Thoughts Before The Alarm Sounds

As I write this, the shutdown blame game continues in Washington. According to the GOP, the Democrats refuse to compromise. The argument is, “We need more time to analyze this 2,500-page train wreck.” My question is: Given that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was passed three years ago, how much time do you need? The Republican answer: Eternity. If that’s true, you must have stupid analysts. Another GOP argument is that the individual purchase requirement in the law is unconstitutional. The law was duly passed by the Congress, signed by the President, and upheld by the Supreme Court. Unconstitutional? I think not. Next argument: The President has broken the law by postponing the health care employer mandate. October 1 st was specified in the law – he is overstepping his power by deferring the requirement. But wait – the implementation of all laws is prescribed by the agencies charged with enforcing them. Federal agencies have almost unlimited powers concerning the rules c...

     I don't know why I do it, but I admit it: I read the letters to the editor in the local newspaper. But on any given day, I have a pretty good idea what I am going to find there:       35% will be from Republicans castigating the President and the Democrats' stand on the national debt, immigrants, the troops and gun control. (This is a conservative area.)      25% will be from Democrats praising the President and castigating the Republicans' stand on the national debt, immigrants, the troops and gun control.      20% will be from people who think we have gone morally astray, and the only thing that will prevent God from wreaking Armageddon on the USA is to turn to Jesus and the Bible.      15% are from folks praising or ridiculing the governor's plan to privatize the lottery and the state's monopoly on the sale of liquor.      3% are from folks who wish to thank the...

     (1) Large is small. According to the GOP definition, any business, e.g., a partnership or a Limited Liability Company, that passes its net income through to its owners for inclusion on their personal federal income tax returns is a small business. There is no limit to the amount of income such a company can earn! For example, privately owned companies Cargill and Koch Industries each had over $100B in revenues in 2011, yet qualify as small businesses under the GOP's definition!      While agreeing in principle that the tax code needs revision, the Democratic Party would limit the definition of small business to one that has a net income not exceeding $250,000. While that figure may be a bit low, it certainly makes more sense than basing it on how the paperwork is set up.      (2) The estate tax is killing small business. Through 2012, there is no estate tax on estates not exceeding $5M in value. Unless Congress extends...

     In a September 25th speech at Education Nation, Mitt Romney said: “The largest contributors to the Democratic Party are teachers' unions. And so, if they can elect someone, then that person is supposed to be representing the public vis-a-vis the teachers' union, but actually most of the money came from the teachers' union. It's an extraordinary conflict of interest. That's something I think is a problem and should be addressed.” He added later, “We simply can't have a setting where the teachers' unions are able to contribute tens of millions of dollars to the campaigns of politicians and then those politicians, when elected, stand across from them at the bargaining table.”      Romney has a point – according to Open Secrets, the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association contributed about $5.4M to federal candidates, parties and committees during the 2008 election cycle. About 95% of the contributions went to Dem...

     Despite the goings-on in Washington, it is possible for people to disagree substantially on a given subject, and still discuss it openly and civilly. I know our fractured society indicates otherwise, but I attended two events yesterday which supported my contention.     Event one was lunch with a small group of men, seven to be exact, with whom I worked many years ago. Most of them lean toward the conservative side, although I do not think any of them would consider himself to be a “tea party” member, although one of them did state that Obama is the worst president that has served during his lifetime of, here I am guessing, 85+ years. Disappointed as I am with Obama, I am not ready to go quite that far, although I was unable to muster any argument which I thought would change his mind.      But I did mention that I thought Senator Mitch McConnell's statement, “The single most important thing we want to achieve is for Presiden...

     I have devoted several blog entries to indicating how our economic system moves money from the not-so-deep pockets to the very-deep-pockets of our society. Today I am going to list the top ten corporations that donated to Republican candidates, and the top ten who gave to Democratic candidates. Amounts listed are in millions of dollars, and include donations to state candidates: Corporation Total Contribution Republican Recipients Perry Homes 12.24 11.13 TRT Holdings 5.26 5.26 Chartwell 3.34 3.30 Altria 3.14 2.07 Goldman Sachs 3.06 2.08 Bank of America 2.80 1.68 Koch Industries 2.52 2.27 Home Depot 1.53 1.04 Wells Fargo 1.72 1.13 Exxon Mobil 1.62 1.30 Totals 37....

     Apparently Santa Claus has decided not to wait until Christmas Eve to start making his annual deliveries. President Obama, in particular, has received an early visit from the Christmas Eve flier, raising the conjecture among Washington's “in” crowd that the sprightly old elf is a Democrat. Be very careful, Mitch McConnell, you may wind up on the naughty list.      As evidence of St. Nick's presidential visit, observe what has happened since the “shellacking” the Democrats received in the mid-term election. Along with almost everyone else, I expected that the remaining two months of the lame-duck Congress would exhibit a gridlock that would make Los Angeles freeways look like kids playing with toy cars in a sandbox. But lo and behold, the Congress came up with a bipartisan output that must have had Mitch wondering whether the “party of no” members had all gone home for the holidays. Observe:      Congress passed a two yea...