Tag Archives: politics

This Just Doesn’t Make Sense!

Posted on by Standard 1

I live out in the boonies – a rural area in one of the poorest counties in South Carolina. And everywhere I drive out here I see big reels of fiber optic cable waiting for a crew to come along and dig trenches to install it.

Thanks, taxpayers, for ponying up the $50 billion plus to fund this misguided attempt to bring modern life to us hicks in the sticks. But your congressmen should have asked us before they wrote the contracts and checks to their big tech buddies.

When I carved out a spot in the woods for a new house and shop, I pondered how I was going to get internet and television service out here in the middle of nowhere. Satellite TV was and is available, of course, and we had been satellite customers before. But as the satellite carriers lose market share to streaming TV services they raise prices to stay in business, so satellite TV has become crazy expensive.

Unfortunately, the cable companies who pig out on taxpayer broadband funds have not reached our neck of the woods, and would not tell us if, or when, they would get here.

So we put a dish in our yard for TV, and a second dish for HughesNet satellite internet service. At the time HughesNet operated at the speed of dark – barely functional for email and maybe some web surfing, but forget about any kind of streaming. Another option was a cellular network hotspot, but we did not have towers close enough to make that practical either.

Then Elon Musk came to the rescue with his StarLink service – fast, reliable, and affordable. It replaced our cable and internet services with REAL high-speed rural broadband at half the cost of the fiber optic cable service our federal government is subsidizing. (Musk has donated Starlink devices to disaster areas all over the globe, providing free internet service in areas with no functioning infrastructure on the ground.)

SO WHY IS OUR GOVERNMENT STILL SPENDING SO MUCH OF OUR MONEY PUTTING IN OBSOLETE FIBER OPTIC CABLE WHEN STARLINK IS THE PROVEN FAST AND EFFICIENT MODERN WIRELESS INTERNET ALTERNATIVE?

Probably for the same reason they insist on replacing powerful, plentiful, affordable carbon-based energy with solar and wind electricity that can’t possibly meet our needs at any cost. Our government does not run like a business, continually maximizing profit and performance. No, our government officials only seek to pay off their lobbyists and campaign contributors. Once a spending program is approved by Congress, there is no turning back. Those dollars will be spent as allocated, regardless of whether it makes economic sense.

Now, take this senseless $50 billion broadband boondoggle and multiply it. How many more obsolete and nonsensical programs are burning through our limited tax dollars and exploding our debt?

Last year South Carolina’s Republican legislature gave $1.3 billion in taxpayer cash and incentives to VW to build an electric RV plant. The electric vehicle industry is flopping like a dying fish now, as it has become clear that even with taxpayer incentives electric vehicles will never be feasible. As obsolete EV production plants close all over the globe, new tech research shows hydrogen power may be the energy source of the future.

Godspeed to you, President Trump. You are the first president in many generations who looks at government spending from the taxpayer’s viewpoint, seeking real efficiency and transparency. And Elon’s DOGE effort was not wasted. It exposed, but failed to stop, the crazy wastefulness in our government spending.

If only our Republican legislators would see the light.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Well, the blues jumped a rabbit and run him a mile
The rabbit sat down and he cried like a child
The blues said son you got to learn one rule
Don’t place no trust in a educated fool
Educated fool, educated fool
Educated fool, educated fool

EDUCATED FOOL – Boz Skaggs

Hey Moe! How About Them Tariffs?

Posted on by Standard 1

Today’s stock market activity looks like the work of three men: Larry, Curly and Moe.

This morning news reporters breathlessly claimed that President Trump has put a hold on his promised tariffs against imported goods. Then the markets went crazy as nobody could decide if the reports were accurate (no, he didn’t – yes, he did – wait, is this fake news or not?). Financial advisors and political pundits flip-flopped like catfish in the bottom of a boat. I saw the DOW and NASDAQ drop 3% and then bounce back to 2% gains inside of 15 minutes.

All of this gyration makes clear that the stock market is not a real economic indicator. And that the news and political folks play on our emotions constantly. And that our level of economic sophistication, not to mention our attention spans, have atrophied to something like the third-grade level.

In reality, nothing in the economy is different today than last month. But the mere mention of any Trump initiative is sure to send everybody into a tizzy. Those afflicted with Trump Derangement Syndrome believe that he is hell-bent on destroying our country (and the world), because he is a Nazi Fascist Orange Man who wants revenge for being treated so badly by so many for so long.

The fact is, our stock market has been wildly over-valued for a long time, and the recent downturn is no different from any correction before. Remember that nasty inflation during the Biden years that caused prices to go crazy? During all of that inflation, the stock market continued to float higher and higher. Analysts touted greater sales and profits by our domestic businesses. But sales were up only because of inflated prices, not because more units were being produced and sold – each dollar in the system was worth less. And profits were higher because sales were higher.

This disconnect between production and prices caused the stock market to blow up artificially, and sooner or later it had to pop.

Maybe the threat of tariffs scared some people into a doom-and-gloom selloff. But folks, it was going to happen anyway, just like it has many times before. And the market has always recovered before, usually in a matter of a few months.

Trump is just shaking things up and trying to drag the world economy back to some semblance of sanity where our debt doesn’t increase by a trillion bucks every couple of months, 20% of working-age men aren’t home on disability, and we don’t send checks to people who died 50 years ago.

Watching all this chaos, I can’t help but chuckle a little bit. Nyuk, nyuk nyuk.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Hey Moe! Nyuk nyuk nyuk nyuk!
We-be-be-be-be-be!
Oh, wise guy!
We never miss a chance to get up and dance
We’re doing the Curly Shuffle!
THE CURLY SHUFFLE – Jump ‘n the Saddle Band


Vietnam

Posted on by Standard 5

I graduated from high school in 1971, not yet eligible for the draft. In 1972 I turned 18. The war was winding down, and the number of American soldiers ‘in country’ was significantly reduced from the peak in 1968. Still, the word on the street was that young draftees were being sent to the front lines to replace the guys who had survived tours of combat and wanted to go home in one piece. The young grunts were easy meat for the more experienced and war-tough Viet Cong.

A great Marine recruiter had approached us senior boys at my high school before graduation, and I thought about enlisting, but after graduation, with help from my dad and my young wife, I was able to afford college and bypass military service.

1972 was my first year eligible for the draft lottery, and my number was 228. That year only the first 95 birthdates were drafted.

I was relieved, of course, at the time. Still, I had a gnawing ache that so many of my brothers had served and died in ‘Nam, and I didn’t. I saw the war protests on the nightly news, along with the reports of guys returning from the war being vilified as “baby killers”.

To this day, over 50 years later, there is a special place in my heart for Vietnam vets, who served our nation in that ugly war, without really knowing how their spilled blood made a damn bit of difference. Some were driven by pure patriotism, and some were just unfortunate draftees. All of them laid it on the line for their buddies.

Throughout our history, America has lost many brave young men on the battlefields, including more recent conflicts in the Middle East. Some Americans would have us send our young to Ukraine for God knows what purpose. I’m a patriot, and have reverence for all of our lost soldiers and war veterans. But I don’t ever want to experience the national heartache of the pointless Vietnam War again.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

He blesses the boys as they stand in line
The smell of gun grease and the bayonets they shine
He’s there to help them all that he can
To make them feel wanted he’s a good holy man

SKY PILOT – Eric Burdon and the Animals

Draining the Swamp – Trump 2.0

Posted on by Standard Reply

The first few weeks of Trump 2.0 has been exhilarating for long-suffering conservative Americans. Early reports of young brainiacs with their AI algorithms revealing mountains of waste, fraud and inefficiency are music to our ears. Volunteer auditor-in-chief Elon Musk and newly-confirmed director of Office, Management and Budget (OMB) Russ Vought hit the ground running – no, they hit the ground flying at hypersonic speed! They are determined to streamline performance, knock down the debt and deficits, and get rid of federal flab. As Trump would say, they are attacking the Swamp with a speed and ferocity “no one has ever seen before”.

So far, so good. Trump 2.0 has already:

  • eliminated DEI departments, programs and costs
  • attacked woke and politically weaponized practices
  • exposed inappropriate spending, targeting foreign and domestic outlays that taxpayers would never approve
  • required federal employees to show up for work and prove their merit
  • closed the borders to illegal immigration and started deportations
  • negotiated favorable foreign trade arrangements
  • promised to get rid of unnecessary and duplicative departments, unused buildings and unneeded personnel
  • identified opportunities for upgraded technology and efficiency

But all this swamp-draining optimism seems eerily familiar. I recall a similar feeling at the beginning of Trump 1.0, and found an old article I wrote about it eight years ago. My enthusiastic and well-intended predictions turned out to be embarrassingly inaccurate.

For one thing, my article focused on one of many less-than-stellar Trump cabinet appointees, Mick Mulvaney. Mick was plucked by Trump from his gig as SC legislator to seek and destroy federal waste and corruption via the OMB. It didn’t happen.

When we first met, Mulvaney impressed me. He was very bright, had a real grasp of Tea Party conservative principles, and walked the talk as a founder of the fledgling House Freedom Caucus. And he hired Russ Vought, a friend and mentor from Heritage Action, as his right-hand man. But I got a chill when I asked Mulvaney if he could implement zero-based budgeting to get our spending under control. He said I should forget about reducing spending. “Our budget is so huge and complicated that nobody in government will even try to cut spending – ever.” Mulvaney said that the only way to reduce the debt, which was about $10 trillion at the time, was to outgrow it by revving up the economy and tax revenues. Tax revenues grew rapidly, but spenders gonna spend – and some of them will spend $2 for ever $1 taken in.

Needless to say, Trump’s success at draining the swamp was about as real as my photo-shopped picture of Mick wrestling an alligator. The swamp creatures from the left and right were bigger and badder than Trump 1.0 bargained for, and he got his nose – and ours – bloodied.

But nobody ever said Trump is a quitter. He recognized his errors, he listened to good advice, he meticulously studied and planned, he literally dodged bullets, and he returned victorious to implement Trump 2.0. The stakes are higher this time around as our debt has ballooned to $36.5 trillion and is growing by a trillion bucks every 100 days. We don’t yet know if our Republican Senate and House will support Trump 2.0 or prefer the fetid smell of the swamp.

Last November American voters peered over the edge of a steep cliff. At the bottom we saw the extinction of our freedoms, our prosperous and moral civilization, and the future of our children. We turned away from the edge and now have One More Last Chance before we’re through.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Give me just a one more last chance Before you say we’re through I know I drive you crazy baby It’s the best that I can do We’re just some good ol’ boys, a makin’ noise I ain’t a runnin’ ’round on you Give me just a one more last chance Before you say we’re through

ONE MORE LAST CHANCE – Vince Gill

January 20, 2025 – Mixed Emotions

Posted on by Standard 1

What a historic day as President Trump is inaugurated to be our 47th president. The story is Braveheart revisited – pushed to the edge of the cliff, we let out a primal scream, and charged behind our leader into the teeth of our evil enemy. To victory!

The last four years has been nothing less than an existential battle for those of us who are engaged in the war to save our nation and culture for our children and future generations. I find myself in a swirl of mixed emotions today and am recording them for future reflection.

THANKFULNESS – thanks to God for answering prayers and for His perfect plan. Salvation is there for those who will accept it and it is our responsibility and honor to preserve and share that good news.

CELEBRATION – Oh Lord, it’s hard to be humble! We have taken a daily beating from the press, from our political adversaries, from every institution in society. But we kept fighting, knowing that truth and justice always wins out in the end.

BROTHERHOOD – We had to stick together and keep each other inspired, informed, and encouraged in the face of withering attacks from a relentless enemy. For some of us it was a four year battle, but many of us have been in the trenches since the Tea Party days almost twenty years ago. I am so proud of all of my brothers and sisters who have led – and followed – when the going was tough.

HUMILITY – Our battle isn’t personal, although the other side wanted it to be. It’s tempting to shame and embarrass our vanquished opponents as they did to us. But some of those who have not been on our team just didn’t know any better. We should celebrate today and then get to work for all of our fellow citizens, because we know better and we are better than the few evil ones that did so much damage.

ANGER – I will try to release the anger I have toward those evil ones and will cut their sheep followers some slack. But it will take a while because of all the personal carnage they caused. And justice must be meted out to those with evil intent, as a deterrent to future villains. It will be hard to forgive those who arrested innocent protesters like my nephew on January 6, 2021 at the cost of prison time, loss of careers, homes, and savings. I’m confident that TODAY President Trump will pardon them all. He promised me.

DETERMINATION – I doubt most people know how close we came to losing our precious American way of life. Let’s make damn sure we don’t get pushed to the edge of that cliff again.

Onward! And may God continue to bless America!

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Let’s grab the world by the scruff of the neck
And drink it down deeply and love it to death
So button your lip, baby, button your coat
Let’s go out dancing, let’s rock and roll
You’re not the only one with mixed emotions!

MIXED EMOTIONS – the Rolling Stones

A Bright Sun-shiny Day

Posted on by Standard 1

Whew!

After four years of teetering on the edge of a cliff in a hurricane, Lady Liberty can finally take a deep breath. There is hope for our nation’s survival as a functioning democratic republic.

I had been saying for some time that Trump’s support level nationwide – among the common people, not just the urban jet set – had to be nearly 80%. I can be prone to hyperbole, but I’m now feeling pretty good about that projection. After the election, now that the sun has come out, it seems that everybody loves Trump and is singing Make America Great Again.

Let’s not be naive, there are still forces of evil hell-bent on destroying our president, our country, and each of us personally. But there are also many gleeful sheep peeking out of the shadows who were afraid to show their faces before November 6. An estimated 50% of Christians did not vote, and that entire voting bloc (about 67% of Americans) is now relieved that somebody else carried Trump forward to rescue and restore their values. Add their numbers to the popular vote he actually won, and you are nearing my 80% claim.

A surprise to me is that widespread vote fraud was either not attempted or was suppressed by aggressive counteraction. I had expected a 10% to 15% cheating advantage by the left, but only a few questionable maneuvers were revealed this time around.

So, now what? Can we really turn this big ugly ship around?

Here are just a few ways that the new Trump America can emerge from the malodorous swamp and start smelling like roses very quickly:

Stop all government payments to and for non-citizens. ALL of them. The ones who are draining the most funds will leave. Start enforcing our border laws and restrict inflow to work visas only.

Stop allowing 94%+ of federal workers to “work from home”. Many already have second jobs and will quit their government jobs. Many will be eliminated by DOGE because they have proven they aren’t needed at the office. Government employment can be easily reduced by 50% or more. Easily. No really, read that last sentence again.

Implement zero-based budgeting in agencies and force Congress to present a real budget, on time, every year as required by law. The last time they did that was 1996. Make every agency actually balance their books and account for every dime. After all, that’s what the IRS requires of us.

Stop all payments to NGOs. All of them. If their functions are not important enough to be handled by our federal employees, we either don’t need the programs or the federal employees. NGOs are at the core of most of the embarrassing and egregious corruption in our federal government.

I could go on all day. But that’s a good start. Let’s enjoy the sunshine and get to work!

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

I can see clearly now, the rain is gone
I can see all obstacles in my way
Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind
It’s gonna be a bright (bright), bright (bright)
Sun-shiny day

I CAN SEE CLEARLY NOW – Jimmy Cliff


Whistleblower Reveals Government is Too Damn Big

Posted on by Standard 1

Warning: the following reading material contains NUMBERS. If you are allergic to numbers, or if numbers make your eyes glaze over and your head throb, you were probably educated in government schools. You may wish to exit this page and check out the latest Taylor Swift news.
[correction 10/31/24: my numbers re: presidential campaign spending were off by one comma, s/b $1.8 billion and $356 million.] Sorry, my eyes glazed over!

Okay, the whistleblower is ME. I used that to get your attention, since whistleblowers are in fashion right now. But I think I have discovered the cause of all of our problems: OUR GOVERNMENT KEEPS GETTING BIGGER WHILE OUR PRIVATE SECTOR EMPLOYMENT AND PRODUCTION GETS SMALLER.

Our government has become so huge – in terms of employees, dollars received, dollars redistributed, dollars consumed in administration, dollars spent, and dollars wasted by errors and corruption – that it no longer fits our constitution or the economic formula that made us the greatest nation on Earth. Most Americans don’t understand that government does not produce anything or create any wealth. That only happens in the private sector, and sadly our private sector doesn’t create much of anything any more.

For those of you still with me, here’s are the promised numbers:

According to USAFacts.com, when President Trump left office in January of 2020, there were 2.86 million federal employees. In October of 2024 under the Biden/Harris administration that number had ballooned to 4.0 million, a staggering increase of 40%! And this does not even begin to consider the growth in state and local governments, NGOs (non-governmental organizations) fed by the Democrat machine, or the employees bought with taxpayer money that enriches crony corporations for “projects” that never seem to get done. Meanwhile, the labor participation rate in my state has dropped from nearly 70% in the mid 1970s to 57% in recent years. Government employment gets bigger while private employment shrinks.

Stats from Microsoft’s CoPilot: As of 2024, Federal employees earn, on average, $144,000 in total annual compensation. 68% of federal employees “work from home” full or part time. (First year Marines, by the way, earn $24,204 annually, and they don’t get to “work from home”!).

Back in 2012 I ran a little test to see if federal employees actually show up at work. My contention was that no federal employees other than secretaries who can’t escape are at work after 2:30 pm on a weekday or 1:00 pm on a Friday. So I randomly called several federal senior employees at 2:30 pm on a Tuesday. They were all “away from their desks”. I’m sure this test would bring the same results, or worse, today.

In 2023 government spending reached 34.4% of GDP. From 1900 until 2023, government spending averaged 25.68% of GDP.

Our national debt is now $34 trillion, up from $16.8 trillion in 2019. That’s more than double in five years. Lately I find myself repeating, “Do you know how hard it is to spend a trillion dollars? It takes a lot of people, effort, corruption, and time!”

Spending on the Biden/Harris 2024 presidential campaign has reached $1.8 billion. Trump has spent $356 million. Yes, that is trillion with a “T”! Where did all that Biden/Harris money come from? Any chance that some of it slushed through the recent multi-trillion-dollar spending bills to NGOs, unions, and crony corporations and found its way right back to the Democrats?

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out why so much of our private earnings is going to government and people who want to be close to big-government money. Or why there seems to be Corruption in every corner of every government office. “The consistent fear of government corruption shows a deep mistrust in government, with many Americans worried that powerful interests may be influencing it,” said Steve Pfaff, Ph.D., a sociology professor.

If Willie Sutton, famous bank robber in the 1930s, robbed banks because “that’s where the money is”, he would certainly be a US senator today.

In the heat of the current campaign, everybody is focused on personalities – who is dumb, who is mean, who is the next Hitler, who is going to give free stuff to everybody.

Nobody mentions the real problem: our government is TOO DAMN BIG!

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Big money goes around the world
Big money give and take
Big money done a power of good
Big money make mistakes

Big money got a heavy hand
Big money take control
Big money got a mean streak
Big money got no soul

BIG MONEY – Rush

How Do They Spend ALL THAT MONEY?!!

Posted on by Standard 2

Our annual government spending is $6.5 trillion. Our debt is $34.7 trillion and rapidly growing. CLICK HERE TO LOOK AT THE LIVE DEBT CLOCK. It reveals some eye-popping statistics. Click on the individual fields to get more information. For example our debt is more than double that of China with less than a quarter of their population.

If you wonder why there is so much crazy stuff going on in the government lately, consider how hard it must be to legitimately spend $6.5 trillion dollars. I mean, that’s a humongous number! Our 435 congressmen are only in session for about 150 days a year, so they have to work really hard to get rid all of that money. Each congressman has to spend $100 billion every day they show up to work! Wow, no wonder they are so exhausted they can only work part time.

It is so hard to blow through that much money that, after giving some to foreign oligarchs for their wars and corruption, and taking as much off the top as they can without being obvious, our congressmen have to start passing it down to state governments as “grants”.

But it’s hard for state governments to spend that much money too, because they already have $2 trillion of their own money to get rid of. So the states pass some of their taxpayer money down to the local governments as “grants”.

But the locals already have their own $2 trillion, so it’s hard work for them to spend even more.

Yup, that’s $10.5 trillion of our hard-earned wages going to government at all levels each year. How the heck can we expect our overburdened government employees to keep track of all that money?


The South Carolina state comptroller just discovered $1.8 billion that has been sitting in a “clearance” account on the state’s books for 5 years. And they have no idea where it came from or where it should go!

This from a state legislature that just gave $1.3 billion in taxpayer cash, tax incentives and other spending to a foreign electric vehicle manufacturer while American EV companies are closing plants due to lack of demand and profitability.

Our government is not working the way it was designed. The constitution was set up as a way to keep the government out of our private business as much as possible – to let us make and spend (or keep) our own money without interference. But it wasn’t long before politicians figured out they could buy votes with OPM (other people’s money), and before you knew it half the country was living on OPM without having to make their own. And the government doesn’t even need to collect taxes, they can just print money and build debt indefinitely. Can you say inflation?

It’s just too hard for our government leaders to actually have to make things work. So our city governments grab grants to buy abandoned properties on Main Street and fund more music and art fairs. Our counties take grants to work on “economic development” by giving tax abatements to speculators as roads and bridges fall apart. And our federal government funds foreign wars and endless caravans of illegal aliens, but our own military can’t keep our ships afloat, our fighter planes flying, or enough trained personnel who are not in gender transition.

It can’t go on much longer. The debt clock says we have $267,000 of government debt per citizen plus another $75,000 of personal debt. We are all already busted!

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

My bills are all due and the baby needs shoes and I’m busted
Cotton is down to a quarter a pound, but I’m busted
I got a cow that went dry and a hen that won’t lay
A big stack of bills that gets bigger each day
The county’s gonna haul my belongings away cause I’m busted

BUSTED – Ray Charles

Tough Political Decision? Let History Be Your Guide

Posted on by Standard Reply

decisionsDecisions, decisions.  Man is a thinking animal, and every waking moment involves decisions.  Most are ordinary choices of personal comfort.  Some decisions are a matter of life or death, or even something so paramount that one will risk his own life to achieve the desired result.

Some of us are better at making decisions than others.  But one thing is clear – at the root of every decision is one primary element: self-interest.   And that’s a good thing.  The desire to improve our lives and the lives of the ones we love is universal, timeless and unbreakable.  God knew what he was doing when he designed the human soul.

God also put us all on the same planet, so we not only have to serve our own self-interests, we also must co-exist.  And that’s where it gets interesting.  We all want what is best for ourselves and our families, but we can’t agree on the best way to make that happen.  What might be best for you could be terrible for me, or vice-versa.

Those who see life from the “left” side believe individuals should sacrifice personal freedoms to gain physical and economic security as a group.  Socialism calls for more control by the state, assuming that most people are not so good at making decisions for themselves.  If decisions are made by fewer humans who are presumably smarter than the rest of us, there will be less likelihood of catastrophic failure.  Individuals will have their basic needs met, but will not have the chance to make decisions that might lead to far greater success and happiness for themselves and others.

Those on the “right” side holds the opposite as truth.  They would rather make their own decisions, because nobody is more interested in his own well-being than oneself.   One may totally fail, but he would rather have the opportunity to achieve a higher level of happiness and fulfillment than settle for bland shared security.

There is, of course, middle ground, and that’s where the war between left and right takes place. Fortunately, in this political battleground of decisions and the philosophical fog of war, there is a bright, neon sign showing the correct path.  It’s called history.

History proves that quality of life is always best where individuals have more freedom to make decisions in their own self-interest.  And hell on Earth is where all decisions are made by the state. If more state control is so great, how did that work out for the people of the Soviet Union? Or Cambodia? Or Nazi Germany?

Why does our entire educational system deny this historical fact?  How does a generation of our youth clamor to follow socialist demagogues who promise security but don’t explain the consequences of relinquishing individual rights and freedoms?  Could it be that the few who would be the designated decision-makers are acting in their own self-interest?

History also shows that there were, and still are, individuals who understand the value of individual freedom so well that they would make the ultimate decision to put their lives on the line to preserve it.

My message is this: when faced with a decision between group security and individual freedom, let history be your guide.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Rockin' On the Right Side

You can choose a ready guide
In some celestial voice
If you choose not to decide
You still have made a choice

Free Will – Rush

 

Watch this fantastic Rush rocker featuring drummer Neal Peart and his HUGE set of DW drums.  Free Will!

 

If I Had a Million Dollars, I’d Live Like a Retired Govt. Worker

Posted on by Standard 9

Richie_Rich_comic_No_1As a kid I thought it must really be something to be a millionaire.  We read “Richie Rich” comic books and imagined how cool it would be to live in a mansion, with servants and cooks and an indoor swimming pool.

Of course, it was the impossible dream.  Only a rare few Americans could ever be that rich, and they were born to wealthy families.  Still, back then, life was good for most Americans.  Dads went to work, paid the bills, bought modest homes and Chevies, and took the family on a summer road trip to Mount Rushmore.  Moms stayed home, raised the 2.1 kids, attended PTA meetings, and always had a hot, healthy meal ready when Dad came home from work.

What happened?

A million bucks sure isn’t what it used to be.  With CDs paying maybe 1% interest at best, those who worked hard and saved a million dollars can now look forward to a retirement income of – wow – $10,000 a year.  Add that to social security income, of course, but still.   No indoor swimming pool.  No servants.

And it’s not like there are other investment opportunities for retirees.   The only guys making money in the stock market are the hedge fund operators and the machine traders buying and selling at the speed of light.  Municipal bonds pay a couple percent and are tax free – oh that’s right, most city and county governments are bankrupt.

There is one group of really wealthy American retirees.   Retired unionized government workers get guaranteed pensions.  Most receive over $60,000 per year.  There are many government employees who toiled for 25 or 30 hard years, sometimes even working over 35 hours per week behind a hard, cold desk with only 7 weeks of vacation and 15 holidays off each year.  Poor souls, at retirement they must make do with $100k per year plus full medical benefits.

Do the math.  In order to pay a retired teacher $60k per year, we American taxpayers are putting up $6 million at 1% interest.  The retired county engineer who receives a $100k pension requires a taxpayer investment of $10 million to fund his checks.

In an economy where many moms and dads both work long hours and are barely able to feed their families, let alone save anything for retirement, it’s hard to feel sorry for government employees who will retire with multi-million dollar nest eggs.

When I see a headline like this:

Obama Sequester Speech: Republicans Are Putting Economy At Risk To Help The Wealthy

I shake my head in amazement at the level of deceit our President and his followers continue to get away with.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Rockin' On the Right Side
If I had a million dollars
We wouldn’t have to walk to the store
If I had a million dollars
We’d take a limousine cause it costs more
If I had a million dollars
We wouldn’t have to eat Kraft dinner

If I Had A Million Dollars – Barenaked Ladies