Wascally Wepublicans

Take notice small businesses of America! The party of no has their sights set on you. Republicans love businesses, especially small ones. At least, that's the common logic. Apparently, it's wrong. In the midst of an awful recession, the wascally wepublicans threw their support behind the business community by filibustering a bill that would have created a $30 billion lending system for small businesses and provide $12 billion in tax breaks. Take that small business owners.

The bill, co-authored by both Democrats and Republicans, had the backing of some of GOP's strongest allies including the Chamber of Commerce and National Federation of Independent Businesses. Yet Republican officials spurned both the American people and their business supporters. All for what, you may ask? All to deny Democrats a legislative victory before midterm elections.

How terrible are the wascally wepublicans? By denying Democrats a legislative victory, they're also denying the American people a victory. So when you head to the polls in November, thinking about how the Democrats failed to pass a bill to help small businesses, think about why they failed.

How bout dem bailouts

Remember when Presidents Bush and Obama passed much-maligned bailouts for the banking and auto industry? Those bailouts, unfortunate though they were, look pretty good in hindsight.

When President Bush bailed out the banks he ensured that those banks wouldn't collapse, and that they'd still be able to put a little bit of capital back in the market. Though many of those bankers didn't deserve the taxpayers' help, neither did the taxpayers deserve to further suffering had more banks failed. No matter how low President Bush's last opinion ratings were, my personal feelings towards him are probably even lower, but bailing out the banks was the right call.

Apparently, so was bailing out the auto industry. Check out the recent reports on Ford and GM. Like the bankers, the automotive bigwigs probably didn't deserve our money. But laying off more American workers and ceding the automotive field to foreign companies wasn't an attractive option either. Like his predecessor, President Obama deserves some credit for making a tough, unpopular, and good decision. As American auto companies rebound and grow they will provide jobs and money.

And when the time comes for me to buy a car, my first stops are going to be Ford and GM dealerships. Nothing like a quality American product.

Stumbling through the heat

Just a few weeks ago I moved from Memphis to New York. I had hoped that by moving north, I would avoid the heat. Though one of my good friends warned me that NYC was just as hot as the southeast, I wasn't prepared.

I'm not alone. People all along the east coast are suffering, as they are in Russia where temperatures have cracked triple digits and where hundreds of people have drowned swimming drunk to escape the temperature. While American and Russian citizens stumble through the heat, our politicians do the same, just recently scrapping plans for an energy bill that would have put a price on carbon emissions and invested federal $ in alternative energy. The heat in DC is apparently playing games with their brains.

I'm beginning to wonder if the White House and Capitol Building are actually going to start melting before our legislators are stirred from their stupor. You'd think a heat wave in their city and the world's worst environmental disaster would make politicians began to question mother nature's health and our addiction to sticky, black fossil fuels. Perhaps though, you'd only arrive at that conclusion if you lived somewhere where the triple degree temperatures hadn't fried your cerebral cortex. I hope Santa brings all of our brave legislators the lumps of coal that they're fighting so dearly to protect.

Just a few days ago, I celebrated the prospects of an energy bill. Now, I'm lamenting the short-sightedness of our politicians and the apathy of a public who cares more about a concocted deficit crisis than a real environmental/economic one.

John Boehner hates America

It's true, John Boehner, the man in line to become speaker of the house if Republicans somehow (God forbid) manage to win control of the House in the midterm elections, hates America.

JB, perhaps most famous for his Ken Doll like fake tan, and his outrageous fabrications and misrepresentations of the healthcare law was interviewed recently about his plans to create jobs in America. Perhaps all JB's time in the tanning booth has fried his brain as well as his botox. Boehner's response coincided with the lamentable abandonment of an energy bill because both Democrats and Republicans couldn't get on board.

When asked how his party would stir job creation, JB said, "Repealing the health care law, blocking cap-and-trade energy legislation and pledging not to raise taxes." There you have it, John Boehner hates America.

Step 1 for the JB plan to create jobs: take healthcare away from millions of Americans costing the federal government billions of dollars when some of those people inevitably get sick and are forced to have their healthcare paid for by Uncle Sam. How is it possible that this party has convinced the American public their on the side of fiscal responsibility? Perhaps I'm being too tough on them though, after all, the party is offering to pay the doctor's bill for roughly 30 million Americans. Repealing healthcare also means allowing insurance companies to take your money for years and give you nothing in return when you finally get sick, and refuse to insure your sick children. If THAT doesn't spur job creation, I don't know what will. Boehner's reasons for wanting to repeal healthcare probably stem from the fact that he told numerous lies about all the bad things the law would do, and by repealing it, he can cover his tracks since none of his "Armageddon" talk is any more true now than it was before the law was passed.

Step 2 for the JB plan to create jobs: allow America's antiquated coal-fired power plants to continue spewing carbon into the atmosphere while simultaneously neglecting the technology that millions of people around the planet are clamoring for already and that billions will be clamoring for in the next few decades. In effect, cede the green energy war to the rest of the world, and acknowledge that America was the superpower of yesteryear. That's right, JB's plan to create jobs means making absolutely sure that America will be rapidly losing jobs to the countries that are already investing in clean energy.

Step 3 for the JB plan to create jobs: a pledge. That's nice. Nothing like a good pledge from a politician. Fine, I won't condemn the man for promising not to raise taxes, and I do think that's an effective PART of job creation, although the oft-lauded Reaganomics trickle-down theory has lost all credibility. Still, at least that part of his plan makes sense. But even if 2 out of 3 ain't bad, 1 out of 3 is very bad, especially when we're talking about the livelihood of the American people and the future of the greatest country on earth.

Let's make America better today, and in the future, and reject asinine ideas that will set us back instead of pushing us forward. Let's reject John Boehner. He hates America.

Why Thomas Friedman is also a hero

Because of this. Thomas Friedman, like myself and many others, but unfortunately unlike some of our politicians and lobbyists, understands the incredible importance of alternative energy.

I feel like I can't reiterate it enough, but America's economic health is currently hanging in the balance. Forget the current recession and the right's attempts to derail a recovery with faux austerity. The world is changing and America needs to recognize it. Just as there were revolutions in farming, industry and communications technology, there is an upcoming revolution in energy technology. It doesn't take a lot of foresight to recognize this. In fact, it takes very little foresight to recognize this, but for whatever reason, many people still don't, or won't. Either way, it's a problem.

Let me repeat myself, again, the world's population is growing...quickly. More and more people are going to be living at the same standard that we now enjoy now. A standard that is, quite frankly, unsustainable given our current use of resources. Take China, a country with a population of more than 1.3 billion people that is currently the world's third largest economy. There are more people living in poverty in China than there are living in the United States. What happens as China's economy grows and those people rise out of poverty? Do they continue living in mud huts and walking on mud roads? Probably not. As those people and others worldwide start to demand a higher standard of living, mother nature's resources will disappear...if we haven't destroyed the planet before we use them up, but that's another issue.

When resources disappear, or the earth gets too dirty, whichever happens first, humanity will make the inevitable jump to renewable and clean energy. That jump has already begun, but for the most part, it is happening elsewhere, meaning that while America continues to funnel money to people who fly airplanes into our buildings and compare our president to the devil in the UN General Assembly, China and other countries are leaping ahead in the race to develop the next generation of clean energy technology.

Please America, let the oil spill in the gulf be this generation's Sputnik. Let this disaster - and our common sense - compel us to begin remaking our economy and our way of life so that we can preserve our great nation.

When the time comes for me to raise a family, I don't want to have to take them overseas to work in another country that beat us to the punch on the technology of the future. I don't want my kids living on a dirty planet. We need to make the change now. Don't do it for me. Do it for America.

Why Lindsey Graham is (sort of) a hero

The title is misleading, Lindsay Graham is sort of a hero, but so are Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins. Why? Because they are the only Republicans with the brains and the fortitude to stand up to a party that is full of hypocrite, nincompoops, and good-for-nothings (literally, the party has no ideas except to say no to the Democrats) who seem determined to turn America into a once-great country, a has-been. Lindsay Graham is perhaps the most heroic of the three because he comes from a state where he is scrutinized by the Tea Party, and so he comes under fire every time he dares to stand up for something sensible. Apparently people in Maine are somewhat more sensible that people in South Carolina, because Snowe and Collins don't seem to feel the same heat.

I feel compelled to bring this up today because Senator Graham was the only Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee to support the nomination of Elena Kagan for the Supreme Court. While his vote didn't actually matter, and while it is normal for members of both parties to oppose nominees on idealogical grounds, Senator Graham had the guts support a qualified nominee despite the fact that none of the other six Republicans on the committee would. In doing so, Senator Graham admonished members of both parties for voting against candidates because of ideology rather than character and qualifications.

Kudos, Senator Graham. You also deserve to be lauded for your efforts on climate change, as you are one of maybe four Republicans who realizes that alternative energy isn't the future, but the present. It's amusing that a party who scares people into thinking the deficit is a huge issue by playing on their fears of leaving their children and grandchildren with debt isn't willing to talk about leaving future generations with things like a sustainable economy or a healthy planet.

Senators Snowe and Collins also deserve praise today for their votes to extend unemployment benefits to millions of unemployed Americans. Not a single other Republican voted to put money into the hands of the unemployed, and therefore, put it back into the economy. I wonder what the Republican plan for getting out of the recession looks like. Maybe it involves extending the Bush tax cuts, costing the government $650 billion in revenue over the next decade. Surely not though, I mean, after all, if these people are unwilling to help millions of Americans by tacking $30 billion worth of unemployment benefits onto the budget then they wouldn't be willing to let the government lose out on $650 billion. Right? Right?

America needs opposition parties (more than one), but we need sensible opposition parties. I applaud Senators Graham, Snowe and Collins for their legitimate efforts to improve our country. I don't agree with them on all issues, but clearly, these are people who have principles - making America better - and sense. If we really do want to improve America we need more Republicans like those three and fewer like Rand Paul. Actually, we don't need any like Rand Paul, or Rush Limbaugh, or Glenn Beck. But that's another issue. Today, I want to celebrate the efforts of some people with whom I disagree. Thank you for your service to our great country.

What happens when you mishandle a deficit problem?

You end up with a worse one. Ireland, ground zero for ill-conceived austerity measures, had its credit rating downgraded today. Yes, for all it's austerity, Ireland was rewarded with a lower credit rating due to...drumroll...rising debt.

Again and again people seem unable to distinguish between the two problems of debt and depression. Debt is problematic. Depression is crippling. Critics of deficit spending cite rising debt as a problem, and love the adage, "you can't spend your way out of debt." They're right, and if the plan was to spend our way out of debt then it would need to be scrapped. But the plan is to right the economy which leads to higher tax revenue from businesses and individuals which in turn decreases debt. For some, this line of thinking is either to deep to grasp or too sensible to accept, but it's the only reasonable plan. Now that we've let poor Ireland experiment with the alternative and fail miserably, we should accept that and enact policy to rectify our economic woes. The big, ugly deficit will then begin to disappear.

It's also worth mentioning that some of our representatives on the right side of the Congressional aisle - the so called deficit-hawks - are very keen on controlling the growing deficit...except their posturing is just that, posturing. The reality is that these people care nothing for America's growing deficit as evidenced by the fact that the official Republican party line is to make permanent the Bush tax cuts. Extending those tax cuts will cost the government nearly $650 billion over the next decade. Gonna be hard to pay off all that growing debt without any tax revenue. But if you ask Republicans their plan, they'll gladly explain it. It works like this...

Let's make America today and enact sensible policies that help us solve our actual problem, the economic crisis. Let's fix the economy and let the deficit evaporate on its own, and most importantly, let's stop listening to hypocrites who have no plan for our future but to oppose those who do have one.

Yesterday's news

Literally. I read this yesterday but just found time to celebrate it. El Presidente and Senate Democrats sat down yesterday to discuss an energy bill. There aren't many details so I don't have much to say except that it's about damn time. Looks like America is finally getting on China's train. Now with a little American ingenuity and elbow grease we can build bigger and better trains, because that's the American way and now that we seem to have finally gotten our act together, it shouldn't be long before we're the best.

Days when America becomes better make me happy. Yesterday wasn't a huge step, but not all steps have to be huge. We're one discussion closer to an energy bill, and that is good news.

Past, Present, and Post-Present

I love history. I love it so much I'm almost an addict. I'm interested in any part of history, and I appreciate the value of history. History is incredibly important because it teaches us how we got to where we are today, and it sheds light onto where we're going tomorrow. Yes, I love history and rightfully so, it's an important and enlightening subject.

I fear that too many of my fellow Americans value history even more than I do. In fact some Americans love history so much that they're trying to live in the past rather than use it as a guide to our future.

Take, for example, the Tea Party, a group whose name harkens back to the Boston Tea Party. The Tea Party, along with many other far right wingers, wants to return us to the good ole days when there was actually a militia that actually needed weapons, and when people responded to unjust taxes by dumping the goods of private individuals into Boston Harbor. These people want us to live in a world that ignores modern problems like assault weapons and global warming. They want to apply verbatim a document written over 200 years ago to the world today. If the Constitution doesn't address airplanes, machine guns and an increasingly hot world, then we may as well brush them under the carpet. If it ain't in the Constitution, these people lack the intellect, creativity, and fortitude to deal with it. We need to apply the Constitution to the modern world, not try to conform the modern world to the Constitution.

This would be an excellent approach to things if it were 1810 instead of 2010. Let's make America better today and use the past as a guidebook rather than attempting to conform to it. After all, how much fun would it be if everywhere you went was like Colonial Williamsburg?

BIG deficits, big problem?

Americans are obsessed with spending. We spend on everything, quite literally, everything. In a previous post I mentioned America's unfortunate credit card culture, the idea that we can buy now and pay later. It gets us into trouble and leads us away from sensible decisions like spending now and saving later (see: law, healthcare).

Even though we love to spend, we hate it when the government spends. Actually that's not entirely true. We are okay when the government spends on wars, and we're okay when the government gives money back to us, but we don't want things we need like healthcare or economic stimuli.

I use the plural because there is some thinking that another stimulus would be helpful. I'm no economic expert so I'm going to do my best to skirt that topic. I would like to talk about the other alternative - austerity, or budget slashing, or let's spend less because we're in a recession.

We all know debt is bad, although credit card culture has taught many people to look the other way when they incur debt. The government, however, is not allowed to incur debt. Or at least, the popular brand of current logic suggests that. The problem with America's "debt crisis" is that it isn't actually a crisis and there is zero (0, nil) evidence that austerity will fix the economy. In fact, concrete evidence (see: Ireland, Republic of) shows us that austerity makes things way worse. If you're unfamiliar, Ireland faced huge economic problems, slashed spending and now faces...wait for it...even worse economic problems. Stagnation has set it. Investment is gone, and worse, so is confidence, which leads to investment.

The austerity people tell us that budget slashing will increase confidence, and they may have a point. But confidence in what, or who? Confidence that the government can accomplish something? Investors are not worried that the American government is going to default. China buys America's debt everyday. Business people - investors - are worried that people are going to stop buying their products, and no amount of austerity from the government is going to change that. Extending unemployment benefits might because it means people have money to spend, but austerity won't assuage those fears.

Debt is a scary word and it is getting thrown around a lot. The American government does need to slash spending, but not at the expense of the American economy and the American people. Perhaps we don't need to spend more, but now is certainly not the time to start fretting about spending less. Fix the economy and the deficit goes away (see: Clinton, Bill).

What Recession?

The one that is about to get worse, much worse if world governments and fiscal paranoia have anything to do with it. You see recently, there has been a lot of worry over the United States' - and other countries' - debt problem. Admittedly, the US and many other countries have taken on a lot of debt with stimulus packages and bailouts...measures that were %100 necessary, and that have done a lot to prevent the recession from getting worse and have saved or created thousands of jobs.

Recently, there has been a lot of legitimate concern and even more irrational fear-mongering about the levels of debt in the US. In order to understand the problem, we must realize that there are, in fact, two problems: debt and a recession.

Perhaps you disagree, but in my mind, the recession is far more important, and if we come out of it, debt will be less of an issue because taxes revenue will rise on it's own as people go back to work and businesses and the economy grow. Coming out of the recession is paramount to cutting the deficit because one naturally leads to the other. The opposite is not true. Cutting the deficit now will actually make the recession worse. Let's explore.

Keynes, John Maynard, was the first economist to explore and advocate for deficit spending, the idea that when the private sector is incapable of putting money back into the economy, the government must do it to spur growth. Perhaps you've heard of the New Deal, that's the idea. Like a person, the economy must eat; it eats money, and so every time we go out and buy cool stuff we're actually being patriotic. When times are good, Daddy America doesn't have to spend much because you and me and all the other patriots can buy cars, shoes, X-boxes and the like to keep things afloat, but when times are bad, someone has to pick up the slack. Enter Presidents Bush and Obama.

Bailouts and stimulus packages, while not popular, are practical and more importantly, are just that, important. Imagine an America in which Bush had not bailed out the banks. More banks close, lending dries up even more, the economy shrinks further. Bad news. Imagine an America in which Obama hadn't passed the stimulus package. Job creation disappears completely and more jobs are lost leading to higher unemployment and less tax revenue. More bad news.

Now imagine what would happen if most of the world's industrialized nations all decided to withdraw that stimulus spending at the same time, just as many of the world's economies are starting to turn it around. Let's put this in perspective, just this week, analysts at Goldman-Sachs, the company being sued by the federal government, openly criticized the Senate's refusal to extend unemployment insurance and benefits to impoverished state governments, calling this asinine policy, "an increasingly important risk to growth." If this isn't enough evidence for you, you can do some research on the history of the Great Depression and see that it took WWII to finally pull us out of that slump after FDR cut stimulus spending in the late 1930's and all the good that it had done vanished immediately.

So there you have it. The only bank that emerged from the crisis unscathed and is being sued because of possible fraudulent practices is condemning a government whose actions are going to make it harder to turn things around.

Let's make America better today. Let's tackle the big problem, the economic recession, first and let the results fix the deficit problem. Let's put Americans back to work by practicing tried and true economics policy. If we do that, we can figure out the deficit no problem.