactly the McDonald’s dollar menu?).

Okay, I guess I just don’t get why the girls go crazy for Obama.  Maybe Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.

(Between you and me, I don’t think Girls are that dumb . . . )

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Take a Minute And Enjoy an all-time classic – what a great video!

I come home in the morning light,
My mother says “When you gonna live your life right?”
Oh, mother,dear, We’re not the fortunate ones,
And girls, They wanna have fun!

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun – Cyndi Lauper

Dental Work: $8k in US, $500 in Jordan

Posted on by Standard 2

On a visit to North Carolina last week, I took my wife’s car to our favorite local shop for some work.  It is owned and operated by two brothers from Amman, Jordan.  They emigrated to the US in the turbulent 1980s when the Jordanian government confiscated their successful business under martial law.  At the shop I always enjoy animated conversation with the brothers about families, world politics, current events, and automotive stuff.

While Jordan is still not exactly paradise, life there has improved dramatically in recent years under King Abdullah.  But that’s not the subject of my post this morning.

I asked Sam, the older brother, why he was out of the country the last time I had visited his shop – did he have a medical problem?  No, he said, he just needed some dental work.  That piqued my curiosity.

Sam said he went to two local dentists, and each one quoted him about $8000 for the job.  They prescribed somewhat different procedures, including removing some teeth that were actually healthy.  Uncomfortable with their approaches, and the cost, Sam had the x-rays sent to his family’s dentist in Jordan for a “third” opinion.  “They’re crazy,” was the opinion of the Jordanian dentist.

So Sam flew to Jordan (the trip cost $1500) and had four crowns, two fillings, two root canals, and deep cleaning done there.  For $500.  And they left his good teeth alone.  When he returned, he had the work checked out by one of his local dentists.  “Nice job,” the dentist reported.  Sam had saved six grand.

This points out what is wrong with our American medical system – fee for service.  The more services that are provided, the more money the doctor makes.  And since most of us don’t pay for medical procedures out of our pockets, we don’t check – or care – how much our medical care costs. The other side of the dilemma – cost shifting.  Doctors provide free or under-compensated services via government programs or charity, financed by overcharging those who do pay.

Is ObamaCare the answer?  Oh, hell no!  Government takeover of the medical industry will result in gross inefficiency, incompetence, and rationing – the normal standard of performance for any government work.

But those who say our current health care system is the best in the world are naive.  Our nation has the wealth to do some things medically that other nations can’t.  But the cost is out of control and the quality is not what it should be.

Our next president will have to address the health care issue – it can’t be kicked down the road any longer, or soon many of us will be “medical tourists”.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Here’s an alternate health care plan:
(bet you haven’t heard this one in a while!)

Put the lime in the coconut,
And call me in the morning!

Coconut Song – Harry Nilsson

Sex, Monkeys, and Our Tax System

Posted on by Standard 1

There is a colloquialism that accurately describes our process of calculating, filing, and paying our federal taxes.  I can’t say the term in mixed company, but it involves a large number of simians all having sexual relations at the same time.

There are so many things wrong with the IRS, our tax codes, and our attitudes about how we funnel money to our government, that this is one of those “Don’t Get Me Started” things.

Too late, I started.

At last estimate, only about 36% of taxpayers prepare their own returns.  Most Americans would rather pay somebody else to file their returns than do it themselves, blindly trusting that the tax preparer will accurately calculate the correct tax.  Many advertize that they will get you a bigger refund than the tax guy down the street!  The taxpayers don’t know how to file, don’t want to know, and will do anything to avoid it, including handing over their checkbooks to a total stranger named Block.

Waterboarding?  Ha!  They should have made Khalid Sheik Mohammed fill out a Schedule D!

We are not only forced to pay part of our hard-earned money to the government, we are also forced to pay somebody else to decide how much we are forced to pay to the government!  Even though many taxpayers could file a simple, one-page “simple” form, they are too afraid.  Or they have gone to public schools, where learning about anything with a dollar sign attached is really frowned upon.

Business tax reporting is even worse.

For instance, when a business buys equipment, it can “write off” the cost over a period of years, which reduces income and, thereby, taxes.  If the government allowed the entire cost to be deducted immediately, it would seriously reduce their cash flow.  So our big-spending brothers and sisters in DC make businesses spread the cost over a number of years.  How many years?  Well, nobody knows.  There is no chart where you can look up the depreciation percentage or number of years for, say a new widget-making machine.  There are chapters and paragraphs and exceptions and alternatives and recaptures – but nowhere is there a simple chart that a human being can understand.   Only the accountants can conjure up an answer, and ten different accountants will come up with ten different answers.   The IRS doesn’t really care – ten IRS agents will come up with ten more completely different answers.

Even more strange – our tax “police” send out checks to anybody and everybody who requests a refund, without checking first to see if the filer is a citizen, has a job, or has already received thousands of refunds at the same address.  The IRS doesn’t even attempt to collect the $1 billion in past due taxes owed by federal employees – Geez, guys, all you need to do is deduct them from their paychecks!

All I can say about our tax system is HOW BIZARRE!  Candidates talk about more taxes or less taxes.  But why isn’t anybody (other than Herman Cain) talking about our crazy tax system?

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Ooh baby, it’s making me crazy
Every time I look around, it’s in my face
How bizarre! How bizarre, how bizarre!

Yes Mom, He’s An Axe Murderer, But He’s So Cute!

Posted on by Standard 5

We bumped into a new neighbor the other day.  After some chit-chat the conversation turned, predictably, to the sour economy – unemployment, inflation, the debt.  The neighbor mentioned the weak real estate market and how difficult it is to sell or buy a house.

My wife chimed in, “I think everybody is waiting until after the election to make any major financial move.”

The neighbor said, “Yes, I know everybody wants Obama out because his policies have been terrible for the economy.”  We agreed, assuming we had met a fellow conservative.

She continued, “I voted for Obama last time.  And I suppose I will have to vote for him again.”   My wife and I gave each other a puzzled look.  “Why?” we asked.

“Well, I just couldn’t vote for Romney because of the way he flaunts his wealth.”

Huh?

My mind reeled at all the problems with this statement.  Even if it were true, how is having money you earned yourself worse than deliberately destroying the wealth of American families?

When Romney was governor of Massachusetts he refused to take a salary.  He also managed the Winter Olympics without pay.  And he donated every dollar of his inheritance to charity.  Stories of Romney’s incredible anonymous philanthropy are beginning to surface.  Flaunt his wealth?  Are Michelle’s expensive vacations not flaunting?  Is sending a government jet to pick up Barack’s dog not flaunting?

And besides, what the hell difference does it make?  We have important problems to solve!

I’m befuddled as to why people vote the way they do.  It’s mind-boggling.

What is more important than the looming bankruptcy of the largest economy on the planet?  Does it really matter who pays for Sandra Fluke’s birth control pills?  Do you vote for somebody only because of his or her sex, or race, or personal appearance?

President Obama’s policies have been a dismal failure, resulting in annual deficits exceeding $1 trillion and driving our nation into a disastrous, perhaps irreversible decline.  He shows no interest in straightening out the mess.  And yet Obama continues to lead in the polls because he is “likeable.”

At the DNC in Charlotte, Peter Schiff interviewed a couple dozen delegates – these are the Democrat party’s best and brightest.  With a big grin, he asked each of them, “Do you think corporate profits should be banned?”  Every one, without hesitation, said, “Of course!  That’s a great idea!”

This is the “new” American voter.  God help us.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Don’t say nothin’ bad about my baby
Don’t say nothin’ bad about my baby
He’s good – he’s good to me –
And that’s all I care about!

Don’t Say Nothin’ Bad About My Baby – the Cookies