Misdirected Behavior

After being out of town so much lately I had to spend my Sunday afternoon paying bills. Now, I'm always thankful that I can pay my bills but it isn't one of my favorite tasks. What got to me today was that one of the checks that I wrote was to GMAC. The thought occurred to me that GMAC is part of GM. The government just poured a bunch of money into them -- which I've been doing off-and-on for much of my life. So, now I'm paying them twice -- once with a coupon and once in my tax bill. Somehow that just doesn't seem right to me. I've always paid my bills. My credit is good. I don't owe much money but when I do owe someone I pay them.

Suddenly it occurred to me that those of us who seek to do the right thing and work to take care of our obligations are penalized for our good behavior while those who do the opposite are rewarded for their bad behavior. Hmm....I wonder if that is what the "Tea Parties" were really about.....

The Administration still doesn't get it.

Axelrod: Tea Party Anger is Misdirected

Yard Signs and Newspaper Endorsements

I've been doing a lot of traveling lately. Some has been in Texas and some elsewhere. Last week I was in Florida and Georgia. I saw a lot of McCain-Palin yard signs and very few of the other. It might be because I was mostly in rural areas. While in Georgia I heard very strong support for Senator McCain and saw only one T-shirt that was pro-that-other-guy.

Tonight I'm in Victoria, Texas. As I drove from Amarillo to Victoria I saw almost exclusively McCain-Palin yard signs until I arrived in the Austin area. The same with U.S. Senator John Cornyn. Austin seemed to have a good mix with possibly a slight edge to the more liberal candidate in both the Presidential and the U.S. Senate race.

After I left Austin this morning and headed south to Victoria I saw a few signs promoting the liberal Democrats and a few supporting McCain and Cornyn. It was much more mixed than the western parts of the state.

So, what does that portend for the races? I don't really know except that based on my trip and a rough count of political signs I would call the races (in Texas) 52% McCain and 46% to the Democrat with the remainder going to Ron Paul. In the Senate race I would give 62% to John Cornyn and 35% to the guy that sounds like a Central American dictator and a couple of percent to the fringe parties.

If you look at newspaper endorsements it looks like a sweep by U.S. Senator John Cornyn. I believe that he has 14 endorsements to date while his opponent has ZERO. I don't know about endorsements for McCain/Palin but I suspect that it is in his favor across the state.

The media keep talking about how bad the economy is but I don't see it. The traffic is heavy, trucks are hauling equipment, fields are being harvested or plowed, houses are being built, highways are under construction and restaurants are full. Maybe Texas is unique to the country but I don't think so. I saw the same when I was in southern Georgia and northern Florida last week.

Everywhere I look I see abundance. Our country is amazingly blessed. I think that we need pro-business, pro-growth, pro-family, pro-morality, pro-tax relief, pro-spending control government. I know Senator Cornyn fits that profile and I believe that Senator McCain does as well. If we want to regain control of our country we need to get the Nancy Pelosi's, Harry Reid's and B.O.'s out of Washington.

It's the Spending, Dummy!

Have you ever noticed that when something gets "out of whack," the more you tinker with it to get it back right, the further "out of whack" it becomes? That's what happens when the economy gets in the shape that we are seeing now.

The lawmakers and political candidates all have "fixes" for the economy. One says that we need to raise taxes for the rich while the other says that we need to extend tax cuts to stimulate investment. Proponents of increasing taxes for the wealthy think that the average person will support such increases because they see the high-earners as deserving to be taxed more. That is a very elitist attitude in itself and totally discredits the intelligence of most of the American public.

I think most folks just want our tax system to be fair -- to treat us all equally -- without special breaks for particular groups.

Those who believe the tax cuts implemented by the Bush Administration are contributing to the budget deficit are also confused. Revenue is not the issue. Spending is the issue. When you cut taxes and then increase spending substantially you are going to increase the deficit. Tax cuts stimulate market activity which in turn will generate more revenue at a lower tax rate. Those cuts must be followed however, by either holding the line or decreasing spending. Budget deficits are caused when you spend more than you bring in. It's the spending, dummy -- not the revenue side of the equation!

More on Drilling the Outer Continental Shelf

Drilling the outer continental shelf for oil seems on the surface to be a simple, quick-fix approach to alleviating gasoline prices. According to this article from Forbes, it will not be quick and it is certainly not simple.

Both Senator McCain and President Bush this week have called for opening the outer continental shelf to drilling. It may be somewhat disingenuous at this point in the election cycle. It is unlikely that sufficient votes can be garnered to pass any comprehensive energy legislation prior to the election.

If the area was open for drilling, it would be good for the U.S. consumer. In the short-term, we could see a decline in oil prices due to a relaxing of speculative pressure. However, it is unlikely that any decline would be sustainable due to the longer term supply and demand issues faced. The big benefit to the U.S. consumer would be in the revenue generated from such leases. A large portion of it would find its way into government coffers -- either at the federal or state level. The big issue there is how will it be utilized. If it does become a reality, let's hope that it isn't just a new way for government to grow. Let's use it to offset other taxes or possibly to pay down debt. Reducing debt reduces the annual interest bill that we are paying on that debt. Either way, the taxpayer wins.

We Are Officially Past the Danger of Recession

The Federal Reserve Chairman and others around the nation have decided that the danger of a recession has passed. They have thoroughly examined the leading economic indicators, factored in the price of oil, patted themselves on the back for their response to the mortgage crisis and given each other high-fives for averting a major economic downturn. I think it must illustrate their being out-of-touch with the reality of working class Americans.

When gasoline takes a larger-and-larger share of the family budget and the price of food, cosmetics, plastics, and everything else that is either transported or manufactured with petroleum based products (I think that's about everything) rises dramatically, people are worse off. Either the wrong indicators are being used to measure the economy or the facts are being ignored. People have less disposable income today than they did a year ago. They have much less than they did two years ago. They will spend less for clothes, they will take less expensive vacations (or forego them altogether), they will go to the movies less, eat out less, and on-and-on. The effect is lagged. It will be months before we truly feel the impact of higher gasoline and oil prices.

I think the stock market already recognizes that fact. It is only a matter of time before the lack of capital investment in industry begins to show. It will take years for our economy to recover.

The Dem's want to make it worse with added burdens on consumers through Global Warming legislation. They also think the way to resolve the problem is through taxes. Let me see, if we (consumers) already have less to spend on non-fuel items, what happens when you soak us with additional taxes? Duh, we have less??

Dem's Windfall Profit Idiocy

The proposed windfall profits tax on the oil industry is very worrisome to me. First, it penalizes domestic companies while doing nothing to foreign companies. Second, it places in the hands of government the determination of what is a reasonable profit, Third, it discourages domestic oil exploration, Fourth, it doesn't address the real problems -- increasing supply and removing the Renewable Fuels Standards (ethanol mandates).

How could we as a nation have allowed such foolhardy thinking to represent our interests in the Senate and House? Not only is the Democratic leadership in Congress pushing such ill-considered action -- reminiscent of the failed economic policies of the Carter administration -- but their chosen candidate for President is supportive of those same policies. What in their proposal does anything for gasoline prices at the pump? Nothing. In fact, the likely outcome will be that prices increase further.

The Backward Party for America's Demise

How totally backward is the thinking of the Democratic party. Unemployment numbers rise so they want to increase unemployment benefits. Increasing the benefits makes it easier for people to stay unemployed. What they need to do is focus on jobs. Instead, they are talking about increasing taxes on businesses -- that way the businesses can't afford to hire anyone. They especially want to hit the oil companies. What they need to do is make permanent the Bush tax cuts (stimulate business activity), get rid of the Renewable Fuels Standard (oil prices/gasoline prices), open ANWR and the outer Continental Shelf to drilling and cut government spending. They have it completely backward.

A $3 Trillion Budget

This should give us all pause to think of the consequences of a Democrat controlled Congress and Executive. Tax-and-spend will become the norm.

"The spending plan squeaked through the House on a vote of 214 to 210, as 14 Democrats voted with a united GOP in opposition. "

These are excerpts from this article.

"Because Bush has vowed to veto appropriations bills that exceed his spending requests, Democrats are considering delaying passage of most of the bills until a new president takes office in January."

I must admit that we have seen excessive growth in the Federal Budget over the last eight years. Republican control did not seem to slow it down. The one redeeming factor was the tax cuts that were implemented. We kept more of our money through that period of growth in federal expenditures. The Democratic candidate for the Presidency has stated that he is in favor of rescinding those tax cuts. Just think how much faster the federal bureaucracy will grow if that happens!