Eat the Poor

The Republican party has found a new manifestation for its hypocrisy: taxes! Yes, the anathema of everything conservative is now a rallying call; we should tax the poor.  

There is something morally unjust about asking the people who make the least to pay more when the people who make the most are already not paying their fair share.  It's especially troubling that the same people who insist on taxing the poor are sheltering the rich - it's ironic that calls for equality are met with cries of class warfare, but decisions that are immoral can be somehow spun as "fair."

Moral qualms aside, this policy only serves to exacerbate the gross economic disparities that exist in America.  First of all, though many Americans don't pay income tax, those who don't are paying other taxes, including higher rates on payroll taxes.  More importantly however, the global economy is buoyed by the American consumer.  As the American consumer goes, so too goes global demand and production.  A flat tax sounds nice and all, but when take more money from the poor to line the pockets of the rich, all we have done is put the American consumer in peril.  

It's easy to criticize the Republican party on issues of morals and ethics, the party's stance on social issues is an embarrassment to a country that prides itself on freedom and equality.  But conservatives have always made the economy their bread and butter issue.  Conservative economic principle, we are told, create jobs and lead to wealth and prosperity.  In truth, the Republican economic gospel has led to a nation-threatening disparity between the haves and the have-nots.  The "Occupy Wall Street" protestors may be leaderless and silly, but they're right that the system is benefiting the few at the expense of the many.  Ultimately of course, that is oxymoronic since, as Elizabeth Warren has pointed out, no one in America got rich on their own.  The few can only benefit for so long before inequalities in the system bring the whole thing crashing down.  Good policy would help create truly robust economy would empower the working and middle class Americans and provide them with jobs that allow their consumption to sustain our system.  Eating the poor does not achieve this end; in no way is it good policy.  America needs rich people; greed is good insofar as it drives the system, but when the system is perverted, serving only a small handful of people, it will ultimately fail.  Republican policies have led us to this point and the continuation of those policies will only make the problems worse.  

As I like to point out, there are people who make 50x what I do, but none of those people have 50x as many cars, none of them eat 50x as much food, and - while their clothes may be more expensive, they don't have 50x more clothing than I do or 50x as many baseball gloves or X-Boxes.  Everyone needs to be able to consume for the good of our nation.  We would be wise to implement policies that benefit everyone, by doing so, we will benefit the rich.  

Mitch Daniels and the Sane Remnants of the Republican Party

Have you heard of Jon Huntsman?  He is the only Republican presidential candidate with both integrity and sense.  That's probably the reason he's not on many people's radar screens.  Being sensible doesn't get you very far in the world of Republican primaries, just ask Mitt Romney, a modern day Talleyrand who has made a career out of abandoning his principles and his good ideas when it suits him best.  

Apparently, Huntsman has some company.  Mitch Daniels, the Republican governor of Indiana, has been speaking recently as though he has some sense.  Said Daniels, "Purity in martyrdom is for suicide bombers.  I for one have no interest in standing in the wreckage of our republic saying, 'I told you so' or 'You should have done it my way.'  We should distinguish carefully skepticism about big government from contempt for all government."

Wow. That's the most impressive thing I've heard from a Republican in quite a while.  Sounds to me like the kind of guy who could sit down with members of the opposing party and make some magic happen, which, in Washington, simply means doing your job.  If Mitch Daniels were the Speaker of the House we may have actually enacted necessary policy in the last nine eleven months.  

Of course, Mitch Daniels is not running for president, leaving me to hope that the Republican who emerges to challenge President Obama is either Jon Huntsman or someone who is so extreme that he or she is unelectable - in other words, anyone but Mitt Romney.  

Nevertheless, the reality of today's Republican party not only reflects the sad state of the nation and that political party in particular, but is a harbinger for our country's future.  I spend a lot of time knocking the Republican party and rightfully so, but it's not because all of their ideas are bad, it's because the party has been hijacked by a group of extremists and because they refuse to work with Democrats to enact meaningful policy.  That extremism is so deeply rooted in the modern Republican movement that the party is willing to lead the nation to the brink of default to score an ideological victory.  In fact, in the last three years Republicans have run away from what should be one of their greatest achievements.  Obamneycare, as Tim Pawlenty termed it, is a Republican idea.  Want to score a political victory? Work with the president to perfect the healthcare law and then trumpet how it was built on Republican proposals and ideas.  What did Republicans do instead? Created some bunk about death panels.  This is the direction the Republican party has gone; this is the reason that America is a nation with a broken political system and a slow-moving economy (and I won't even get into how and why Republicans are responsible for that).  

Nevertheless, the party is not devoid of good ideas.  Sadly, they are devoid of leadership and too many of them are living in a dream world.  It seems like the Mitch Daniels and the Jon Huntmans of the world may be able to get the party back on track, but sadly, they are drowned out by the circus that is today's Republican party.  Dear Mitch Daniels, please do America a favor and take control of your party.  The nation needs it. 

Really Iran?

The only thing more outrageous than the assertion that the Iranian government tried to assassinate the Saudi Ambassador to the US and bomb embassies in Washington is the fact that it's all probably true.

Setting aside my usual forays into the chaos of American politics, today's post is a call to action against the Iranian regime by the international community. 

Since the overthrow of the shah in 1979, Iran has provided the world with a shining example of why politics and religion should not be mixed.  Theocracy in Iran has led to a bloody war with Iraq, the suppression of the Iranian people and the export of terrorism.  The country's leadership lives in a state of historical denial, openly hates Israel, and has nuclear ambitions.  From Khoemeini to Khamenei, the leadership of the ayatollahs and their selected presidential puppets has been a blight on Iran, the Middle East and the entire global community.

The United States has been vocal and proactive in our attempts to sanction Iran, halt the expansion of their nuclear program and help lend a voice to the oppressed Iranian people.  It is time for other nations to join us.  China and Russia have never been warm to the idea of sanctioning Iran and their refusal to participate in strong sanctions have empowered a regime that supports oppression at home and terror abroad. 

It is time for the entire global community to stand up to the Iranian regime.  The planned attacks on the Saudi and Israeli embassies in Washington would have amounted to a declaration of war on those countries.  The subversive and violent policies of Iran have caused death in the past and will cause death again in the future.  It's time for them to go. 

The United States needs to lay out the bare facts for the entire world to see and the international community needs to stand united and punish the Iranian regime in a manner that will help bring about it's downfall.  The Iranian people deserve better, the peace-loving people of the Middle East deserve better and those who want to feel safe regardless of where they live deserve better. 

The Great Interstate System

Ever cruised down I-55 from Chicago to Memphis?  It's a nice drive through America's heartland, perhaps a bit flat, but pleasant nonetheless.  It's also a good reminder of one of the things that made America great, innovative and extensive infrastructure.  The kind you can drive a semi-truck on for nearly six decades and it's still functional.

It is still functional albeit in need of repairs and crumbling in places.  It was world class a few decades back, now, unfortunately, bridges may fall.  One would think the greatest nation in the world would have good highways.

Of course, the problem isn't just the poor state of the highways, it's the poor state of a lot of things: bridges; trains; roads; and digital infrastructure.  America is in need of a makeover.

What better time than now?  After all, with so many Americans out of work, labor and other costs would be remarkably cheap.  Furthermore, a 21st century infrastructure will encourage 21st century innovation, investment and job creation.  Business is going digital, America needs to follow suit.  Additionally, and I know bullet trains get laughed out of the room in this country, but what's wrong with speeding up how we travel?  Think of the improvements in communication technology since the 1970s.  We've gone from payphones to iPhones.  Now think of the improvements in travel.  We've gone from jumbo jets to jumbo jets.  Why don't we want faster, more efficient travel in America?  Time is money, Republicans, and I know how much you love money and are entirely beholden to it.  Maybe the uber-rich want to travel more efficiently too.

The country needs investment right now.  Infrastructure investment is not a new idea nor is it my idea although I've been preaching it for quite some time now.  No one likes falling bridges, no one likes potholes and no one likes slow internet that always cuts out when they need it most.  America needs investment and an infrastructure upgrade.  Let's make them both happen at once.

The Myth of Austerity

"You can't spend your way out of debt," a moderately intelligent person once told me.  It's true; you cannot spend your way out of debt.  Just as true and more important, you can't cut your way out of a recession.  The bitter pill of austerity has turned an artificial debt crisis into a very real economic problem.

The factually mythical, yet widely accepted story of the financial crisis involves too much government spending starting with Obama's election and his subsequent $83,798,496 inaugural ball.  I'm not even going there right now.

Naturally, according to this fictitious narrative, the solution to the problem is to stop spending money.  Enter thousands of clowns in tri-corner hats, a group, despite their small size and complete lack of intelligence and cohesion was able to monopolize the national political conversation and the attention of policy makers.

Thankfully the Tea Party was not able to implement policy goals because they only controlled one branch of Congress, and let's not sugarcoat this, the Tea Party controls the House of Representatives.  I don't care that there are only 70 or so of them, they have completely taken control of that chamber using the time-honored Republican tactic of yelling louder than the guy who is smarter than you.  Unfortunately, the Tea Party has been able to impede progress and growth by making sure that any sensible policy actions do not get taken.

The problem with austerity is that it is a solution for cutting a deficit, but despite what you may have heard, the deficit isn't America's problem right now.  It would be nice to have less of a deficit, but the current deficit isn't strangling our economy.  High deficits lead to high interest rates for government borrowing because investors fear that a government may default.  Despite the fact that the Tea Party actually tried to get us to default, interest rates on American bonds remain insanely low.  Investors are not shying away from American government debt.  The deficit is not our problem, unemployment and the recession are our problem.  If we can put people back to work, we will automatically cut into that scary deficit by curtailing unemployment spending and taking in more in tax receipts. 

So why, you may ask, why would we spit in the face of accepted economic theory and cut spending at a time when spending could do the most good?  Here is what we know about austerity as a remedy for a broken economy - it doesn't work.  Lucky for us, Eurozone countries were willing to act as our guinea pig.  After watching Europe suffer through self-inflicted economic pain, low growth and riots, American politicians learned their lessons, recanted on the saving power of austerity and then...wait, that happened in the land of sense.  In Washington, the Tea Party kept pushing for damaging cuts.  And so while we haven't gotten complete austerity, we haven't gotten any kind of good investment in infrastructure or education.  We haven't gotten higher tax rates on the wealthy or even the closing of tax loopholes.  And because Republicans were unwilling to compromise when Obama infuriated Democrats by putting entitlement reform on the table, we haven't even gotten necessary entitlement reform.  Instead, we hear the broken record of austerity warbling in the background.  It's the itch we can't scratch, the fly we can't shoo away.  No matter how bad an idea it is to be cutting at a time when we should be doing the exact opposite, there is going to be some elected fool out there telling us that if we could just NOT SPEND money to help hurricane victims then we'd be alright. 

And now America stands on the brink of a double-dip recession.  We may very well turn it around and come out of this - perhaps some investment in infrastructure...? However, we may very well slip back into the economic abyss from which we just started to emerge and we have only ourselves (read: the Tea Party) to blame.  When you go to the polls next year, remember that when you elect the masochists, they have the opportunity to inflict pain on you as well.