American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009

This plan will spend an astonishing amount of money. The proposed law provides significant details on the various expenditures. I skimmed through the entire 258 page document. It is reasonable to expect many changes before final passage. Considering the fact that many companies are closing their doors and putting thousands out of work (Circuit City employed 34,000 people), there is no option unless we want to follow the follow the Herbert Hoover model and let totally free capitalism function without government interference.

According to MSNBC this is a summary of the expenditures

$295 Billion	For Food Stamps/Unemployment/Green Jobs
$275 Billion	For Tax Relief
$170 Billion	For State Medicaid/Education
$85 Billion	For Infrastructure Projects
$825 Billion	TOTAL

Then again who borrows more money to get out of debt? Perhaps food stamps and unemployment insurance are the only two items that should be approved.

Overcoming the Balkanization of America

The Balkanization of America is more the fault of the media and politicians than it is the fault of Americans. The real Balkans is the historical name of the area of southeastern Europe on the east side of the Adriatic Sea. It’s the former Yugoslavia which was really made up of at least five nations of varying cultures. This area includes Croatia, Bosnia, and Kosovo. The United States still has troops there to keep the peace.

Balkanized places in the world are all about hate and separation. The reason for those hatreds and dislikes are too varied to easily define. My problem is that Americans have allowed this situation to develop in our country over hundreds of years. It’s a sad historical fact. Barack Obama talks about the country not being made up of red states and blue states instead everyone being part of the United States. It’s wonderful rhetoric. How can he make that happen when we are so diverse?

Regional separation exists in our country. It is most pronounced with regard to the South. That separation is the result of slavery and the Civil War. To this day some southerners are still displaying the Confederate flag. I personally was confronted just a few years ago in Spartanburg, South Carolina by a man in the airport who tried to convince me that bigotry and hatred for Blacks was part of their (southerners) past. It was he who wanted this discussion, not me. He gets credit for trying to stop the impression that I hold from both the media and personal experience.

Racial and ethnic divisions are the real challenge for the United States. The level of hate for other races and religions continue almost unabated. The fact that there is even a Wikipedia entry entitled Racism in the United States tells us that many people feel victimized by this situation. As I prepared this article I saw a report of two Latinos that are allleged gang members killing an African-American for racial reasons. The killing took place in my community.

While Los Angeles has many integrated communities it has become common knowledge that hatred between Blacks and Latinos is very prevalent. This article in the Los Angeles Times written on October 17, 2007 supports this undeniable reality. There are just too many of these incidents for all of us to ignore. Searches on the internet or a scan of your local newspaper will tell you that the situation is not unique to the Los Angeles area.

At the same time, a walk through the upscale shopping mall in my community tells me that we are a changing society where I see Asians from all countries, Europeans, Jews, Muslims, and Christians all comfortably mixing. As a white man I am in the minority. As pointed out on Chris Matthews weekend show white Europeans will soon be the minority group in America. Younger people are more accepting of differences. So there is hope.

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Rob Taylor has suggested that the melting pot objective for America is the best solution. It is one I definitely support and believe should be encouraged. Barack Obama, with a White mother and a Black father personifies that objective.

Free Trade Is Not Free!

World wide free trade is a wonderful concept. The theory goes something like this. If we reduce trade tariffs everyone benefits from lower costs and a rising tide of trade is profitable for everyone. Unfortunately it does not work so well in the real world.

Superior Industries International is a wheel manufacturer based in Van Nuys, California (a suburb of Los Angeles). The company has just announced the closing of its manufacturing facility in Van Nuys. They will be laying off 290 people from March through September as they close the facility. At its peak at that facility there were over 1,200 employees. The company does have three manufacturing facilities in Chihuahua, Mexico.

This is not the first company to relocate its manufacturing to Mexico. Price Pfister, a kitchen and bath faucet manufacturer had a manufacturing facility in Pacoima, California (another suburb of Los Angeles) that employed 1,300 people. The company’s manufacturing facility was moved to Mexicali, Mexico.

Technicolor had two manufacturing facilities in the United States. They manufactured compact discs (CDs) and DVDs. One was located in Camarillo, California and the other in the Charlottesville area of Virginia. Each employed over 750 people. Both were closed. Manufacturing now occurs in Guadalajara, Mexico.

In all three of these situations the manufacturing facilities employed people at wages that paid for their homes, cars, and put food on the table. The loss of those jobs is just a few examples of the impact of NAFTA and the idea of free trade. Of course no one meant for this to happen. Somehow American genius was supposed to devise new jobs for all of those lost to Mexico.

Corporations couldn’t be happier with NAFTA and other free trade agreements. After all, in their view, it’s the bottom line (net income) that counts. There is no concern for the welfare of the individual or for the United States well being. The reason is that it is not corporate America. The big businesses are world wide. Borders are meaningless.

Will the new administration in Washington change this? I doubt it. I hope I am proved wrong.

What is an “honest mistake”?

Timothy Geithner, President-elect Barack Obama’s choice to run the Treasury Department, neglected to pay self employment taxes for three years but according to Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus “These errors were not intentional; they were honest mistakes.” If you or I claimed we made “honest mistakes” would we be so quickly forgiven?

Bill Clinton’s Global Initiative is most likely a very worthwhile cause. If your company or country was giving money to this charity and the secretary of state is Mr. Clinton’s wife wouldn’t you be looking for a favor? No! No! says Mrs. Clinton, those contributions will not effect my behavior. Is this a believable scenario?

The Eric Holder hearing should be interesting. He is the man who recommended the Marc Rich pardon to President Bill Clinton. Based upon the televised hearings the Republicans are not willing to stand up to these utterly phony hearings.

Barack Obama’s appointments will probably all receive “consent.” What happened to “change you can believe in?” Well it was an “honest mistake” or perhaps we all had the “audacity” to believe things would be different.

Acronyms

They are everywhere. They are used in text messaging, in magazines, and of course on-line. A somewhat complete list is on my On Language BLOG.

Earmarks, Pork, and Infrastructure

So what’s the difference between Earmarks, Pork, and Infrastructure? It’s all about allocating specific money to specific projects. Along the way the accomplishment of the project might be defined in such a way that only one specific company can do the work.

One man’s Pork is another man’s Infrastructure project. Is that Pork an Earmark? Earmarkwatch.org has identified more than 3,000 projects that they believe are Pork. Daniel Engber of Slate.com offered his definition but not everyone would agree. After all, a $500,000 grant to the Teapot Museum in Sparta, N.C. might be viewed by some as a perfectly legitimate way to spend taxpayer money.

Here is one of 10 most outrageous earmarks according to Time Magazine.

Another product of the pork-stuffed economic bailout bill, this earmark slipped into the Senate version of the legislation renews an expired rebate against excise taxes charged on rum imported from Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands until the end of 2009. The provision was mocked during a subsequent debate in the House by Democrat Marcy Kaptur of Ohio, saying, “So we got tax breaks for rum. You’ve got it right. R-U-M.” But it still passed — and the criticism that followed in the media fired up lobbyists from Bacardi and Captain Morgan, the two most popular rum brands in the U.S., who said they aren’t seeing any of this money. The $192 million in tax cuts mostly go to the two territories to help them build up their economies and, in theory, keep them from needing larger financial handouts from the mainland. But then again, this practice isn’t new. For decades, Congress has been giving the two territories this precise tax cut. And if it hadn’t been part of this controversial bailout this time around, it might have once again gone unnoticed.

Senator Hillary Clinton and fellow New York Senator Charles Schumer requested a million bucks to put towards a museum project in their state, backed by a major Democratic Party contributor, commemorating the 1969 Woodstock music festival. This proposal failed. Some people of New York State probably thought this was a reasonable use of taxpayer’s money. A “bridge to nowhere” in Alaska or a “subway to the sea” in Los Angeles could be earmarks for worthwhile projects.

I personally think that subway is important and believe it to be a very worthwhile Infrastructure project. I hope President Obama agrees.

Gaza War is a Mistake

On September 20 of last year I suggested that Israel might go to war with Iran before January 20. Apparently the Israelis opted for something closer to home. I believe the motivation is politics. Two of the leading candidates for prime minister are relatively dovish. They are Ehud Barak and Tzipi Livini. They obviously want to show a tough military face to the Israeli electorate. There is little doubt that the cost of life to Israel’s forces will be small. It is astonishing to me that they would lead their country into war without an exit plan or even a plan on how to win.

There is sufficient evidence to support Israel’s contention that Hamas has been hiding their launching facilities inside civilian area. While Israel has the right to protect its population the cost of civilian lives in Gaza has been too great. Israel will have to agree to a cease fire without destroying the ability of Hamas to fire rockets at them. Hamas will declare their survival a victory. The Palestinian people will be emboldened to fire even more rockets into Israel.

This is one more issue that will be high on President Barack Obama’s to do list.