It’s Saturday, January 9, 2010 and I’m getting some push-back over my last couple of posts that I don’t want to let sit until Wednesday. I don’t normally delve into Ye Olde Mailbox until I go to put up Wednesday’s Reader Mail, but I was intrigued to come home from dinner and find three messages there, all sent within an hour of pushing up yesterday’s blog offering.
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Hi Elim,
Interesting theory. You left out a possibility though. I think the democrats will continue to do what they’re doing and might even push further to the left. Just look at the presidents’ so-called “green jobs” plan. I think the plan for staying in power will be to do what they always do: smear, denigrate and minimilize their challengers. You’re right I think that the liberal press will continue to actively campaign for liberal candidates, but given the more localized nature of the mid-term races, this won’t be so obvious (on the national stage) as it was during the presidential campaign. I think the upcoming climate change legislation will better show us how they plan to play out the hand between now and November. The jobs “stimulus” bill will also be an important indicator, but if your really expect liberals to cut (even temporarily) taxes, then you probably need to check the expiration date on your 5-hour drinks. All the best, |
Hi Rex, Yes, of course they’ll continue to belittle and asperse challengers to their candidates. It will be interesting to see how much of this is done from the White House itself in that press secretary Gibbs is a master at marginalizing people with opposing views. Excellent observation on the localized nature of the upcoming races. I hadn’t considered that aspect of it. I still think we’ll see a coordinated effort on the part of the press, but you’re quite right that it won’t be nearly as apparent. The economic “stimulus” bill and the healthcare “reform” bill clearly show the direction the democrats are trying to take us. The jobs “stimulus” thing will either be more of the same or a hard right turn. Given the nature of the feelings regarding climate change, I seriously doubt that any substantive legislation will see the light of day. There’s just too many Congress critters wanting to be reelected. I’ll be amazed if it gets any traction at all. Oh, yeah. My 5-hour drinks are just fine. I don’t watch, read or listen to Rush, Hannity, Beck or O’Riely, so I tend to arrive at conclusions that may seem far-fetched. I just calls ‘em like I sees ‘em. Elim |
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Hi Elim,
You’re nuts. The far left hardliners in the democratic party would never go for even a pretend shit to the center. It would be like a expecting Broncos fans to don Raiders apparel. As you’ve said like a thousands times; It’s ALL about control. The more power they can concentrate to the federal government, the more better entrenched the liberals become. I think their planning now is for how to return to power in 2012 when the presidency is in play. They’ll create as much mind-numbing bureaucracy as possible on their way out. Then, when republicans seize control of the Congress, they will have to spend time trying to chop it back. THEN the democrats will campaign on a message of “Look how the republicans are trying to screw you!” Bundle this with a liberal president working for reelection and I think we’ll see democrats roaring back in with a reelected president. If I might add, you have got a delightfully unconventional take on politics. It’s refreshing to read someone who isn’t just parroting the latest talking points or echoing the conservative talking heads. Keep it up! Jim |
Hi Jim, Another scenario I’m trying to flesh out is one where republicans regain control of the Congress and then set the train back on the tracks. This will be just in time for the 2012 presidential campaign. Obama will then take full credit for fixing things and get voted back in. Thanks for the kind words, even if you think I’m nuts. As you’ll see in the next letter, not all of my readers give such thoughtful and reasoned feedback. Elim |
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Elim,
You’re an idiot. Has it dawned on you yet that the repulicant party is dead? You guys got crushed in the last election cycle, but rather than admitting your ideology is outdated and failed, you just want to sit back and throw rocks at us who are trying to make a new, better America for us all. KS |
Hi KS. Wow. An idiot? I didn’t know that rigid adherence to my core values is idiocy. Imagine my shock to discover this. Tell me then please how holding the rights of the individual paramount is outdated and failed? Are you really gonna sit there and tell me with a straight face that you are willing to hand your individual liberties over to the will of the majority? Government exists to serve the will of the governed, not that of the majority. Need I remind you that 45.7% of us voted for the other guy? That’s about 60 million citizens who, like it or not, are among the governed. Am I to understand that we’re just supposed to say “Oh, I guess our beliefs are ‘outdated and failed.’ We need to think like the other 52.9% think.”? But let’s try this shoe on the other foot. Would you feel the same way if a republican was in the White House and the republicans controlled both houses of Congress? Would you take it as a sign that your political views were “outdated and failed?” Yeah, I kinda thought not. So you’ll have to forgive me in not agreeing that the democrats are “are trying to make a new, better America for us all.” I think you’re trying to curtain my individual liberties by expanding the scope and function of government beyond that which is outlined in the US Constitution. Elim |
Whatever is gonna happen will start soon. The Department of Labor just announced that 85,000 more jobs were lost during December. It’ll be interesting to see how the administration reacts to this news. Will there be any sense of urgency on this? 10% of us are out of work. That’s just 1% less of us who (for whatever reason) don’t have health care coverage. It would then stand to reason that this would get only 1% less urgency than getting a 7,000+ page bill reconciled for signature.
I think we need to set this healthcare business aside for a bit (yeah, yeah, the president won’t have it in time for his first State of the Union Address, but dammit! We got bigger fish to fry!) and focus on some very immediate needs.
Chief among these is the fact that 100% of us live under the threat of attacks from Islamic terrorist. Yeah, that’s right Islamic terrorist. We’ve had two attacks since November and even though the Christmas Crotch Bomber didn’t succeed in killing anyone, it still counts as an attack. Plus, it goes into the win column for the bad guys because the underlying goal was achieved: terror.
I’m sorry, but ordering reviews of procedure isn’t gonna cut it. We need to proceed from a premise that it is possible to be 100% safe from this kind of attack. Yes, there are a host of privacy concerns here, but at some point the litmus test has got to be which constitutes the more egregious itrusion: some airport screener knowing the contents of your skivvies or dead bodies strewn all over?
But it’s not enough to simply disrupt or prevent this sort of attack. As the president says; “We are at war.” and our foe strives yet to engineer ways to kill us. We’re not gonna win by sitting around, waiting for the next attack so we can review procedures again. Sending drones across into Pakistan isn’t gonna cut it either, not by itself. We have got to take this fight to the enemy. We’ve got to kill them in their own kitchens. We’ve got to clearly demonstrate to governments that support, harbor or even tacitly abide our enemy that this earns the full wrath of the US.
Places like Yemen need to get the carrot. Governments that bring in Al Qaeda scalps need to get mega bucks in aid. They can earn double-bonus-bucks for doing it without any of our military help!
I mean it’s war or it ain’t war. Just like there’s no such thing as slightly pregnant.
But we gottah get this unemployment thing under control too and I mean most ricky tick. I may not be unemployed (not yet, leastways and if it’s coming, can we hold off until spring turkey season?) but it’s effecting me and all those I work with.
If you’re a regular reader, you know that my pay (and everyone else in my department) got our pay cut by 2.5%. This in spite of our company being in a fairly good position cash-wise. It wasn’t a matter of cutting pay or watching the company tank. Far from it. It was purely a business decision and based purely on the fact that they could get away with it without any substantial repercussions from the employees. It was a simple matter of supply and demand and a business decision to not pay more for something they don’t have to. Right now, labor (even skilled labor) is in a state of surplus and demand has shifted downward. 10% unemployment seems to be the sweet spot where doing something like this is possible. They wouldn’t dream of doing this is unemployment was at 6%.
The company also cut off it’s 401K match, which in my case, hoses me out of about $80 a month. It makes good business sense to do this, but I still call it low-down, chicken-shit and it’s gonna cost ‘em a hell of a lot more than that to keep me when the economy rolls back on the tracks.
I digress.
So even the employed are getting hosed by 10% unemployment. This is doing a domino trick on the economy too. Remember, people spending money is good, people not spending money is bad and people not spending money because they don’t have money is the worst. Estimates put the total jobs lost at around 7 million from when this recession started.
That’s a lot of taxable income, but it’s also a lot of people not spending money. We need to get those 7 million jobs back and we need to get them back with all possible haste. Government programs, incentives and tax credits are great, but glacial in terms of effect. We don’t have that kind of time.
The fastest way to get people working again is to immediately reduce the tax burden on the companies that create job. I’m not talking about tax credits that can’t be realized until the taxes are filed. I’m talking about reducing the tax liability on companies with 2,000 employees or less. I’m talking right down the line and right across the board. Cut the tax burden and I mean cut it to the bone. Let these outfits keep more of their profits and watch what happens. I don’t mean shifting the tax burden either. I’m talking about slashing it altogether.
Yep, the government will have to cut back their spending as well, but I’m not seeing a down side to this. Sure the taxes will have to go back up, but this can be done on a steady, reasonable and predictable schedule. Say a couple percent per year. That way the growth stabilizes and business owners can marshal their resources accordingly.
Basically, here’s a chance for the democrats to fix this unemployment situation or to make it ten times worse.
Anyone want to place odds?