Blue Boomer

This Infrastructure Crisis, Mr. Utt

2012-01-24T16:08:00.002-06:00

An opinion published in the ViewPoint section of the Austin American-Statesman, on Friday the 16^th of December 2011, was titled, “What Infrastructure Crisis?” by Ronald D. Utt of the Heritage Foundation (also found on the Heritage Foundation's website: www.Heritage.org ). I'd like to offer multiple corrections to the article. You can find and read the original article in either the newspaper's or the Heritage Foundation's archives.

First, Mr. Utt, an economist, disses the civil engineering (CE) professionals' perspective of a badly worn, worn-out, common carrier infrastructure across the entire United States. The CE perspective is shared by mechanical engineers (ME), electrical engineers (EE) and materials scientists (MS), plus the many folks who drive on the roads and bridges of the USA. Those who survived, and the next of kin of those who did not survive, the collapse of a bridge on Interstate Highway (IH) 35 (in Minneapolis, MN.) are especially aware.

It apparently hasn't occurred to Mr. Utt that decades of use, combined with exposure to the weather, wears out things like roads and bridges.

Next, is the attempt to deny that an infrastructure bank, to fund road and bridge (plus: water, sewage and electric power distribution infrastructure) maintenance and replacement, would employ a large number of people. It seems as if Mr. Utt has never observed work being done along the roads he commutes every day.

Next, he lists what he understands to be common carrier infrastructure, mistakenly including: residential housing, manufacturing facilities, office buildings, hotels, shopping centers, cars, trucks and buses.

Continuing to misinform, he compares our government's managed infrastructure with that of the former Soviet Union. Our crisis was created by the failed, Republican policy of 'supply side economics' (aka, trickle down economics) that under budgeted for operation, maintenance and replacement of infrastructure, preferring to market the idea that we should sell these facilities to private, for profit, industry; not the result of the actions of an authoritarian oligarchy billing itself as a dictatorship of the proletariat.

Common carrier infrastructure is a function of government because, when done correctly, it is quite expensive and must serve everybody; even where population density is so sparse that a profitable return on investment isn't possible. Mr. Utt declares that privately accomplished facilities would thrive, except that (once again) his examples are multiple things that are not infrastructure.

In Texas there is an example of a privately built toll road (the Camino Columbia Toll Road) that failed in less than five years, as drivers proved that they would rather be stopped in heavy traffic than pay profitable toll rates. We have more toll roads that were not built by TxDOT (Texas Department of Transportation) but are being subsidized by TxDOT, because they are not bringing in the projected toll revenue; said infrastructure is not, as was promised, self-sufficient.

What had worked, for decades, for transportation infrastructure is publicly owned and operated, by municipal, state and/or federal DOT. These facilities are supported by state and federal taxes on the fuels used by the vehicles that travel on these roads. While vehicles have gotten more efficient, inflation has made provisioning more expensive and fuel taxes have stagnated (since 1991 federal and 1993 in Texas) common carrier infrastructure has been utterly underfunded by supply side benefactors in Republican administrations (President, Governor and Legislators).

There really is a very significant infrastructure problem in the United States that should already be being addressed. It would be incredibly unfortunate if more folks were to be injured or killed before proper attention is devoted to resolving this crisis.

Republicans Refuse Responsibility

2012-01-24T16:00:00.002-06:00

The extraordinary drift of the Republican Party into the far right, deep-end of politics continues as they try in vain to blame everything on the current President. When there is success then the President shouldn’t have done it, it could have been a huge mistake; like the federal bankruptcy proceedings that saved GM and Chrysler. Then there is a thing like health (Obamacare) care’s individual mandate that is unacceptable even though it was originally a Republican idea.

The Dream Act was first proposed by Senator Orrin Hatch (R – Utah) in 2003 and it went nowhere; though there was a Republican majority in the Senate and House – till January 2007, and a Republican President in the White House – till January 2009.

The Republicans had a majority in the US Senate and House at the start of the W administration in January of 2001; inheriting a federal budget surplus from the Clinton Administration. The surplus was turned into a deficit and the debt grew from $5.7 trillion to $8.6 trillion (by January 2007) and to $10.2 trillion by the end of W’s time in office. It took till the start of the Obama administration for Republicans to notice that the deficit is a problem!

Tax breaks for really rich folks (called, “job creators,” by Republicans even as thousands of factories and service centers – millions of jobs – left the United States during the W years) are at the core of Republican strategy. However, tax breaks for job holders was apparently not very important and a two month extension barely passed before congress left for their holiday vacations.

Complex regulations are an enormous problem for businesses now, according to Republicans, during the current administration. It wasn’t enough of an issue during the W admin because it wasn’t even mentioned, let alone being addressed.

The economy grew at the fastest rate in the last 30 years – more than 20 million jobs were created – during the Clinton presidency; the R’s theory suggests that there had to have been fewer regulations (except that there weren’t).

So, there are a bunch of new (to Republicans) problems in the Obama administration and it is entirely the President’s fault. Nonsense, ideas don’t stop in the legislature because of the chief executive, legislators are charged exclusively with passing bills before they can be sent to the next level; you know, the White House.

If the voters want to have a congress that will do their job; accomplish the things that will actually get our legislators’ approval rating above 12%… They should vote for new representatives: like me (candidate for the US House of Representatives, TX district 31).

Voters should also push hard for term limits for these new public servants, so that we will not forget that we are indeed civil servants to our constituents: voters!

Laissez Faire's Flaws

2011-10-20T16:48:00.003-05:00

There is a serious flaw in the notion that competition causes lower prices, because supply and demand (modified by the notion of all the market will bear) wreaks havoc on pricing. Also, there are problems incurred when lower prices lead to increased consumption of scarce resources (see: water, electricity, etc…).

Then there's human nature!

Adam Smith was onto something in his other tome: The Theory of Moral Sentiments. The idea was that human nature brought individuals into conflict with self-interest driven economics; simplistically known as enlightened or unenlightened self-interest.

Free trade can be subjugated by an individual with no moral self-restraint and no respect for external restraints. Laissez faire boosters, once in government office, consistently try to drop regulatory efforts; essentially turning the playground over to the cheats and bullies.

There is a constant struggle twixt regulators and regulated that tries to inflict or mitigate pain to the consumer caught in the middle. Basic regulation is essential to functioning markets, because a few malevolent individuals can cause pain, stress and serious damage (see: 1986 – the S&L debacle; 2001 - the dot-bomb; 2007 – the Great Recession) to the economy.

"Owning" the Economic Mess

2011-10-20T16:43:00.001-05:00

Republicans keep asking, “When will the Obama administration own the economic mess inherited from the W years?”

Never!

When my son was a toddler his natural curiosity drove him to make messes while investigating all the new and interesting things around him. My wife and I picked up the messes and, when needed, followed with appropriate punishment. We owned what and where the mess was made, but didn’t ‘own’ the messes.

The Republicans are essentially saying, “he hasn’t picked our mess yet, so he shouldn’t get more time; another term in office.” Part of the problem is that the children are constantly pestering the adults trying to clean-up, while complaining that they’re not being allowed back into the play area.

Until the Republicans are mature enough to recognize when they’re making a mess, stop making it and then clean-up after themselves, they should not be given control of the government they consider their playground.

China Mirrors the Former Soviet Union

2011-10-20T16:30:00.001-05:00

China mirrors the former USSR

1. Politburo is a few men that tell everyone in the country what to do, then take credit for all successes and assign someone else blame for failures.

2. Research and development is most frequently borrowed from others.

3. The currency isn't traded on the open market; value is arbitrarily set by the Politburo.

4. A citizen can openly criticize the government of any where, except China.

5. History is what the Politburo says it is.

6. The economy is the exclusive property of the Politburo.

The only difference is that China has taken on a veneer of capitalism.

Let's Review...

2011-09-22T16:13:00.001-05:00

Some of the current GOP candidates have forgotten a few basics in:

Economics

1. Adam Smith is credited with establishing the basis of capitalism in his book: The Wealth of Nations. Adam Smith was an economist and an enlightened philosopher who anticipated the clash between self-interest motivated economics and human nature, documented in his oft forgotten companion tome: The Theory of Moral Sentiments.

2. Economic growth in the last 30 years was greatest in the Clinton administration. Republican embraced Supply-side economics (a. k. a., trickle down) has resulted in thousands of factories and service centers, millions of jobs, moving out of our country. 23 million jobs were created during the Clinton years, while 3 million were created when George W. occupied the White House.

The federal budget deficit was reduced only in the Clinton years. The first year (2001) of the Bush admin had some carry-over budget surplus and still they managed to grow the deficit from $5.7 trillion to $10.2 trillion in the W era.

History

1. The Articles of Confederation contained the specifics of our first, weak, federal, US government; created and approved alongside the Declaration of Independence. The constitutional convention of 1787 happened because the founding fathers recognized the failure of the original, weak, central government. The US Constitution replaced the failed Articles of Confederation and created a strong, central (federal) government.

2. Thomas Jefferson’s Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, drafted in 1777, outlined the specifics of religious freedoms that were not detailed in the Constitution.

In creating an entire federal government, including the Bill of Rights, in about one dozen pages (depending on font, font size and pagination) the founding fathers left many details to be defined by the republic’s new government.

3. If a nation were established as a truly Christian entity there would be one name (3 guesses, and the first two need not count) frequently and prominently featured in the founding documents; not done in the USA!

These are points that one need not believe because they are published here. All that has been included here can be verified in a variety of sources; something Republicans, pushing against these facts, have been hoping you won’t do. I encourage you to do precisely that verification; have at it!

Economic Re-regulation!

2011-09-22T16:08:00.001-05:00

The RTC (Resolution Trust Corporation) picked up the pieces of the real estate debacle of the 1980s without any legal or regulatory consequences.

The current real estate and “mortgage backed” securities debacle is not yet causing any legal or regulatory consequences.

Do you believe that privatizing success (huge paychecks and bonuses to the people who caused the last recession from their casino on Wall Street) and socialized (taxpayer funded bail-out) failure is something Wall Street should be able to expect?

A few simple regulations (some reinstituted; all difficult to pass in the current quagmire that is the US Congress) could prevent a recurrence of the causes of both economic crises.

First, make mortgages, the only type of secured loan not currently, accessible to a bankruptcy court. Bring back the Glass-Steagall Act that was part of the legal remedy to the Great Depression; picked apart since 1980, the last remnants eliminated in 1999.

Without a director, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau cannot fulfill its mission to police Wall Street. Politics stand in the way of confirming Richard Cordray to direct the CFPB just as it attempted to fluster Elizabeth Warren while she assembled the new regulatory agency. The flack comes to the US Congress, via lobbyists, from Wall Street.

The Street, financial casino of the USA and the world, is still finding new ways to avoid: regulation, review and responsibility. At some point we, the taxpayers, might tire of picking up the gamblers’ tab when the paper products created in the casino (the casinos’ operators claim said papers have value and reward themselves with great salaries and bonuses for shifting those papers around) are found to be worth only the paper they’re printed upon.

Government might have already saved your life…

2011-08-29T15:30:00.000-05:00

If you’ve been told, “business good; government bad,” and had the unfortunate ability to give any credence to it, you still might be one of the millions of Americans whose generic medicines are available only because of the federal government’s intervention.

That’s right; at least 38 generic medicines are available only because the federal government has arranged import, storage and/or manufacture of drugs that pharmaceutical companies no longer make.

Why don’t our companies make these drugs?

These drugs have been dropped because they are not profitable enough!!!

Federal officials are once again entering the mix, because more than 180 drugs are now in short supply. These are also modestly profitable generics, and it does not seem to bother drug companies that some are used to treat things such as cancer.

The government can’t just import these drugs because some of the factories that would make them are in India and China; never having been inspected, some in locations that are not known. Once in the USA some products, from these same foreign manufacturers, have been tested and have been discovered to have problems, some life threatening.

I’m an older American and take prescription drugs to control my health; all but one of them are generic.

What about you?

The USA’s businesses are zealously insisting on Status Quo!

2011-08-16T16:19:00.002-05:00

The economy is in a very slow recovery from a severe economic recession that started in December of 2007. American for profit, privately and publicly held, companies are holding over $2 trillion on the sideline; not investing in the future of their own businesses.

Meanwhile, some of the richest folks (money made from these very businesses) are financing a very far, far right branch of the Republican party. That right wing group has been formed to drop anchor on the idea that infrastructure over 50 years old needs investment, maintenance or replacement technology; things that would employ many (possibly millions of) people and create the future.

Why?

The old business paradigm of, “least cost everything,” has made a very small number of people very rich, and continues to make them lots of money. It is living in the past at the expense of the future. These short-sighted practices continue to benefit a very few, extremely rich folks at an extraordinary cost to middle America’s present and the kid’s (and grandkid’s, etc…) future!

If you don’t believe that the transportation, water, sewage and power infrastructure is in massive need of maintenance or replacement, you need to check with your local organization of civil, mechanical and electrical engineers.

Those who spread the word that the USA doesn’t need investment and progress, or that we’re broke and can’t do it, are telling themselves (and others) an enormous, dangerous lie! Believe the lie, spread it if you want, and apologize to your family and friends for what you’re doing to them, our country and the future.

The USA is stuck in the 20th century.

2011-08-16T14:20:00.000-05:00

In 1989 the state of Texas experienced more than two consecutive days in which the temperature never reached 32 degrees Fahrenheit: freezing. To compensate for the high peak demand for electricity, and insufficient generating capacity, rolling black-outs were instituted.

In February of 2011 Texas experienced more than two days where the temperature never reached freezing; insufficient electric generation capacity required rolling black-outs.

This meant that in the intervening 22 years that Texas had done nothing to address an infrequent, recurring problem!

In 2005, when I was employed by TxDOT (Texas Dept. of Transportation), I sent an e-mail to my representative in the state’s legislature observing that the conditions existing on the campus where I worked were ideal for the use of wind and solar generated electricity to reduce the power drawn from the grid.

Nothing ever happened!

Flat roofed buildings (offices, schools, malls, etc…) across the USA could accommodate many thousands of solar panels (for electricity and/or hot water generation), and significant numbers of small to medium sized wind-based power generating structures; it has been possible for decades.

There has been no progress in this area either!

The US central plains are known as the, “Saudi Arabia of Wind.” The Rocky and Appalachian mountains have large regions of strong, consistent winds. The three coasts (Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf) have consistent winds on and off shore. These areas have wind that often blows night and day, so that sustainable electricity generation is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week!

There has been little progress in taking advantage of these opportunities.

Anybody else see a problem here?

Redressing the Error of 2010!

2011-08-05T14:57:00.000-05:00

Voters and, especially, non-voters did our country a great disservice by handing control of the US House of Representatives over to a group of intransigents who are anxious and proud to demonstrate their complete incompetence in: finance, economics and history.

Supporters of President Obama are angry because the President is trying to work with the US Congress; as the US Constitution outlines that he should. Meanwhile, that same Congress continues the practice, established well in advance of the Tea Potty, of handing off the job of governance to the office of the President.

Why?

The legislature is in the, self-tied, hands of perpetual, incumbent politicians who know that they can keep their jobs best by not doing their jobs. Every decision that an office holder makes will anger some constituents, eventually gathering sufficient opposition to his or her re-election. So, no matter what actually happened, “the president did it!”

President Obama needs to morph from the only reasonable adult in the room, to an authoritarian teacher in a room full of spoiled brats. These very same spoiled brats have displayed a desire, and willingness, to trash the American economy to undercut the re-election possibility of President Barack Obama.

The president has the power to send both branches of the legislature out on recess in extraordinary circumstances. The President should find, outline and utilize just such a circumstance. During said recess the President should make all the necessary recess appointments that would allow the executive branch of the federal government to get to work.

This will clearly demonstrate, to those of us who are still President Obama’s ardent supporters, the president’s willingness to do what needs to be done to actually lead this country back on to the path of greatness.

We (the voters) should find, encourage, support and vote for legislators that will help President Obama’s second term to be much more productive than the first.

Living in the USA!

2011-07-15T15:57:00.001-05:00

Here in the USA we are the world’s only super power, with the world’s largest economy. In both categories we are far, far ahead of even the closest competition.

The question that we need to ask is: “How did we get here?”

The answer is: public investment!

There are some folks saying, “Stop, stop, stop,” for a variety of reasons; mostly wrong!

The airports, seaports and highways are government investments that allowed citizens and businesses to move employees, raw materials and finished goods.

The military’s success is what makes us the world’s only super power; a division of the federal government, supplemented by state militias (military guard and reserve units).

Technology is very largely driven by indirect taxpayer, government, investment. There are 317 government labs listed here: www.federallabs.org/labs/results .

Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation (MCC, now a part of UT Austin’s Research facilities) was encouraged by the federal government. Sematech, another technology consortium, was a partnership with the US federal government.

ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) was the first general-purpose electronic computer and a project of the US Department of the Army. We all have the current results of all those development efforts in our pocket, purse or briefcase. We all travel on the common carrier transportation infrastructure everyday. We also are constantly dependent on government efforts for clean air and water; those of use old enough can remember what air and water quality was when individuals and industry cared solely for their own self-interest.

All the government and government assisted development was done in the shadow of World and Cold wars, and the costs were borne by a collaboration known as American taxpayers. Now, some are becoming aware that these things are expensive. It becomes more expensive as some folks and businesses decide that they don’t want to pay any part of the bill, even as they use these very resources.

The state of TX has tried multiple times to outsource government function to the private sector (Health and Human Services to Accenture, Information Resources to IBM and the Camino-Columbia Private Toll Road); all have failed!

In the preamble to the US Constitution, “we the people,” are to, “promote the general Welfare and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.” This can only be done when everybody realizes how lucky We are to be here in the USA and help decide, then follow through and do what needs to be done!

Obfuscation as a methodology…

2011-06-29T15:23:00.001-05:00

When one hears from business folks something like, “we can’t do this or that in this overbearing/nightmarish regulatory environment…” there’s only one thing to do: fire the lobbyists!

Many industries have, cumulatively, vast populations of folks lobbying at all the state capitols and in Washington, D.C.; there is a need for multiple volumes of directories to keep track of all the working lobbyists. Industry and business folks complain of the need to operate in these contrived, obtuse environments from one side of their mouths, while telling their lobbyists how (and providing the resources) to keep legislators creating that very mess from the other.

Why would one want an extremely complex regulatory environment?

Because, in confusion there are gray areas that allow a company (LLC – Limited Liability Corporation) to operate in relatively unfettered freedom!

HUH!?

Have you ever heard the phrase, “beyond a reasonable doubt?” If you have ever watched any of the TV shows about police or lawyers, etc… of course you have heard it. When prosecuting attorneys are convinced that the laws, or circumstances, pertaining to certain events would not allow for a conviction (because to prove, “beyond a reasonable doubt,” a crime was committed is not considered possible) they don’t proceed with lawsuits.

For instance: nobody is yet being prosecuted for the deaths of 15 people in an explosion at BP’s Texas City, TX oil refinery, or 11 deaths on an oil rig working for BP. Neither is there any current prosecution for the 29 deaths caused by an explosion in a Massey owned coal mine. There are not yet any prosecutions of the financial service industry folks whose contrivances caused the US economy to fall into a severe recession; to go to the edge of a depression.

The problem with a complex regulatory business environment that businesses, and their well purchased politicians (both Republican and Democrat), complain about could have been solved easily while there was a clear Republican majority in both houses of the federal legislature and a Republican President. After all Republicans have claimed, “business good, government bad,” for at least 30 years. The problem was not cleared because solving the problem is a talking point, keeping the problem is the still the preferred action.

The problem will only be addressed when reasonable, moderate Republicans and similar Democrats, “of the people,” are elected by the people and for the people!!! Only this sort of politician can function in the interest of the American people in the face of the duplicitous message from the lobbyists (who speak for the industries who support, pay for and profit from that message)!

Playing chicken with the federal debt ceiling.

2011-06-15T14:46:00.001-05:00

The US Congressional Republicans are playing chicken with the federal debt ceiling; the limit on the federal government’s ability to borrow money. The Republicans had a majority in the US House of Representatives and the US Senate from January 2001 to January 2007, during the Republican administration of George W. Bush, and in those years they raised the debt ceiling four times (’02, ’03, ’04 and ’06).

January 2007 to January 2009, still the Bush administration, the majority in the two chambers of the US Congress changed hands and had gone to the Democratic Party. The debt ceiling was raised three times in that interval: ’07, ’08 (twice).

The federal deficit was $5.7 trillion when George W. was inaugurated in January of 2001, and was $10.2 trillion dollars on the day before President Obama’s inauguration (see the US Treasury web site detailing the deficit, “to the penny” www.treasurydirect.gov/NP/BPDLogin?application=np ).

In the first few years of the W. Bush administration Vice President Dick Cheney was quoted telling the Treasury Secretary, Paul O’Neill, that, “deficit’s don’t matter.” During the current, Obama, administration private citizen Dick Cheney is on tour and television proclaiming that the federal deficit is a major threat to the US economy; a really convenient memory loss.

In the long term the deficit really is a problem, but the US economy went from record breaking growth in the Clinton administration to a recession (that went to the brink of depression), starting in December 2007. Reducing the deficit now will result in federal departments and programs being scaled back or shut down. That would negatively impact businesses that supply federal programs with products or services. It would also reduce federal employment; the businesses that cater to federal employees would suffer.

One might ask, “How does all that affect me?” Well, if you’re a federal employee on the brink of unemployment the consequences are obvious… If you’re investor you might ask your broker, or financial planner, how an investment portfolio might perform if major investors started to believe, regardless of fact, that the US government might actually default on some of its debt; put something soft twixt your chin and the floor.

TX Legislature fails our schools!

2011-06-10T15:40:00.003-05:00

TX Comptroller, Susan Combs, released a report detailing the cost of current tax exemptions to the government of the state of Texas; look here:

www.window.state.tx.us/taxinfo/incidence/

The report documents the fact that current tax exemptions cost the state $32 billion every year.

Meanwhile, our TX legislature is considering a bill to reduce the state’s financial commitment to our public schools, because they will not make any effort to get those funds. The biennial budget for 2012-2013 is multiple billions of dollars short of what current law mandates the state spend on public education. The Republican majority in the legislature is changing the law to cover-up their unwillingness to invest in educating the children of TX!

Said vs. Done

2011-04-20T15:47:00.001-05:00

Republicans are famous for their philosophy of, “government bad, business good,” even as they bailed out Wall Street, with taxpayer’s money, for causing a recession; bringing the US economy to the edge of the next great depression.

In TX, as well as in Washington DC, the Republican majorities have run the government the same way they would run a business: straight into bankruptcy.

The Republicans didn’t run the government into a ditch because of general incompetence; they are much smarter than they act. No, they do it because they lack the courage of their convictions. Many Republicans are partnered with Grover Norquist. Grover’s well known for wanting, “to shrink the government till it can be drowned in a bathtub.”

To accomplish said shrinkage a legislator might propose to eliminate expensive government programs, but that would incense more of their constituents with each and every program cut; eventually impairing their ability to get reelected. Remember the mantra of our perpetual incumbent politicians is that, “it is better to keep the job than it is to do the job!”

So, what does the perpetual politician do? They sign the certificate from Grover’s group promising never to raise any taxes; often reducing taxation as it becomes possible. The intentional reduction in revenue is accompanied by, contradictory, increased government spending.

When it becomes blatantly obvious that we have enormous, unfunded government spending the incumbent legislator will feign shock and outrage, even though he or she was an active participant in creating this situation.

What must be done? Cut spending, cut spending and cut spending!

Except that that isn’t the answer, it is the back door approach to doing what was planned from the start: reducing government programs.

So, what is the answer?

Review all spending to determine what is needed, what is outdated and what is unnecessary; the process that was intentionally bypassed on the road to debt. Then fund what is determined to be a vital government service. Resolving which programs are needed is difficult, but when the issue becomes the restoration of funding, taxes, the fur will really begin to fly.

The situation is as difficult as it was intended to be from the start, circa 1980 (Trickle Down). If you, the voter, are ready to begin real solutions then you’ll need to vote Democrat in 2012, because the rational Republicans (they really do exist) are deferring to the radical right.

Also, I recommend term limits to keep a new generation of elected officials from the temptation of perpetual incumbency.

The TX Republican mantra: You don’t need no education!

2011-04-15T15:48:00.002-05:00

In the 2009 session of the legislature there was talk of adding more Tier 1 public universities to the two (UT Austin and TX A&M College Station) we already have. The money to do it was not available saving those, who didn’t have the political will to spend it, from themselves.

The structural budget deficit has combined with the bad economy to cause the remaining months of the current biennial budget to be seriously short of revenue. That’s bad, but the next biennial budget is shaping up to be much, much worse. So, what’s the legislature doing? They are trying to de-emphasize research (save money) at our tier 1 universities, disregarding the fact that the enormity of those research programs are one, of two, key defining issues of a tier 1 university.

Next the legislature attacks the other defining issue of a tier 1 university, exceptional academic programs, by trying to suggest that the criteria for determining what constitutes a good university professor should be weakened. Also, paying lower salaries to professors would be helpful in reducing the state’s budget problem. This will destroy those industry attracting, innovative, job creating tier 1 institutions.

Gov. GoodHair’s plan for a $10,000 four year degree, at a public university, will be worth at least $1,500!

The Radical Right Republican’s less government hypocrisy.

2011-04-15T15:40:00.003-05:00

The Republicans want less government in our lives, unless you’re a woman of maternal age.

If the Republican far-right extremists, to whom all other Republicans currently defer, get enough agreement from elected officials they can get the US Constitution’s separation of church and state denied.

If that misunderstanding becomes the official government policy it clears the way for an American theocracy. It reinstitutes the middle age idea that made all officials, (in positions they were appointed to, or they purchased) in the state church’s hierarchy, community leaders.

Are we ready for a government that is all over us like a second skin; the return of inquisitions and crusades?

Supporting Public Education in Texas!

2011-02-05T12:18:00.003-06:00

The Republicans have shown that they feel the business environment in TX will prosper if public education is given no better than second class status and financing.

The budget cuts they propose threaten our public schools, from pre-K to post Doc, and that is just wrong. If you don't think so, ask yourself: Would you have the job/career you've had without your education? Would you, or your parents, be able to afford private alternatives? Can you afford the tuition that is charged for TX's public universities (it has risen 90% since 2003) right now?

The time is right to use the Rainy Day Fund for the portion of the deficit caused by the economic downturn. In order to address the structural budget deficit there must be new and reworked state revenue streams, plus serious improvements in transparency, to pay for the essential services the state provides to Texans.

Mr. President,

2010-12-10T14:34:00.002-06:00

WTF???

Why does it seem so much harder for you to work with your own party (yes, it can be like herding cats) than it is for you to try to work with the party of ‘NO?’

It seems reasonable to think that after multiple examples of the rejection of your attempts to reach across the aisle (including Republican proposed items in a bill you’re working on, only to get 0 Republican votes for said bill) that you’d realize that your efforts are not just not working, they are being sneered upon by the very folks you’re trying so hard to work with.

Our party did not lose the majority in the US Senate (for the next session of the US Congress), but we did back further away from the super majority that stupid parliamentary tricks require for bills to pass. We did lose the majority in the US House of Representatives, but the party of ‘NO’ does not have a veto proof majority either; a recipe for legislative stalemate for the next two years.

The Democratic Party sustained these loses because you did not walk on water in your first two years as President; expectations are almost always set way too high. You did not lose these seats in the legislature because you did not extend a hand across the aisle often enough; indeed the hand you did extend was ridiculed far more often than it was ever grasped.

Getting angry at your supporters is not an explanation of why you don’t try to work with us more often than you have tried to work with the ‘NO.”

The point for negotiation with health care was single-payer, not the public option.

Why isn’t there an investigation into the previous administration’s torturing of the legal process to justify torture, or the false pretense (apparently known to be false from the start) for starting a second war; insufficient effort in the first, reasonably justifiable, war.

Why weren’t mortgages put under the purview of the Bankruptcy Courts and tax exemptions for mortgage interest eliminated as a precondition to bailing out Wall Street? It was, after all, the incredible risks taken with mortgage based investments that Wall Street used, while government regulators were encouraged to sleep (during the W administration, as it was in the Reagan administration), to bring the US economy, nay the world’s economy, to the edge of fiscal self-destruction.

Why is it so difficult to believe that the best you could do for job creation in these United States of America is to eliminate tax incentives for companies that have moved their entire manufacturing capacity out of the country?

Why is it so hard to understand that all the tax breaks from the previous administration should be allowed to expire, avoiding the perception of catering to wealthy individuals and corporations while addressing the federal deficit? Let the ‘NO’ explain to the nation why the rich are more important than working poor or unemployed folks; ‘Trickle Down’ economics has already had 30 years of spectacular failure. It is not making life hard for working poor and unemployed people when all the tax breaks expire, because their lives already are difficult!

BTW!

Congratulations on the successful bail-out of GM and Chrysler. Also, congrats on what progress was made on health care in the first two years of your administration.

The next two years will be a legislative stalemate, because the shifting numbers in the US Congress allow the ‘NO’ to be ever more intransigent; not because we, your supporters (Democrats and Independents; you don’t win with just insider support), don’t appreciate what you’ve done.

Thanks, for reading this far down the page.

Opportunity Wasted!

2010-11-09T13:36:00.004-06:00

The Democrats and their Progressive allies stand accused of ramming our liberal programs through the US federal government and upon the American people. Unfortunately, too many folks just don’t (want to) understand how guilty we are not!

We have the White House. We had both houses of the US Congress. Our president, whom I still support, chose to try and build bipartisan coalitions with those same Republicans who had clearly and repeatedly demonstrated that they had no interest in forming. That reason, almost exclusively, explains why so many things were left undone.

We had six years (January 2001 to January 2007) in which the Republicans were in control of the federal government (President, US Senate and House of Representatives). The Republicans talked extensively about reducing the size and expense of said federal government, while growing it and the federal deficit massively. Still, the only thing they were able to accomplish was to bring the US economy to the edge of a second great depression.

We, the American people, will now spend two years stuck in ‘Park.’ Fortune smiled upon us when the Republicans did not get a majority in the US Senate, and we retain a Democratic president; we are stopped, not jammed into ‘Reverse’ as was the case from 2001 to 2007.

It is important to remember that education and hard work got us to where we are today: the world’s largest (by far) economy, and the world’s only super power (as a former Reagan administration official and professor at Rice University stated, “we are not first among equals!”).

It is government that builds common carrier infrastructure (e.g., roads, bridges, railroads, airports, seaports, telecommunications and power distribution, etc…). It is the government that provides public servants like: teachers, military, police, fire and emergency medical personnel, etc.; also providing the facilities they use.

It is government that makes sure that clean water flows when you turn on the faucet, lights light when you flip the switch, toilets empty when flushed and that you don’t revisit said toilet contents when you travel to lakes, rivers and sea shores.

In short, it is the government that makes sure that society is civil, clean and available to all the public all the time. If you desire to cut government out of your life, the first question you must ask is: “What do you want to give up?”

Those who believe Progressives and Democrats

might fade quietly away,

would, once again, demonstrate

how little thought’s involved in their day.

The Economy!

2010-08-30T13:39:00.001-05:00

The economic recovery from the near depression, which started in December of 2007, has slowed. Companies are reported to be, “flush,” with plenty of cash, yet they’re not spending the money on developing their companies (capital expenditures) or hiring new employees.

Why not?

The talking heads of business journalism say it is because the companies are uncertain about the future.

Nonsense!

There is not now, nor has there ever been, a crystal ball; certainty about the future. The real reason is that the companies want a republican majority in one, or both, chambers of the federal legislature. Republicans have encouraged the regulators to stand by and trust businesses to do the, “right thing.”

This approach has given us: the failure of the entire Savings and Loan industry (mortgage providers) in the late 1980s; Enron; World Com; the failure of two, of three, US auto manufacturers; BP; a trip to the edge of depression in 2007 (driven by bad home mortgages failing: known as sub-prime mortgages from their initiation); $10.2 trillion in federal deficit by January 20, 2009 (the day before President Obama was sworn in); etc…

Is this what you, the voter, want returned to political power?

Why would you want that?

A few quick perspectives...

2010-08-28T13:00:00.002-05:00

First, the economy is stuck, not growing/recovering, because the consumer is not consuming these days. The experts are speculating wildly as to why this is, because the answer (that a surprising number of said experts already know) is unpopular; denied.

When manufacturing, customer and back office services jobs are being moved overseas, jobs in the USA are eliminated. These former employees, with no job/paycheck, were also known as customers. The newer, really low cost employees (who live in the countries where the jobs are moved) are not being paid anywhere near enough to consume like the Americans they replaced.

Consumers are 70% of the American economy, and this sector will remain comatose till equivalent new jobs become available to them.

Second, immigration problems will not go away until the USA is no longer a desirable destination. Fear mongers say foreigners (Latinos) are swarming across our unsecured (southern) borders, then taking our jobs and committing lots of crimes. Jobs are not being taken by these foreign invaders; employers are actively seeking out these hard-working, low cost laborers once they are here in the USA.

Meanwhile, immigration auditors from the Obama administration are actively demonstrating how easy it is to check an individual’s ability to seek employment in the USA, and how many employers have not taken these simple steps. The hypocrisy becomes apparent when one is able to determine how many of the fear mongers are benefiting from the work done by these hardworking illegal immigrants.

As to the crime wave allegedly being propagated by these illegal immigrants storming across our borders, FBI statistics indicate that crime rates have consistently trended lower recently in the border regions of the USA.

Hmmm…

A simple point to remember is that everybody in the USA is, or is descended from, an immigrant; indigenous populations included. None of these immigrants asked if it would be o.k. before coming to the USA, and none need ask now!

Homer Simpson said it best: “DOH!”

Constitutional, U.S. and TX, details...

2010-06-07T18:03:00.002-05:00

There are some who would try, once again (there’s always someone not happy with how history has been documented), to rewrite the story of the United States of America. This is just a short refresher on what I feel are salient points from the past; precedent for the future.

In 1775 the second Continental Congress convened in colonial Philadelphia and produced both of the following documents:

1. The Declaration of Independence (announcing the creation of these United States of America);

2. The Articles of Confederation (creating a weak central government that was to coordinate the activities of the 13 new States).

Those who propose a smaller, less intrusive, federal government have somehow forgotten that that has been tried and declared a failure here already.

1787 was the year that saw another convention in Philadelphia, PA. This one came to be known as our Constitutional Convention, after a document (similarly named) emerged. The U.S. Constitution replaced the Articles of Confederation creating a stronger, more workable, central government for the USA.

1836 was the year that Texas declared its independence from Mexico. Ten years later the Republic of Texas had serious debt and was facing a difficult dispute with Mexico about the southern border; Mexico claimed the Nueces River as the border while Texas claimed territory further south, to the Rio Grande. Upon acceptance of the U.S. offer of statehood, the border war shifted from Texas vs. Mexico to the U.S. vs. Mexico: the Rio Grande became the border.

The noise one sometimes hears about Texas seceding from the United States should be balanced with the notion that, as an independent nation, border defense (amongst a multitude of other things) becomes our solitary responsibility once again. Such lonely and expensive pursuits have been tried and found wanting.

Some elements of the U.S. Constitution have been bandied about of late, so some details need to be clarified.

The Bill of Rights, Amendment Two, reads:

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.

The aforementioned Amendment relates back to The Constitution, Article 2, Section 2/1:

The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States…

It is a mystery to me how one comes to believe that somewhere in those words a singular noun or pronoun exists, let alone the idea of defining an individual’s right to, “keep and bear arms.”

This is where Texans find the individual’s right to, “keep and bear arms.”

The TX Constitution, Bill of Rights, Article 1, Section 23:

RIGHT TO KEEP AND BEAR ARMS. Every citizen shall have the right to keep and bear arms in the lawful defense of himself or the State; but the Legislature shall have power, by law, to regulate the wearing of arms, with a view to prevent crime.

The US and TX Constitutions are amendable documents, because none of the originators thought they were able to foretell the needs and circumstances the future might create.

We have, in these United States of America, created a formidable union that attempts to allow for all the potential fallibilities and foibles of humanity while assembling a whole that accrues the strength that is the sum of all its parts. We can’t, don’t and won’t always agree on all the details associated with the continuity of such an immense conglomeration, such as are these United States, but we must try to come together and make our best effort.

We must work together to invest in, maintain and improve that which we’ve inherited, so that future generations can have the power of opportunity that we were given by our ancestors.

Taxes, Texas

2010-05-10T16:05:00.001-05:00

It is difficult not to see tax problems in Texas as local problems, because it was intentionally set-up to appear as such. The County Tax Assessor/Collector’s office has the primary responsibility for determining, collecting and distributing property taxes. Sales taxes are collected at the time of purchase, by the vendor selling a taxable item.

The vast majority of that tax money is bound for state coffers. The state of TX does not have its own revenue stream, and is hiding behind local collection agents when the state’s revenue problems are discussed.

This is a shameful fact that will be largely avoided by the state’s incumbent elected officials attempting to get re-elected this year. Why? It’s because, taxes (talk or action) are not the stuff of successful political campaigns.

Unfortunately, the recent economic turmoil, combined with the structural budget deficit (created intentionally by a special session of the legislature in 2006), will cause state coffers to come up well shy of the funds needed to continue to pay for even the reduced, in the 2003 legislative session, activities of the state’s agencies.

I have made suggestions to rectify the state’s problems with its indirect, and intentionally insufficient, funding in my blog post "Taxation suggestions for Texas" published in January, 2009.

TX: State of the State!

2010-05-10T15:15:00.004-05:00

A quick and disturbing brief on the state of the state of Texas, containing excerpts from state Senator Eliot Shapleigh’s web site and Dr. James Moore’s “What’s Left of Texas” published on The Huffington Post. Links to both sites are listed below.

Eliot Shapleigh, a state senator from El Paso, compiles a report each legislative session called "Texas on the Brink." Skimming it will provide more than enough data to show just how functional the Republican leadership of this state has been since 1994. Here are a few embarrassing tidbits about Texas that Rick Perry doesn't want the rest of the nation to know so he can start planning his little fantasy of national politics.

1) 49th in teacher pay
2) 1st in the percentage of people over 25 without a high school diploma
3) 41st in high school graduation rate
4) 46th in SAT scores
5) 1st in percentage of uninsured children
6) 1st in percentage of population uninsured
7) 1st in percentage of non-elderly uninsured
8) 3rd in percentage of people living below the poverty level
9) 49th in average Women Infant and Children benefit payments
10) 1st in teenage birth rate
11) 50th in average credit scores for loan applicants
12) 1st in air pollution emissions
13) 1st in volume of volatile organic compounds released into the air
14) 1st in amount of toxic chemicals released into water
15) 1st in amount of recognized cancer-causing carcinogens released into air
16) 1st in amount of carbon dioxide emissions
17) 50th in homeowners' insurance affordability
18) 50th in percentage of voting age population that votes
19) 1st in annual number of executions

Shapleigh's little book of horrors comes fully footnoted to avoid being attacked by partisans. His staff gathers data from the Census Bureau and Texas government agencies.

http://shapleigh.org/system/reporting_document/file/255/Texas_on_the_Brink_2009_website_final.pdf

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jim-moore/whats-left-of-texas_b_188033.html

Stephen M. Wyman

Candidate: State Senate, district 5

The candidate’s, my, blog:

http://blueboomerhd.blogspot.com/

The candidate’s website:

www.wymanusa.org

Why BlueBoomerHD?

2010-02-18T22:16:00.002-06:00

The time has come to explain the name of my blog: BlueBoomerHD. HD is HeavyDuty, an alias used since my father-in-law gave me that nickname, shortly after we met. Blue is referring to the disappointment felt when contemplating the actions of my generation, the BabyBoomers.

Our parents worked, sacrificed and saved to make the nation, and the world, a better place than it was when they became the responsible adults of their generation, as their parents (our grandparents) had in their time.

When the Boomers came of age we noted that we were inheriting a nation that was quite probably as rich and powerful as any in history. Too many of us recognized that that treasury could pay for many a fine party, and that we had the capacity to do some serious butt-kicking. Altogether too often, when we wanted to, that is what we did.

That is why President Obama won the most recent Nobel Peace Prize, because he was not W. The new administration is engaging the rest of the world in a non-threatening manner that had been so lacking in the prior administration.

Many in my generation view the wealth and power we inherited as just the way it ought to be, and take these things for granted! There’s no time to consider that what’s been given us requires responsible operation and maintenance. To say nothing of creating, planning, installing, operating and maintaining what will come next. These are the boring details! Ignore them long enough and these boring details will come back to haunt us and our descendants (you know: kids, grandkids, etc…).

There are some in our generation who want very much to rectify what has been done, and get back to the legacy of, “leaving a better world!” I’m Blue now, but I’m not going to let the circumstances that made me this way stand the test of time.

Feel free to join me. As long as we draw breath there is hope!

Addendum to HCR (next post)...

2009-12-07T14:28:00.000-06:00

The job of state government in Health Care:

1. Make sure that there is sufficient educational capacity to train: doctors, nurses and all the support staff.

2. Make sure there are sufficient facilities, including mobile units for rural areas (the vast majority of Texas is rural), for routine health care.

3. Make sure sufficient health care personnel are available to serve everybody in the state.

These services are aided by everyone having health care, including the choice of a strong, public option.

Why Health Care Reform has stalled…

2009-12-07T14:04:00.000-06:00

The party of ‘NO’ (a.k.a., Republican) is throwing up all manner of obstruction to stop Health Care Reform (HCR) legislation.

Why?

Because they are terrified of success!

If HCR was going to fail the ‘NO’ party would have feigned misgivings, then grudgingly allowed the legislation to pass. The whole debate about HCR is to prevent a Democratic Party success prior to the 2010 election. If HCR legislation barely passes just before the elections the ‘NO’ folks could use scare tactics about the new programs while voters go to the polls.

If one looks at all the industrialized and developing countries of the world, you’ll find that they all have at least a strong, public, health care option, cover nearly everybody and pay no more than half what Americans pay for their current health care coverage, if they can get it.

The ‘NO’ say HCR will cause restricted access to health care. If you have done every preventative measure since you were developing in the womb, then you require less treatment for medical surprises; problems were prevented or treated earlier and easier (appears to be restricted access).

The ‘NO’ say the HCR will cost more. When medical professionals are paid, generous, appropriate salaries, instead of billing per incident (our dominant current practice), the incidences of overdoing everything, at least twice, will stop.

If a public health option was not a good idea, our legislators should not have single (tax) payer, health insurance; an even more socialist option.

Outsourcing manufacturing...

2009-10-17T16:56:00.000-05:00

Today I am starting with a quick quiz.

Ready?

Question 1) What do you get when you move a factory from inside the USA to a location outside the USA?

Question 2) What do you lose when you move a factory from inside the USA to a location outside the USA?

Question 3) What is the name of this process?

Answers:
1) You get a reasonably equivalent product made less expensively.
2) You lose people that can afford your product (a.k.a., customers).
3) This process is known as: Saving Too Much Money!

Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company (not known as a working class hero), understood that an employee who could afford to buy the product that he or she helps to make increases one’s customer base (a.k.a., growing the business).

A question to promote discussion:
1) How does one’s vendor manufacture an equivalent product for less money, even after shipping costs are factored in, while still making a profit?

Answers may be found in an old post on this very blog!

Continuing… We are in a recession where jobs are disappearing by the millions! How is it going to help the consumers, who are approximately 70% of the economy, when their jobs continue to reappear outside of our country?

If you are angry when you think about what you’ve just read, then you understand the problem and need to discover how you might become a part of the solution; every little contributory effort counts.

If you don’t see a point to this post, then you are probably part of the management teams sending these jobs overseas and need to remember that your job is also able to be done by folks in countries that have pay rates significantly lower than yours.

What are we to do?

2009-09-19T17:31:00.000-05:00

It was reported, in the New York Times, that a letter was sent by seven former CIA directors asking President Obama to stop the Justice Department’s investigation into past abuses… These issues have, they stated, already been investigated. So, reviewing these events will not produce any new, more embarrassing, information about illegal activities. Will they?

The former directors don’t seem to understand that the rule of law must apply to everyone to be effective. The people at any government agency must evaluate how best to do their jobs and if they feel it is necessary to operate outside the law, there will be consequences.

The directors say that there will be disclosures that will help al Qaeda elude capture… Like Osama Bin ‘Forgotten?’

We are a nation of laws that encourages others to follow our lead. Are we to become hypocrites? Do we want others to follow that lead?

Remember, “People the world over have always been more impressed by the power of our example than by the example of our power.” That is a quote from a former President of these United States: Bill Clinton.

Thoughts for today...

2009-09-12T15:03:00.000-05:00

“Blue Dog” Democrats, and others, say that they want to make sure that health care reform controls cost.

Every other industrialized country in the world has at least a public health insurance option, cover nearly everybody and pay less than half (per capita) of what we pay.

The only folks who don’t understand this simple fact are those looking for an excuse to do nothing.

In the meantime… don’t forget to re-regulate the financial services (a.k.a., the market, Wall Street) industries!

The market defines innovation as finding new ways to avoid: regulation, review and responsibility.

Wall Street spews tales of its own wisdom and the incompetence of government, while seeking bail-outs from said government (requiring enormous quantities of the taxpayer’s money) when they find they’re snared in a trap of their own making; accepting dollars while admitting no culpability.

Dear Progressive Democrats and Independents,

2009-08-25T01:43:00.000-05:00

We’ve allowed others to control some of our issues, and it is well past time that we took control back.

‘Pro-choice’ and ‘family planning’ have been mislabeled as ‘pro-abortion.’ Ask any Republican you care to why they belong to the ‘retro-active abortion’ party. How is it acceptable to kill an adult, while claiming to be ‘pro-life?’

To those who say that the government should not be involved in anything, because the government can’t do anything right… How did we come to live in the country that is the only super-power in the entire world? It is the strength of the U.S. military; part of our federal government and state military reserves!

Heard of the Internet or GPS? They were developed by DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Project Agency); a part of the military and federal government!

Only 66 years after the first, manned, powered flight one country landed people on the moon and returned them safely to Earth; NASA, a federal government agency, accomplished it. Efforts by NASA, DARPA, NSF, NIH, NSA, etc… have led to the computer on your lap, phone in your pocket, music and movies stored on media the size of a commemorative postage stamp, etc…

Have you heard of one of the world’s foremost cancer research and treatment centers? MD Anderson Cancer Center, a part of the UT system. How about the Scott and White clinics, hospitals and research center? These are a part of the TX A&M system.

Did you know that two, of three, top tier universities in TX are public universities? UT Austin and TX A&M College Station!

The roads, schools, emergency service providers, airports, seaports, post office, water, sewage, etc… The things one takes for granted, are brought to you by your municipal, state or federal governments, or by a contractor to same.

Is government perfect? No. Does it get everything right, all the time? No. Do you know of any individual or institution that can answer yes?

If someone tells you that there shouldn’t be a public health option, because the government can’t do anything right… Tell them that they need to be grateful that the rock they dwell beneath is here in the USA, because here they are free to choose not to understand the simple facts listed above.

The artificial dispute twixt science and religion.

2009-07-20T14:00:00.000-05:00

There is an artificial conflict between science and religion being pursued and exacerbated by those whose intent is more feudal than religious. Religion has long explained the unknown to human society, because, “I don’t know,” is the most difficult pronouncement most people can imagine.

As people began to observe and understand the world around them, natural curiosity encouraged efforts to discover ever more. Knowledge became powerful, and some used it to accrue social power, status and/or material wealth. Some used what was known as a basis for learning more and others learned so that they might teach and encourage more folks to do the same… The groups are not mutually exclusive.

O’er the course of human development people have often associated knowledge with mystical or religious authority, and those who would leverage that for power and wealth tried hard to keep information to themselves. By the Renaissance period of the western world, knowledge had become too widespread and the genie was out of the bottle.

Losing control of knowledge was bothersome, but not overwhelming to the aristocrats (who were rapidly evolving into plutocrats of the post feudal period), because high social status was still largely limited to white, wealthy men and their entourages.

Events of the Renaissance had led to scientific and social experimentation that spawned a phrase which became the basis of a new nation: “…that all men are created equal.” That phrase was to lead to a society that would, eventually, resemble that remark.

There has always been (and always will be) a segment of the population that finds the aforementioned phrase, at best, distasteful. Now, as the phrase approaches near complete social acceptance and practice, we begin to see an increasingly restive movement of plutocrats, aristocrat wannabes, (and their sycophants) attempting the restoration of old ways.

Trying to return to the past has been an effort governed largely by civility, but as desperation rises civility often falls by the wayside. In population, we who are melanin challenged are due to become the largest minority in the USA. In positions of wealth and power, there is an ever increasing presence of women and less melanin challenged minorities.

Religion can be interpreted to appear as if it conflicts with science in a manner that allows it to be used as a lever against the social progress of the last millennia. That most scientists have religious beliefs, and most religions are comfortable with the progress of science specifically, and society generally, disproves the fantasy of those desperate for a return to anachronistic ways.

What the party of, "NO," know, but aren't telling.

2009-06-18T14:25:00.000-05:00

A few things to consider…

On Taxes:

As one’s income rises so does one’s tax rate, but what also rises is the number of pages, of the tens of thousands of pages, of tax code that apply to you; net tax rate actually declines.

On Public Health Insurance:

Study after study reveals that in the USA we pay far more, and get far less, for health insurance benefits than in any other country in the industrialized and developing nations of the world.

The party of, “NO,” says we will wind up with health care like the Canadians; where the doctors come south (to the USA) to make more money and patients go north (to Canada) to get better health care.

On Capitalism:

Unregulated markets have proven time and again that they’re like toddlers let loose in a grocery store; messes will be made and things will get broken.

Toddlers are newly mobile, curious children and Wall Street is populated by highly educated adults; theoretically. If you study the Ups and Downs of the US economy you’ll note a common underlying theme: compensation often increases exponentially as a Wall Street employee demonstrates less and less understanding of risk and the unintended consequences thereof.

On the Party of, “NO:”

The party of, “NO,” receives a great deal of consideration (money and other valuable trinkets) from lobbyists representing the, “free market,” to allow said market folks to play in an unregulated arena of other people’s money. When the folks on Wall Street inevitably take excessive risks and lose that money, they expect the government will bail them out, with taxpayer’s (more of those other people’s money) dollars, while assessing no blame; remember that US Treasury Secretary Paulson demanded $700 billion taxpayers’ dollars: no restrictions!

If the party of, “NO,” has it’s way the enormous, federal deficit will resume its 30 years of growth and Wall Street’s gaming will continue without accountability; just because they made the mess…

BTW:

Public (or Single Payer) Health Insurance could clear the way to eliminate: Medicare, Medicaid and the Veteran’s Health System! Put that in your budget calculator!

The Capitalist v. Government Tango

2009-04-08T14:10:00.000-05:00

The print, radio and television mouthpieces of capitalism are expressing trepidation about the federal government’s ousting of CEOs. Thus demonstrating, once again, that when one (or more) doesn’t understand that something’s in their best interest they’ll object, no matter how ignorant it paints them.

The American auto manufacturers (once known as the big three) came to the US government, hat in hand, asking for billions of dollars in federal (read: taxpayer’s) assistance; similar to what they’d done in the 1980s. Reappearing on the government’s doorstep cemented the reputation, as incompetent, of the American auto industries’ executives.

The financial services industries, and the previous administration, waited till the US economy was in freefall before coming to the folks that have always bailed them out before: the American taxpayer. Perhaps they were concerned that the taxpayer would tire of freeing these folks from the traps that they’d set for themselves; possibly even hold them accountable, finally.

Companies, auto and finance, were allowed to grow, “too big to fail,” in an unregulated business environment. They demonstrated certainty that they wouldn’t have to face the consequences, intended or otherwise, of their actions.

The vast majority of the aforementioned industry’s leaders seem terrified of the bankruptcy courts, because the proceedings become public record. Corporate legal departments move rapidly to seal said records, but apparently there is insufficient confidence in the success of such an effort.

Taxpayers have provided the money to recover from all the recessions and depressions that have occurred since capitalism took root in the world. Imperial and mercantile economies were also built on the backs working folks; nothing new here. What is reasonably new is the ability of voters, in a democratic republic, to call for an accounting of the expenditures and that makes the plutocrats nervous.

When one looks at the US federal government’s history of taking control of businesses it should be remembered that that government took over some industries after the Great Depression and it was recovering the economy prior to the start of our active engagement in World War II; contrary to some recent attempts to rewrite that bit of history. One also needs to remember that the US war effort during WWII was successfully run by the War Department (a.k.a., the Department of Defense).

It is true that the government should not run most industry, excepting most common carriage business efforts. It has, however, been clearly demonstrated (time and again) that when capitalism is allowed to operate in an unregulated environment it gets massively carried away with itself: creating innovation, profiting from it, creating excess (recurring irrational exuberance), leading to bubbles, bubbles burst in spectacular and intentionally unanticipated (read: unprofitable to anticipate) fashion.

The government/taxpayer, once again, needs to underwrite, clean up and re-regulate the businesses that undermined the economy; then move back to the sidelines. There needs to be a friendly, continuous competition between the capitalists, the regulators and the voters/customers, because none work best on their own.

Please, don't fret o'er the budget; TX style!

2009-04-04T01:23:00.000-05:00

It is interesting, almost humorous (from a pathetic perspective), that the person who’s been the Chairman of the TX Senate’s Finance Committee for multiple legislative sessions, Steve Ogden, has noted that (after participating in the Republican state legislative majority’s reduction in regulation, revenue and expenditures) there are unfunded obligations (promises made, funding forgotten) in many of the state’s permanent investment funds (e.g., the Permanent University Fund, the Employee’s Retirement System, the Teacher’s Retirement System, etc…).

After years spent creating the problem Senator Ogden is proposing legislation to appear as if he were addressing said problems. The proposed investment board oversight should have been in place already, conflicts of interest a matter of public record and fiduciary responsibility clearly defined long ago. The current economic downturn, that has affected everybody’s investment funds, has exacerbated the long-standing lack of state funding and will only be solved when financial markets, as well as state funding, recover; irrespective of the Senator’s current legislation.

Pretending to address the state’s permanent funds problems, erecting state obstacles to stem cell research (attention: all Scott & White Hospital [TX A&M System] and MD Anderson Cancer Center [UT System] aficionados) and frothing with 2nd amendment issues (VA quietly slapped gun and ammo ownership restrictions on folks under court ordered psychiatric care after one of the aforementioned individuals went on a killing spree at Virginia Tech)...

Mayhaps all this will draw attention away from the underfunded, state, biennial budget; or not!

Why Texans need change of their own.

2009-01-25T14:51:00.000-06:00

The Dallas Morning News has a series of articles about Texas under the banner: State of Neglect. The Austin American Statesman has a series of articles on privatization of the state’s business that asks key questions:
1. How much the state of Texas has contracted to for-profit companies?
2. How much have we, the taxpayers, saved?

Both answers: “no one knows.”

We know of a very public failure of a contract between TX Health and Human Services and Accenture LLP. We also know of the serious difficulties with the contract between the TX Department of Information Resources and IBM. Then there’s the lesser known failure of the Camino Columbia private toll road in south TX.

The state’s budget isn’t in the red, because the TX constitution doesn’t allow deficits. The state has no documentation to show that the budget has been met by outsourcing, but there is a plethora of proof of the fact that the budget has been met by cutting state services; hence the State of Neglect.

The state’s expenditures are not declining while things get better, and there is no data being brandished that demonstrates where and how outsourcing is improving services while reducing cost, yet…

The US Department of Justice has found serious problems in the way Texas cares for its institutionalized people with mental health problems, and some folks are calling this a reason to continue to outsource the state’s work. I maintain that this is the continued effort of the state’s majority party trying to justify their claim of government as the problem, by governing badly.

In order to do better at serving Texans and meet budget guidelines the current legislative session would need to find a way to increase the state’s revenue in a soured economy. That would be best accomplished in a manner I suggested in the previous post. That would require the current majority party in both legislative bodies and the governor’s office to admit that they can’t deliver everything and a tax cut.

Those least able to afford the day to day costs of living, let alone lobby their state government, can expect life to get a little rougher as the State of Neglect is maintained.

There are more state, elected offices that will be contested in 2010. Make sure to register and vote for change here in Texas, too!

Taxation suggestions for Texas.

2009-01-14T13:41:00.000-06:00

I hope to be wrong, but I think the 2009, TX, legislative priority will be an attempt to justify and continue the, "everything and a tax cut," nonsense. The majority in the legislature team with the governor to try to spend the rainy day savings account (RDSA) to cover the fraud. The RDSA grew rapidly while the price of fuel (gas and diesel) hovered around four dollars a gallon, but those days are gone; they’ll return, but nobody knows when. So spending the RDSA will deplete another valuable resource.

There will be active resistance to funding necessary/overdue transportation infrastructure via a rise in the state's, long dormant and oft re-directed, fuel tax.

There will be active resistance to the state raising the funds needed to get the state out of property taxes, reduce the state's need for high sales taxes and end the fraud of the 'business tax.'

The state needs a simple, clear and low, state income tax (unlike the complex, loop-hole infested, federal income tax).

Your income can not be reappraised higher, lowered statewide only to be increased locally, doesn't cause the cost of shopping to increase nearly 10% and doesn't add many thousands of dollars a year to home ownership.

Nobody likes paying taxes, but there needs to be organized, responsible governance of society and that isn't free.

'Market' operation and coverage nonsense.

2008-12-04T14:29:00.000-06:00

Reading, watching or listening to business news one often hears things like, “instant markets,” “baked in,” or, “already reflected in ‘the market’…” This is an indication of the depth to which the mythology of ‘the market’ is ‘baked in’ to the mind set of those who are involved in the day to day coverage and operation of the business environment in the USA.

The studies revealed that the recession started in December of 2007 and was reflected in the stock market dive of September 2008; some instant market. The market is reactive, with darn slow reflexes, not proactive.

The mythology also suggests that the current mortgage crisis has core causes that are everywhere, except in ‘the market.’ The current crisis is centered on mortgage manipulation, same as (only worse than) the financial crisis of the 1980s: lots of cheap and easy credit made available while regulators napped.

Both financial catastrophes were created by ‘the markets’ insistence on demonstrated short term profit gains, and business growth (the Wall Street Two Step). Mortgages are very long term investments (15 and 30 years primarily) that introduce large quantities of money into ‘the market’ with each individual transaction; especially as ‘affordable’ housing is discouraged. ‘The market’ created a variety of kinds of “mortgaged backed” ‘investment instruments’ to attempt to pretend short term profits while allowing continued, unrestrained growth.

The Resolution Trust Corporation (RTC) cleaned up the mess of the 1980s without addressing, actually complete avoidance of, the aforementioned underlying causes. Now the US Treasury Secretary is attempting to prop up ‘the market’ with hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars without increased regulation, and without establishing responsibility, of ‘the market’ players that are involved in the recurring financial crises.

Those who deny history feel free to repeat it.

GM is not too big to fail!

2008-11-16T15:44:00.000-06:00

There is an effort to say that the U.S. government must save the American automakers from themselves; socialize failure, without consequences.

Nonsense!

In the 1970s the price of gas was going up, and the American consumer needed to get a car from Japan for fuel efficiency. They discovered that the imported cars didn't start to fall apart after the 3 year or 60,000 mile barriers that KO'd cars from the 'big three (GM, Ford and Chrysler).' This was the first indication that there was a systemic problem at the 'big three.'

The market, and government, had their first opportunity to restructure GM via the bankruptcy system in 1989/90, and didn't; about five years after the taxpayers had underwritten the restructuring of Chrysler.

Here we are again facing the fact that GM, Chrysler and Ford, like Wall Street, can't find their own backsides with both hands; even while sitting on those very same hands.

Yes, it will be painful to allow GM, Chrysler or Ford to fail, but throwing money at these companies has not been successful, let alone painless.

Solving Wall Street: Step One.

2008-11-07T16:10:00.000-06:00

A great many companies in the financial services sector (a.k.a.: Wall Street, the market) are in trouble, because the credit worthiness of their ‘mortgaged backed’ paper, collateralized debt obligations (cdo) and credit default swaps (cds) are being downgraded arbitrarily in a panicked flurry of activity. This devaluation frenzy needs to stop. The aforementioned ‘investment grade’ paper was given an initial rating of AAA by the agencies responsible for said ratings, and those need be frozen as is temporarily.

Pause, to catch a breath, then go back and (figure out?) follow the paper trail.

These investment instruments were created (by geeks hired specifically for that purpose) and sold, with an arbitrary initial debt rating of AAA, to generate immediate cash from long term investments: mortgages. They were very successful, so the call went out for more. The next generation was also very successful, so the market decayed into the irrational exuberance that accompanies any trend, that is successful long enough, on Wall Street.

Time needs to be taken to find all that paper and determine what’s still AAA, what’s junk and what’s somewhere in between. This is not being done because once the paper trail is straightened out it will be obvious that Wall Street caused its own problem.

The market has never accepted any responsibility for failure, and is of no mind to start now.

Can you feel the winds of change?

2008-10-14T13:58:00.000-05:00

We, taxpayers, paid for a bail out of the trouble caused by the financial entity charged with making home loans (the Savings and Loan businesses) without solving the underlying problems: too much easy credit, not enough regulatory effort. That was 1987 and the Reagan administration did not want to expose the underlying problems, because it would expose the sordid underbelly of 'trickle down.'

So, here we are, again, bailing out the culprits with a concerted effort to avoid the root causes of the problem.

The difference this time is that people's wallets have been affected too often by the detrimental nonsense that is 'trickle down;' leave the richest folks with the least responsibility for, and no oversight for their activity in, the environment that allowed them to earn such wealth in the first place.

There's an election, early voting starts in the next few days, this year and the winds of change are in the air!

Government's role in the economy...

2008-10-09T15:10:00.000-05:00

During economic down cycles the government needs to check where regulation, or lack thereof, might have contributed to the problem and change what is found wanting. The appropriate executive agencies need to investigate to see if criminal activity contributed to the down turn, and prosecute as needed. The government also needs to invest where the market will not, so that services will be available to assist in the economic turn around that has, so far, always followed a down turn.

Texas has very few (grandfathered) municipal telecommunications networks, because they are illegal. This must change because telecommuting, distance learning and official/legal/emergency communication will play a large part in the future of Texas. The rural nature of the vast majority of the state of Texas means that there will never be sufficient customer base to provide a profitable return on investment (ROI) for private telecommunications companies; the government must provide this service.

Sunshine and wind are something that are well known to almost every Texan, but the best places for mass harvesting of said attributes are in rural areas. There is no private company that will take on the investment needed to provide the large, intelligent, power distribution network that could bring this power from where it is generated to where it is needed; a constant, huge drain on profit.

There is no private company that will invest in the roads needed to interconnect Texas, because profitable toll rates are more than most are willing to pay; the Camino Columbia Toll Road is an example.

There is no private company willing to invest in rail connections across Texas or within the metropolitan areas, because (once again) common carriage is incapable, at an affordable cost to the user, of generating sufficient profitability.

You've noticed a pattern by now: that common carriage infrastructure (especially in a huge, largely rural, state; like Texas) is not something in which a privately or publicly held company, most interested in generating a profit, will invest. The municipal, county, state and federal governments must do this investing or it will not get done properly, if at all.

Simple Solution Update...

2008-10-02T13:03:00.000-05:00

A new Wall Street bailout bill is headed our way, loaded with even more federal debt inducing ‘goodies.’ The newer version of the bailout bill still fails to address the underlying problems; reminders of the symptom changing, problem avoidance of the Resolution Trust Corporation (RTC) some twenty years ago.

The RTC cleaned up bad debt accrued by the Savings and Loan Industry (home loan providers), at a cost of $375 - $500 billion (in taxpayer’s money), while it was forbidden from investigating (or turning over to investigating agencies) any evidence of criminal activity.

Similarly, this bill fails to recognize that the ‘mortgage backed’ derivatives (somehow buying into mortgages without buying mortgages) were a steaming pile of fecal matter from their inception, and actually asking taxpayers to buy huge quantities of them instead. I think not.

It does not give the bankruptcy court system the authority (it should always have had) to restructure debt secured by one’s home or property.

This bill does not include an updated version of the Glass-Steagull Act, which includes the regulating of Hedge Funds and Private Equity.

The new bill is a larger, debt inducing, dysfunctional thing that requires rejection; just like the first bad bailout bill.

A Simple Solution To The Mortgage Based Economic Chaos...

2008-09-23T11:57:00.000-05:00

As to Treasury Secretary Paulson’s request for a $700 billion dollar blank check from the taxpayers: Absolutely NOT!!!

Yes, to a bankruptcy court’s ability to restructure debt secured by one’s home or property.

Property’s owner: keeps their property, if they are deemed fiscally qualified to pay the restructured loan.

Mortgage Holder: makes some money, less than they’d preferred, on the note.

Investors in risky ‘mortgaged-backed’ paper: get what modest return, or lack thereof, that one should expect from a risky investment.

Simple, straightforward and it costs the taxpayer, who wasn’t previously involved in any way shape or form, very little.

Mortgage woes to be billed to taxpayers, again!

2008-09-17T13:52:00.000-05:00

Wall Street is suffering from mortgage loan abuse that it inflicted on itself, and the only thing that former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker can think of is another federal bail-out like the Resolution Trust Company (RTC).

Remember that the RTC was created to use taxpayer money to fix problems created by the folks charged with home loans, the Savings and Loan (S&L) industry players. The charter of the RTC specified that the agency would not investigate, nor would it turn over to investigating agencies of the government, any evidence that a crime might have been committed in the razing of the S&L businesses.

A little over two decades have past and here, again, we are dealing with huge economic woes caused by players in the home loan businesses and Wall Street’s money (paper with monetary value; we’re told) manipulators. Once again taxpayers are being called upon to bail out the players, without consequences for said players!!!

I think not!

Home loans can, in a single transaction, put large quantities of money on Wall Street’s field of play, and that money is then toyed with; while lobbyists for the players successfully request the government regulators turn a blind eye.

A better solution to this problem is to let the Bankruptcy Court system restructure the debt that is secured by one’s own home; currently they are not legally able to do so. This is necessary because the loans that are the largest percentage of the failures have always been called sub prime; for known, good reasons. Another kind of loan that is prone to failure is the Adjustable Rate Mortgage (ARM), because it’s sold to less qualified borrowers at rates that will ultimately be most profitable to the lender; most burdensome to the customer.

These money manipulating players need serious regulation and accountability, because they have repeatedly proven their ability to throw prudence to the wind in pursuit of profit; then call for the taxpayers to save them from themselves (without consequence, of course).

How long will it take voters to realize that they are the customers (borrowers) being abused by this process? The voters must inform their legislators that this situation needs to be controlled, once and for all, or they’ll be replaced by those who will.

A couple of things to rattle your cranial capacity, again…

2008-09-08T13:35:00.000-05:00

First:

The GOP campaign has already begun to issue statements to the effect of, “the Democratic majority in the US Congress is responsible for all that is wrong with the USA today.”

If you believe that, have I got a bridge for you!

The Democratic majority in the US Congress decided to put its foot in its collective mouth and promise that, starting in January of 2007, things would be different. If their brains had engaged before their mouths, they would have noted that they did not have a veto proof majority in either the House or Senate. Also, the super-majority parliamentary rule (used by both parties when they found themselves as a slight minority) in the Senate could, and did, stop all the Democrat’s initiatives before they ever would reach the President’s desk.

For those reasons the Republican party’s defective government (the W admin. plus a Republican majority in the House and Senate) from January 2001 till December 2006 is responsible for the financial crisis (that started as a problem with subprime mortgages), the incredibly huge federal budget deficit, the consistently large monthly trade deficit, the incomplete effort in Afghanistan, the wrong war in Iraq, the stagnant middle class income, the disparity in wealth twixt the rich and the middle class, mass job exportation, etc…

If Republicans are not willing to own the consequences of their actions, perhaps they should not have caused them.

Second:

How outsourcing tasks to contractors saves anyone any money, even as the contracting company makes a substantial profit:

First, do the outsourced task poorly.

Second, move the work to a country where the prevailing wage is substantially lower than in the USA.

Third, the aforementioned other country need have weaker (or selectively enforced) environment, health and safety laws.

Forth, (as in the current war zones) make no-bid contractors completely unaccountable; contracting already provides substantial cover from accountability.

That’s all it takes. How do the executives that make these outsourcing decisions sleep at night?

When it isn’t a noisy discussion Democracy is broken.

2008-08-01T13:04:00.000-05:00

Democracy is a constant debate, amongst all citizens, about how to apply the rule of law most fairly, across the widest possible majority of the entire population, to create a stable, capably strong and prosperous society. This is a difficult task anywhere one tries, but it’s especially important that we do it for our ever-evolving society in these United States.

A few items that, when properly considered, might spark said noisy discussion…

First: those who are complaining that the Democrats are blocking access to drilling, for oil and gas, on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) should remember that the restrictions began in 1981, and involved only the California coast; enacted by, former CA governor, President Ronald Reagan. The protection was extended to the entire Pacific, Atlantic and eastern coast of the Gulf of Mexico (Florida’s gulf coast) by President George H. W. Bush.

Between January of 2001 and December of 2006 President George W. Bush could have rescinded the OCS protection, with the support of the Republican majority in both legislative branches of the federal government; didn’t seem so important while Jeb Bush was governor of Florida and the price of a barrel of oil was below $100.

Second: the US Supreme Court recently proved that a majority has not consulted a dictionary. There’s no singular noun or pronoun in the entire 2^nd amendment of the US Constitution. The plural noun, “people,” is modified by a phrase concerning the continued functioning of, “a well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State…”

Third: as a former, moderate Republican, I remember when debates were passionate and fiscal responsibility was paramount.

In the 1970s a movement of pseudo-conservatives took over the Republican party. Discussion was silenced and, “sound like us, shut-up or leave,” became the party line. I left, but I didn’t go away.

Government was bad mouthed, even as it was being hugely expanded. Fiscal responsibility was cast out. Prophesy of bad government was being fulfilled by pseudo-cons, in the guise of Republicans, who were governing badly.

I am officially aligned with the Democratic party these days, but would love to reach across the aisle and find the true, moderate Republicans to begin the process of cleaning up the enormous mess the pseudo-cons have made of our great country, these United States of America.

What to do about oil production?

2008-06-24T15:58:00.001-05:00

The argument is being made by oil and gas industry representatives that it is time to open up the outer continental shelf (OCS) to drilling for oil and gas; the OCS has been placed off limits by the US federal government. When asked (during a US Congressional hearing) why there’s been no activity on the 68 million federally controlled acres that are available for drilling oil, those same industry representatives stated there was no drilling equipment capacity available. The turn around time for drilling platforms and supplies is approximately 5 years from order to delivery; we’ve got time to consider the ramifications.

The US uses 20.5 million barrels per day (b/d) of oil. The total estimated SWAG (Scientific Wild A** Guess) for the OCS is 27 billion barrels of recoverable oil. Add to that the ANWR oil reserves most optimistic SWAG of 11.8 billion barrels of recoverable oil and you get 39 billion barrels; 5.2 years of oil reserves untapped. The most optimistic projections of daily production from these reserves total about 3 million barrels of oil per day (b/d); about 15% of the daily US consumption. That brings us down to only 8 million b/d of imported oil; assuming none of the other US fields slow down at all. All this new capacity can be online in 7-10 years. What would you have the Sheik do with the money he’ll make from you in the meantime?

Year after year gas prices have spiked higher each summer driving season, and this year is no exception. The oil and gas industry says it doesn’t have the refinery capacity to change from producing winter to summer oil based products quickly enough. In the 1990s they sold a large chunk of the refinery capacity to independent operators; reduced their own capacity. Meantime, they optimized production at their remaining refineries to more than 90% utilization; great for profits, bad for flexibility or damaged (tornado, hurricane, industrial accident, etc…) capacity offsets (e.g., the BP refinery accidental explosion and fire here in TX).

So, can we get some help from auto manufacturers in conservation (autos consume the majority of oil based products in the US)? Nope. The association of manufacturers is suing to stop the California Air Resources Board (CARB) from imposing restrictions on automotive green house gas emissions (only way to do that is to use less fuel). In the 1990s CARB had imposed a requirement for cars that were zero emission vehicles (ZEV). GM leased multiple ZEV vehicles to California citizens while it lobbied the CA legislature to repeal the aforementioned requirement. When the lobbying effort proved successful the ZEV lease vehicles were repossessed at the end of the lease agreement (even though quite a few leaseholders wanted to purchase their cars) and GM scrapped them.

GM also displayed the Volt, a plug-in, full series hybrid car (moved by electric motor only, using an internal combustion engine to crank the generator exclusively), but said batteries to make the car feasible weren’t commercially available. However, the folks at General Dynamics Land Systems had already field demonstrated a four ton Humvee replacement that was a full series hybrid truck (getting 250% better mileage than the Hummer).

I hear the cry to, “let the markets work,” but the markets have discovered that profitable is more fun than responsible activity. We were on this road in the 1970s and are here again (see other posts), because we’ve demonstrated an ability to forget the past. To quote Bill Engvall, “Here’s your sign!”

Back to the 1970s at the fuel pump!

2008-06-16T16:11:00.000-05:00

In a previous post I stated that history was repeating itself in the form of a debt driven economic crisis; the 1986 S&L debacle becomes the subprime mortgage fiasco of today.

We return to the past once again, 1972 this time, to relive that well-marketed, short-term supply problem that drove prices at the gas/diesel pump sky high, this time in the form of developing world economic demand straining the producers ability to supply enough fuel.

The oil and gas industry once again states that the solution is to let them drill for crude oil wherever and whenever they want.

That answer is as wrong this time as it was the last time. What brought the price of hydrocarbon based fuels down, by 1985, was conservation. The problem rears its ugly head again, because after the price of a gallon of gas/diesel went way down, due to sub $10 per barrel crude oil, all the conservation measures were quickly thrown away; replaced by pseudo-conservation methodologies.

Enter the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards that would hold the line on fuel consumption without price controls (that had failed earlier in the crisis).

The first problem that arose was the cheap price of fuel; concerned citizens subdued themselves when they paid less at the pump. Those still concerned about overt consumption were labeled tree-huggers, whiners, nut-cases, etc…

The second problem with CAFE was the light truck exemption, deemed necessary for the folks who needed a truck on the job. Except that CAFE was met by eliminating large family sedans and station wagons, that were replaced by Sport Utility Vehicles (SUVs) and mini vans; family vehicles covered by the light truck exemption (allows these new types of vehicles to remain beyond the reach of CAFE).

Those of us who thought the price of gas/diesel should remain higher, by means of increased state and federal taxes on consumption thereof, were scoffed at generally. The tax revenue generated could have been used to operate, update and maintain state and federal road and ground transport infrastructure that was being worn out, by heavy usage, at a much faster rate than it was being serviced.

Well, we’re at it again! Supplies seem to be meeting demand; no station closures or waiting lines yet. Still, the price per gallon of fuel is exceeding $4 at the pump; excuses roll out as profits roll in to oil and gas industry coffers.

Once again the hydrocarbon providing companies are demanding that they be able to go wherever they want and to do as they please, without pesky taxes or regulatory oversight.

Of course, there are those of us saying (after, “I told you!”) that conservation and alternatives need be applied first. Then, maybe open some access to previously protected places to the hydrocarbon producers: taxes and regulatory environment fully operational at every site and company involved in petrochemical associated industries.

Education in TX needs serious attention...

2008-06-16T14:59:00.000-05:00

A great education can give our children the building blocks they need to become confident and the incentive to create the basis for the ‘next big thing’ that will drive the world’s economy; from right here in Texas.

The extraordinary expansion of the world’s economy, upon which many a Texan has thrived, has been driven by advances in the Industrial Revolution and the beginning of the Information Age. The most recent century of developments in both economic drivers originated here in the USA. Texas has been a partner in these expansions, but the main innovative force has almost always been associated with the education strongholds of the east and west coasts of these United States.

There is a need to build a foundation that will allow leadership in economic growth (the next big thing) to be drawn primarily from right here in the Lone Star State. The foundation is education; from pre-K right through post-doctoral studies.

Here are some ideas to ponder for investing in education in Texas:

*Three trimesters per school year; two or three weeks break between trimesters and a week break in the middle.
* Pre-K through 12th grade would normally take 14 years, but could be accelerated to as few as 12 years or increased to as many as 16 years, as needed.
* Technical/Vocational secondary school alternatives.
* GED programs could be made available at high school and community college campuses, as needed.
* Multi-media teleconferencing could make classes available statewide, so that every school need not provide every class curriculum for itself.
* Multi-media teleconferencing could also provide study assistance for students, during and after school hours, statewide.
* Electronic texts could make the best books available statewide, easier and less expensive than providing multiple hardcopies at each and every campus.

These are just a few of the ideas I have for making schools in Texas better and more affordable, so that folks will come to know that they can find the best educated workforce and brain-trust right here in Texas.

TX government fund shuffling...

2008-05-07T14:06:00.000-05:00

The Texas state government can not release the control of a state-wide property tax until it has a sufficient and dependable revenue stream of its own. Creating said revenue will require new and revamped taxation, that political third rail to the perpetual office holder.

Our Texas state government has created an enormous funding problem by trying to pretend that we can, "have everything and a tax reduction." Since the legislature absolutely refuses to broach the subject of new, different or increased taxation it must constantly shuffle around existing revenue or reduce state funding. Another method that the governor and legislators have tried is selling the state to private, for profit, contracting companies. Contracting state services to industry has failed each time it has been tried, but the effort continues unabated because the state doesn't have the funds to do what it has promised to Texas residents.

No matter the source of a good or service, you must decide if you need it, order it, and then arrange payment. Contrary to the Reaganesque, "government as the problem," perspective sometimes the best value provider of a good or service is a government entity.

Primarily the state must educate its youth, because education is the foundation upon which our great economy is built! But, our state legislators have consistently reduced state funding at all levels, pre-k through post graduate, such that a good public education is not necessarily available, or affordable, for a majority of Texans.

Some revenue was supposed to go to targeted agencies (e.g., hunting and fishing licenses for state parks, and the lottery would be for education expenses only), but these specifics never made it into the final edition of the requisite legislation. The legislators of Texas refused to tie their own hands, so they quietly reneged on promises made to the citizens of Texas.

How does one attempt to guarantee that, when all is said and done, what was said is done?

Term limits!

This is another of the things that our legislators, professional politicians, will not do for Texans. It will require that the majority of the voters do their Constitutional, obligatory duty and vote; force the issue!

Least cost management strikes again!

2008-04-04T16:28:00.000-05:00

Another of Texas’ major, homegrown, successful companies has decided to outsource more of its manufacturing to Asia (read: Communist China). This is not as much of a surprise as it is a major disappointment, because a great many of the manufacturing jobs in the USA that have gone offshore have gone to Communist China.

The question that most executives need to ask themselves is, “when I replace a skilled worker making, on average $50,000 per year, with 10 much more modestly skilled factory workers making less than $2,000 per year… Who will buy my product?”

It has been the policy of the executives of most of the companies in the USA to seek the least cost solution to every problem; the panacea of modern manufacturing mentality. Why? Because least cost is most obvious, requires minimal thought, and generates the kind of immediate profits that inflate management bonuses.

In study after study, published in business journals, it has been documented that in the long run (longer than 3 months) the most efficient solution is ‘best value.’ That is the highly automated factory with a few highly skilled (read: well paid) workers generates the most efficient, highest possible quality output of goods. But this is risky (read as: more costly) because if, in that first three month period, ‘best value’ is not well managed and executed it will take longer to reflect the inherent operating efficiency; management speak for lower bonuses.

Another least cost management favorite is the imported, skilled worker. Why is this bad? Because, the least cost management practice brings these workers in to provide skilled labor who don’t expect to make as much as the prevailing wage. Instead of hiring good, local talent and training them for the job, least cost management brings in skilled foreign workers that are already experienced, and pays them less. Saves money in that critical three month window; better bonuses.

Yes, least cost management saves you money in that critical quarterly window, so be a good team player and don’t risk thinking about ‘best value,’ because if my bonus is negatively effected your long term employment…

Oh, just be a good team member!

W's subprime regulatory shuffle!

2008-04-03T15:38:00.000-05:00

The W administration is proposing to shuffle the regulatory deck in response to the implosion of the subprime mortgage market. Of course, if regulation is the problem the solution would be to restructure the highly conflicted management of the agencies that are supposed to monitor Wall Street activity. The current regulatory agencies have senior executive ranks that are chock full of Wall Street professionals whose post-bureaucrat employment would be adversely effected were he or she to be too, or at all, strict as a regulator.

Of course tighter monitoring of more open financial reporting of all the chicanery on Wall Street would be desirable, because the depth of most recessions can be attributed to the irrational exuberance that Wall Street has always demonstrated during economic up cycles. But the most effective solution to this, and the historic Savings and Loan collapse of 1986, would be to grant authority to the bankruptcy courts to restructure the debt secured by one’s home.

The Wall Street alchemists scream most loudly at the latter suggested regulatory move, because it would interfere directly with their efforts to try to turn arcane paper into currency. This is, of course, the best reason to do it.

2009 New President, old problem in Iraq.

2008-04-03T15:28:00.000-05:00

January of 2009 will bring a new president who will inherit an old problem; the Revolutionary War we started in Iraq.

In 1990-1 the H.W. Bush administration organized a real coalition of nations to bring military operations to bear on a dictator/ally who’d gotten out of control. Saddam’s Iraq was being used to keep the Ayatollah’s Iran in check. Saddam had thrown a near decade long war against Iran while frittering away the resources of Iraq on himself and his toadies, and needed new resources to plunder. So, Saddam, underestimating international objections, raided the neighboring, oil rich sheikdom of Kuwait.

The coalition of nations that rose up against the travesty in Kuwait included Arab nations in the region. Two keys to getting and keeping these allies were that Israel didn’t participate and we didn’t go to Baghdad after liberating Kuwait. The H.W. administration went along with the latter under the assumption that the Iraqis would throw out a weakened Saddam after the war; the assumption was faulty.

Nearly 10 years had transpired and Saddam was as entrenched as ever in his self-serving regime when the W. Bush administration took office. On the 11^th of September 2001 the tragedy of an attack on the USA took place, costing the lives of thousands of innocents in fortress America.

The W. administration’s initial reaction to the invasion of our country was to attack the regime and country giving aid and shelter to those who had attacked the USA: the Taliban, Afghanistan and Al Qaeda. The effort was not to be the full-scale attack that the US was capable of mounting, so a strategic alliance with the enemies of the Taliban was created. The problem with the alliances were twofold: first, the allies (the Northern Alliances) were nowhere near the capability of the US military and second, the Northern Alliances did not all like the US as much as they admired one of their own: Al Qaeda’s leader Osama bin (forgotten) Laden. Osama escaped from encircling forces and got out of trap set in a remote valley (in the rugged terrain of the Pakistan/Afghanistan frontier), and hasn’t been seen or seriously pursued since.

Meantime, in the W. administration, holdovers from the Reagan and H.W. administrations were attempting to take advantage of the fear and confusion following 9/11 to finish what they had started in 1990; felling Saddam. Connections to terror were fabricated and tales of WMD (weapons of mass destruction) were phenomenally exaggerated, where possible, or created as needed. In 2003 the W. administration employed the might of the USA to begin the Iraqi Revolutionary War.

The US troops were not allowed the time to come up to the required strength of 300,000 soldiers for the invasion, nor the 500,000 troops for the planned occupation of Iraq, so this effort was also pursued at less than the capacity the US military had determined the task required. Still our forces managed to capture Saddam, kill his heirs, fire his Baath party and fire the Iraqi Army. Five years into the effort and W’s administration still have not admitted, if indeed they realize, that the recovery of Iraq after the revolution faces the same obstacles that it did earlier, when it couldn’t muster the cooperation needed to oust a weakened Saddam; internal strife amongst the three groups of people in Iraq: Shia’a, Sunni and Kurd.

The USA can not reconcile the differences between the three ethnic groups that quibble in Iraq. The people of Iraq must resolve their differences or the next dictator will take advantage as did the last. We can consult in the establishment of democratic institutions, even as we restore our own. We can also help train the new Army, should the Iraqis decide to reconcile. Other than that the revolutionary war we won for them is just a pause between dictators.

The time has come for the Iraqi people to take the next step and resolve old strife, or not. The USA should stand down our forces till the Iraqis have displayed a capacity to make said next step, and return only if our presence is requested by the peoples of Iraq.

TX Legislature continues to do the fund shuffle...

2008-03-27T23:29:00.000-05:00

In the latest chapter of the Republican fiction of, “everything and a tax break,” TX Senate Finance Committee Chairman, Steve Ogden proposes the next generation of fund shuffling.

After years of moving funds that were created for targeted causes (e.g. hunting and fishing license fees, fuel taxes and lottery revenue, etc…) to all the other under funded state programs, the Senator wants TxDOT to sell bonds for necessary infrastructure operation, maintenance and expansion. This method requires taxpayers to eventually pay both the original amount and the accrued interest. If that’s not enough, then let’s borrow from the Employees Retirement System, Teachers Retirement System, Permanent School Fund and Permanent University Fund (funds that already exist) to build more toll roads. If the toll roads don’t earn sufficient sums to pay back enough money, in a timely fashion, for the dedicated fund’s own expenses to be paid, Oops.

The alternative is to admit that the task is under funded and raise the long dormant fuel taxes, and then use the funds for the infrastructure tasks that are needed; some are already overdue.

New study shows the negative implications of No Child Left Behind

2008-03-02T23:22:00.000-06:00

I had told any who would listen that, "No Child Left Behind," meant holding up everybody so that it looks like nobody's straggling! Now there are studies, from prestigious Texas Universities, that found that by shedding low performing students a school's test-based only accountability yields falsely impressive results.

Excerpts reprinted without permission from RICE News and Media Relations, 02/14/2008:

By analyzing data from more than 271,000 students, a new study by researchers at Rice University and the University of Texas-Austin found that 60 percent of African-American students, 75 percent of Latino students and 80 percent of ESL students did not graduate within five years.

...study has been published in the peer-reviewed policy journal "Educational Policy Analysis Archives" and is the first research to track the impact of high-stakes accountability on students, employing individual student-level data over a multi-year period. The executive summary is available at Rice University's Center for Education, http://centerforeducation.rice.edu/. The study can be viewed at http://epaa.asu.edu/epaa/v16n3/.

The continuing saga of the super-secret administration...

2008-02-27T16:31:00.000-06:00

In the continuing saga of the super-secret administration, the Republican National Committee (RNC) has refused to recover, from archive tapes, the public business done at the White House via ‘private’ e-mail services; provided by the RNC. The US House Oversight and Government Reform Committee were told that the e-mails, that had been programmed to be automatically deleted after 30 days, would not be recovered from the archives and turned over to the House committee as requested.

Once again the constitutionally mandated oversight of the Executive Branch of the federal government, by the legislative and judicial branches thereof, has been flouted by the current administration. The system of checks and balances established in the US Constitution was designed to prevent the temptation to abuse power from coming to fruition, and the W administration has shown that it is determined that that restraint will not apply to them.

Previously in the super-secret administration:

Undermine the authority of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) secret court’s ability to determine if surveillance is warranted.
Refute Congressional and Judicial (causing lawsuits to be thrown out) oversight by refusing to allow access to White House personnel or documents.
Pseudo-private e-mail accounts to do the public’s business, avoiding government provided e-mail accounts, which have been claimed repeatedly to be immune to judicial or congressional access.
Reclassifying as secret, documents that had been publicly accessible via the National Archives; for decades, in some instances.
Classifying, as secret, record numbers of current working documents created, or in use, at the White House.
Attempt to close EPA libraries and classify, as secret, publicly funded EPA research documents.

This is just what comes to mind immediately, and is sufficient to warrant the US House of Representatives to investigate as grounds for impeachment of both elected officials in the White House: President and Vice President.

Real help for homeowners...

2008-02-01T14:12:00.000-06:00

In an earlier posting about the economy I compared the current sub-prime mortgage fiasco to the S&L disappearing act of 1986, because both problems were related to home loans gone bad. Why do home loans go bad? Because some of the loans are structured to sucker folks, who might not ordinarily qualify for such a loan, into a deal that will imminently be most profitable for the lender. I recently learned that, once in such an arrangement, the homeowner has no recourse if a lender is not willing to re-finance to more affordable (read: less profitable) terms. Bankruptcy allows the court to restructure a wide variety of kinds of secured debt, but not debt secured by a home (even if it is a person's primary residence).

The Emergency Home Ownership and Mortgage Equity Protection Act being considered by Congress would allow the court to change the terms and conditions of debt secured by the debtor's home. This Act would allow the Bankruptcy Court temporary power to deal with this type of secured debt, but I would suggest that this type of authority be granted to said courts permanently. If this had been the case since the 1980's both the S&L fiasco and this sub-prime mortgage driven, economic recession might have been averted.

The aforementioned, pending Act of Congress would be real assistance to those in need, and it would not cost the US Treasury any money. The current plan, to return tax money to citizens, adds substantially to the federal government's enormous debt while getting money into the hands of people who don't need it. Even if all the refunded monies were spent immediately it wouldn't help the economy. More important, the cash would be no help at all to those with the most urgent need.

No private toll roads in Texas!

2008-01-28T13:03:00.000-06:00

In the last, Texas, state legislative session the Trans Texas Corridor (TTC) was put on hold, but no other method was made available for funding new road construction, or operating and maintaining existing infrastructure. So, the Perry appointees at TxDOT HQ whine that there's no money for them to do their job; a corner they willfully backed into.

There has been an experiment in a private toll road in south Texas, the Camino-Columbia toll road, where drivers proved that they would much rather wait in snarled traffic than pay profitable toll rates. So, the lesson that Perry's minions at TxDOT HQ learned was that you take negotiations for privately owned toll roads behind closed doors and give away the farm.

TX is now the second most populous state in the nation and is burdened with a burgeoning flow of NAFTA related traffic. This has put a tremendous, and increasing, burden on the ground transportation infrastructure of our state in the last decade, while inflation has upped the cost of building, operating and maintaining said facilities. Yet our fuel taxes have stagnated for well more than 10 years. Our state legislature wants us to believe that the only adequate solution is to turn our road and train routes over to private, campaign contributing, companies.

We've had one proof of the concept that common carriage transportation is not going to be sufficiently profitable for private companies, but if more proof is needed it should be on a project much smaller than the TTC. In the meantime let's take care of the current needs by raising the state and federal fuel taxes, as the federal government’s commission has wisely suggested.

Health Care For All...

2008-01-25T17:20:00.000-06:00

Health care issues won't be solved by elected officials at the state or federal level till the voters realize that there are simple decisions to be made. Do you want good health care? Did you know that it can be done better, for all, cheaper than what we, as a nation, are paying now? Do you, as voters, have what it takes to hang in there long enough to fight moneyed interests with lots of profits to loose?

There are three approaches to medical care: prevention, cure and treatment. The best for the patient is prevention; not getting sick. The second best is to be cured; quickest possible complete recovery. The third best is extended treatment of a medical problem; when prevention and cure aren't an option.

The problem is that the most profitable approach to medicine is treatment. If one wants the most efficient and effective medical care you must go head-to-head with industries that have developed around, and profited greatly, from treatment exclusively.

This is not a difficult decision to make, because study after study has determined that citizens of the USA spend the most for their health care and get the least return on that investment (when compared to the health care of any of the other first world, and many developing, countries).

The answer is single payer health care. This is not to be confused with single provider medicine, because it is no such thing. This is not an answer that needs to come from state or federal legislatures, because it needs to come from voters fighting (determined to get to the best health care for their families) against persistent, well vested interests with serious profit margins to loose.

Trickle Down? You mean Trick-me Debt!

2008-01-24T14:12:00.000-06:00

What?

Let’s see:

1. Jobs trickling to China, India, the Philippines, etc…

2. $60 Billion every month in trade deficit!

3. $9 Trillion federal deficit ($30,000 for every man, woman and child in the USA).

4. 47 Million Uninsured citizens in the USA.

5. Sub-prime debt problems creating an economic recession!

The Reagan Administration began a program of tax relief for the wealthy, and as you can see it’s had enormous effect on the economy. Faced with the aforementioned inconvenient details the W Administration has, as usual, chosen denial and continued the policy misnamed “Trickle Down.”

It’s well past time for a change;

VOTE DEMOCRAT!!!

Once again, it's the economy...

2008-01-23T13:17:00.000-06:00

The economic situation of 2008 might remind a person of the collapse of the savings and loan industry in 1986.

It seems that an entire branch of the financial services industry had huge portfolios of investments that were collapsing and leaving them with unmanageable debt. The market had been left on its own by the Reagan administration and the result was a really huge economic disaster that was left to the taxpayers to resolve.

Of course 1986 was an election year for all of the US House of Representatives and one third of the US Senate, so no mention was made of the impending disaster (except for one, and only one, time that Rep. Henry Gonzalez let the secret slip). The year of delay allowed what was estimated to be a $50 billion problem to fester till it was to take $500 billion to resolve.

The Resolution Trust Corporation (RTC), a temporary division of our federal government, was created to find the nonperforming (defaulted) assets, and bill cleaning up the mess to the taxpayers. Then find the remaining, performing assets and create portfolios to be given to surviving financial institutions. The Savings and Loan industry disappeared. In addition to the S&L vanishing act, local ownership of every multi-branch bank in Texas, with the sole exception of Frost Bank, was ceded to out-of-state interests (a financial necessity) privately or by the RTC.

Another part of the RTC's charter was that they were NOT to investigate, or turn over to investigating agencies, any evidence of suspected criminal activity.

Today we find ourselves in the midst of an economic crisis brought on largely by excessive numbers of nonperforming, sub-prime, home loans. It should be remembered that the S&L industry was a home loan providing, financial services industry.

Once again the market is mired in trouble of its own making and the cry has gone out for Uncle Sam to, "save us." The Federal Reserve has cut interest rates so that the market can borrow its way out of the credit problem, it created, as cheaply as possible. Oh, while you’re at it, reduce taxes on the very folks and corporations that were at the helm of the businesses that had aggressively marketed the loans that they knew to be sub-prime; NOT!

It's time to ask the voters to stand, once again, against well vested interests that repeatedly pay for lawmakers and laws that allow them to work behind closed doors, then seek government bail-outs when the market realizes its in serious trouble (of its own creation); without admitting any guilt.

The federal government, Congress and the White House, are stumbling over each other in a race to provide economic stimulus packages. Stop! The economy cycles up and down; always has. Now we’re in a down cycle, made worse because financial services businesses were allowed to market too much credit to too many barely qualified borrowers, at exorbitant rates, hence the ‘sub-prime’ moniker. The Federal Reserve has already lowered interest rates. If one wants to be helpful, make sure that affordable refinancing is getting to the folks who need it.

Quotes from Ben and Thomas

2008-01-22T14:37:00.000-06:00

Quotes from History:

"Those who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security deserve neither liberty nor security." (Ben Franklin)

"It would be a dangerous delusion were a confidence in the men of our choice to silence our fears for the safety of our rights... Confidence is everywhere the parent of despotism. Free government is founded in jealousy, and not in confidence. It is jealousy and not confidence which prescribes limited constitutions, to bind down those whom we are obliged to trust with power... Our Constitution has accordingly fixed the limits to which, and no further, our confidence may go... In questions of power, then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution." (Thomas Jefferson from the Draft Kentucky Resolutions, 1798)