The New Military

Cartoonist Chip Bok managed to weave women and gays in the military into one cartoon. Some will laugh and some will just shake their heads but Mr Bok has nailed it. It’s a new military now.

To view the cartoon, click HERE

You Tube Video About the Debt

Romney made the debt a major theme of his campaign and he lost. President Obama and members of Congress both R and D (with few exceptions) refuse to really face the issue. Apparently voters aren’t concerned either. What Rush Limbaugh calls the “low information voter” is more in tune with social media than the looming threat of national bankruptcy. It scares me more than guns, terrorism or the wacko Left or Right. Maybe if the following You Tube video went viral enough people would understand the problem, demand action and be willing to accept the pain. Maybe, but to paraphrase Joe Biden, “Hey what am I smoking.”

Click HERE to watch the video.

Related Post

Down Time

Thanks to F.C. for sending the below article:

In the internet age, with e-mail, twitter, Facebook and the like, Scott elsky argues for taking time to clear your mind and just ponder, think. He calls it down time and offers five ideas to achieve it. Of course reading this blog does not qualify as down time but I hope it gives you something to think about in your down time.

Click here: Down Time

Senator Tom Switches Back

The 2013-2014 Washington State Legislature convenes Monday, January 14, 2013 in what was to be a typical Blue State climate – Democrat Governor and Democrat control of both houses of the legislature. However, thanks to two Democrat state senators, a touch of Red State rain fell on the D’s parade. Former Republican but now Democrat State Senator Rodney Tom and conservative Democrat Senator Tim Sheldon joined with the Republicans to take effective control of the State Senate by one vote, 25 to 24. Tom becomes Majority Leader and Republicans get majority control of key committees controlling taxes, spending, K-12 education and healthcare. Tom, Sheldon and Democrat Senator Jim Kastama, perhaps in a dry run of today’s coup, sided with Republicans on the budget in the 2012 session. Republicans gained one senate seat in the last election making the new coalition likely despite Democrat concessions to prevent it. If it holds, Washington State may avert its own fiscal cliff by frustrating the tax and spend Democrats who were salivating for billions more spending on K-12 and higher education, transportation, healthcare etc. These may all be good desires but constraint is needed lest we become California. To that end, I say welcome back Senator Tom.

Channeling Thomas Jefferson

A friend sent me several quotes attributed to our third President, Thomas Jefferson. Google “Thomas Jefferson quotes” and you’ll find many more sources. The quotes printed below were selected from: BrainyQuote.Com. Though written over 200 years ago, they hold true today. The last two speak particularly to our current government. The first presents the age old problem and the second, a road to resolution.

Quotes from Thomas Jefferson:

A Bill of Rights is what the people are entitled to against every government, and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inference.

My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.

Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.

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.

A wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise 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, and this is necessary to close the circlue of our felicities.

It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world.

An association of men who will not quarrel with one another is a thing which has never yet existed, from the greatest confederacy of nations down to a town meeting or a vestry.

I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend.

The Fiscal Cliff, Not the Problem

All the proposed solutions to avoid the fiscal cliff – whether it is soak the rich, cut spending or a combination – reduce the annual budget deficits over ten years by, at best, $4.6 billion a year. With deficits forecasted at over $1 trillion a year for the next four years at least, we fall far short of solving the deficit problem much less the growing total debt. In fact, neither the fiscal cliff nor the deficit is the problem, the total debt is. Our current debt is over $16 trillion. Add another $4 trillion of continuing deficits plus the unfunded liabilities for Social Security, federal and state healthcare and pensions and our real total debt approaches $100 trillion. Yes, $100,000,000,000,000.

It is time to honestly face the reality of the debt before it crushes us. Here are three steps to solvency:

1. Accept as an over riding principle that we have a moral responsibility to the
next generations to resolve the debt we amassed largely over the last thirty years.

2. Stop adding to the debt. Stop making promises we cannot keep. We cannot
expect democratically elected officials to do this without providing them
political cover. Pass a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution.

3. Develop a plan to eliminate the debt over time (could be as long as 100
years). This plan would include:

a. Debt reduction as a line item in every budget.

b. Reform of the tax systems. For the income tax, a simplified progressive tax
where the rich pay the most but everyone pays something and deductions
are few. Consider a value added tax (VAT). In total, increase revenue but
dedicate the increase to debt reduction.

c. Reform entitlements. Social Security, healthcare and pensions by reducing
or eliminating automatic cost of living increases. Reset eligibility by age and
or income and convert pensions to 401K type retirement plans.

d. Reduce spending. Over and above entitlements, take on the sacred cows
like the military including veteran benefits and new weapons systems, farm
subsidies, and “pork barrel” projects.

e. Use a conservative forecast of inflation. Over time, inflation will be an ally in
the debt reduction fight.

Can we start to eliminate our debt? Some states are in trouble especially with unfunded liabilities but it is at the federal level where the bulk of the debt problem lies, we lack the political leadership to forge consensus on how to address the debt problem. Moreover, we need to educate a public that fails to grasp the serious nature of the issue. Words like unsustainable, trillions of dollars, unfunded liabilities, debt bomb and deficits may cause the average voter’s eyes to glaze over but they have alarming meaning and must be faced. Resolving the debt will require sacrifice on everyone’s part. God help us if we do not act soon.

Related posts on Clear Fog Blog:

http://clearfogblog.wordpress.com/2012/11/08/election-angst-fearing-the-future/

http://clearfogblog.wordpress.com/2012/09/12/what-to-do-about-the-national-debt/

Costco, Tax the Rich, Fiscal Cliff

Whether Congress passes Obama’s tax the rich or we go over the fiscal cliff, taxes are going up in 2013. So if you are rich, especially if dividends constitute a significant portion of your income, you’d want to move as much income as you can back into 2012 to avoid whatever tax increases are coming next year. What is surprising is who is helping the rich do just that. It is none other than co-founder and former CEO of Costco and big time supporter of President Obama’s reelection, James Sinegal. His company is borrowing $3.5 billion to pay anticipated 2013 dividends now in 2012. Why would he help those filthy rich, of which he is one, dodge paying “their fair share” for another year? Weren’t we supposed to close tax loopholes? Since he supported Obama, will Mr. Sinegal press for a retroactive tax on dividends? Don’t hold you breath. One wonders if Mr. Sinegal will support any spending cuts as part of a deficit/debt compromise? Don’t exhale.

Read the Wall Street Journal’s November 30, 2012 article, “Costco’s Dividend Tax Epiphany” for more on tax hypocrisy.

Wonder Why Obama Won? Do the Math.

Do the math. Obama had re-election in the bag from the get-go. This is the conclusion of a fascinating article by Ken Bensinger of the Los Angeles Times. Taking data from all the polls at face value and running computer simulations, the outcome of the recent election was accurately predicted months before the first vote was cast. Assuming Obama wins Florida, one analyst correctly called all fifty states and another predicted Obama winning 332 electoral votes.

Michael Barone, Dick Morris, George Will were among prominent prognosticators on the right predicting a Romney landslide. Like Rush Limbaugh, they discounted the poll samples as too weighted toward Democrats, the turnout models as too like 2008 and hinted at some purposeful bias against Romney. They were spectacularly wrong. Obviously, so were the folks in Romney-Ryan land. Had they done the math, or if they did, have believed it, their campaign would have been much different. As it was, the race was very close in the key battleground states but by including data from about 1,700 polls, the margin of error in the computer models was reduced to almost zero. Knowing this, a forceful response to the Obama smear campaign launched against Romney even before he had the GOP nomination and not resting on his laurels after the first debate, Romney may have turned the polls, and therefore the models, in his favor. That discussion is on going but next time, do the math.

Election Angst, Fearing the Future

Two days after the election and I am still depressed. I share “National Review” writer Victor Davis Hanson’s concern that we may have crossed the dependency line where more voters are takers than payers. We are headed down a slippery slope of out of control spending and debt without the political leadership or will to even seriously discuss a recovery plan.

This condition can go on for years, perhaps decades, Greece didn’t go belly up over night. But at some point, the economic system corrects itself. How? Two ways: inflation, the most insidious tax of all and/or default. Look to post WWI Germany and Argentina for examples. Economic Pollyanna’s hope for no pain alternatives such as growing the economy but this works only if we stop adding to the debt. Another is a technological breakthrough like super cheap and abundant green energy. Neither is likely.

Billions spent on the presidential and congressional races resulted in stalemate. The next milestone is the 2014 mid-term election. I saw on TV election night photos of five potential candidates for president in 2016. No wonder I fear for the future. There is hope for the so-called “Grand Bargain” that President Obama and Speaker Boehner almost agreed to last year. One blogger I found has an interesting post regarding the chance for rebirth of this compromise on spending, debt reduction and taxes. See: Grand Bargain II. Nevertheless, I am not optimistic mainly because reducing a $16 trillion debt on its way to $20 trillion requires a disciplined long term plan but Congress reconstitutes every two years plus fiscal discipline is not a natural trait of any legislature.

Some related, “I told you so.” Clear Fog posts:

GOP 2010 Victory, An Uneasy Feeling

Economic Recovery – Part I, November 2008

Economic Recovery – Part II, November 2008

Economic Recovery – Part III, December 2008

Ban MSNBC?

The left demands that Fox News be forced off the air because they say Fox is biased (read “They are conservative and therefore should be silenced.”). But one study of the media tells a different story. Pew Research released a study covering the 2012 campaign and media from TV to Twitter. One of their findings compared positive versus negative coverage of Romney and Obama on MSNBC and Fox. Romney was mentioned in a positive vein 3% of the time and negatively 71% on MSNBC. The corresponding number for Fox reports on Obama – 6% positive, 46% negative.

So let’s keep MSNBC on the far left with its lesser-left fellow travelers ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN not to mention the New York Times versus Fox plus most of talk radio on the right. It is after all free speech and that’s in the Constitution, whether living and breathing or written in stone. Sounds fair and balanced to me.