This, That and PSU!

FUNNY! The US Olympic Team unveiled its new uniforms this week to mixed reviews.  It seems some were offended by the “berets” that topped off the new threads…a little too “French” for some.

The critics were quickly silenced when it was pointed out that the US has fielded a number of teams sporting berets…Green Berets to be specific…that have comported themselves quite well.

BRAIN DEAD!  The US Olympic Uniforms made center stage once again when it was learned that the Ralph Lauren designed outfits were made in…wait for it…CHINA!  Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was livid.  He wants the US Olympic Committee to “gather the uniforms up, put them in a pile and burn them.  Start over!  Even if it means wearing a unitard with USA scrawled on the front by hand.”  Reid rightly noted that the committee was wrong not to consider all the out of work US textile workers in making their decision.

YOU’RE TAX DOLLARS AT WORK!  It costs taxpayers $24 million dollars per week to run the House of Representatives.  It is estimated that the Republican led House spent 80 hours debating/voting 33 different times to repeal the Affordable Health Care Act.  That’s $48 million dollars of tax payer money wasted on an exercise of futility.  That’s crazy!  What is even crazier is that this story was reported by…FOX NEWS!

IT FIGURES!  “The Atlantic” is reporting that female congressional staffers make waaaaaayyyy less on average than their male counterparts.

House Republican female staffers make on average of $10,093.09 less than their male Republican counterparts.

House Democrat female staffers make on average $1,473.65 less than their male Democrat counterparts.

Senate Republican female staffers make on average $9,805.85 less than their male Republican counterparts.

Senate Democrat female staffers make on average $4,916.46 less than their male Democrat counterparts.

MONEY, POWER, CELEBRITY!  The Penn State story is a tragic example of a great flaw in our society.  It demonstrates in the most horrific manner how money, power and celebrity allow some to work above the law while fawning others allow them a pass.  Naturally there are those who will blame this tragedy on football and the prominence it plays in our universities.  Many are already calling for the Penn State football program to be shut down for a year or two; to show the world that the sport does not run the institution.  But if you buy into that myopic viewpoint then you are missing the big picture.  If you follow this course of action you  cannot stop at the football program…you have to shut down the entire university.  Because while this horrible scandal may have started in the locker room it spread all the way to the office of the university president.

Certainly Joe Paterno was trying to protect his legacy and the program he built over five decades. But Athletic Director Tim Curley was trying to protect his athletic department which depended so heavily on the funds generated by the football program.  And Financial Vice President Gary Schultz and President Graham Spanier were trying to protect the legacy of the Penn State institution; a monolith that had become the very essence of too big to fail.  Four powerful men trying to protect their own turf; each blinded by the size and scope of the money, power and legacy that they held within their hands…so blinded that they failed to protect the victims.  And therein lies the tragedy…that none of them were willing to put the welfare of the victims ahead of the money, power and celebrity.

Sandusky, Schultz, Graham and Spanier should be punished to the full extent of the law.  Paterno’s legacy, for all his athletic achievements will now bear the scar of a man who for over a decade looked the other way while a pedophile preyed within his oligarchy.  The university itself will rightly suffer the loss of its reputation and the financial consequences of damages brought against it by the victims.  None of these remedies will ever make the victims whole.

This is not a tragic story about a football program gone awry.  This is a tragic story about our society.  It is a story about the importance we place on money, power and celebrity and the lengths that we will go to hang on to them...even at the expense of our children.  

                

The Definition Of Insanity...

The Republican led House voted once again to repeal the President’s Affordable Care Act.  The vote has no chance of passing through the Democrat led Senate and the President has said he would veto the repeal if it were to reach his desk.

This is the thirty third time that the Republican House has voted to repeal the law.  Whatever happened to jobs, jobs jobs?

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.

 

The Real "Job Creators"

The President has said that he wants to allow the Bush tax cuts to expire for those making over $250,000 per year.  He argues that it is only fair that those who have benefited the most from our free society can afford to pay a little more.

Mitt Romney disagrees.  He says that the President’s plan is in essence a tax increase on the “job creators.”  And he states that increasing taxes on the “job creators”, particularly in the middle of a failing economy, will stunt economic growth and drive the country into a recession.

We would suggest that the correlation between tax rates and job creation is the biggest hoax played upon the American people in the history of our electoral process. 

Republicans in particular like to refer to the major corporations and small business owners that make up the top 2% wage earners as the “job creators.”  These are the people that hire folks to build the products they sell and the services they provide.  So raising taxes on “job creators” will affect their bottom line and discourage them from making new hires.  That makes sense…right?

Wrong!

The real “job creators” in this country are not the major corporations and small business owners.  The real job creators are the middle class Americans who buy the products and services marketed by these corporations and small businesses.  Corporations and small business owners don’t expand their business and hire new employees based on their marginal tax rates.  They expand and hire based on the demand for their goods and services.  If there is no demand there is no incentive to expand and hire.  It doesn’t matter if the “job creators” are paying taxes at a 15% rate or a 35% rate if there isn't any income coming in to tax.

The key to job creation is a strong middle class.  The middle class is the engine that drives the economy…not the marginal tax rate.  If the middle class isn’t working then they don’t have money to spend on goods and services.  If the middle class isn’t buying goods and services then there is no reason for corporations and small businesses to invest expand and hire.  By getting more money into the hands of the middle class you enable them buy goods and services.  The resulting demand incentivizes corporations and small business owners to invest expand and…hire.  More jobs mean more people who have money to spend on goods and services.  And so the circle continues…and the economy grows.

Today our middle class is disappearing.  High unemployment, reduced wages, deflated home values, skyrocketing health care costs, rising gas and food prices have all played a part in shrinking the size and purchasing power of our middle class. Until we find a way to rebuild the engine that really runs our economy the marginal tax rate at which corporations and small businesses pay their taxes will remain irrelevant in terms of economic growth.

The President has it right on this one.  Anything that puts more money into the hands of the middle class will help spur our economy.  All this talk about corporations and small businesses being “job creators” is nonsense.        

    

A Message To Our Detractors

When you choose to air your social and political beliefs in a public forum you can expect to be criticized.  Fair enough!  It comes with the territory.  We are more than willing to engage in a substantive debate on the merits of our views regardless of the subject. 

Unfortunately most of the criticism that we receive is without substance or merit.  It goes simply like this: “We live in the greatest country in the world.  If you hate this country so much than why don’t you just leave?”  (Editor’s Note:  France is the destination most often suggested by our detractors.)  Comments like this make it difficult for us to respond in any substantive manner.  After all what do you say to someone who simply says “leave” without providing the basis for their disagreement? 

Normally we just ignore these comments.  But today we thought we’d make an effort to respond.  So to all of you who wish we would just stop our bitching and move to the land of the croissant; we ask that you consider the following:

First of all you should know that our comments are not made out of some socialist, Marxist hatred for our country but rather a patriotic frustration over how badly our society has regressed over the past several decades.  It is a frustration over what we could and should be.  Here are some of the reasons for our negative commentary…all based on facts not political ideology.

If we are indeed the richest, most powerful, most exceptional “greatest” country in the world as our detractors so passionately exclaim, then…

Why are one in five of our children living in poverty?  22%!  According to the last census 16,401,000 US children live in poverty.  That’s beyond shameful!

Why do 15.1% of all persons in this country live below the poverty line?  That 15.1% is the highest poverty rate since 1993.  And in case you are interested, the “poverty line bar” is pretty damn low.  You are considered to be living in poverty if you are a single person earning less than $11,344/year; a single parent with one child earning less than $15,030/year; or a family of four earning less than $22,113/year.  Can you imagine…families of four living on $22,113 plus $1 are no longer considered living in poverty!  What family of four can live on $22,113?  The fact that it is happening in the “greatest country in the world” defies belief.

But we digress.

If this is the greatest country in the world then…

Why are 50.7 million of our citizens living without access to affordable health care?  That’s 16.7% of our population that are on the precipice of financial ruin should they contract a debilitating disease.  The Unites States is the only modernized country in the world that allows this to occur.  All the rest provide health care for all of their citizens.  We understand that half of the country is not interested in providing health care for everyone.  We think that is a mistake.  Why?  Mortality!  Read on...

Why does the US rank only 38^th in life expectancy and 49^th in infant mortality?  The answer to a great extent is because 50.7 million US citizens don’t have access to affordable health care.

Why are we failing to provide our children with the best education in the world?  According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development…an independent think tank that ranks the quality of education among developed countries…our children rank 14th in reading; 17^th in science and 25^th in mathematics.  Regardless of your ideology you should find these results embarrassingly unacceptable.

Why is our infrastructure is in such bad shape that it is referred to as “increasingly third world” by the rest of the planet? According to the World Economic Forum of Global Competitiveness our infrastructure ranks 23^rd in the world…right behind Malaysia and Barbados.  Don’t believe these statistics…take trip to any other industrialized/modernized country and check out their high speed rail, modern airports and broadband capabilities. Then return home and tell us you don’t feel like you have returned to the 1950’s.

Given our crumbling and antiquated infrastructure, why is unemployment at 8.2% and underemployment at 14.9%?  These numbers are even more disconcerting when you realize that 41.9% of those individuals have been out of work for 27 weeks or more.

Why do we allow the best and the brightest kids from foreign countries to enroll in our universities only to ship them right back home once they graduate?  Why don’t we encourage them to stay and use that education to develop new products and services right here in the US?

Why don’t we have comprehensive immigration reform?  This country was founded by immigrants.  It was the meshing of different cultures and the freedom to express their cultural differences that brought about the entrepreneurial spirit that made our country great.  Now we shun those who come from different cultures.  We marginalize their cultural differences instead of embracing them as a continuation of our heritage.

Why are we willing to give billions in tax breaks and incentives to multi-billion dollar corporations but unwilling to give home heating oil assistance to our poor and elderly.

Why do we allow our elected leaders to return to Washington for multiple terms when their ineffective time in office produces nothing but years of partisan gridlock?

And why have we become so ensconced in our own little “me first” bubble that the vast majority of us doesn’t give a damn about any of the above.

If our detractors still think that all of this is just hate speech then we would suggest they consider a far more knowledgeable source on the state of our union than we could ever hope to be.  The American people.

Former NBC NEWS anchor Tom Brokaw spends his days traveling the country and talking to average Americans about their views of our nation.  He stated as recently as this morning that no matter what part of the country he is in he hears the same two concerns repeated over and over again: 1.)  They do not believe that their children will grow up to have as good a life as they do. 2.) That maybe America is no longer the greatest country in the world.

This space is devoted to creating a dialogue that will serve to return this country to the great nation that it once was.  We have no doubt that we can get there.  But in order for that to happen we must face our failings and have an honest and substantive debate on how to correct them.  Only then will we return this country to its greatness.  While this task will undoubtedly be difficult it is a task that we must undertake; if not for ourselves then for the generations that follow.          

      

             

Making The Case For National Service

The president is expected to call for a one year extension of the Bush tax cuts for those making less than $250,000 per year.  The proposal would freeze tax rates at current levels for the middle class while raising taxes on the richest Americans.  The president’s rationale is that raising taxes on a struggling middle class during difficult economic times would only serve to further weaken a failing economy while the wealthiest Americans, who have benefited the most from a free society, should pay a little more.

The president’s is well aware that his proposal has no chance of passing through the Republican controlled House or avoiding a Republican filibuster in the Senate.  His offering is merely a political ploy to force Republicans to go on record voting against tax cuts for the middle class while extending tax cuts for the wealthy.  Were he serious, the president would have proposed comprehensive tax reform as a  stimulus while attaching entitlement reform as a long term debt/deficit solution.  But that is material for another blog.

The president’s proposal is just another example of what we see as a sickness that is permeating our society…a divisiveness that sets one American against another…in this case pitting the halves against the have not’s.  We have become a society so focused on “I” that the “we” that once made America great has all but disappeared.  And the diversity that once made us the envy of the world is the same diversity that we now try to expunge.

It seems that we have become a society of individuals who are all looking for the VIP line.  So important are “I”, “Me” and “my pursuit of happiness” that nothing else seems to matter.  So immersed are we in our own little self absorbed bubble that we have little knowledge of what is going on in the rest of the world.  We have no sense of history…no sense of what generations before us sacrificed so that we could have what we have.   We have taken the simply fortuitous fact that we left the birth canal within US borders and turned it into a sense of entitlement that is palpable.  “I am an American…therefore I am special.”  We have lost the essence of what being “American” really means.

Individualism, civil rights, competition and achieving success are all integral parts of what make this country great.  But when those ideals are achieved at the expense of others we become a society without heart and without compassion.

Look at the ever widening gap between the top 1% and the rest of our society.  Should we vilify and demonize those who have been successful.  No!  But once upon a time it was possible for everyone in our society to achieve the success of the 1%.  Study upon study show that is no longer the case.  Today if you are born to wealth you are likely to remain wealthy.  And if you are born in poverty you are likely to remain poor.  The opportunities for upward mobility in the US lag way behind most industrialized countries.  That is because the success of the haves is often at the expense of the have not’s.

Health care is another example.  Whether you love Obamacare or hate it you have to give the President credit for trying to make affordable health care available to all Americans.  His opponents say that they will repeal the bill at the first opportunity.  But they have no solution for the almost 50 million Americans who cannot afford insurance.  And to be perfectly blunt about it…they don’t care.  “I have mine…go get your own.”  That attitude only serves to widen an already burgeoning societal gap.

And look at our politics.  So caught up are we in out ideological bubble that the idea that the other party or even another country might have a better solution to our problems is unthinkable.  Compromise is a dirty word. Elected officials who are seen reaching across the aisle to find solutions are ticketed for replacement come election time.  Votes are scored and officials who dare to cross party lines won’t be voting for very long.

We have become a divide country, fueled by individualism and a rigid ideological view of the world that threatens the very bond that once made us great.

So how do we fix it? 

We fix it by implementing a policy that we and many others far more insightful have written about before.

We fix it by implementing a policy of national service.

We believe that every citizen upon graduating high school or reaching the age of 18 should be required to spend two years giving back to the country.  It could be enlisting in the military, serving in the Peace Corp or working as a teacher’s aide in an inner city school.  There are many opportunities that could satisfy this two year requirement.  After giving two years to the country the individual could go to college, pick up a trade or enter into a vocation having the benefit of two years of practical experience in the real world.  These two years would help our youth to understand what being a part of this country is all about.  The individual and the country would be all the better for the experience.

Would it work?  It does in Israel. 

Israeli youth are required to enter into the military upon graduating high school.  Boys enlist for three years; girls for two.  Upon completion of their service requirement they enter college as mature adults with a much better understanding of who they are and what they want to do with their lives.  In a survey of American CEOs, respondents said that Israeli college graduates are more focused, more mature and ultimately more capable of meeting the demands of the business world than their American counterparts.

And why wouldn’t they be.  While our kids are playing video games, partying and struggling with what they want to be when they grow up the Israeli kids are building hospitals and water treatment plants, negotiating with village elders, learning about responsibility and laws and teamwork.  The Israeli kids come through this experience with a sense of self and an appreciation and understanding of their country that our kids cannot fathom.  The Israeli kids are better for the experience and their country is too.

Now Israel’s requirement that their high school graduates enter the military stems from the fact that they are surrounded by enemies who would like to see their country wiped off the face of the earth.  Fortunately we do not face that reality; so we could find other non-military ways that our youth could serve their country and better themselves in the process.  In the end we would be building generations who understand that being an American is more than a birthright.  It is a responsibility that includes helping the least advantaged to achieve a better life.  Being an American means being compassionate and open minded as well as competitive and resourceful.  We believe that a policy of national service will help to sew those seeds and return our country to greatness and prosperity…for everyone.

So that is our challenge to this president or whoever is next to reside in the Oval Office.  Develop a policy of national service.  Develop a policy that will help all young Americans to get a true appreciation of what being American is all about.  Challenge the country to build future generations that rival the Greatest Generation in terms of sacrifice, courage and compassion…

…and secure your legacy in the process.             

                         

A Case Study On Federal Taxes

The Supreme Court’s determination that the mandate under the Affordable Health Care Act is in fact a “tax” has rekindled the debate over our tax code. And whether you are a multi-millionaire or an unskilled laborer making minimum wage you share one common belief…that we pay the federal government waaaaaaayyyy too much in tax. 

Like most Americans we felt the same way.  Like most Americans we were uncertain as to the marginal tax bracket we were in, and we didn’t know what our effective tax rate was…i.e. ultimate percentage we paid in taxes after all the legal deductions were factored in. 

So we decided to take a look. 

Keep in mind that we are only talking about federal income taxes…the taxes your accountant computes and files under Form 1040.  This is the number that conservatives find appalling…a threat to our liberty…and the funding mechanism for Obama’s socialist ideology.  This is the number Republicans have vowed never, ever to raise, even if it means defaulting on our financial obligations.

Before we get into the taxes, you need a little background to put things into perspective.

We are typical empty nesters.  We enjoy a modest middle class income.  We live in the suburbs of a Midwestern city with a population of 300,000.  We enjoy a modest middle class income, take a couple weeks vacation each year and have a positive balance in our savings account.  We live in a quiet condominium development were units similar to ours have recently sold for 180,000 to 210,000.  Our taxes are not prepared by some high priced downtown accounting firm but by the local H&R Block office; who charges less than $300 to organize the taxable responsibilities of our vast estate.  In other words we are a middle class America as you can get.

We reviewed our tax returns for the last three years.  Our accountant first deducted all the permissible pre-tax deductions for our retirement and health insurance.  Then they deducted our standard exemption, mortgage interest, charitable contributions as well as the proper allowances for property taxes and other taxes we had previously paid.  Pretty straight forward!

Bottom line…for the past three years we paid our federal taxes at an average rate of 10.33%.  After all the legal deductions were factored in we paid the federal government 10 cents for every dollar we earned.

So what did we get for our 10 cents?

We are protected by the best trained most technologically advanced military in the world thanks to the Department of Defense.  The air we breathe and the water we drink is clean thanks to the EPA.  When we go to the grocery we can choose from thousands of items and know that they are all safe for consumption thanks to the FDA.  Our two sons fly constantly on business.  The airplanes they fly and the skies they circumvent are all kept safe by the FAA.  The money in our checking and savings accounts is secure thanks to the FDIC.  Many of our nieces and nephews receive a “free” education thanks in part to the Department of Education.  When vacationing we travel across interstates funded by the Department of Transportation.  Our travels are made easier because of a consistent system of laws regulated by the Department of Commerce and the Department of Justice.   And we are able to enjoy these benefits because thanks to Medicare our finances were not decimated by the tsunami of medical expenses incurred by our now departed mother.  We get a lot more for our 10 cents, but you get the picture.

Yes, we do pay a lot more than federal income tax for the privilege of living in this country.  Sales tax, gas tax, property tax, state and local taxes and plethora of additional taxes and fees reduce our take home pay.  But our focus here is on federal income tax, which Republicans are loathe to pay and feverish to reduce.  But if they succeed in lowering federal taxes, we can promise you that each of these other taxes will be increased to make up the difference.  Because the freedoms and benefits of living in this country are not free; they come with a price tag. 

Republicans are constantly whining about how big government and outrageously excessive federal income taxes are turning us into a socialist country. Frankly, that's BS.  First of all, nobody pays the published tax rates.  By the time you factor in even the most modest of deductions your tax burden is cut in half.  Second, let’s stop the nonsense about these excessive taxes turning us into some sort of socialist country.  We ARE a socialist country and have been for quite some time.  And 99.9% of Americans, including conservatives, not only use the “socialist” programs funded by the federal government; they will stage an armed revolt if you try to take those programs away.

The problem with federal taxes is not the amount of taxes paid but in the fairness by which the code is administered and the way the money is spent.  Our focus should be on the fairness and the disbursement and not on ridiculous claims about how high taxes are hurting the country. 

Because from our personal prospective, paying 10.33% cents on the dollar to live in this country is a bargain.        

 

        

 

       

       

This & That!

HOUSTON…WE HAVE A PROBLEM!  The Romney Death Star has a problem.  The campaign has been taking a lot of shots lately from those who feel the governor has been long on rhetoric and short on substance.  The problem lies in the fact that those firing the shots are not just liberal supporters of the President but heavyweight conservatives as well.  William Kristol, Rupert Murdock, Jack Welsh the Wall Street Journal and a host of other conservative stalwarts want more from Romney.

For years the Romney campaign machine has been living off of a simple message: ‘The economy sucks.  It’s Obama’s fault.  Vote for me.”  But conservatives are realizing that this message is not playing well with voters who want to know specifically what Romney is going to do to fix the country’s problems.  Voters want specifics…and leading conservatives want Romney to provide those specifics.

The problem is Romney doesn’t do well with specifics.  You can see him bristle whenever a reporter has the audacity to push him on an issue.  But who can blame Romney for being wary.  Every time he takes a specific stand on an issue he gets it wrong.  The auto bailout, the bank bailout, the foreclosure crisis, the stimulus, finding bin Laden, sending troops into Libya…each time he came out forcefully on an issue he ended up on the wrong side of success. 

SURPRISE…PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES GET ASKED ABOUT THEIR FINANCES!  Mitt Romney has been campaigning for president for the better part of a decade.  So you would think that the Romney campaign would be ready to answer questions about the candidates’ financial holdings.  Not so much.  The campaign is struggling once again to answer reports of newly discovered offshore holdings totaling in the millions.  We have to wonder why someone running for president would not have either made the pre-emptive decision to move the funds back on shore or at the very least offered full disclosure into the details of the accounts.  But once again Romney bristles when pressed for details.  It is as if he is not used to explaining himself.  Note to Romney…get used to it.  If you win it only gets worse.

SHAME ON THE LIBERAL MAIN STREAM MEDIA…for giving Romney hell about taking a weeks’ vacation with his family.  Particularly distasteful were the cheap comments regarding photos of Romney riding a jet ski with his wife, Ann.  Running for President is a tough, grueling job; even more so when you have been running for the better part of a decade.  Give the guy a break!  We suspect that many of the crass remarks were made out of jealousy that the 65 year old Romney can parade around in a bathing suit without embarrassing himself.  Most of the Pillsbury doughboy media do not share that luxury.