Category Economy

Feb 1 2014

Gut Punch

 

 

Everyone has been there.  We all should empathize.  It’s that feeling when you’ve been betrayed, you are cornered with no recourse and there is no possible way to win.  At one time or another, we have all felt that way.

That’s why I am uncomfortable with the name-calling that has issued from the conservative side of the political divide as all the dire predictions concerning this President have come to fruition.  Frustration at those who voted for this experiment in socialized medicine has boiled over and, as the price tag hits the American main street, it’s easy to shout, “You voted for it, now how do you like it?!!!” or “You get what you deserve!!”  I have been as guilty as others of making snide, perhaps tasteless, but certainly sarcastic remarks at peoples’ unfortunate circumstances. Now, I have come to understand and be reminded – these are my fellow Americans.  No matter who or what they voted for, they now face a future of despair.  Hope and Change has decimated their own hope of a better future for themselves and those they love.

I recently saw a news report that documented the reaction of workers in an urban auto body shop.  The expression of despair on these blue-collar workers’ as they looked at their new premiums under Obamacare was heart wrenching to watch. There was no space to gloat.  No desire to say, “I told you so”.  Just the wish that I, a fellow American, could have some power to make everything right again and takes us back to when things seemed more sane.

Who knows what these workers’ political ideology is?  I don’t!  And I don’t care.  I have felt that same sick feeling of despair in the pit of my stomach.  That same feeling when it seems the perfect storm of calamity is upon you and it can’t possibly get worse.  Then, it does.

It feels like a gut punch, the feeling that the control of your future has been taken out of your hands.  It’s like watching every dream evaporate and you are bound and helpless to prevent it.  That’s what I saw in those, my fellow Americans, eyes.

Much has been said about the great divide within our Nation.  Perhaps the disaster that has been this Presidency can have one positive effect.  Maybe, it can unify us.

Let us remember that one size does not fit all Americans because we are so diverse.  Let us return to the standards that celebrated individuals and that our differences are what make up all the great pieces to this great engine of the United States.  But most of all, let’s show compassion to our fellow Americans who have been betrayed by this President.

Deepening the divide will not help us. It will destroy us.  This President has proven what a majority of us knew all along; the government cannot help us.  So, let’s do what Americans have always done.  We can stand together again. Together we can rise from the ashes of this disaster the same way we have risen from every other disaster.  But we must choose to stand.

Oct 26 2013

Republicans Should Thank Ted Cruz

 

 

It’s been a political whirlwind in Washington D.C. to be sure in the past few weeks.  While some Republicans have lamented and even railed against the stand taken by Mike Lee and Ted Cruz, a closer look should have the GOP shaking the Texas and Utah Senators’ hands in gratitude.  It’s really not that hard to see, even for a backwoods construction guy like me.

 

When Ted Cruz made his historic stand on the chamber floor in what was characterized as a flawed strategy, he showed a bright and glaring light on the horrible travesty of ObamaCare.  The media carrion swooped in, eagerly waiting to feed on what they expected would be the rotting corpse of the stalwart Senator.  As they incessantly circled, pecked and tore at Cruz, they unwittingly gave a constant opportunity for him to speak and educate Americans on the true nature of this healthcare law; something to this point the media had worked obediently with the President to conceal.  Now in their rabid thirst to feast on Cruz’s demise, they allowed the curtain to be pulled back.  The banner achievement for this administration was truly unfurled and all could see its ineptitude on full display.

 

All this took was courage, the courage to stand on principle.  This has been lacking in the Republican Party for some time.  Was the strategy flawed?  Perhaps, only time will tell.  Did the Republicans take the blame for the tactics?  Yes, which is precisely my point.

 

We have all seen the abject failure of the roll out.  I had a friend, who once rebuilt his own transmission in his car.  When he had the car ready to show off to his friends, he rolled it out to put on a show.  After revving the engine, he let out the clutch for the obligatory smoke show.  He immediately realized that he had put reverse in the wrong sequence as the car went straight backwards, firmly planting his chest and face in the steering wheel and dashboard of the car, much to the uproarious delight of all his friends gathered around for the “big reveal”.

 

But imagine if one of those knee slapping, finger pointing friends had mentioned several times while the young man was putting the car together, that perhaps he was putting it back together wrong.  Imagine if that friend had said it several times and even tried to block him from putting the transmission in.  I would suspect after all the knee slapping was done at the final “reveal”, they would turn to the lone dissenting voice and say, “I guess you were right”.

 

Ted Cruz was a lonely easy target for scorn during his “ill-advised” filibuster.  But there is no one that has even a nominal understanding of national news that can attach the failure of HealthCare.gov or ObamaCare to Ted Cruz.  He was made too much of a whipping boy by the media.  It was too public.

 

And the GOP can be thankful that there was an R at the end of his name.  Oh, I know there has been the strange almost comical behavior of John McCain once again making a very public mess in his already sagging soggy Depends.  Yes, and there’s Peter King’s drunken three-legged bull in a china shop approach, but the Republicans can stand tall and, no matter what they think of Ted Cruz’s tactics, thank him for his courage in his very public charge against ObamaCare.  Thanks to that, the media will be hard pressed to blame this latest White House debacle on the Republicans.  They need to move quickly to align with the courage of Cruz and Lee before the smelly, sorry sideshow of McCain and King once again bungles another shining opportunity for Republicans.

Aug 9 2013

Redunculous

 

No, it is not a spelling error…really.  And, no, it’s not a word… yet.  It’s just one of my specialty.  A word coined to help find the appropriate emotion to attach to a situation.  This, the latest of my installments to the Webster’s dictionary, is the combination of the words redundant and ridiculous. I did this all by myself.  For some reason, Webster keeps sending back my offerings of literary coinage and asked that I please stop, as it has caused the great patriarch of the book, Noah Webster himself, to turn incessantly in his grave.  I guess that would be rather unsettling.

But I like the word.  It has an essence to it, the essence of economy.  Oh yes, I economized.  We all have to nowadays.  I took the two most prevalent manifestations of the liberal mind, redundant and ridiculous behavior. I combined them into one word and, now, I can respond to them both at once.  I….I….feel so focused.

And quite timely, I might add, because we have had a slew of redunculous behavior swirling around the State of Maine.  We just had the Senate President, Justin Alfond, make a speech assuring State workers an increase in the pensions and wages, while the those in private sector, who pay for those wages and pensions with their taxes, can barely put food on the table for their families.  This was a follow up to his speech attacking private schools.  The Senate President doesn’t seem to be fond of the private sector.

Mr. Alfond suffers from the liberal illusion that Maine people have an unlimited supply of revenue and that we work at our jobs simply to give it to him to disperse amongst his government allies.  I have to agree with the great conservative apologist Thomas Sowell who asked, “…why it is ‘greed’ to want to keep the money you have earned but not greed to want to take someone else’s money.”  Alas, I fear Alfond and his allies think its good policy; that is, if you look at the budget they passed. Tax increases to pay for those government employee raises.

Strange, Maine is looking at a $58 million surplus for the closing fiscal year, before these tax increases.  So, why, Mr. Alfond, would you want to increase taxes on a struggling economy when you don’t need to?  Oh, is that my “greedy” old self, wanting to keep my money in my wallet for my family to use.  I’m just so greedy that way.

That leads me to another issue to be resolved.  Recently, I criticized those activists, who seem bent on telling people what to do in their own backyards.  I feel very strongly about the sanctity and privacy of a person’s private lands.  I have been rebuked by some of those activists, saying that if I don’t want anyone to tell me what to do in my backyard then I shouldn’t criticize public government officials.

Let me try to help and clarify the issue.  There is a huge difference between private and public issues.  I do not criticize any official on what he does in his private home and on his private lands.  I have, and will continue to do so, criticized public officials on the actions or inactions in the public tax funded sector.  It is the taxpayer’s job, since our dollars fund their public decisions, to critique the exercise of their representative duties.

Secondly, I have been admonished that, because I am a Christian, I should not publicly criticize or rebuke public officials.  This individual obviously did not read the story of Jesus cleansing the Temple, nor has he read the accounts of Paul the Apostle rebuking Roman leaders to their very face, also of rebuking Peter to his face.  The idea that I should abdicate my God-given liberties for the sake of some contrived sense of propriety and allow myself to be relegated to the doormat of society as a reflection of my faith has no intellectual, Constitutional or, for that matter, Biblical merit.  The very conception of such an idea is utterly and unequivocally redunculous.

Jul 3 2013

Pride and Accomplishment

 

 

When much ado and public pomposity ensues, there is usually a liberal behind it.  So has been the case in the resurrection of the remnants of Roger Katz and the Pretentious Eight.  Senator Katz has made his name and call to fame by publicly disparaging the Governor and undermining the efforts of the Republican Party to protect the people of Maine from burdensome tax increases.  It seems the “Honorable” Senator from Augusta gets the shivers every time the Governor gets grumpy.

Yes, the Governor’s words were uncalled for.  We know that.  He knows that.  But lets compare the records of these two men – their accomplishments and what they take pride in:

It is well documented that the Governor has a street fighter’s mentality.  He has a tenacity and rough edge that is born from the sidewalks and alleys of Waterville and Lewiston.  It has served him well as he has scrapped his way up through the business ranks to now be the Executive of the State of Maine.

When he held the majority, he passed many sweeping reforms in Maine.  He enacted the largest tax cut in Maine’s history, cutting $150 million in the first 2 years and $500 million over 4 years.  He removed 70, 000 of Maine’s lowest income families from the tax rolls, increased the death tax exemption, and allotted $31 million to relieve the tax burden on job creators.

He paid $248 million to the hospitals on the huge debt owed them by the State.  He passed LD 1 and reformed Maine’s dysfunctional regulatory system.  He reformed health care insurance, allowing competition across state lines.

Now with a minority, he has held the line on tax increases and government overreaches by sustaining some 18 vetoes of the Democrats.  He has stood his ground against Justin Alfond and the Democrat majority and forced them to pay the hospital debt.

Roger Katz comes from an entrenched Democrat political family in Augusta.  He has gained some notoriety from publicly criticizing the Governor’s crusty personality.  Perhaps Mr. Katz operates a finishing school that he would like the Governor to attend.

Senator Katz is known in Augusta as the one Republican that the Democrats can rely on to help circumvent Republican tax reform attempts.  His latest accomplishment is organizing a betrayal of Maine residents by helping to pass a Democrat purposed budget that increases taxes on Maine people, despite the veto of the Governor, then writing an editorial touting it as a victory, while railing against the Governor, again.  Roger Katz is consistent if nothing else.

What Mr. Katz has done is deepen the divide between the Northern and Southern Maine interests.  Rural Maine can no longer sustain the “marginal” tax increases that Mr. Katz advocates.  It’s just a matter of time before its small businesses and its tenuous fiscal structure become insolvent.

But it doesn’t matter to the “Honorable” Mr. Katz.  He has a political coup for his resume and he lives in Augusta, buried in the political machine.  There he will stay, sipping the nectar of the tax revenue his maneuverings have procured.

Their perspectives are completely the opposite.  Their accomplishments speak for themselves.  The Governor believes in the people.  The Senator believes in government.  Each takes pride in defending their beliefs.  Still, in the end, it is We The People who pay the price and who must decide whose accomplishments we take pride in.