Income

Since the dawn of civilized man there has been a gap between the rich and the poor. To equalize things has never worked because there were always too few rich and too many poor. Various leaders have used this discrepancy in wealth to gain political power but they have always failed to come through with their promises. The latest example is Chavez in Venezuela. He took a country that was struggling and single handedly brought it to its knees. When Bernie Sanders was running he promised to take from the one percent and give it to the 99% but mathematically that would not do much good. This came to my attention last year, when an article appeared in the local paper saying that the six members of the Walmart family had a worth of 90 billion dollars and this was more than the lowest 50 million families in the country. Understand this is not their income it is their wealth mostly in Walmart stock. So let’s redistribute this money and in doing so each family would get $1,900 which they could quickly spend on a new refrigerator. In 2013, 138.3 million taxpayers reported earning $9.03 trillion in adjusted gross income. The top 1 percent earned 20% of the income or 1.8 trillion. Of that 1.8 trillion 46% or 800 billion was paid in taxes leaving the one percenters with 1 trillion. Now if we take all of that and give it to the rest of us we will each get $3,300. A nice Christmas bonus but not life changing like a good job would be. There is one way that income redistribution will work and that is raising the wages paid to people who work at McDonalds and Walmart. Most of the people who work there are middle to lower income people and most of the people who shop there are middle to lower income people and each group is very large. I spend $1,000 per month at Walmart since we buy our food and other household products there. I did some calculations based on Walmart sales in the United States and compared that to the number of non-management employees and found that if they increase the cost of their goods by 6% they could double the wages. I told him that his would mean $60 per month more out of my pocket and I would be happy to pay that if the money went to wages. I doubt that my letter had any influence but shortly after that Walmart came out and gave everyone a one dollar per hour raise.

Smog

30 years ago the cigarette business was starting to die only to be saved by sending product to China. We are doing the same thing today with coal. As the US coal plants close and our C02 emission decline to 1990’s levels we are sending the problem to China. Not only are we shipping Appalachian coal but we are opening up mines in the west and building new shipping facilities to send more overseas to African and India. In order to go solar and wind we must have rare earth metals and we do not want to mine them here because of environmental concerns so we buy from China which now produces 95% of all rare earths. Shifting this air pollution overseas makes our air cleaner but it dirties up the air elsewhere but long term we all live on the same planet.

Bombo's

Will Trump take a page from the Bill Clinton play book in dealing with the new revelations about womanizing? Will he set up a group to confront the “bimbo eruptions” and go after each accuser making them out to be either “sluts or nuts”? Will Mrs. Trump call some of these women “trailer trash”? Perhaps if they do all this Mr. Trump’s approval rating will go to 66% just like Bill’s did when he left office. The actions of Bill Clinton were not in the public news before his election although it was later revealed that many of these incidences occurred while he was governor of Arkansas. A few minor news agencies reported such things but the national press never made it a big issue. Have times changed or is it the change in party?

Experts

While I am concerned about the Russians interfering with our election I am more concerned about our own press. They seem to think that Trump is so bad that they have abandoned their main responsibility of reporting the news and have become active participants in helping to decide who wins. Recent email revelations show that some news agencies have given advanced information to Clinton for some town hall meetings. Emails show that a NBC debate host bragged about going after Trump. If you look at the backgrounds of the top Washington reporters and the people they report on you will find a cultural link. Most are well educated and many in the same schools. They tend to socialize together, frequenting the same restaurants and attending the same lectures and seminars. These people have very little in common with the blue collar tradesmen that find Trump exciting. They are not outdoorsmen who like to hunt and fish. They are not interested in NASCAR or bowling. They don’t live pay check to pay check. Their kids don’t struggle in school and they certainly don’t join the military. These two groups are a world apart and the press people think that Trump supporters represent the low information voters and do not have the education to properly evaluate the big problems facing the country. I have said before that on any big issue the experts are on both sides so anyone has just a good a chance as being right as the experts.

The in crowd

If my choice the Kasich/Rubio ticket were running against Clinton the discussions and debates would be mostly about policy as Kasich would not take the low road against Hilary. This would be great for the voters to hear but in the end not much would change no matter who was elected. The establishment has had many years to help the lower, middle income groups and nothing has improved. It is quite amazing the largest group of workers in the country have seen their wages stagnate for 40 years. But after adjusting for inflation, today’s average hourly wage has just about the same purchasing power as it did in 1979, following a long slide in the 1980s and early 1990s and bumpy, inconsistent growth since then. In fact, in real terms the average wage peaked more than 40 years ago: The $4.03-an-hour rate recorded in January 1973 has the same purchasing power as $22.41 would today. This does not impact the people with college degrees who have seen their wages increase but it is devastating to the lower, middle income group which represents 70% of all those working. These people are as much attracted to Trump as the establishment is repulsed by him. The fact that he is vulgar and makes promises that experts say he cannot keep does not deter his fans who are desperate for change. Making new deals with China or introducing import taxes sounds unachievable to experts but it gives hope to those who have watched their jobs disappear. To all who are doing ok and to the millions who have given up on getting a job, I say relax because Clinton will win and we will have another four years of status quo as the in crowd will maintain control.

Trump's tapes

As the big hoopla explodes over Trumps remarks about women, I am reminded of a book I read many years ago entitled, “The Best and Brightest” by David Halberstam. It was about the Kenndy, Johnson years and some of their private conversations. The liaisons with women not with standing there were other memorable lines. Johnson was riding out on his farm in Texas and stopped to pee and told his secret service guys to take a look as his penis and then said something and I paraphrase here, it’s like a rattle snake. When it comes to the civil rights movement many democrats like Johnson claim to have altruistic motives but here are some quotes that many shed a different light. I'll have them niggers voting Democratic for the next two hundred years". "Son, when I appoint a nigger to the court, I want everyone to know he's a nigger." Every one of my age remembers the language on the Nixon tapes. From what I know about Trump these remarks do not surprise me but what it interesting is the reaction by so many politicians who might be just a little uncomfortable of their private conversations were published, but we have to play the game of I would never say anything that was hurtful to anyone or any group. And if I did it would never be that bad. There are a lot of glass houses around here.

Pre-existing conditions

Former President Clinton is speaking on behalf of Obamacare trying to walk back his derogatory remarks about the program and in part of his speech he mentions the 25 million people now covered who do not have to be concerned about pre-existing conditions. When he says this it is met with applause by his audience. What he fails to point out is that most of these people were previously eligible for Medicaid and there were never any pre-existing clauses in Medicaid. Most people are unaware of this!

Bill C on Obamacare

The remarks by Bill Clinton regarding Obamacare came as a surprise to many but it is part of a plan that has been in the works since before Obamacare even started. When Obama was a state senator he expressed his desire to see a single payer plan called Medicare for all. In 2003 he said: "I happen to be a proponent of a single-payer universal health care program. I see no reason why the United States of America, the wealthiest country in the history of the world, spending 14 percent of its gross national product on health care, cannot provide basic health insurance to everybody. He went on to say: A single-payer health care plan, a universal health care plan. That's what I’d like to see. But as all of you know, we may not get there immediately. Because first we've got to take back the White House, we've got to take back the Senate, and we've got to take back the House." Here is what I wrote last year. In the past I have presented my plan for health insurance whereby companies provide annual payments to employees in the form of health saving accounts but this is not politically feasible. The next best thing is single payer or what is sometimes called Medicare for all. Both Trump and Sanders have indicated they would be willing to go this way. Administrative cost in Medicare is 2% and in the private sector it is 17%. Since private insurance cost about 1.5 trillion dollars this could be a 15% or 225 billion dollars savings. This is enough to provide free health care for all those living below the poverty line. These policies would be much like Obamacare in that they would have high deductibles. This eliminates the casual use of health care. In addition there would be only one government plan so they could ration benefits. Since most health cost occur in the last year of life the big saving in rationing will come from the elderly, the so called death panels. What is not mentioned in this change is that over 2 million jobs in the health care industry would be lost.

Economist

This is a quick message to all of those people out there who feel they are not qualified to talk about financial and economic issues. We have two candidates running for president and the experts on one side says we must raise taxes to get the economy going and the experts on the other side says we must lower tax to move the economy forward. Whatever plan, you as a regular citizen, come up with you have are just as smart as half the experts in the field. FDR was the first president to have an economic advisor and when the idea was proposed to him he said he would take the advice as long as he could have an advisor with one arm. When asked why he responded by saying every economist he ever knew would always preface their answers to questions by saying, on one hand you can do this and on the other hand you can do that, and he added, I already know that.

Real people

I am getting fed up with these eastern elites and decided to vent. Their condescending view of the rest of the country is just too hard to take sitting down. While they openily criticize others as being prejudiced and bigoted they themselves suffer from the same ailment without knowing it. The stereotypes they brand others with seems not to be in their consciousness. They talk about the hillbilly wearing a big belt buckle in his blue jeans, smoking Marlboro’s, standing on the running board of his gas guzzling pick up drinking Bud light. They see guys who shoot deer and ducks to break the boredom of their meaningless lives. They see good old boys coming out of the revival tent barefoot and singing, Praise the Lord. Sounds like they just need their guns and their God to be happy. But they do have lives that matter and lives that enjoy our free country unlike Mrs. Obama who said as she entered the White House that she was proud to be an American for the first time in her life. These are the people who struggle every day to put food on the table and hope and pray that their children have a better life. These are the people who fight our wars. How many Ivy leaguers are in the military yet these people constantly say how proud they are of our military but they would avoid it all cost. The best way to describe these people is to use the words of a John Denver song called Back Home Again. There's a storm across the valley, clouds are rollin' in The afternoon is heavy on your shoulders There's a truck out on the four lane, a mile or more away The whinin' of his wheels just makes it colder He's an hour away from ridin' on your prayers up in the sky And ten days on the road are barely gone There's a fire softly burning; supper's on the stove But it's the light in your eyes that makes him warm. Hey, it's good to be back home again Sometimes this old farm feels like a long lost friend Yes, 'n, hey it's good to be back home again There's all the news to tell him, how did you spend your time? And what's the latest thing the neighbors say And your mother called last Friday, sunshine made her cry And you felt the baby move just yesterday And oh, the time that I can lay this tired old body down And feel your fingers feather soft on me The kisses that I live for, the love that lights my way The happiness that livin' with you brings me It's the sweetest thing I know of, just spending time with you It's the little things that make a house a home Like a fire softly burning and supper on the stove The light in your eyes that makes me warm There, now I feel better. These people don’t know what supper is!

Economy

This would be a great election if it were dominated by policy but instead it is dominated by personalities. Look for example at the two plans to stimulate the economy. Clinton wants to raise taxes and then have the government redistribute that money in ways that the bureaucrats feel is equitable. If left to their own devises the people might not spend this in a proper way. Trump wants to lower taxes and will then rely on the people to grow the economy. Liberals are often concerned that if the people are allowed to spend their own money certain groups would be left out. Clinton’s plan to raise taxes on the rich includes 350 billion by capping itemized deductions at 28% 450 billion capital gains tax 275 billion business tax 80 billion inheritance tax 1.15 trillion or 111 billion per year Latest figures from the government show that total income tax paid was 1.23 trillion and the top one percent paid half of that or 600 billion. Clinton plans to raise taxes on the rich to pay for her economic plan by 111 billion so the one percent will then pay 53% of all taxes while the bottom 50% of taxpayers pay no income tax. I am all for taxing the rich but this will not grow the economy. Instead of making the pie larger it will just change the size of the pieces. It is spending by the private sector that makes the pie bigger. The GDP has been growing at less than 2% for the past year and that will not grow the economy.