War

The Biden administration has approved sending anti-personnel mines to Ukraine for the first time in another major policy shift, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin confirmed on Wednesday. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin says Putin is just bluffing about retaliating with nukes. To many it seems that the defense industry is working with the bureaucrats to keep the war going. The use of anti personal mines is banned by more than 150 countries including the US and Russia That is why in 1997 the international community adopted the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention, which prohibits the use, production, stockpiling and transfer of these weapons and requires action be taken to prevent and address their long-term effects.

Migrants

The subject of how to deal with illegal migrants is taking center stage because it was one of the major issues in the campaign. Things are getting complicated and out of hand because it has become a political issue rather than an immigration issue. The logical approach is to first deport all those migrants who are convicted criminals. Second, deport the 1.4 million that the courts have determined do not qualify for asylum. Third find the 320,000 missing unaccompanied migrant children. Forth begin the process of evaluating each migrant to determine what happens to them and set up some system which will lead to a path to citizenship. All of the above depends first on closing the border. For many years distinguishing between legal and illegal immigrants has been blurred and now the migrants that are good citizens are being lumped in with those who are not. Instead of the various government agencies cooperating with one another they are fighting with one another. People get so tired of this bickering.

Education

The Department of Education is once again in the news. No one is satisfied with the test scores and in particular the differences between White students vs students of color with the major exception of Asian students. One area of concern is the staffing of schools. District 196 here is composed of Rosemont, Apple Valley and Eagan. There are 27,000 students, 1,879 teachers and 2,121 staff. For many people these numbers show how far the schools have drifted away from the three R's and now include all sorts of other specialties. This same thing carries over to colleges. The University of Minnesota has 55,000 students with 4,823 teachers and 22,834 staff. This includes 300 different degree programs.

Tariffs

Biden retained the tariffs that Trump placed on China plus the following changes. The tariff rate will go up to 100% on electric vehicles, to 50% on solar cells and to 25% on electrical vehicle batteries, critical minerals, steel, aluminum, face masks and ship-to-shore cranes beginning September 27, according to the US Trade Representative’s Office. Tariff hikes on other products, including semiconductor chips, are set to take effect over the next two years. President Trump will continue this policy plus he plans to install a blanket tariff of 10% to 20% on all imports, with additional tariffs of 60% to 100% on goods brought in from China. Trump's plan is at this point only a negotiating tool. The US currently has a negative balance of trade with Europe of $131 billion and a negative balance with China $195 billion. Much of this has to do with tariffs.

Reshoring

Over the past 50 years politicians from both parties have been co opted by a partnership between business and government. The result has been growth in government power and profits for business at he expense of factory workers. These workers, people who are paid by the hour, have watched their jobs disappear as globalization became the policy and the bureaucracy became the status quo. While the American elite talked about idealistic goals like climate change and freedom they worked to send jobs to China where coal was king and low wages and slave labor were the norm. That started to change ten years ago when Trump pointed out the unfairness of China's trade policies and it has gained momentum ever since. Globalization is out and reshoring is in as companies are bringing worker jobs back home to the US. This means a doubling of the US industrial base over the next ten years but these new facilities will combine workers with the latest technology including AI, which will increase productivity which means higher wages. The downside is wage\price inflation but if things balance it can be like the 1950's where wages increased slightly faster than prices.

Ukraine

The next mission creep. Biden allows Ukraine to make long-range missile strikes into Russia. November 18, 2024. Recall that the reason for NATO helping Ukraine was to keep Russia from winning but at the same time to keep Russia from losing since it could result in Russia using nukes. Has the original reason changed and if so what is the new strategy.

Tax

The proposal to remove taxes on social security benefits should not stand alone but must include other changes to make up for the lost income. This will not affect 60% of recipients who do not pay any tax because their income in too low. This will cost the government about $50 billion per year and should be recovered with other changes. Currently people pay 6.2% of earned income into social security on the first $160,000 of income. If this income limit were removed it would bring in about $90 billion per which would more than offset the loss from not taxing benefits. This would also transfer money from high income earners to lower income groups which would help to reduce the income gap. It would also add more money to the social security fund something that is badly needed.