Political Rambling

Dear James, Daniel and Emily,

Just some Random thoughts on a few topics that have come up in recent weeks.

1. Arizona

I feel bad for the people I know and love who live in this state.  I know what this feels like, to have the rest of country see what some very active politicians are able to get passed through the clever use of propaganda and the use of fear, and think that means everyone in that state is a bigot, racist, homphobe etc.  I know that at the root of both of the bills the state has passed are some decent ideas: we need to address the problem of uncontrolled immigration, and no one should be teaching hate in the class room.  But the bottom line is they have gone about it wrong.  As a result people in the state are now in the position of being tarred with the blanket brush of 'racists'.  And they have to find a way to reverse that impression before serious damage is done there.

2. Deficits & taxes

So this week 2 reports came out on government budgets.  First, it was reported that when taking into account all forms of taxes, local, state and Federal, we are at a lowest level of taxation since 1950.  This report was not very heavily reported.  Second, it was announced that the Federal Budget had it's highest monthly deficit ever.  This was widely reported. 

Now many people are attempting to make huge political gains about the deficit news.  Doing their best to use this as a reason to demand that now we should start curbing Federal spending.  Now, without getting into the general ideas and justifications for Federal Deficit spending, I am going to instead present a different argument. 

Many of these people insist (wrongly IMHO) that the government should treat it's budget like a business and therefore should not run deficits.  Well if I am running a business, and I have expenses that I cannot avoid (cleaning up a major disaster, saving the economy from the results of uncontrolled greedy gamblers), and at the same time my receipts are down, I will have no choice but to be in a deficit in my budget.  And if I am a smart businessman, instead of cutting all of my spending, instead I would want to focus on increasing my income.  Because cutting my spending to zero destroys my business, while increasing my income stream, will allow me to continue to spend on the important things for my business, like infrastructure and research.

Putting an end to all of the above comparisons: governments need to stop running from their citizens, acting like what they do is somehow inherently evil.  Government is not inherently evil. Government does need to be run correctly, but what it does: protect and serve the people so foreign countries, greedy corporations and criminals do not hurt the people, is a good thing.  And those services do not come free.  Potholes do not get filled for free; police, teachers, firemen, soldiers, safety inspectors etc. should not be charity workers; without government oversight the greedy corporations will run amock, resulting in economic hard times, public safety disasters and deaths of workers.  You want to end monster deficits?  Pay your fair share of taxes without a fight for the services our society and country and children deserve.

3. Incumbents

This is a classic year to fear for your political life if you are an incumbent up for re-election.  And I think that is a good thing.  This Congress, especially the Senate (where all good bills go to die), has not served our country as well as they could have.  I'm not saying that means I want a Republican takeover this fall, far from it.  I'm just saying, if I was a Blue Dog Democrat, and I was getting a major test from a Progressive rival, that might help remind me why I joined the Democratic party in the first place. And in the long run, looking at things from a game playing competitive point of view, all of this 'cleansing' of the Republican party by Tea Party activists will only make them weaker, no Party has ever been truly successful in American politicis catering solely to 1 extreme end of the political spectrum.