Where are the Leaders?

The drama surrounding the potential shutdown of the federal government has reached a level we haven’t seen on daytime TV since the OJ Simpson chase. The budget game has been going on now for almost a year with no winner. The goal is to reach an agreement and pass a budget BEFORE the start of the fiscal year. If you do everyone wins. If you don’t pass a budget before 1 October no-one wins. But...to keep everyone from losing you use a budgetary tool called magic.

Actually it’s called a Continuing Resolution Authority or CRA but it works like magic. Under a CRA, the government can continue to operate at the same levels as the previous year. Sounds ok right? Unless of course you hired a few new folks, or gave someone a raise or promotion, or want to start a new program. One of the unique restrictions of operating under a CRA is the stipulation that there can be no “new starts”. If you were not doing it last year then you can’t start it under a CRA. And there is the problem…think about the number of government programs that may start in a given year. It is a lot more than you think. I am most familiar with the Defense industry where a CRA means delays in funding for contracts that you may have been ready to start as soon as the budget was signed and the money was available. Which means layoffs and no new hiring for the many jobs that would have been created to support new programs.

I don’t know about you but I have a problem with that. Congress can’t get past their playground politics and do their jobs, so more Americans are out of work. The longer the CRA runs, the more people lose. Now to be fair, CRAs are not uncommon and they generally aren’t that disruptive, because the budget is usually passed by the first of the year. This year however there are so many juicy political balls being juggled around in Washington that our elected servants don’t have time to notice the impact of their incompetence on the American people. They really only have time to look for opportunities to play “gotcha” and work on the next set of talking points so they can talk over the reported who ask hard questions without answering any hard questions. Perhaps the biggest travesty this year is that we are still without agreement on April 6 when so many reasonable options have been presented. The bipartisan Bowles Simpson deficit commission released their recommendations on November 10, 2010. I am sure it wasn’t a perfect solution but it recommended reductions in federal spending as well as tax changes (reducing many credits and deductions) with a total impact of just over $200 Billion. Congressman Paul Ryan has recently proposed a $2 decrease in spending for every $1 increase in taxes. A bit simplistic but it’s a start and moves us toward the kind of decision that must be made if we are to get out of this mess.

When times are tough we must have leaders who are willing to lead the country rather than a party. We need people who can see past the next election and make the hard calls that although unpopular today, will prove to be right in the end It’s not about winning polls or elections, its about the economy stupid.

Insanity Politics

The electorate is fed up with politics as usual. I hear it at least 4 times a week. It seems to be the new battle cry. After all, it's the reason that the Democrats won the White House and control the Congress...right?...or...is it the reason Mr. Brown went to Washington (Sen Scott Brown)?...or it is the reason ...uh...well you get the picture. If you were to stop people on the street anywhere in America and ask them if the political system is broke my guess is a large majority would say yes. If you ask them how to fix it, you will begin to see the problem. Most of those who offered a solution would repeat party sound bites. And that, my friends, is insanity. We've all heard the definition of insanity, it's "doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results". So how do we change politics enough to stop the insanity? I will admit that I don't have the answer, but I did have a "duh" moment this week, and no I wasn't in a Holiday Inn Express. Here's my question...

...When did the political process begin to revolve more around the party than the person?...

We...the people that is, only think about politics and government before elections, and when "government" does something we don't agree with; like rearrange the school districts, or widen the road in front of our property, or raise taxes, etc. I live in Florida, and the recent theater surrounding Governor Crist's announcement that he would run for Senate as a no party candidate has been eye opening. There was a lot of speculation about how many of his large donors would ask that contributions returned. And most of his campaign staff resigned of course. So that tells me that the donors weren't supporting Mr. Crist because the believed in the man and were confident in his ability to represent Florida in the Senate...no, they were supporting the Republican party. Likewise the campaign leadership. I may be naive but there is something wrong with that in my book. To quote Howard Troxler, an editorial writer for the St. Pete Times, "everybody likes to talk ideology, but what usually decides an election are mechanics, strategy and money." Think about that for a minute. Does that sound like what our founding fathers had in mind when they drafted the Constitution? I for one don't think so.

So how do we stop the insanity? To get any real change we are going to have to find a way to decrease the power and the influence of the party. We, the people, need to listen the political hopefuls and they in turn must listen to the people. No elected official is ever going to make all of the people happy so instead of pretending to be something they are not, to appeal the the largest number of voters, we need politicians with convictions and the moral courage to stick to them. We need politicians who are not professional politicians, but are leaders. We need politicians who are willing to go for the hard right instead of the popular wrong. I could go on but you get the picture? Do I think this is going to happen? No. It might happen occasionally at the local level, and I mean very local. Above the local level, I don't think there is an incentive to change that dramatically. Without the total collapse of the current system where the party and the loyal party minions control money and media we are going to continue the insanity...and while I can't change it, I can at least talk about it and dream...this is America after all.

Over the TOP!!

Senator Jim Bunning is at it again. Using the power of his position for petty self-serving purposes. I am generally a calm person and as a true independent I care about issues and the country more than I care about a political party..I know, call me weird. Anyway, the esteemed Mr. Bunning is holding up Presidential nominations again, not out of character as this seems to be a hobby. I know this is a common way for large egos to express themselves but at what cost? The latest power play by Mr. Bunning is the most outrageous political ploy I think I have ever heard of. SEN Bunning is holding up the the nominations of two officials from the office of the U.S. Trade Representative, Michael Punke, picked to be U.S. ambassador and permanent representative to the World Trade Organization in Geneva, and Islam Siddiqui, nominated to be USTR’s chief agricultural negotiator. His reason...the USTR hasn’t done enough to defend Bunning’s home state against a Canadian antismoking law that “unfairly discriminates against Kentucky-grown tobacco.” In other words, he is penalizing the United States because he wants Canada to stop encouraging people not to smoke. I could go on a long time about the philosophical issues with this line of thought but instead I will simply ask the obvious...IS HE INSANE?