by | ARTICLES, BLOG, BUSINESS, ECONOMY, ELECTIONS, FREEDOM, GOVERNMENT, HYPOCRISY, POLITICS
Oh, the hypocrisy!
In February, it was announced that retired hedge-fund billionaire Tom Steyer, has committed $100 million of his own money to “to make climate change a priority issue in this year’s midterm elections.”
How can this possibly be? First, Steyer made his millions as a hedge-fund operator — which is typically and universally denounced as a greedy profession. But if he spends his greedy millions on items considered tolerable and suitable to the political Left, it’s becomes okay.
That same political Left decries the Koch Brothers who are accused of funding groups with their obscene amounts of money to promote policy positions. The Koch Brothers made their money as businessmen, which clearly is repugnant. It begs the question: why does Harry Reid go after the Koch Brothers and turns a blind eye to Steyer’s tactics?
In reality, what Tom Steyer is doing is much worse. Steyer is essentially telling a political candidate, “if you take this position, I will give you money”. Isn’t this line of thinking exactly what the Supreme Court was trying to stop? How is this okay? Because it works for the Left.
Steyer’s game proved effective in 2013 when his NextGen Climate Action Super Pac spend $2.5 million to target conservative-leaning coal areas of Southwest Virginia on behalf of Democrat gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe. Coupled with Mayor Bloomberg’s Independence USA Super PAC which spent roughly $2 million on ads in Virginia to target Republican candidate Ken Cuccinelli’s position on gun-rights, the two out-of-staters helped lead the Democrat to victory.
Steyer’s next plan is to influence the 2014 midterms. His money is planning on being spent on “attack ads during the election, including the Florida governor’s race and the Iowa Senate race.
Clearly, Steyer’s actions are appropriate for the 2014 elections, because political candidates with the “proper positions” are able to benefit from Steyer’s “generosity”. Yet in contrast, other organizations are called out for being “tainted” by the Koch Brothers for merely promoting various policies that the Left deems unacceptable. Either it’s okay for both, or for neither.
The double standard prevails.
by | ARTICLES, FREEDOM, GOVERNMENT, OBAMA
Most Americans would score Obama poorly on foreign policy issues. It’s a conundrum, really, because most of the things he has done, people seem to have supported him – from pulling troops out of Afghanistan, to not going to war in Syria. And yet, people think he has done very badly with his decisions.
While at first glance it may seem inconsistent, it is not actually inconsistent at all. People don’t necessarily want their opinions of foreign policy matters carried out; instead, what they want is for the Executive Branch to lead and do the right thing for the country. So much information relating to foreign policy is not public and cannot be made privy to public. For that reason, our country has depended on the Executive Branch to use the information to do the right thing for American, first and foremost above what may be popular sentiment or easy.
FDR faced this with WWII. Almost universally no one wanted to go to war but when the United States was attacked and FDR told the American people, “we need to do this”, Americans said okay and fully supported the war effort. Similar situations with Reagan and Panama, Clinton and Kosovo. These were not particularly popular positions, but when the Presidents made their case, Americans by-and-large gave their support.
What the Presidents didn’t do, was ask first. We had leaders who would lead, even it they did something that was not exactly the most popular or easiest — because there has been a mutual understanding that a President will act first and foremost for the best of his country based on his more full knowledge.
Here’s where Obama is different. We now have a president who is trying to do what he thinks will get him the most political points with the people. This is not presidential. This is not how presidents act. This has given us terrible results.
Obama, like all other presidents, has all the information at his fingertips. Instead of doing what he should do on foreign policy questions — which is to lead — he is trying to listen to the people and gauge their temperature, if they are warm to the idea, instead of telling Americans what is right.
What Americans may by-and-large think what is the right thing to do is sometimes wrong because we do not have the full picture. We understand decisions need to be made on sound policy, not politics. But for Obama, his leadership style has been that of politics first, policy second. Because he’d rather do what he perceives is politically beneficial instead of lead with conviction, both his domestic and foreign audiences find Obama to be weak and ineffective in foreign policy matters.
by | ARTICLES, BLOG, ECONOMY, HYPOCRISY, OBAMA
Can you believe it — a bigger lie than “you can keep your doctor”?
President Obama’s comments regarding the gender pay gap and discrimination are as vicious a lie as his statements that you can keep your doctor. The idea that women earn $.77 for every $1.00 that men earn, for equal work, has never been true, never in the slightest.
That $.77 comparison is not for equal work. It strictly represents the reality that women, more often than men, work at jobs that are lower paying. The reason for such jobs might include school and family situations, flexibility of schedule, and their desires to be able to be use work secondarily for their needs for their families or a source of discretionary income.
There is actually no evidence of any discrimination for women doing the same work an being paid less. If the world of labor could indeed pay women less (23% less) for equal work, why isn’t virtually every company hiring only women as a means to curb costs and increase profit?
A more full and excellently written description was put forth in the WSJ on April 7th. It is a must read.
The most incredible thing about Obama’s statements is that Obama appears to have his own “pay gap disparity” at the White House (women earn $.88 cents per $1.00 for men). Interestingly, the White House takes great pains to discuss the discrimination variables that cause this disparity.
“An analysis of staff salaries done last fall by the conservative American Enterprise Institute found the president’s female aides were paid 88 cents for every dollar paid to men, about $65,000 to $73,729 annually. On Monday, Carney argued the comparison is based on aggregate wages that include the lowest salaries at the White House “which may or may not be — depending on the institution — filled by more women than men.”
He said men and women in equivalent roles at the White House earn the same amount and that 10 of 16 department heads are women, earning the top White House salary of $172,200″.
Here we have the Obama administration admitting that more women are in jobs that include the lowest salaries at the White House.
So, it is not gender discrimination at the White House, which is what Obama has tried to claim in his “$.77 cents” missive and new Executive Order. He wants to apply that label when discussing the “gender pay gap” to all other businesses (as a means to appeal to his female base), but then when the spotlight is shined on the White House pay scale, Obama retreats from that rhetoric.
As he should. Because the gender pay gap is truly a myth. And Obama’s own White House data and discussion prove it.
by | ARTICLES, BUSINESS, ECONOMY, GOVERNMENT, HYPOCRISY, OBAMA, POLITICS
Bernie Sanders recently chose to test the waters of a possible Presidential campaign by weighing in on the deliberations regarding the Post Office. Thankfully, we have this Op-Ed so early on, because it reveals Sanders’ complete and utter inability to comprehend basic economics and accounting.
Bernie argues two main points: 1) the Post Office is not broke and 2) those who believe it is are “anti-government”, “wealthy special interest”, profit-seeking, or all of the above. These points rest entirely on his premise that pre-funding health benefits to postal workers is a very bad thing.
Sanders actually believes that planning for future promised benefits is not a fiscally sound practice. If he feels this way about the Post Office, surely he feels the same about Social Security and Medicare (two programs who have trillions in future liabilities). Does Sanders know that his type of accounting would land any business executive in jail?
Sanders says that if we didn’t have to pre-fund future benefits, than the Post Office would make a profit. Simple, right?
What he fails to mention that if we didn’t pre-fund benefits, the Post Office would merely be sloughing off paying its promises to some future nebulous day and time for some other taxpayers else to take care of –only when its liabilities were astronomical and the finances were on the edge of a precipice.
That result is precisely what we are facing programs like Social Security, Medicare, and many defined benefits plans across the country: politicians made future monetary promises without planning for them, and now the economic pressure has ballooned into severe fiscal instability. Sanders belongs to the ‘spend first, fix (maybe) later” group of bureaucrats who refuse to follow basic accounting practices like any business would be required to practice.
With the Post Office, we actually have an quasi-government entity following good, non-gimmick accounting so taxpayers can see first-hand the true financial picture (current and future) of the post-office. Pre-funding benefits to account for future and current liabilities is a proper and healthy way to do business. And if the Post Office cannot turn a profit while protecting its current and future liabilities, than it must make changes to its business operations
By repealing the legislation to pay for future liabilities, Bernie Sanders is ostensibly demanding someone in the future — your kids and grandkids — to clean up the mess of his government and his generation’s deliberately poor financial planning.
Which bring us two his second point. Bernie Sanders does what the Left does best, which is resort to name calling, straw-man arguments to build up his weak ideas. Sanders actually thinks that those who wish to pass on a health economic future while practice basic and principled accounting practices are anti-government, bought-and-paid-for, or profit-mongers. No, Mr. Sanders, we only wish for the government and its entities to practice the same kind of accounting standards that any other business or family is required to do.
Watch out, America — Bernie Sanders is just more of the same. Another bureaucratic imbecile who refuses to face economic and financial realities when it comes to the Post Office — or any big government program which deals with current and future liabilities. Sanders would rather pass the buck to the next generation in order to save a few union jobs.
