Where should the blame for fiscal irresponsibility lie - and how can we rescue America from another Republican deficit?
Of course politics is a ‘blame game’ – always has been, always will be – but what’s truly annoying is the hypocrisy, the near-constant accusations where the accuser is far more guilty than the accused. The most common political hypocrisies are the Republicans’ accusations concerning the fiscal irresponsibility of those ‘Tax-and-Spend Democrats’, yet we all know which presidential administrations are bringing us monstrous federal budget deficits, and which has brought us surpluses. Remember, it’s Dick Cheney that said, “Reagan proved deficits don’t matter.”…
Article comments
26 - bliffle
Cannon slop is such a naif that he doesn't realize that ALL modern financial plans are ponzi schemes. All those pinstriped, reg tied, whiteshirted, wingtip financial folk have created a financial system with derivative upon derivative until we now, in the USA alone, have $550trillion total financial instruments riding on $45trillion in real assets.
Now THAT'S a ponzi scheme! On a grand scale.
27 - Dave Nalle
Bliffle, you seem to have totally glossed over a clear element of your anti-corporate screed. In both the examples you give, the CEOs gave out dividends when they made higher than expected profits. Since the companies in question have stock purchase options for employees in their 401Ks, that means that they ARE sharing the profits with employees, assuming those employees had enough company loyalty to keep some stock in the company in their retirement accounts. If they didn't have that much loyalty to the company, why should they be rewarded?
Dave
28 - Glenn Contrarian
Baronius and Baritone - thank you for the encouragement. It really does help.
Cannonshop - Politics aside, ya gotta admit that Puget Sound is a flat-out beautiful place. Now, if we can just keep out all the Californians....
Back to UHC - I can understand your cynicism, but I refuse to believe that America can't do what the top twenty-seven countries on the life-expectancy list are doing, which is helping their populations live longer and healthier lives through Universal Health Care.
If they can do it (and they certainly aren't bankrupt), then WHY can't we?
It's like this - if the top 27 baseball teams all have great pitching and your team is in 30th place and has lousy pitching...then do you keep the manager who says great pitching won't help? Or do you fire him and get someone who WILL get you great pitching? Of course, this metaphor doesn't fit nearly as well as I'd like, but you get my point.
If the top 27 can do it, then why can't America? Or should we continue to do what Jordan and Bosnia do..."What, you can't afford health care? Too bad for you!"
You see, when doctors are no longer forced to work towards profits, they concentrate more on the needs of the PATIENT rather than on the needs of the company...and those countries have learned that UHC allows their people to get a few thousand dollars of prevention in order to avoid a few hundred thousand dollars of cure.
Which is why, when it comes to funding the national health care system, Japan spends about half as much per capita as we already do...per capita.
If they can do it, we can too! I refuse to believe otherwise!
29 - Cannonshop
Glenn, you're right, it's (Mostly) beautiful out here-except for the traffic, price of housing, and cost of living.
My primary issue, Glenn, and it's something that's tougher than just saying "up or down" on it, is that I don't trust the kind of people we have in government not to make things worse.
NOTHING I have seen from state or federal level shows that the people appointed by the elections office in seattle should ever be given that much, or that kind of, responsibility.
It'd be like giving a junkie the keys to the pharmacy, or letting an HMO run TRULY rampant without oversight.
If you could find someone worthy of trust, with a record of keeping their word and good accounting skills who also understands the mechanics of medicine enough to not be snowballed by jargon to run it, maybe-maybe, it would work...until said person pisses off someone from the wrong party at the wrong time and gets replaced by a crook loyal to the right guys.
Like I asked, would you put Karl Rove in charge of your Health Care? I wouldn't. I wouldn't put James Carrville in charge either. American Politics is nasty and vicious, and american politicians are mostly devoid of the values and virtues that make such systems work.
It's too risky.
30 - Jet
The only thing I can think of that'd top Puget Sound would be the coastline at Newport Oregon. Whenever I used to fly out on business to the west coast, I made a point of stopping there for a day before coming home.
31 - mighty aphrodite
Please explain how re-cycling failed socialism is good for the economy. If you could explain how increased taxes boosts economic productivity, I would love to hear it. The campaign of change? Hardly.
32 - Silas Kain
You can't change Washington without changing Congress. We've set up Obama or McCain to fail from the get go. 4 years from now we'll all be yapping about the same points if we can afford the metered Internet access, maxed out gasoline prices and the roof over our collective heads. Not that we need the roof because the majority of us have them in our butts.
33 - Glenn Contrarian
Cannonshop -
Y'know, our politicians are no less human, and no more human, and thus no more or less corrupt, than the politicians that oversee the Universal Health Care in the top twenty-seven countries on the list of countries by life expectancy.
If they can do it with their politicians and their populations ALL have longer life expectancies, then we can do it too. I refuse to believe that we can't do it!
34 - bliffle
Loose Cannon will be glad to know that some more of those virtuous and successful business executives (so much better than corrupt politicians like Rove and Carville) will soon be available for duty in the neo-republican government. They're coming from their recent colossal successes at GNMA and FNMA.
35 - Cannonshop
Bliffle, it's not that I see those executives as virtuous- in fact, they're mostly sociopathic subhuman slime (with power ties). It's that unlike Government Employees, they're answerable to Someone.
Glenn,(comment 33)
I must disagree with your assessment. High level "Civil Servants" in the U.S. act and are de facto immune to any consequences save displeasing their politician scumbag masters (most of whom are owned by two or more corporations).
And...ah... Yes, they ARE less human than the rest of us-it's what happens when there is no check on petty cruelty, or threat that curbs abusive behaviour.
36 - bliffle
Unfortunately, the ones that biz execs are responsible to are seeking profit, not public service. At least the Civil Servants are held, in principle, to a public standard.
And that sort of summarizes the FNMA problem we confront today.
37 - Clavos
I must disagree with your assessment. High level "Civil Servants" in the U.S. act and are de facto immune to any consequences...
As are low level government employees. None of them are held accountable for job performance and firing one is nearly impossible.
Those are the two chief reasons why nearly everything the government does is substandard, expensive and error-riddled.
38 - Cannonshop
Precisely, Clavos.
Bliffle: In civics class they're held to a standard. In practice, they're basically petty, slovenly, sloppy, at best mediocre and most of the time below mediocrity. Many of them actively seek 'side pay' to do their jobs (and reporting them makes one a target for harassments made available by the access they possess) particularly in areas of the government concerned with building code enforcement, environmental enforcement, and land-use.
Two years ago, I was doing some work for my parents, and some of it involved getting permits from the State of Washington.
It cost me five hundered dollars above the legal charge because of a neighbour who let his culvert get stopped up-the year before.
see, the inspector could declare the property a wetland, and you can't do anything, even property maintenance, within 150 feet of a designated wetland. Five hundered's pretty cheap, but it was in cash, and there was no receipt. This was separate from the seven thousand dollar cheque that was demanded by the State.
Said guy's shaken down everyone around my parents' place, and the one guy that tried to report him wound up getting hit with a three-times evaluation of his property for the next property tax cycle, fifteen grand in environmental fines, and other expensive, hard to appeal harassment. The lesson being that "Civil Servants" close ranks and go after people that report them, not after the crooked ones, and it is THEY, not the citizens or taxpayers, who have unlimited resources to persecute.
So...see, I have no desire to give these pricks even MORE ways to fuck with people.
39 - Glenn Contrarian
Cannonshop, Clavos, et al -
Perhaps I was unclear. I said that I cannot believe our politicians are more or less human than the politicians of countries that have successfully implemented Universal Health Care and whose populations as a result have longer life expectancies than our own.
There are politicians in EVERY country. There are civil servants in EVERY country. There are human beings in EVERY country...and all men are created equal. We are a country built from the tempest-tossed wretched refuse of the other countries, and we took those immigrants and built a country greater than any other!
So how can you possibly say that THEY can do it, but we CAN'T?
That brings to mind an old saying: "Can't never could". It meant that as long as you SAY you can't do it, then you're right! You can't do it and you never will, because you won't even TRY.
I say we CAN, if we but TRY.
40 - Glenn Contrarian
Cannonshop -
One more thing - it is a mistake for you to assume that civil servants are the ones holding you down and holding you back and making your life miserable. Yes, there ARE civil servants who are vindictive and worthless - but for every one that is a waste of space, there are many more who go to work every day and do their jobs the best they can.
In other words, it's not much different from the business world. If anything, the business world is MUCH more cutthroat and heartless than civil service. I've been in both, and in the business world, if the boss doesn't like you, you're gone - no matter how good a job you do. The business world lends itself to a backstabbing mentality because often the only way a guy keeps his job is by making sure the OTHER guy gets fired. In civil service, one knows the other guy is there for good, so one might as well learn to work with him as a team.
Actually, CS, I would advise you to consider how much of your rant comes from your own personality and experience...and to remember that those in the civil service are every bit as human as you - some better, some worse, but every bit as human as you.
41 - Clavos
I said that I cannot believe our politicians are more or less human than the politicians of countries that have successfully implemented Universal Health Care and whose populations as a result have longer life expectancies than our own.
The politicians don't run what they legislate, the "career" government employees do. It's not a question of anyone's humanity, it's a question of the conditions under which they work; in particular to what degree, if any, they are held accountable for their performance, and to what degree, if any, they can be disciplined for substandard performance. In the USA governments (Fed, state and local) the answers are None and None. The one exception is the military services, where discipline is literally a life-and-death issue.
but for every one that is a waste of space, there are many more who go to work every day and do their jobs the best they can.
Bull. The good ones are VERY few and far between, as anyone who has ever had to do any serious business with a government agency can tell you. First of all, government hiring standards are considerably below those in the private sector for comparable jobs. Once hired, except for a short probationary period at the beginning of their employment, government employees are NOT held accountable for their work, and CANNOT be fired - both of these conditions, human nature being what it is, lead to substandard performance of the government.
This is not hearsay or speculation. I have personally observed and experienced these conditions during two short stints as a federal government employee myself. In one job, in which tight union work rules (the government employee unions are among the most powerful in the nation), dictated a low level of production for hours worked, I was actually chastised and threatened with demotion (but not dismissal - they can't do that), for finishing in less than six hours what was set by union work rules as eight hours worth of work. The individuals (there were several, in different offices of the same agency) admonishing me were my supervisors (also union employees), who told me in no uncertain terms to slow down and waste time so as not to finish too early.
42 - Jordan Richardson
We are a country built from the tempest-tossed wretched refuse of the other countries, and we took those immigrants and built a country greater than any other!
Sweden?
43 - Glenn Contrarian
CS -
Since you are disputing my statement that, "If they can do it, so can we", you are saying we CANNOT do it. You are saying that America is INCAPABLE of doing what the top twenty-seven countries (including almost all of Western Europe) on the life-expectancies have already done.
So please answer clearly, yes or no: Can America successfully increase the national health and overall life span using Universal Health Care just as nearly every other industrialized democracy has done?
Yes or no, please.
And an admonition when it comes to your rant about civil service: has it occurred to you that your experience might be the EXCEPTION rather than the rule? Sure, I've seen injustices in the civil service (immigration, social work, and postal service), and in the business world (military contracts, service sector, and technical support), and in the military (a twenty-year career).
I've been in all three, and I've seen that people in all three are just as human, with the same range of behavior from honorable to despicable, the same range of effort from barely breathing to workaholic, the same range of leadership from courageous and even-handed to cowardly and prejudicial.
And if you think government hiring standards are below civilian, then, sir, it's apparent you never had a real background check of your security clearance. A civilian company can hire you in a day, within an hour if they want. The government cannot do so. A civilian company can hire a child molester if they want. The government cannot. If nothing else, that alone disproves your claim.
I would also ask you to consider your apparent 'us versus them' attitude. It seems that THEY are the cause of all the world's ills, THEY are evil, THEY are not as human, not as good as the rest of US.
Please be careful of such an attitude - for it can lead to racism, sexism, religious hatred...and I've seen this many, many times over the years. We are all human, with the whole gamut of qualities and shortcomings. That applies to you just as much as any government employee.
44 - Glenn Contrarian
CannonShop and Clavos -
Sorry, I should have directed my last comment to Clavos. Apologies for the confusion - but the points made and the question asked still apply to both of you.
45 - Clavos
Yes or no, please.
Not if the government's involvement is any deeper than paying for it; not if the government manages it.
I have more than three years' experience with the government's current health plan, Medicare. From that experience, the single most important lesson I've learned is that it's a disaster, which rations care and is defrauded to the tune of $7 million a day, every day, with Medicare employee complicity, according to investigations conducted by The Miami Herald. I believe the Herald's exposé, because I have seen direct evidence of both fraud and massive ineptitude, while dealing with my wife's Medicare account, and EOBs and bills during that time.
I have four decades experience with VA. Less (much less) fraud, but very spotty as to quality of personnel, particularly doctors. Some excellent, many not. My VAMC has signs all over it declaring it has been named "Best In The VA." If that's true, I shudder to think what a VAMC in Podunk, Michigan must be like. Consequently, I have only my service related conditions treated there (though I am a Priority 1 Veteran), and pay a substantial health insurance premium in order to be able to have my other ailments treated by my private physicians.
And an admonition when it comes to your rant about civil service: has it occurred to you that your experience might be the EXCEPTION rather than the rule?
Nope, because I experienced it in more than one agency and more than one city, at more than one facility in each city. It's pervasive, and it's primarily due to the stranglehold the work rules imposed on the government by the unions and well-meaning, but stupid, Congressional interference. In addition, I have many friends and former colleagues who have worked for and with the government in a variety of capacities, both managerial and in lower pay grades. All describe similar experiences to at least some degree.
Then, of course there are the incidents that make it to the MSM; the $600 hammer kinds of stories; the VA employee who took his government laptop home and had it stolen, along with millions of veteran's records, etc.
I have worked in all three as well, Glenn, though my military experience is considerably less than yours. Perhaps you missed the comment I made upthread, in which I exempted the military from my low opinion of the way the government works; the service branches may well be the only part of the government that DOES function reasonably well, due largely to the fact (as you know) accountability IS a part of the military's culture, as is discipline, without which no military unit can successfully carry out its mission. The civilian branches of the government lack both those elements, with the added handicap of the near impossibility of firing employees. it's difficult for the service branches to "fire employees" as well (but not impossible), but the military can court martial miscreants and sentence them to stockade or brig time for mal- or misfeasance. By contrast, the civilian agencies (Civil Service) have few if any effective disciplinary avenues available to management.
And if you think government hiring standards are below civilian, then, sir, it's apparent you never had a real background check of your security clearance.
Actually, as a cryptographer in the Army, I had a fairly high security clearance, and you are correct, it took quite a while to secure, and involved FBI agents interrogating people in my life all the way back to my grade school days; I got calls from concerned friends and associates (and even teachers) for months afterward about their prying.
A security clearance does not investigate a subject's employability in any aspect other than as a security risk, however. It tells the government nothing about how good an employee you will be, and in any case, is far from infallible, even in determining your security risk level.
The government is subject to far mor restrictive hiring rules than civilian businesses. Such rules as veteran preferences (nonexistent in the civilian marketplace), while admirable in their intent, ensure that lower standards are the rule, rather than the exception. Government hiring is NEVER merit based; marketplace hiring is MOSTLY merit based.
And, of course, overseeing the whole mess are all those clowns in Congress -- 'nuff said about them.
46 - Cannonshop
Okay, Glenn...
NO.
Emphatically no. While my experience with military medicine was limited and probably a bit freakish in nature (and resulted, methinks, in awakening a drug allergy to Ibuprophen, given my own rather painful experiences), Our civilian side government is riddled with issues that make the task impossible.
Clavos pointed out a lot of them. Lack of Accountability, lack of Discipline, lack of a culture of Responsibility. It's very nearly impossible for a government employee to be fired, and there are budget-structure reasons for government waste ("Quick, buy something so we can keep the budget going at this level next Year!!").
That kind of culture breeds a kind of callousness and inefficiency we can't afford. Without a major change in the "Corporate Culture" of government (and no changes attempted thus far have succeeded), no. We can't because it won't work.
In other Industrialized Democracies, "Civil Servants" are held to a higher standard in how they are recruited, held to a higher standard of behaviour on the job, and can suffer firing and additional penalties for misconduct. In AMERICAN government culture, misconduct has to be at the Felony Level (often with a Conviction) before action can be taken to remove the turd from his job.
People work down to the level of expectations. This is a combination of example, and demand. Not "economic" demand, but demands in terms of discipline and expectation. Being required to constantly meet or exceed high standards creates a mind focused on high standards, lower those standards, and you lower the standard. Couple with poor leadership and the inability to discipline problem employees, and you get what we HAVE, a Civil Service that has a shiny view of itself, but not much to justify that view.
It's the difference between "Self Esteem" (which tends to be high among Prison inmates) and "Self Respect" (which tends to be high in career military types associated with hard jobs like medical, technical, and combat arms.)
Civilian Employees have high "Self Esteem"-that is, they think rather highly of themselves as compared to the rest of us, but can't show any proof of why. (Many go into government jobs because they can't get a job in the civilian world, for instance-they're not good enough.)
Military people who make it a career, tend to have great "Self Respect"-and they should, they are part of a subculture in which discipline, competence, focus, and skill are valued highly-even when individual commanders do not value those skills. Generally, this results in the only branch of government that consistently does what it is supposed to do, and does it well.
But their mission is limited, usually achievable, and "customer service" means killing bad guys without worrying about lawsuits. Domestically, you can't put something like that together and have it work for any sustained period of time.
Extending the lives of our citizens through the Government is a very, very, long term project, requires delicacy, and each patient is different-it would be akin to putting EVERYONE under a giant HMO run by the guys who failed their business management class due to hangovers, and since it would be overseen by Congress...
47 - bliffle
So, Cannonshop, you admit that you bribed a public official. No wonder we have corruption in government. It's guys like you who are only interested in their own goals who create and nurture public corruption.
I had a friend who became a plumber, and on his very first job the city inspector made it clear he expected a bribe or he'd fail P's plumbing job. But P was made of better stuff than you, apparently, and refused to pay. So he had to tear out all of his good plumbing and do it over again.
But he never had another problem with city inspectors.
Crooked inspectors know who the crooked applicants are. It must stand out all over your face and your manner.
48 - Cannonshop
I knew someone that refused this guy, Bliffle. They spent thousands dealing with harassment after that, eventually losing their property and going bankrupt. My parents didn't deserve that kind of harassment, and I didn't and don't have the kind of money that can fight the bottomless resources of a State Government that's more interested (demonstrated more interested) in covering their employees, than serving the public.
AND it's not just one. See, Bliffle, you're talking building inspectors, not Dept. of Ecology- DOE types don't have a written 'code' they have to adhere to.
Building inspectors belong to local-level (county), which makes 'em accessable. The objective standard and the lack of infinite resources means that, well, your plumber friend's move was the correct one-pull it out, get a reinspection, report the bad inspector after you've got the reinspection done.
Ecology guys? the ones that are clean will abuse it out of a feeling that by preventing people from developing land they're saving the Earth. The crooked ones play the same game, but use it to their financial advantage. both types close ranks to cover each other's asses and one guy does NOT make a difference.
Limited resources with no power vs. Unlimited Resources covered by heavy backing-who wins, Bliffle? that kind of shit happens all over the state.
49 - Cannonshop
Oh, and just to add, Bliffle, do you blame the store-owner who's watched his neighbours get their places vandalized and torched for paying the Extortion when the cops won't confront the gangs?
50 - Glenn Contrarian
Cannonshop -
Then I'll end my discussion with you here. You and I will have to agree to disagree. I say America can do what almost every other industrialized democracy can do...and you say we can't.
End of story.