"Hi! My name is America and I am a Spender"

The first step to solving a problem is to admit that you have a problem. We have a spending/deficit problem in the US. And both major parties contribute to it. Bush wanted prescription drug benefits and waged wars without wanting to pay for them. Obama wants to add billions to government subsidized medical care, expand wars, and who knows what without paying for it.



As much as people like the idea that the top 2% pay for everything such an approach is probably not very sustainable and leads to feelings of entitlement from the 98%.



http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704464704575208040125742672.html

Arizona and Immigration

I am a little baffled by this new Arizona state law that seems to just mean that Arizona state and local law enforcement will enforce a federal law. I thought that all law enforcement enforce all applicable laws.
Currently, federal law enforcement is stopping all traffic on roads close to the border, including I-10, and interviewing everyone. Presumably they are making decisions on a person's status at that time. Nobody seems to be complaining about this. Now the state wants to do the same thing. And there seems to be a problem.

While I am very disturbed by the idea of just targetting people of amerindian features I am also concerned about laws not being enforced. Law enforcement should be properly trained to look for the behavior and tendencies of illegal immigrants and question people based on that behavior. And not on any racial characteristics. Obviously, illegal immigrants come in all colors.

People are often accused of following idealogy and not science. Science can teach us the likely behaviors of people engaged in criminal activity and lead to more efficient targeting of suspects. And obviously not all odd behaviors mean criminal activities and the human judgement is required. And terminate any law enforcement officer who has a problem with this.

Effective law enforcement has always focused on behaviors. I have been stopped numerous times when I was doing something deemed odd. Like looking at my GPS while standing by a bridge. This seems more effective than stopping everyone on I-10.

UPDATE: 4/28/10 A Rasmussen poll suggests that Latinos in Arizona are in favor of the law. Also, consider the idea that Mexico is more dangerous than Iraq and the violence is spilling over into Arizona.

Some Thoughts on Taxation

My father was a FDR liberal, a liberal in the classic sense who believed that government could solve problems and reduce suffering in the world. Not sure how many of those liberals are around anymore. Most Democrats seem to want more for themselves; more subsidized education, more free school lunches, more salary and benefits for themselves, more grant money on projects in their community, etc. The dynamics of paying for this stuff is less important. You can't be truly "liberal" if you want to spend other people's money.

My father understood that government spending costs money and happily paid his taxes: he was fortunate to achieve some upper middle class lifestyle and wanted to help those less fortunate. Oh sure, he worked hard all his life, from the three jobs he had as a teenager and suffered through polio and other medical issues, but he understood that there was good fortune involved.

On tax day, April 15, 2010, I joined the 47% of the population who paid no federal income tax when I received my refund which equalled all of the taxes that I had paid through the year. For the first time in my adult life, I became a non-contributor. Actually, with unemployment and a "small" public pension for my part time military service, I became a net drain on the economy. I had wanted to "Go Galt" but I still have some emotional issues to deal with on this. I am not poor. I live a good life, with money left over every month and no debt. I know that there are millions not as well off as me and I should be, like my father, paying my fair share and helping those people. Frankly, it bothers me greatly that Obama, and George Bush, don't think that I need to pay taxes. They seem to think that I am too poor to pay taxes. I feel discarded and unneeded.

So, the money that once went to pay taxes is now going, by my choice, overseas to help those 2 billion or so who live on less than $1 a day.

Of course, the end may be near. In January, 2007, the per capita share of the publicly funding federal debt was just over $16,000 and by April, 2010, the share was over $27,000. And with $1 trillion annual deficits, the per capita federal debt is increasing by over $3,000 per year.

It is only a matter of time before Congress realizes that the low tax policies of Bush and Obama are unsustainable. Unless, of course, there is a major change in federal spending.

Encoaching Socialism

AN overseas holiday used to be thought of as a reward for a year’s hard work. Now Brussels has declared that tourism is a human right and pensioners, youths and those too poor to afford it should have their travel subsidised by the taxpayer.
Under the scheme, British pensioners could be given cut-price trips to Spain, while Greek teenagers could be taken around disused mills in Manchester to experience the cultural diversity of Europe.


It is amazing that things that were once thought of as luxuries or charatable become basic rights. Carnegie donated millions to build libraries around the country and now libraries have become one of the costs of government and a major public employer. I am waiting for legal aid, not just for criminal defense, but for initiating civil actions is an inherent right. And the right to a car. And a boat. And continuing education.

Government Caused Obesity

Reagan: "Government is not the solution to our problems, it is the problem." So, government supplied school lunches causes obesity. The government provides only 1 meal a day, or actually only 180 out of the 1,095 or so someone eats a year, and does this much destruction. And the solution, in the eyes of many, is more government regulation.

WASHINGTON – School lunches have been called many things, but a group of retired military officers is giving them a new label: national security threat.

That's not a reference to the mystery meat served up in the cafeteria line either. The retired officers are saying that school lunches have helped make the nation's young people so fat that fewer of them can meet the military's physical fitness standards, and recruitment is in jeopardy.

A new report being released Tuesday says more than 9 million young adults, or 27 percent of all Americans ages 17 to 24, are too overweight to join the military. Now, the officers are advocating for passage of a wide-ranging nutrition bill that aims to make the nation's school lunches healthier.

The officers' group, Mission: Readiness, was appearing on Capitol Hill on Tuesday with Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.

The military group acknowledges that other things keep young adults out of the armed services, such as a criminal record or the lack of a high school diploma. But weight problems that have worsened over the past 15 years are now the leading medical reason that recruits are rejected.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100420/ap_on_he_me/us_school_lunches_threat

Financial Meltdown

The financial disaster that hit in 2008 was decades in the making and should have been foreseen by the powers that be. Another indication that the errors of a Presidential administration often manifests years or decades later, long after the public remembers what caused the problems.

http://www.theconglomerate.org/2010/04/one-law-professor-who-did-see-it-coming.html

The cost of our income tax system

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XX8EswfGKQw

Interesting. Sounds about right.