I am as troubled by our current political situation as anyone. I have already voted in the election, and I did so eagerly and angrily. Although I am quite disgusted with Obama's agenda as expressed through the Congress, in fact I would have voted for him, and I am not deeply conservative or party affiliated. I have voted for more Democrats than Republicans.
Much of my political dysphoria comes from politicians' failure to acknowledge and operate from fact. They instead rely on polemic and half truths to deceive and manipulate. There is no question that no one ever failed by underestimating the intelligence of the public. Still, I feel it is the responsibility of a public servant and leader to speak from fact rather than to gain popularity for election. While our constitutional framers feared tyranny, they feared demagogues quite as much, the reason we were founded as a republic, not a democracy, despite political blustering to the contrary.
My political agenda crosses party lines. Here it is, with some comments about each item.
Limit the Size of Government- Jefferson was right- any government big enough to give you everything you want is strong enough to take everything you have. Government is not a source of money; WE are the source of prosperity, not only for ourselves but for our nation. Government makes nothing and saves nothing.
Our founders deliberately created a weak central government. they were right. The federal government has well defined roles in international treaties, war and regulation of interstate commerce. It has no role of any kind in personal retirement, health insurance, school lunches or any other program for individuals. It has a clear role in interstate policy that affects the welfare of the State by affecting all individuals- pollution, business practices that produce harmful products through unsafe practices.
Government Can Not Stimulate the Economy- Keynes' principles were developed in analyzing an economic singularity, the Great Depression. He did NOT advocate ongoing deficit spending, but only use of governmental money through deficit spending to create economic activity while private creators of economic activity were profoundly depressed. There is nothing in Keynes' arguments as I have read them that supports our current deficit spending or the enormous size of our national debt.
Taxation and Govenment Spending are Inefficient- I would be amused were I not horrified to read about our administration saying governmental spending has a higher multiplier in society than private spending. I am not an economic expert, but every single economic item I have read, whether commentary or text book, says otherwise. Every dollar of tax produces about 0.80 dollars of economic activity, while every dollar of private spending generates 1.5 dollars of economic activity. Private spending is clearly more efficient as a means of creating economic activity and growth.
Taxation is not 'Progressive'- I am not a tax nihilist. Taxes are paid to support governmental programs from which we all benefit. Police, fire, ambulance service, national defense, border security, immigration services, all these are paid for by taxes.
But taxes are NOT a means to making income distribution 'fairer'. What is fair about taking money from one person to pay for another? I perceive a social duty for all in society to care for the helpless, the hopelessly disabled, the insane, the aged. Certainly those with more money can afford to pay more, but why should not every one pay the same proportion of their income for these social responsibilities? Churches used to do provide for the needful of society with the tithe. 10% was the same for all parishioners; there was no 'progressive tithe'.
I see nothing unfair about a flat tax. Our current tax code is a jumble of rules the wealthy are very good at avoiding. In the end, the wealthy pay far less than what their tax rate presumes. Every attempt at confiscatory taxes to make the wealthy pay 'their fair share' has resulted in loss of income to the government. Unequivocally, absolutely, reductions in marginal tax rates lead to an increase in governmental revenue.
If everyone pays the same rate, no exemptions, no exclusions of any kind, the wealthy then pay their fair share. A person earning 30,000.00 paying 15% pays 4500.00. A person earning 300,000.00 pays 45,000.00, and a person making 30,000,000.00 pays 4,500,000.00. It is hard to argue this is unfair given the distribution of tax payments. It is revealing of the current insanity of our tax code that I know people making 400,000.00 and more yearly who, through the structure of their income, pay less tax than the 300,000.00 earner posited above.
Government Can Not Legislate Morality- I am uncomfortable with the moral footing of elective abortion, but it is not my choice to make. As Alito and Roberts both said at their confirmation hearings, abortion is the settled law of the land. The practical reality of legal abortion has been a reduction in maternal death, not an increase in abortions.
Every effort to legislate morality, while nobly intended, has failed. The Women's Christian Temperance movement led to the prohibition of alcohol in 1919. All this did was fuel a dramatic increase in organized crime, and people drank anyway. The current 'war on drugs' is a lamentable failure. Few believe drugs are good for people, but then neither are cigarettes or fatty snacks, and there is no effort to outlaw them. Drugs continue to enter the US freely, can be bought freely. Many people go to jail without any kind of effect on importation or use.
Efforts to use morality as an excuse to allow government to regulate what a citizen can do in private are quite misguided. Whose morals are we to use? If Jews controlled the government, would we really be comfortable with a morally based legal ban on eating pork? It is entirely appropriate for society to regulate where an activity may occur, or at what age, but it is folly to outlaw anything based on morality. Live it, don't legislate it.
If Government is Given Power, Then The State has Fiduciary Repsonsibility- we are in the ridiculous position of asking for private freedom with public responsibility. When the State is responsible for the bills, it must have responsibility for the decisions. to do otherwise is a perverse reversal of 'taxation without representation'. We wish to bear no responsibility for the consequences of our actions, want complete freedom to do as we wish, and have 'them', the government, pick up the tab.
That is completely unreasonable. If we turn healthcare over to the government, then the State must act in its own interests or fail the simplest of fiduciary tests. The government is, in this sense, a private organization, with all of us as shareholders. Expensive, protracted care for the elderly is not a good use of societal money. Those who wish to pursue such care are perfectly free to do so with their own means, but not to ask society to fund their choices when they do not serve the needs of society.
Being a Public Servant is NOT a Career- Term limits decrease the temptation of graft and corruption. They also encourage politicians to speak the truth rather than pander for endless re-election. 12 years is plenty of time in public service.
If We are All Equal, Then Any Preferntial Program is Prejudice- I understand the basis for assistance programs for needy groups. Many have benefited from 'the helping hand', and while this benefits only a portion of society, equal opportunity is an important part of our conception.
This has nothing to do with squandering that opportunity. The day for affirmative action is long past. If you behave poorly in school, you will be unemployable. That is not racism, it's economic reality.
The position of the descendants of black slaves brought here unwillingly is clearly quite different from those who come here of their own choice. It was right and good to redress the systemic wrongs imposed on blacks. There is nothing at all helpful or right about special programs to help non-English speaking immigrants in schools and society. My father learned English here like everyone else. He went to school and created a career in the face of terminal illness, language barriers and social prejudice against southern Europeans. There is no role for further preferential programs for any group.
Arresting and Deporting Illegal Immigrants is not Prejudicial- these individuals are by definition criminals by their presence within our country. Our borders are not secure. Many of these illegals work here, which our economy needs, but send billions of dollars across the border, making our economy serve the needs of another country. There is nothing prejudicial about asking for documentation from those reasonably suspected of being illegally here.
I am mortally tired of the distortions of both parties, and agendas intended more to achieve re-election than to address problems. Much of my interests fall in the Republican Party agenda, but not all, and I like their methods little better than those of the Democrats. Each of us needs to take responsibility for ourselves, and not look to government to save us from our own choices. We are not a prejudiced country; we are egalitarian to a fault. And our politicians need to stop making cheap rhetorical points in pandering to the insecurities of all of us.
Ted
Much of my political dysphoria comes from politicians' failure to acknowledge and operate from fact. They instead rely on polemic and half truths to deceive and manipulate. There is no question that no one ever failed by underestimating the intelligence of the public. Still, I feel it is the responsibility of a public servant and leader to speak from fact rather than to gain popularity for election. While our constitutional framers feared tyranny, they feared demagogues quite as much, the reason we were founded as a republic, not a democracy, despite political blustering to the contrary.
My political agenda crosses party lines. Here it is, with some comments about each item.
Limit the Size of Government- Jefferson was right- any government big enough to give you everything you want is strong enough to take everything you have. Government is not a source of money; WE are the source of prosperity, not only for ourselves but for our nation. Government makes nothing and saves nothing.
Our founders deliberately created a weak central government. they were right. The federal government has well defined roles in international treaties, war and regulation of interstate commerce. It has no role of any kind in personal retirement, health insurance, school lunches or any other program for individuals. It has a clear role in interstate policy that affects the welfare of the State by affecting all individuals- pollution, business practices that produce harmful products through unsafe practices.
Government Can Not Stimulate the Economy- Keynes' principles were developed in analyzing an economic singularity, the Great Depression. He did NOT advocate ongoing deficit spending, but only use of governmental money through deficit spending to create economic activity while private creators of economic activity were profoundly depressed. There is nothing in Keynes' arguments as I have read them that supports our current deficit spending or the enormous size of our national debt.
Taxation and Govenment Spending are Inefficient- I would be amused were I not horrified to read about our administration saying governmental spending has a higher multiplier in society than private spending. I am not an economic expert, but every single economic item I have read, whether commentary or text book, says otherwise. Every dollar of tax produces about 0.80 dollars of economic activity, while every dollar of private spending generates 1.5 dollars of economic activity. Private spending is clearly more efficient as a means of creating economic activity and growth.
Taxation is not 'Progressive'- I am not a tax nihilist. Taxes are paid to support governmental programs from which we all benefit. Police, fire, ambulance service, national defense, border security, immigration services, all these are paid for by taxes.
But taxes are NOT a means to making income distribution 'fairer'. What is fair about taking money from one person to pay for another? I perceive a social duty for all in society to care for the helpless, the hopelessly disabled, the insane, the aged. Certainly those with more money can afford to pay more, but why should not every one pay the same proportion of their income for these social responsibilities? Churches used to do provide for the needful of society with the tithe. 10% was the same for all parishioners; there was no 'progressive tithe'.
I see nothing unfair about a flat tax. Our current tax code is a jumble of rules the wealthy are very good at avoiding. In the end, the wealthy pay far less than what their tax rate presumes. Every attempt at confiscatory taxes to make the wealthy pay 'their fair share' has resulted in loss of income to the government. Unequivocally, absolutely, reductions in marginal tax rates lead to an increase in governmental revenue.
If everyone pays the same rate, no exemptions, no exclusions of any kind, the wealthy then pay their fair share. A person earning 30,000.00 paying 15% pays 4500.00. A person earning 300,000.00 pays 45,000.00, and a person making 30,000,000.00 pays 4,500,000.00. It is hard to argue this is unfair given the distribution of tax payments. It is revealing of the current insanity of our tax code that I know people making 400,000.00 and more yearly who, through the structure of their income, pay less tax than the 300,000.00 earner posited above.
Government Can Not Legislate Morality- I am uncomfortable with the moral footing of elective abortion, but it is not my choice to make. As Alito and Roberts both said at their confirmation hearings, abortion is the settled law of the land. The practical reality of legal abortion has been a reduction in maternal death, not an increase in abortions.
Every effort to legislate morality, while nobly intended, has failed. The Women's Christian Temperance movement led to the prohibition of alcohol in 1919. All this did was fuel a dramatic increase in organized crime, and people drank anyway. The current 'war on drugs' is a lamentable failure. Few believe drugs are good for people, but then neither are cigarettes or fatty snacks, and there is no effort to outlaw them. Drugs continue to enter the US freely, can be bought freely. Many people go to jail without any kind of effect on importation or use.
Efforts to use morality as an excuse to allow government to regulate what a citizen can do in private are quite misguided. Whose morals are we to use? If Jews controlled the government, would we really be comfortable with a morally based legal ban on eating pork? It is entirely appropriate for society to regulate where an activity may occur, or at what age, but it is folly to outlaw anything based on morality. Live it, don't legislate it.
If Government is Given Power, Then The State has Fiduciary Repsonsibility- we are in the ridiculous position of asking for private freedom with public responsibility. When the State is responsible for the bills, it must have responsibility for the decisions. to do otherwise is a perverse reversal of 'taxation without representation'. We wish to bear no responsibility for the consequences of our actions, want complete freedom to do as we wish, and have 'them', the government, pick up the tab.
That is completely unreasonable. If we turn healthcare over to the government, then the State must act in its own interests or fail the simplest of fiduciary tests. The government is, in this sense, a private organization, with all of us as shareholders. Expensive, protracted care for the elderly is not a good use of societal money. Those who wish to pursue such care are perfectly free to do so with their own means, but not to ask society to fund their choices when they do not serve the needs of society.
Being a Public Servant is NOT a Career- Term limits decrease the temptation of graft and corruption. They also encourage politicians to speak the truth rather than pander for endless re-election. 12 years is plenty of time in public service.
If We are All Equal, Then Any Preferntial Program is Prejudice- I understand the basis for assistance programs for needy groups. Many have benefited from 'the helping hand', and while this benefits only a portion of society, equal opportunity is an important part of our conception.
This has nothing to do with squandering that opportunity. The day for affirmative action is long past. If you behave poorly in school, you will be unemployable. That is not racism, it's economic reality.
The position of the descendants of black slaves brought here unwillingly is clearly quite different from those who come here of their own choice. It was right and good to redress the systemic wrongs imposed on blacks. There is nothing at all helpful or right about special programs to help non-English speaking immigrants in schools and society. My father learned English here like everyone else. He went to school and created a career in the face of terminal illness, language barriers and social prejudice against southern Europeans. There is no role for further preferential programs for any group.
Arresting and Deporting Illegal Immigrants is not Prejudicial- these individuals are by definition criminals by their presence within our country. Our borders are not secure. Many of these illegals work here, which our economy needs, but send billions of dollars across the border, making our economy serve the needs of another country. There is nothing prejudicial about asking for documentation from those reasonably suspected of being illegally here.
I am mortally tired of the distortions of both parties, and agendas intended more to achieve re-election than to address problems. Much of my interests fall in the Republican Party agenda, but not all, and I like their methods little better than those of the Democrats. Each of us needs to take responsibility for ourselves, and not look to government to save us from our own choices. We are not a prejudiced country; we are egalitarian to a fault. And our politicians need to stop making cheap rhetorical points in pandering to the insecurities of all of us.
Ted
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