Chicago

Today I watched a TV special on CNN about Chicago. The first 15 minutes was spent explaining how President Trump was not helping. The second quarter was a series of interviews with innocent victims of violence. Part three was about the lack of resources and guns. The last part was about the lack of trust in the police. I was left wondering just what CNN was trying to accomplish with this show and I am still wondering.

Low income

There were almost 7 million people who paid the penalty for not having healthcare and another large group who didn’t have healthcare but did not pay the penalty by lying on their tax form. Who are the people who paid the penalty? There were 6,665,480 households who chose to pay the Obamacare penalty in that year rather than signing up for Affordable Care Act coverage. They paid a total of $3,079,255,000.Of the 6.7 million households who chose to pay a penalty, 37 percent—2.5 million households—earned a salary less than $25,000 per year. There were 5.2 million households that earned a salary less than $50,000 per year who decided to pay the penalty, which totaled 79 percent of households paying the penalty. Finally, 92 percent of the households—6.1 million households—paid the penalty and earned less than $75,000 a year. These are the same people who benefit most from things like lower gas prices, lower utility prices and get hurt the most from cigarette and liquor taxes. With the repeal of the healthcare mandate these lower income groups will benefit.

Intent

Former FBI Director Comey is an enigma. He is both praised and castigated by both political parties. Even though he is an attorney and versed in the law he says some controversial things. The most well-known was his lengthy diatribe laying out Mrs. Clintons mishandling of private emails. It was at the end of that where he said she was not guilty of any crime because she did not intend to commit a crime. When Mrs. Clinton’s assistant Huma Abedin sent and received classified emails he once again did not prosecute. CNN has previously reported it was likely that some of the emails stored on Weiner's laptop contained classified information, and fired FBI Director Comey testified that there is no indication Abedin "had a sense that what she was doing was in violation of the law." It sounds as if an accused can be exonerated if they plead ignorance of the law and/or they say they didn’t mean to break the law. It reminded me of the old comedian Flip Wilson whose character Geraldine would respond to her misdeeds by saying with great conviction, “The Devil made me do it”.

Contempt of congress

There is a conservative group called, Judicial Watch” that uses the freedom of information act (FOYA) and they consistently get information that congress asks for but doesn’t get. Congress is supposed to have oversight responsibility on the executive branch but even issuing subpoenas and charging them with contempt does not get them the info. The House has voted to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress over his failure to turn over documents related to the Fast and Furious scandal, the first time Congress has taken such a dramatic move against a sitting Cabinet official. This was not just politics since The vote was 255-67, with 17 Democrats voting in support of a criminal contempt resolution, which authorizes Republicans leaders to seek criminal charges against Holder. The problem is that the Justice Department is responsible for prosecution and "across administrations of both political parties, the longstanding position of the Department of Justice has been and remains that we will not prosecute" So it appears that not only can congress not get requested information but when they don’t there is not much they can do about it. So much for oversight.

China trade

Now that China has demonstrated its willingness to continue to help North Korea even after saying they would join in with the rest of the countries on sanctions more must be done. China feels that the US is all talk and will not take any action against it and up to this time that would be correct. Trump can come before the American people and say the US will start placing import taxes on Chinese goods. This means the cost of goods that consumers buy will go up and that is the sacrifice needed to keep us from using a military solution. The upside is that American made goods will become more competitive and this over time may lead to a shift to buying American on a permanent basis. America already makes better quality home appliances and many electronics and long term this would lead to higher paying American jobs. If all of this is laid out and properly explained, most Americans would understand the cost benefit trade off and be willing to pay more. This would be devastating to China whose economy still needs rapid growth to keep the people from revolting. It would be a wake-up call for them.

Inner cities

The city I grew up in, Springfield, IL, was a typical mid-western town in many ways, one of which was segregation. The blacks lived in one part of town and stayed in their area. They had their own shops and schools and rarely did anyone go downtown. I lived in an area of white working class people. My father was a milkman and most of my neighbors were blue collar types many of whom were coal miners. People did not comingle like we see today. Families did not go to restaurants but did go to school functions and to church. Social activity was limited to neighborhoods. With the coming of TV we were all exposed to how different groups were treated in different parts of the country and one of the big changes I saw was how things were in the big cities. Here the blacks lived almost in ghettos and in the 60’s and 70’s the now famous white flight started. As the move to the suburbs gained in popularity the situation in the inner cities deteriorated even further and the tax based diminished and whole areas became urban blight. The states had to provide income for necessary services and black unemployed doubled the white numbers where it remains today. As black mayors were elected to represent the mostly black city the people became more and more dependent on government and that is the case today. The leadership in the cities over the past almost 50 years has resulted in whole communities becoming dependent on government for their survival. Some of these government programs not only fostered dependency but altered the culture. More and more children were born out of wed lock, more became involved in gangs which led to drug use and drug sales, drop-out rates rose and crime increased. The prognosis for the future is to continue to do more of the same and wring hands about the widening disparities in school performance and black on black crime. One ray of hope is that black unemployment rates are coming down and as the economy grows this trend should continue.

State tax

All too often regulations seem to hurt the middle income groups more than others and the alternative minimum tax (ATM) is one of those regs. In 2017, 29.4 percent of households with “expanded cash income” (which is a broad measure of income) between $200,000 and $500,000 will be affected by the AMT (table 1). That number rises to 62.9 percent for those with incomes between $500,000 and $1 million. In contrast, only 19.9 percent of households with incomes greater than $1 million will be on the AMT. This issue is important at this time since the new tax law supposedly hurts those who deduct state income tax from their federal tax. Not so fast. When the state tax is deducted the deduction is disallowed when the AMT kicks in so that these middle income people have not been able to use the state income tax deduction in the past and will not be allowed in the future as long as the AMT remains in force. Lower income people whose state tax is less than $10,000 will still be able to deduct up to that amount. In Minnesota it takes incomes of $150,000 or more to pay that much state income tax. The loss of state tax deduction is all hype as it was not there to lose. Line 3: Taxes: In calculating the AMT, you cannot take itemized deductions for stateand local income tax, real estate taxes and personal property taxes, even though these are deductible on your regular return.

Infrastructure

As talk about infrastructure spending takes over the news it is time for a review of the government’s last attempt and why this time will be different. Early in the Obama administration an $840 billion economic stimulus package was approved for the now infamous, “shovel ready jobs program” and while the money was spent not much was accomplished. One of the reasons was red tape. There were so many regulations, things like environment studies that nothing could get going. Many of these regulations have been repealed and thus this time things may work better. The democrats say they are willing to work with Trump but they want only government spending but Trump wants public and private investment. If they can work out a compromise things may begin to happen. Stay tuned!

Deep state

When Trump came into office many people wondered if there would be any difference with a business man in the White House. The early warning signal was the size of his staff. The Democrat Clinton has at least 4,200 staffers on the payroll while the GOP nominee has about 880, according to an analysis of Federal Election Commission filings by NBC. Shortly after the election the state department promised to reduce staff by 35%. This affected all who worked there from the top muckity mucks down to the worker bees. This hardly inspired them to line up behind the new president understanding that these seasoned bureaucrats consider each new administration as the Christmas help. They say we were here before you came and we will be here after you leave. They realized that if Clinton had been elected things would continue on as always but this new guy was causing a great deal of consternation and this resulted in a new phrase in the vernacular, something called the deep state. These were government employees who were upset with the Trump management style. In government success if often measured by how much a manager can increase his staff the thinking being that the more people you have the more you must be accomplishing. In business it is the opposite and thus we have phrases like downsizing, layoffs and attrition. When Tillerson became CEO at Exon they had 80,000 employees and 10 years later when he left they had 72,000.

Heath insurance

A major part of Obamacare was the expansion of Medicaid. Today there ae 73 million people on Medicaid up from 53 million in 2010. Medicaid is a government program and services are either free or low cost. Obamacare is a private plan and the cost is based on the type of plan and income. 8.8 million people have signed up for Obamacare this year and 80% will receive subsidies. All will pay some premium and most will have deductibles of over $6,000 per year. If your income is below the poverty level you qualify for health care under Medicaid. The new approach in the coming year will concentrate on moving people from Medicaid to private insurance. How they will do this is yet to be seen. There are still 30 million uninsured and many of these say they cannot afford Obamacare even with the subsidies. There are also 6 million who chose to pay the penalty and not get insurance and many others who did not get insurance but lied on the tax form to avoid the penalty. This is one complicated issue.

Bad press

Often the press makes statements that Trump is against the press and this can threaten our government and I am all for the press getting after the president but let’s keep things in prospective. A trip down memory lane can be enlightening. President John Adams passed the 1798 Sedition Act, which made publishing anything critical of the government illegal. Consider Theodore Roosevelt. He despised the press and called them a bunch of muckrakers for their sensationalism and false reporting. “The liar,” Roosevelt said of the media, “is no whit better than the thief, and if his mendacity take the form of slander he may be worse than most thieves.” Like many presidents who had their favorite media, Kennedy was friendly to some members of the press, but hostile to others. While his presidency began as a love affair with the press (or rather the press with him), that degenerated over time. This was especially true during the crisis with Cuba in 1961 and 1962. To the dismay of journalists, even friendly ones, Kennedy shut off access to foreign policy information. This wasn’t anything new to the press, since their relationship with Kennedy’s predecessor Dwight Eisenhower was turbulent. He restricted media access and caused many to believe the country was facing a crisis of liberty. Government secrecy seemed to be growing, but many thought this would improve with Kennedy. It didn’t. Here is a quote from President Nixon. “I want it clearly understood from now on, ever no reporter from the Washington Post is ever to be in the White House. Is that clear?” Nixon said. Here are just a few of the anti-press incidence from the Obama administration. The Obama administration's Justice Department spied on Fox News reporter James Rosen. The DOJ, led by Eric Holder, somehow labeled Rosen an unindicted co-conspirator in a criminal case, even went so far as to call him a flight risk. He thereby avoided the pesky need to inform him he was under surveillance. Of course, he was guilty of absolutely nothing. Holder would much later acknowledge regret over the Rosen subpoena. Thanks for playing. The same DOJ seized two months of phone records from the Associated Press. Close your eyes for a moment and picture the reaction if Attorney General Jeff Sessions had been found to order the same action against the New York Times. If anything but the apocalypse comes to mind, you're in a small minority. The Obama administration rejected more Freedom of Information Act requests than any administration in history. That was after Obama promised the "most transparent" administration in history. Note that much of what Trump does is talk but others have resorted to action.

Special prosecutor

As the arguments surrounding the special prosecutor flair up it is time to look back at what happened when Bill Clinton was investigated. It started with special prosecutor Fiske was praised by all. He was looking into Whitewater and in six months he wrapped up the case and said there was no crime committed. The republicans said Fiske did not do a proper job and reauthorized a second prosecutor Ken Starr and within a month he concluded that there was no evidence of a crime. Then Linda Tripp came forth with her taped conversations with Monica Lewinski and Starr shifted the investigation to the Monica affair. This led to the smoking gun, (blue dress) and Clinton was charged with lying under oath and the impeachment went forward. There was considerable collateral damage done during this episode. Larry Flynt the publisher of Hustler magazine offered a million dollars to anyone who could prove improper sexual behavior and the first to fall was Congressman Henry Hyde the guy in charge of the impeachment proceedings. He was 74 and it was revealed he had an affair 33 years earlier. Next came Congressman Bob Livingston and his past affairs brought him down. In today’s case special prosecutor Mueller started out looking at the Trump-Russia connection and has moved on to obstruction of justice and now looking at the Clinton Foundation, the justice department and the FBI. This will probably go on for years and who knows where it will lead or how many congressmen will bite the dust. All this just confirms in the minds of many people that Washington is a mess.

NK negotiate

The pressure is on the Trump administration to negotiate with North Korea. How has this strategy worked in the past? In 1994 the Clinton administration sent Jimmy Carter on a secret mission to NK. Clinton’s administration successfully established a deal known as the Joint Framework Agreement which offered $4 billion worth of nuclear, energy, economic and diplomatic benefits in exchange for the halting of North Korea’s nuclear program in 1994. The deal also included two light-water nuclear reactors, which were believed to be more difficult to use to make weapons than Pyongyang’s plutonium reactor. North Korea continued to develop their Nuke program and in 2006 an attempt was made to convince them to stop. But that plan didn’t really hold and North Korea said it had successfully completed a nuclear test in 2006. In 2007, an agreement was reached to send $400 million worth of fuel, food and other aid in exchange for North Korea shutting down its main nuclear reactor. President Obama tried to reason with NK but finally resorted to threats. He went as far as to threaten the “military might” of the U.S. in 2014 as debates over true capabilities of the North continued. Now the ball is in Trump’s court and he is expected to negotiate. Does that mean the US will send aid to pacify NK? Is that what the American people want? Could that be considered back mail? I am reminded of the old cold war phrase of better red than dead.

Trump speech

Many people are confused and dismayed by the way President Trump conducts himself but for those who want to know why his backers stay strongly behind him, the answer can be found in Trump’s recent speech. It is lengthy but it explains his popularity among his hard core supporters, basically the forgotten Americans. Here is the speech. http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/12/trump-transcript-america-security-speech-171218205011166.html

2% GDP

Many leading economist say that since the US is considered a mature economy the long term growth will max out at 2% and they point to the last 10 years as evidence. If this is true then there will be many Americans who will be force to live on government benefits because they will not have the skills needed to provide for themselves. Another reason for the slow growth prediction is the full employment but that is misleading because there are 20 million able bodied people between the ages of 16 and 65 who have chosen not to work. This includes 10 million men between the ages of 25 to 54. Something is rotten in the U.S. economy. Poor men without a college degree are disappearing from the labor force. The share of prime-age men (ages 25-54) who are neither working nor looking for work has doubled since the 1970s. Today, one in six prime-age men in America are either unemployed or out of the workforce altogether—about 10 million men.

United States

The Internet is filled with examples of UN bias against Israel for anyone who wants to look them up. Recently the senate got fed up with this behavior and took action. All 100 US senators signed a letter to United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres Thursday demanding an end to the “unacceptable” anti-Israel bias in the international body. Over the years I have observed these prejudicial actions and overtime my opinion of this organization has lessened to the point where the US could drop out and it would not disappoint me. Much of the activity in the UN is about income redistribution which means taking money from wealthy developed nations and giving it to poor nations. While that sounds nice it is more efficient to open up free markets like what has happened in China. These markets have moved over a billion people out of poverty since 1980.

Bias

In today’s political world experts are surprised at the partisanship and many act as if it is something new. Back in the 1956 election, I actively campaigned for Stevenson when he ran the second time against Ike. I was only 19 and not old enough to vote at that time but I was still interest in the election. In order to keep up with events I would go to the library and read copies of day old newspapers. I read the Chicago Tribune and the St Louis Post Dispatch. I was often amazed at the coverage. It was so biased that I often had trouble believing they were covering the same story. Point is that this type of news coverage has been around for a long time.

First year

With the passage of the new tax law the news is all about major legislation in Trump’s first year in office and I wondered how that stacks up against other recent presidents. George H. W. Bush in the first year passed Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act of 1989 New Anti-Drug Law Fair Labor Standards Amendments President Clinton passed NAFTA and appointed Judge Ginsberg to the Court George Bush signs a $1.35 trillion tax cut into law and passes No child left behind Obama Judge Sotomayor Trump Judge Gorsuch and tax law

Women on the job

On Morning Joe today they had a lengthy discussion about sexual behavior and one thing that caught my attention was speculation as to what might have happened if the close scrutiny we are now experience had been the case over the years. They concluded that in the past women would not have been invited along on business trips, they would not have been allowed in private business meetings one on one with men and other limiting accesses and the result would have been fewer opportunities for promotion. In the late 60’s and early 70’s I was a plant manager at different locations around the country and this meant I arrived as a new comer at the plants. Most of these plants had a large number of women working there and one of the things I would do when I first got there is to go through the plant during operating hours and meet the employees. I recall specifically making it a point to look at the women in the eye with the same look I would give to my sisters. Whenever a woman came into my office I always left the door open or I had another person in there with me. At that time we had no women in management positions so I don’t know if I would have acted differently with them. I once had some college women ask me how I dealt with women engineers and I replied not only did we not have any women engineers the thought of a woman engineer never entered our minds. Times have definitely changed for the better in that way.

S corp

Under current tax law a C corporation pays 35% top tax and a subchapter S (pass through) corporation pays 39.6% top tax. If this were the whole story and the objective was to pay less tax then the company would just change to a regular corporation and pay 35%. In a regular corporation the business pays 35% but when dividends are distributed and they get capital gain rate then another 20% in tax is paid. Suppose the Acme Corporation earns $100 in profit. Assuming it doesn’t do any international tax avoidance, it pays $35 in corporate tax. Then it distributes the rest to a shareholder, Carl, by buying back his shares. Carl gets $65, and because he held the shares for long enough he’s entitled to a 20 percent capital gains rate on that earnings (assuming he makes enough money doing other things to be in the top bracket). So he pays $13, leaving $52 in profits. The total tax rate on the profits was about 48 percent. Now let’s suppose that Acme is a pass-through. That $100 would go straight to Carl, who’d pay a 39.6 percent marginal rate on it. He pays $39.60 and keeps $61.40. He’s substantially better off than he would’ve been if Acme organized as a C corporation and paid corporate taxes. The new tax law lowers the C corp top rate to 21% and if nothing were changed with the S corps then they would all change to C corps. Thus the new law lowers the S corp rate to 25%.

New tax law

The new tax bill with the $24,000 standard deduction for married couples means that 92% of all taxpayers will file without itemizing deductions. These people will not use the mortgage interest deduction, the state income tax deduction, the property tax deduction, medical expense deduction and charitable deduction. The new law limits the state tax deduction to $10,000. In MN that means your house has a taxable value of $1,500,000. Your mortgage interest deduction is limited to a mortgage of less than $750,000. So how does the family of four earning $100,000 do their taxes. Gross income from W-2’s $100,000 Less the standard deduction 24,000 Taxable income $76,000 Tax due $8,739 Less $4,000 child tax credit $4,000 Tax due $4,739 This means the federal income is 4.7% of gross income. A family with $60,000 of gross income will pay zero income tax. This includes 54% of all taxpayers.

Child tax credit

The child tax credit is a significant benefit for low income workers. A taxpayer is given a tax credit of $2,000 for each child. A credit is not a deduction. A credit is taken off after you figure your taxes. If you owe $4,000 in tax and you have two children you owe nothing. There is a distinction between refundable and non- refundable credits. Non-refundable means you must owe at least $4,000 in taxes in order to deduct the $4,000 credit. What happens to those who owe no income tax? They are eligible for a $1,400 refundable credit for each child. If a family of four earns $30,000 they will owe no income tax and they will receive a government check for $2,800 under the child tax credit and another $4,300 from the earned income credit. Since there is no social security deducted for these two benefits their net income is $30,000 less social security and Medicare yields $27,705 plus $2,800 plus $4,300 for total take home pay of $34,805. This equates to $17.40 per hour.

Immigrants

The United States is and has been the leader when it comes to immigration. 19% of US citizens are foreign born and the next closest countries are Germany and Russia where 5% are foreign born. In the past few years there has been a shift in where immigrants come from. In 2010 most came from Mexico (34%) and South America (14%) but in 2016 most came from Asia (41%). One of the results of this is that immigrants are better educated. If this trend is deemed desirable it could be enhanced by vetting immigrants by education. Canada, like the US has welcomed immigrants for many years but they are particular on who they let in. Selection is based on a point system that rewards applicants with higher levels of education, job experience, and language skills. Most immigrants to the US come based the process of chain migration which basically means being a relative.

Net neutrality

The term “net neutrality” is in the news and while there are a number of parts to it the concept is based on the regulation of utility companies. Years ago when the power company installed its grid, it was a major project with millions of dollars in infrastructure. This meant that it was unlikely that another company would try to enter that market and the government feared that the monopolistic control would allow the company to raise rates so the FCC (federal communications commission) was formed to oversee rate increases. Two years ago President Obama included the Internet under the supervision of the FCC to prevent excessive rate increases. There is a major difference between the old power companies and the Internet and that is the cost of setting up a competitor. It is relatively easy and not that costly for another Internet provider to move into a given area and that is getting easier as technology improves. In today’s world if a provider raises rates too high it would be inviting a competitor to step in.

Jews

The Jews had a monarchy in Jerusalem in 1,000 BC. They were run out by the Assyrians and returned again in 538 BC when the second temple was built. In 332 Alexander the Great defeated the Jews and split them in half. In 165 BC the orthodox Jews were reestablished and in 64 BC the Romans conquered Israel. Despite all of this the area remained mostly Jewish until the Romans expelled most of the Jews in 66 BC. The Jewish population declined and in 638 AD the Muslims took over the area. In 1291 the Crusades removed the Muslims from the area. In 1517 the Ottoman Empire gained control until 1917 when the English took over. Then in 1948 England returned the area to Israel and since then there have been 5 wars between the Jews and Palestinians with the Jew winning each time and retaining control of the area.

Super delegate

An old adage says that money is the mother’s milk of politics and often times candidates say they lost because they were out spent. In the 2016 presidential election Clinton out spent Trump by $450 million and still lost. She was seasoned politician with the backing of the democratic establishment as witnessed by the fact that Clinton received 602 super delegates to Sanders 48. Super delegates were put into the democratic platform to assure the some outside populist like Trump could never be elected. The establishment would be able to stop such a takeover.

Crowds

Recent polls show that the press approval ratings are in the low 30’s and one of the reasons is mistakes like the recent photo by Washington Post reporter David Weigel. He showed the Trump rally in Pensacola two hours before the program started and published that saying the crowd was sparse. In fact when the show started the place was full with thousands outside who could not get. Weigel said he used an image from the Internet without checking its validity. I accept his explanation but it shows ignorance of the politics of the Pensacola area. This is Trump country and I believe this reporter knew that and the photo should have made him suspicious. This sort of thing erodes the credibility of all the press.

Harassment

One of the favorite games that politicians play is what I call the teenage defense, that is, mom everyone is doing it. As long as you can find someone in the other party who is making the same mistake it makes everything alright. The latest foray into this game isn’t working as well as it has in the past. Right now we have standoff with President Trump and President Clinton being accused of mistreatment of women, Senator Franken and assumed Senator Moore and congressmen Conyers and Franks. Each side is planning to gain an advantage and thus accuse the other of not caring about women. As long as this issue is politicized it will be difficult to get to the real problem which is a part of our culture. This is just one more reason that the approval rating of congress is in the single digits.

Olympians

One of our American Olympians announced that she would not go to the White House if invited. She said she doesn’t represent President Trump but the American people. Can we assume then she only represents the people who did not vote for Trump. It reminds me of the people who opposed the Viet Nam war saying they were against the war but not against the soldiers but when the soldiers came home they were treated with disdain by many people. When Tom Brady refused an invite to the Obama White House was he dissing the people who voted for Obama? There are so many positive ways to address the inequalities in our country and these athletes who have a large stage should look into some of these.

Franken vote

An old adage says to be careful for what you wish for and this came true in the case of Senator Al Franken. He was elected in 2008 when Minnesota went for Obama by 12% and he won by 312 votes after a recount. His vote allowed the passage of Obamacare and that could have been his legacy. He most likely wished he would win the election but if the accusations he now faces were known then he probably would not have been elected. His vote for Obamacare will be overshadowed by his resignation.

Hammurabi

While good Americans promote equal justice under the law, most realize that is not the case. Some years ago a man named Franklin Raines who was head of Fannie Mae earned $90 million by accounting tricks and he was caught and convicted and fined $30 million. Last summer a young black man was convicted of robbing a convenience store in North Minneapolis and he is in jail. Is this new? Not hardly! Back about 4,000 years ago a man named Hammurabi came up with a code of justice based on the concept of an eye for and eye but it didn’t work out that way. In fact punishment varied according to status. For the poor it was punishment to fit the crime but the wealthy could pay a fine instead. Sound familiar?

Jerusalem

Here is what past presidents said about making Jerusalem the capital of Israel. Senator Obama in 2008 speaking before a Pro- Israeli lobby group. "Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel, and it must remain undivided. I have no illusions that this will be easy." In 2000 candidate George Bush speaking before the same group. In 2000, then Republican candidate George W Bush promised to move the US embassy to Jerusalem In 1993, former president Bill Clinton also came to office saying he supported 'the principle' of moving the US embassy to Jerusalem These presidents talked about doing this but once elected forgot about. This is what often happens.

Bill Clinton

As the various scandals unfold in Washington many wonder how this will affect the voters but there is no way to be sure. For example former President Clinton was involved with some questionable activities but that did not have a negative effect on his legacy. news.gallup.com After his impeachment proceedings in 1998 and 1999, Clinton's rating reached its highest point at 73%approval. He finished with a Gallup poll approval rating of 65%, higher than that of every other departing president measured since Harry Truman. Interestingly enough his ratings were highest among women.

10% itemized

Most people are having some difficulty in keeping up with all the proposed changes in the tax law but the increased in the standard deduction from $12,000 to $24,000 for couples is easy to follow. Estimates say that with his change 90% of taxpayers will use the standard deduction and for the most part these are lower income people. The 10% who will continue to itemize are in the upper income groups. These are the people who use deductions like property tax, home mortgage interest, charity and state tax deduction. In other words the upper income people are the ones who are adversely affected by these changes.

Jobs

Each day some new expert says the economy is almost at full employment but that is misleading. Something is rotten in the U.S. economy. Poor men without a college degree are disappearing from the labor force. The share of prime-age men (ages 25-54) who are neither working nor looking for work has doubled since the 1970s. Today, one in six prime-age men in America are either unemployed or out of the workforce altogether—about 10 million men. If the US could increase the number of manufacturing jobs these men might decide to come back to work. Farming is another area that could help if those picking crops were paid $25 an hour many of these men would go to work. A consumer who pays $2 for a pound of strawberries is paying 86 cents to the farmer who is then paying 34 cents to the pickers. If picker cost was doubled to 68 cents the consumer would pay $2.34 for a pound of strawberries. Other food product would follow that formula. Another area for these out of workers is infrastructure. As companies bring back money from overseas the government will have a large tax windfall and that could be used as seed money for construction.

Kate

As I read the news reports about the Kate Steinle case, I was struck by the facts surrounding the gun. The gun, a .40-caliber SIG Sauer P239 requires a firm pull on the trigger to discharge but the jury was told the gun went off accidentally. At the trial a gun expert who examined the weapon said it was in good working condition and could not fire unless the trigger was pulled. Testimony said the defendant found the gun wrapped in a cloth, picked it up and it went off accidentally. This is puzzling to me.