What happens when all the money runs out?

A wallet

What happens when your government runs out of money?  Well that’s a good question and one that has already happened in some US cities.  It’s going to take some real Draconian measures to fix, and you can be sure they won’t please you.  A better question might be how did we get into such a fix in the first place?

Since at least since 1932 our government federal, state and local has been dominated by a series of men who have a “D” after their names.  For almost the past three-quarters of a century the Democrats have been looking for Utopia.  Just as you cross the Whitestone Bridge from the Bronx into Queens the first exit is marked Utopia, but you can never get to Utopia.  In their latest incarnation the Democrats are looking for something that is even more unreachable, namely equality.  This really means that everyone will be dragged down to a common denominator.  You’ll be living on a diet of rice and beans!

Here's a bill you don't see very often for $100,000

How did we get into this mess in the first place?  Truth is it was a result of pandering to the voters by both parties, but it was the Democrats that led the pack by buying voters like hogs on the open market. This has been the way American Politics has worked from day one, but in recent years the Democrats spent more money on hogs then we could afford.

The consequences of this are going to be a belt tightening like America has never experienced.  It’s going to be rice and beans for everybody!  Already in Scranton, Pennsylvania they are already calling for a 80% hike in taxes.  That isn’t going to work because the tax payers will vote with their feet and abandon Scranton.

Voting with their feet has already occurred in the United States as according to statistics in the past year more then 8,000 people have already denounced their citizenship and moved offshore beyond the taxman’s reach.  The taxman is going to get all of us, and it’s going to be right in our pocketbooks.

Poverty the Ultimate form of Tyranny

Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi stated over seventy years ago that poverty was the ultimate form of tyranny.  Government sponsored poverty is the worst form of tyranny and it was used by the British to subjugate the Indian nation for more then two centuries.  Under the Raj the British kept the masses in India under a grinding poverty thereby controlling the whole nation under their grasp.

Today our government is using the same form of tyranny to keep the American people under a similar form of government control.  Since President Barack Obama took office in 2008 the average American income has shrank by an average of 17%.  The average number of unemployed has averaged a nearly steady 8.2% since Obama took office.  This is only measuring those that are collecting unemployment benefits; it does not measure the numbers of unemployed that have lost their benefits if you count those the true number of jobless in America is no doubt closer to 14% if not more.

The Face of Poverty. Do we want this in the United States?

This situation brings up the difference between Democrats and Republicans.  The Democrats believe they should control your lives from cradle to grave with you coming to the government for all your worldly needs.  The Republicans for their part believe you should take care of your needs yourself without government interference.  The Republicans also believe you should be helped in your quest when necessary.

For the most part the Democrats have been in control of both the house and senate since the 1930’s and during that time they have earned the reputation of being the Tax and Spend party.  By keeping the American public under their thumbs they exercising the practice of using poverty as a tool of their tyranny. 

Why bureaucrats are like diapers

Diapers drying in the sun
Photo by C.K. Klose

Simple – they’re always with you, they’re always on your ass, and they’re usually full of shit!

100 % of Nothing is Nothing!

What would you do with this conundrum; a major city in the United States is virtually run out of cash their treasury only contains $130,000 and they'll creditors over $3 million. In other words the city is broke!

They have reached a point where they have been forced to cut their employees to minimum wages of $7.25 per hour. The municipal employee's union has sued the mayor for taking this step insisting their members continue receiving full salaries.

The city has been under a decline in population for over 50 years and the mayor and city council have been trying desperately to find a way to raise revenue so the city can pay its employees. To date the mayor and city council have been locked in gridlock with neither side being able to come up with a solution to the problem.

It would be in the best interests of the union to join the city in trying to solve this problem rather than suing the mayor over a situation that he didn't create. As usual in a situation like this the union has taken a very shortsighted stand. 100% of nothing is nothing!

This is a situation that is facing many cities in the United States and for that matter around the world. We don't know who is to blame, but from appearances all the parties concerned shares equal blame whether it is the municipality or the unions. With all the finger-pointing that has been going on both sides have lost track of the ability to work for a common goal for the good of each other.

Obama Fiddled while the Country Burned

Barack Obama
Photo by Pete Souza

Admittedly things fell apart during the last two years of George Bush’s term as president so many people blame Bush for what happened completely forgetting that the Democrats held both the House of Representatives and the Senate.  It was during this period when the housing bubble burst on the strength of a law passed by the Democratic majority in both houses.  If anyone were to be blamed it was the Democrats rather then George W. Bush.  You can say it really hit the fan in late October when Bush was a lame duck president with a hostile Congress.

Obama was elected president in November of 2008 and took office in January of 2009 at the time both houses were in the Democrats control, but aside from bailing out the Democrats friends what else did he accomplish is the following two years.  He spent all that time on Obamacare rather then even making any effort to correct the unemployment problems in the country.  He had plenty of time to develop remedies and had control of the Congress; rather he fiddled while the country burned and pushed home Obamacare, a law that most of the country opposed.

Planets and the only thing Obama did: well:

He put the passage of his liberal agenda ahead of the interests of the nation        .

He failed to do anything to strengthen border security of our nation instead by presidential proclamation he granted legitimacy to a large group of illegal aliens.

He has been spending too much money to the detriment of future generations.

The only reason he hasn't spent us further into debt is because the Republicans gained control of the house of Congress in 2010, and cut off the purse strings.

This liberal agenda he is promoting is not in the best interests of the country.

He has espoused cutting off the production of coal and oil without a viable alternative.

Who knows how much money he has wasted in pursuing alternative energy sources?

He has failed to pursue job creation in the private sector that pays the bills.

He has allowed the government employees unions to ride roughshod over the country.

The policies he has adapted have been detrimental to the country's economy.

In foreign policy he has been a complete disaster among other things he has not reigned in Iran's desire to build an atomic bomb.

Obamacare that was recently proclaimed constitutional by the Supreme Court of the United States was looked upon by the Democrats as a major victory. In truth by declaring it to be a tax it has been turned into an albatross that Obama can wear around his neck.

Obama and his administration have failed to protect American values or for that matter it even shown in any respect.

The truth about any election is it hinges on two points; stay the course, or it's time for a change. Take your choice!

Washington on Partisan Politics

George Washington the first President of the United States

This is what George Washington had to say about partisan politics in his farewell address to Congress.  What he said then still stands almost a quarter millennia later.

“The unity of government which constitutes you one people is also now dear to you. It is justly so, for it is a main pillar in the edifice of your real independence, the support of your tranquility at home, your peace abroad; of your safety; of your prosperity; of that very liberty which you so highly prize. But as it is easy to foresee that, from different causes and from different quarters, much pains will be taken, many artifices employed to weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth; as this is the point in your political fortress against which the batteries of internal and external enemies will be most constantly and actively (though often covertly and insidiously) directed, it is of infinite moment that you should properly estimate the immense value of your national union to your collective and individual happiness; that you should cherish a cordial, habitual, and immovable attachment to it; accustoming yourselves to think and speak of it as of the palladium of your political safety and prosperity; watching for its preservation with jealous anxiety; discountenancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion that it can in any event be abandoned; and indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together the various parts.

In contemplating the causes which may disturb our Union, it occurs as matter of serious concern that any ground should have been furnished for characterizing parties by geographical discriminations, Northern and Southern, Atlantic and Western; whence designing men may endeavor to excite a belief that there is a real difference of local interests and views. One of the expedients of party to acquire influence within particular districts is to misrepresent the opinions and aims of other districts. You cannot shield yourselves too much against the jealousies and heartburnings which spring from these misrepresentations; they tend to render alien to each other those who ought to be bound together by fraternal affection.

The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty.”

CRAP Directive #1

Crap Directive #1

The Pentagon aka the Five Sided Squirrel Cage

In their wisdom the denizens of the Pentagon came up with a whole new level of bureaucracy they dubbed "Contract Review and Procurement."  As everybody knows the army is likes acronyms and for this bureaucracy the acronym was "CRAP" after much bustling around the new bureaucracy moved into the office above us after displacing the old bureaucracy. Finally the new boys got to exercise their new found authority with CRAP Directive #1.  The general took one look at CRAP Directive #1 and said that's enough crap, and that was the end of them.

It's too bad that general isn't around today because at least he was able to see through what was going on and nip it in the bud. Today we are faced with a situation where we are regulated to death it doesn't mean that our leaders brought us to this situation knowingly because in many cases what was done is a result of good intentions. Well let me tell you the road to good intentions as the same as the road to hell and is usually paved with good intentions.

The purpose of this blog is to point out where some of these good intentions have gone astray or in some cases where things that are needed are often lost in partisan politics. At present where suffering from the worst economic downturn since the 1930s when many people unemployed. If you believe the government's figures the unemployment rate is posted be around 8.2% in reality it's probably over 20% because of the number of workers that have given up on trying too find a job. And for the past four years our leadership is fiddled while Rome has burned.

There is so much finger-pointing that is going on in Washington and in our state capitals been in many cases the politicians are all of touch with reality. What is needed more than anything right now is some kind of a policy that will put the unemployed back to work? At least during the 1930s the lack of job situation was recognized and steps were taken to remedy the problem.

This took the form of two government agencies namely the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and the Civil Conservation Corps (CCC) as well as some projects like Hoover dam and the Golden Gate Bridge. We need some projects like these now to put the unemployed back to work and more important to put some needed money back into the economy.

The trouble with Politics and Passing Laws

Otto von Bismarck wearing a spiked helmet

It will happen great site During the 19th century Otto vonBismarck became the Prime Minister of Germany at one point during his ministry he stated, there are two things the ordinary person should never see; making sausages and making the laws. This is what this blog is all about; we may include the occasional recipe for making sausages, but this is really about politics and passing laws. Both of these processes are very closely related to governing the peoples of the world. At best they are an evil necessity without which we would be living in a state of complete anarchy. A favorite pastime of the human race seems to be complaining about our leadership; yet very few of the complainers stepped forward to take unto themselves the reins of leadership.

Cholla cactus
Photo by Poco O Poco

It kinda reminds me of the story they tell about Tex riding down trail on his favorite paint horse in the good old days of the Old West. In the process of clattering down the trail on his horse Tex saw a patch of cholla cactuses. Now this particular brand of cactus is probably the worst of all having all kinds of barbs and stickers, and is generally unpleasant no matter how you look at it.

Tex immediately stopped his horse, rolled himself is there a cigarette, and just sat there on top of a horse hypnotized looking at the signed patch of cholla cactus right before his wondering eyes. The longer he looked the better looking that cactus became until finally after he finished smoking he got down off the horse after throwing the butt down on the trail, and proceeded to take off all his clothes. It came to him that the best thing he could do was be to dive headfirst into the cactus patch.

cowboy on a horse in 1888

Just about that time his pal Slim came writing down the trail, and when he saw Tex thrashing around bare naked in the cactus patch. He stopped and rolled himself a cigarette and watched his pal whooping and hollering and carrying on in that patch of cholla cactus. About the pain he finished his cigarette and had thrown the butt down onto the trail Old Tex finally gave up on the cholla cactus and came crawling back up onto the trail all covered with all kinds of stickers, lumps and bruises making quite a sorrowful sight. When he had vainly regained the trail Slim looked at him and said, “Tex what in tarnation ever made you do such a fool stunt as that?

Text replied, "Well Slim it sure seemed like a damn fine idea at the time."

Often the doings in politics and passing laws also seem like a damn fine idea at the time!