Surf's Up

This is why the federal budget is so hard to trim, tiny cuts and big complaints,

In the context of federal spending that will total something like $3.8 trillion this year, $61 billion is a rounding error. Yet the Democrats resisting that amount in House-approved cuts say it will wreck the economy while leaving children unschooled, taking food from the mouths of the elderly, and casting disabled people into the streets.
Laughter is the only appropriate response to such predictions. In these absurd times, when both parties quibble over crumbs while the layer cake of debt rises higher and higher, laughter is a mark of fiscal seriousness.

Yet, when we talking of a 1.6 percent reduction in spending, you would think the apocalypse is just around the corner.  Want an example?  Here is one from Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) and this is pretty mild.

Speaking of accounting problems:  That $6.5 billion in spending cuts proposed by Democrats--yeah not so much.  The Congressional Budget Office says it is really $4.7 billion.  Love that fuzzy math.

Another Governor doing somethings right, this time in Puerto Rico.

Since coming into power in 2009, Gov. Luis Fortuño  (R-Puerto Rico) has cut government spending by 20 percent, lowered taxes and raised the territory’s bond status to its highest rating in 35 years – all during a punishing economic climate.

Impressive, yes.  Not getting a lot of play elsewhere.

Shocking, I know, but college kids have sex.  So why all the hubbub about Brigham Young University suspending their star center on the #3 ranked basketball team in the country?  Because he had sex--really?  Yes, and it is not because he had sex, but because he violated the school's honor code.  Brandon Davies signed an honor code before enrolling, understood that and has accepted the consequences of his actions.  I personally think the BYU code is a tad restrictive, but it is based on the Mormon religious beliefs so who am I to question it.  What I find refreshing is that both the school and the student taking the Honor Code seriously.  If only more schools had and enforced an honor code, we might be better off.

Speaking of higher education--don't be surprised if public and private universities start up an escalator of ever-increasing tuition hikes.  State and local higher education spending hit a 25 year low and with booming enrollement and the coming end of the federal stimulus money to higher education, don't be surprised to see big, big tuition hikes coming.

The end of an era.  The Space Shuttle Discovery landed a short while ago after its final mission and the third to last for the Shuttle Program.  The future of the NASA Space Flight program is in limbo.  I think, though, that private space companies will start to take up the slack.

In soccer/charity news, Major League Soccer's Sporting Kansas City club announced the naming rights for its new stadium will go to champion cyclist Lance's Armstrong's Livestrong Foundation.  This is just way cool, as a percentage of all revenue at the stadium--ticket sales, concessions, etc., will go to the Foundation.  Sporting KC is one of the 18 MLS clubs and they are all getting their acts together on an off the field (well except maybe Toronto--whose front office is being a joke).

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Surf's Up

Well, it's time for "feminists" to break out their annual, Bash Sports Illustrated columns as the sports mag's annual Swimsuit Issue is hitting the newstands now.  The Daily Caller looks back at some recent cover photos.  I must say it is nice to look at, but I have to say that some of the female athletes in the ESPN the Body Issue are just as delightful to look at.

Lots of talk today about President Obama's budget and everyone is talking about the fact that the debt is as much as the GDP.  But these charts from Doug Ross showing just how bad the budget picture under President Obama really is, should also get news.

As the budget battle gets started in force, the seemingly annual issue of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and National Public Radio gets started.  Jill Lawrence, an admitted fan of CPB and NPR, thinks that it is time to phase them out of the federal budget.  I couldn't agree more, largely because the reason for CPB and NPR no longer exist.  the entities were created at a time when television and radio options were very small.  There is no longer a need for it.

Onto something else, there are some doctors who require a man to get his wife's consent to get a vasectomy.  Huh?  How does that work on a legal basis?

Finally, as a veteran, and one who voted in two elections while in the service, the voting rights of overseas service members and civilians concerns me.  Today there was testimony about the Department of Justice's actions to protect (or not protect) the voting rights of our overseas citizens.

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Surf's Up

Wow, work has been crazy so I have been slow on the posting.

Here are some stories I find interesting today:

The Budget Battle as it is being called is coming to the House of Representatives.  I have to admit, the GOP leadership is faced with a problem--the tea-party freshman are a big enough block to be reckoned with.  The tea party freshmen are holding the mirror up and trying to get serious cuts to the budget.  The schism on spending has been behind closed doors, but it is becoming public.  The freshman could become a real pain for Speaker John Boehner.

A couple of teacher stories.  First a high school English teacher in the Philadelphia area blogged about her students and it has gotten her in trouble.  The story is not clear if the teacher actually named her students and the blog has since been deleted.  But the teacher apparently wanted to write on student reports the truth as she saw rather than the canned resonses urged by her employer.  Parents want the teacher fired.  Do you think that is bad, try a teacher in Silver Spring, MD who has been arrested and held in jail for physically assaulting her students.  This is bad, very bad.  It is made worse by the fact that her students are 6 and 7 years old.  Not teenagers--kids--first graders.  The galling thing to me--the teacher who is in jail--has been place on administrative leave.

As NASA is planning their final shuttle mission, there is a wonder about the future of space flight in the U.S.   I think the idea of privatized space flight is a good idea.  If you don't think so, take a look at the Star Trek: First Contact movie, the man who invented warp drive for humans in that film was revered by Capt. Picard and his contemporaries in their own time.  But when they travel back in time (it is not as bad as you think) that same "hero" turned out to be a guy looking to make a buck.  It is not so bad to be interested in making a dollar and inventing something that benefits everyone in the long run.

Glenn Reynolds has a bit on being a conservative in academia.   Are academic conservatives the gays of 2010?

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Surf's Up

American Thinker's C. Edmund Wright has the  Top Ten Reasons to Support Herman Cain for President.  I don't know much about Cain, but if half these things turn out to be true, I would love to see that campaign.  My favorite reason:

4. Never held office before: While Cain's opponents -- on both sides of the aisle -- are licking their chops over this one, they should rethink this.  Mr. Cain already has a lethal (can we still say that?) response to this one: "Everyone in Washington has held public office before.  How's that working out for you?"  Case closed.

I would love to see someone pose that question to Cain and see him respond to that in a debate.  It would be absolutely brilliant.

Last night was the State of the Union speech and I have to say, I am completely underwhelmed.  Yeah, it was delivered well, I have never claimed that Obama can't deliver a speech, but like most SOTU speeches it lacked any kind of coherent theme or message and delved into the typical laundry list of items on a to-do list.  My biggest problem is that the President and indeed many national leaders, except maybe Paul Ryan and a few others, are looking at the biggest problem we as a nation face:  DEBT.  Reason Magazine's Peter Suderman points out the same thing, much better than I.

But the mounting national debt is not just a problem. It is the problem. We are out of money. The national wallet is virtually empty, the bank account dollars are all spent, and the line of credit is about to get more expensive. All other policies—from health care to unemployment to infrastructure spending to the tax code—must be considered in the context of the debt.

Of course, that is something Congress should have been doing since the time of FDR, but has largely abdicated that responsibility.

I have engaged in a debate with friends about why there is so much scorn heaped on public sector employees and/or unions.  My beef is not so much with individual employees--unless they don't do their job or treat me like an afterthough when they are supposed to provide a service.  My beef has always been with unions and here is a good reason why:

Despite the dire financial condition of his state, and the fact that it was (and still is) a sovereign deadbeat that fails to pay its bills, Illinois Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn found room to cut a sweetheart deal with its public employee unions in September. They were guaranteed two years of cost-of-living increases and no layoffs. Quinn, in turn, got the union's endorsement and won his 2010 election by less than 1 percentage point.

This provides a dramatic illustration of what has for years been political business as usual for liberals in public office. To save their own jobs, they cut deals with your money, offering premium benefits and exorbitant salaries to public workers. Much of the cost is deferred until these employees retire, and so the unfunded liabilities of public pensions have become enormous, threatening states and cities with imminent insolvency. By some estimates, state and municipal governments will have to come up with $3.5 trillion in new funds just to keep the pension checks going out. Things are so bad in California that state officials had to commission an independent Stanford University study just to get a handle on its pension liabilities, which turn out to be a staggering $535 billion.

Now, of course, part of the blame has to go to politicians who have refused to either 1) adequately fund the pensions at the proper time and 2) failing to show some spine and say no.


Tired of politics and can't give a toss about the Oscars and entertainment award season--check out this Toy of the Year nominee list.

I hate meetings--I find them utterly unproductive in 99.5% of the cases.  When I was a lobbyist, so much of my time was wasted in meetings.  If you hate them too, and have control of the agenda, I recommend this and a stopwatch.  Man what a deal.

Surf's Up

Remember the Dream Act? Joanne Jacobs has an idea, link the Dream Act to military service.  There is a long history of using military service as a stepping stone to citizenship.  The only downside to Jacbobs' idea is that in the past the military would take legal immigrants into their ranks, this would be a signficant policy change, allowing illegal immigrants into the ranks gives the air of legitimacy to their actions--even after you require them to disavow allegiance to their home nation.

As the round of state of the states addresses and state budget proposals start making their way into the news cycle, one this is almost certain--there are going to be some painful cuts in state spending--including education: It's a tough time to be a state legislator. I spent Saturday morning listening to Washington State House Education Committee testimony from school board members, teachers, principals, and parents of kids in special program all speaking against budget cuts. No one in the room seemed to understand that everything is different this time.

Money manager Whitney Tilson suggests that the fiscal crisis "means that the 100+ year bull market in education funding is likely over." Over the last thirty years, we doubled staffing ratios, added generous pensions, and greased the wheels of reform with lots of extra spending--that is over. The ARRA stimulus will be noted as the zenith of education funding (and federal control in education); states are broke, the cliff is here.

Indeed, many states are looking at 10% to 20% budget shortfalls (Nevada is looking at 40%) on top of the budget shortfalls that took place in the past 2-3 years necessitating spending cuts or tax increases.  The time when schools were largely insulated from spending cuts is over.

Speaking of education, is the Rhodes Scholarship losing its luster?  Well maybe not the scholarship itself, but at least on scholarship committee members seems to think that the quality of candidate is going down and she blames the growing specialization of an undergraduate degree these days.  I have, however, become increasingly concerned in recent years - not about the talent of the applicants but about the education American universities are providing. Even from America's great liberal arts colleges, transcripts reflect an undergraduate specialization that would have been unthinkably narrow just a generation ago.

As a result, high-achieving students seem less able to grapple with issues that require them to think across disciplines or reflect on difficult questions about what matters and why.

The writer is Heather Wilson, a former U.S. Representative from New Mexico, U.S. Air Force officer and Rhodes Scholar.


As usual, Don Boudreaux lays out in a nice simple, easy to understand case about health care, and what the GOP should do to answer the question about what to do about health care, here is my favorite nugget:

“Most importantly, yes, the government will step aside to let each of you make your own choices, and to let entrepreneurs experiment creatively and competitively with different ways of supplying and financing health-care.

“No, the result won’t be unlimited health-care for anyone.  But, yes, it will be more, better, and less costly health-care for everyone.  Oh – and, yes, America will also be a freer society.”

Of course, it is unlikely that the GOP will say such things because we as a society have gotten used to the government intervention in health care.

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Surf's Up!!

Today's Internet waves

The media response to the Tuscon shooting, according to Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion, is a roadmap to how the media will work to destroy challengers to President Obama in 2012.   It is a good, logical exposition.  I have little doubt that such efforts will take place.

Speaking of liberal bias in the media, Bryan Caplan thinks we need to look at bias in the school system as well.

Political leaders in this country previously touted the Canadian  healthcare system as a model for the United States to follow.  Lots of people in this country thought such a model was inherently wrong to follow in terms of healthcare.  But instead of healthcare, maybe we should take a long hard look at how Canada has turned around their budget crisis. 

A federal government runs a large deficit. Deficits are so large that the ratio of federal debt to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) approaches 70 percent. A constituency of voters have gotten used to large federal spending programs. Does that sound like the United States? Well, yes. But it also describes Canada in 1993. Yet, just 16 years later, Canada’s federal debt had fallen from 67 percent to only 29 percent of GDP. Moreover, in every year between 1997 and 2008, Canada’s federal government had a budget surplus. In one fiscal year, 2000–2001, its surplus was a whopping 1.8 percent of GDP. If the U.S. government had such a surplus today, that would amount to a cool $263 billion rather than the current deficit of more than $1.5 trillion

Keith Olberman is leaving Countdown.  Supposedly the highest rated show on MSNBC, you have to wonder what will happen to the network.  I won't miss his "Worst Person" segments.

Surf's Up!!

Today's interesting internet waves:

Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan doesn't use her position on the highest court in the land to get out of jury duty. Admirable and you would think that the lawyers or the judge would think twice about empaneling her.  If she doesn't get out of jury duty, I am pretty sure you won't be either.

Municipalities are permitted to declare bankruptcy under the federal Bankruptcy Court, but generally states are not.  Is there movement afoot to allow states to declare bankruptcy?  Yep, but it is not that easy. What is standing in the way is the notion of state sovereignty.  But what is interesting is whether or not states are truly sovereign in our nation anymore given their dependence on federal funds and the multiple restrictions and legislation that forces states to act in a certain fashion.  That will be an interesting dispute.

The GOP has announced some real spending cuts.  What will the President do?

Much was made of the effort in Congress to maintain the Bush tax cuts as law, which ultimately succeeded.  However, the problem is that the tax cuts will go away as states and localities are passing income tax hikes in order to cover their massive budget shortfalls.  Illinois is one such state and it is ugly.

Remember Barry Bonds, yeah that guy who hit a lot of home runs was indicted in November of 2007 on 11 counts of obstruction of justice and perjury.  But his trial has been delayed multiple times and it still a few months away.  Professor Michael McCann's column in Sports Illustrated takes a look at what to expect in the trial.

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Surf's Up!!

Some of today's waves

If you are a politician and you are going to have a sex scandal, don't pull a Bill Clinton and hide it with one woman, make sure your sex scandal is as salacious as possible.  Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is under investigation not for just having sex parties but doing it with underage girls.

Most people, rightfully, think that Martin Luther King, Jr. was a proponent of peaceful change, but he also believed in protecting his family.  A little known fact, until now, is that King had not only armed guards protecting his family and home, but had at one time applied for a conceal carry permit because of death threats.  Guns are not just about slaughter but also about protection.

Speaking of Dr. King, Meira Levinson raises the question of whether or not we teach the right lessons to school kids about Dr. King.  Prof. Levinson believes we should be talking more about Kings methods, methodologies and collective civic action.  I have some thoughts on the matter as well.

Even though we are some 20 months from the 2012 elections, some long serving Senators are heading for the door.  Sens. Joe Lieberman, Kay Bailey Hutchison and Kent Conrad are all exiting.  One Independent, one Republican and one Democrat.  Jennifer Rubin looks at Hutchison and Conrad and the differences between the two.

A week ago or so, the Illinois Legislature voted a 66% increase in taxes for that state on some taxpayers.  Wisconsin is not actively courting businesses to come to the Badger state.  Newly elected Illinois Governor Pat Quinn is now on the defensive, claiming that Illinois is still the economic engine of the Midwest.  Maybe, but for how long?

Close to my home, we are seeing in the Maryland Republican Party, an endangered species as it is, a rather stupid implosion over the former State Senator Minority Leader Allan Kittleman resigning over his support of a civil union bill.  The talk is about "litmus" tests and how ridiculous it is for a party that is in critical condition in the state to force the resignation of a man who campaigned heavily for Republicans of all stripes in the last election and still stood up after the party got kicked in the teeth.  There are lots of different takes on the matter, from a political viewpoint, a concern about "litmus" tests, and of course, a failure of Republican "leadership" to see the larger picture. Seems pretty stupid.  My advice to Republicans--focus on economic and government spending and let everything else wait.

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Surf's Up!!

Welcome to my new daily feature that I am going to call Surf's Up!  These are some links that I found interesting in my Reader feed today.

College students are not learning to think critically.  "An unprecedented study that followed several thousand undergraduates through four years of college found that large numbers didn't learn the critical thinking, complex reasoning and written communication skills that are widely assumed to be at the core of a college education."  Are these really the skills that we think of as core skills of a college education?  If so, why?

President Obama will sign an executive order to cut down on wasteful business regulation.  Well, gee thanks, that is about two years too late.  Now about that other branch of government cutting down on legislation that authorizes regulation.  Any hope on that front?

As our President wants to move to a more "European" style health care, Britain, said to be the preferred model, is looking to move away from a "second rate" health care system.  "In a speech outlining the government's plans to overhaul public services, Cameron promised to get rid of 'topdown, command-and-control bureaucracy and targets.' He said that with an aging population and growing demand for new medical treatments, 'pretending that there is some easy option of sticking with the status quo and hoping that a little bit of extra money will smooth over the challenges is a complete fiction.'"  Hmmmm.

USA Today:  States are looking at long term budget problems.  The opposing view:  It's Wall Street's fault.  Seriously guys, there's lots of blame to share.

From the "if you have to ask, you can't afford it" department, a $1 billion dollar yacht.