Category: Politics

Obama Outreach

Clearly there are flaws in the Obama Recovery and Reinvestment Act.  Then again what law was ever perfect?  President Obama is not receiving the bi-partisan support he had wanted. 

 

If you watched any of the Sunday morning political talk shows the question of coming together for the good of the country was clearly kicked aside.  The Republicans want to show that their opinion matters so they are taking a contrary position even if it is irresponsible. The Democrats have an overwhelming majority in the House and a near filibuster proof majority in the Senate.  The President has taken the next step by going directly to the public.  He sent me and everyone else on his email list an email entitled “What recovery means for you.”

 

Here is the body of that mail

The economic crisis is growing more serious every day, and the time for action has come.
Last week, the House of Representatives passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which will jumpstart our economy and put more than 3 million people back to work.
I hope to sign the recovery plan into law in the next few weeks. But I need your help to spread the word and build support.
It’s not enough for this bill to simply pass Congress. Americans need to know how it will affect their lives — they need to know that help is on the way and that this administration is investing in economic growth and stability.
Governor Tim Kaine has agreed to record a video outlining the recovery plan and answering questions about what it means for your community. You can submit your questions online and then invite your friends, family, and neighbors to watch the video with you at an Economic Recovery House Meeting.
The stakes are too high to allow partisan politics to get in the way.
That’s why I’ve consulted with Republicans as well as Democrats to put together a plan that will address the crisis we face.
I’ve also taken steps to ensure an unprecedented level of transparency and accountability. Once it’s passed, you will be able to see how every penny in this plan is being spent.
You can help restore confidence in our economy by making sure your friends, family, and neighbors understand how the recovery plan will impact your community.
Sign up to host or attend an Economic Recovery House Meeting and submit your question for the video now:
Our ability to come together as a nation in difficult times has never been more important.

I know I can rely on your spirit and resolve as we lead our country to recovery.

Thank you,

President Barack Obama

P.S. — If you can’t host or attend an Economic Recovery House Meeting, you can still submit your questions for Governor Kaine and then share the video with your friends and family this weekend. Learn more here:

http://my.barackobama.com/recovery 

 

 

 Paid for by Organizing for America, a project of the Democratic National Committee — 430 South Capitol Street SE, Washington, D.C. 20003. This communication is not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.

 

Highly respected economists on both the right and the left have stated that the government needs to implement a stimulus package very quickly.  Representative Barney Frank, D-Mass., the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said the bill was designed to help people who have been damaged in the economic meltdown as well as stimulate the economy.  His words, “I never saw a tax cut fix a bridge. I never saw a tax cut give us more public transportation. The fact is, we need a mix.”

 

Republicans would do well to support this plan even if it’s not perfect.  The alternative could easily mean another Great Depression.

California Government Incompetence

The California legislature is a failed institution.  The LA Daily News says in today’s front page editorial that our Leaders fail to lead in crisis.  The legislature has been deteriorating for at least the past 30 years.  1978 was the year that the “People’s Initiative to Limit Property Taxation”, known as Proposition 13, was voted into law.  According to Wikipedia 64.8% of the voters gave a Yes vote to the proposal despite the fear mongering of elected officials that government services would be desimated.  The legislature’s half hearted alternative to the proposition has not been forgotten.  As a young family in our first home we saw our property taxes increase by 50% in one year.  The savings and loan holding our mortgage raised our monthly payment into an impound account to pay the taxes by 100%.  Of course we voted for that initiative.  Our property taxes returned to their previous level the following year.

 

The power of one third of the legislature to determine the fate of this state’s fiscal condition was a well meaning but ill advised effort to control spending during the Great Depression.  California has failed to balance its budget for at least four successive years.  The public will feel the effect of this situation starting Monday, February 2, 2009 when public services are drastically reduced.

 

There really is only one way to change this situation.  The state constitution needs to be revised.  The Sacramento Bee reports that a Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) state wide survey indicates 54% of “believe that it is a “good idea” to change the two-thirds majority to a 55 percent majority.”  I will gladly stand in front of Von’s and CVS to obtain the needed signatures.

More Restrictions of Trade

I wrote about Competition is Dying in America! on August 31, 2008.  The merger of two multi-billion dollar companies is just another example of corporations gone wild.

 

No.1 drugmaker Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) is buying No. 12 Wyeth (NYSE: WYE) for $68 billion.  Along with this buyout will be the elimination of an estimated 20,000 jobs and a reduction in competition.

 

Wyeth is a profitable company that saw its net income essentally flat between 2007 and 2008.  The company has nine groups of products including Advil and Centrum.  Pfizer has experienced a 90% drop in income.  It is the maker of Viagra and Detrol.

 

So exactly how does this merger improve Pfizer’s situation?  It doesn’t.  The merger does not cure its Lipitor revenue losses and it does not put more new drugs into the pipe line according to industry experts.

 

There is no doubt about the elimination of jobs and reduced competition.  The Business Pundit says, “Now you can buy your Advil, Centrum multivitamins, Preparation H, condoms, Lipitor, and Viagra from Pfizer. I can see their new logo  now: We have the whole body covered.”  I ask what happened to anti trust and monopoly laws?

 

 

A complete discussion of competition law is in Wikipedia.  A summary of U.S. anti-trust three elements as follows:

  • prohibiting agreements or practices that restrict free trading and competition between business entities. This includes in particular the repression of cartels.
  • banning abusive behaviour by a firm dominating a market, or anti-competitive practices that tend to lead to such a dominant position. Practices controlled in this way may include predatory pricing, tying, price gouging, refusal to deal, and many others.
  • supervising the mergers and acquisitions of large corporations, including some joint ventures. Transactions that are considered to threaten the competitive process can be prohibited altogether, or approved subject to “remedies” such as an obligation to divest part of the merged business or to offer licences or access to facilities to enable other businesses to continue competing.

 

I doubt the Obama administration will limit these kinds of mergers.  Lobbyists still hold sway over government.  The media (newspapers, radio and television) ought to shine a beacon on these activities.

 

March 9, 2009

Update: more of the same M&A nonsense continue unabated.  This link to another web site supports my views

Ethical Behavior

Perhaps the title should be “ethics” rather than ethical behavior.  For our new president it all started with his Inaugural address when he said, “Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.” Wow, that was just one part of a speech that sounded the intent to live up to the goals set by our founding fathers.  

Barack Obama established standards of conduct just yesterday. He banned any member of his administration from accepting any lobbying job while the administration is still in power. He banned any member of his administration from accepting any gifts at all from lobbyists. He banned all administration appointees from being able to work on policy issues that could affect their former bosses or clients for a minimum of two years.  After issuing this very ambitious regulation Mr. Obama chose William J. Lynn III to be deputy secretary of defense.  The problem is that Mr. Lynn’s was employed as a lobbyist for a defense contractor this past year.  Boston Globe reporter Bryan Bender reported a waiver would be made for Lynn.

Treasury Secretary-designate Timothy Geithner said Wednesday he was careless in failing to pay $34,000 in Social Security and Medicare taxes earlier this decade but declared “I have paid what I owed” and apologized to Congress.  The explanation was that it “was an honest mistake.”  Mr. Geithner told a Senate hearing committee that he “takes full responsibility.”

After all the claims of transparency by the president and signing various executive orders in a public manner he quietly without press presence signed an order allowing federal money to go to international groups that perform abortions or provide abortion information.

There is no doubt that Mr. Obama seems to want to be an ethical person.  The problem is he is also a political person.  The result is he will not be the “mightier than thou” person that we dreamed about.  He can still be successful but there will be many enemies.

“I hope he fails.”

 On January 16 Rush Limbaugh told his listeners that he was invited to write a commentary of no more than 400 words for a major American publication on his hope for the Obama presidency.  Limbaugh’s on the air response was “Okay, I’ll send you a response, but I don’t need 400 words, I need four: I hope he fails.”

 As a moderate Democrat I was not happy with the results of the 2000 election.  Without going into all the ugly details it is suffice to say that the Supreme Court involvement in selecting the president was shocking.  Extremist in the Democratic Party obviously campaigned against Bush from Day 1 after his inauguration.  However, most Americans do support the president and do hope for his success.

 

Rush Limbaugh represents a divisiveness that needs to be put into our past.  Republicans can be sucessful by offering logical arguments and becoming more of a party of unity.  Rush ought to read “Team of Rivals.” by Doris Kearns Goodwin.  This is really a sad for Rush since he could be a voice for unity in difficult times.

A Day to Remember

In the HBO version of David McCullough’s John Adams it is Abigail Adams who asks what kind of country we are building when the White House and Capitol are being built by slaves.  Now on this day a Black man has become president of the United States.  Slavery is part of our history and nothing we can say or do will change that fact.

 

We elected Barack Obama because he is well educated and seems to understand the needs of our nation.  We have all witnessed an extraordinary event.  We can all be proud that our new president was selected not by the color of his skin but by the content of his character.

May God bless our new President.

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.

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.

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.