Entitlements

Do you remember when the word “entitlement” was a positive word? It is a democratic word ~ you are entitled to certain things as being a member of this country, a citizen. The Bill of Rights is a list of entitlements. The Declaration of Independence is a statement of entitlements. The civil war was about entitlements that were in the constitution – “all men are created equal” – to make that a truth, a basic truth Lincoln saw in democracy. Geoffrey Nunberg writing in Bill Moyer’s blog talks about LBJ’s statement to the Republicans of his era about the entitlements in Medicare saying, “By God, you can’t treat Grandma this way. She’s entitled to it.” Entitlements were good, basic rights for the dignity of citizens of a democracy. And as the nation grew entitlements grew and we became better caretakers of our citizens. This took place especially after difficult times such as the Great Depression and we saw our citizens entitled to a more stable and good life and took the steps needed to make these entitlements a reality.

But recently the word seems to have a new and negative flavor. You got a real sense of that change after Paul Ryan became the Republican nominee for vice president. But with negative speak, entitlements became the belittlement of a generation who felt “entitled” expected things they did not deserve or work for. It is the old “damned welfare mothers” bit. Those worthless people don’t want to work, they are just lazy and making babies is a way to stealing our hard earned dollars for their life of laziness; as though living on welfare was like checking into a luxury hotel. It is the verbiage of self-righteousness as though all of us have not benefited by the infrastructure that enabled us to get where we are in our society. It is a form of class warfare as typified in the language of Romney when he wrote of the 47% of the country that would never vote for him. But he was convinced the privileged few, the wealthy would get him elected; a noblesse oblige argument.

Are the upper classes, like upper upper class, the top 1% of the top 1% entitled to half the wealth of the country? Did they earn it? Do they deserve because diligence and mental and moral superiority over the rest of us? No. They have it because they manipulated the government into giving them advantages, entitlements that others do not have. They benefitted from deregulation and the damage that does to a free enterprise system that Adam Smith saw from the beginning. It is the government’s responsibility to ensure a level playing field but now it seems to be working the other way.

Some refer to our times as the “post-truth era.” Nunberg believes that means more than people are just lying more than they used to; he sees it as the attitude that we are indifferent to truth; it just doesn’t matter anymore. I have called this the morality of efficacy. It is the idea that right and wrong is not very important, what is important is that it gives me/us what we want. It is bottom line thinking no matter what we do to get it. It is the ends justify the means argument and it seems to be more prevalent than ever and even lauded by folk that should know better.

The post truth era leads us to thinking there is global warming as that might interfere with my present lifestyle. It was the argument of birtherism the proven lie that Obama was not a natural born citizen of the country. Folk said it knowing it was untrue but it served their ends ~ a post truth.

We have experts in the post-truth era; Rush Limbaugh comes to mind. He will say outlandish things full well knowing they are not true, but they cater to the prejudices of his audience. It is and stock and trade of shock radio and TV programs.

Politicians can practice post-truth era verbiage with impunity and we just expect them to do it. We find it as Feeney says in the current popular phrase “right to work.” He gets into a lot of detail and history of the use of this phrase but we know it just means a way of attacking unions. (Labor unions can this “the right to free-load” laws; non union workers getting union benefits without the risk.)

It all sounds like “newspeak” from George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four. Big Brother is watching you. Or, are we entitled to think such things?

Red, White & Liberal

Alan Colmes wrote a book with the above title and the subtitle, How the left is right and right is wrong. I like Colmes as he is an unapologetic and downright proud liberal. He sees conservatives as mainly saying “no” and liberals saying “yes” at appropriate times. He looks at government not as an enemy as conservatives are prone to do (as they try to buy it), but as an agent that can do great good for the citizens it serves. He quotes Ron Brown (late Commerce secretary and former chair of the Democratic Party) as saying, “the common thread of Democratic history from Thomas Jefferson (founder of the Democratic party. ed.) to Bill Clinton has been an abiding faith in the judgment of hardworking American families, and a commitment to helping the excluded, the disenfranchised and the poor strengthen our nation by earning themselves a piece of the American Dream.”

Yet, like a number of us he prefers the term liberal to describe himself than the label of Democrat. And, like a number of us he gets irked with both parties but affirms the generally what Democrats do. He and I like progressive ideas, from Jefferson who stood up against the elitist Federalists for the Bill of Rights. He lifts up Woodrow Wilson as one who brought the League of Nations, the Federal Reserve Board, the first child and welfare laws. He affirms the leadership of Franklin Roosevelt who with the New Deal took to country from the Great Depression to prosperity for most citizens including creating Social Security. He talks of Kennedy and his vision and optimism the Peace Corp. Lyndon Johnson, who despite his foibles brought in the Civil Rights Act, created Medicare and Medicaid, declared war on poverty, knowing full well many of those actions would make him a one term president.

Liberals move the country forward and are known for their compassion. Conservatives…the conserve the past. I think most of us have a good deal of liberal in us despite what we say. And yet conservatives try to make the word liberal sound like a dirty word; I think they use it as a distraction to hide certain aspects of their party (primarily the wealthy) from seeing their real agenda. He likes the very sound and lilt of the world liberal in contrast to conservative.

I am often struck by the tone of statements of conservatives on Facebook (I don’t tweet or text). They often sound so mean and hateful and say things that you would never say to another person’s face; like drivers be rude on the roadway in ways they would never act while walking. They willingly toss of slogans and just plain mean statements about the President and liberals as though they were their mortal enemies and not the neighbors and fellow citizens. And, if you have the temerity to challenge their statements (I like to do it with humor) they take it as personal attacks as though what they say is gospel truth and any other views are demonic.

I have also found that many conservatives I know refuse to engage in meaningful discussion of ideas but like to do hit and run slogans. That is just cowardly. I applaud many conservative ideas and know history well enough to appreciate their contributions to our country in our nation’s history. I have always been a fiscal conservative, but what we hear today is false economic conservatism that in the long run is destructive to the country. We have to continually build the country or we go the other direction. The last 3 decades should have taught us that, but we seem to be slow learners.

I find it most interesting the Alan Colmes is a radio commentator for FOX news which I don’t listen to given the overall tenor of their companies very biased interpretation of what they call news. (I don’t listen to MSNBC either or Chris Matthews for similar reasons.) But there is Colmes in the lion’s den doing his thing, a courageous man who stand up for solid values.

Oh I am conservative when comes to the environment, we should “conserve” it. So, why don’t conservatives embrace that position?

Conservatives be warned; liberals will continue to work for your good as part of the common good whether you like us or not. Sorry, it is just the way we work.

P.S. In this article I’ve listed a number of progressive ideas that have come from Democratic leaders that have helped our country. I would absolutely love it for Republicans to come up with a similar list; it can be done but I just don’t see it done. I also applaud Republicans who promote progressive ideas for the common good; you can include them to get a start. Hint, look at the leadership of Eisenhower and Nixon as strange as that may sound to some. But as from Reagan to the present, good luck.

Blame the Russian Orphans

The New York Times reports that President Vladimir v. Putin signed a bill today that bans the adoption of Russian orphans by Americans. I think I heard on NPR that there are about 700,000 of them (some sources say it is likely a mere 120,000) (there are 800,000 called orphans in Russia but some have living parents according to NPR),  still not exactly a small number. He did this in retaliation to the U.S. for passing new law which punished human right abuses in Russia. The law will come into effect next Tuesday but is also an illegal law based upon past agreements between our two nations. So, who suffers, the babies of course, and the prospective American parents who are willing to pay around $50,000 to get these babies. That a go Putin, punish the babies, and politics override humanity one more time.

Of course we will rise up in righteous indignation over such stupidity. But remember the fingers always point two ways.  FE

In the name of protecting the low taxes for the rich we are perfectly willing to cut social programs that protect our children. In a nation that has no reason to have anyone living in poverty. In our country 15 million children, 21.9% of them live in poverty (2011 census). And it is getting worse and will get worse as we cut such programs to protect them.

Another case in point basic to our democracy is a well educated populace which makes a democracy work as the founding father understood. But our costs of education continue to rise and fewer of the middle and lower classes are able to go onto higher levels of education to pursue the American dream and promise that we have the right to pursue happiness. Education, particularly strong liberal arts education, is becoming the privilege of the wealthy few. Let’s cut those Pell grants etc., in the name of austerity and then limit our ability to compete as a nation.

Here’s another goody I just read about. David Koch, you know of the famous Koch brothers that spent millions in the last campaign to defeat Obama, have a new cause. His political organization, Americans for Prosperity, just sent a letter of warning to members of congress not to vote for the proposed federal aid package for victims of the storm the damaged part of New Jersey, and others; the Sandy victims. The implied threat is that if they support that measure they won’t be receiving money from them for their next election. Koch’s chief deputy, a rather nasty fellow, Steve Lonegan, who heads the local AFP state chapter called the aid package “a disgrace.” “This is not a federal government responsibility, we need to suck it up and be responsible for taking care of ourselves.” This is an easy statement for the wealthy to say, but hard on others.

Shame on Putin, shame on Koch, shame on us for our lack of brotherly care. Like in the past we always blame the bastard for being a bastard rather than those who created the bastard.

Being a bastard himself, Jesus understood and had sympathy for those in need and asks us to be the same. May it be so. Maybe we need to write our representatives and let them know how we feel.

Gun Control?

Many of you have likely heard the old joke about a fella who walked into a bar whereupon the barkeep pulled out a gun and hollered, “Hands up!” It is a riddle, why did the barkeeper do it?

Gun control articles are all over the media again with the recent set of killings that leaves communities and the nation grieving, Obama has set Biden the task of looking into control ideas and gun rhetoric is running rampant everywhere from the bizarre comments of the NRA head to the antigun folk rising up in righteous indignation.

Frankly I don’t really know what to make of all it. My wife’s side of the family is all pretty much gun totters with each household having many weapons and are ardent hunters. My immediate side of the family has no guns at all; I used to have one, a single shot 22 rifle I seemed to have lost somewhere along the line. I lost interest in hunting in my 20’s but even though I don’t understand the need and desire to hunt I respect it. Hell, I write blogs which most of my family thinks is pretty weird anyway and most don’t read them. I also think things hunted like deer need to be harvested; but I just stick them in pastures and raise them like cattle to be slaughtered when needed.

But I love data and what it tells us, but I’m swamped with data on this issue and have a hard time making sense of it. The NRA leadership does not seem to be reflective of NRA members and seems extreme and their data seems about as trustworthy and a bent rifle barrel as a lot of the data they use is from some time ago and they have effectively blocked much research for years which makes it hard to come up with meaningful data.

And then there is the guns themselves from my old single shot 22 rifle to handguns with some of my granddaughters hollering they are “packin’”. Then there are the nebulous assault rifles which seem to have nothing to do with hunting at all unless its humans or you are such a bad shot you shouldn’t be hunting at all. And the public is all over the place in their opinions though most seem support their interpretation of the 2^nd amendment to carry weapons but are mainly against assault weapons and seemed to be mixed up about hand guns.

What I do know is that it is big business – a 31 billion dollar industry in 2011. And we have a lot of them, somewhere between 270 to 300 million guns, enough for each citizen; but strangely with that it is 70 to 80 million of us who actually own them. 45 million of us own handguns. And they are expensive a .223-caliber semi-automatic use in the recent killings coast between $700 to $2,000. Gun sellers must love Obama as their profits went up 200% after his first election. Gun folk like Republicans and gave 93% of the lobby money to them in the 2012 election. And we rank 1^st in the world in gun ownership per 100 people.

We lead the world in mass shootings big time and have been called, perhaps justifiable a violent culture. I’ve always wondered why love scenes make a movie X and war films can be PG. Most of our mass killers buy their guns legally I’ve learned. I learned that 15 of the worst mass shooting in the last 50 years take place in our country. I learned that other gun toting countries like Israel and Switzerland have low rates of homicide compared to us. I’ve learned that 11 of our deadliest shootings have happened since 2007.  There are a bunch of charts that are reveling if you go to http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2012/12/14/nine-facts-about-guns-and-mass-shootings-in-the-united-states/

Well that’s enough for now. I wish Biden and his team well in trying to guide us through this morass. Since we have so many guns already I don’t see how we can control them very well. I do know that two of the scariest places I’ve visited were a gun show and a shooting range complete with bars and enough weaponry to have a war. There were folk there that just looked and acted plain bloodcurdling.

Oh yes, as to why the barkeep pointed a gun a man and told him to “stick ‘em up” the customer had the hiccups and the scaring cured them. I don’t know if the cure included a heart attack and a trip to the hospital or morgue.

Happy hunting for good will.

I've had this picture around for a while and it seemed a good place to put it in case my granddaughter "packers" are thinking of art work.

P.S. One place I don’t plan to move to is Kennesaw, Georgia where is has been mandatory since 1982 for the head of each household to have a gun and enough ammunition to use it.  Seems like an infringement of my personal rights. But if you want to find shirts honoring the Klu Klux Klan and raciest bumper stickers, it's your place.

Kick the Can

One of my great grandkids got two hockey sticks and two hockey pucks for Christmas. Ohhh. I remember when I was a kid my brother got me a hockey stick and a hockey puck for Christmas and they were awesome. All the rest of the kids had much shorter homemade hockey sticks and no puck at all, they just used a crushed tin can. I remember being so afraid that I might damage my hockey stick and lose my puck that I rarely used them. They are likely in pristine condition in the attic of the farm where I grew up yet today. Dumb!

Congress is playing its now common game of kick the can with the budget and debt. Obama is back early from his Christmas vacation which shows he is willing to try and work of the budget with the House but it is not going to happen. Boehner may indeed want to sign the bill Obama proposed, after all he and the Republicans would get more than they ever dreamed of at piddling cost of a tax raise for a few folk. But his , Boehner's, whacko contingent will never agree to it. They will play chicken for as long as possible over a stupid ideological principle than makes no sense and an economic process that has proven disastrous over 3 decades.

I’d just as soon they go over the cliff. Taxes would raise so we could keep needed social programs, except that it will likely lead to another recession caused by hysteria and histrionics by the power brokers.

But what is likely to happen is that they will kick the can down the road again; keeping the tax cuts, lift the debt limit and push the whole mess down the road for another year.

In the meantime I saw of GMA this morning the new speed rail train in China that averages 186 mpr and see the development of their infrastructure as ours continues to crumble. Cut the budget, cut our own throat.

So all this posturing is going on by congress which seems totally out of touch with an electorate that complains but can’t think. A goodly part of the electorate still clamors for tax cuts, sees the government as an enemy of the people but won’t vote the big money backed politicians out of office. Polls show while calling for tax cuts they want all the social programs left in tack. 

It all goes back to stimulus programs that get the economy moving and strengthens the middle class with good jobs. But they are like my old hockey stick and puck, hidden away in pristine condition or maybe the mice have eaten them by now.

Merry Christmas. Peace on earth and good will to all folk.

Listen to the Children

Like many others I participated in a number of Christmas gatherings and parties in this holiday season. I heard very little of a religious nature during these gatherings. The god of professional football was worshipped, we expanded our bellies, and the like. I saw a good deal of drinking and that style of merriment. I heard delightful stories and some dirty and juvenile and just plain stupid. Politics for the most part were ignored except for a few “damned government” type of comments. And I saw lots of children playing, crying, delighted, sad, but for the most part joyous and inspiring.

I think it was in the children and their interactions and the adult interaction with the children that have me the most joy and taught me the most wisdom this season. The children were vessels of gratitude and had more to teach than most of their elders.

I have to admit I have a hard time maintaining feelings of gratitude during the season of Christmas; more difficult now that I am not actively leading worship celebrations of gratitude for a newborn king. The secular christmas seems to hold sway over the sacred and that is depressing; thus my joy in listening to the children.

The University of California Berkeley is to commence a $3.1 million research study on the power of gratitude. Now I can almost hear the complaining of grumpy adults on the waste of such a great amount of money, not doubt coming from “our” tax dollars (it is coming from the John Templeton Foundation and I think it is even more than that figure all told). Nevertheless there Greater Good Science Center studies the psychology, sociology, and neuroscience of the well-being and how we foster a more thriving, resilient, and compassionate society. In is in essence a study of counting your blessings. Some will complain that should be totally obvious and this study is a waste of money. But if you look around at folk and in particular in the political scene, this study as others like it is badly needed.

Marilyn Price-Mitchel, PhD in Psychology Today talks about 5 ways to bring gratitude into homes and classrooms. These are the points she makes: 1. Foster imagination instead of multitasking let children explore in depth where their thought take them. 2. Look at a child with new eyes. They change each and every day, we need to pay attention to those changes and treasure them. 3. Cultivate gratefulness – teach children to appreciate people and cultures different than their own. They will also note when you condemn and denigrate others. But lift up your ancestral stories. 4. Listen – pay attention to children’s stories and observe what makes them happy, sad, afraid, lonely or excited. Pay attention to what is going on inside them. 5. Allow yourself to be a receiver – don’t worry so much about what they can achieve in the future but cradle the blessings they give you right now and express your thanks to them for these gifts of their presence in your lives.

I had a bit of this thinking going on in one of my recent articles “Thank you for crapping in your diaper and screaming at me.” I’ve been trying to be more grateful in my life recently. It should not be a hard thing to do, but it is.

But counting blessings is a good beginning and money spent to enable our society to be more grateful is money very well spent.

May I have some genetically altered salmon please?

The FDA has approved genetically altered salmon as safe to sell. This makes those who create the altered salmon happy and honks off traditionalists, especially those who catch salmon the old fashioned way.

Now genetically modified food is not exactly new. We have done that with grains; soybeans, corn etc for years, those make our side dishes. Also, with the same arguments being given forth. Ag departments of been dealing with purebred and hybrid flora and fauna for years before folk got excited about it; or maybe the did – too long ago.

Buy it as far as I’m concerned if the science has been done. Of course, the problem with that argument is that the science is never done as we see new studies coming out everyday telling what is safe and what is not safe.

The main issue is seems to me is simple but often ignored. Just label the stuff and let people deal with it themselves. Labeling is a good idea and allows folk to make informed or uninformed choices depending on the ability and desire to read. The FDA seems to miss that simple point and says it doesn’t have to be labeled. Label it and move on.

Is Starvation the Cure for Hunger?

This is a poignant line from L. Randal Wray in an article today from Demand Side Economics. He reports he’s just come back from conferences in Berlin and Helsinki and has interesting things to say. Both conferences raised some hope for the European economy, but one senses Wray is not buying much of it.

The typical path European countries have followed in recent times of economic crisis has been a path of austerity. They have worked at making budget cuts and reducing their debt as their economies languish. It hasn’t worked any better there than the pundits in this country who push these same failed policies. Again, as Wray says, “Yep, the patient is weakening, so we’ve got to drain more blood to restore health.

Wray lifts up the story of Ireland which is now involved in its 6^th austerity plan. It reminds me of the decision to export potatoes during the potato famine years ago.

We should not feel smug as both parties here seem to embrace the same absurd policies including leadership by President Obama’s willingness to reduce “entitlements” to revive the economy. All that does is oppress the poor all the more and make more people get lower paying jobs when they lose higher paying jobs. All in the name of keeping taxes low for the ultra rich.

Obama does say we should bring down the debt responsibly which is a fine idea, but you have to get the economy going before you reduce the debt. It not as though we do not have precedents, precedents that worked; the New Deal and the Great Society, but we seem to have no history memory in this country. What we are doing is reducing government spending which then is matched by reduced private sector spending by the same or and increased amount.

We should know by now the deregulation got us into this mess so it should be obvious the increased regulation should help us out of this mess and that means more government spending and a larger government. That is a win win scenario that is ignored.

The U.S. should be leading the way to economic recovery rather than following the failed policies in Europe. Folk say we don’t want to saddle our children with debt we create; we have said that every generation and still spend. And while it seems sounds good it doesn’t work in our current situation. If we follow our current policies of smaller government, less regulation and low taxes for the rich the majority our children will working at minimum wage jobs (if it still exists) rather than good paying middle class jobs. They will be the peasants providing wealth for their feudal lords.

Forget the debt, create jobs! Starvation is not the cure for hunger.

I Want – I Have

I want, or rather, I covet a Nexus 7 and I also covet a wii with Tiger Woods PGA golf game. Hey, I’ve always liked toys and these two seem really appealing to me. Now I spend a good deal of time of the computer doing research, writing articles, checking out contacts, and just playing. That little Nexus would make it even easier to do those things while sitting in my recliner and when we travel. Oooo I’d like one of those. I also love to golf and since we are not going south this winter, except for a couple of weeks, I’m going through golf withdrawal. I’ve cleaned my clubs, my wife clubs, I’ve sorted through the contents of the golf bags removed stuff that really doesn’t need to be there and put in stuff I think should be there. I read my golf magazines and watch people golfing on TV and I’m envious. Friends tell me that the wii and the Tiger Woods game is good and feels life playing golf on courses I know I will never play. When I let my greed alter ego out to play, what I really want is one of those Optigolf programs which is practically like playing golf, but I can’t think of a room in our house where I could swing a club and not do serious damage to the ceiling and surroundings. Oh, how I want those things.

But I spend a good deal of time in my recliner looking out the window and the Mississippi at one of the greatest views of the world with my wife who loves me. We are warm and toasty and I have a plow for my garden tractor and a whooping snow blower that can throw that white stuff every which way and can be a hero to my neighbors as I do their walks as well. It is Christmas time and a time to share gifts with family and friends as expressions of love. I’ve had great fun making and creating some of those gifts and am able to buy others. It actually my cup overflows and then some. I am living the abundant life the scriptures promise in so many many ways. And I am grateful for these blessings.

We human beings are such paradoxical creatures pulled multiple ways all at the same time. I’m no different from the baby yelling for my needs to be taken care of and I am a person who by God’s grace and through the training of others and a truly grateful person.

I want, I have, I am human.

Post Script: I just finished reading Choosing Gratitude: Learning to Love of the Life You Live, by James A. Autry who inspired the last two articles. It is a great book and I would recommend it to everyone one as a good head straightener.

Thank You for Crapping in Your Diaper and Screaming at Me

Parents are very strange creatures. They have a baby which costs a lot of money in doctor bill’s, which is just the beginning of huge expenses that begin before birth. The cost of having and raising a child a middle class child is estimated to be just under a quarter of a million dollars. Oh boy!

Plus those little beasties are total ingrates, selfish little beasties, caring for no one except themselves. “Feed me, clean me, keep me warm or I will scream and holler and cry and make your life miserable and make you feel inadequate and guilty.” That is a truth that parents ignore all this with a magnanimity that boggles the imagination. When the baby makes their adamant demands a typical parent will say things, “Oh are they just so cute (in reality almost all babies in wrinkly and ugly by most esthetic standards). “Just listen to the power of those little lungs” (do you like firecrackers going off in your house regularly?) “My sweet weety wittle babykinds” (turning normally articulate adults into babbling idiots.) “My that was a good poopy whoopy wasn’t it?” (crap is crap and there is nothing appealing about it to sane minds.) “Oh he/she is so smart,” (they don’t know diddly just wants.) And the list of such insane and inane behavior goes on and on for parents, grandparents, great grandparents, uncles and aunts, and even total strangers. To sum up the feelings of all such whacko it can be expressed in a single word, gratitude! They feel gratitude for have such a self absorbed demanding little critter which will demand great amounts of their time, money, and very souls. Strange! Yet that is what they feel, gratitude.

Now bear in mind that gratitude is an unnatural act; it is something that has to be learned and often with great difficulty. Children, as stated before have no sense of gratitude at all just demands. But as we train these little monsters we teach them to say “thank you” when they receive something from someone. It is not natural for them to do so, but parents have some control over them, at least to begin with, and so the obedient ones begin to say “thank you” when it is appropriate. They mimic civilized thoughts and some never get beyond that point, the just act in a socially acceptable way because it is really in their own self interest to do so. To move beyond mimicked gratitude is a major development which I will delve into in the future but not now.

For now, I’ll just leave you to ponder this strange phenomenon.

Gratitude is the best attitude.

Gratitude is the sign of noble souls.

    --Aesop (620-550 B.C.)

Entitlements

It is most interesting the way the world “entitlements” is being tossed about today by various people and groups. For some they make it sound like a dirty word, the undeserved rewards to malcontents and miscreants who contribute nothing to society and deserve nothing from it. And for others it is a basic right of citizenship.

The word merely means the state of being entitled: right. A right to benefits specified by law or contract. Or, the belief that one is deserving of or entitled to certain privileges.

If you are a child in a family are you entitled to be cared for physically, emotionally, and spiritually by that family; not only to have your basic needs met but also to be loved and cherished. You are entitled to this by law true, but more importantly because you are the child of parents and you are entitled to what they can give you.

Furthermore as a child of a country, a citizen of a nation, especially a democratic nation, you expect certain entitlements that are not only good for you but also good for your family or extended family, the nation. You are entitled in this country to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; thus says our constitution. This assumes a fairly level playing field for all citizens. All citizens should be able to gain education regardless of class or background; a democracy is dependent upon such an entitlement in order to remain a democracy. All citizens should have the entitlement to reasonable health care, again in the self interest of the nation; it is not just the right of the privileged few. Citizens have the entitlement to be able to find meaningful work that pays enough to keep them comfortable and capable rising through the economic levels of society. And in civilized countries we believe that folk who have worked and supported themselves and their country are entitled to security in their older years; to have the contributions to society recognized and the value respected and cherished. There are many more such entitlements that we expect and should have at our disposal as citizens of this democracy. And a system or group of people who seek to take away these entitlements are antidemocratic, selfish, and elitist in their thinking.

With that said, we also realize that in families there are those children who want more than their fair share; a bigger piece of pie and the end of a meal; a better bicycle than their siblings, more attention that others and are just plain self indulgent. A good parent seeks to stop these actions through appropriate and loving discipline. They seek to have their children understand the entitlements of all members of their family, not just their own entitlements. Or, parents should not spoil their children.

We have such spoiled citizens in our society as well, who seek to get more than they give and who want the largest piece of pie. Some point their fingers at those we are the recipients of safety net programs of our society and complain and lazy welfare parents, abusers of the social services programs and the like. On the other hand we have those who point their fingers at those who have been able to get more of the pie in our country by taking unfair advantage of others, created laws and programs that benefit them at the expense of others, who think they are so indispensible that society must bail them out if they get into trouble because they are more important than others.

Thus some in our society complain about what they see as entitlement programs such as minimum wages, social security, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, and programs that provide economic stability for the of aging and the poor. Others see these programs as investments in our society. And some point their fingers at those at those who have too much in their opinion.

In 1962 the government was concerned about the foundations for prosperity in our society and invested, about 32¢ of every federal dollars. And we spend about 14¢ on entitlements. Some estimate that today we spend less than 15 on investments and about 46¢ on entitlements. (I’m not sure where the military fits in here as the numbers don’t seem right). Our societal demographics have changed considerably and we didn’t invest enough in recent years to keep up. Another way of saying this is that we have screwed up the system that worked 50 years ago with programs that do not serve us as well, plus we have a whole generation of baby boomers retiring. Tax cuts don’t help unless they stimulate the economy, are investments in our common future. Frankly I would like for us to go back to the tax rates of 50 years ago, but to do that we need to invest in our country they way we did 50 years ago.

In our finger pointing we need to remember fingers point back at us as well whatever our position. But no matter what our position you don’t fix problems by just condemning the other side; you fix problems by working together to find the common good. If you don’t understand that you are neither a responsible child of your family, nor a responsible citizen of your country. It is time for all of us to grow up.

Current Republicans are NOT Fiscal Conservatives

I have heard a number of people, including George Will, talk about President Obama being a bit to the right of Dwight Eisenhower and Richard Nixon. I agree, Obama is not a particularly progressive president and seems far too willing to give too much away in negotiating to reach a common area. That does not mean he is not to be applauded for compromise in an age of total non-compromise by the extreme right, he just over does it. The stimulus package should have been far greater than it was to get the economy going, and public works for our infrastructure should be part of our economic recovery. And in no way should we be reducing the safety net for society in terms of is now called entitlements. Reducing these takes the economy the wrong direction as well.

The whole area of deficit reduction, which I have written about being is a red herring. We need to create jobs and get the economy running before reducing debt and he should know that. One writer noted that Reagan won his election by claiming the national debt was at all time high of 1 trillion; not it is 13.64 trillion, and who created all that debt? Primarily Republicans, including Reagan and those who lead into undeclared wars that congress would have to approve. $10/84 trillion in debt lies in the hands of the Reagan and the two Bush administrations; we only found relief in the Clinton years which George W immediately squandered.

The same writer, Tim Hogan wrote about a conversation he had with Karl Rove about a dozen years ago when Hogan was concerned about the national debt. Rove said, “Deficits don’t matter!” When pressed about the matter in relation to our experience as a nation in the 1990’s. Rove replied, “No no, no, no…What I mean is that the people don’t vote on deficits. That’s why they don’t matter.” Scary reasoning.

In the 2002 elections at a discussion in the Vice President’s office O’Neil was showing how the numbers were growing the deficit which threatened the economy. Cheney cut him off saying, “Reagan proved deficits don’t matter… We won the midterms. This is our due.” A month later Paul O’Neil was fired as Bush’s first Treasury Secretary.

Here are some charts  and comments that Cate Long had in an article Republican fiscal conservatism is a myth.

Government has expanded tremendously at every level in the United States over the last several decades. Expenditures have risen; constituencies have gained new subsidies; and loads of debt has been taken on. It’s unstable and it’s time to go on a diet.

The Republican party declares that they are the party of fiscal conservatism which has been beating back the profligate Democrat party. Here is the war cry from their 2008 party platform:

The other party wants more government control over people’s lives and earnings; Republicans do not.  The other party wants to continue pork barrel politics; we are disgusted by it, no matter who practices it.  The other party wants to ignore fiscal problems while squandering billions on ineffective programs; we are determined to end that waste.  The entrenched culture of official Washington -– an intrusive tax-and-spend liberalism -– remains a formidable foe, but we will confront and ultimately defeat it.

I wondered if the Republicans’ charge was accurate or if both parties had a tendency to spend tax dollars to buy support. Was there any quantitative evidence that Republicans were running tight fiscal ships? Looking at the finances of the states might create a better understanding. All states except Vermont must end the year with a balanced budget. Many of them require reserves in the form of rainy day funds. I pulled data from the National Association of State Budget Officers Fiscal Survey of the States, Fall 2011 covering “Total Balances and Balances as a Percentage of Expenditures, Fiscal 2010 to Fiscal 2012″. This is basically what states have left over at the end of the fiscal year. What I found is that both parties can practice sound fiscal policies or run very close to the edge of fiscal catastrophe. Republicans have no lock on tight fiscal ships.

The top chart shows that three of the ten states with the highest year-end budget surpluses and rainy day funds were controlled by Democrats and seven were controlled by Republicans. The four states with the biggest year-end balances are energy-producing states, led by Alaska. The guaranteed energy revenues that these four states enjoy would likely lead to big surpluses regardless of which party ran the state.

The chart below shows the ten states with the weakest year-end fiscal position. Six of the ten were controlled by Republicans. This data shows that a state can be Republican-controlled and still skirt the edge of the economic precipice.

The nation has really big fiscal problems to face; rhetoric and myths will not solve our problems. We need government but it needs to be run wisely and efficiently. Both parties seem to have been fiscally imprudent. There is likely to be myths about the Democrat party, too. Let’s find them and debunk and get on to rebuilding our nation.

More data: Reagan tripled the deficit from $997 billion to $2.85 trillion the highest percentage ever. At that rate it would be $75 trillion today. He raised the debt ceiling 18 times more than Carter, Clinton and Obama combined. He lowered taxes on the rich and then spend like mad to outdo the Russians in the cold war. He bailed out Chrsler and the saving-and-loan industry; $150 to the S&L’s were never repaid.

Eric Black this year also questioned Paul Ryan’s fiscal conservativeness. He writes, Pre-Reagan, the term "fiscal conservative" referred to those who wanted to balance the budget or at least hold down the accumulation of debt. Since Reagan, "fiscal conservatives" are those who always favor tax cuts, and the cuts generally turn out to make the tax code less progressive. This fits Ryan and Romney both. They have lots of idea for reducing government spending, especially on programs that benefit the poor, the elderly and the sick. (The one exception is military spending -- which I personally try to avoid calling "defense" spending since the United States maintains a military establishment far far far in excess of anything that could reasonably be called necessary to defend the country from any real threat to “national security” as that term would be defined by any other more normal country.) The Ryan budget plan cuts pretty much every government function except military.

If you made those cuts and left the tax code alone, you would shrink the deficit reasonably steadily and eventually get to balance. If, instead of leaving the tax code alone, you phased in some small increases in top tax rates, or eliminated some loopholes and deductions, or both, you could get to a surplus and actually start to pay down the debt that conservatives are always complaining about.

We need some real progressives with sound economic policy to get this country going again with good middle class jobs, and revitalized infrastructure and care of those in need.

Revolving Door Stories

Bill Moyers recently did a piece on the revolving door of congress, meaning folk who move out of government into lobbying positions. While it is against the law for politicians to lobby the former colleagues for 1 or 2 years after leaving office that does not mean much. Following are stories of these revolving doors.

Rep. Jason Altmire, Pennsylvannia Dem. Lost his primary but now works now as a vice president at Blue Cross/Blue Shield in Florida. The pharmaceuticals and healthcare industries gave him $161,000 to run and his employer gave $272,250 to his campaign. He was against Obamacare.

North Carolina Rep. Health Shuler, Dem. Did not seek reelection after redistricting made it unlikely for him to win. He will be a vice president of Duke Energy. In congress he was a member of the Blue Dog Coalitions of fiscally conservative Democrats. He stated his relationship made in congress will help Duke.

Jo ann emerson (R-MO) won reelection and announced her retirement to be the head of the National Rural Electric Cooperative which spent 2 million in 2012 and almost $3 million in 2011 lobbying. They gave $72,000 to her campaign. Her salary now is $1.5 million, 8 ½ fold more than as a congresswoman.

Mike Ross (D-AK) retired this year and will be senior vice president for Southwest power Pool. He received $20,500 in donations even though he didn’t run for office.

Elizabeth Fowler a Capitol Hill aide Obama chose to oversee the implementation of the health care act and was one of its key architects now has a senior-level position with “global health policy for Johnson and Johnson’s.

Since 2010 of 119 former senators and representatives 25 now work at companies and lobby or are clients of lobbying firms. Chris Dodd (D-CT) CEO and chairman of the Motion Picture Association of America where he coordinates their lobbying. Mel Martinez (R-FL) resigned mid term and is not a lobbyist for JP Morgan a bank he regulating while on the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs committee. Christopher Bond (R-MO) did not run for a 5^th term in the senate to retire but now is a lobbyist for Thompson Coburn working two days before he replacement was sworn in. Bob Bennett was targeted by the Tea Party in 2010 and lost to their candidates after 18 years in congress has formed the Bennett Consulting Group that lobbies for JP Morgan, again he was a member of the Banking, House and Urban Affairs subcommittees.

The list goes on and on. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington revealed that 108 3 and 4 star generals left the military between 2009 and 2011 of which 76 (70%) took jobs with defense contractors.

Just makes you proud of the system does it?

The Shell Game

At the county fairs of my youth there were guys who invited you to play the shell game (also on the streets in cities and anywhere else). They would place a pea under a shell move the shells rapidly around and then asked you to guess which shell had the pea under it. We suckers who played the game generally lost. It reminded me of the Ed Asner video piece I have on this web site where he says, speaking for big business etc., “look over there” as a means of misdirecting our focus so we don’t see the real issues that are taking place. People fell for it at the country fairs, the city streets and still are.

The big shell game I see taking place right now is about the national debt. Republicans during the election kept trying to scare the public with the fear of trillion dollar deficits while Obama and the Democrats talked about jobs and living wages. We know who won the election, significantly.

But the debate still goes on as we approach the so-called fiscal cliff. It is a shell game, a red herring. This is not to minimize the problem of the deficit but to put it into proper perspective. Along with these red herrings is the talk about reducing entitlements. Both of these ideas would lead to worsening job markets, increase the problems of the middle class, and crush those in poverty.

If you want to decrease the deficit you have to grow the economy especially the middle class. Students of history know when the middle class is strong the economy is at its strongest and then you have the ability to pay down debt (not that politicians always do that, but it is the time for it.)

The European economy fell for this shell game concentrating on paying down debt to the detriment of the economies; we don’t want to follow in their footsteps; it didn’t work.

So Obama and Boehner debate and I worry that Obama will give away too much in terms of entitlements in the spirit of compromise and thus endanger our potential growth.

We need to go back to tried and true economic theory that worked in the past: demand side economics or Keynesian economics. James K. Galbraith wrote this month, “Our current situation, the financial sector makes its money by destroying not by building.” He points to larger issues in our economy. The distribution of wealth in our economy is a scandal, but our economic processes are even more scandalous yet seem to remain under the radar.

If we are going to build this country again we need to return the policies that made us a great nation, to the times Tom Brokaw calls “the great generation.” A time when the country was more unified (okay, wars help us do that; but this is akin to a war now.) We need to worry about public services and that is what the populace wants according to every poll I read. We want better schools to be competitive in the world. We need to care for the environment and the alternate energy again to be competitive and also just to survive; it is the right things to do. We need to make sure the advanced education is available to everyone as it was in my youth, and not just limited to the wealthy or plunge students into crushing debt. We badly need to get health care under control. We have plenty of models around the world that show us how better quality and less expensive systems work and we should learn from them.

Galbraith talks about the need to come to terms as to whether we are going to embrace the core institutions and values of the New Deal and the Great Society that worked that provided all those things or to continue down the slippery slope of supply side economics that has created our current mess.

We need to provide security for folk in retirement years and for those who are in trouble because of misfortune. Medicare needs to have competitive bids for medicine not protection for pharmaceutical companies; that’s nuts. Insurance companies need to be on short reins working for the public good not just the bottom dollar profits of the share holders.

Reagan began the attacks on those core values and unfortunately the power of wealth has manipulated the government and played the shell game well with the public. We need to regulate companies not deregulate them as we have learned they just take advantage of others as they fight for a bigger and bigger share of the economic pie; and their managers make outlandish salaries and get absurd perks.

The jobs of the future will be primarily service jobs as we don’t make much anymore. Thus it is in our self interest to pay those who work in the service industries well to stimulate the entire economy. Yes, that means supporting unions again. We need to shore up our public retirement programs as we have learned companies have shown irresponsibility in safeguarding their own pension plans. Experience has taught us that governments run better insurance programs than private ones do which hand out huge salaries and perks and insure only those that will make them the most money.

More than ever we need to keep our eye on the pea and not be fooled my all the misdirection that is taking place in our society and our economy. Our country needs stability not a shell game or we’ll all be conned.

Salmon and Swans

Here’s another piece from The Progressive Magazine from an article by Terry Williams “The Presence of a Swan.” He begins by talking about a Tlingit Native American custom of when the first Salmon would arrive (I assume for spawning) it was greeted as an elder and caused a celebration. There were ceremonies and songs and the Salmon was their guest and was respected. The Salmon also got eaten and then its bones were returned to the sea where they would be reassembled to return again and again. The Tlingit saw the salmon as a gift among many gifts for which they are thankful.

When my Tlingit friend Sasha was showing us around Juneau when we visited there, he showed us refrigerated trailer stacked upon refrigerated trailer full of frozen salmon ready for shipping to all places for folk to eat. Or, in other words, the salmon for many has become just another commodity from which folk can make a bunch of money.

Sasha also told me stories of how folk of my culture and religion did evil things to him and his culture when he set out to begin his practice of ministry in Alaska. I have not been able to get those images of bigotry and small mindedness out of my mind since and it makes me ashamed of part of my culture and my denomination. Sasha and I were in seminary together and were good friends, even writing a book on contemporary worship together as a project (none had be written yet.). How different our lives turned out in that I was allowed practice my calling and he was not. He is a good man with great children and has done well with his life and given much to his people and community. But I feel the thorn still festers for both of us.

The article I read was about connections. And the salmon celebration was illustrative of how a culture and a people can see and celebrate those connections. The author then tells a story of a birthday celebration he had in Paris where he and a friend walked by a large reflective pond where a solitary swan swam in the distance. The author, inspired by his surroundings, bends down to the water to put his hand in the water and his sunglasses fell off. His friend immediately knelt to retrieve the glasses when they both looked up and saw the swan a few inches away looking them right in the eye. The serene swan just paddled there in place staring at them tilting his head from side to side for different perspectives. They even had a bit of human to swan conversation before the swan eventually swam away. It was a gift, it was a connection.

How could it would be if we could spend more time seeing our connections and celebrating them and giving thanks for them rather than just seeing commodities for which we must compete and keep only for ourselves and ours.

Ralph Nader Still Around and Kicking!

I finally bought a magazine with my Kindle; pretty handy. The magazine was The Progressive, which even makes my liberal bones tingle a bit. In it Ralph Nader writes a piece “Overcoming Powerlessness.”  He goes back to as essay by John Maynard Keynes called Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren. Keynes point was that with our resources and abilities we could easily eliminate our “economic problem” namely poverty. He envisioned that his grandchildren could live in a time of no poverty that there was no economic excuse for not abolishing poverty and giving all people what they needed included retirement security.

Keynes was right we had and have the ability we just don’t have the will. Nader sees this as a “failure of corporate capitalism—and the corporate state in Washington, D.C., that feeds and protects it. He points out our workers work harder than out workers in the western world but get less.

Then Nader brings the problem home with pointing out all our expertise in our pastimes, from biking, stamp collecting and chess (he fails to mention professional game watching), but our lack of expertise in the “democratic arts.” He wisely points out the need to watch both government and mega corporations in order to be better and wiser citizens. He quotes the American revolutionaries: “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.” He is not talking about the chronic complainers who have been swayed by wealth owned media shock media entertainers who call themselves newscasters. That is just more entertainment and diversion from real issues. This is coupled with a feeling of an inability to make changes and the big guys will get what they want anyway. This is victimology at its worst.

On NPR I heard a piece about the 50^th anniversary of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring. Her impact upon society, not ready to hear her prophetic message, was and is profound. We need folk like that today. We may even have them but the public may be so apathetic the planet my die before they wake up and pay attention.

Nader is right, we need lots more grassroots groups looking out for the common good; informed citizens who demand and get what is good for the nation from its public servants. Then perhaps our grandchildren we know no poverty.

Tax the Rich: An animated fairy tale.

You've got to see this.

It goes along well with my last blog. 

Tax the rich: An animated fairy tale, is narrated by Ed Asner, with animation by award-winning artist Mike Konopacki, and written and directed by Fred Glass for the California Federation of Teachers.  The 8 minute video shows how we arrived at this moment of poorly funded public services and widening economic inequality. Things go downhill in a happy and prosperous land after the rich decide they don't want to pay taxes anymore. They tell the people that there is no alternative, but the people aren't so sure.  This land bears a startling resemblance to our land.  After you watch this video, click here to share with friends, and send an email to your elected officialsto let them know they need to restore higher federal tax rates on the wealthy so that we may once more enjoy properly funded public services.