This would be a good time to have a crystal ball. I suspect if I knew exactly what the next month holds I could make a lot of money on Wall Street. As I sit here today the US Federal government is still (partly) shut down and Jack Lew says he will run out of “extraordinary measures” to fund the government on Thursday.
John Boehner and his team from the House went and visited with the President and brought him a proposal, but President Obama rejected it. Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) put together a compromise proposal than seemed pretty fair but Harry Reid said no. Senator Joe Manchin (D-WVa) has been working with Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) to come up with a reasonable plan but Harry Reid says that it gives up too much to Republicans.
President Obama and Majority Leader Reid have finally changed their stance that they want a clean CR and clean debt limit increase. They now want MORE. They want increases in the amount the federal government can spend, in the form of changes to the Sequestration Law. According to the talking heads on the Sunday shows this morning that is because they think they are winning the political fight and so they are asking for more.
Wall Street went up on Friday because the traders thought there was a deal in the works. The market will drop tomorrow because the president rejected all of the offers and upped the ante. And frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn. I have been listening to Jim Cramer and Larry Kudlow and I realize how important a deal is to Wall Street traders….they are looking out for Wall Street traders and there is no question not raising the debt ceiling will hurt the markets in the short term. Boo Hoo. Waaaahhh! These are the same numbskulls that want the Fed to keep buying $85 billion in Treasuries every month to help keep their portfolio looking good. They are thrilled about their Janet Yellen who will likely back off on any talk of a taper.
There are a lot of games being played. The administration is clearly trying to make the shutdown hurt a little more than it has to in order to bring political pressure to bear. Harry Reid is a little less eager to make a deal because his polling tells him it will help Democrats and hurt Republicans. Ted Cruz talked everyone into making the defunding of Obamacare the centerpiece of the debate about the budget and debt limit because a)He believed deeply that Obamacare should be defunded and b) it was good for Ted Cruz politically (at least with his Tea Party base).
Now don’t get your panties all in a wad over that last statement. I do not like Obamacare and I want the law repealed or defunded or curtailed or whatever as well. But we elect these people not just to go to Washington and make speeches that we want to hear but to get things done that we want done. I agree with Senator Cruz about Obamacare and share his goal but the Republicans in Washington are responsible for the tactics and strategy that is employed to get those things done. I am not sure we had the best possible tactical plan in this case.
Having said that, there is a lot more going on here than disagreements about tactics and strategy. There is more going on here than politics or financial markets. There are deep differences in values between Republicans and Democrats, Liberals and Conservatives, and between different parts of the Republican and Democrat parties themselves. I do not think it is an overstatement to say there is a massive upheaval going on. Today there is a “million veteran” rally in Washington right on the heels of the truckers descent on Washington and just about a month after Washington was flooded with motorcycles. People are upset and I think the politicians need to pay close attention.
Unfortunately, the message is getting distorted. A lot of this is on purpose. The Tea Party is getting vilified daily by pundits on television as well as politicians like the President and Senate Majority Leader. They are working hard to discredit the movement partly because they know how powerful it is in the grass roots of this country. My fear is that the message is not coming across correctly to the average “low information voter”, who is barely paying attention and mostly just gets the spin from mainstream media and the administration.
We need to try to simplify and clarify the message, but unfortunately Republicans do not agree on what the message is. Ann Coulter just wrote a new book and is out blasting anyone who does not believe exactly as she does. Ms. Coulter is welcome to her opinion and to vilify as she sees fit. Likewise I see Peter King and Chris Christie and Karl Rove out blasting at the likes of Ted Cruz and insisting that the crazy folks on the right are destroying everything.
I do not seem to hear the kind of positive, clear message that I should be hearing. And so I am going to try to articulate it here. There is a base that we can gather around. You may not agree with me and I may get vilified along with everyone else but here is the party I wish to belong to. Here are my “planks” or essential ideas that I would hope would be the basis for an ideology, rather than a collection of opinions on various issues as they come along (or as the polls shift).
Society and Government
Society and government are not the same things. Our government is a part of our society but not the totality of it. Government is not responsible for everything that occurs with our society and is not where we turn to correct every little thing we do not like. I am a big fan of the Twenty–first amendment to the US Constitution. That was the one where the learned a lot about our society and corrected the mistake of the Eighteenth amendment. The eighteenth is the one that prohibited alcohol. You see, you may think that people should not drink or smoke or curse or look at porn or eat meat or drink 36-ounce Coca-Cola’s, but that is something you need to change without involving government.
Many of you may not agree with that last section. You may want to legislate your morality or social concerns onto others. I would invite you to reconsider. By all means lobby your fellow citizens and engage with them to create a better society. But government exists to protect the inalienable rights of it’s citizens to go about their daily lives and pursue their own happiness without interference. It does not exist to legislate everyone’s social utopia. I do not wish to belong to a party that wants to use government to bring their vision of society into existence.
And for the record, it is not government’s job to keep Wall Street happy. That should be up to Wall Street. All the Fed is doing is making some rich folks richer.
Limited Government
An individual should have the right to do whatever he or she pleases as long as they do not infringe on the rights of anyone else. Murder, theft, and rape infringe on the rights of others and so we have laws against those things. We have courts and police to enforce appropriate laws and to settle disputes between people and enforce lawful contracts between parties. We also have a National defense to protect us from foreign invasion. That is where our need for government ends. If society has a problem with drinking we need to deal with that as society rather than passing a constitutional amendment banning alcohol. Likewise if we have a problem with health insurance or health care we should not deal with it by enacting a massive new mandatory government program.
To be clear, I do not just want to make government smaller and more efficient. I do not just want to “trim the fat” or streamline our federal government. I want to reduce the size, scope, and power of the federal government dramatically. And I want to belong to a party that believes the same.
Budgets
The next major idea involves getting our fiscal house in order. This is the most obvious point ever but apparently not everyone agrees. Our federal government must live on the revenue it receives. We need to balance the budget and pay off our debt.
I want to be a part of the fiscal responsibility party. Part of my problem with the original Ted Cruz plan was that they were willing to fund the entire government at current levels in exchange for changes to Obamacare. I am not ok with funding the federal government at current levels. I want to reduce spending. Make no mistake; this means some government workers need to lose their jobs. Also, this means that government benefits or funding will be cut. Yes, I said that. We may need to reduce funding for popular programs because we cannot afford them.
We are $17 trillion dollars in debt and our president is out crowing that the yearly deficit has been reduced down to $700 billion. This is shameful and if Republicans accept a deal that allows spending to increase then I do not need to vote for their party any more. I am ok with not raising the debt ceiling but I am not ok with allowing this administration to increase spending beyond the current bloated levels. This debt is shameful and I am outraged that we keep piling debt onto our grandchildren.
Taxes and Bailouts and Cronies (oh, my!)
It is also a disgrace that we have such a massive and convoluted tax code. We must streamline the tax code and remove the loopholes and exemptions and bailouts and grants and incentives and social engineering and kickbacks and cronyism. This is a disgraceful embarrassing mess. Let’s have a flat tax or fair tax or 9-9-9 or just let me at the current tax code with a pair of scissors and a big black marker.
This is a corrupt and bloated system that needs to be blown up and we all know it. We all know we need to do something about it, and today would be a good day. Tomorrow is not so good.
The United STATES of America
It is interesting that our country did not have a one word name like France or China or Spain. We are the United States of America because our system was designed around sovereign States. Those states have become increasingly less significant as the federal government sucks up all of air from the room but we need to get back to making States our focus.
First, shifting power and control to the states lessens the possibility of tyranny (If using that term makes me a crazy right winger then so be it). Second, it gives each of us a little more control, as it is easier to influence state and local government. And finally it allows for us to try different things in 50 little experiments. Texas and California can each have it “their way”.
As the federal government shrinks the states can get back to deciding how best to care for their citizens. We do not need a Federal Department of Education to tell states or local school boards how to educate children.
American Exceptionalism
I believe this is an exceptional country, but not because our people were somehow genetically gifted. This country is exceptional partly because the founders originally set up a simple but brilliant concept of limited government with checks and balances and individual liberties. We also benefitted from the philosophies of those who founded our SOCIETY with a strong work ethic and sense of charity and individual responsibility. The combination spurred the creation of a most remarkable and productive American culture.
Sadly, our government is no longer very limited, our personal liberties have been eroded, our work ethic is decaying and charity has been replaced with government handouts, which have done away with our sense of personal responsibility.
Many of you are thinking that this is too much to change and that once programs are enacted they can never be done away with. Let me refer you back to the 18th amendment. Keep in mind that an amendment has to be proposed by a 2/3 vote of both houses of Congress and then ratified by ¾ of the states. The 18th amendment passed this enormous challenge and was ratified in 1919. The 21st amendment was ratified in 1933 the only one ever to use a state ratifying convention, repealing what was obviously a mistake, a bad idea. We can undo that which has been done.
This is the time for us to fight. The spirit is alive and well in many of us, and we are ready for change. Change is coming, make no mistake. We need to reform our society and our government and the culture in this country, and I think the time is right now. I, for one, will not wait for my children or grandchildren to fix this mess. That is my job (and yours). Let’s ROLL!
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