Thoughts Before The Alarm Sounds

Dwight Eisenhower was the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe during WWII. After the war he became the 34 th President of the United States (1953 – 1961). His words are especially relevant in today’s political climate: “In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or our democratic process. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.” Apparently the citizenry has been neither alert nor knowledgeable. The Pentagon has called “unnecessary and unaffordable” the following five projects in Ohio alo...

Who said , “. . . more spending is not what California or this country needs,” and “. . .congressional Democrats and the administration continue to insist that we can spend our way out of this recession and create jobs, but the numbers just don't add up?" A Republican? Right. And who said, "We don't spend money on defense to create jobs. But defense cuts are certainly a path to job loss, especially among our high-skilled workforces. There is no private sector alternative to compensate for the government's investment?" A Democrat? Wrong! Both comments were made by the same person – Rep. Buck McKeon, R-Calif! In the first case, Rep. McKeon was speaking about President Obama's $825B stimulus package in 2009. In the second instance, McKeon, now Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, was speaking about the military budget, which faces spending cuts of up to $600B if the bipartisan deficit cutting panel can't find a compromise within the next 18...

      Our Congressional economic experts have finally agreed on a compromise that will enable them to raise the government's debt ceiling. That's good news, right?       Well, yes and no. Yes, because the nation will be able to keep its promises to creditors, and no, because they have just guaranteed that the longest recession since WWII will continue.      The agreement cuts government spending by more than $2 trillion over the next decade. The exact targets of the slashing ax are yet to be established, but supposedly all expenses are on the table.      If Congress cannot agree on the exact items to be cut by the end of 2011, spending cuts of $1.2 trillion across much of the federal budget, including the Pentagon, domestic agency budgets and farm subsidies, will be triggered . Many federal benefits programs, however, would not be hit by this contingency, including Social Security, Medicaid, vete...

     The numbers being bandied about in Washington these days are so big that most non-mathematicians, especially politicians, can't conceive of their magnitude. So let me see if I can give you some idea of what these guys are talking about.      There are thousands of web sites one can visit in order to visualize large numbers, but for my purpose I wish to focus on just one number: $10B. You can either do the arithmetic or take my word for it: this would be a stack of one-dollar bills approximately 678 miles high.      Now let this $10B be represented by a standard pack of playing cards. The question is: If we piled up packs of cards to the height of the Federal Budget (Note 1) , how many packs would we need? The answer is 345 packs, or a 17.4-foot-high stack! Keep in mind: each pack represents a 678-mile-high stack of one-dollar bills!      But of that 368 pack budget, 211 packs have been set aside as ...

     The Labor Department's hiring report for May came out in Saturday's newspapers, and it wasn't pretty. Just 54,000 jobs were created – far less than the expected 150,000. Although the private sector added 83,000 workers – the lowest monthly total in the past year - they were offset by the loss of 28,000 jobs in local governments – firefighters, police, teachers and clerks. The Economic Policy Institute estimates that up to 300,000 new jobs a month are required to significantly affect the unemployment rate.      Meanwhile, back in Washington, the figures elicited what can best be described as a collective “ho-hum,” as Congress decided to dance around the subject of raising the debt ceiling. Without such action, the nation will soon begin defaulting on its debts, with a corresponding increase in interest rates. Through April, interest on the national debt for fiscal year 2011 is on track to surpass 2010's total of $4.13B. That's 413 followed by...