Non Essential Government Services

If Congress doesn’t agree on last year’s spending and doesn’t pass a continuing resolution, the government will be forced to “shut down”.   I have to ask myself, “Is that such a bad thing?”

What is a shutdown?  Nobody really knows but we’re told that Social Security checks will still be sent and that the armed forces will still protect us (and about 90% of everyone else on the planet.)  The only thing that we’re told is that the “non essential government services will be closed and those people will be put on administrative leave.”

Since that’s all the information at hand, I’m going to make some observations and suggestions that may be all wet in light of the complete picture, but I think it’s a start when we think of what this might mean.

The first question that comes to mind is, “Will we get back the $105 Billion that Democrats inappropriately snuck into ObamaCare when they passed it?  It was an authorization bill but they made it into an appropriations bill with nobody but the sneaks who did it knowing about it.  I’m not sure in which of the 2,400 pages of the bill the appropriation is, but it’s there and we want the money back!  Pronto!

Am I surprised they did that?  No, not really.  A former pastor of mine said, “We should never be surprised when sinners act like sinners.”  Without trying to equivocate, I just want to paraphrase and say that we should never be surprised when free-spending liberals act like we have all the money in the world and act according to their true nature.

After recovering from the angst of Dems acting like Dems, I have to ask, “If we shut down non essential services, how will that affect our lives?”  If they’re not essential, I have to think that the answer is, “Not much.”

Next I ask, “If we shout down the non essential services, how much will that save?”  Again, I have to think the answer is, “Not much,” since the meaning of “essential” is left to the operating units themselves.  Some how every bureaucrat will deem himself or herself “essential”.

Let’s shut down the government until Democrats start acting like responsible adults and not like the spoiled rich kids that they are.  I don’t think we’ll see any real difference.  The roads will still have potholes and bridges will be crumbling because Congress raided the Highway Trust Fund in years past.

There are dozens of ways that Congress can get us back on the road to fiscal health, not the least of which is to let private people pay for Harry Reid’s Cowboy Poetry Festival.

Let’s take everyone’s ideas and do them all. Assuming, of course that they’re Constitutional.

On, Wisconsin!

If only public sector workers would put in as much effort in their jobs as they have shown in the Wisconsin demonstrations these past few days and weeks.

I congratulate the Wisconsin legislators for splitting the financial bills so they could get some work done.  Granted, it’s the part that the Democrats (or maybe the unions who control the Democrats) didn’t want to pass.  They have stripped the public employees of many – but not all – of their collective bargaining rights.

So now the Dems are saying that democracy was “stolen” from the people.  Forget that the Dems fled the state to avoid the battle.  Forget that the Dem leader made sure that he was too far away to make it back to Madison in time to vote on anything.  Forget that the Dems themselves were trying to hijack the legislative process by making sure that financial bills could not be voted on.  Oh, and forget that it’s OK for Dems to railroad legislation themselves (can you say, “ObamaCare”?)  Nevertheless, it’s the Republicans who were trying to hijack democracy.

I think the Dems are just angry that they were out maneuvered.  They thought they could bring things to a stand-still.  They simply thought wrong.  Now that they they failed, to save face, it’s somebody else’s fault.  Typical.  They don’t want to take responsibility for their actions.  They were AWOL (but still taking their salaries).  They were the ones refusing to negotiate and debate.  Apparently it’s OK with the Democrats if the state goes belly-up.

But let’s not lose sight of the bigger question.  Should public sector workers at any level (federal, state or local) have collective bargaining rights?  It is this writer’s opinion that they definitely should not.  Bargaining means that responsible labor representatives negotiate with responsible management.  The problem is that the so-called responsible management are politicians who are taking campaign donations from the labor unions with whom they are “negotiating”.

This is conflict of interest at the highest level.  Politicians are not negotiating with money for which they are accountable.  They are using your money simply to buy the unions’ votes.  This is how we get bus drivers making over $150,000 in a year.  This is how we get union members having over 90% of their health care costs covered by your tax dollars.  This is how people get upwards of $100,000 a year in pensions (with full health care).  Try finding that for the average worker in the public sector!  In the private sector, management has to deal with shareholders and boards of directors to keep spending in check.  States simply raise taxes to pay for their promises that make the promise makers rich and re-elected.

Yes, the Dems say that there will be repercussions.  They warn of recall elections and “other things” as they “take back democracy” (whatever that means).  I suppose it could mean that they’ll come out of hiding and return to Madison to do what the people elected them to do in the first place, and that’s represent them and shirk their responsibilities.

However, Dems, beware of unintended consequences.  They say a word to the wise is sufficient so I’m probably wasting valuable keystrokes to write this.  Nevertheless, I feel it must be said:  For the ones not suckling off the teat of the nanny state all this may look like progress toward solvency.  I’d not be surprised if any senator put up for a recall vote didn’t get even more votes in favor of keeping the job due to his or her guts and resolve to keep Wisconsin from going bankrupt.

The simple fact is that the federal government and many of the individual states are broke.  You cannot get blood from a turnip.  Very few people can afford 125% tax rates but that’s where we’re heading if we don’t get a handle on spending, and now.

It’s funny, though, that these people seem to forget that if they don’t like what’s happening, they can quit their jobs and go into the public sector.  I don’t recall any of them saying that someone held a gun to their heads and forced them to work for the state.  Maybe they can start their own businesses.  I doubt that will happen because they’re too used to being molly-coddled by the Nanny State.

Face it, folks.  The free ride is about to end.  The unions know it and they’re running scared.  The producers in the state (and that’s just about everyone not on the state payroll) see this as the most humane way out of the jam.

Free Speech Kill Switch

Late last year Congress introduced a bill to allow the President to turn off the Internet when there is a “significant cyber threat”.  The bill died in committee when Congress adjourned.  Lately, the bill has had a resurgence of support.

Interestingly enough, the legislation was resurrected the same day that Egypt killed the Internet in its country to quell protests against Mubarak’s government.  Also interestingly enough, the bill was reintroduced by a Republican, Susan Collins of Maine.  Republicans are the supposed Bastions of Liberty in the face of the raging incrementalism of Socialism that is overtaking our country.

Perhaps what Ross Perot (and others) have said about the mainstream Republicans and the Democrats not having “a dime’s worth of difference” between them is not so far off.  Senator Collins, of course, does not have the Tea Party to answer to as she was last elected in 2008 and won’t be up for re-election until 2014, two years after the Mayan Calendar recycles, so maybe the world will end by then.

According to Senator Collins, it allows “the government to work with the private sector” when the country is faced by cyber terrorism.  Now, let me ask, when has Big Brother ever “worked” with anyone?  In the face of a cyber terror attack will they call committee meetings or create some joint fact finding commission to determine the threat level?  Heavens, no!  It took the Gulf Oil Spill Commission six months to determine that BP (and others) screwed up.  On the contrary, some Internet Czar will have the power to mandate a “temporary” shut down of segments of the Internet on his or her command.

Why is this bad?  Would not our banking and power grid be at risk if there was a true cyber attack?  Probably yes.  However, giving the Government the power to kill electronic communication is not the answer.

If certain sectors need protecting, then they should put in their own protection.  If it’s in the interest of the banking community to have better electronic protection, they should spend some of the bailout money on protecting their systems and networks rather than giving millions of dollars of that money in bonuses to overpaid executives.

Put the banking community on its own subnet that can be segregated from the rest of the Internet.  You know the military is on its own subnet.  There’s no way we could execute any war if Obama or any other President hit the kill switch on the Internet.  Do the same with the power grid and any other segment that needs to be protected.

This is, however, what the bill’s proponents suggest will be the case.  But which human can determine if any part of the Internet is under attack and what to do about it quickly enough?  When computers can send thousands of messages each second, would a person notice before it’s too late?  Would a human know which sectors to shut down or would it be just “safer” to shut down everything while a committee figured out what the problem was?  Put the software to detect attacks where the systems are that might be attacked.

The danger, as I see it, is yet one more step at eroding our Constitutional rights.  Giving anyone the ability to shut down parts of the Internet is, in my opinion an unconstitutional attack on the First Amendment that prohibits the government from “abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

Shut down the Internet and you cannot send an e-mail to your Congressperson or Senator.  Shut down the Internet and you cannot electronically assemble with your friends or colleagues.   Shut down the Internet and bloggers (I admit this entry is somewhat self-serving) cannot criticize the ability of the Government to shut down the Internet.

Giving anyone in Government the ability to shut down any kind of communications is just “one small step for eroding freedoms, one giant leap for totalitarianism.”

Oh, it will be for our own good.  Simply ignore the fact that there is a technological solution to this technological problem.  Like all good Socialists, the bill’s supporters believe that only the Government can solve this or any other problem.

This is yet one more proof that we’ll never conquer artificial intelligence until we first overcome natural stupidity.

Add Insult to Tax Injury

When Obama took office, one of the first things he did was to announce a pay freeze for all White House employees making more than $100,000 per year.  However we found out last fall that even with that pay freeze 74% of the over 300 White House staff got on-average a 9% pay raise and the number of federal employees making more than $150,000/year has doubled under this administration.  I’m not saying they aren’t worth it (OK, maybe I would say it if I knew just what these people did other than kiss butt and shine shoes) but how much disdain for the suffering of millions of American citizens does this show?

You do know, don’t you, that your unemployment payments are taxable as wages, so your unemployment benefits help pay these possibly overpaid folks.  Even with falling new unemployment claims, more than 9% of us (seasonably adjusted, of course) are out of work.  Another 20% are underemployed with cut hours or only holding temporary or part-time jobs, and untold numbers have simply given up looking.  Yet Obama has increased the number of federal workers making over $150,000 twenty-fold and gives his staff a 9% pay raise.  Even if you are employed, did you get a 9% pay raise last year?  Are you even making 9% more than you were two years ago?

In so many ways, Obama’s domestic policies are like vampires sucking the life out of the economy step by step.  These policies punish producers, make the business climate too uncertain so that potential employers are not sure what his policies will to to them.  They could hire people but then if ObamaCare slaps punitive expenses on their businesses, they’ll have to lay people off just to keep even.  And, by the way, when an employer lays people off, his unemployment insurance premiums rise, which punishes him even more for having tried to give some folks jobs.

I encourage the Republican-controlled House to implement sound policies that are economic-growth friendly.

I hope the Debt Commission and Congress are watching. Roll back federal pay to the 2008 level and eliminate automatic pay raises through the Cost of Living Adjustments.  Those of us who don’t suckle at the teat of the federal government don’t get those kind of automatic pay raises.  If federal employees don’t like it, they can do what the rest of us do.  They can quit and try to get a real job in the private sector.

Nevertheless, let’s go back to the topic of this entry.  If there wasn’t a pay freeze, how much would these people have gotten?  Where can I apply for one of these jobs?  Sounds like “all animals are created equal.  It’s just that some are more equal than others,” to borrow from George Orwell.

I’m sick and tired of Health Care Reform

Health Care Reform is the one of the Obama agenda items that seems to be on the list of why so many Democrats were fired in the last election.  Republicans now want to take advantage of that now.  The question that people ask is, “Why do we need reform?”  The simple answer is, “Health care is too expensive.”  This then begs the question, “So, what’s wrong with ObamaCare?”  To which one reply is, “It rations health care with no guarantee of improvement.”  Simple questions with simple responses.

But the true answer is really more complex.  It’s too expensive partly because government has made it too expensive.  Let me explain with one of many examples.

Way back when, the people thought health care costs were getting out of  control.  The solution presented by the socialists was to create HMOs.  Everyone goes in the pool at the same (or relatively the same based on parameters) cost and HMOs decide what you need to stay alive and you get that treatment.  Costs were kept down but the (unintended?) consequence was that now health care became rationed.  A triage nurse or administrator decided if you could see a doctor and what kind of doctor (probably a nurse or physician’s assistant) you’d see.  The HMO determined what treatment options they’d make available and there could be a waiting list.  To lower costs, the government created a method of rationing run by the private sector.  It was reminiscent of ration coupons during World War II.

ObamaCare is HMO times infinity.  Like any government program, it would cost orders of magnitude more than the politicians say it will and, like social security, welfare, and other programs, will bankrupt the government as entitlements grow out of control.

Now, I won’t tackle the constitutionality of government-controlled health care with its mandates on what you must buy.  About 25 states are willing to do that better than I could.  I only want to address one issue, the cost of health care.

There are a whole host of reasons why health care is so expensive so I’ll just touch on a few of them.  Rather than forcing the citizenry to be shackled to the Federal yolk, these areas are places that government can address if it’s serious about reigning in health care costs.

The cost of medical school and specialized education is significant.  Four years of college, four of medical school, residency (where you’re paid enough just to keep you almost from starving), and further education for specialization can leave a doctor a half million dollars or more in debt before he or she can start a practice.  It, along with its interest, must be paid back one way or another and that is through the doctor’s salary.  It’s not uncommon for a doctor to have to pay tens of thousands per year to pay off education debt.  If we want reform, let’s at least make the interest tax deductible and lower what the doctor needs to be paid.

Forget the rent in New York City.  The cost of malpractice insurance is too darn high.  Why?  Because we are a litigious society.  If a patient dies because of the operation, that can be malpractice.  If the patient dies in spite of the operation, that is not.  It is proper to sue if the doctor has done something wrong.  It is not proper if you simply don’t like the outcome of a properly-performed procedure.  You, your parent or guardian, made an informed decision.  If it doesn’t come out as you hoped, that’s unfortunate and, sadly, too many judges don’t have the guts to throw out frivolous lawsuits.  We need to take a tighter look at who is suing for what.  There should also be caps on things like “pain and suffering” when your nose job doesn’t make you look like a superstar.  In short, we need massive tort reform.  Let’s hope that Congress has fewer trial lawyers this go-around and can do something here.

Because of the threat of malpractice, doctors are forced to perform CYA tests and procedures.  Everyone wants an MRI for a hangnail.  People go in to the doctor and demand that they prescribe that new medicine they saw on TV.

There are other reasons, too.  Costs to create new drugs, hospital expenses and medical equipment are all factors as well.  The net, however, is not to grab control of the industry.

Don’t get me wrong.  There are some good provisions buried somewhere deep in the ObamaCare bill.  Those should be culled out, debated and, if truly beneficial to the American people and not just to lawyers or other special interests, passed as separate bills once the overall bill is repealed.

There are reasonable things that we can do to get health costs under control.  Rationing and socialism are not among them, however.  Let’s get rid of this fiasco and debate features we can understand.