On the Contrary

Or you could title this, nothing really ever changes.  I am sitting in my chair with my knee up (ruptured Patellar Tendon) listening to NPR (National Public Radio) and I hear Carly Fiorina, who is going to challenge Barbra Boxer for the California Senate seat, say,  “We need to cut taxes and reduce the deficit.  We know how to balance our own budgets so why can’t Washington.”  In another piece I hear a Republican Strategist tell NPR that the lesson from the election is that the Democrats need to be more bipartisan and that John Boehner will work with the Democrats on a health care bill.  Both of these statements are beyond outrageous.

Let’s start with Carly.  She had a disastrous run at HP as CEO where she was widely criticized for mismanagement and her bullying leadership of one of Silicon Valley’s legendary companies and then was ousted to return the company (HP) to profitability. (CNN)  Then she became an advisor for economic policy for John McCain, but her ego got out of control when she told two separate interviewers that neither member of the Republican ticket would be capable of running a company.  (Huffington Post)  This would be the woman you want to send to Congress to get things done?  She would be just one more of the dinosaurs up there.

But let’s look at her standard conservative mantra of cutting taxes and reducing the deficit.  Now unless I am confused, cutting taxes reduces cash flow into the treasury, i.e. increases the deficit. Remember, that is what George did. Oh, I forgot, flow down.  Once taxes are lower, then revenue flows into the Treasury.  Problem with that is it has never happened and our tax rate on the rich is the lowest it has been since 1931 and the recessions continues.  But wait.  She will cut spending by removing waste.  Well name names sweetheart and you will find that one person’s waste is another person’s lifeline.  The biggest wasteful program is military spending and I’ll bet that is not on your chopping block.  And just what are you going to do about all that infrastructure spending that we have put off for years and now needs major investment.  As I like to say the devil is in the details.  So if we fall for this again as another example of conservative free ride-ism, we deserve to slowly fade as a great country. She would be a disastrous for California and the nation.  If this stuff doesn’t sound like the Republicans in 2000, we really do have memory failure.

Now for the bipartisan approach, are we that dumb?  The lesson here is that bipartisan to Republican means the Republican way.  After the Stimulus bill, the health care bill, the climate bill, what we should have learned is that they don’t want to play unless it is their rules.  But even more relevant is that their solutions are what we have been doing and as a result we are in a mess.  So we should bring them into the process and water down real change so that nothing ever changes? The Republican Party is the party of corporations and status quo.  The status quo is destroying us.  So lets bring them back into the process so we can do more failed things harder?

I don’t know, but if these messages that these Republicans are selling catch on, we are truly doomed as a nation who cannot learn from their mistakes.  There are no easy solutions to our problems and they are going to take sacrifice from all of us to build a better tomorrow.  Buying into the conservative shtick is just another attempt at denial of our basic problems and how we got here.  It is really time to put these people and their ideas where they belong, on the junk heap.

What is it about checking the polls before we do anything?  It has become the measure of what is possible.  How many people believe that global warming exists?  How many people support continued troop deployments in Afghanistan?  Is there strong support in the country for tough Wall Street Regulations?  What percentage of the voters thinks there should be a public option for health care?  What percentage thinks we should investigate torture?  It goes on and on and it tells us nothing about what we should do, only the challenge we face to convince people of the problem.

Leadership is about telling the people what they should do and then convincing them to follow.  We seem to have forgotten that.  Leadership is about finding what will really work to solve our problems and then convincing people to do it.  It would appear that we are getting buried in the conventional wisdom about what the voters will support, and everything else is getting buried as impractical.

Health care is the prime example.  Is it more important to know what the electorate wants or is it more important to figure out what will really provide 100% coverage and start to restructure our system to lower costs with better outcomes?  If the two aren’t aligned isn’t it the leaders job to show the voters what will work and convince them to support him?  If you believe that the Republicans will never vote for a public option, should you negotiate it away even if you think it is critical to your reform package?  Maybe if you really went out there and fought for the public option, there would be enough pressure on the Republicans to change some of their votes.  It’s called leadership.

I love the discussion that is going on right now whether the voters will stand for more troops in Afghanistan.  Wrong discussion.  The American voters will support a troop increase if they are convinced it is in our long-term interests.  So the discussion ought to be on what is our goal, what are the policy choices, what are our alternatives, and what does it cost.  Once you have a plan forward that you believe in, then the job is selling it.  It’s called leadership.

My real consternation is with this idea that health care needs to be bipartisan to work.  Actually it needs to have the right elements to work and if the Republicans continue to try to block things, then the President should lead for an effective policy, not one that is fatally flawed so we can include elements of failed philosophical ideas.  Sometimes the other side just doesn’t have any good ideas and it is just time to move on.  Now is that time.  Right now 66% of our population is “confused” about health care.  If that is not an indictment of failed leadership, nothing is.

For my own part, I take issue with most of the conventional wisdom of today about most of our policy issues.  The conventional wisdom is that we should not be too far to the left or right, but continue a middle of the road approach that most of the voters will be comfortable with.  But as I look at the challenges that face us, I am convinced that old go slow approaches are no longer operative.  In order to get back into the race, regain a leadership position in the world, and secure the financial security for our children, we need a totally different approach.  This means government has a major role in bringing about these changes because the market place has shown that its only interest is in the status quo of the moneymakers.  Not only do we need to convince the voters of this, but we need to convince these same people to make the necessary sacrifices in taxes and life choices, to secure our future.

David Brooks in his column on Monday said, “It means he (the President) has to align his proposals to the values of the political center: fiscal responsibility, individual choice and decentralized authority.” But the political center, by which he means right of center, and decentralized authority, is what is leading to our downfall.  It doesn’t mean we give up on market solutions, it just means that the market is not the be all and end all of policy solutions.  It is time to move in another direction and we need the leadership to show us that direction.  So far it has been sadly lacking.  If you think I am wrong, ask yourself why 66% of the nation is confused on health care.  This one is a no-brainer.

The Driveway and My Trusty Friend Sophie On our Way to Get the Newspaper

It is my birthday today so I am giving myself a present by allowing myself to rant illogically much like the Republicans in California and in our Congress seem to do every day.  Usually, although unbeknownst by many readers, I try to be reasonable in my writing, but today I cast caution to the wind.  So here are my favorite hot button issues:

• A 2/3 majority for anything (60 votes in the case of the filibuster) except Constitutional amendments is patently stupid and puts the minority wing-nuts in the drivers seat.  It means change only happens when it is too late.
• Chris Mathews  (who drives me crazy because he can’t let a guest finish an answer) spouted a conventional wisdom the other day that may be totally wrong.  He said that if the stimulus package works the Democrats win and if it fails, the Republicans win and will be back in 2010.  For him it is black and white, but I don’t think so.  If the economy has not recovered in 2010 there is a third possibility:  The voters will know that the Democrats are trying something new and they have been hamstrung every step of the way by the Republicans trying to reinvent the wonderful Bush years.  They will finally give the Democrats the majorities to get something done.
• It amazes me that the ditto heads on the cable news outlets continue to echo the Republican talking points instead of bringing in real economists to have a debate about our policy direction.  Only MSNBC seems to have recognized the absolute hypocrisy of many of the Republican statements and is starting to point them out.  It might just be healthy for the country if the news media gave up on their attempt to be unbiased by allowing ridiculous statements to stand and just started laughing at them as David Schuster did the other day.  Perspective is the heart of finding truth.
• Eric Holder is going to visit Guantanamo to get a first hand view of the conditions down there.  Raise your hand if you think he is going to get the real story.  Back in my Viet Nam days I remember the dog and pony shows that were prepared for visiting dignitaries so they would cause us as little trouble as possible.  I guess he has to say he has been there, but anybody think a planned visit and briefing by those who have an agenda to keep it open is going to get at the truth is smoking weed.
• This one I am really going to get in trouble for.  Most of you have probably read about the Muslim man who beheaded his wife in their TV studio in Orchard Park, New York, after she had presented him with divorce papers.  This is doubly ironic because they had established their TV station so show how modern Islam could be and many think this was an honor killing (by the way this is what Pakistan legitimized when it allowed the Sharia Law to be implemented in Swat Valley).  But I can’t help thinking that this reflects on all men in more primitive societies (read religions here because women are usually subservient to men) and sometimes (actually a lot) reflects on them in our own modern society.  That is that many men are really very insecure little people with big egos.  In this world women must be owned because we don’t have the courage to let them make their own choices.  Women are hated because they can reject you and hurt you deeply, therefore must be controlled at all times.   I guess being loved or not loved for who you are is just too risky a proposition for many.
• Forget bipartisanship when the other side just has it wrong.  It is truly amazing that after eight years of failed policies (deregulate and cut taxes) we even consider these arguments anymore.  President Obama has it right.  Learn to be polite, conciliatory, and tough.  Don’t let the attempt to compromise with failed ideas obstruct the path forward, but don’t ever loose your civility.
• Does anybody recognize what is happening in this country?  We have a President who can think and talk and is out there trying to find solutions to our problems.  After eight years of mental constipation enabled by the Republicans in the Senate (who define the word mental constipation), we actually have a President who is trying to do something besides waiting for the invisible hand of the market place to solve all our woes.
• Did you ever notice that public employees are usually the first to suffer in a budget crisis?  Those much-maligned public servants are the first to subsidize budget shortfalls by furloughs and lay offs.  If public workers are asked to give up 10% of their pay to solve a budget crisis, isn’t it fair to ask private citizens to join the fray with a 10% tax increase?  Aren’t we all in this together?
• Local control of curriculums in our schools is stupid and has led to the dumbing down of our kids by religious zealots.  We need a national curriculum and national standards.  When religious dogma conflicts with scientific findings we need to understand they are not the same.  One is based on rational thought, checking and testing, and open debate through a formal process, the other is magic based upon beliefs that do not stand the test of examination and inquiry.
• Finally get over it.  The bankruptcy courts should be able to adjust mortgage rates.  Sometimes the good of the country is more important than the good of investors.
• One last thought.  Some of you may have seen my pictures of the beautiful place where I live.  But there are a few drawbacks.  For the last week it has been snowing continuously and if I want to stay connected to the world, every 30 minutes or so I have to go out and spray off my internet and television dishes with the hose, not to mention plowing the drive way (1/4 mile long) every six hours or so to stay ahead of the snow.  San Diego is starting to look really attractive.  Andy, you will let me bunk with you won’t you and you have room for my surf board?  I can party hardy until at least 8:30 PM or so.

Okay I feel better. Tomorrow I will try to be more rational.  Or maybe I will just take the day off.  I plan to spend the day in San Francisco and go out to dinner.  As my good friend Mike Ward, who is fighting cancer, likes to say, it is a good day to be alive.  Yes it is.

There was an interesting discussion on CNN Sunday regarding whether the Republican Party in the upcoming economic stimulus debate would be the loyal opposition or obstructionists.  I would have to say the latter.  The overused expression is that we have to put away our partisanship and work together to solve our problems.  Blah, blah, blah.  The underlying flaw in this advice is that the way forward is the antithesis to what Republicans stand for.  From a purely political point of view Republicans have no interest in seeing Obama being widely successful.  It would be the death Nell of their party.  It would be the final nail in their economic theory’s coffin which is the underpinning of everything they stand for.  Let’s examine that philosophy and the talking points they have put out on why their 12 years in Congress and eight years in the Executive Branch had lead to such dismal results.

In a nutshell their economic religion goes something like this:  Government is bad, but necessary so you must minimize government interference with business (note to do this you also have to deny scientific information and findings); allowing the free market to operated unfettered will provide an equitable distribution of capital that rewards success and punishes inefficiency and waste; low taxes are the key to stimulating business; and the wealthy produce wealth which flows down to the rest of us.  Unless you have been asleep for the last 12 years, you know that this philosophy has been carried out to the nth degree and it has failed miserably (see my blogs:  Republicans Running on Empty and The End of Ayn Rand Fantasies and Reaganism).

Of course the Republicans don’t accept this and are busy reinventing history in statements like we lost our way and let spending get out of control.  That is true, but is not the problem.  The spending was for nothing; tax breaks for the rich and pork projects that did nothing for our infrastructure or economic viability in the future.  They let government grow, but they made it totally ineffective by handing off critical regulatory functions to private enterprise and gutting effective administration by appointing political lackeys instead of competent civil servants.  They were highly effective at reducing taxes and regulations on business and we are now in the greatest economic freefall we have ever faced.  My point is simple:  We are where we are due to Republican economic theory not because they lost their way.  It has played out and it may be our ruin.  Keep this in mind:  Our economic problems are not caused by the wars in the Middle East or George Bush’s incompetence (although a contributing factor).  They are caused by an economic theory put in practice that has failed miserably.

So what are the Republicans going to do in this climate?  They will let some form of stimulus package go forward, but not enough to make the argument that their theories are bankrupt.  They want some success, but as a party they can’t afford to see real success.  Their thinking has not changed and is exemplified by “Barack the Magic Negro” and their failure to understand this is not just a parody.  In the face of crumbling infrastructure and other nations racing past us, they still tout small government, lower taxes, and less regulation.  They have totally missed the lessons of the last twelve years.  If they are allowed to be the obstructionists they are, we as a nation are in deep trouble.  As Paul Krugman indicated in his column on Monday, they may just bring us the next Great Depression (Fighting Off Depression).

So my advice for all the pundits is simple.  Bipartisanship is only viable in this climate if Republicans accept that they must jettison failed ideology.  It is the difference between large tax cuts or government spending to stimulate the economy.  Tax cuts have failed miserably and do not stimulate spending on things that are strategically important for our future and create jobs.  But Republicans are not about to give up their identity so what will be called bipartisanship will be compromises to nowhere.  They will be compromises that don’t allow the big changes and programs we need to right our ship.  Republicans will go around screaming “Big Government, Be Afraid”, but their failed economic policies have brought us closer to a nationalized economy than anything Democrats have ever proposed.  What Republicans fail to recognize is that Democrats understand the power of the market place, but Democrats also understand that for it to work effectively it has to be channeled and controlled.  If big government spending programs save us and implementing smart regulations restores confidence, then the Republicans are doomed.  They can’t afford to let that happen.  So forget bipartisanship.  It is the road to nowhere.