Ken Nelson

Even Christie doesn’t go near far enough. We have too many teachers, earning too much, and with too large a lifetime benefits package.  How much has it gotten out of hand?

From 1970 to 2008, the student population increased 8 percent and the number of teachers 61 percent. The student-teacher ratio has fallen sharply, from 27-to-1 in 1955 to 15-to-1 in 2007.

End result…. test scores are IDENTICAL!

All of this is just guilt over other people taking your brats off your hands. Well, feel guilty, but I’d APPRECIATE IT if you would soothe your guilty pangs with YOUR OWN MONEY.

Addicted to other people’s money would be a more accurate headline.

And… what the heck was the stimulus supposed to be? Wasn’t it supposed to fix up our highways, bridges and other “shovel ready” projects?  If a trillion hasn’t, what would $50 billion do?

Obama wonders what he could do to promote job growth… how about NOTHING. JUST DO NOTHING. And to really perk things up, UNDO some of the crap he’s already done.

Not unexpected. Enough peer pressure will get to anyone. Now the “skeptic” wants to declare global warming a “a challenge humanity must confront” and, here is the unshocking shocker, tax YOU to confront it.

In a Guardian interview, he said he would finance investment through a tax on carbon emissions that would also raise $50bn to mitigate the effect of climate change, for example by building better sea defences, and $100bn for global healthcare.

Yeah, like that would a) help and b) not be raised infinitely, c) not hurt way more people than imaginary global warming ever would.  Dumb move Lomborg, but alas, not surprising.

Anyway, Bjorn… I’m sorry, but not surprised, to see you become just another shill spreading fear of global warming to pump up and fund policies you prefer.

May your Danish winters be colder than normal now.

Where corrupt fools go to work

I don’t want to raise taxes on those that already pay taxes. So where would I cut? I’ll start with a list of unneeded Government departments. Unless otherwise noted, these would be cut ENTIRELY:

Dept of Defense         -  $708 billion – I’d cut about $200 billion out. For a start.
Dept of HHHS             -  $81 billion
Dept of Transportation -  $79 billion  – I’d cut to level needed for air travel
Dept of Education   – $67 billion,  $100 billion in stimulus money
Dept of Housing      – $48 billion
Dept of Justice       – $29 billion – cut all outside funding of any other agencies
Dept of Energy       – $28 billion
Dept of Agriculture -  $26 billion
Dept of Labor         – $14 billion
Dept of Treasury    -  $14 billion  – I’d cut to 1/3rd present budget
Dept of Interior      – $12  billion (transfer lands to states)
Dept of Commerce – $9   billion
EPA                     – $10 billion  (I’d cut to less than a billion)
NASA                   – 19 billion    (I’d cut it all – sorry)
National Intelligence Program – undisclosed. Well, they would disclose it to me and then I’d cut it brutally. This is what happens to failures.
US Army Corp of Engineers – $4.9 billion  – I’d stop all new projects, only maintenance and correct fixes of what has already been built.

This represents all the Departments of the government. I’ve bravely cut stuff we don’t need, BUT I’ve ONY saved about $718 billion dollars.  Where is the rest of the money? We are $1.5 trillion in debt annually.

Well the department budgets do not include these spending items:

Medicare                           – $453 billion
Medicaid                           – $164 billion
Other Mandatory Programs – $571 billion

”Other”, it turns out, is things like Food Stamps, Unemployment, Supplemental Security for blind, Student Loans, and government retirement benefits (civilian and military)

I need another $700 billion in cuts to balance my budget. But… I’ll fudge a bit and suggest that my awesome discipline is causing the economy to grow as investors welcome my austerity with their money.  And some of my other costs, like interest and retirement costs are dropping because I’m borrowing less and have less employees to fund retirements for.

So I’ll set my goal at $500 billion.  Medicare isn’t going to go down, not a lick. Even if I contain costs it will grow based on demographics.

Medicaid.. I’ll cut that entirely and let the states handle it. $164 billion
I’ll then change Civil Service retirement benefits, get rid of Federal Food stamps, stop any kind of federal welfare spending and I’m at about $200 billion.

So I’m at $364 of me needed $500 billion.

And I’ll let economic grown eat that up, or maybe just inflate a bit cause I can.

Final notes. The above isn’t going to happen through a political process. But I hope I’ve shown just how hopeless it is to think that RAISING taxes would help either. Taxes would have to double or higher, and the resulting economic collapse wouldn’t fund much government.

What will happen, however, is that we won’t have the departments above, nor the mandatory spending above, because there won’t be a United States above. Oh there will be a US, but it will be a 1970’s Argentina. A land of rampant inflation, little job prospects, and cow towing to the whim of other countries.

Put another way… the piper will be paid.

My approach is difficult, sure, and it puts a lot on the states to make hard decisions too. But life ain’t easy. And I’d rather 50 local choices, some great, some bad, than one crappy national one. Grow up states – Sugar Uncle ain’t printing it no more!

We charge for this               but provide this

Intel CEO says it costs $1 BILLION extra to put a $4 billion dollar factory in the U.S. :

The rub: Ninety percent of that additional cost of a $4 billion factory is not labor but the cost to comply with taxes and regulations that other nations don’t impose.

In return for that extra money he then gets an ongoing fight with hostile state and federal governments, higher wage and labor costs, a zillion lawyers, and the 2nd highest corporate income tax rate in the world.

Gosh.. wonder where the jobs go?

 
Ponzi: Underachiever compared to our government

If the Wall Street Journal covers a question, it usually offers the info needed for the reader to make an answer. Not so this piece on the Social Security deficit.

Social Security officials project that beginning in 2014, the program will routinely pay out more in benefits than it collects in taxes, requiring it to draw on reserves that have been funding the rest of the government.

So how much money are we talking about?  For years the government has been wasting my FICA contributions instead of saving them for me.  I think the GOVERNMENT should cut back and focus on paying back what it owes me.  The funds are called “trust” funds.

Raising taxes so it can keep stealing from me hardly appeals. Nor would it be good for the economy.

Raising the retirement age is close to stealing.  And would also make job growth harder.

They’ve taken and squandered hundreds of thousands of my dollars – I want to know how they intend to pay me back.  And I don’t want it in inflated newly printed dollars. I want government to cut back on things less important than paying me back. And FYI.. that is most things it does.

What can you say?  They are so confident of their powers they aren’t even being subtle anymore.

$31,406 per household.

Did you pay that much? If not, you are a MOOCHER!

But no worries, almost half of that is debt that your kids will renege on.

News reports will say that Glen Beck “made” 32 million dollars last year.

ACTUALLY… his company had REVENUES of 32 million dollars. A tidy sum, but hardly what he ‘”made”.

And no matter how much he took home, the government took home more.

 
I’d raise taxes on 50 million people!

52 million tax returns in 2008 paid nothing. 50 million of those reported over $50K in income.

Doesn’t that seem wrong? Shouldn’t everybody pay something? And shouldn’t that something rise and fall with government spending?

 
Aerial shot of Kansas City schools

Between 1985 and 2003 Federal Judges took over Kansas City, Missouri and channeled 2 billion dollars to the school district. 

Not only did they double property taxes to pay this huge bill, but they imposed an income tax surcharge on everyone who lived or worked in the city.

…

Despite this massive effort, litigation failed either to improve the quality of education or to reduce racial isolation. Test scores continued to drop, and the percentage of minority students continued to rise. Eventually, black parents—who had long opposed the court’s heavy emphasis on "magnet schools" designed to draw whites into the school system—insisted upon a return to neighborhood schools.

Yesterday, the district voted a plan to shut down half their schools and fire 700 of their 3000 employees.

Why, exactly, do we think the Feds can run our health care any better?

Virginia will pass a budget that is SMALLER than 2006 – actually shrinking its spending:

But many Republicans believe that the budget crisis offers the long-awaited opportunity to pare down spending in a state that has taken on too much.

"There’s no question this is scaling back," said Del. M. Kirkland Cox (R-Colonial Heights). "I think some of it is structural and won’t come back."

Naturally the Washington Post and the Democrats whine that children will die:

Many Democrats believe that the state’s new spending priorities abandon its most vulnerable residents citizens, and will have an impact that could extend well beyond the current two-year budget cycle.

What they should have written was that “Democrats had unspoken fears about how many votes they would be able to buy in coming election cycles”.

I predict Virginia will do just fine and nobody will die. In fact, I suspect they could go to 2000 budget levels with nil effect on day to day life.

Good on you VA – Bob McConnell and Chris Christie might make a great 2012 ticket!

We borrowed money from China to pay for this fabulous piece of work

In World War II the nation borrowed so that we and the world could remain free from tyranny.

Last year we borrowed to fund bad art.

Time to stop that don’t you think?

I don’t like license plates. I don’t like vehicle registration. They are just money makers for the state and generally pains in the butt. What does a license plate do? It identifies the car. Does it identify the driver? No.  Does it prevent stolen cars? Nope. Just change the plates, about a 1 minute operation.

Just think about it… do you need a license plate? Do you use them? Who uses them? The Government!  Do they use them to help you?

The only thing license plates and registration stickers do is make money for the state, give police a reason to stop you, and in general cause you pains in the butt once a year times every vehicle you own. 

If I were Governor of Utah one of the things I’d love to get rid of is vehicle registration and the bureaucracy it creates.  I’d also eliminate license plates, but permit any store to sell Utah plates with random numbers on them for traveling in other states.

Some states, like Georgia, are buying automatic license plate readers that automatically scan license plates in parking lots or even while driving looking for hits on BOLOs and expired registration. They sell it as a theft aid:

Last October, Lt. Scott Burke of the Portsmouth, Va., Police Department said he took one of their new systems out for a test, and in 33 minutes got a "hit" on a sedan reported stolen in a carjacking.

But the real reason is so they can make money finding expired tags. And ultimately to track your movements.

We need to pay for roads, but with driving ubiquitous, road infrastructure should be paid for out of general taxation.

License plates pose a privacy and government intrusion risk – they should be eliminated.

25 years later the headline is finally right

I hope Obama is more like Ronald Reagan than Jimmy Carter.

Why?  Reagan was a good talker but was ineffective at changing the long term course of the country. Carter was a dope but managed to ruin foreign policy for us perhaps permanently.

I don’t like Ronald Reagan. I don’t idolize him. I think he was a good talker but ineffective. He compromised and set the nation on the path to ruin.

Reagan’s peak ineffectiveness came in 1986…

But Ken… he lowered tax rates. Well, sure, the rates might have been higher early in Reagan’s terms, but there were lots of deductions and loopholes. Only dopes paid the actual printed rate.

Then it all changed. 1986 came. A cruddy year. The Space Shuttle crashed and our income tax rates were cut along with most deductions/loopholes. Simplification.

He got rolled on this. They lowered the rates, and took away the deductions. But now they’ve raised the rates again, but where can you hide money now?  My financial guys show me things that make my eyes bleed they are so complicated and expensive.

Federal spending, as a percentage of GDP and debt as a percentage of GDP, have all risen dramatically since Reagan and 1986.

Also in 1986, Senator Alan Simpson, recently resurrected to further screw the country on Obama’s “don’t’ cut the deficit” panel, sponsored a bill to let illegal’s become citizens. Reagan signed it and with the stroke of a pen gave California and its 56+ electoral votes to the Democrats.

He got rolled again!  He’d already given government a path to more money. And then he ensured the people most likely to grow government would have the California Assembly and Governors office, as well as a much better shot at being President. We see the result now as we worry if California’s expected financial failure  will ruin just it, just its region, or the entire country.

1913’s income tax set up the long term ruin of the country. Ronald Reagan’s terms weren’t a speed bump on the way to ruination – they were  gas on a fire.

So the next time someone goes on about Reagan, tell them to shut the hell up, they don’t know what they are talking about.  A cult of personality isn’t endearing even if nominally conservative.