Pondering America's Future

My son loves roller coasters, and for some time had wanted us to take him to Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio, which is kind of the Mecca for roller coaster riders.  So we took him, my daughter, and their cousin at the end of July.  We stayed in these little cottages they have there which are right on the edge of Lake Erie.  They have little decks on them where you can sit and watch the lake and the sunset.  It was beautiful.  One day while sitting there I got to thinking.  I read an article back in the 1970's about Lake Erie and how it was basically a dead lake.  Pollution had not only killed most of what lived in the lake, but had also robbed it of oxygen.  Swimming was disallowed--it was too dangerous and filled with chemicals.  The writer at the time said that it would take thousands of years for the lake to come back.  Yet here it was, in front of my eyes, and it was far from dead.  Seagulls flocked by the hundreds.  If you stood near the bank you could see fish.  A heron perched on the remains of a jetty not far from our deck.  Recreational boaters crossed the lake, reveling in a glorious summer day.  It didn't take thousands of years for the lake to come back.  More like forty.
My train of thought as I sat there turned to America and in my mind I made a metaphorical connection between the country and the lake.  Many pundits have opined on the fall of America.  They say our greatest days are behind us.  They say that unemployment will stay chronically high pretty much forever, for they say that the mechanisms of employment have changed.  They say that we are bankrupt (and they are right).  They say that our days as a super power are numbered.  I say they are all like that writer I read long ago eulogizing Lake Erie.  I say that America can be brought back, and a lot sooner than people think.  I say that we still have the best system of government, as long as it's kept in check.  I say that the freedom we experience makes us stronger, as long as we don't abuse it.  I say that, while we are in a hard time right now, we will come back and be stronger than ever.  This is America.  Our nation will once again be respected and envied throughout the world.  I say that, like Lake Erie, we will be strong again, and we will disappoint our enemies who want us to collapse and prove all the naysayers wrong.  It will not take generations to turn things around.  Together we can move forward to better days and, as in the case of Lake Erie, we will fix our problems more quickly than anyone ever imagined.

On Social Issues

I've had several people contact me and say they like my stances (or not) on various issues, but they want to know where I stand on social issues such as gay, minority, and women's rights, as well as abortion.  Let me start with gay rights.  I think that if two people want to get married and they are gay, so what?  All gays are asking for on this issue is to have the same rights as anyone else.  For instance, if I die tomorrow, my estate automatically reverts to my spouse.  That isn't currently true with gay marriage.  Why not?  I am straight, so I don't really understand why you'd want to marry someone who is the same sex, but if you do, who am I to tell you not to?  Obviously, gay marriage doesn't help propagate the species, but that isn't the point, is it?  The point is that the Constitution guarantees the "pursuit of happiness," and that's all people are trying to do.  Those who want to change the Constitution to make gay marriage illegal on the federal level are, in my opinion, making a big mistake. Now I do have a problem with gays who want to shove their agenda down my throat or the throats of my children.  For instance, have you looked at the crowds at a gay pride rally?  Leather chaps, cod pieces, pierced nipples, and these are the more mild people.  All in front of children.  We also see the agenda trying to be forced on our public schools.  Kindergarten children will now be taught "gay history" in California schools.  Kindergarten?  They don't even know what a penis is for yet.  What's the teacher supposed to say when asked by a child what "gay" means? 

As far as women's rights and the rights of minorities are concerned, I believe in equal rights for all.  People should be given equal consideration for housing, jobs, promotions, etc., regardless of their race or sex.  I don't know how much clearer I can be on that.  I understand the argument for redress of past grievances, but I think that labeling people just propogates racism.  We need to get rid of "African American" and "Indian American" and "Hispanic American" and start referring to people as "American."
The stickier point is abortion because a lot of people put this one under "women's rights."  However, I disagree.  I don't base my arguments against abortion on religion, but rather on logic.  We are a people who value the life of the individual.  That is why murder is a crime, assault is a crime, rape is a crime.  We value the gift of life.  Our Constitution's first guaranteed liberty is "life."  Now, that being said, think of the fetus.  There isn't a scientist anywhere who will disagree that from the moment of conception, if we do nothing, that fertilized egg is growing and will grow into a baby.  The definition of life is something which takes nutrition and grows.  That's what babies do in the womb.  However, let's assume for a minute that there is a question here of whether or not that fetus is a life.  If we're not sure, shouldn't we err on the side of life?  What if all the pro-abortion people are wrong and we have in fact been murdering babies to the tune of about sixty million of them?  Then we as a society will be the greatest mass murdering society ever--even bigger than Hitler and his Nazis.  Many women in this country will never, ever admit that abortion is murder because that makes them guilty of murder.  And think of this.  We've aborted, as a nation, about sixty million babies.  How many Einsteins, how many Mozarts, how many Ghandis have we killed?  Did we kill the one who had the answers?  It's a scary thought.  Also scary is the way fetuses are killed.  Either a solution which basically burns them to death is introduced, or tools are put inside the mother's body which cuts them into pieces, after which they are vacuumed out.  I'm not making this up, this is the way it's done.
So I agree with those who say that abortion should be a criminal act.  The doctors should be held accountable, but not the mothers.  At this point in their lives there are too many problems going on in the mothers' heads.  It's the doctors who coax them and convince them it's the right thing to do.  After all, there's big money involved.  I don't even put a caveat for rape or incest there, because if we do agree we're going to err on the side of life, then why would we make that life worth less because of the way it was conceived?  I can see putting an exclusion in there about the life of the mother, but that's problematic too because certain doctors will go on with their abortions and just label every one as the mother's life was in jeopardy.  One form of abortion should definitely put the doctor up for murder charges--the partial birth abortion.  Whenever I tell people the procedure, they tell me that I've been brainwashed by right wing propaganda, but the truth of the matter is that, in a partial birth abortion, the baby is delivered except for the head, which is left in the birth canal.  The skull is then pierced, usually with scissors, and the brain is sucked out with a vacuum.  This is done to a viable fetus which can feel pain.  If you think I'm lying, check it out.  This practice is, to me, the incarnation of evil, and it should be stopped immediately.

The Sharks are Circling

The recent debt ceiling negotiations, which I have said time and time again are just theatre because nobody is going to cut anything anyway, have drawn our attention away from the fact that several nations are taking our internal weakness as a sign that we have become weak throughout our whole structure.  While the president and the Congress talk and talk and talk, and the deadline for default gets closer and closer, we look foolish to the rest of the world.  We have a responsibility to pay our obligations, but we must also balance our budget immediately.  The fact that we have to go groveling to the Chinese and other nations to borrow money to run our government is appalling, especially given what we have now learned.  It seems that there are indications the Chinese are building electromagnetic pulse weapons with the aim of rendering our aircraft carriers vulnerable (http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/jul/21/beijing-develops-radiation-weapons/).  We know they have already tested anti-satellite weapons, as they blasted one of their old ones out of the sky in a test.  The Chinese didn't seem to care that this was a violation of several treaties, as treaties are only as strong as those who enforce them.  We depend on satellite technology in our war making strategy. Our GPS, our guided missiles, many of the precision weapons we use, are all dependent on satellites.  On another front, it seems that Iran is accelerating its nuclear program, and there is also evidence that they may have purchased rocket technology from Pakistan or elsewhere.  North Korea, a Stalinist throwback country, despite the fact that its population is starving, has gone ahead with its own nuclear weapons development and apparently has purchased missile technology from the Chinese, which would enable them to actually put the United States in range (although South Korea is a more likely target).  In the Middle East, the Muslim Brotherhood is strengthening its hold on power in Egypt.  We are their sworn enemy, and their aims include the destruction of the state of Israel.  We have been duped into thinking all those who oppose tyrannical regimes must be correct and worthy of our friendship.  We actually supported this group's ascendancy!  In short, many nations which hate us, and a couple that pretend to be our friends but in fact may harbor aspirations of becoming THE superpower, sense a weakness in our nation which has put us in peril.  I think the fact that we can't even get our fiscal house in order while the world watches is a big part of this perception.  Another huge part of this perception is the end of the United States' lead in space--we now have to depend on the Russians to take us.  John Kennedy must be turning over in his grave.  At any rate, I hope somebody is busy deciding what to do about all of this because it seems that the president and the Congress are devoting all their time to the debt issue.  That is important to be sure, but the #1 priority of government is to protect the nation and the people.  So let's quit dallying.  I say we institute my plan to eliminate the deficit (or one like it) so that the world will see that we are serious again, start buying more American products, quit borrowing money, and show the world that we have the will and backbone to act like a great nation again.  Then all those sharks in the water might think twice and decide there is a better meal elsewhere.

Time to Reform the Tax Code (For Real!)

For years I've had someone do my taxes, not because I can't figure out how to fill out the form, but because I need an expert who knows what deductions I can take and who constantly keeps up with all the confusing changes the IRS makes.

From the web site US Tax Code online: "The complete Internal Revenue Code is more than 24 megabytes in length, and contains more than 3.4 million words; printed 60 lines to the page, it would fill more than 7500 letter-size pages. Looking for something buried in that mass of verbiage can be daunting." This is ridiculous. How is anybody, other than an attorney or tax expert, supposed to be able to negotiate that maze? We need a change, and we need it now. For some time now I have advocated scrapping the entire U.S. Federal tax code and replacing it with a national sales tax. Think of it. Not only could we get rid of this daunting morass of legalese and bureaucrat speak, but we could replace it with what would surely be one of the most fair taxes around. No need for tax preparers. No need for tax attorneys. Everyone would pay into the system, commensurate with what they spend, meaning the rich would pay more than the poor, but all would feel as if they were contributing.
A national sales tax would be easy to collect and easy to police. We wouldn't need the thousands upon thousands of IRS agents looking into everything we do to make sure we are complying with line 2, item 27 in sub paragraph 112. We'd have to do some rough numbers, but I'm calculating somewhere in the neighborhood of a 20% national sales tax would get the job done. We would eliminate all deductions as well, and April 15th would no longer be the day your taxes were due. You would pay your taxes as you consume. Yes, there would be no mortgage deduction. But there would be no income tax either. Everything would be taxed under my plan, but only to the extent that the revenues required to operate the government efficiently and pay down our debt were collected. You'd pay the national sales tax on everything from a stick of gum to your car to your house. Corporations would pay on what they buy as well. The machines they use, any supplies, anything they buy, would be subject to the tax.  Of course, this idea goes hand in hand with balancing the budget and eliminating the deficit. While eliminating the deficit is the priority, tax reform must happen as well. You've read about my plan to balance the budget. Well, in some areas we could save more than the percentage I recommend, which would allow us to not cut as much in others, as long as the overall spending cut totals were met. In this vein, and with this idea, the IRS could be reduced in size by 80 or 90%, allowing us to divert some of those cuts into savings elsewhere. I've also written that I think we need to get rid of the plan known as "Obamacare." As part of that plan, thousands of IRS agents are being hired to enforce the punitive taxes in that plan and the mandate which goes with it. I hate to stop any kind of job creation, but this is one place job creation should be not only stopped, but reversed. As I've said before, if we balance the budget, there will be a renaissance in investment and the economy will start to flourish. Then we can absorb all those IRS workers. The IRS will be out of your life, April 15th will no longer carry such a stigma, and we can get on with moving this country forward. Maybe we could turn the building into a giant mall or something which would generate revenue instead of sucking it up.

Isolationism Is Not a Dirty Word

Imagine for a moment that you were a kind person and, when a friend asked if he could borrow some money, you readily agreed since times were good and you were flush with cash. Then word got around and before you knew it, dozens of people were all of a sudden your "friends" and asking you for money as well. Being a nice person, you acquiesced and loaned them money too. As time went on, some people came to you and said they couldn't pay you back, so you waived their obligations and basically just gave them the money. This eventually morphed into just giving everyone on the list your hard earned money. Eventually some of these "friends" started to imply that if they didn't get money there might be trouble. For instance, if you didn't give Bobby money, it was believed that he wouldn't have enough money to buy gas and therefore he would go rob somebody to get gas money. So you gave Bobby money, not just to help Bobby out, but to avoid any mayhem Bobby might create. People who were definitely not your friends caught onto this and made veiled threats that, if they didn't get some of your hard earned money as well, they would cause trouble, so they got put on the giveaway list too. Pretty soon you were giving money to hundreds of people, and the list included, incredibly, people who wanted to hurt you in one way or another. It also included people who claimed they needed the money to feed their families but who in fact just took the money and partied with it or bought fancy cars or houses.

You also decided that, because there were so many people and some weren't acting nice to some of your friends, and there were many others to whom you didn't lend money that didn't like you or your friends either, you would give some of your friends not just money for expenses, but weapons with which to defend themselves, until you were giving out basically double what you were giving before.

Now imagine that things got bad for you economically, and you didn't have any money or weapons to give all your "friends". However, many of them were still being very aggressive, and some were even threatening to hurt some of your other friends, or maybe even your family. So you decided that you would borrow money from various sources to keep your good will giving going, and some of the people you were borrowing money from were actually receiving money from you as well! While there were a few true friends you actually wanted to help, you now found yourself in a position where you were paying hundreds of people money, some because of veiled threats, others because of those threats and, still others who were receiving money and lending you money at the same time. Of course you also had to pay interest on the money you were lending because you were borrowing it from someone else, and this expense increased constantly. You did this until finally you went broke and then there was no money to give to anyone because you didn't have any and nobody would lend you money either.
A sad tale, isn't it? The saddest part of all is that this the state of foreign aid in the budget of the United States of America. Have you looked at a list of how much aid we give and to whom? You can find some good information at sites like: http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/cats/foreign_commerce_aid/foreign_aid.html. Just click on the excel or PDF sheets for the desired list. You'll probably notice we also give grants, so include this in your search. What you will find is that we give hundreds of millions to billions to countries which are either our direct competitors, or which are trying to undermine us in some way, or which will never think of giving the money to the people. And all of this money is borrowed, much of it from China. The world has got to be laughing at us. Did you know we also give foreign aid to China? It's crazy. We give money to Zimbabwe.

Do you think Robert Mugabe is going to let one cent slip through his fingers and into the people's hands?

The problem is that this situation has slowly accrued over time. This Congress or that Congress decided it was a good idea to add this or that country to the list. That's one of the problems anyway. The other is that we can't afford it. So here is my idea. I say we terminate all aid immediately, including military aid, then, in the same legislative session, create new bills for aid to those countries we truly feel it is in our interest to help. We need to really look at things like aid to Afghanistan and Iraq and see if we can figure out some other program, because there is an oligarchy enriching themselves in both countries. We give aid to Pakistan yet we launch drone strikes against them for harboring terrorists. We give aid to Russia although Mr. Putin actively opposes our interests on a regular basis.

Now many people will read this and call me isolationist. They will say it in such a way that it sounds like a bad word. However, I feel it's time for the United States to look after its' own interests first, especially in hard economic times. To borrow money which you then give to someone else is ludicrous. On top of that, I listened to George Carlin's "seven dirty words you can't say on TV" skit long ago and you know what? "Isolationism" isn't on there. It isn't a dirty word.

Citizens Can Fix the Mess Without Government Help

In an article by Alec Feinberg for Economyincrisis.org, he mentions Warren Buffett has been quoted as saying, “The U.S trade deficit is a bigger threat to the domestic economy than either the federal budget deficit or consumer debt and could lead to political turmoil…”. He goes on to talk about how while there are no examples in history of nations surviving running large trade deficits, there are many examples of nation's crumbling because they did.
That may or may not matter to you. However, if you are tired of the lackluster economy and the scary jobs situation in America, I have a great idea on how to fix it. Everyone should start buying American tomorrow. Think of it. We are the world's largest economy, and we are the major market for many countries. Unfortunately, we buy more foreign goods than we sell American goods. A lot more. This is called the U.S. trade deficit. For the last ten years we have averaged a yearly trade deficit of over a half trillion dollars. That is right--in excess of a half trillion dollars. If we made a concerted effort as a nation to buy predominantly American built items, we would turn that number around almost overnight. Then, guess what? Demand for American made goods would create a need to build those goods here. Obviously, this would create jobs. In a $14 trillion dollar economy, even a few percentage point change in the amount of goods bought from American made sources would mean billions of additional revenue dollars. This would translate into millions of jobs. We could solve all of our problems almost immediately if we would just wean ourselves from cheap foreign products.
Cheap. That's the one word reason for why people began to buy foreign goods. Because they were cheaper. The TV's made in Japan and China were cheaper than American made TV's. So when people started buying them, guess what happened to the American TV makers? They're mostly gone, that's what. The same thing happened to American stereo system producers. They were priced out of the market by foreign competitors. So the whole time we as a nation were buying the cheap products we were slowly but surely destroying our economy a little at a time. When U.S. automakers controlled 80% of the U.S. market, this country was on a roll. Now they control, I believe, about 47% of the market. Factories are shuttered and the government recently felt a need to launch a rescue of that industry. When we would see TV plants or auto factories close, we'd say to ourselves, "Whew, glad that wasn't me!" Well now the problem has become so acute that we can't ignore it anymore. It's not just happening to someone else, it's happening to many, many people. Well it's time to turn that around.
The problem won't be solved by government mandating that the people buy American goods, or by government putting tariffs on foreign goods. It has to be solved through persuasion, not coercion. When Americans realize that if they buy American made products they are helping assure the nation's future, then it almost becomes a patriotic act. People may pay a little more for American made goods due to our standard of living, but that would be offset by not buying so much junk being sold to us by the Chinese and other nations. "Junk?" you ask? Been to a Walmart lately? Do we really need all that stuff (for lack of a better word)? Look at the labels on pretty much anything in the store and look where it's made. Walmart is a huge reason why we have the problems we do. Once upon a time, Walmart actually ran an ad campaign saying they sold predominantly American made goods. However, they needed larger profit margins, so they started selling cheap imported goods. They are, the last time I looked, the largest retailer in America. They have helped create the mess we're in, all in the guise of trying to save you money. They never talk about the hundreds of thousands of jobs their policies have cost the American worker.
As I already stated, the average annual trade deficit of the United States is over half a trillion dollars. This is money coming out of my pocket and yours and, using various merchants as the middlemen, going into the pockets of people in other countries. I am just as guilty as anyone. I bought the cheap stereo systems, and I used to buy cars which weren't produced in America. But I've realized what that is doing to the country. We're selling ourselves out for trinkets!
So here is my suggestion. Let's all start paying attention to the labels which say where things are produced. If they say anywhere but America, think to yourself, "Do I really need this?" If the answer is "no", then put your money back in your pocket and spend it on something American made. Be careful, however. In my opinion, a Honda built in Marysville, Ohio and containing over 90% American made parts is an American made product, while, once again in my opinion, a Chevrolet made in Mexico is not. You have to look at the window sticker, you have to look at the label. The point is that these huge problems facing America can be solved, and this is one HUGE way to solve them.

Using the "Bully Pulpit"

One job the American president has is as kind of a coach for the American people. I am referring to what is known as the "Bully Pulpit". I presume this name came about because of Teddy Roosevelt, who used the presidency and the stage it gave him to great effect. The president, if he or she uses the right tone, can guide the national conversation, and can even convince the people it is right to do something, such as John Kennedy did when he convinced America to go to the moon. One thing I feel the president should use the bully pulpit for is to convince the American people to buy American products. You can't get into putting tariffs on goods unless you want your trading partner to do the same, thereby igniting a trade war. However, you can suggest to the American people that they buy American, and you can lay out the case for why.
There are websites which only sell products made in America, such as madeinusa.org or proudamericantradingpost.com. There are several others and, if you look, you can find pretty much everything. There aren't many TV's, I only found one a/v processor, and no stereos. However, if the American people suddenly had a demand for American made electronics, the supply would appear. People would take the risk, and that creates jobs. The bottom line is that we make relatively little here anymore. China builds the TV's we watch, and other nations put together the stereos we listen to and the iPOD's in our pockets. However, if the American consumer was convinced to look for products only here, once again, those products would be made here.
If people started looking at the labels on the products they buy and buying those labeled "Made in America" most of the time, the turnaround in our economy, debt situation, and employment picture would be almost immediate. When trying to decide what is American made, some things will fool you. The car I drive is a Honda Civic. Sounds like it's not American, doesn't it? However, it was manufactured in Ohio, and the parts content was 90% American, including the engine and drive train. To me, that's an American made product. I don't care that it doesn't say "Ford" or "Chevy" on it. Some products that have those labels are made in Mexico or Canada anyway, and I don't consider those vehicles American made, no matter what their names.
The American president has a lot of power which is not enumerated just because of the office. I feel he or she should use that office to convince the American people to start buying American again, to start running a trade surplus again, and to once again run this country in the black. Using the bully pulpit to do this would make Teddy proud.