Unemployment

The federal government Has put an end to the extended benefits the long term unemployed receive.  Most states issue unemployment benefits for 26 weeks any extension beyond those weeks was picked up by the federal government. While the timing is not the best being around the Christmas holiday I can only say it's about time. I know it makes me sound cruel but the truth is people need a deadline as incentive to find work.. This is true because many of the unemployed are going to need to find work in different fields and change is hard and probably financially painful. The other reason that more than 26 weeks of unemployment are detrimental is the damage it does to the recipients. People who are off for this long tend to have work skills that are severely diminished. I also believe the financial pain is more than made up for by pride that comes from actually earning a living instead of just drawing a check. Self confidence and self respect are the biggest casualties of losing a job and unemployment benefits can do nothing about either confidence or respect.

Quote

The two enemies of the people are criminals and the government we must chain down the second with the constitution so that it doesn't become a legalized version of the first. Thomas Jefferson

Even if the government and those that govern aren't stealing for their selves they are definitely stealing to fund there ideologies.

Jugs

Substitute jugs for one million people, so in the U.S. there is three hundred jugs. Two hundred and sixty jugs have milk in them, twenty jugs are perfectly happy empty. In order to put milk in the forty jugs even though twenty are happy empty we add anti freeze to the 260 jugs and put spoiled milk in the 40 jugs. This is Obamacare in a nutshell fix  something badly for less than ten percent of the people by destroying it for the rest.

Enough is Enough

A poll this past week shows that a majority of Americans believe every single congressman and senator should be voted out of office. I don't believe this will ever happen we tend to think that our senator or congressman is all right that it is all the other representitives that are bad. That is why it is so hard to vote out an incumbent. It's obvious that the shut down of the federal government is driving this animosity towards Washington and elected officials in general.

This may be the best worst thing that President Obama has done, though probably unintentionally. Obama's handling of this shut down truly shows the heavy handedness of our government. He has gone out of his way to make this as painful as possible to those of us that government views as subjects. This can especially be seen in the way that people have been treated at and around our National Parks, roads closed to obscure viewing,people put out of their homes,park rangers acting more like thugs than public servants. The stories are enough to almost make me lose hope in our republic. So why is this the best thing Obama has done because sometimes we need pushed to make meaningful change and his actions show the true nature of our elected officials. We have let the system evolve to a place where staying in power is the only concern of our leaders and the good of the country comes second.

I'm not usually an alarmist but I could see this getting very ugly very fast without some kind of resolution. I don't mean opening the government back up or a fiscal deal. I think we are at a point where we need some kind of constitutional convention to reassert power for the people of the United States and not for our elected officials and their appointees. I believe one of the first steps should be to remove all pensions for elected officials and their appointees. This would aid our economy and put their jobs back to a part time or temporary nature.

ACA

This past week Jimmy Kimmel did a man on the street bit that asked people what they like better the Affordable Care Act or Obamacare. A large number of people liked the ACA and hated Obamacare. Naturally people have been commenting on the intelligence of our country because everyone should know they are the same thing.

It got me to thinking maybe they are not the same thing, oh I know they are just different names for the same law but are they described the same. The ACA is generally described as cost cutting way to care for everyone rich or poor. While Obamacare is described by all it's faults and unintended consequences.

So while it doesn't speak to the intelligence of Kimmel's victims it does speak to what people want. We want health care to be caring and affordable and Obamacare does neither.

Husband and Wife

I have been married for almost 33 years and have learned a few things along the way. One of those things is that each of us has strengths and weaknesses. There are roles that we have developed over the years based on our abilities and personalities. Our roles may not be the same as every couple but I think all couples develop roles that fit their lives and skills.

So why do people think that anointing Hillary Clinton as the heir apparent to Barack Obama is a good idea. I understand that some people think Bill Clinton was a great president but that certainly doesn't mean Hillary will be his equal. The reason I bring this up is that Hillary's biggest accomplishment in life thus far is being married to Bill and that is not telling us how she would lead.

Well 2016 is still 3years away maybe we will actually get candidates with experience this next time around.

Minimum wage

This past week there has been strikes and conversations about the proper minimum wage. In Chicago the fast food strikers were demanding 15 dollars an hour. In Washington they are talking about a living wage. Many speak about the impossibility of raising a family on 7.25 an hour.

So what does it all mean I have no problem with workers wanting more this is only natural. I think everyone has a right to better their lot in life. We all would like to see poverty eliminated but is a rise in minimum wage the way to do it.

First off let's throw out the idea of paying someone more because they have kids or a mortgage. Pay is based in general on 2 things, the value the job provides the company and the abilities and competence of the worker. Need is never an issue with pay the company that pays  based on need is not going to thrive. Need is only an issue for the employee and if you need more get educated learn a trade, make yourself stand out. Entry level jobs are just that jobs that almost anyone can do which makes it hard to justify higher wages.If you are competent you will rise within the company or move on to a better job elsewhere.

The idea that minimum wage should be a living wage or 15.dollars an hour is pure lunacy. What would happen in reality if these type of wages were implemented is highly inflationary. Not because a burger would have go up in price but because things are all tied together. If minimum wage is raised significantly what would happen to other wages. A person that is already making 15 dollars would then want 20 the twenty dollar an hour guy would want 25 and so on. Prices would rise in step with wages and 15 dollars an hour would still be rock bottom and ends would still be hard to meet.

In short life is always going to be hard for people who have limited education or skill sets. So stay in school learn as much as you can so you can move beyond what is meant to be a starter job.

President Obama

President Obama is normally spoken of a a smart guy even brilliant by some even if we disagree with his policies. I think this is why some of the goofballs  will say he is trying to destroy the economy or the U.S. because he is too smart to do it by accident. So a statement he made this week has me thinking, he accused the republicans of acting like deadbeats for not raising the debt ceiling without demanding spending cuts. Now either he doesn't understand what deadbeat is or he has a different definition then I do. A deadbeat is someone who has no intention of paying back a debt. Which is pretty much what continually raising the debt ceiling amounts to. So how can demanding cuts in spending be the act of a deadbeat?

I won't go so far as to say that president Obama is stupid but I think he says things without thinking sometimes.

George Zimmerman

It's been a week since George Zimmerman was found not guilty.After thinking about the many things that have been said about the case here are some thoughts. First not guilty does not mean innocent Zimmerman will have to live with some of the decisions he made that night for the rest of his life.The big mistake people keep talking about is getting out of the car and following Treyvon after the police told him not to follow. It's kind of easy to condemn Zimmerman for disobeying the police unless you have ever reported a burglary. Normal police response is not like on T.V. we reported the theft of some items from my son's car when he lived at home so we have seen real police work. They basically told us that all they were doing was making a list for the insurance company this was when we pointed out that it was probably the kids who live three doors down. Unless it is a major crime they really don't investigate. So Zimmerman probably figured he could sit in the car and let his neighborhood be burglarized  again or he could do something about it. I'm not saying it wasn't a mistake I just understand his decision.

My second thought is about the people most culpable for the death of Treyvon his parents. I know this sounds cruel after all their son is dead and I'm sure they are grieving However what kind of parent let's their children wander the streets after dark remember this was not his usual neighborhood. Especially when they are suspended from school after being found with stolen jewelry in his backpack. Kids are going to get in trouble from time to time that's why parents are there to set curfews and guidelines to limit their exposure. Treyvon didn't deserve to die but he was no innocent little boy this was a kid that needed some very firm guidelines to straighten him out. It seems like his parents failed him on this issue. The school system didn't help Treyvon much either because at least two of the suspensions should have been handled by the police. The school opted to handle it themselves to make the school look better, calling the police reflects on your state rankings,can't have that. Handled correctly his last suspension probably would have landed him in Juvenal detention where not only would he be alive but maybe he could have learned about consequences before the consequences killed him.

Obamacare

This past week there have been several news columns accusing Republicans of being afraid that the affordable health care act would succeed. The reasoning goes like this with the healthcare reform moving through implementation all the vitriol must be because people see it working and are afraid of voter backlash.

First off lets define some of what was being fixed in our health care system. I believe there were two issues driving the health care debate from the beginning one was the number of uninsured people and two was the cost. At the start of the debate it was said that there were approximately 40 million uninsured of course many were young and healthy and didn't really care one way or the other about having insurance. this 40 million represents about 13 percent of the population so while it seems like a large number it is a rather small percentage. The second part of the equation was expense and I don't think anyone would argue that health care was cheap or is cheap.

So where are we today there are still many people without insurance and many estimates say we will have millions of uninsured even after full implementation. I can't speak for everyone but every year since the initial passage of Obamacare my health insurance premiums have gone up and the coverage has gone down.So less affordable and still people that are uninsured. We aren't afraid of success we would welcome that because we can see that it is all ready a failure.

Rarionalization

This week on the Tom Sullivan show they were talking about food stamps the usual back and forth ensued. Until this woman called who was raising all kinds of sympathy for the food stamp program. She was a single mom with an autistic son struggling to meet all her and her sons needs.She had me up until the end of the conversation when she said she had quit her job and couldn't understand why her ex husband wouldn't just give her a couple of hundred dollars extra each month.

I don't know all the woman's circumstances but it raises all kinds of questions. Like when did we become a nation that expects everyone else to take care of us.Even questions about divorce have we made it too easy to walk away from responsibilities that should be shared.

In any case I believe we need to be careful about  government intervention that keeps families from turn together. Every program whether it is food stamps or cheep housing or easy divorce can be viewed as a safety net or a trap that allows us to make foolish decisions. Working without a net can lead people to lead a more cautious and maybe smarter life.

Spending

Last fall as a group of us at work were eating lunch outside a road crew came by filling potholes. Three guys were on the crew one driving the truck the other two were shoveling asphalt patch and patting it down in the holes.  We commented to ourselves that it didn't look like they were doing a job that would last. Sure enough as spring rolled around the holes were bigger and deeper. The one hole became especially large 4 feet long by 18inches wide and down to the original brick road surface. After the towmotor got stuck in it last week the boss went to Home Depot and bought a few bags of asphalt patch. In about ten minutes he had the worst holes filled and packed down so it might last, time will tell.

So what does this have to do with spending. Actually I'm not sure but it does show the wasteful nature of government. The road crew was probably making in excess of 20 dollars a piece not counting administration and benefits that is sixty dollars an hour for the three man crew. To make matters worse they didn't even do a good job. The boss spent around twenty bucks and did a superior job.

I believe this is why there is so much waste in government, not that all government workers do shoddy work. It is more than that it is built in inefficiencies, excessive administrative costs, pensions that are overly generous and tax payer funded, workers that display a level of entitlement that leads to lackluster performance.

Contrast that with my employer he cannot afford do the job wrong and pay for it over and over again. We don't often get the opportunity to see side by side projects done both publicly and privately and there outcomes. People take for granted that things must be done by the government when sometimes a job can be done better and cheaper by private individuals.

Now I know that not everybody can or should be fixing there own roads but many of the things we expect of government could probably be outsourced to private companies and be done better and cheaper. States and cities are moving towards this slowly at least half the cities in northern Ohio no longer pick-up their own trash either they contract with a trash hauler or the leave it up to the individuals to contract their own trash removal.

We need to get back to the idea that we only ask the government to do the things we absolutely can't do for ourselves.  I believe if were honest with ourselves the list of thing we honestly need the government to do is a pretty short list. A list that has been expanded to encompass many things that are just nice to have done for us.

St. Patrick's Day

Celebrated day
So I'll be donning my green
Happy St. Patty's

How to make decisions

Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio who many people thought might be Romney's running mate has come out this week in favor of Same sex marriage. Whatever your position on this issue this is what's wrong with American political leaders. Not because I am opposed to SSM but because of Portman's reasoning. Portman changed his life long views on marriage because his son told him he is gay.

Many of the people who settled in the U.S. and became our founding fathers left Europe to avoid oppression. When setting up the government and writing the constitution they wished to keep the law makers from making laws that do not apply them as well as us, no ruling class. Sadly we see the exact opposite all the time political leaders talking down to constituents and receiving special privileges.

So why is this relevant to Portman's decision because his reasoning is based only on how it is going to effect him and his family. Until we get back to the idea that governments job is to do whats best for the country we will have gridlock and distrust. As it stands today much legislation is passed solely for the purpose of getting re-elected and not for the good of the country.

Freedom

Recently we have been having a national debate about gun control. Before that it was a conversation about free speech when the Supreme court decided corporations were protected by the first amendment. We all have our reasons for proposing restrictions or the lack there of on guns or speech but we should always keep freedom in mind.

When the constitution was written there was much debate on whether or not the states would adopt it as law of the land. Realizing that it was an uphill battle the Bill of Rights were added to make it more palatable. The Bill of Rights however aren't so much about rights they are really the guarantor of our freedom. As you read them you can sense the distrust of government and the wish to reign it in and keep it reigned in. A free press,guns and other limitations on government are the only things that enable us to keep our freedoms.

I'm not a big one for quotes but I think Daniel Webster said it particularly well, "It is hardly too strong to say that the Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions...There are men, in all ages...who mean to govern well.but they mean to govern. They promise to be kind masters but they mean to be masters... They think there need be little restraint upon themselves...The love of power may sink to deep in their own hearts." The quote is from a speech defending the Constitution and is part of the preface in a pocket copy of the U.S. Constitution.

Liar or Fool

President Obama in his State of the Union address made many proposals more infrastructure spending ,free preschool for all and many others. Now not all of them were spending proposals  such as his plea for more gun control but most would cost something. He urged the Republicans to get on board and support his plans for the country stating that he figured out how to do all these things without increasing the deficit.

Now we could debate the merits of each individual proposal but we can't make things up. When you have this many new programs and you haven't been able to balance the budget before this how are we supposed to believe that all of a sudden the deficit will remain unchanged.

I call BS either he is a liar or a fool or thinks the American people are fools.

Women in the military

Women have been serving and dying in support roles for our military going all the way back to our countries founding. My question isn't whether or not they can do the job on the front lines but if they should. I may be old fashioned saying this but it seems society is healthier when it puts a premium on protecting women. I believe this attitude promotes respect for women and what they mean and do for society.

Will we be looking at this as a victory for women in ten years only time will tell but I doubt it.

What

Reading the paper Saturday morning I came across an article that made me say What!. In the article Congresswoman Marcia Fudge of Cleveland is railing against GOP congress members.This quote really got me she said "They don't understand it's governments job to take care of the people". Maybe this is the key difference between liberals and conservatives because I sure don't believe I need the government taking care of me. Now there are certain functions the government takes on that are necessary roads,police, the military and such for keeping us free from anarchy.

I sure don't think most people want Mommy and Daddy government that the liberals propose not if they truly think about it.