Published, Idaho State Journal, 08/29/10

The financial condition of the country and of many states across the Union continues to deteriorate. And there’s no readily apparent recovery in sight, even though the White House, evidencing its continued detachment from reality, is calling this the “summer of recovery.” With a net loss of 2.5 million jobs since January, 2009, and everything emanating from Washington creating more uncertainty in the private sector, there is little to motivate companies to begin rehiring.

This moribund economy is felt deeply at the state level. According to CNN Money, budget deficits for the fifty states could be as high as $260 billion in 2011 and 2012. Some states are essentially insolvent as revenues continue to diminish and politicians lack the spine to reign in profligate spending. California and Illinois, the two states with the highest budget gap, 49.3% and 47.3% respectively, are continuing to witness double-digit decreases in revenue due to the weakness of the economy. Their answer is to increase taxes and levy increased fees and fines in an attempt to make up the difference.

The least logical time to increase taxes is when the economy is struggling, as that takes more capital out of the hands of the citizens, especially small business owners who otherwise might be creating new jobs. Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s, confirms that at the federal and state levels, increased taxes “will be a serious drag on the economy at just the wrong time.”

We’re fortunate in Idaho to not only have a constitution which requires a balanced budget each fiscal year, but we also have a governor and legislative leaders who apparently are able to balance the states checkbook. Fiscal year-end (June 30) figures for the state validate the responsible and disciplined decisions made by Governor Otter and legislative leaders during the last legislative session, despite the criticism leveled against them by single-issue advocacy groups, especially the education lobby.

According to a press release from the Governor’s office, the state had to transfer $8.2 million from the State’s Permanent Building Fund to the General Fund in order to balance the budget at the end of the fiscal year. That means the Governor and legislative leaders were only off by three-tenths of a percent in their revenue projections. With a budget of $2.2 billion, that’s a remarkable accomplishment.

Commenting on the year-end figures, Governor Otter said, “Some people vigorously opposed our cautious, conservative approach to budgeting, and some still do. They…urge us to spend millions of dollars in make-believe money, and have nothing but contempt for any other view. Fortunately for Idaho taxpayers, common sense and a steadier hand carried the day. The Legislature and I did what any family does when facing financial trouble – we looked for savings, we thought about what we could do without, and we made do with less. We lived within our means, and we didn’t raise taxes.” 

State leaders faced horrible accusations and headlines during the legislative session for the cuts they made in state expenditures. The final figures paint a picture, however, of discipline and proper priorities. Executive branch agencies are facing a net reduction in funding of 19.45% from FY 2009-2011, while the General Fund portion of the education budget was reduced much less, by 8.9%. And even with that reduction, the FY 2011 budget makes up 50.9% of General Fund spending going to public schools, which is the highest percentage of General Fund support since 1989.

While many would have us believe that state leaders were merciless with public education cuts, it appears they did everything they could to protect it while facing the daunting challenge of balancing the state’s budget in economically perilous times.

House Appropriations Committee Chairman Maxine Bell said of the budget, “The past couple of years have been tough. Nobody likes cutting services or reducing support for public schools. I’m thankful that we have a Governor who’s willing to join us in this heavy lifting and open to working with the Legislature in making the tough decisions necessary to ensure our State government lives within the people’s means.”

Vice chairman of the Senate Finance Committee Shawn Keough said, “As painful as the budget was for us to construct, Idaho is in a better position than most states right now. We ended the fiscal year with a balanced budget, did not raise State taxes on Idaho’s families and caused no additional impact on State agencies and public schools.”

We have in Idaho a superb leadership committed to the public services we pay them to provide for us, while concurrently they’re pragmatic and realistic in maintaining the state’s solvency and fiscal viability. Governor Otter and the state’s legislative leaders should be commended for protecting our public and collective interests. If only we had such sagacity and fiscal responsibility at the federal level.

Published - Idaho State Journal, 08/22/10

It doesn’t matter what religion our president adheres to, or if he has any religion at all. The Constitution precludes that as a litmus test for public office. President Obama has been engaged in an outreach effort to the Muslim world that seems to be failing. The possibility of a mosque being erected as a victory monument near the site of the World Trade Center and his ill-advised support of that project is one more element of that outreach effort.

But all this outreach has confused many Americans. A Time Magazine poll last week indicates more than twice as many Americans believe President Obama is a Muslim than when he was elected. Again, for the most part, it shouldn’t matter what his religion is, but it does matter that we as a nation are nearly halfway through his first and only term and we are more confused about that aspect of him than we were before he was elected.

The abundance of empirical evidence based on his actions and speeches manifest at the very least, a preferential treatment for the Islamic faith. He proudly proclaimed in his Turkey speech that America is not a Christian nation. His apology tour continued in Cairo, Egypt where he continued his profuse apologies to the Islamic world for all the “evil” the U.S. has perpetrated against the Islamic world. His first sit-down interview as president was with Al-Arabiya TV. NASA will no longer be flying shuttles into space, instead, their prime objectives, and “highest priority” is “Muslim outreach.”

Add to that the “dissing” of Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of one of our closest allies, Israel. Also inscrutable is the allocation of $900 million to Gaza, which is controlled by Hamas, one of the most proactive terrorist organizations in the world and an avowed enemy to Israel and America. He was, from our perspective, amazingly reticent regarding the democracy movement in Iran, with the perhaps unintended consequence of supporting the existing extremist, anti-American, Islamic Mullah regime of that nation.

He abandoned the tradition of his predecessors of an interfaith prayer in the White House for the National Day of Prayer, yet he continued George Bush’s practice of hosting a celebration of Ramadan, an Islamic holy day, at the White House. So he prays with the Muslims in the White House, but not with the Christians.

In an interview with George Stephanopoulos of ABC News, Obama referenced “…my Muslim faith…” which prompted Stephanopoulos to have him correct it to “my Christian faith,” which many have conjectured was a Freudian slip.

He never has, to my knowledge, publicly accepted the fact that the Fort Hood shooter was a terrorist motivated by anti-American, Islamic-extremism. In fact all references to Islamic extremists engaged in Jihad against the U.S. and the West have been stricken by the administration. Their politically-correct change in parlance does nothing to mitigate the threats posed by those motivated by religious fervor.

In his Cairo speech, Obama committed to allow American Muslims to fulfill their obligation to “zakat.” Zakat is a charitable requirement of all faithful Muslims that requires equal distribution to eight categories, including “military operations.” You know, the kind of operations Hezbollah, Hamas, and Al Qaeda are engaged in.

So regardless of what his religion is, it’s evident that his administration has done everything possible to reach out to the Muslim world to ameliorate their perception of us. Perhaps the only thing they haven’t done in their outreach program is to erect minarets on the White House grounds for calling morning and evening prayer. This is perhaps a little surprising since he once said that the Muslim call to prayer is “one of the prettiest sounds on Earth.” He even recited it with a “first class Arabic accent” in a 2007 New York Times interview.

In 2008, Zogby International polled people in the quasi-friendly Muslim countries of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, Jordan, Egypt, and Lebanon, to ascertain their disposition toward the United States. Most respondents, 83%, viewed the U.S. “somewhat” or “very” unfavorably.

If we assume that, as the administration has stated, that their outreach to the Muslim world and the open support of Islam by the president is to improve relations with them, we must conclude their efforts have failed. In those six “friendly” Muslim states, now 85% view the U.S. “somewhat” or “very” unfavorably. That’s actually an increase in their negative perception of us.

In the end it doesn’t matter what the president’s religion is, as long as he espouses fundamental American values and tenets of our republic. And that’s where an increasing majority of us take issue with this president. And since his campaign to reach out to the Muslim world is failing, perhaps we can reassess NASA’s prime objective.

Published - Idaho State Journal, 08/08/10

But there are exceptions, and Steve Wynn, founder of Wynn Resorts, is one of them. In a CNBC interview recently he accurately observed, “It’s common sense that’s disappeared in Washington DC. We’re inheriting the awful results of wild, uncontrolled spending, unbelievable, unsustainable debt.”

Referring to the financial reform just passed, which does nothing to solve the problems which led to the financial markets meltdown two years ago, he said, “And yet, here we are, doing it again, $20 billion a month to the FHA. On top of what happens to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. We’re doing it again today for $20 billion a month! We’re destroying the housing market, again; under the name of a stimulus, phony misrepresented names.”

Controversially, Wynn recently announced that he was moving some of his corporate offices to Macau, China. When asked by the interviewer about that move, Wynn responded, “Macau has been steady. The shocking, unexpected government is the one in Washington. That’s where we get surprises every day. That’s where taxes are changed every five minutes. That’s where you don’t know that to expect tomorrow. To compare political stability and predictability in China to Washington is like comparing Mount Everest to an anthill. Macau and China is stable, Washington is not!”

He continued, “Is there a businessman in America that isn’t frightened about the next crazy idea that is coming from Washington? The financial institutions, the cars, the businessmen, the taxes, the health care, everything is Coo Coo. And God knows what’s next!”

Wynn was next asked what the healthcare reform was going to cost him. He responded, “A lot. It’s going to produce the exact opposite of what they said. Health costs, because of that 2,700 pages, are going up not down. In the simplest possible terms, they added 32 million people, the amount of doctors is going down and the amount we’re paying them is less. When demand goes up and the supply of doctors goes down, what happened to the price? High school students out there, children? Price goes up!”

He continued, “The one thing that would’ve saved us money, the control of frivolous lawsuits, they didn’t touch with a ten foot pole. Those hypocritical SOBs and the Congress didn’t touch it with a ten foot pole. Every insurance company, every businessman in America said doctors are doing testing in fear of frivolous lawsuits that are unnecessary that is jacking up the price of medicine. Please do something about that. In Texas they put a cap on punitive damages and the malpractice insurance dropped by 45% in one year. But did they do it in Washington? No.”

Explicating the obvious, that the business world is not willing to hire because of so much uncertainty in the country, he concluded, “So when you ask me today about predictability and uncertainty in China compared to Washington, I take China. Washington is unpredictable these days. Washington is… No one in the business community from one coast to the other has any idea what’s next. And what’s even worse, the people that do business with us that buy our bonds in other countries don’t even know what’s next. The uncertainty of the business climate in America is frightening, frightening to everybody. And it’s delaying the recovery.

“We’re on our way to Greece, in the hands of a confused and foolish government that is living up to the prediction of Alexis de Tocqueville who in 1909 said: ‘The American system of democracy will prevail until that moment when the politicians discover that they can bribe the electorate with their own money.’ And boy it’s in full bloom today. So extreme that it would probably have an end unto itself. The public is frightened. This Tea Party business is all about fear. There is a sense in the land of discomfort. There is a sense of fear that the politicians are ruining us. And the people are right. It’s got to stop. It’s got to stop!”

Only 1 in 10 of the Obama administration has worked in the private sector, and none, that I’ve been able to ascertain, ever ran a business or had to meet a payroll. It’s obvious that they know nothing about how the economy works. In all likelihood, we’re heading into a double-dip recession because of all that is emanating out of Washington. If the administration were to declare an outright war on capitalism and on the business community, it’s hard to imagine what they would do differently. Wynn is right: It’s got to stop!

"Right now,” he said, “we're like a nation of Kevin Arnolds (from a TV series); being likable is the only thing that seems to matter to anyone. You see this everywhere. Parents don't act like parents anymore, because they mainly want their kids to like them; they want their kids to see them as their two best friends. This is why modern kids act like animals. At some point, people confused being liked with being good. Those two qualities are not the same. It's important to be a good person; it's not important to be a well-liked person. It's important to be a good country; it's not important to be a well-liked country. And I realize there are problems with America. But the reality behind those problems has no relationship to whether or not France (or Turkey, or Winnie Cooper) thinks we're cool. They can like us, they can like like us, or they can hate us. But that is their problem, not ours.”

Politically, especially on the international stage, we are seeing more and more discontent with America. We are not well liked, nor are we respected by many around the globe. And who can blame them? The leader of our nation offends and publicly castigates our closest allies, reneges on promises to our friends, and heaps praise on our avowed enemies, all the while groveling in public ignominy lamenting of our nation’s flaws and errors. If there was a recipe book for politicians on how to ensure their country would not be liked or respected, our president could author it. He has compiled quite the anthology already.

Socially and culturally, there seems to be much truth to Klosterman’s observations as well. We have long departed from the “Leave It To Beaver” era of parenting where values and respect were the foundation of the parent/child relationship. Parents want to be “friends” with their kids, so values and respect take a back seat to child rearing, which has the natural yet undesirable unintended consequence of moral relativism in the children. There is less and less of a sense of right and wrong, and parents allow their children to engage in all kinds of promiscuous and self-destructive behavior, not wanting to press issues of morality for the sake of being “friends” with their kids. They are facilitators and accomplices in their kids’ aberrant and destructive behavior.

It also was the norm not long ago that other adults would often serve as proxy parents for misbehaving children. Adult friends and neighbors would look out for others’ children and reprove them for recalcitrant behavior and report them to their parents for proper disciplining. It seems most adults these days have bought into the same notion of being friends with the local kids rather than acting like adults and looking out for their welfare. No wonder we as a culture have regressed so far. Certainly there are other factors, but this fundamental societal breakdown, this shift from being good to being liked, has to be at the top of the causal list for our social degeneration. I think Hillary Clinton was right, it does take a village.

As Klosterman pointed out, being liked and being good are not synonymous. Neither are “unconditional love” and “support” synonymous. Generally we love our children regardless of the hurtful, stupid, and self-destructive things they do. But do we support them in their actions? If my child wants to commit suicide do I support him in his effort? Of course the notion is ludicrous, and so is it casuistic and specious to think parents should support their children in any other self-destructive behavior. But then, to the parent who prefers to be liked than to be a real parent, maybe the two are indeed synonymous.

There are studies bearing this out as well. Code Blue, a 1990 report by a blue-ribbon panel on the health of American teenagers, warned that “never before has one generation been less healthy, less cared for or less prepared for life than their parents were at the same age.” The experts concluded that the teens’ deteriorating condition was due to their behavior and not to physical illness.

Perhaps the distinction of being liked versus being good is just the reincarnation of the classic Platonic distinction of form versus substance. Someone’s nice or comely, and in today’s world those characteristics have more weight than character, integrity, and substance. What a sad commentary that we pass to successive generations not only a multigenerational national debt that they may never be able to repay, but also a collective social amorality where character matters less than aesthetics and likeability.