Federal Workers vs Private Sector (Taxpayers Get the Shaft)

In my “Crazytown” column, I celebrated Trump’s most recent accomplishments. These are things other presidents should have done, but most didn’t. They just kept making the same old mistakes, hoping for different results.

One of the president’s recent moves was to cancel the scheduled pay raise for federal civilian employees. When I pointed out that recent studies have shown that federal workers, on average, are paid 80 percent more that their counterparts in the private sector, some took exception.

President Obama also recognized this disparity and instituted a partial federal wage freeze between 2011 – 2013.

It has been said there are three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies and statistics. Continue reading “Federal Workers vs Private Sector (Taxpayers Get the Shaft)” →

Twas the Night before Cliffmas

(With Apologies to Clement Clark Moore, Henry Livingston, Jr. or Anonymous)

Twas the night before Cliffmas, when all through the House

Republicans were wondering if their leader was a man or a mouse;

The parameters for the budget talks had been set out with care,

In hopes that a compromise soon would be there.

The taxpayers were uneasy, not snug in their beds,

While visions of higher rates danced in their heads;

And mom with her checkbook and dad with the bills,

Had just settled down with a bottle of pills, Continue reading “Twas the Night before Cliffmas” →

Killing Santa Claus

One of the saddest moments in a child’s life is when one learns there is no Santa Claus.

That jolly old elf who has a large belly and an even larger bag of toys has brought smiles to children for hundreds of years. It’s his ability to grant every wish, large or small, that causes us to hang our stockings with care and makes us giddy with anticipation every Christmas Eve.

Of course when one is quite small, wishes are of a similar scale and the cost quite nominal. Somewhere between the doll house and the Ford convertible, we got a needed dose of reality. Someone has to pay for all those goodies. Nothing in life is free.

Unfortunately, some people never grow up. For these folks, the federal government replaced the man in the red velvet suit. Continue reading “Killing Santa Claus” →

Suckers!

One of the most familiar comic strips in history has Peanut’s character Lucy holding the football for gullible Charlie Brown. It has been repeated again and again. We all know what is going to happen. At the very last moment Lucy will pull the football out of the way and Charlie Brown, with his full force behind the kick, goes sprawling.

It’s all very funny. Why does Charlie keep falling for Lucy’s promise that she will never, ever do this again? Still we laugh. We can’t seem to get enough of it. Why? Because it mirrors real life.

We the people are Charlie Brown, Congress is Lucy and our ballooning national debt is the football. Continue reading “Suckers!” →

Kill the Messenger!

In ancient times, it was not unusual to kill a messenger who brought bad news. Many of the great prophets in the Bible suffered unspeakable treatment and even death. Tradition has it that the prophet Isaiah was sawn in half.

These dedicated men of old were desperately trying to warn their countrymen to keep them from a horrible fate but few listened, especially those who had the power to change things. Most rulers simply surrounded themselves with “yes” men. Little has changed.

King Obama, who had never run so much as a lemonade stand, has surrounded himself with tax cheats and economic “yes” men like Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who admitted that he has “never had a real job.” The same holds true for most other members of his royal court. The notable exception is his chief of staff, Bill Daley, the token businessman — a sop to “diversity.” Continue reading “Kill the Messenger!” →

One-term President; One-term Speaker

The American people just got flimflamed by their elected representatives, again.

It’s a matter of simple arithmetic. You are spending more than you are taking in. Your salary is flat with no relief in the foreseeable future so your family is forced to cut its budget. Will you be spending more or less next year than you are this year?

“What kind of question is that?” you ask. “Of course, I will be spending less.”

Not in Washington. Our lawmakers were asked to cut the budget and they made a deal that has us spending more each and every year. It’s a con game that has been going on inside the beltway for far too many years now and it has got to stop!

Continue reading “One-term President; One-term Speaker” →

When “Balanced” is Unbalanced

There are certain words that are overused in Washington. They have proven effective in covering a multitude of sins and soothing an angry electorate: These words include compromise, bipartisan, comprehensive, and deficit reduction.

The beauty of using these words in Washington is that there is no expectation by lawmakers that they be grounded in reality. The “comprehensive immigration reform,” during the administration of George W. Bush was the code for amnesty. Before that, we had back-to-back “five hundred billion dollar deficit reduction” bills offered by George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. Both of these bills had nothing to do with reducing the deficit and everything to do with getting out from under the constrains of the current budget. They were designed to increase, not decrease, federal spending.

Now we have this new word, “balanced,” trotted out by Barack Obama. On Monday, he used it seven times in his brief address to the nation. It is designed to make us feel comfortable about rasing the debt limit, again, because we have maxed out the national credit card. Continue reading “When “Balanced” is Unbalanced” →