“If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading”  ― Buddha

Things that can’t go on forever, won’t. Debt that can’t be repaid, won’t be.
Promises that can’t be kept, won’t be.                                               — Glen Reynolds

I started the new year off wrong by watching our leaders ‘solve’ the fiscal cliff crisis.  To make things worse, I watched some of them make speeches afterward, patting themselves on the back for their great work.  The President spoke and was pleased with himself and with the legislators for achieving the “balanced approach” that he had demanded and for taking important steps to cut the deficit that he cares so much about.  And then he flew to Hawaii for more vacation.

What a contemptible group of short-sighted posturing fools we have in Washington.  We can count on them not to do the right thing.  The ‘balanced approach’ in this bill gave us $41 dollars in new taxes for every dollar of budget cuts.  And the bill authorizes new spending that consumes over half of the projected new revenue.  There’s pork for Hollywood, pork for windmills, pork for algae and Nascar.  It’s dirty business as usual.   77% of taxpayers will see an increase in their tax burden.  This is how Obama is protecting the middle class.

There were a few lawmakers who spoke the truth during the deliberations.  They discussed our government’s out-of-control spending, they discussed the consequences of our staggering debt and they discussed the consequences for our grandchildren.  These are the people characterized as fringe extremists, Tea Party types, the ones who don’t want to compromise for the good of the country.  And by compromise, they mean spend wildly like there is no tomorrow.  Expand government.

Can we tax and spend our way out of our economic problems?  Who could possibly believe that?  Even the projected revenue from this legislation will only run our bloated government for a few days.  And it is likely that the legislation will actually reduce business activity and thereby reduce revenue.

We are in an economic death spiral.  If we don’t change direction, we will end up where we are heading.  The majority of our legislators either don’t see this, or don’t care.  Obama clearly wants to go full speed ahead in our current direction.  There is no reason at all to believe that he cares about big spending and the exploding deficit.   The mainstream media are lemmings who will blindly and obediently follow him over the debt cliff …leading their unthinking followers.

Too often, political stories are reported like a sporting event.  Which party is going to win the battle today?  By focusing on today’s skirmish, the big picture is ignored.    But, it’s not about them.  It’s about us. The relevent thing is not whether something helps or hurts Obama.  The relevant thing is our children’s future; our country’s future.

You and I know that our country is in peril. The government’s many obligations that cannot be paid will not be paid and there will be consequences.  The longer we wait to face this, the worse the consequences.  But there are people who see economic collapse as a good thing.  The followers of the Cloward-Piven Strategy are so immersed in this socialist utopian delusion that they seek an economic collapse, assuming that a wonderful socialist world will arise from the ashes.  There are powerful people who have this belief.  This strikes me as very similar to the delusion of those who committed suicide to join paradise on the Hale-Bopp comet.

I’ll end today’s post with a couple of paragraphs from Michael Auslin at NRO:

… we have crossed the Rubicon of political reality. The president holds a cheerleading session to ridicule Congress, not one plan offered makes even the smallest dent in our economic disaster, cynical political ploys by Harry Reid torpedo possible agreements — all these petty politicians fiddle while America burns. And then, we’re supposed to believe that a last-second deal responsibly solves the problem from a bunch of bickerers who had months (years, really) to tackle the issue?

Our crisis is political, not economic. Politics is ultimately a moral exercise, no matter what it deals with. Leaders are stewards of our social patrimony. What we see in Washington today is not gridlock. It is collapse. It is the final triumph of political theater over political reality, of ignorance over reasoned governing, of self-interest over principle. A $12 trillion economy and 230-plus-year history can survive a great deal of abuse and neglect. But history proves no state is immune from the self-inflicted idiocy of its leaders or people. Just how long we will survive in this state is now a proposition fully engaged. It is the great social experiment of the 21st century

The fact that some thoughts are unpleasant does not make them less true.

It is very unpleasant to think about the mess our country is in.  And our concern increases when we evaluate the motley collection of so-called leaders whose task is to undo the mess.  In large part, they made the mess.

Unpleasant or not, facing reality is the best approach. There are two unusual politicians, both outside the mainstream, whose thoughts on our situation are worth considering.

Here is Ron Paul from a CNBC interview last Friday:

“I think we have passed that point of no return where we can actually get our house in order.  I believe there is too much bipartisanship on the spending. Nobody is talking about cutting any spending.”  [While others are talking about the need for bi-partisan agreement, contrarian Paul notes that the parties agree on far too much.  In reality, both support massive, growing government.]

“Republicans and Democrats,” he continued, “ pretend they’re fighting up there, but they really aren’t. They’re arguing over power, spin, and who looks good, and who looks bad, but they’re all trying to preserve this system where they can spend what they want, take care of their friends, and let the Fed print money when they need it.”

Paul expects a temporary fix, which, like all the ‘fixes’ in Greece, will be touted as a solution when it is not a solution at all.

Paul continues, “There’s no admission that they have a crisis. They have no admission that the country is bankrupt. There’s no admission that our government is spending way too much and it’s way beyond our means and there’s not a single bit of effort to cut anything,” the congressman continued.  “Even when they talk about slashing the budget and all these cuts, they’re only talking about tinkering along the edges of proposed automatic increases.”

“They are so they so far removed from admitting the seriousness of this crisis and if they don’t admit it, they can’t solve the problem. They’re like a bunch of drug addicts that just want another fix. That’s what they are looking for.”

In another recent interview, Paul said,  “I would raise the debt ceiling on one condition and that would be a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution.  Barring that, people in Congress, those who I’ve met up here, they don’t deserve to manage any more money. They’re doing a bad job managing the money they have. We should not send them any more money.  They’re not to be trusted with money.“

Wayne Allen Root, a Libertarian Republican from Nevada, named the reasons that he believes our country faces the most serious economic crisis in our history.  The problems he names are real.  His article begins this way:

Everywhere from FoxNews.com to CNBC.com, I suddenly see commentators warning  of pending doom, economic collapse, and a new Great Depression. Welcome to my  club. Perhaps America’s politicians and economists should have paid  attention to an entrepreneur and small businessman that has been warning of  economic collapse and a new Great Depression publicly for over two  years.

More importantly, none of the current commentaries mention the “why’s” of  this slow motion economic collapse…beyond the obvious — mountains of deficit  and debt. None of them mention the dysfunctional structure of the current U.S.  economy and the massive changes in the work ethic and mindset of the average  American.

I am a successful small businessman and a patriot who loves America and  always sees its greatness. I am also an optimistic, positive thinker who always  sees the glass half full.

But not this time.

This time we are in such deep trouble, the only solution is a radical  restructuring of the politicians, the economy, and the way we view personal  responsibility versus government handouts. If those changes don’t come then we  are facing a long decline and the eventual end of America.

This time the results are going to be dramatically worse than 1929. This time  we are facing The Greatest Depression ever.

Why? Because The Great Depression had NONE of the structural, economic, and  social problems, nor the massive obligations we are now facing.

In 1929 America was not $16 trillion in debt, plus facing over  $100 trillion in unfunded liabilities.  That’s over $360,000 in debt per citizen.

In 1929, most of our states were not bankrupt, insolvent and dependent on  federal government handouts to survive….             …..Read the rest of Root’s analysis here.

One of the best columns of the year was written by a columnist for The Telegraph.  Janet Daley’s column is titled:  The truth is that politicians are telling lies.  She writes truth about big lies that will effect your future and it is worth reading in its entirety.  Excerpts:

Was 2012 the year when the democratic world lost its grip on reality? Must we
assume now that no party that speaks the truth about the economic future has a chance of winning power in a national election? With the results of presidential contests in the United States and France as evidence, this would seem to be the only possible conclusion. Any political leader prepared to deceive the
electorate into believing that government spending, and the vast system of
services that it provides, can go on as before – or that they will be able to
resume as soon as this momentary emergency is over – was propelled into office
virtually by acclamation.

So universal has this rule turned out to be that parties and leaders who know
better – whose economic literacy is beyond question – are now afraid even to
hint at the fact which must eventually be faced. The promises that governments
are making to their electorates are not just misleading: they are unforgivably
dishonest. …

…This is not an ideological argument about the moral advantages of a smaller
state: it is simple economic necessity. As the man said, there’s no money left.
And the only ways that anybody can think of for the state to get more of it are
either futile (taxing the “rich”) or destructive of any possibility of recovery
(more borrowing). What began as a banking collapse has turned into a crisis of
democratic politics. Is this what we have to look forward to? The process of
campaigning and voting will be an irrelevance: all parties will tell pretty much
the same lies. Whichever one is marginally more credible than the others will
gain power (probably in coalition with another bunch of liars), and then have to
do what needs to be done in whatever desperate, underhand ways it can devise.
Nobody will feel that he got what he voted for, because what he voted for was
impossible.

 Time Magazine claimed that one of the primary reasons that President Obama deserved to be their “Man of the Year” was because he was able to capture the votes of the large segment of the population who don’t know anything about politics and don’t normally pay any attention to it.  He mobilized the “Political Fools for Obama” demographic.  Impressive achievement.

The people who vote for a living now outnumber the people who work for a living.

People warned us that our democracy would fail when citizens realized that they could vote themselves benefits from the public treasury.  We’re there.  Economist Northrup Beuchner writes:

We may be seeing the beginning of the end of the model for civilized governance that has dominated Western civilization since WWII. That model has been provision by the state of all or most of the needs of its people combined with the popular election of the government. Or, in other words, the welfare state plus democracy.

What we are seeing in Europe is that that model is inherently unsustainable. The concept of individual rights is the only standard for government action that puts an objective limit on what the government can do. The post-war leaders of Europe were completely ignorant of that standard. They adopted instead the principle that the primary function of government is to assure its citizens’ welfare. Since there is no limit in principle to the free benefits people would like to get from their government, politicians competed for their citizens’ votes by promising and providing more and more welfare. The political parties that promised the most benefits won the elections.

As for the winner of the last big election, President Obama, is increasingly comfortable in his lies.  They seem to be working well for him.  Few in the media even question his absurd claims, so the politician with the worst record of debt creation in history, the one who has not advanced a single credible plan to deal with this disaster, can still stand before a microphone and tell us how very concerned he is about the debt, and calmly assure us that he is working very hard to deal with it.  Those are the lies.  Here is the truth about his plan from Daniel Halper:

Spending will increase 55 percent over the next decade, if President Barack Obama’s budget plan goes into effect. The finding comes from the Republican-side of the Senate Budget Committee, which notes that Obama’s “Proposal Would Spend $880 Billion Over Already Projected Increases.”

Here’s a chart, detailing how Obama’s plan would bring spending from $3.62 trillion in 2013 to $5.63 trillion in 2022:

“The President’s last fiscal cliff offer once again increased spending rather than reducing it,” writes the minority-side of the Senate Budget Committee. “His plan does claim $800 billion in spending reductions over ten years, but these claims are more than offset by new spending increases: increasing spending above BCA limits ($1,200 billion); paying for the doc fix ($400 billion); new transportation stimulus spending ($50 billion), and; a one-year extension of unemployment insurance ($30 billion).  After subtracting the president’s savings from his spending increases, over the next 10 years the President’s proposal actually spends $880 billion more – $44.368 trillion versus $43.488 trillion – than currently projected spending levels.  In the next two years alone, the President’s plan would spend $255 billion over current projected spending levels ($156 billion higher in FY13 and $99 billion higher in FY14). Overall, spending would increase 55% under the President’s plan, from $3.6 trillion in FY13 to $ 5.6 trillion in FY22.”

I have been away from the world of politics for a couple of weeks.  We had an extended Thanksgiving vacation in Maui that included children, grandchildren and in-laws.  It was a very good trip except for the part where a large tiger shark attacked a member of the family.  The shark sunk his teeth into the left leg of Tom Kennedy, my daughter Courtney’s father-in-law.

Tom, my other daughter Holly, and I were snorkeling at one of my favorite uncrowded reefs.  We had paddled there on our stand-up-surfboards and anchored the boards while we snorkeled.  Though we had intended to stay close together, Tom was separated from Holly and I when he was attacked.

Tom is a calm and rational man and remained so even after he had looked the shark right in the eye as the beast held his leg in its large mouth.  Tom said he had two goals at that moment:  1. To swim to his board (a considerable distance) without being eaten, and 2. To warn Holly and I to get out of the water.  He accomplished both goals.

Tom is recovering well and, though his leg was cut quite badly, we expect no permanent disability from the attack.

I have two observations about the aftermath of the attack.  First is the overwhelming interest that the world has in shark attacks.  This was a serious injury, but not so different from more common injuries like dog attacks or even bicycle accidents.  But this shark story spread far and fast …across America and into Europe.   The appetite for shark stories is huge.

When we are young, the idea of a monster that can eat you captures our imagination.  It is a powerfully terrifying idea and I don’t think we really ever grow out of it.  Stories of shark attacks and grizzly bear attacks are in this special category which lights up a deeply emotional part of our brains.

The other observation came soon after the ambulance took Tom to the hospital.  By this time, there were large numbers of ‘officials’ at the point where we brought Tom to shore.  Some had come to help and some had come out of personal interest.  There were many policemen, firemen and lifeguards who had come to see what was happening.  A few of the firemen actually helped get Tom up the rocky shoreline to await the ambulance, but mostly they were just standing around.

They watched me gather up our big surfboards and snorkel gear.  They watched me clean each piece and carry it, with some difficulty, up the rocks.  Not one of a dozen or so ‘public servants’ offered to help.  They just watched me do what needed to be done.

The beaches were closed for a mile in each direction.  Helicopters flew over instructing people to stay out of the water.  Many officials were doing official things for two days.  People were called in to ride around on jet skis trying to see a shark.   The next day was quite windy and there was no visibility into the water, but that did not stop the helicopters and jet skiers from giving the appearance of doing something useful.  Later the second day they opened all the beaches on the apparent assumption that sharks were no longer around.

So I guess there are people who believe that a helicopter flying over a windswept ocean can confirm that a big chunk of ocean has no sharks.  These are probably the same people who think that frisking grandmothers in airports makes us safer  …or that Washington bureaucrats telling local schools how to educate children is vital  … or that Feds telling farmers how to milk cows is an important government function.

But to me, the fact that the government helicopter pilot did not see a shark has no meaning at all.  The pilot, the TSA frisker, the federal educator, the busybody rules and regulation makers all think they are doing important work.  I disagree.  The growing hordes of bureaucrats are a monster that can eat us.

Did you know that 544,000 government jobs have been added since July?  73% of the jobs created in the last 5 months are in government.  Unemployment is now 3.8% for government workers.  On the private side of the ledger, the side that pays for everything, the November employment report showed that another 350,000 people dropped from the labor force. They are no longer even trying to help pull the wagon.  They are jumping into the wagon along with the 544,000.

And don’t be fooled by the Obama-media reporting these changes positively as a drop in unemployment.  Giving up on looking for work is quite a different thing from finding a job.

Government workers make much more money than similarly skilled people in the private sector.  They retire earlier with better retirement.  It is nearly impossible to fire them for poor job performance.  Many states are on the verge of bankruptcy from the exploding cost of bureaucrats.  Bloomberg has some shocking statistics here.

There are large parts of the government that are useless; even destructive.   And it is immoral to fund the bloated bureaucracy by borrowing money from our grandchildren.  There are entire agencies that you would not miss if they disappeared tomorrow.

Be afraid.  This monster can devour us and our grandchildren.  It’s a long way back to our board.

********************************

Two recent news stories reinforce the point about the useless overgrowth of government.  Mark Steyn reports on the tragic comedy of FEMA’s response to Hurricane Sandy in “The Department of Leaflets”.   If you are a hurricane victim and you need forms and leaflets and more forms to get more leaflets, then they have you covered.  And they are passing out useful advice, like the fact that placing things higher than the water level helps keep them dry.

Kevin Williamson reports that there is really nothing too trivial for the bureaucracy to micro-manage.  See his “Against the Eggnog Gestapo”.