The Mueller Debacle
The View from the Middle
I’m sitting here watching Robert Mueller testify in front of the House Judiciary Committee, and while I’m not sure what the media spin will be on his testimony, I can tell you what the story should be.
First, is Mueller a thousand years old or what. He has been mumbling and bumbling around for over two hours now and my only question is – does he have even a couple of marbles rolling around in his head anymore. His voice is shaking and he is asking almost every Congressman to repeat their questions. Does he need hearing aids or does he actually not understand these relatively simple questions that just refers to his own report?
Which brings us to what should be the second big story that should come out of this hearing. Did Mueller do any of this work at all? He spends most of his time looking through his own (supposedly) report for references or being assisted in that effort by his wing man, Aaron Zebley. He was asked directly, “how many of the 500 plus interviews done for this investigation did you attend.” His answer was, “Very few.” Wow! He was also trapped into admitting that he didn’t even prepare his own nine minute press conference speech that he delivered in May.
The questions on both sides of the aisle are not of any surprise. Democrats are trying, unsuccessfully, to get Mueller to indict the President during this hearing despite the fact that he didn’t do so in his 400+ page report. Republicans are trying to discredit Mueller, which, given the total lack of evidence of his mental acuity, seems to working better.
Mueller has been painted not only as a patriotic, hard-working and honest civil servant, but as an astute lawyer. To be honest, today Mueller has not given witness to any of these attributes, certain not the accusation of his sharp wit. He has been slow, unsteady and even incoherent today, and that should be the story.
Despite the spin that the media will try to put on this hearing, my guess is that this will have no impact on the positions of most Americans. If you thought Trump was guilty of conspiracy and obstruction of justice before this inquiry, you will probably maintain that position after it. If you thought this entire investigation was a hoax, you will probably still hold that position.
I do have one concern with the Democrat line of questioning is in this entire ordeal. They have talked much about Trump’s conversations with Don McGahn, where they talked about firing the Special Counsel or even where Trump might have told McGahn to fire him. The problem is, the Special Counsel was not ever fired, and other than not agreeing to a personal interview with the President, Mueller has already stated that he was not deprived of any access to people or documents by the White House. Is thinking about doing something now against the law. Watch out for the “Thought Police”.
The bottom line on what I will call the Mueller embarrassment campaign is that no minds will be changed, another day of legislative capability was wasted and our Congressmen showed themselves to be the partisan hacks we all suspected them to be. My hope is that they can now get back and do the work they should be doing to solve the crisis we are having on our southern border, do something to address our crumbling infrastructure and stop the toxic rhetoric that insults every American. But, unfortunately, that seems to be too much to ask.
Wednesday, July 24, 2019
Thursday, July 11, 2019
Let's Talk Deficits and Debt, Lest We Forget
Let’s Talk Deficits & Debt, Lest We Forget
The View from the Middle
As a people, Americans can be very distractible, and you can be sure that our politicians in Washington D.C. love that about us. As they spend our money hand over fist, borrowing one out of every four dollars they squander, they will say, “Pay no attention to the way we waste your money, look at this illegal immigration problem that we have been marinating for you for over 40 years now.”
They will whistle right past the grave yard of deficits and debt and try to focus your attention on just about anything else – North Korea, Iran, that obviously racist Betsy Ross flag on the back of Nike’s shoes. Anything will do. They will even lie right to your face. Back in 2013, Nancy Pelosi famously said, “We don’t have a spending problem. We have a revenue problem.” She said this just before she boarded her private jumbo jet for her weekly commute back to California at a cost of about six million dollars a year to the US taxpayers. No spending problem here!
There’s a reason why “we don’t have a spending problem” did not become a rallying cry for either political party. It’s a loser. Ronald Reagan once suggested that he wouldn’t say that Congress spent money like a drunken sailor because that would be an insult to drunken sailors everywhere, and I think that captures the sentiment of most Americans.
So, consider this my warning to all Americans. Do not be distracted from the existential threat that our deficits and debt pose for our country. Before the beginning of the 21st century, all of our Presidents combined had accumulated a US debt of about five trillion dollars. George W. Bush doubled that debt in his eight years in office adding five trillion dollars of debt to our total and ended his Presidency with a 10 trillion-dollar national debt. Barack Obama then double our debt again, adding another 10 trillion dollars to the country’s debt load bring our total debt to just under 20 trillion dollars. This kind of debt creation is just not sustainable.
The only thing that is keeping this from becoming an economic disaster for our country today is the unusually low interest rates that we are paying on this debt. Even at the current, ridiculously low interest rates, service on our debt costs us all over $350 billion a year. If interest rates would ever return to historically average rates like 5%, our debt service would triple to about a trillion dollars a year and would became the single largest element of our country’s budget. Interest payments on our debt would become almost 50% higher than our entire military budget and would be larger than our Medicare and Medicaid budgets combined. And where, exactly, are we going to come up with an additional $650 billion dollar for our government to spend from which we will receive zero benefits. That money will just be paid to our debt holders like Japan and China or to our own, soon to be insolvent, social security trust fund.
If all of this doesn’t frighten you, it should. It should especially panic our young people who will either have to repay this debt (never going to happen) or bare the burden of our debt’s crushing consequences. Young people will be paying dearly for my generation’s recklessness. And then there’s the threat to America’s financial preeminence in the world, which currently delivers untold benefits to our citizens.
The US currently ranks 8th in the world, out of 180 countries, in our debt to GDP ratio, and this isn’t a metric in which we want to be dominant. The only countries above us are countries like Japan, where the government, in effect, own the banking system and thus controls its own interest rates, and financial weaklings like Greece, Portugal and Italy. Let’s face it. We cannot be like these countries and maintain our position as the most important world financial superpower and boast the world’s predominant currency. China, our biggest financial competitor, has a third of our debt in terms of real dollars and half of our debt burden as a percent of its GDP. You can quickly grasp their plan for global financial dominance.
Debt is the one area where Trump has disappointed me. I’m good with the sanction and tariff pressure on North Korea, Iran and China. I’m a big fan of the tax cuts and regulatory relief of this administration. I can support his immigration policies which I believe includes both border security and paths to citizenship for the DACA kids and possibly legalization for many more, but so far, the debt clock has not slowed down.
Last year we spent almost $800 billion more dollars than our government took in. This year, some estimate the deficit to be more than a trillion dollars. We all should want to hear his plans to reverse this trend and even balance the budget over time. Trump’s current budget shows a balanced budget by 2027. We all need to hear more than just vague promises about this deficit reduction plan during the 2020 campaign because if the current trends are not reversed by that time, global warming (sorry, climate change) will be the least of our problems.
The View from the Middle
As a people, Americans can be very distractible, and you can be sure that our politicians in Washington D.C. love that about us. As they spend our money hand over fist, borrowing one out of every four dollars they squander, they will say, “Pay no attention to the way we waste your money, look at this illegal immigration problem that we have been marinating for you for over 40 years now.”
They will whistle right past the grave yard of deficits and debt and try to focus your attention on just about anything else – North Korea, Iran, that obviously racist Betsy Ross flag on the back of Nike’s shoes. Anything will do. They will even lie right to your face. Back in 2013, Nancy Pelosi famously said, “We don’t have a spending problem. We have a revenue problem.” She said this just before she boarded her private jumbo jet for her weekly commute back to California at a cost of about six million dollars a year to the US taxpayers. No spending problem here!
There’s a reason why “we don’t have a spending problem” did not become a rallying cry for either political party. It’s a loser. Ronald Reagan once suggested that he wouldn’t say that Congress spent money like a drunken sailor because that would be an insult to drunken sailors everywhere, and I think that captures the sentiment of most Americans.
So, consider this my warning to all Americans. Do not be distracted from the existential threat that our deficits and debt pose for our country. Before the beginning of the 21st century, all of our Presidents combined had accumulated a US debt of about five trillion dollars. George W. Bush doubled that debt in his eight years in office adding five trillion dollars of debt to our total and ended his Presidency with a 10 trillion-dollar national debt. Barack Obama then double our debt again, adding another 10 trillion dollars to the country’s debt load bring our total debt to just under 20 trillion dollars. This kind of debt creation is just not sustainable.
The only thing that is keeping this from becoming an economic disaster for our country today is the unusually low interest rates that we are paying on this debt. Even at the current, ridiculously low interest rates, service on our debt costs us all over $350 billion a year. If interest rates would ever return to historically average rates like 5%, our debt service would triple to about a trillion dollars a year and would became the single largest element of our country’s budget. Interest payments on our debt would become almost 50% higher than our entire military budget and would be larger than our Medicare and Medicaid budgets combined. And where, exactly, are we going to come up with an additional $650 billion dollar for our government to spend from which we will receive zero benefits. That money will just be paid to our debt holders like Japan and China or to our own, soon to be insolvent, social security trust fund.
If all of this doesn’t frighten you, it should. It should especially panic our young people who will either have to repay this debt (never going to happen) or bare the burden of our debt’s crushing consequences. Young people will be paying dearly for my generation’s recklessness. And then there’s the threat to America’s financial preeminence in the world, which currently delivers untold benefits to our citizens.
The US currently ranks 8th in the world, out of 180 countries, in our debt to GDP ratio, and this isn’t a metric in which we want to be dominant. The only countries above us are countries like Japan, where the government, in effect, own the banking system and thus controls its own interest rates, and financial weaklings like Greece, Portugal and Italy. Let’s face it. We cannot be like these countries and maintain our position as the most important world financial superpower and boast the world’s predominant currency. China, our biggest financial competitor, has a third of our debt in terms of real dollars and half of our debt burden as a percent of its GDP. You can quickly grasp their plan for global financial dominance.
Debt is the one area where Trump has disappointed me. I’m good with the sanction and tariff pressure on North Korea, Iran and China. I’m a big fan of the tax cuts and regulatory relief of this administration. I can support his immigration policies which I believe includes both border security and paths to citizenship for the DACA kids and possibly legalization for many more, but so far, the debt clock has not slowed down.
Last year we spent almost $800 billion more dollars than our government took in. This year, some estimate the deficit to be more than a trillion dollars. We all should want to hear his plans to reverse this trend and even balance the budget over time. Trump’s current budget shows a balanced budget by 2027. We all need to hear more than just vague promises about this deficit reduction plan during the 2020 campaign because if the current trends are not reversed by that time, global warming (sorry, climate change) will be the least of our problems.
Saturday, June 29, 2019
The Debate That Never Was
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!!!
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!!!
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.
Thursday, May 30, 2019
Bob Mueller - Just James Comey All Over Again
Bob Mueller – James Comey All Over Again
The View from the Middle
Does anyone remember what an absolute disaster the Comey press conference was back in July of 2016. Let me remind you. This was the press conference where James Comey spent about 15 minutes on national TV publicly flogging and then, for all intents and purposes, indicting Hillary Clinton before suggesting that no reasonable prosecutor would every actually indict her. Afterwards he was soundly criticized by both sides of the political spectrum, and for good reason.
First, Comey demonstrated that he had no idea what his job was. His job was to investigate (he was the head of the FBI – Federal Bureau of Investigation) and then pass his findings to the Justice Department, who would then decide whether to indict Ms. Clinton or not. He was so out of line with his press conference that the Inspector General found him guilty of insubordination. Certainly, that is grounds for termination.
But what is worse is that Comey showed a complete ignorance of the law. He suggested that since Hillary Clinton didn’t “intend” to break the law then she could not be indicted. There are at least two problems with this line of thinking. First, Hillary had smashed her communications devices with sledge hammers and then destroyed, using BleachBit, over 30,000 emails that were under subpoena. Now, if that doesn’t prove an intent to conceal and or destroy evidence, I don’t know what does.
The second problem with his “intent” argument is that “intent” is not even a requirement of the statute that Hillary was accused of violating. Comey just made it up. So, what we found as a result of Comey’s now famous press conference is that James Comey didn’t understand the requirements and limitations of his own job AND he either didn’t understand the law or intentionally ignored it. No wonder everyone wanted him fired. And then along comes Robert Mueller.
It quickly becomes apparent that Comey and Mueller went to the same law school, probably an on-line degree from the University of Somalia, because neither seems to have a grasp of the law or their jobs. Yesterday, Mueller bumbled and stumbled through about an eight-minute prepared speech that made him look like he was guilty of something. In his press conference, he suggested that a memorandum written in 1973 stated that a sitting President “cannot be indicted”. That is NOT what the memorandum stated. It, in effect, suggested that a sitting President SHOULD NOT be indicted as it would interfere with the execution of his or her responsibilities. Also, this is not a law, but a legal opinion, which could be challenged.
His job was to find out if a crime had been committed, and he didn’t find one. Even if you apply the OLC (Office of Legal Counsel) opinion, that would not prohibit Mueller from finding Trump guilty of conspiracy or of obstruction of justice. Ken Starr used the word “guilty” eleven times in his report on Bill Clinton and Bill Clinton eventually pleaded guilty to misleading testimony and had his license to practice law in Arkansas suspended for five years. He also paid a $25,000 fine. Mueller could have done the same thing to Donald Trump, but he didn’t. Not because he was confined by the OLC policy, but because he couldn’t make the claim.
Mueller has another problem with his assertion that the OLC rule prevented him from indicting Trump. He denied that was the cause for his decision in front of at least two people, Attorney General Bill Barr and Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein, hardly a Trump fan. If he would make the same statement in front of Congress that he made today, he could very well be facing perjury charges of his own. How poetic would that be?
Finally, Bob Mueller doesn’t seem to understand the basic principle on which our entire judicial system is based. In the US, our citizens are assumed innocent until they are proven guilty of something. It’s called “the presumption of innocence”. Mueller said that he couldn’t prove that Trump was innocent. Bob, you don’t have to do that. That was not your job. While Trump is not above the law, he is not below it either. He is presumed innocent. Mueller didn‘t have to prove it.
The country is tired of the investigative rut the Democrats are stuck in. In the latest Quinnipiac poll 66% of Americans do not favor impeaching Trump, while only 29% do, and that 29% is heavily skewed towards Democrats. Interestingly, however, in a recent CNN poll almost 70% of Americans want to investigate the origins of the Russia probe. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. I predict that when Michael Horowitz, the Inspector General, is done with the likes of Comey, Brennan and Clapper, the Democrats will be focusing on damage control instead of investigations.
The View from the Middle
Does anyone remember what an absolute disaster the Comey press conference was back in July of 2016. Let me remind you. This was the press conference where James Comey spent about 15 minutes on national TV publicly flogging and then, for all intents and purposes, indicting Hillary Clinton before suggesting that no reasonable prosecutor would every actually indict her. Afterwards he was soundly criticized by both sides of the political spectrum, and for good reason.
First, Comey demonstrated that he had no idea what his job was. His job was to investigate (he was the head of the FBI – Federal Bureau of Investigation) and then pass his findings to the Justice Department, who would then decide whether to indict Ms. Clinton or not. He was so out of line with his press conference that the Inspector General found him guilty of insubordination. Certainly, that is grounds for termination.
But what is worse is that Comey showed a complete ignorance of the law. He suggested that since Hillary Clinton didn’t “intend” to break the law then she could not be indicted. There are at least two problems with this line of thinking. First, Hillary had smashed her communications devices with sledge hammers and then destroyed, using BleachBit, over 30,000 emails that were under subpoena. Now, if that doesn’t prove an intent to conceal and or destroy evidence, I don’t know what does.
The second problem with his “intent” argument is that “intent” is not even a requirement of the statute that Hillary was accused of violating. Comey just made it up. So, what we found as a result of Comey’s now famous press conference is that James Comey didn’t understand the requirements and limitations of his own job AND he either didn’t understand the law or intentionally ignored it. No wonder everyone wanted him fired. And then along comes Robert Mueller.
It quickly becomes apparent that Comey and Mueller went to the same law school, probably an on-line degree from the University of Somalia, because neither seems to have a grasp of the law or their jobs. Yesterday, Mueller bumbled and stumbled through about an eight-minute prepared speech that made him look like he was guilty of something. In his press conference, he suggested that a memorandum written in 1973 stated that a sitting President “cannot be indicted”. That is NOT what the memorandum stated. It, in effect, suggested that a sitting President SHOULD NOT be indicted as it would interfere with the execution of his or her responsibilities. Also, this is not a law, but a legal opinion, which could be challenged.
His job was to find out if a crime had been committed, and he didn’t find one. Even if you apply the OLC (Office of Legal Counsel) opinion, that would not prohibit Mueller from finding Trump guilty of conspiracy or of obstruction of justice. Ken Starr used the word “guilty” eleven times in his report on Bill Clinton and Bill Clinton eventually pleaded guilty to misleading testimony and had his license to practice law in Arkansas suspended for five years. He also paid a $25,000 fine. Mueller could have done the same thing to Donald Trump, but he didn’t. Not because he was confined by the OLC policy, but because he couldn’t make the claim.
Mueller has another problem with his assertion that the OLC rule prevented him from indicting Trump. He denied that was the cause for his decision in front of at least two people, Attorney General Bill Barr and Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein, hardly a Trump fan. If he would make the same statement in front of Congress that he made today, he could very well be facing perjury charges of his own. How poetic would that be?
Finally, Bob Mueller doesn’t seem to understand the basic principle on which our entire judicial system is based. In the US, our citizens are assumed innocent until they are proven guilty of something. It’s called “the presumption of innocence”. Mueller said that he couldn’t prove that Trump was innocent. Bob, you don’t have to do that. That was not your job. While Trump is not above the law, he is not below it either. He is presumed innocent. Mueller didn‘t have to prove it.
The country is tired of the investigative rut the Democrats are stuck in. In the latest Quinnipiac poll 66% of Americans do not favor impeaching Trump, while only 29% do, and that 29% is heavily skewed towards Democrats. Interestingly, however, in a recent CNN poll almost 70% of Americans want to investigate the origins of the Russia probe. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. I predict that when Michael Horowitz, the Inspector General, is done with the likes of Comey, Brennan and Clapper, the Democrats will be focusing on damage control instead of investigations.
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