Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow

Well, it’s been a long time since I posted here, and it’s due to a lost password and procrastination.

When you lose your password you have to reinstall the program to set a new password.  Frankly, there was no way I was going to go through all that.  Then, today, I noticed a PostIt note with an obvious password.  I tried it, and it worked!

I hope to get back to posting on a regular basis again; however, over the past weeks my blood boils so much that I’m afraid I’ll be unable to coherently write something others might want to read.

Anyway, I’m glad to be back and will try to remember where my password is.

This is the heading of the last chapter of Robert A. Heinlein’s Expanded Universe (c)1980.

We were reaching the stage he warned about, and it’s getting even worse than he warned.  If you aren’t concerned about the expansion of government, aren’t concerned about the growth of government debt, and aren’t concerned about saddling your children, grandchildren and great grandchildren with insurmountable debt, you can skip this post.

However, if these things concern you, if you are concerned about your loss of freedom, and are concerned about government control of your lives, you should read this book.

I can’t cover the material Heinlein presents in the last chapter of his book.  The whole book is worth reading, but “The Cancerous Expansion of Government” is mandatory reading for any thinking person.  This book is available from many sources, and I have a copy available for sale for $4.95 including S&H and any sales tax at http://www.ardenwebsales.com/general_store/recent_paperbacks/index.html

If you agree with Heinlein’s warnings, you should stay current with events unfolding even as I write this by listening daily to Rush Limbaugh.  His radio show is broadcast daily from noon to 3:00 p.m. on AM radio stations.  You can also find the broadcast over the Internet if you don’t have a local station broadcasting it.  It’s the most listened to talk show in the country.

Elected government officials are pointing the finger at private companies’ executives as being greedy. One representative last year went so far as to call for the AIG execs, who received millions of dollars in bonuses, to commit suicide. Of course, an aide later said he really didn’t mean it.

 I’m not going to defend anyone’s right to command million dollar plus incomes and bonuses, and that includes business execs, sports figures, actors, singers and congressional representatives. However, in private industry that’s the stockholders and clients/customers business, NOT the federal government’s.

 All the blame is being heaped on former President Bush for what’s happening now. While I’m certainly not going to try to claim he was our most illustrious president, I will claim that he was better than former Presidents Carter and Clinton, and current president Obama. Having said that, Congress must take a lot of the blame for what the government has screwed up. They have dozens of oversight committees that are supposed to be keeping an eye on what the regulators are doing, and what the companies they regulate are up to. Where was Congress these past many years? And, to keep the record straight, Congress has been controlled by the Democrats for the last three+ years. Why is all the blame put on the Republicans? Both parties are to blame, and neither is getting any better.

 The Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac fiascos were caused by people like Barney Frank and Chris Dodd, forcing them to permit and acquire mortgages made to people who had no business getting mortgages.

As I mentioned elsewhere, the government is not the solution, it is the problem. Look at Nancy Pelosi ramming multi-billion dollar proposals through Congress without adequate hearings! I forget his name, but 30 years ago or so, a retired senator stated the 10 laws of Congress. One of them was the larger the bill the quicker it goes the Congress.

 Where’s Will Rogers when we need him? If you find Rogers’ comments—do a Google search for Will Rogers quotes—you’ll see that not only were things bad back in the early part of the 20^th century, but they’re even worse now. For example, Rogers said “Ancient Rome declined because it had a Senate; what’s going to happen to us with both a Senate and a House?” Another of his witticisms was “Be thankful we’re not getting all the government we’re paying for.”

 Our elected officials’ main goal is to get re-elected to stay in power and receive all the perks of that go with their offices. Most of them, including Obama and his cabinet, have no idea how to run a business, but they all think they can tell our businesses how they should be run. These are the same people who exempt themselves from many of the laws they pass.

 We must get back to the roots of our Constitution! The government should not be regulating all the things and passing the laws that they lack the Constitutional authority to do. Remember, each law they pass strips more freedom from you!

In the town where I live, called a Borough or Boro in Pennsylvania, we have a local, Boro-sponsored “Shade Tree Commission”. I refer to them as the “No Shade Tree Commission”. Let’s refer to them as “the commission” in this post.

Our streets used to be lined with majestic, mature maple trees, shading the streets and helping keep the place cool in the summer. (This was a plan implemented by the widow of the founder of this Boro in the late 1800s.) Although I am responsible for the strip of land between the sidewalk and the street, the trees are supposedly the property and responsibility of the Boro.

Well, the commission goes around marking all these trees for removal. They will NOT replace them with new maple or other shade trees, claiming their roots destroy the sidewalks, which are not the Boro’s responsibility, they are the lot owner’s.  Apparently the commission doesn’t realize that IF the roots do damage sidewalks that it takes a tree from 50-100 years old before that happens.  After 50+ years, with or without trees, sidewalks begin to deteriorate in any event!  IF the commission replaces any of the trees they remove, they plant ornamentals which provide no shade!

I’m hearing Obama demonizing private enterprise as I write this.  Makes it hard for me to keep to my point in this post.

If our current socialist federal government has its way and passes the Employee “Free” Choice act, free enterprise will be dead.

Presently employers have 90 days before a vote of its employees whether to form a union or not in which to offer alternative solutions to work conditions. If the proposed legislation passes, and 50% of employees sign a card favoring a union, the government will force the employer to form a union, and employees will NOT have the right to even hold a vote on the subject.

Once formed, the government then compels the employer to negotiate with the union. If no agreement is reached [length of time not clear] the government will determine wages, benefits and work conditions at the place of employment.

The government screws up everything it touches, and most federal elected officials and employees have never held a private sector job. Do we really want the government running our businesses too? I think not, and many people who may be thinking of starting a business will not start one, and others who already have a business will close.

Unions have their place, but employees being forced into a union, and employers being forced to provide salaries, benefits and work conditions per government mandate is not appropriate in a free society.

Check out the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s comments on this topic: U.S. Chamber of Commerce

I was born during the Great Depression. Over the last century, my relatives and I have served in the U.S. Armed Forces to protect the American way of life. 

My great uncles served in Europe during World War I. In 1942, my father, the father of three young sons, was drafted. He took basic training in Fort Dix, New Jersey, and was sent to Europe until VE (Victory In Europe) day. He was on his way to the Pacific when VJ (Victory In Japan) day arrived, and spent the next several months 2500 miles away from home on the other side of the continent, before being discharged.

Ten years after my father’s basic training, my oldest brother was drafted in 1952, and took his basic training in Fort Dix. He was sent to Korea until he was discharged. Ten years after my brother’s basic training, I entered the service in 1962, and took my basic training in Fort Dix, making me a Vietnam War Era Veteran. I have nephews now serving in the military.

My family has given many years of their lives to protect the freedoms and our capitalistic way of life. We defeated the socialists in hot and cold wars. This was to allow me, and others, to do what I wanted, when I wanted, the way I wanted as long as it did not interfere with the rights of others. Now everything we sought to protect our country from is being served up by a socialist government.

The government is in the process of telling you, me, and everyone, what to do, when to do it, how to do it, and what we must purchase and what we should not purchase or eat! Neither my family, nor the families of the millions of others, gave up so much and risked their lives for such a result. We did not serve and fight for socialism, we fought against it!

Please, let the president and Members of Congress read and understand the Constitution of the United States, and the Declaration of Independence.

I was distressed a few months ago to hear the results of a poll that resulted in the statement that the majority of Americans favored socialism, big government and government control of the economy. The saddest part of this is that the majority of younger citizens felt this way, while the majority of older citizens were against it. Is this the result of schools not teaching history, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution?

 

In an article by James Abourezk, former Democrat Senator from South Dakota, for Playboy magazine in March 1979 he stated the eight Laws of Politics.

Abourezk’s laws are these:

1. Anybody who really would change things for the better in this country could never be elected President anyway.
2. Don’t worry about your enemies, it’s your allies who will do you in.
3. In politics, people will do whatever is necessary to get their way.
4. The bigger the appropriations bill, the shorter the debate.
5. If a politician has a choice between listening and talking, guess which one he will choose?
6. When voting on the confirmation of a Presidential appointment, it’s always safer to vote against the son of a bitch, because if he’s confirmed, it won’t be long before he proves how wise you were.
7. If you want to curry favor with a politician, give him credit for something that someone else did.
8. Don’t blame me, I voted for McGovern [name your own favorite here].

The article is well worth reading in its entirety. Like a reference I will make to Will Rogers one of these days, this proves that nothing gets better in government, it only gets worse.

I would add a couple of more laws to the list above: 9. If a bill you voted in favor of leads to problems, do not admit that you voted for it and especially that you didn’t read it before the vote, but be sure to point the finger of blame at someone else; 10. Pontificate about anything that you think will help you in the next election, but be sure not to say anything substantive, and; 11. Promise the electorate the most outrageous benefits that will accrue to them, they’ll fall all over themselves voting for you, thinking they’ll get something for nothing.

The majority of the electorate does not realize that the government earns no money—it’s the individuals’ money that pays taxes to support these “freebies”. We are nearing the point where there will not be enough wage earners earning enough money to pay all the taxes required to support the government’s “entitlements”.

Note No. 4, above. This is particularly pertinent in the current climate of ramming huge bills through Congress without time for citizens to read them, or for legislators to read and debate them.

In future posts I may discuss the Declaration of Independence, and I may discuss the U.S. Constitution. When I was in high school these were taught and seriously studied. From what I can tell, our education system no longer teaches either of these documents, nor does it teach history.

I had written this about November 2009 for a previous blog that didn’t go anywhere. Here it is again in an updated version.

As Ronald Reagan said, government is not the solution, government is the problem. Maybe I’m paraphrasing that, but that was the general idea. If you wait for government to “solve” the nation’s and your economic ills, you will probably end up stuck in one of the programs they come up with for many years to come, if not for the rest of your life.

When I was young I thought FDR was the savior of the nation. As I grew older I realized that a few of the programs he advanced did get people off the streets and provided a minimal existence for a few years, but the socialist ideas he advanced were the beginning of what led us to the situation we are in today. Few of the programs created then that are still surviving today may have actually worked for a number of years. However, many are now just good for our elected representatives to lavish money on supporters who keep them in office. The US government is involved in way too many things that they have no business being in (not to mention not having constitutional authority to back them up).

Over the course of my life I’ve come to understand that it was not the government programs FDR created that got us out of the Great Depression, it was getting involved in WW II that got us out. True, it was massive spending by the government on the enormous buildup of war materiel and drafting tens of thousands of troops for the biggest war in human history that actually got the economy going again.

By the way, did you know that when some of FDR’s proposals were ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court that FDR tried to expand the number of Justices so he could appoint more liberal judges to the Court and get those programs ruled constitutional? Most likely the new Obamacare legislation will be ruled unconstitutional as well.

Some of the debt the government is creating today may eventually be of some help to the nation, such as rebuilding highways and bridges, but much will simply cause more people to become dependent on government handouts. Unfortunately much of the money that was supposedly earmarked for infrastructure projects has been used to pay off senators and representatives to get their votes for the socialist legislation moving throuh Congress.

One thing that would stimulate the economy would be to throw out many of the laws, rules and regulations the government has created. Most of the programs run by the government are so convoluted that even the administrators of them do not understand them! How about Obama’s appointee to Treasurer of the US who doesn’t even understand income taxes?

I’ll admit that many programs are created supposedly with the best of intentions. But have your ever heard of the Law of Unintended Consequences? No matter how well intended, most creations of the federal government simply create more problems than they solve.

While it may be true that many of our businesses and industries have followed policies that helped put them and the economy in turmoil, it was basically because they were following the rules and regulations promulgated by the government!

As noted at the outset–the government is the problem, it is NOT the solution!

What does VAT do? It is a hidden tax on every step in the production, distribution and sale of a product. I don’t know, but it may apply to services, too.

How does it work? Let’s say you purchase a lamp. It costs $25 plus whatever your local sales tax is. What you don’t see is that the every company that produces every single part pays the VAT. Okay, the timber company that cuts and sells logs includes the tax on the logs. The company that cuts the logs into usable timber includes the tax on the wood that it sells to the manufacturer (let’s call them the ABC Lamp Co.) who will make a wood-base lamp. ABC Lamp Co. also had to purchase various metal products, electrical wiring, bulb base, wire and cloth or plastic for the shade, and maybe felt for the bottom, all of which also included the VAT.

ABC Lamp Co. sells it to a wholesaler, adding the VAT to the price it charges. The wholesaler sells the lamp to a distributor, adding the VAT to the price it charges. The distributor sells it to a retailer, adding the VAT to the price it charges. The retailer sells it to you, adding the VAT to the price it charges.

How is this different from a sales tax? There are two or three major differences:

The tax is not shown separately, it is hidden in the price.

The tax is added at each step of the way.

Each time the tax is added it is taxing the tax that was added at the previous step!

When you pay local sales tax it, too, is taxing all the taxes that have been added during the production, distribution and final sale.Pay attention! Whenever you hear any person talk about VAT, immediately say NO, NO, NO! Do not let this ever become law!

One of the most insidious aspects of a VAT is that any time Congress wants to increase the tax, you probably will not know. What’s even worse, any VAT increase will look like the retailer is raising his or her prices, it will NOT look like a tax increase.

 

I had been waiting to see what happened to the so-called “health care” legislation before actually starting this blog. Well, it’s happened, and here I go.

During the mid 1950’s I went through high school. At the time, Franklin D. Roosevelt was my hero. I thought, due to what I was taught, that he was responsible for getting the U.S. out of the Great Depression. I graduated in 1957 at age 17 and over the next several years common sense told me that it was World War II that got us out of the depression–NOT the socialist programs that FDR promulgated, promoted and managed to get passed.

Except for three years in the US Army, I spent the next 30 years after graduation in Washington, DC.  I gradually became more and more incensed by the growing combination of imperialist and socialist machinations by our elected leaders. Some of the first signs of imperialist leanings came when I would go to the local DC airports and find the prime parking places reserved for members of congress. I also learned that the House and Senate had things like discount cafeterias, discount barbershops, and so forth for the use of the members.

I could see our country deteriorating, but there was nothing I could do about it, excpet vote for conservatives who were running for office.

As the years passed, Congress passed many laws regulating our lives BUT in many cases they exempted themselves from being governed by those very same laws!

Now I can do something else about it–I can write and express my opinion about what’s happening. Maybe no one is interested, but you had all better wake up and smell the roses while there are still roses to smell!

The lessons of the dismal failure of the Soviet Union, and the experiments in socialism practiced by most European countries seem to have been absolutely ignored. Everywhere socialism has been practiced it has failed or is failing.

Why on earth are people like Obama, Pelosi and Reid ignorant of these facts? I thought Hugo Chavez and Venezuala were jokes. Not so much it seems as the present dictatorship running the USA!