Okay then, the top 10% - anyone making over $114K - Uncle Sam will now take all of your taxable income. What? We're still $600 Billion short of the budget. Awesomesauce.
Maybe we should spend less money.
Here's where it has to come from to mean anything:
$732 Billion on Medicare, Medicaid and CHIP
$707 Billion on Social Security
$702 Billion on Defense and Security
$496 Billion on "Safety Net" Programs aka "giving money to people"
You know the old saying, "Why say no when it feels sooooo good to say yes?" Well, that saying was first uttered by a sappy, bleeding heart liberal. How do I know that? Because I am a conservative. And as a conservative I can tell you that nothing makes my lump of coal heart pump the oil that has replaced my blood faster than telling someone to take a hike.
I mean, sure, we'll tell you that we're concerned about the ever-increasing federal debt or personal responsibility, but what we really feel inside is unfettered glee at those two little letters squeezed together and passing over our lips: N-O.
Just try it. Say the word out loud. No.
Should we give money to companies that are failing?
No.
Should we expand the governments role in health care, ultimately leading to a government operated system?
NO.
Should we further throw the current budget out of whack by extending unemployment benefits despite the fact that we just passed pay-as-you-go legislation after which the president uttered these words: "Congress can only spend a dollar if it saves a dollar elsewhere."
No. NO. NO!
Didn't it feel good to say that out loud? I mean, in three little breaths we have just broken the hearts of big companies, people that are sick and people that have been out of work for a long time. Delicious, wouldn't you agree?
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell - I'm assuming he's saying no here. He practically can't keep the smile from erupting onto his otherwise very droopy face.
Buying the votes of citizens ain't got nothing on how it feels to kill their hopes and dreams.
Too long for a tweet, too short for a blog. What to do? I guess I'll just blog it real quick. Heck, most of y'all would probably love a quick read from me...
So, there's this Elena Kagan lady who is up for SCOTUS, and I'm having a little problem with something that came about in the hearing today. I thought I'd throw it out here for a couple, two-tree* of my readers to see if I'm crazy. So here (and several other spots) she says she will give proper deference to Congress and the laws it makes (I'm assuming in regard to her future decisions.)
To me, this may be the biggest problem (of many) facing my ability to feel comfortable with her on the bench. Deference has two definitions according to Webster: respect or esteem due a superior is the first. Affected regard for another's wishes is the second.
I believe the only deference should be given to the Constitution. The Congress is not superior to the Court. And the only wishes that should be regarded are those of the Constitution. If a law passed by Congress does not mesh with the supreme law of our land, then there is a problem. Oftentimes the wishes of the Congress (and perhaps even the people) do not line up with what is permitted in the Constitution. I'm not saying it's always black and white. In fact, it probably rarely is so. But I would rather she seek her decision with deference to the Constitution, not with deference to a bunch of lawmakers whose desires can change with the shifting political landscape.
Am I reading too much into this statement?
*couple, two-tree is my new Chicago phrase, basically means a couple: "Can I get a couple, two-tree Cokes?"
So, I've been inspired. There is a book that I find really entertaining called "Stuff White People Like" and a blog I also find really entertaining called "Stuff Christians Like." They're truly fantastic in their own way, and I'm sure one probably spawned the other. Well, I'm white and Christian, but what I also am is conservative. I don't know if a "Stuff Conservatives Like" exists or not. And I am not going to Google for fear that it does. But what I will do is throw down my own "Stuff Conservatives Like" post. Who knows, maybe it'll become a regularly occurring feature.
I just heard my brother mumble, "Yeah, right." He knows me so well.
So what is the first foray into "Stuff Conservatives Like"? How about:
USING THOMAS JEFFERSON QUOTES AS THEIR FACEBOOK STATUS.
Ever since the recent health care "reform" legislation was signed into law there has been a very vocal crowd on ye ol' book o' faces. I must confess to being part of that, but, man, have the quotes of dead people been flying around or what? I mean, you never see those of a more liberal slant pulling quotes off of Google and slapping them on their facebook status updates do you? Of course not, and I'll tell you why.
We conservatives are obviously heartless bastards who hate the poor, the sick, minorities and Michael Moore. But we can't just come out and say, "I'm a cold-hearted, half-reptile, half-man redneck who doesn't want to share." That would make it way too easy for us to be swept aside like crazy people. No, silly, we have to prove that long before us there were heartless bastards who made this country into the place it is today, where our uninsured are dying in the streets and our poor people only have a normal cell phone, not the kind with games and internet on it.
You see, a liberal doesn't have to look to the past. They're called progressives now. Get it? Progress. Progress is forward. If they look to the past that will just slow them down. Plus, why would you have to defend your stance as a liberal. You want everyone to have health care and big houses and college educations and a steady stream of disposable income to spend on unicorn rides. And you want it to magically appear out of the Lincoln Memorial.
Who wouldn't want that? Oh, that's right. Me and my puppy kicking, dream squashing friends. But you know what, I do want unicorn rides for all! But I run into this problem when I think about money pouring out of the Lincoln Memorial and floating in the reflection pool. I don't find it plausible. Well, and I've never seen a unicorn yet.
I'm pretty sure all the stuff everyone should have has to be paid for, somehow, though. And you know what else, I bet Thomas Jefferson spent a whole lot of time thinking about what kind of a country America could be. He probably thought about it even more than Joe Biden practices his salty sailor talk. Thomas Jefferson saw the opportunities and the inherent dangers with the type of country our founders were forming. He and others warned against what could happen once we turn to the government as providers rather than defenders of liberty. So, maybe it's okay to look back and quote him every now and then.
Of course, maybe we conservatives are just too brainwashed to formulate our own thoughts and opinions. We pretty much just listen to Fox News and Rush Limbaugh all day. I mean, when we're not snacking on kittens.
Today I received a letter from US Census Bureau. You probably received one, too. It read:
"Dear Resident:
About one week from now, you will receive a 2010 Census form in the mail. When you receive your form, please fill it out and mail it in promptly.
Your response is important. Results from the 2010 Census will be used to help each community get its fair share of government funds for highways, schools, health facilities and many other programs you and your neighbors need. Without a complete, accurate census, your community may not receive its fair share.
Thank you in advance for your help."
I don't know about you, but the term "fair share" pretty much makes me gag.And this form letter, though short, was nonetheless extremely gag inducing. Of course, I'm a guy that thinks government should provide for certain things like defending our country, keeping commonly used infrastructure in tact, protecting our rights and liberties, things that fall in the big picture category. When it comes to schools, health facilities and "programs", I'm generally not a big fan of Federal involvement.
But aside from that here's what makes me gag:
FAIR SHARE: I hate the word fair except in baseball. And unless we're talking baseball, who the heck can even know what is fair? Who decides what is fair? If I'm forced to use the word, I'd say that my fair share of the things the census is offering would mean that I would get a proportionate amount of the services to my taxes paid. But I'm willing to bet what is meant here is that if my neighborhood has a generally higher income level, they're going to put less resources into our "schools, health facilities and programs" because it wouldn't be "fair" to use our taxes in our neighborhood because we can just pay for stuff ourselves.
And seriously, who decides what is fair? Bureaucrats, that's who. And what's their motivation? Votes. Don't think for a second that most of the people in elected positions want what's best for our country. They want to stay employed.
SO WHAT'S FAIR, THEN?: Is it fair when we all have exactly the same amount of money? Is it fair when we all have the exact same amount of homes with the exact same amount of square footage and the exact same amount of food in the exact same fridge? There's no such thing as fair in this sense! It doesn't exist. I don't believe it exists in any sense. I'd like to say that fair is when we all have the same opportunities for success, but that doesn't and will never exist. Some people will be born into families that instill in them a work ethic. Some people will be born into families that let them do whatever they want with no accountability whatsoever. Some will be given up for adoption. Some will have no dads. Some will have the best parents. Some will have a lot of money and go to college for free. Some will have no money and have to work their way through school if they want a degree. But the thing that's great about our country is your guaranteed the opportunity to strive for success. And you'll have to overcome many things that aren't fair on the way to that success.
NEED!: Ugh. As if all that "fair share" talk wasn't enough to make me throw up in my mouth a little, they had to go say that we need the things that the great government will provide us our fair share of. Programs! Health facilities! Schools! Sure, we need hospitals. We need schools. But government acts as if they weren't there we'd just let our sick die and our kids grow up as uneducated imbeciles. And the programs...well, the programs have all done their "fair share" to cause people to be overly reliant on government. Does the government believe we'd let our needy go unattended to if they weren't around? I wouldn't and neither would the rest of the country. Have you seen our country's generous outpouring of help when other countries need help? How much more do you think we'd show up to help our own, but government has wretched that from our hands and now use it against those who need it to secure their vote. Peter King is a sports writer for SI.com. Most of you have probably never heard of him, but he met a soldier at a Cardinals baseball game once and a friendship between them grew. This soldier and his troops are headed to Afghanistan to start a remote base and Peter asked what he could do for them. The soldier said he'd like for his troops to have something to do in their downtime (lift weights, video games, nice TV, etc.) like they would have if they were on a more permanent base. So, Peter went to his readers and asked for $5 to be donated to a USO site that builds these type of rec areas at a cost of $20K each. His readers donated enough in one day to build that one and 4 more for other troops stationed in different areas. The average donation was over $25. We are a generous people at our cores and we don't need the government to do every little thing for us when we hit a tough spot.
I realize this post is a little ranty, but it's been that kind of day and I felt like typing hard. I'm not against paying taxes (though I am against the income tax, talk about not "fair", and I'm against the covert removal of taxes from our paychecks so that most of us don't even know what goes out the door), but I believe there are certain things the government should use those taxes for and certain things that are our own responsibility.
And I don't like it when the government dangles "fair share" and "need" in front of my face like a carrot to get me all excited about the Census.
Now I need to go, I hear my big white phone ringing.
Alright, y'all asked for it, so I'm going to give you my dos pesos on American Health Care.
...ok, so maybe nobody actually asked for it, but that doesn't mean I can't throw out my thoughts, right? This is America. Land of the free and all.
I'm going to take the health care issue from the first person. It's so easy to talk about health care when you are talking about someone else, like some dude from Delaware and his ailing grandmother or a man with a debilitating illness in Omaha. But what about where the rubber meets the road? What happens when I think about me being that grandmother?
Hmmm...actually, let's go with me being the man from Omaha, what say ye?
Do I have a right to health care? Say I'm sick. I have insurance, but it stopped covering my costs at about $10,000 for some reason. My health care will cost me $150,000 and I may or may not get better. I'm a middle class dude and the $150,000 bill will force me into bankruptcy.
Do I have a right, as an American, to have my illness treated without paying for it myself?
I must emphatically say "no" I do not have a right to health care.
"But your either broke or dead then!"
Yeah. Under the current system, that is true. But that still doesn't mean I have a right to health care. And you know why that is?
Because in order for me to obtain health care I have to take another American's life by force.
"What...?"
Yep. Let's talk about the doctor, the guy or gal that knows how to save my life or at least salvage it. How did she get the tools to do that?
She worked her tail off, that's how. She sacrificed her time (time I spent not becoming a doctor) to get great grades in college, get into med school, graduate med school, go through internships and residency and everything else and became a doctor.
So, if I sit here and claim a right to health care, I am claiming ownership over that doctor's life. I cannot make that claim as a freedom loving American. I cannot in good conscience say that her skills and abilities are something that I have a claim on.
I believe that doctors have worked harder, studied longer and are probably smarter than I am, therefore, I believe that they should make every dime that they can for the service they provide, and to say that I have a right to their service means that either they perform it for free or someone else is taxed (taking their time and life) to pay for my health care.
And that's essentially what claiming a right to health care boils down to for me. I mean, think about the things that truly are our rights: life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness.
The right to speak freely without fear of being punished by the government for that speech (but not necessarily speech without consequences). The right to bear arms (meaning the government isn't the only one with the guns aka "power of force".) And others, such as the right to face the witnesses against us in a trial, the right to not have excessive punishment levied upon us, etc. None of the rights we claim in our Constitution are also burdens upon other people, in effect stripping them of their rights.
Undoubtedly, there are many issues with the current system of health care in America, but this idea of a right to health care that keeps creeping up is something that really gets under my skin. I'll probably need to have another blog laying out what I would do for American health care if I were king of the world. In fact, I think I will, but for now I'll just start with a bit of a tease of topics I'll broach:
What has happened to charity in America? I promise this relates to health care.
Why is health care so expensive? If nobody (or only a very few) can afford health care, how can doctors and hospitals stay in business?
Are doctors making too much money? (But wait, I thought you just said that doctors deserve every dime they can make?)
The last time you went to the doctor, how much did it cost? I don't care what you paid. What was the cost?
On what planet does it make sense to have health insurance tied to employment?
Is health insurance really insurance?
There you have it, my foray into major issues on Come and Blog It. I don't claim to be the smartest man in the world (though I am the fastest and strongest), so critique away. But I do believe that no one will ever convince me that I have a claim on a service that can only be provided by another individual.
Today is a very busy work day for me, but interestingly enough I've gotten a second or two of downtime where I can't get to a meaningful account call nor can I move on to my next scheduled event.
So, as I'm caught between things, I thought it'd be fun to try something new: blogging from my Blackberry. So, hopefully this works out.
It's been said you can tell how popular a pastor is by how many people show up for church, but you can tell how popular God is by how many show for the prayer meeting.
That's the first thing that came to my mind as I voted in the Illinois 5th District special election to fill Rham Emmanuel's vacated Congressional seat.
I voted late in the day and was the 38th voter at my polling place. Later, I learned that the Democratic candidate Mike Quigley won the election with 70% of the vote.
Voter turnout was a paltry 9%.
Are you kidding me? Quigley is just another typical Chicago politician. He preaches change, but he's as wrapped up in the Chicago machine as anyone else.
I know that I live in a heavily Democrat populated area, but you can't tell me there aren't 25,000 Republicans in it. That's what it would've taken to defeat Quigley and push the contest to Rosanna Pulido, a true candidate of change.
Unfortunately the mantra of change is the pastor everyone loves, but actually showing up to vote, that's like going to the prayer meeting on Monday night. That's just a little too much committment.
6% of the population (70% of9%) chose who represents our district in Washington.
No wonder politicians think they can do anything. Nobody cares.
I've had a thought several times, but for some reason or another I just haven't put it out there yet, but basically it goes like this:
There are a lot of seriously unqualified people out there affecting people's lives.
Exhibit A: I was recently at the University of Illinois doing first-round interviews of students for our recruiting process.
Read into that what you will. The point is, I'm looking across the table at these kids, and I'm thinking, "I'm just a kid. What am I doing?" And I'm betting they're thinking, "Seriously? This guy's just a kid." I don't know. Maybe I don't look like a kid anymore, but although I'm almost out of my upper middle twenties, I don't know that I'll ever see my self as a real adult.
It was weird being on the other side of the table for a change. And you know what was the worst? I was nervous. Not as nervous as when I interviewed for jobs, but I still had a few butterflies in the basket, yet I was supposed to be "in charge." Why was I nervous to grill some kids on why they should come work for us? Who knows...?
Exhibit B: Congress.
Take a little trip through the bios of our Senators and Representatives if you've got time. Most of them have zero experience in the real world outside of politics. Sure they were smart enough to get into a great school, get a law degree or whatever, but why does that coupled with getting elected a few times all of the sudden give you the necessary experience to make decisions that affect the entire country and parts of the world? Seriously, just begin to peruse the bios of the people running this country and think about whether you'd hire these folks to manage a car wash for you, let alone decide how to confiscate and then spend billions upon billions of dollars.
Exhibit C: High School Coaches
I made several decisions and formulated several thoughts and ideas in high school based on information gathered from my high school coaches. Now, I'm not lumping every coach into this category. I know a lot of good ones who may even wind up being great ones. Coaches that I would have no problem teaching my future-as-of-yet-non-existent children things. Take my friend Zach for example. Great guy, I'm sure a great coach and one who really imparts valuable things to kids.
But many of my coaches didn't even want to be coaches. As I look back with "more grown-up" eyes. I can see that their intersection with my life was just a pit stop on the way to figuring out who they were. But there they were, teaching me how to block and tackle and hit like they were experts. There they were, giving advice on life and lessons on how to live as a young man as though they had perfected it. There they were, putting me and many others I'm sure in the wrong position because that was easier than taking the time to figure out where a young kid might be most successful down the road.
All of these examples, me included, are instances where one person or a group of people make important decisions and perform important tasks that affect other people's lives. I just don't believe people take that responsibility seriously enough. And I certainly don't believe that just because a person is in a position of authority that means they are qualified for said position of authority.
Growing up is weird. It changes my perspective. I'm not sure how I feel about that.
I decided about 5 minutes ago that I was done working for the day. I had a whole list of tasks to get done that I started at 8AM. I have accomplished all that I can for the day; I'm tired, so I decided to do the only thing that made sense to me.
Stop working and go play The Legend of Zelda on my Wii.
Oh, that's right...old school Nintendo on my shiny new toy. Stacie and I played Zelda last night until 11.30. Any of your wives play Nintendo with y'all until 11.30 at night? Didn't think so. I win.
Last night I mentioned that we needed to find Link's boomerang to which Stacie responded, "Who's Link?" Well, it turns out she's not alone in her lack of knowledge. A quick search of the world wide web will inform you that most people think the character you use in The Legend of Zelda is, in fact, Zelda. But Zelda is the princess you are trying to save from the Evil Gannon. I'm pretty sure you don't see her at all in the entire game, so it can be understandable why one might think Link is actually Zelda.
I wrote that last paragraph in order to prove to you the vastness of the knowledge bouncing around in my brain. You see, if I convince you that I am knowledgeable in completely useless things, hopefully you will count me as knowledgeable in very useful things. It's called building rapport with the audience. Each time I build rapport with you in this post, I will note it with an * so that you can pause and really appreciate the moment.
Obviously, I am not saving Princess Zelda right now. Zelda has been in need of saving since July of 1987* so I figure she can wait a few more minutes. A lot has happened over the past few days (such as the PlayStation cell phone being put on hold due to less than desirable technical quality*) and I feel like I should comment.
First, we inaugurated America's first not-completely-white President*. Yes that's a rapport building asterisk there because I'm pretty sure everyone thinks he is black. He is. But he is equally white. Truly a president for all!! Except the Hispanics...and Native Americans...and Asians. Did I pull everyone into my very inclusive circle there. Well, if your ethnicity was not listed this is for you "...and Other/Choose Not to Answer." Actually...that's what President Obama would have to check!
If I missed anybody, I'm pretty sure Joseph Lowery, who helped lead the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955*, covered them.
Someday, as a white, I hope to do what is right. Amen.
In related current events, President Bush must have felt lighter than air (to find the weight of air: m/V = p / RT = 101325 N/m2 * 1 m3 / (287 J/kg-K * 273.15 K) = 1.2925 kg/m3)* when he woke up Wednesday morning. The weight of the world ( 6,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 kilograms, though technically that is the mass of the earth because we get weight from the earth's gravity which obviously doesn't pull on itself)* was literally off of his shoulders. In the now 7.5 years following 9/11 he has done what he promised to do and ensured no terrorist attack took place on American soil under his watch. Everything else is debatable, but that one point is not. And for that and for his service I say thank you. I had the chance to meet and interact with President Bush once when he was the Governor of the Great State*. He's a good man. Much like I'm sure President Obama is a good man. To disagree with his policies and decisions is one thing, but to treat the man like a dog's turd is a whole other story. I trust that he did what he thought was right and what he thought was best for the country. I trust that Obama will do what he believes is right and best for the country. I'll probably disagree with him a lot, but I will never come close to showing him the disrespect President Bush was showered with daily and hopefully no one else will either. I wonder what a Bush presidency would've looked like if 9/11 never happened...
The Arizona Cardinals are going to the Super Bowl. I did not see that coming. The Cardinals last home playoff game was in 1947 in CHICAGO! And now they've won two home games and a road game and are on their way to Tampa. (Notice I did not put an asterisk next to that Cardinals tidbit because of the overkill that is Super Bowl hype I'm pretty sure most of you already knew that. But for those of you that didn't, add it to that big ol' stack of rapport I've got goin' on.)
I for one hope the Cardinals win. Not because I hate the Steelers with all the burning hotness of 10,000 suns (and I'm talking about the very hot center of the sun which reaches about 27,000,000 degrees F not the chilly 10,000 degree F surface of the sun.)* Okay that is part of the reason. I mean can you blame me. This happened:
But as a fan of a team that loses a lot (roughly a .348 winning percentage since 1991)* I feel like if the Cardinals can get it together, anything is possible. And Kurt Warner is a Renaissance man.
Let's see...PETA decided to rebrand fish as SeaKittens....hahahahahahaha...they hope this gets people to see fish as cute and cuddly not as food...hahahahahahahah....that might be the funniest thing ever. I mean, first they probably should've done SeaPuppies because I'm pretty sure the people that are getting up at 3AM, getting in their truck, going to the lake, boating to their favorite fishing hole and pulling out SeaKittens probably are dog people. Just a guess. They'd probably be okay with a few less cats...that's good stuff. Secondly, you can't just change a name. Shakespeare said it first, a rose by any other name*...
Well, kids, I've gotta jet. I'm taking my wife to see a play tonight. It's got Jeffrey Donovan from Burn Notice in it. If you don't watch Burn Notice, you should. It's kind of like MacGyver, but cooler and newer. New season starts tonight on USA.
I feel like I've built up some great rapport with you here today. We hit on some personal stuff, civil rights, math and science, video game history, and even literature. I'm a wealth of knowledge. Trust me.
America declared recess yesterday. And apparently we've been at recess since December of 2007!
But everyone is all like, "Oh no. We're in a recess." and "If we're not in a recess, we're not far from it." and "This recess is really going to hurt my business."
Remember when everyone wanted recess? I mean, in 7th grade once (when recess is supposed to start being a bad thing) we crawled out of the windows to go play Wall Ball and military style basketball when recess was finally offered.
Remember jungle gyms and swing sets and see-saws and football games and freeze tag? Recess is awesome. Why would America not want...hold on a sec.
What's that...? Recess-shun.
Recess-shun?
Same thing right?
No....
Hmmm.....oh....well that kind of changes this post a little.
So, apparently recess and recession are not the same thing. In fact, they are kind of the opposite. Recession is probably more similar with detention. Nobody wants it (except when Zack Morris kept trying to get it because Kelly Kapowski was going to be there.) It's not fun. And you just have to wait it out for 30 minutes to an hour. If this recession is longer than an hour I'm gonna be really pissed. I'm supposed to meet some friends after it to get a coke at Sonic and do the drag.
So, now that we've found ourselves in this detention hall called Recession, what should we do while we're here? Some people have decided to spend the whole hour scheming about how to get out sooner. They're offering bribes of about $750 billion to various school bullies in here with us thinking they can sneak everyone out.
But all that's done is gotten all the bullies in detention riled up and wanting in on the sneak out job. Plus they have to borrow that money from other people not in detention...it's a mess.
Personally, I say we just do our time. Let the clock tick and let's get out of here. But I get the feeling no one else in Recession hall agrees. It seems like everyone wants to find the easy way out. But the bottom line is we're in detention for a reason. Let's do the time and think about what we did wrong and promise never to do it again.
Oh, I forgot, that's called taking responsibility for our actions. People don't do that anymore.
Wait a minute. Two kids in here just agreed with me. One kid named Texas and one kid named South Carolina. Weird parents, I guess. Here's what they had to say:
"Governors Against State Bailouts Hard to believe, but not everyone in politics wants a free lunch. By RICK PERRY and MARK SANFORDposted in the Wall Street Journal
As governors and citizens, we've grown increasingly concerned over the past weeks as Washington has thrown bailout after bailout at the national economy with little to show for it. In the process, the federal government is not only burying future generations under mountains of debt. It is also taking our country in a very dangerous direction -- toward a "bailout mentality" where we look to government rather than ourselves for solutions. We're asking other governors from both sides of the political aisle to join with us in opposing further federal bailout intervention for three reasons. First, we're crossing the Rubicon with regard to debt.
One fact that's been continually glossed over in the bailout debate is that Washington doesn't have money in hand for any of these proposals. Every penny would be borrowed. Estimates for what the government is willing to spend on bailouts and stimulus efforts for this year reach as much as $7.7 trillion according to Bloomberg.com -- a full half of the United States' yearly economic output.
With all the zeroes in the numbers, it's no wonder Washington politicians have lost track.
That trillion-dollar figure is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to checks written by the federal government that it can't cash. Former U.S. Comptroller General David Walker puts our nation's total debt and unpaid promises, like Social Security, at roughly $52 trillion -- an invisible mortgage of $450,000 on every American household. Borrowing money to "solve" a problem created by too much debt seems odd. And as fiscally conservative Republicans, we take no pleasure in pointing out that many in our own party have been just as complicit in running up the tab as those on the political left.
Second, the bailout mentality threatens Americans' sense of personal responsibility.
In a free-market system, competition and one's own personal stake motivate people to do their best. In this process, the winners create wealth, jobs and new investment, while others go back to the drawing board better prepared to try again.
To an unprecedented degree, government is currently picking winners and losers in the private marketplace, and throwing good money after bad. A prudent investor takes money from low-yield investments and puts them in those that yield better returns. Recent government intervention is doing the opposite -- taking capital generated from productive activities and throwing it at enterprises that in many cases need to reorganize their business model.
Take for example the proposed Big Three auto-maker bailout. We think it's very telling that each of the three CEO's flew on their own private jets to Washington to ask for a taxpayer handout. No amount of taxpayer largess could fix a business culture so fundamentally flawed.
Third, we'd ask the federal government to stop believing it has all the answers.
Our Founding Fathers were clear and deliberate in setting up a system whereby the federal government would only step in for that which states cannot do themselves. An expansionist federal government of the last century has moved us light-years away from that model, but it doesn't mean that Congress can't learn from states that are coming up with solutions that work.
In Texas and South Carolina, we've focused on improving "soil conditions" for businesses by cutting taxes, reforming our legal system and our workers' compensation system. We'd humbly suggest that Congress take a page from those playbooks by focusing on targeted tax relief paid for by cutting spending, not by borrowing.
In the rush to do "something" to help, federal leaders would be wise to take a line from the Hippocratic Oath, and pledge to do no (more) harm to our country's finances. We can weather this storm if we commit to fiscal prudence and hold true to the values of individual freedom and responsibility that made our nation great.
Mr. Perry, a Republican, is the governor of Texas. Mr. Sanford, a Republican, is the governor of South Carolina."
I kinda like these kids, Texas and South Carolina. Maybe we'll finally start to wait this little setback out after all. And while we're in here maybe we can catch up on some schoolwork and learn how to not get sent here again.
But until then, I'm gonna go see if I can find Kelly. I heard she got framed so she'd have to serve detention with us and she's rockin' some awesome early '9os flowery pants...yowza.
Not yet even inaugurated and the Obama Administration has already affected my life in a negative way.
I've read plenty this morning touting the historical significance of the moment and how whether we agree with Obama's policies or not, his administration could be a good thing for the country. Well, since I was probably the first person to be touched in a personal way, I feel I must share.
You may have noticed last night that there was a huge rally for Obama in Grant Park in downtown Chicago. You may have also noticed that I live in Chicago. You may have also noticed that yesterday was a Tuesday. And it might also have come to your attention in previous posts that I play flag football on Tuesday nights.
You see where I'm going here?
I lost my football game last night.
Big time.
Obama had the audacity (see how I flipped it on him) to schedule his big rally on a Tuesday night in Chicago and managed to swipe several of my fellow football players to come "support" him. As if he needed more support. You know what I needed? More football players!!
So what did I do? I grabbed a couple of guys I'd never met before who had just finished up a game and practically begged them to help us have enough people to field a team.
Mr. Obama, I laid down my dignity in an effort to win a football game because of you.
Have you ever tried to win a flag football game with your own team let alone a hodgepodge group?
Well, I tried. We were out of sync. We couldn't protect the quarterback. We couldn't cover their receivers.
Sure you could blame this on our athletic ability or the fact that we don't have a great playbook.
But why take responsibility for this loss myself when I know good and well that the President of the United States is supposed to do everything in his power to ensure I am successful.
And that would include moving his rally to Wednesday night. Or maybe even doing it earlier in the day to get it out of the way. We all knew who was gonna win this thing anyway. Get your celebratin' done so I can have a full team!
I write blogs about Texas. I write them often as if she's some old lover I used to know...
Well, I write about more than just Texas, but this title fits. I am a Texan living in Chicago, having fun but missing home.
