Sunday, November 23, 2014

Dysfunction on Display

I haven't written many Blogs lately because of my disdain for the direction of politics in this country. Watching the Sunday morning talk shows after Obama's executive order this week, it is clear that we are heading for two years of total dysfunction in Washington. It's been a long time since I have seen such alienation between the two political parties.

What infuriates me is Obama's rush to take this action. Let's look at the history:  During his first two years Obama had full control of both houses of Congress and could have passed any immigration bill he wanted - they did nothing.  Over a year ago the Senate passed an immigration bill with bipartisan support which included about ten Republican senators and the bill was sent to the House - they did nothing. One reason could be retaliation for the over 300 bills sent to the Senate that died on Harry Reid's desk without any discussion or chance of a vote. But all of that is now history.


This last election will now give the Republicans control of both the House and the Senate beginning in January and was a stunning defeat for the president and his administration. You would think that would result in some soul searching and move toward reconciliation.

Just think how the tone in Washington might be if Obama had called in the Republican leadership after the election, given them a copy of his proposed Executive Order on Immigration and said to them; "Look I want to work with you on this immigration issue and would prefer a permanent legislative solution. Here is my proposed executive order on immigration and I will not make any decision on it until March of 2015. Hopefully we can all agree on a law along these lines that would be acceptable to both parties, if not I will execute this order at the end of March".  After six years of no action by both sides, why not a few more months with at least an effort to get DC working again the way the Founders envisioned.

But Obama rushed this executive order through with the arrogance and childish behavior of a spoiled brat that just got his ass kicked and decided "I will show you", and in the process has now poisoned the well of politics. Both sides share the blame here but Obama takes a good bit of it; after all isn't the job of a true leader to figure out how to get two opposing sides of an issue to come together. Obama continues to prove that he is the most feckless president this country has produced in a long time.


Friday, March 28, 2014

"The empty suit"

During my 35 year career I was President of three different companies; one of them my own. I had many very competent managers during those years; in fact they were the reason for my success. But I also had some incompetent managers along the way and looking back they all seemed to have two things in common when there were problems -  they pointed fingers at others or they became "experts" at coming up with excuses; they rarely stepped forward, took responsibly, and told me "they screwed up and would correct the problem".

Sadly this pattern of behavior is being played out on our national stage by people that we elected to represent us and work for the good of this country. The Obama administration is one long series of excuses and blame on others without any admission of "I screwed up and will correct the problem".  To list the endless excuses and attempts to blame others would be too much for this Blog and most readers know what they are, but Obamacare has managed to take center stage.

In the private sector business world if you screw up repeatedly, you are gone. That motivation is probably why the private sector is so much more successful that the public sector. No one in the government can be fired. If you were a CEO of a major insurance company how long would you have kept Kathleen Sebelius managing your new, great national insurance care program? In the private sector she would have been on the street back in November. Obamacare has had so many revisions, delays, and changes that no one even knows what the law is all about anymore.

Sooner or later incompetence throughout any organization falls back on its leader and I believe if you look at Obamacare, our economy, our Foreign Policy and the myriad of new regulations strangling our society, we have a leader in this country who with his "golden oratory" epitomizes the definition of an "empty suit".

Saturday, February 1, 2014

"Income Inequality"



The issue the Democrats intend to push forward as we approach the 2014 elections in November is “Income Inequality”.  It is the old theme of their party – class warfare – rich vs poor, meant to appeal to their base. Obama in his State of the Union speech echoed this theme time and again – raise the minimum wage, extend unemployment benefits, make the rich pay their fair share etc., etc. Much of this rhetoric is also designed to take attention away from Obamacare which so far has been an unmitigated disaster that some predict will have a significant negative impact on the economy.

We believe this “class warfare” theme is getting old after five years of passing blame and I think the public is realizing it is getting old. There will always be income inequality – some people making low wages are just starting their careers, some lack education, some lack skills, some are just not as smart as others, and some just lack the ambition to work hard and try to “climb the ladder”.  The Republican Party has always had a different view of the reasons for income inequality; people need an economy that creates JOBS. The real income inequality are the long term unemployed Americans who now have no income whatsoever.  The policies under the Obama administration have created an entitlement society that will be difficult to change; almost 50 million people on food stamps and almost half of Americans receiving some type of assistance from the government. These policies are also resulting in a national debt that may be difficult to recover from. 

Our welfare system in many cases makes it more profitable to not work. I listened to a radio interview recently with an anonymous person whose was on welfare (she was white by the way). Her attitude was; "If you were me, would you work?" She lived with her husband in a $600/month apartment, they paid $50 of their rent, and the government subsidized the remaining $550. They received $497/ month in food stamps. They received a $100 credit on their utility bill. They received $800 a month in welfare. And they had a cell phone program worth $100 month provided by the government. With the rent subsidy this amounted to an income of $2047 month or $24,564/year.  She was honest during the interview and also admitted her husband did odd jobs for cash. At the end of the interview she was asked if she would work if she had to; her answer: "Yes if I had to, but would you work if you had this income for free?  I get to sleep late, visit with my friends, and do whatever I want each day"  

These Democratic "inequality arguments" are difficult to deal with, because they always include an anecdote about "Little Billy whose parents can't find work and they are starving". And this argument works, and secures a large segment of the vote each election; after all, why not vote for the party that gives you “free stuff”. But the country needs to get back to the basic philosophy of our founding fathers: equal opportunity for everyone, not equal outcomes for everyone. Most people want to work, it's in our DNA, and a thriving economy that creates jobs will do more toward solving “income inequality” than anything else.