Monday, November 7, 2011
Waste Fraud
I just heard a commercial concerning the deficit and cutting social security and it illustrates how to demagogue the issue. It states that instead of getting rid of waste and fraud some are proposing cutting benefits. My entire life I have heard politicians say they are offering a new program to benefit voters and it will not cost anything because they will pay for it by cutting the fat out of government and all of my life the government has gotten fatter.
Paul Ryan
When Paul Ryan came out with his plan to save Medicare, he opened the door for Nancy Pelosi to regain her position as speaker and she immediately knew that. It was a gift to her and the opportunity for the Democrats to regain control of the house and everyone knew it. The old time Republican leadership wanted to keep quiet until Obama came out with a plan but he didn’t have one. The budget he proposed in Feb was voted down by the Senate 97 to 0. It was then that pressure from the Tea Party and the newly elected 87 members of the house convinced the Republican leadership to cave and allow the Ryan plan to come to a vote. Now the Republicans are on the record of supporting changes to Medicare. At this point Pelosi is putting pressure on Obama to give up whatever but not to mention Medicare. Up to this point he has talked about Medicare but has put nothing in writing. He has said that he would reduce the fees paid to hospitals and doctors but that is about it. If he refuses to say any more he will put the Democrats in a strong position to recapture the house because they will demagogue the Ryan plan to death. They have already started with the ad showing grandma being pushed over the cliff. The Ryan plan was voted on and put forward but Obama has not responded. Rather than present a plan he just criticizes the Ryan plan and the press allows him to get away with that. I suspect that when all the dust settles we will once more push the can down the road and the idea of taking on entitlements will have to wait for some future date. For the first two years of Obama’s presidency the Democrats controlled both houses and during that time did not propose a budget. The government has now gone over 800 days without a budget.
The federal budget process is similar to the regular legislative process, but it is also different in some very important ways. First, because the Constitution requires that any bill raising revenue must originate in the House of Representatives, the House has traditionally taken the lead in the budget process.
Another distinctive feature of the budget process is that the President's role is more formalized and, therefore, significant. The Congress, by statute, has required the President to submit a budget to the Congress each year. By doing so, the President establishes the starting point and the framework of the annual budget debate.
There can be no honest debate until Obama submits his budget which he will not do unless he is forced to. As it stands now we can openly criticize the Ryan Plan but cannot criticize a plan that is non-existent.
The President has said many times that the deficit is a big problem and he wants to raise taxes on the rich but he wants to use the money to invest in education and infrastructure not to pay down the debt. This is now called revenue and invest instead of tax and spend and that is all that has changed.
The federal budget process is similar to the regular legislative process, but it is also different in some very important ways. First, because the Constitution requires that any bill raising revenue must originate in the House of Representatives, the House has traditionally taken the lead in the budget process.
Another distinctive feature of the budget process is that the President's role is more formalized and, therefore, significant. The Congress, by statute, has required the President to submit a budget to the Congress each year. By doing so, the President establishes the starting point and the framework of the annual budget debate.
There can be no honest debate until Obama submits his budget which he will not do unless he is forced to. As it stands now we can openly criticize the Ryan Plan but cannot criticize a plan that is non-existent.
The President has said many times that the deficit is a big problem and he wants to raise taxes on the rich but he wants to use the money to invest in education and infrastructure not to pay down the debt. This is now called revenue and invest instead of tax and spend and that is all that has changed.
Obama election
The election of President Obama came along at a critical time in our history. We all know the story of the frog in the pan of warm water. The frog is quite comfortable as we slowly heat the water until the frog finally dies. Our economy has been in the warm water for the past fifty years, as we have been on an inexorable path toward European style social democracy. If John McCain had been elected we would just have continued down that slow road to self-destruction. President Obama accelerated the process to such a degree that he woke up the American people and a kind of quiet panic set in. With each new Czar, with each new regulation, with each new stimulus the people became more and more uncomfortable. The slow moving cloud of government encroachment turned into a threatening storm and now even those who were transfixed by Obama’s oratory are having doubts about the direction of the country. Add to this the unrest in the countries of Western Europe, countries who seem to reflect where we are heading and there is grave concern about our future. The silent majority as represented by the Tea Party is awakening and soon will use the power of the vote to bring on a new wave of hope and change. We see it in states like Indiana, Ohio, Wisconsin and Florida and soon we will see it in Washington. The rise in the growth of government will slow and perhaps even diminish with the emphasis on perhaps. In retrospect we may see the election of Obama as the best thing that could have happened. Time will tell.
Jung
Anyone who wants to know the human psyche will learn next to nothing from experimental psychology. He would be better advised to abandon exact science, put away his scholar's gown, bid farewell to his study, and wander with human heart through the world. There in the horrors of prisons, lunatic asylums and hospitals, in drab suburban pubs, in brothels and gambling-hells, in the salons of the elegant, the Stock Exchanges, socialist meetings, churches, revivalist gatherings and ecstatic sects, through love and hate, through the experience of passion in every form in his own body, he would reap richer stores of knowledge than text-books a foot thick could give him, and he will know how to doctor the sick with a real knowledge of the human soul. -- Carl Jung
TARP
From your previous articles I know that you are one of many experts, who say that the TARP bail out of the big banks saved us from depression, but there is no way you or anyone can be sure of this. The result of this government intervention has been to save the big banks. This was followed up with financial reform which made the banks that were too big to fail into banks that are now to big big to fail.
Now that the dust has settled and with the advantage of hind sight I propose that there was a better way to solve the bank dilemma. Instead of printing up over two trillion that has made the banks whole and made Wall Street rich, we could have spent 800 billion and saved the 4 million homes that were in jeopardy at the time. This would have paid in full these loans and allowed the people to remain in their homes and this would have allowed the banks to remain healthy.
Recall not too many years ago the idea of the pump was used to describe the different ways in which liberals and conservatives viewed the economy. Liberals said to prime the pump at the bottom by putting money in the hands of consumers who would spend it and increase demand, but the conservatives said to prime at the top by putting money in the hands of businesses, which would expand and hire. I thought either way was OK until when Reagan gave the breaks to business they didn’t expand and hire, but instead big businesses just bought out small business. Businesses discovered that it was more efficient to buy an existing business rather than expand their own business.
Now we look at Obama, the liberal and what his approach has accomplished. We have the big banks getting bigger and the “fat cat bankers” are getting fatter. Wall Street profits are up. For the middle class we have higher food and gas prices, slumping housing market, high unemployment and big time inflation on the way.
Also Obama the liberal and green guy has caused commodity prices to double by and triple by printing money and in conjunction with ethanol people in third world countries are suffering. You can’t print up trillions and not expect inflation and commodities are the first to be hit.
Now that the dust has settled and with the advantage of hind sight I propose that there was a better way to solve the bank dilemma. Instead of printing up over two trillion that has made the banks whole and made Wall Street rich, we could have spent 800 billion and saved the 4 million homes that were in jeopardy at the time. This would have paid in full these loans and allowed the people to remain in their homes and this would have allowed the banks to remain healthy.
Recall not too many years ago the idea of the pump was used to describe the different ways in which liberals and conservatives viewed the economy. Liberals said to prime the pump at the bottom by putting money in the hands of consumers who would spend it and increase demand, but the conservatives said to prime at the top by putting money in the hands of businesses, which would expand and hire. I thought either way was OK until when Reagan gave the breaks to business they didn’t expand and hire, but instead big businesses just bought out small business. Businesses discovered that it was more efficient to buy an existing business rather than expand their own business.
Now we look at Obama, the liberal and what his approach has accomplished. We have the big banks getting bigger and the “fat cat bankers” are getting fatter. Wall Street profits are up. For the middle class we have higher food and gas prices, slumping housing market, high unemployment and big time inflation on the way.
Also Obama the liberal and green guy has caused commodity prices to double by and triple by printing money and in conjunction with ethanol people in third world countries are suffering. You can’t print up trillions and not expect inflation and commodities are the first to be hit.
Debt
When a person decides to run for public office, particularly a national office, they are immediately faced with a dilemma. What happens when your basic principles conflict with your constituents? You can change your platform to fit with the voters and improve your chances of winning or you can stick by your guns and decrease your chances of winning. Assuming you are running because you believe you can make a positive contribution to the country, you realize that you can only make a difference if you win. So you decide to change your campaign to fit the desires of the people and after you are in office you move away from your campaign and toward your beliefs. This opens you to criticism from the other side but if you can pull it off you can get reelected. On the other hand if you don’t change and don’t get elected you can go home feeling like you are a person of principal and leave the improving the country to someone else.
We have such a choice going on at this time. Michele Bachmann is a person of principal who will not change to get elected and we have Obama who will. Here is a quote from Senator Obama in 2006 regarding raising the debt limit.
“The fact that we are here today to debate raising America's debt limit is a sign of leadership failure,” he said on March 16, 2006. “Leadership means that ‘the buck stops here.’ Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership . Americans deserve better. I therefore intend to oppose the effort to increase America's debt limit.”
Here is President Obama in April of this year:
“Failure by Congress to raise the U.S. debt limit “could plunge the world economy back into recession,” President Barack Obama declared Friday.
Our inexperienced President found out that there is big difference between campaigning and governing.
But here is how you resolve the problem and get set for reelection.
Obama "thinks it was a mistake," presidential spokesman Jay Carney told reporters. "He realizes now that raising the debt ceiling is so important to the health of this economy and the global economy that it is not a vote that, even when you are protesting an administration's policies, you can play around with."
We have such a choice going on at this time. Michele Bachmann is a person of principal who will not change to get elected and we have Obama who will. Here is a quote from Senator Obama in 2006 regarding raising the debt limit.
“The fact that we are here today to debate raising America's debt limit is a sign of leadership failure,” he said on March 16, 2006. “Leadership means that ‘the buck stops here.’ Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership . Americans deserve better. I therefore intend to oppose the effort to increase America's debt limit.”
Here is President Obama in April of this year:
“Failure by Congress to raise the U.S. debt limit “could plunge the world economy back into recession,” President Barack Obama declared Friday.
Our inexperienced President found out that there is big difference between campaigning and governing.
But here is how you resolve the problem and get set for reelection.
Obama "thinks it was a mistake," presidential spokesman Jay Carney told reporters. "He realizes now that raising the debt ceiling is so important to the health of this economy and the global economy that it is not a vote that, even when you are protesting an administration's policies, you can play around with."
Education
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Hi Brotons,
When you asked me why I didn’t put my thoughts about education in the book I was embarrassed since that is certainly an important part of our culture. In order to bring the subject down to an understandable level I want to talk about the Minneapolis School District which I think represents the big cities and where most of the students live. To begin here are some stats.
Budget $654,000,000
Students 35,000
Teachers 3,300
Staff 6,300
Doing a little math tells me that the cost per student is $18,900 and class size is 10. I also learned that about 1,700 of the staff people belong to the teachers union. Here are the results of the last school board election.
chool board member
3 seats 131 of 131 precincts (100%)
Lydia Lee *
61,623 22
Jill Davis
58,998 21
Carla Bates
54,691 20
Sharon Henry-Blythe *
39,476 14
Kari Reed
33,118 12
Doug Mann
28,416 10
Notice that it takes about 50,000 votes to win. If the 5,000 members of the union and their spouses and their parents vote they get a 30,000 vote head start. The result of this is that no teacher backed candidate has lost an election in the past 20 years.
This is all factual material and now I will move into the area of speculation. If I am the teachers union, I will select candidates that I know will be on my side. I will ask my members to donate funds to their campaign, have coffee parties for them, put signs in the yards and even go door to door.
Then when I sit down to negotiate my contract things will go my way. My guess is that this sort of thing goes on in many big city school districts across the country and if your district is not doing this you should get new union leadership.
Now on to some specifics. The first reason why our education systems is failing many of the students in the inner cities as represented by the widening gap between whites and Asians on one side and others, is the lack of fathers in the homes. There are a number of reasons why this is the case but one of the most obvious is the change that occurred in the past 50 years. When the Great Society under Johnson, (whom I voted for) started providing benefits for the underprivileged the family unit in the inner cities began to deteriorate. Divorce rates increased, drop-out rates increased, the number of single moms increased, crime increased and drug use increased. When there is no father in the home children do not learn respect for authority and this carries over to teachers, coaches, and law officers. It causes disruptions in the classroom which affects the other students and the whole thing snowballs downhill.
Second, there are many minority students here in the cities who think that getting good grades is being white. Now it doesn’t matter how much money you pay the teachers or how qualified the teacher is or how new the buildings and equipment are these students cannot be taught until their attitude changes. This has led to grade inflation and passing kids to get rid of them or to keep them from self-esteem problems. The result is that we have high school graduates who cannot read and write and in the high tech world we live in we should not be surprised if there is a gap in earnings.
Third, centers around the seniority issue. This is a weakness and a strength in all unions. Most people within a district can tell you who the good teachers are and when layoffs come many times good teachers leave and those not so good remain. This suggests that the union is protecting the teachers at the expense of the students. This does not happen often but makes teachers feel uncomfortable.
Forth, as a society we have decided to place students who are challenged in the classroom with the others including those who have problems with the language.
Finally teachers are asked to assume too many of the responsibilities that belong to the parents and this leaves precious little time to take care of the three R’s.
There are a couple of obvious solutions to many of these problems. First is to use the merit system to evaluate teachers. The problem with this is that many principals are not properly trained in the ways to grade teachers and all too often personal feelings get in the way. The second is to allow students to choose the school and have the state money go with the student. This will bring in the concept of competition. Finally to make better use of Charter Schools.
Last but not least is to overall the “No Student Left Behind” program. The change to Obama’s plan of “Race To The Top” is not enough.
I personally think that getting rid of the Department of Education and pushing decision making down to the local level would be an improvement since the teachers and administrators in the district have a better understanding of the local needs.
I will remind you of what I said on the back cover of my book that these are only my opinions and designed to encourage others to opine.
John Novick
Hi Brotons,
When you asked me why I didn’t put my thoughts about education in the book I was embarrassed since that is certainly an important part of our culture. In order to bring the subject down to an understandable level I want to talk about the Minneapolis School District which I think represents the big cities and where most of the students live. To begin here are some stats.
Budget $654,000,000
Students 35,000
Teachers 3,300
Staff 6,300
Doing a little math tells me that the cost per student is $18,900 and class size is 10. I also learned that about 1,700 of the staff people belong to the teachers union. Here are the results of the last school board election.
chool board member
3 seats 131 of 131 precincts (100%)
Lydia Lee *
61,623 22
Jill Davis
58,998 21
Carla Bates
54,691 20
Sharon Henry-Blythe *
39,476 14
Kari Reed
33,118 12
Doug Mann
28,416 10
Notice that it takes about 50,000 votes to win. If the 5,000 members of the union and their spouses and their parents vote they get a 30,000 vote head start. The result of this is that no teacher backed candidate has lost an election in the past 20 years.
This is all factual material and now I will move into the area of speculation. If I am the teachers union, I will select candidates that I know will be on my side. I will ask my members to donate funds to their campaign, have coffee parties for them, put signs in the yards and even go door to door.
Then when I sit down to negotiate my contract things will go my way. My guess is that this sort of thing goes on in many big city school districts across the country and if your district is not doing this you should get new union leadership.
Now on to some specifics. The first reason why our education systems is failing many of the students in the inner cities as represented by the widening gap between whites and Asians on one side and others, is the lack of fathers in the homes. There are a number of reasons why this is the case but one of the most obvious is the change that occurred in the past 50 years. When the Great Society under Johnson, (whom I voted for) started providing benefits for the underprivileged the family unit in the inner cities began to deteriorate. Divorce rates increased, drop-out rates increased, the number of single moms increased, crime increased and drug use increased. When there is no father in the home children do not learn respect for authority and this carries over to teachers, coaches, and law officers. It causes disruptions in the classroom which affects the other students and the whole thing snowballs downhill.
Second, there are many minority students here in the cities who think that getting good grades is being white. Now it doesn’t matter how much money you pay the teachers or how qualified the teacher is or how new the buildings and equipment are these students cannot be taught until their attitude changes. This has led to grade inflation and passing kids to get rid of them or to keep them from self-esteem problems. The result is that we have high school graduates who cannot read and write and in the high tech world we live in we should not be surprised if there is a gap in earnings.
Third, centers around the seniority issue. This is a weakness and a strength in all unions. Most people within a district can tell you who the good teachers are and when layoffs come many times good teachers leave and those not so good remain. This suggests that the union is protecting the teachers at the expense of the students. This does not happen often but makes teachers feel uncomfortable.
Forth, as a society we have decided to place students who are challenged in the classroom with the others including those who have problems with the language.
Finally teachers are asked to assume too many of the responsibilities that belong to the parents and this leaves precious little time to take care of the three R’s.
There are a couple of obvious solutions to many of these problems. First is to use the merit system to evaluate teachers. The problem with this is that many principals are not properly trained in the ways to grade teachers and all too often personal feelings get in the way. The second is to allow students to choose the school and have the state money go with the student. This will bring in the concept of competition. Finally to make better use of Charter Schools.
Last but not least is to overall the “No Student Left Behind” program. The change to Obama’s plan of “Race To The Top” is not enough.
I personally think that getting rid of the Department of Education and pushing decision making down to the local level would be an improvement since the teachers and administrators in the district have a better understanding of the local needs.
I will remind you of what I said on the back cover of my book that these are only my opinions and designed to encourage others to opine.
John Novick
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