Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Your Representatives, Your Choices, Your Fault

The House rejected extending the payroll tax-cut, and why because they insist it was not to their liking, it didn’t suit their preferences or sensibilities. Just another in a long line of partisan ready-made disagreements over which to demonstrate their vigorous support of the American public. The House Republicans have once again seized this position despite the fact that the public doesn’t support their position, their reasoning or their self-aggrandizing posturing on this minor issue. I don’t mean to put forth the Republicans as the singular pathetic and foolish members of Congress, they are simply the morons of the moment. I am sure that they will be displaced or joined by Democrats as they collectively stumble along seeking the next opportunity to show their addlepated incompetence.

But surely the logic of the House and its leadership makes sense and justifies their present unproductive resistance to progress. In examining the Republicans stance the public would, I am sure, rush to Congress’ defense as being exactly what the public would think Congress should be doing. This sympathy for Congress would be regardless of the persistence in poll after poll on Congressional effectiveness that the public generally reviles Congress and holds them in abject contempt.

The Republicans do not think that the payroll tax cut extension should only be extended two months. They want it extended for a year. Of course the Republicans want a few other things added. But extending the tax-cut two months is just unreasonable, because as they say: “It just kicks the can down the road.” Now you might question their logic on this point and I am sure that they have some compelling answer and rationale for this view. But really, rather than accepting a two month extension; their choice is to not extend it at all! Because if they extend it two months then they don’t get any future chance to present a plan that is more thought out and widely supported; except the one they could spend between now and two months from now justifying to the public. Well, perhaps their staffers might explain to them that in two months Congress will be presented with the same issue.

The Republicans are also insistent that the payroll tax-cut extension include a deadline for a Presidential decision on the Keystone pipeline. I suspect that the Republicans are under a tremendous amount of pressure from campaign contributors to get the pipeline approved. So leveraging the payroll tax-cut issue to help force in a comingled decision on this completely independent, unrelated and exceedingly more controversial issue is the type of disingenuous and duplicitous strategy that members of Congress have found so useful to force the public to accept something that they cannot secure on its own merits.

Americans may be disgusted with Congress, they may find them loathsome individually and collectively but they choose them and so have only their selves to blame. Instead of fighting over a minor, trivial and unproductive issue, like a two month extension; why don’t the Republicans do something positive? Why not demonstrate your intelligence and brilliant insight by putting forth a bill to fix Social Security? They could restore Medicare and Medicaid to fiscally sound programs. Why don’t they? Well, because just like the Democrats, they don’t know how. They all have their policy positions that they contend will solve these national problems, but their policies are as toothless, ineffective and misguided as they were when they set up the policies that got us here in the first place.

You picked them, and you are probably going to keep them. So when you think the country is going in the wrong direction, what the hell are you still doing sitting behind the steering wheel?

Monday, December 19, 2011

Kicking Cans or Not Kicking Cans – Congress’ Idea of Strategies

You have to wonder just how stupid the American voters are.  They elected the current collection of crackpots and kooks. And their opinion of Congress is that they don’t approve of their performance. And I don’t mean just a little bit don’t approve. The public doesn’t approve by an overwhelming majority so large that it is inconceivable that they could win a re-election if they were running against a brick or even unopposed. But as much as the public doesn’t approve of Congress, they will blame the failure, the stupidity, the incomprehensible ineptitude, and the disingenuous disregard for the nations’ interests on every other politician but their own. This of course is a reflection of the intellectual deficiency of the electorate. If Congress were seen as just slightly out of favored or regard then the odds would be perhaps good enough to let a large segment of the voters to be satisfied with their man/woman. However when the disaffection and dislike of Congress reaches the extremes of negativity that this Congress has achieved (never has the work ‘achieved’ been used in a context where its generally positive connotation is so inappropriate) there is such a small likelihood that their representative is not part of the tainting malodorous cancer on the legislative body that they have certainly elected from amongst their best and brightest; and that is absolutely a blight upon our nation.

This Congressional cesspool of closed-minded cretins has yet again managed to demonstrate their ineffectiveness in handling an issue that the majority of voters are clearly eager to have them support. The voters may or may not be right on the issue, but their politicians are fighting over the question of whether the issue should be addressed on a longer-term basis or just ‘kicked down the road’ a couple of months. The net result of their grand strategy is to ‘not kick the can at all’. Rather than vote for it or against it, they are voting to do nothing because they want to do it differently. Of course, they are not actually doing anything.

If Congress is satisfying only one in ten people then the voters should have a simple and obvious strategy that they should follow. Voters should tell pollsters, reporters, campaign supporters, candidates, and everyone that they can what they will do in the next election. If you want to get an effective and engaged Congress then you have to put people in office that are smart enough to take steps to address the nation’s problem. Voters cannot return representative who only engage in obstructionism for no better reason than that they are against the person or party that is proposing the legislative action.
The public is getting the rewards and results from Congress that they deserve. It may be true that Congress doesn’t have the intelligence of a brick, but how smart could the people be who put them there? Did you really think a brick was smarter, wiser and more competent than you? Do you really admire the accomplishments (if you can think of any) produced by Congress? If you think it’s all the fault of everyone else’s politicians but not yours, then I think the brick just out scored you on the intelligence test.

Sunday, December 18, 2011

A Pipeline for Christmas: Candy or Oil in Your Stocking?

The Keystone pipeline is another litmus test for the current American political system and more pointedly to the current members of Congress. Of course they are unlikely to understand the true nature of the test, since that would require them to comprehend the real problem before them. The Keystone pipeline issue is not a simple pro or con issue, it is not for jobs versus for environment question, it is not an energy independence or national security issue, and it is not a Republican versus Democratic issue. Now that is not to say that these factors don’t have significance, rather that those who are representing the interests of the citizens of the country should be assessing what best serves those they serve. These same representatives should not of course be looking for their best opportunity to do what politicians do best, look to their own self-interests and selling out to special interest groups.

The issue of the Keystone pipeline is a multi-facetted dilemma, including the items referenced above; it is a challenging and thorny problem for a legislative body to contend with. The chore for Congress is to not simply to vote for or against the pipeline, but to insure that they structure any approval in a manner that serves the public. Do any of the Congressional minions realize that their duty is to deal with establishing the legislative environment and legal conditions under which the pipeline, if approved, should be required to be built, operated and the really important part Congress doesn’t even appreciate is holding the industry fiscally accountable and liable for damages with guaranteed assurance that there is no escape from this responsibility. This is the responsibility and duty that Congress is neglecting in their quest for pandering to their respective special interest contributors.

Why is this a partisan or a bipartisan issue? If the pipeline will benefit America then it is worth doing. But Congress is not responsible for that benefit being that the pipeline serves the oil companies. The companies will do the pipeline if they can profit from it. It’s what companies do. But to benefit America, the pipeline has to let the oil companies not only make their profits but to do so without risking that the public is left saddled with the consequences of poor, risky and negligent actions by the companies that build and operate the pipeline.
This is the test for Congress, to serve the country and the people. This is where Congress fails. Congress does not look at issues, like the pipeline, through the lens of national interests. Instead, Congress lines their positions up based on a political philosophy that has nothing to do with understanding an issue but with wanting the country be their way they want. Nothing wrong with a vision of what you would like. But we should expect Congress to be ready and able to deal with issues and the reality of those issues, not with their own belief that reality will bend to their will. Congress makes the laws of the nation, but they are powerless to make the consequences of their laws affecting us all be what they want them to be. Just like everyone else, Congress and the nation will reap what they sow in our fields.

Thursday, December 15, 2011

We Want to Eat Our Cake, and Have It Too!

Members of Congress seem to understand polls, well some of the time. A recent poll evidently indicates that the vast majority of Americans support perpetuating the Obama Social Security payroll tax-cut. Wow! Isn’t it fortunate for these political heavy-weights to be able to find out that the nation’s wage earners are in favor of keeping more of their salaries? Obviously comprehending this fact is not something that anyone in Congress could have determined without a poll sample of the public.

It thus comes as no surprise that Congress is getting near to passing an end-of-year government funding bill that will include extending the payroll tax-cuts. I think that this really means that our Congressional representatives must have some staffers who were able to understand the poll and then (here was probably the hard part) explain it in terms clear (simple) enough for the Congress-men/women to be able to get it.
But here is the confusing part! A significant portion of these politicians are not able to make a similar connection between public opinion on the issue of increasing the tax-rate of millionaires. The new media seems to indicate that there are both Republicans and Democrats who oppose this view. The Democrats in opposition are significantly fewer than the Republicans who do. Perhaps their staffers have not bothered to explain this to these masters of the legislature.

It may not matter as long as the voters don’t translate their views of what is a fair, balanced, prudent and reasonable approach to help the country deal with the nation’s deficit. If the majority of American’s really believed that the tax system and Congress are treating the 1% more equally then the 99%, and the 0.1% even more equally then the 99.9%, and even more equally the 0.01% then the 99.99% isn’t there an clear and present option for this majority? Yes, but it is becoming clear that the same pool of intellectual competency that produces our politicians is the pool populated with the voting public. We don’t elect folks who are on the smart side of the scale.
If everyone who thinks the 1% should contribute a ‘more fair’ share were to make it absolutely clear that they will not vote for anyone who doesn’t understand that then the problem to Congressional obstruction is resolved. Come the election where will the resistance come from? Of course I will still be worried about the intelligence of the folks elected into Congress regardless of this issue. I don’t put much faith into the inept idiots who run for Congress for either party or on any issue. None of them has shown a aptitude for solving problems with Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, Defense spending, Homeland Security, the tax code, federal budget planning, …

Supreme Equal Justice, A Fool-Fight at the Court

Since both the Democrats and the Republicans think that their antithetical Supreme Court justice, respectively Thomas or Kagan, should recuse their self from the case; I am surprised that neither side has made the obvious recommendation. I suppose that neither side tends to think reasonably or logically, or at all for that matter; but really isn't it self-evident what should be done?

Maybe they could go on that "Do You Think You're Smarter" show and get inputs from some adolescents on how to handle this riddle: How do you get a rational and fair hearing without the potentially biased justices participation? This is truly a thorny conundrum. It would probably take the wisdom of a Solomon or an Oliver Wendell Homes jr. to find their way through this thicket. Of course it could be that it is really, really simple. That simplicity doesn’t prevent it from being beyond the ken of Democrats and Republicans, but they might stumble upon the answer if they recast the question to an even simpler context. They could ask themselves: “If we have two people with diametrically opposed perspectives, read this as die-hard fans of opposing teams, being asked to make a fair ruling on a sports situation that occurred between the two teams as members of a nine-person adjudication panel how do you resolve their conflicting inputs?”

Spoiler alert! If you haven't figured it out and don't want to know (you know just like the Republicans and Democrats) don't read any further.
Solution: When faced with the question of who should recuse themselves, the answer for Thomas and Kagan is - "Just-us". Each should be willing to recuse their self conditional on the other agreeing to recuse their self.  It’s a modified version of “You cut, I chose.”

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

An Unnatural Marriage in Congress over Medicare

Paul Ryan (R) and Ron Wyden (D) have formed an unholy alliance to corrupt American health care. I am surprised that a Republican would engage in such immoral anti-family value policies or that a Democrat would embrace a corporate subsidy program to the detriment of the public. I suppose these two men were tempted by the extreme liberal and the radical conservative views that they could fix the system that Congress created and have modified periodically to repair the defects that began to way it down. They have deceived themselves into thinking that they are proposing an innovative approach that will address all the concerns that permeate the political spectrum. Having succumb to this evil and misguided belief they are now out proselytizing to turn other upstanding and morally righteous members of Congress (or some close approximation thereof) to their debased lifestyle position.
This pseudo-fix for the Medicare system is of course a compromise which speaks well for both men as it demonstrates that they possess enough flexibility in their philosophical views to comprehend the merit of understanding a view other than one’s own. Further it shows that they are able to find the greater value in a common solution serving both views’ needs. But strive as they might, they came up with just another weak-minded approach based on a simplistic understanding of the issue. The solution is the old “let’s do both” and somehow this will fix it plan.
Why not step back and you know do something never done by Congress before: actually understand the problem, and design a solution that will correct the flawed aspects of the current Medicare system and include new features that will improve the American health care system? Now I wouldn’t actually expect them to do this, come up with the solution itself. They would have to have someone put together the new American health care policy for them, and then let them present it as their solution. If they don’t know where to find someone who can do this, some advice; don’t turn to special interest groups. They are blinded by their motivation to insure that they secure a large share of the budget. It’s not that the special interest groups can’t be involved, they should be used by the plan crafters to play one interest off against the other; but they cannot be in the lead.
Also, politicians should be excluded from providing the framework, the details or any aspect of the plan. Their role is more aligned with their capabilities. They would vote for or against it, but nothing more.

If this couple would pursue this life-style choice instead of the unnatural union they are practicing, they could save themselves from being that abomination to the nation: being nothing more than just another member of Congress.

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

A Honey of a Problem That Congress Can’t Solve

Foreign honey producers, read this China, are threatening the domestic US honey producers. The honey industry claims that China is dumping honey into the US market. The industry convinced Congress that China was dumping honey on us and decided to extricate the US from this threat by imposing a tariff on Chinese honey imports. So a decade ago the tariffs went into effect and “Ta-Da” the problem was solved. Well, not really solved but resolved in the manner that Congress usually fixes things. The problem moved and the threat remains. China and other exporting opportunists just routed the honey via other countries and sent it to America through these backdoor routes. But not to worry, Congress and government agencies supported US honey industry representatives to extend restrictions to nations engaging in this deception. Of course where there is money to be made there is a way; and China adapts to regain their revenues.

So the back and forth of block and evade continues with Congress’ supportive ineptitude in full swing.
But why doesn’t Congress take a different, an innovative, an effective, and an intelligent approach to dealing with this problem?

Is it because there is no better way to deal with the dumping problem? No, their effort to continue to react and improve their monitoring and curtailment of dumping is an implicit admission that they already believe there is a more effective way to stop the honey. So why then don’t our big, bold representatives shelve the century old approach for something that would not only solve the problem, but would provide an unassailable preventative method for Chinese or any countries’ dumping? The reason is simple, there is no one in Congress that can think outside the box (or perhaps even think inside the box).
What we have here ladies and gentlemen, friends and neighbor, fellow citizens is the phenomenon of ‘elected intelligence’: the presumption by our representatives that because they won their respective election that that win was evidence and assurance that they were adequately intelligent to deal with any issue. Some even come to believe that they are more intelligent than anyone else. I think we can all agree that they are simply just more intelligent than their constituency, which apparently is no strong recommendation for solving national issues.

If Congress really wanted to solve the problem rather than secure some contributions from special interest groups they would seek out someone who could show them how to deal with the problem instead of just dealing with the symptoms. They will still be faced with the test of intelligence problem, to recognize a better solution they have to be smart enough to recognize a better solution when it’s given to them. Their current endeavors do not promote much confidence in their ability to do even this.
Perhaps they could pay China to have someone over there tell them how to solve the problem. Although I am not sure anyone in China has seen the solution, since they should have proffered it already if they had.