Stop Pulling the Wagon

My mother-in-law gave me the above ticket telling me that my father-in-law had carried it in his wallet for many years. 

In my mind it takes me back 40+ years in time to the mid/late 1960’s during the Presidency of Lyndon Johnson.  I was a young man, filled with idealism,  and his promise of a “Great Society” and a “War on Poverty” seemed like a good idea.  

The intended consequence of the Great Society was to  eliminate “Social Injustice” and “Poverty”  permanently.  I envisioned an America where there would never again be “Poor” people. 

In the four decades since that time our nation has “invested” (spent) Trillions of (taxpayer) Dollars on this plan. 

Have we eliminated Social Injustice or Poverty?  Or, has the unintended consequence been to  create a Welfare State which has become a tool to destroy many American families?  Have we not created an opportunity for millions to behave irresponsibly without personal accountability while taxpayers pick up “the tab”?

 Have we learned anything from the Great Society!  Or, have we, as a people, sold our Freedom and become slaves to the empty promise that “Big Government” will take care of us?

I don’t often quote the Bible on this site but I’m going to make an exception here because what it says applies so appropriately to this subject.  In 2 Timonthy 4:3 (NIV) the Apostle Paul says: For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine.  Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.  

Substitute the words “sound doctrine” with the word “truth” and the word  “teachers” with the word “politicians” and read it again. 

If you do not like quotes from the Bible how about this slogan I had on a favorite tee-shirt many years ago.  “I HAVE GIVEN UP MY QUEST FOR REALITY AND AM NOW SEEKING A GOOD FANTASY”

My fear is that we may have reached, or are perilously close to, the time that one of our Nations Founders predicted.  That Democracy would only last until the people figured out they could vote themselves largess from the public treasury. (not an exact quote but close)  Are we there yet?   

Bob Bandy

Question:  What do you call a building where people prostitute themselves for money? 

Question:  What do you call the people who work in a building where they prostitute themselves for money?

I am ashamed of what is going on in the halls of Government.   I am ashamed of backroom deals.   I am ashamed of those who sell their votes.  I am ashamed of those who violate their promise to serve the people they were elected to  represent.   I am ashamed of those who betray both the letter and intent of our Constitution. 

I am ashamed that a man who has never run so much as a Lemonade Stand can bring in and lecture, in a condescending and contemptuous manner, those who have spent their lives making payrolls and working in business and commerce.  What arrogance!  And he wonders why jobs are not being created.  DUH!

When I served in the military I remember taking an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States.  I took pride in that oath and I ncver violated it.  Countless others have done the same.

Too many of those who supposedly serve us in Congress serve only themselves.  They  have sold out the Country and  the  people they promised to serve. 

In their ambition, arrogance, greed and self indulgence they are Bankrupting us as a nation both financially and morally. 

Forget “Contempt of Congress”,  I have “Contempt for Congress”.   They do not Represent the American Values I believe in.    

Bob Bandy

I do not believe that I am the only one to recognize that what Osama Bin Laden tried, but failed,  to do to the United States, we have done to ourselves. 

When those planes flew into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center on 9/11 it was the intention of Osama Bin Laden to cripple or destroy the economy of the United States.

Many States (California, New York, Michigan and others) as well as the Federal Government are financially dysfunctional and  virtually Bankrupt.  The States have not filed the Bankruptcy paperwork (yet) and the Federal Government cannot file Bankruptcy but will finance its insolvency with inflation (more later).

California (where I live) is in a 25 Billion Dollar hole and is still digging deeper with no realistic options to get out of the hole.  They “burned” the ladder.

The Federal Government just blew past their 12 Trillion Dollar “credit card limit” and Congress is looking to raise the limit to 14 Trillion Dollars with the hope that this new limit will get them past the next election.

In California, the state has three major sources of revenue (plus an endless array of fees, assessments etc).  Those are Property Taxes, Sales Taxes and Income Taxes. When the housing “bubble” burst it triggered a financial “Perfect Storm”.  Since California was/is dependent on property taxes that are based on a percentage of property values, when those values declined 40-60%,  revenues plunged.  What followed was like a snowball going downhill.  Fiscal disaster.  And, the State has already “pre-spent” the planned for future revenues which are not going to come in.

At the Federal Government level our elected representatives are not willing to make the hard choices needed to cut spending and instead just keep running up the debt.  At some point just paying the interest on that debt will consume a significant portion of the nations annual tax revenues and then the “Feds” will have to greatly increase the printing of “Fiat” (worth less and less) paper money.  In this process any savings you have will be devalued.  If interest rates go up, and they will have to, “Katie Bar The Door”, we will either have hyper-inflation or we all need to learn to speak Chinese.

Our Leaders need to stop spending money we don’t have, stop creating “Entitlements” we can’t afford, stop borrowing the future of our Children and Grandchildren and stop lying to us.  So far, they are not showing any inclination of changing their ways. 

I don’t like gloom and doom scenarios any more than anyone else.  Somebody please show me where I am wrong in this analysis.  Its the old Ant and Grasshopper story.  We taxpayers are the ants and those in charge are the grasshoppers. 

Who do we blame?  We (the People) elected ‘Em!          

Bob Bandy

And in the sands these words appear:

My name is Obamandias, King of Kings,

Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal Wreck,  boundless and barren

The ravaged sands stretch far away.”

– With apologies to Percy Bysshe Shelley and his epic poem “Ozymandias”.

Bob Bandy

Someone sent this Norman Rockwell/Barack Obama  “Self Portrait” “Take Off” to me by email and it got me to thinking.  Is this just a perhaps unfair caricature of our President or is there a deeper and more troubling truth here?

How do those who govern us see themselves?

When what we get from those who govern us is “Talking Points” and “Spin” how do we know what to believe?  I would suggest that what we can believe is facts.  Not “Spin”.  Not “Talking Points”.  Not fancy speech’s.  Reality.  Facts.

The “Troubled Asset Relief Program”  (T.A.R.P. for short), which began under the Bush administration,  was originally scheduled to be a $700,000,000,000.00 (700 Billion) program to “Save” the Banks and get them to start lending again.  A big chunk of this money seems to have disappeared;  maybe to the 15th Congressional District in Arizona?  And, the banks have tightened up on lending.

We were told (by the Obama administration)  that if we passed the $787,000,000,000.00 (787 Billion) Stimulus Bill that millions of new jobs would be created and unemployment would not rise above 8.5%.

By the governments own statistics the unemplyment rate is 10.2%.  This same government does not deny that there is another group that has given up looking for work and still another that is “under”employed, that is working either just part time or at jobs that pay much less than the jobs they were working at 6-18 months ago.  Total unemployment rate is somewhere in the 17+% range. 

I could go on with many more examples.  The question is:  Are they lying to themselves or are they lying to us? 

Another question:  How long will it take for our government to figure out that what they are doing is not working?  Its been tried before and it didn’t work and its being tried now and it is not working.  The first rule is: When you find yourself in a hole – stop digging!  You cannot borrow your way to prosperity! 

At some point the old addage comes to mind:  Lie to me once, shame on you!  Lie to me twice, shame on me!  What do I see when I look in the mirror?  Do I see the truth or only what I want to see?     -Bob

“If God did not want them sheared, He would not have made them Sheep.” 

In the classic Western Movie, The Magnificent Seven,  this is what the outlaw bandit leader, Calvera (Eli Walach), tells the leader of the Seven, Chris Adams (Yul Brynner).

Calvera is referring to his practice of robbing the villagers of the fruits of their labor and leaving them just enough to survive on till his next visit.

In fact Calvera later states:  “Generosity – That was my first mistake!”  Meaning, he left the Villagers a little too much, or they would not have had the resources to hire “The Seven”.

Sound familiar?   Consider the following:

We taxpayers are considered as little more than sheep by our Governments: Local, State and especially Federal.  They view us as a steady source of tax money to be “sheared” on a routine basis.  And, just like Calvera did with the people of the Village, Government  plans to leave us with just enough to survive on until the next “shearing”.

I don’t think we can count on Government to make the same “mistake” as Calvera.  The only mistake our leaders are likely to make is to “Kill the goose that lays the golden eggs”.

Please forgive the mixed metaphors.  

Bob Bandy

Credits:  The Magnificent Seven.  1960.  Executive Producer – Walter Mirisch.  Produced and Directed by John Sturges.  Music by Elmer Bernstein.