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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!

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…

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!

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.

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!

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!

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 us 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!