The problem with our leaders in government

[maxiep]

Agree or not with the premise, but it is a provocative editorial. Personally, I think it's time for some new thinking, not only in Washington, but in state governments across the land.

The populace was right to throw the Republican bums out of office in such dramatic fashion in 2006 and 2008. Unfortunately, the Democratic bums have shown to be even worse, more profligate and more corrupt. It's time for them all to go.

I used to not be in favor of term limits. I will generally err on the side of freedom above all else. However, the advantages for the incumbent have become so massive as to make term limits necessary. We have them for our President and for many state positions, so why not the Congress?

Having spent a good chunk of my life literally inside the Beltway, I can attest to the strange terrarium it is. It's this echo chamber of justification. You find it strangely easy to justify supporting a multi-billion dollar program if it creates a need for the GSA to lease 10,000 sf of office space in your district of if someone writes you a check. Numbers become completely abstract.

I can recall moving to NYC from DC and my first thought when I would work on equity or debt issues was how much work we were doing for such small amounts of money. In the private sector, a deal in eight figures can make or break a career. In government, it's a rounding error. Falling into that mindset is shockingly easy, especially once you've decided to make your career in the public sector.

Ms. Noonan doesn't address a solution in her article, but she beautifully describes the problem facing all of us. Term limits are my prescription. I think the lack of imagination can best be solved by new thinking from new blood, and people who know that legislating shouldn't be a career, but a public service interlude. Here's the link: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703363704574503631430926354.html

We're Governed by Callous Children: Americans feel increasingly disheartened, and our leaders don't even notice

By PEGGY NOONAN

The new economic statistics put growth at a healthy 3.5% for the third quarter. We should be dancing in the streets. No one is, because no one has any faith in these numbers. Waves of money are sloshing through the system, creating a false rising tide that lifts all boats for the moment. The tide will recede. The boats aren't rising, they're bobbing, and will settle. No one believes the bad time is over. No one thinks we're entering a new age of abundance. No one thinks it will ever be the same as before 2008. Economists, statisticians, forecasters and market specialists will argue about what the new numbers mean, but no one believes them, either. Among the things swept away in 2008 was public confidence in the experts. The experts missed the crash. They'll miss the meaning of this moment, too.

The biggest threat to America right now is not government spending, huge deficits, foreign ownership of our debt, world terrorism, two wars, potential epidemics or nuts with nukes. The biggest long-term threat is that people are becoming and have become disheartened, that this condition is reaching critical mass, and that it afflicts most broadly and deeply those members of the American leadership class who are not in Washington, most especially those in business.

It is a story in two parts. The first: "They do not think they can make it better."

I talked this week with a guy from Big Pharma, which we used to call "the drug companies" until we decided that didn't sound menacing enough. He is middle-aged, works in a significant position, and our conversation turned to the last great recession, in the late mid- to late 1970s and early '80s. We talked about how, in terms of numbers, that recession was in some ways worse than the one we're experiencing now. Interest rates were over 20%, and inflation and unemployment hit double digits. America was in what might be called a functional depression, yet there was still a prevalent feeling of hope. Here's why. Everyone thought they could figure a way through. We knew we could find a path through the mess. In 1982 there were people saying, "If only we get rid of this guy Reagan, we can make it better!" Others said, "If we follow Reagan, he'll squeeze out inflation and lower taxes and we'll be America again, we'll be acting like Americans again." Everyone had a path through.

Now they don't. The most sophisticated Americans, experienced in how the country works on the ground, can't figure a way out. Have you heard, "If only we follow Obama and the Democrats, it will all get better"? Or, "If only we follow the Republicans, they'll make it all work again"? I bet you haven't, or not much.

This is historic. This is something new in modern political history, and I'm not sure we're fully noticing it. Americans are starting to think the problems we are facing cannot be solved.

Part of the reason is that the problems—debt, spending, war—seem too big. But a larger part is that our government, from the White House through Congress and so many state and local governments, seems to be demonstrating every day that they cannot make things better. They are not offering a new path, they are only offering old paths—spend more, regulate more, tax more in an attempt to make us more healthy locally and nationally. And in the long term everyone—well, not those in government, but most everyone else—seems to know that won't work. It's not a way out. It's not a path through.

And so the disheartenedness of the leadership class, of those in business, of those who have something. This week the New York Post carried a report that 1.5 million people had left high-tax New York state between 2000 and 2008, more than a million of them from even higher-tax New York City. They took their tax dollars with them—in 2006 alone more than $4 billion.

You know what New York, both state and city, will do to make up for the lost money. They'll raise taxes.

I talked with an executive this week with what we still call "the insurance companies" and will no doubt soon be calling Big Insura. (Take it away, Democratic National Committee.) He was thoughtful, reflective about the big picture. He talked about all the new proposed regulations on the industry. Rep. Barney Frank had just said on some cable show that the Democrats of the White House and Congress "are trying on every front to increase the role of government in the regulatory area." The executive said of Washington: "They don't understand that people can just stop, get out. I have friends and colleagues who've said to me 'I'm done.'" He spoke of his own increasing tax burden and said, "They don't understand that if they start to tax me so that I'm paying 60%, 55%, I'll stop."

He felt government doesn't understand that business in America is run by people, by human beings. Mr. Frank must believe America is populated by high-achieving robots who will obey whatever command he and his friends issue. But of course they're human, and they can become disheartened. They can pack it in, go elsewhere, quit what used to be called the rat race and might as well be called that again since the government seems to think they're all rats. (That would be you, Chamber of Commerce.)

And here is the second part of the story. While Americans feel increasingly disheartened, their leaders evince a mindless . . . one almost calls it optimism, but it is not that.

It is a curious thing that those who feel most mistily affectionate toward America, and most protective toward it, are the most aware of its vulnerabilities, the most aware that it can be harmed. They don't see it as all-powerful, impregnable, unharmable. The loving have a sense of its limits.

When I see those in government, both locally and in Washington, spend and tax and come up each day with new ways to spend and tax—health care, cap and trade, etc.—I think: Why aren't they worried about the impact of what they're doing? Why do they think America is so strong it can take endless abuse?

I think I know part of the answer. It is that they've never seen things go dark. They came of age during the great abundance, circa 1980-2008 (or 1950-2008, take your pick), and they don't have the habit of worry. They talk about their "concerns"—they're big on that word. But they're not really concerned. They think America is the goose that lays the golden egg. Why not? She laid it in their laps. She laid it in grandpa's lap.

They don't feel anxious, because they never had anything to be anxious about. They grew up in an America surrounded by phrases—"strongest nation in the world," "indispensable nation," "unipolar power," "highest standard of living"—and are not bright enough, or serious enough, to imagine that they can damage that, hurt it, even fatally.

We are governed at all levels by America's luckiest children, sons and daughters of the abundance, and they call themselves optimists but they're not optimists—they're unimaginative. They don't have faith, they've just never been foreclosed on. They are stupid and they are callous, and they don't mind it when people become disheartened. They don't even notice.

 

[maxiep]

I should mention also that I believe our problems can be solved. However, the prescription is very difficult, both politically and in terms of lifestyle. We need term limits. I addressed that above. Along with those term limits, we need to scrap the benefits Congresspeople receive once their out of office. They don't get their salary and benefits until they die just for serving a term. Right now, you get elected and you never have to work again if you can live on a Congressional salary. Those retirement benefits disconnect our elected officials from the day-to-day struggle that is life.

We don't need to stem the benefits given to people, we need to cut them back. We need to extend the retirement age from 65 to 72. The idea that you get a 20 year vacation at the end of your life should be put to rest. The retirement age was set by Franklin Roosevelt at 65 because the average life expectancy at the time was 64.

Unfunded mandates? They all need to be stricken. They're a yoke around the necks of the states.

The prescription drug benefit needs to go away; we can't afford it. Public health care reform should be scrapped in favor of

Taxes need to be shared by everyone. Currently 49% of Americans don't pay ANY Federal taxes. Once we hit 50%, we reach a tipping point. The majority can now tax the minority. I don't care if you enact a tax where the richest pay $100 for every penny the poorest pay. If you enact a tax, EVERYONE has to have skin in the game.

Any new government program proposed needs to be deficit-neutral. If you offer a new program, you need to offer a new tax.

We need a balanced-budget amendment, to be able to be violated only in case of war. We also need a 50 year payment plan of our current debt.

Enact a line-item veto for the President. Outlaw all earmarks.

Enact a law stating that legislation in bills must be for the same purpose. In other words, don't slip in raising the debt ceiling in a funding the troops bill. You raise the debt ceiling separately. You fund the troops separately.

De-unionize all government positions. Government unions now fund political campaigns. It's the fox paying the chicken to lay eggs. A government job should never be considered lifetime employment.

Stop the current budgeting process which grows departments annually by a fixed amount. Instead, allow programs to grow and shrink in different years. We need a complete audit of all government programs and their effectiveness on a bi-annual basis. Those that aren't performing either get eliminated or their management fired.

Where the free market can provide a program through a true competitive bidding process, that should be preferred over the government doing it. In other words, outsource vs. insource.

The Federal Government has grown too big. States need more leeway on how their citizens live. The more local the government, the more responsible it is to its citizenry. Make government as local as possible.

Rant over.

 

[bodyman5001]

It isn't a rant, it is an absolute must do if anyone wants this country to survive as it is.

It reminds me of that Seinfeld episode where Kramer said something to Jerry like "Am I insane or am I so sane that I just blew your mind"

I just wonder how good these morons think the government jobs will be when EVERYONE else has a government job.

 

[BLAZER PROPHET]

I understand your thoughts for term limits, but do not agree.

I believe term limits are best used via the ballot box. To my knowledge, we've had only one provable out & out fraudulently elected official at the state race or higher- and that was the 2004 race for WA State Governor. It should be left to the ballot box and power of the voter to remove someone from office.

Add to that, it's hard to get someone to do high public service work for relatively low pay compared to the public sector. If those people knew their tenure was limited, most the better ones would never run. It'd be a temp job. Add to that, it lessens the threat of losing ones career so partisanship may get worse.

No, for me, let the people speak thru the power of the ballot. For better or for worse.

 

[Sug]

If you simply took all private money out of politics, removed first amendment rights for corporations, and actually enforced the tax code on business...almost all of these problems would go away. The problem we face is simple, the Democrats had to become the Republicans in order to win, and now the Republicans don't like it because they can no longer win at the game they created. Now they want to change the rules, it reminds me of the teams that play a certain style and win the ring. Then along comes a team that copies them and actually does it better! This in turn causes them to call foul and seek for rule changes to fix the terribly busted system that they helped create.

The problem with the United States is simple. We find the worst possible way to do something and we perfect it.

 

[Idog1976]

To me it is absurd to think these problems are related to one political party vs. another. It's about elite vs everyone else. They pretend to like one group of poor people (evangelicals and poor southerners for Repubs) while the other group supports another group of poor people (Secular poor, minorities for Dems) meanwhile you pass tax cut after tax cut for corporations and more empowerment for elite institutions. You create a warfare (Repub) / Welfare (Dem) state and slowly consolidate more and more power in centralized government that favors a select few. You socialize losses and privatize gains. You consolidate media and spy on the people to see if they are figuring it out. Slowly but surely you entrench an Oligarchy in place which splits the majority of the populace against one another with social issues while passing greater and greater power and money to the Oligarchy.

Democrats go to the same Ivy league schools as Republicans and both get campaign contributions from the same folks. The political/financial oligarchy then support the other side when one side has lost credibility. Both sides pass the same kinds of laws while paying lip service to a few social issues and legislate morality depending on the side in power (Pretend to deal with border control and try and ban gay marriage for the right or pay lip service and try and pass health care reform and gay rights for the left). On and on it goes, meanwhile the political and donor classes get a greater and greater slice of the pie while the people are more and more impoverished. When it starts to reach a crisis you turn up the hateful social rhetoric and keep people focused on the hate rather then the real issues and increasingly obvious oligarchy.

Don't believe me? Has Obama acted differently then Bush in regards to the banks? How about the wars? How about domestic surveillance? Was Bush different then Clinton in pushing through free trade agreements? How about media consolidation? They have some minor differences because you don't want to be too obvious as you continual sheer the sheep otherwise they might get angry.

It's the financial, political oligarchy that is killing this country. It would be exceedingly difficult to uproot these interconnected interests. Their kids go to school together and they are all parts of the same fraternities and social clubs. Democrat vs. Republican: if you can't see past that you are fucked.

Hegel once talked about the dialectical process of history. He observed that history moves when there is a Thesis against an Anti-thesis and how the two merge to a middle ground of Synthesis. He was making an observation but some very rich and powerful people realized that if you control the Thesis and the Anti-Thesis you can have a great deal of control over the final Synthesis. The DNC and RNC are just two of the many, many ways that the Political Class and the Donor Class control both parties in this country. The big difference now days is that these folks have squeezed out most honest politicians in either party by controlling primaries and media coverage. Fox and MSNBC play off each other and those that watch either for news lose.

If you watch things with this lens you will see that this is the truth. It's not pretty, but we might as well be adults and see what is really going on in this country so we can do something about it. It's funny because if the past 20 years of history happened in another country Americans would see it plain as day. It's a very painful truth and most people reject it outright as too scary and hurtful after all it's our country we are talking about.