The Debate That Never Was
The View from the Middle
If you are anything like me, you tuned into the Democratic debate to hear about their plans to make our lives better. The economy is good. How can the Democrats make it better? Immigration is a mess. What is your plan to address this crisis? Healthcare is a complicated issue. What are your plans to improve access and quality while reducing costs? Instead we were all subjected to a combination auction, foreign policy pipedream and a utopian dream fest.
The auction started immediately with the first question to Bernie Sanders, and Bernie made a super-strong first bid. Bernie offered up free, universal healthcare, free college and the forgiveness of all student debt in America. Wow! I don’t even remember the question, but Bernie was determined to buy as many votes as possible with his first salvo. My first thought was that we need a spending clock at these debates so that we can keep track of how much of our money these purse-snatchers are squandering. Because, as I’ve said a thousand times, OUR GOVERNMENT HAS NO MONEY. Please remember, whenever Bernie or anyone else uses the word “free” they are taxing you to pay for it.
Not to be outdone by Bernie, Joe Biden said, “I’ll call your free college and raise you universal pre-K.” Kamala Harris then declared, “I’ll see your free college and Pre-K, and raise you $500 a month guaranteed income for anyone making less than $100,000 a year.” Not to be outdone, Andrew Yang proclaimed, “I’ll call all of that and raise you $1,000 a month for everyone over 18.” By this time the spending clock would have been smoking, with sparks flying and flames would have been coming from your wallets. But the final bid was a group bid as every candidate on the stage promised free healthcare for illegal aliens. The spending clock just exploded.
I don’t know what these guys and gals were smoking, but as soon as the auction ended, the foreign policy pipedream began. First, most of the candidates suggested that our country’s biggest geopolitical foe today is Russia. To paraphrase Barack Obama, “guys, 2008 wants its foreign policy back.” For those who were able to admit that China, Iran and North Korea are our biggest adversaries, their plans to address these challenges were farcical.
Pete Buttigieg is going to go to China and simply convince them to give up their plans to dominate the world, and us, economically by 2025. Yah, like that’s going to happen. We have, in effect, been trying to do that for the last 40 or 50 years and it hasn’t worked. They lie, cheat, steal our intellectual property, manipulate their currency and severely restrict our participation in their markets. They respect strength and exploit weakness. Talk is cheap and weak and that’s Pete’s plan.
Kirsten Gillibrand has a similar plan for Iran. She’s going to go to Iran and convince them to be good and kind and care about their own citizens and their place in the world community as they scream, “Death to America and death to Israel” in her face. Maybe she’ll try sending over a few more planeloads of cash that they can use to fund those sweet guys in Hamas and Hezbollah. Take another toke on that pipe, Kirsten. Iran would chew you up and spit you out. At least none of these people even tried to suggest a plan for that nut bag in North Korea. We should all just hope that the sanctions now in place will bring him to a real bargaining table.
And then the Utopian dream fest started. First, every one of these people would sign us up for the Paris Climate Accord immediately. Yes! We’ll give the 140 developing countries (which includes China, Russia and India) in the agreement about a half a trillion dollars a year and we can trust that they’ll manage it properly because of this non-binding agreement. And the tides will recede and the sun will shine (but not too much) and we won’t have any more hurricanes, tornadoes or floods. Dream on, and read my article on this agreement written in June of 2017.
Many, if not all, of these candidates also support the Green New Deal, which is more fantastical than a Disney movie and of course they will wave a magic wand and eliminate all prejudice in America, including their own. Maybe they’ll pass a law that says it’s illegal to discriminate against people because of the color of their skin or even their sexual orientation. Wait a minute. Didn’t that already happen? We need more than Utopian dreams. We need solutions, and we didn’t hear about any of those last night.
You know that the debates were a catastrophe when even the mainstream media dared to criticize them. Joe Scarborough even went so far as to call them “a disaster”. I actually hope that the Democrats wake up and start offering some real solutions to the problems we face. I want to hear them. If they don’t, there may be more crickets in the audience by the last debate than humans. WE HAVE 11 MORE OF THESE!!!
Saturday, June 29, 2019
Monday, June 24, 2019
Hollywood and Bernie Sanders Duplicity
Hollywood and Bernie Sanders Duplicity
The View from the Middle
Sometimes even I am shocked at the level of hypocrisy and duplicity that can come out of our Hollywood “so-called” elites. The latest is a video starring Robert De Niro, Martin Sheen, Rob Reiner, Stephen King and others. Despite the nearly two-year investigation by Robert Mueller which found no collusion between Trump or anyone in his campaign and the Russians, these deluded, pompous, self-promoting nitwits continue to wallow in the Russian collusion myth. Their final message is that “No one is above the law, not even the President”. That is about the only thing in their little propaganda video that I agree with. No one is above the law.
But aren’t these the same nut bags that don’t want to deport illegal aliens back to their country of origin? Isn’t what they did against the law? These simpletons can read a script and clearly harbor intense hatred in their hearts, but their jobs as entertainers obviously hasn’t required them to learn how to think. They can’t have it both ways. If no one is above the law then they must rethink their stance on sanctuary cities and on illegal immigrants.
And then there is the new big lie being told by Bernie Sanders. I think that everyone understands that while tariffs are paid by countries, it is often the consumers that eventually pay those taxes as the prices go up on the goods they buy. In general, I’m against tariffs and I believe so is Donald Trump, but his tariffs on China, Canada, Mexico et cetera are aimed at solving bigger economic problems that those countries have created. At least we all understand the impact of tariffs, however, as the result of the media coverage of Trump’s tariffs.
But Bernie says that he can forgive everyone’s college debt and deliver free college for all by taxing the evil Wall Street speculators. He will tax all stock trade transactions by one half of a percent and all bond trades by on tenth of a percent. This a lie in at least three ways. First, he has no idea if this will pay for his two trillion dollar give away over ten years. He hasn’t considered at all that Wall Street will figure a way around these taxes by either executing fewer trades or investing in other areas.
Second, Bernie isn’t telling you that the bad old Wall Street guys will simply pass these taxes on to you and me, just like the tariffs. But Bernie won’t be honest and tell you that. Finally, another thing Bernie won’t tell you is that this is likely to actually drive college tuitions up. There is no such thing as free college tuition. Professors are still going to get paid. Administrators will continue to draw a salary and construction and maintenance of campuses will cost money and WE will pay for it. Don’t fall for it. There is no such thing as FREE college!! Bernie and the others are just buying your votes with YOUR MONEY.
The View from the Middle
Sometimes even I am shocked at the level of hypocrisy and duplicity that can come out of our Hollywood “so-called” elites. The latest is a video starring Robert De Niro, Martin Sheen, Rob Reiner, Stephen King and others. Despite the nearly two-year investigation by Robert Mueller which found no collusion between Trump or anyone in his campaign and the Russians, these deluded, pompous, self-promoting nitwits continue to wallow in the Russian collusion myth. Their final message is that “No one is above the law, not even the President”. That is about the only thing in their little propaganda video that I agree with. No one is above the law.
But aren’t these the same nut bags that don’t want to deport illegal aliens back to their country of origin? Isn’t what they did against the law? These simpletons can read a script and clearly harbor intense hatred in their hearts, but their jobs as entertainers obviously hasn’t required them to learn how to think. They can’t have it both ways. If no one is above the law then they must rethink their stance on sanctuary cities and on illegal immigrants.
And then there is the new big lie being told by Bernie Sanders. I think that everyone understands that while tariffs are paid by countries, it is often the consumers that eventually pay those taxes as the prices go up on the goods they buy. In general, I’m against tariffs and I believe so is Donald Trump, but his tariffs on China, Canada, Mexico et cetera are aimed at solving bigger economic problems that those countries have created. At least we all understand the impact of tariffs, however, as the result of the media coverage of Trump’s tariffs.
But Bernie says that he can forgive everyone’s college debt and deliver free college for all by taxing the evil Wall Street speculators. He will tax all stock trade transactions by one half of a percent and all bond trades by on tenth of a percent. This a lie in at least three ways. First, he has no idea if this will pay for his two trillion dollar give away over ten years. He hasn’t considered at all that Wall Street will figure a way around these taxes by either executing fewer trades or investing in other areas.
Second, Bernie isn’t telling you that the bad old Wall Street guys will simply pass these taxes on to you and me, just like the tariffs. But Bernie won’t be honest and tell you that. Finally, another thing Bernie won’t tell you is that this is likely to actually drive college tuitions up. There is no such thing as free college tuition. Professors are still going to get paid. Administrators will continue to draw a salary and construction and maintenance of campuses will cost money and WE will pay for it. Don’t fall for it. There is no such thing as FREE college!! Bernie and the others are just buying your votes with YOUR MONEY.
Thursday, June 13, 2019
Socialism vs Capitalism
Socialistic Illusion vs Capitalistic Reality
The View from the Middle
I have to admit that I am amazed at the gullibility of many Americans, especially the young people, who can listen to the likes of Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Alexandria Ocasio Cortez literally and shamelessly try to buy their votes with mountains of “free stuff”. As my old boss at Procter & Gamble used to say, “the promise is the easy part”, and in this case it’s the only part. Let me give you a list of just some of the things that these Democratic Socialists are promising:
-Free college tuition.
-And soon, I’m sure, the forgiveness of all college debt (1.2 trillion dollars)
-Free Healthcare for all.
-A guaranteed job, and
-A guaranteed living wage (whatever that is)
-Guaranteed medical leave and paid vacation.
-Guaranteed affordable, safe and adequate housing.
-Guaranteed economic security (again, whatever that means)
-And, of course, guaranteed retirement security.
-Guaranteed access to healthy food.
-Guaranteed access to water, air and nature.
As usual, these people are long on the promises and short on the explanation of how they are going to deliver on them. Their feeble plan always makes yet another promise – the other guy will have to pay for all of this “stuff” and you will get it for free. The estimated cost of these freebies and guarantees is over 90 trillion dollars over ten years and would more than triple the size of our government over that same period. As I explained in my article back in February, there are not enough “rich” (top 1%) people in this country to pay for all of this and every American would end up with massive tax increases to fund this wish list.
What these politicians are falsely promising in order to get you votes is a guaranteed, easy life with no effort on your parts. What they eliminate in the process, however, is the concepts of risk & reward, and incentive. And, when it comes to taking risks and creating incentives, why would anyone want to eliminate them? But this socialistic, guaranteed outcome, freebie platform will do just that. Risk and incentive, in fact, are key drivers of our current economic system. Capitalism rewards intelligent risk taking and incents hard work and productivity, and these are good things.
It amazes me the Sanders, Warren and AOC can sit in the most powerful, most prosperous country in the world that has been driven by a capitalistic economic engine almost since its inception, and suggest that capitalism doesn’t work. The proof of the power of capitalism doesn’t lie in our GDP or our military capability, although they are the best in the world. It lies in the fact that over a million people each year leave their countries of origin and come to our country legally, and another million risk their lives on a treacherous journey across the country of Mexico in pursuit of “the chance” at a better life in these United States.
It is true that Capitalism can be corrupted by monopolies, corruption and cronyism. We must always be striving to insure equal opportunity (not outcome) for all of our citizens and a fair marketplace for our goods and services so that risk and effort will be rewarded. Even with these watch outs, Capitalism has already lifted more people out of poverty than any other economic system in the world. Don’t be lured away by the false promises of a guaranteed, easy, risk-free life. Stick with the system that has delivered for this country for over 200 years. It’s the best guarantee you can get.
The View from the Middle
I have to admit that I am amazed at the gullibility of many Americans, especially the young people, who can listen to the likes of Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Alexandria Ocasio Cortez literally and shamelessly try to buy their votes with mountains of “free stuff”. As my old boss at Procter & Gamble used to say, “the promise is the easy part”, and in this case it’s the only part. Let me give you a list of just some of the things that these Democratic Socialists are promising:
-Free college tuition.
-And soon, I’m sure, the forgiveness of all college debt (1.2 trillion dollars)
-Free Healthcare for all.
-A guaranteed job, and
-A guaranteed living wage (whatever that is)
-Guaranteed medical leave and paid vacation.
-Guaranteed affordable, safe and adequate housing.
-Guaranteed economic security (again, whatever that means)
-And, of course, guaranteed retirement security.
-Guaranteed access to healthy food.
-Guaranteed access to water, air and nature.
As usual, these people are long on the promises and short on the explanation of how they are going to deliver on them. Their feeble plan always makes yet another promise – the other guy will have to pay for all of this “stuff” and you will get it for free. The estimated cost of these freebies and guarantees is over 90 trillion dollars over ten years and would more than triple the size of our government over that same period. As I explained in my article back in February, there are not enough “rich” (top 1%) people in this country to pay for all of this and every American would end up with massive tax increases to fund this wish list.
What these politicians are falsely promising in order to get you votes is a guaranteed, easy life with no effort on your parts. What they eliminate in the process, however, is the concepts of risk & reward, and incentive. And, when it comes to taking risks and creating incentives, why would anyone want to eliminate them? But this socialistic, guaranteed outcome, freebie platform will do just that. Risk and incentive, in fact, are key drivers of our current economic system. Capitalism rewards intelligent risk taking and incents hard work and productivity, and these are good things.
It amazes me the Sanders, Warren and AOC can sit in the most powerful, most prosperous country in the world that has been driven by a capitalistic economic engine almost since its inception, and suggest that capitalism doesn’t work. The proof of the power of capitalism doesn’t lie in our GDP or our military capability, although they are the best in the world. It lies in the fact that over a million people each year leave their countries of origin and come to our country legally, and another million risk their lives on a treacherous journey across the country of Mexico in pursuit of “the chance” at a better life in these United States.
It is true that Capitalism can be corrupted by monopolies, corruption and cronyism. We must always be striving to insure equal opportunity (not outcome) for all of our citizens and a fair marketplace for our goods and services so that risk and effort will be rewarded. Even with these watch outs, Capitalism has already lifted more people out of poverty than any other economic system in the world. Don’t be lured away by the false promises of a guaranteed, easy, risk-free life. Stick with the system that has delivered for this country for over 200 years. It’s the best guarantee you can get.
Wednesday, June 5, 2019
Bipartisan Solutions to Immigration
A friend of mine and I organized a bipartisan group, 5 liberal and 5 conservatives, to discuss important issues and, more importantly, come up with read solutions on which we all could agree. Given today's crisis on our southern border I felt that it would be appropriate to share the highlights of our discussion and the solutions on which we all agreed. Enjoy.
Background:
We have a 2,000-mile border with Mexico, and about 700 miles of that distance is already protected by some kind of fence or wall. 65 countries around the world use fences or walls to protect their borders and there is significant evidence that these fences/walls are effective at reducing illegal entries. Also, the experts (border patrol agents) have been surveyed and they have asked for 200 to 300 miles of additional walls as part of their three-pronged plan to stem illegal immigration.
Pew research suggests that we have about 11 million illegal aliens in our country today. A Yale study estimated that number is somewhere between 16 million and 29 million. The number is irrelevant. Whether that number is 11 million or 29 million, there is no way we can round up that many people and return them to their countries of origin. It is logistically impossible and it would be a moral and economic catastrophe for our country. Most of these people are hard-working, law abiding people whom we want and need in this country, but illegal immigrants simply do not assimilate into our society as well as legal immigrants for a variety of reasons.
The United States will always be a magnet for people in Mexico and Central America. They crave the freedom, safety and prosperity that our country offers, and are willing to make the treacherous, life threatening trip across Mexico to get here. Our laws, like “catch and release” and our sanctuary cities only add power to that magnetism. While the flow of illegal immigration will rise and fall based on the economies of the countries on both sides of our border, DHS estimates that we will apprehend a million illegal immigrants in 2019. You can call this an emergency, a crisis or just a problem, but to suggest it is not an issue is disingenuous.
There are also some bad people who are crossing our southern border. Some are trafficking in drugs and some are human traffickers and some are just violent gang members like MS-13. While the United States is a very generous and welcoming country, we do not have an unlimited capacity to accommodate all the refugees and immigrants that would like to come here. Every new person puts pressure on our healthcare, academic and legal systems, so we need to do a better job of identifying any criminal element trying to enter.
Finally, our legal immigration system seems to be, at best, complicated and, at worst, broken. While we allow about a million immigrants a year into our country through our legal system, our natural population growth, or lack thereof, would suggest that we will need even more immigrants in the future to sustain our economic growth. Wait times will need to be shortened and the federal government will have to manage the number and type of immigrants allowed in more efficiently.
Solutions:
1. Secure the border:
a. Install additional walls/fencing consistent with the request of the experts (the border guards) in strategic locations. Our understanding is that should result in an additional 200-300 miles of barriers which will bring the total walls/fencing on the border to just under 1,000 miles.
b. The experts have also suggested more boots on the ground, or border agents to patrol the border. It is difficult to find data on what kind of increase the experts are suggesting, but we would recommend an increase in personnel consistent with their recommendations.
c. Virtually everyone is recommending an increase in technology to patrol the border. Cameras, sensors and drones can be very effective at identifying breaches and directing border patrol agents to areas where support is needed.
2. Once the border is secure, we can look to resolve the issue of the people who are already here illegally. That total number is comprised of two smaller groups:
a. There are about two million people in America who came with their parents when they were just minors. We know them as DACA kids now. Most of these “kids” know no other country than the US and are the most assimilated to the American culture. We recommend a path to citizenship for these individuals.
b. For the 11 to 29 million immigrants who came here as adults and knowingly broke our laws to do so, we recommend a path to legalization for two reasons. First, most of these people are law abiding, hard-working people who came here for a better life. Second, it would be logistically impractical if not impossible to return them to their countries of origin. Legalization would include every aspect of citizenship except for the right to vote. We might recommend a small fine for that privilege, but no attempt to collect back taxes as this would be difficult if not impossible to attain. The violent felons of this group should be returned to their countries of origin.
c. For both of these groups there should be a grace period for them to register and apply for these privileges. A year might be appropriate. After that grace period, anyone who has not registered for these programs would be eligible for deportation.
3. We would recommend the end of the “catch and release” policy. This would probably take legislation to accomplish, but the end of catch and release is highly popular amongst the American people.
4. We recommend a limitation to chain migration to members of the nuclear family only.
5. We recommend a strengthening of the E-Verify system to discourage employers from harboring cheap labor in violation of ours laws.
6. We would also recommend a streamlining of our legal immigration system so that citizenship could be achieved for qualified candidates within a year.
Benefits from these recommendations:
1. The improved border security would minimize illegal entries and increase the country’s ability to accommodate a higher number of legal immigrants and refugees.
2. The path to citizenship and legalization for our existing undocumented aliens would allow these new citizens and legal residents to participate fully in American life, including the privilege of paying taxes.
3. Bringing all of these people out of the shadows would improve the likelihood of assimilation into the American culture, values and system of governance.
Background:
We have a 2,000-mile border with Mexico, and about 700 miles of that distance is already protected by some kind of fence or wall. 65 countries around the world use fences or walls to protect their borders and there is significant evidence that these fences/walls are effective at reducing illegal entries. Also, the experts (border patrol agents) have been surveyed and they have asked for 200 to 300 miles of additional walls as part of their three-pronged plan to stem illegal immigration.
Pew research suggests that we have about 11 million illegal aliens in our country today. A Yale study estimated that number is somewhere between 16 million and 29 million. The number is irrelevant. Whether that number is 11 million or 29 million, there is no way we can round up that many people and return them to their countries of origin. It is logistically impossible and it would be a moral and economic catastrophe for our country. Most of these people are hard-working, law abiding people whom we want and need in this country, but illegal immigrants simply do not assimilate into our society as well as legal immigrants for a variety of reasons.
The United States will always be a magnet for people in Mexico and Central America. They crave the freedom, safety and prosperity that our country offers, and are willing to make the treacherous, life threatening trip across Mexico to get here. Our laws, like “catch and release” and our sanctuary cities only add power to that magnetism. While the flow of illegal immigration will rise and fall based on the economies of the countries on both sides of our border, DHS estimates that we will apprehend a million illegal immigrants in 2019. You can call this an emergency, a crisis or just a problem, but to suggest it is not an issue is disingenuous.
There are also some bad people who are crossing our southern border. Some are trafficking in drugs and some are human traffickers and some are just violent gang members like MS-13. While the United States is a very generous and welcoming country, we do not have an unlimited capacity to accommodate all the refugees and immigrants that would like to come here. Every new person puts pressure on our healthcare, academic and legal systems, so we need to do a better job of identifying any criminal element trying to enter.
Finally, our legal immigration system seems to be, at best, complicated and, at worst, broken. While we allow about a million immigrants a year into our country through our legal system, our natural population growth, or lack thereof, would suggest that we will need even more immigrants in the future to sustain our economic growth. Wait times will need to be shortened and the federal government will have to manage the number and type of immigrants allowed in more efficiently.
Solutions:
1. Secure the border:
a. Install additional walls/fencing consistent with the request of the experts (the border guards) in strategic locations. Our understanding is that should result in an additional 200-300 miles of barriers which will bring the total walls/fencing on the border to just under 1,000 miles.
b. The experts have also suggested more boots on the ground, or border agents to patrol the border. It is difficult to find data on what kind of increase the experts are suggesting, but we would recommend an increase in personnel consistent with their recommendations.
c. Virtually everyone is recommending an increase in technology to patrol the border. Cameras, sensors and drones can be very effective at identifying breaches and directing border patrol agents to areas where support is needed.
2. Once the border is secure, we can look to resolve the issue of the people who are already here illegally. That total number is comprised of two smaller groups:
a. There are about two million people in America who came with their parents when they were just minors. We know them as DACA kids now. Most of these “kids” know no other country than the US and are the most assimilated to the American culture. We recommend a path to citizenship for these individuals.
b. For the 11 to 29 million immigrants who came here as adults and knowingly broke our laws to do so, we recommend a path to legalization for two reasons. First, most of these people are law abiding, hard-working people who came here for a better life. Second, it would be logistically impractical if not impossible to return them to their countries of origin. Legalization would include every aspect of citizenship except for the right to vote. We might recommend a small fine for that privilege, but no attempt to collect back taxes as this would be difficult if not impossible to attain. The violent felons of this group should be returned to their countries of origin.
c. For both of these groups there should be a grace period for them to register and apply for these privileges. A year might be appropriate. After that grace period, anyone who has not registered for these programs would be eligible for deportation.
3. We would recommend the end of the “catch and release” policy. This would probably take legislation to accomplish, but the end of catch and release is highly popular amongst the American people.
4. We recommend a limitation to chain migration to members of the nuclear family only.
5. We recommend a strengthening of the E-Verify system to discourage employers from harboring cheap labor in violation of ours laws.
6. We would also recommend a streamlining of our legal immigration system so that citizenship could be achieved for qualified candidates within a year.
Benefits from these recommendations:
1. The improved border security would minimize illegal entries and increase the country’s ability to accommodate a higher number of legal immigrants and refugees.
2. The path to citizenship and legalization for our existing undocumented aliens would allow these new citizens and legal residents to participate fully in American life, including the privilege of paying taxes.
3. Bringing all of these people out of the shadows would improve the likelihood of assimilation into the American culture, values and system of governance.
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