Economic recovery is a time to do less

Let’s have a discussion about the 47%. Students who got bought off by college loans, women bought off with birth control,  poor bought off with medical care, Hispanics bought off with immigration reform. Let’s assume, for a moment, that Romney’s White Man’s Nightmare is true.

Let’s even ignore his secret tax returns and off-shore bank accounts.

We need to ask about the actual cost of these programs and whether this is truly the harbinger of an “entitlement society” as bemoaned by the right.

And at the same time, we need to look ahead about six months or a year, assuming the recovery that seems to be picking up steam (without Republican participation) continues to build.

The more affordable college becomes, the more engineers we produce (and fewer Golden Sach bankers) the better off we are. It is probably an investment, as opposed to a cost. I will make the same argument for much of Obamacare.  We do not have the best health care system in the world, just the most expensive. We can do better.

Immigration reform? How much does that cost us really? Should we send back the Irish, the Swedes, the Italians, the Chinese? C’mon.

Birth control? Let’s get government out of the religion business. And the morality business. Let’s make it as easy as possible to avoid unwanted pregnancies. If abortion offends you, then advocate for birth control.

No surprise, I have a contrarian argument to my friends on the left: We need already to be thinking about doing less with government. The left will say that they won and now is the time to push forward with an agenda they feel they earned. I respond that there was no mandate and a political victory does not change the laws of economics.

First and foremost of those laws is the problem of deficits. Of productivity. And yes, let’s give Republicans their due on this one, it is a fact that if something is free it will be consumed without limits, and the law of unintended consequences assures that if we remove consequences behavior will be altered and individuals will depend more and take responsibility for less.

It was never a good idea to cut budgets during a recession. But now that we see the end of the downturn and the beginning of prosperity, it is time to determine how we will slow the growth of government. Because we can’t live that far beyond our means as a society and we cannot tax our way into higher productivity, the only way that we truly create wealth.

Oh, Mr. Ro-money

On Tuesday night I stayed up for the final election results and saw Gov. Romney's concession speech. I was impressed, actually, and for an entire day felt that America may have actually had a choice between two qualified candidates. And I was done with this election.

Then came Wednesday. Then Romney proved he was just as out of touch as has been written here, as he was portrayed by the Obama campaign, as voters finally decided. We got his unvarnished opinion, given with nothing to lose, nothing to cover. On Wednesday, Mr. Romney proved he was not right for America. Read it here.

According to him, Romney's loss was due to gifts of education to students, gifts of medical care worth $10,000 a year for them poor Mexicans, gifts of free abortions to women. Obama gave those gifts and that is why he won, according to Romney. Why, the responsible Romney couldn't compete! He had the interest of ALL Americans in mind when he guaranteed free money to the top 1%. My god, what a putz.

Romney lied when he apologized for the remark that 47% of Americans were freeloaders. That is exactly the fiction he believes and that is how he would have governed. He just repeated it to the nation through his disappointed campaign contributors. Romney planned to make life harder for the poor and decimate the middle class in the foolish belief that the top 1% are the only social class worth coddling.

Other Republicans are trying to put as much distance between themselves and Governor Gaffe as they can, but Ro-money has already given Democrats heavy artillery for the next election. That may be too bad, because by then we may need the austerity and good ideas from the right.

Good ideas, not the posturing, lies, half-truths, and misinformation spread by the Romney campaign and rejected by more than half the country in 2012.

America, we have much to be proud of this week.

Romney promises time travel

Republican candidate for president Mitt Romney promised yesterday that he would guarantee time travel to all Americans by the end of his first term.

"Any American who chooses to travel through time will be able to do so. This is a freedom and America was built on freedom. Only I can do this for America and I have a plan to do this for all Americans."

Asked what that plan might be, Romney said "There is no reason for me to go into the details. If I provide any detail, my opponents, who oppose me and therefore oppose time travel, will simply start picking apart my plans and prevent me from getting elected and being able to provide the time travel I have promised all Americans."

Romney went on to say that "President Obama has failed to deliver on time travel. He has held America back from exercising their freedom to travel where they want, when they want. It is time for a change."

Questioned whether time travel was even possible, Romney said "I don't believe just in the possible. I believe in the unlimited possibilities of the American people. My experience in the private sector provided me with the experience to create jobs. That is what this election is about, the jobs I have experienced and my experience creating jobs. Millions of jobs for hard-working Americans.

"My opponent, the president who some worry might not have been born in America, does not like jobs. He does not want people to have jobs. All he wants is big government, voters who want free stuff and will never vote for me so screw'em, and no time travel for them, either."

Romney's running mate Rep. Paul Ryan was speaking to Council for American Families when told of Romney's new promise. 

Ryan said that time travel should first be offered to Americans "who want to go back and undo bad choices, make better decisions. Even in cases of justifiable rape, rather, where the claims of a raped woman can be justified after they are proven by the evidence gathered at the scene, as it were, which would be much easier with time travel, that woman can now choose whether she gets pregnant or she might even choose to keep herself out of harms way before the alleged rape even occurs."

Ryan said time travel could even result in the prevention of pregnancy when the fetus grows up to be homosexual. "No abortion and and no deviant. That's a win-win," Ryan said.

Romney did say his concept for time travel is based on the idea of "getting government out of the way of companies that will provide jobs for everyone and the safest, most cost efficient travel through time the world has ever known. Free markets provide competition that works to free markets from excessive government regulations that prevent the freedom to compete that all Americans demand and deserve," Romney said.

"The president, who once said that he favored opportunity for all Americans in a socialistic effort to redistribute wealth through progressive taxes that I never paid anyway, opposes Americans having jobs or traveling through time."

The Obama campaign was cautious in their response. "That Governor  Romney promises time travel by the end of his first term makes sense of so many things," said David Axelrod, Obama campaign spokesman. He would not elaborate.

How did Romney-Ryan DO that?

How did it come to pass that rich white men born into immense privilege are telling the rest of us we should just work a little harder, expect a little less, do a little more without? 

Where do they get off telling the rest of the country what life should be for poor white men and women, poor Blacks, Hispanics, single mothers etc.(some of whom actually had those kids that Romney-Ryan say all women who have sex should be obliged to have )? 

Oookay, I got all the "coal miner" symbolism paraded out by the righties at the GOP convention. Too bad nobody had a great uncle who was a logger up here in Oregon (whew!) or worked in the mills around here. Rather, the mills that used to be around here. I bet there would be some great family history of the Wobblies.

Speaking of which, all those descendants of miners at the GOP convention and not a word about horrendous conditions? About mines collapsing because adequate shoring took too much out of profits? About black lung disease so long hidden by the great coal companies? The United Mine Workers didn't send one kid to college? Ever seen a face macerated by a broken saw chain?

But, back to the rant. 

I don't get it. Romney-Ryan don't know and can never know what it's like at the bottom of the pile, and now they want to lower their taxes (when they already pay less of their income in taxes than their drivers, their maids, their cooks, etc.) and they want to raise our insurance deductible, they want to decimate our schools, they want to take away our retirement? While they hide their tax returns and their money in offshore accounts? While telling us we should trust them?!?!

What they really want is to destroy opportunity for the rest of us to get where they are, because we need schools, hospitals and homes we can afford. And clean water to drink. And clean air to breathe. And jobs that protect us instead of kill us. And we want our kids to have some opportunity to get what Romney-Ryan got.

Romney / Ryan will steal our country

The Republicans drove the United States into a ditch so they could grab the White House. We can't let them get away with it.

For the last two years Republicans stonewalled every attempt to get the economy going again. If the economy improved, Obama would be reelected. That would disrupt their business plan.

Paul Ryan is a liar and a hypocrite. He actively sought federal pork while saying he was opposed to pork. He was part of a budget deal that would withhold funds from the military if the Congress of which he was a part did not do its job, which it did not partly because of his efforts, and now he says he will go back on his word. 

Ryan opposes abortion in every situation as dictated by his Pope, as does Mormon Bishop Mitt Romney, and both refuse to admit when and how they would impose their religious beliefs on the rest of us.

Romney will say anything, and has, to get elected. He tears down the Presidency, makes a mockery of America's place in the world, then says our President diminishes the office. Romney plays the bigot in Israel and says stupid things about the English and brags about his wealth. 

 Both men were born on third base and pretend they hit a triple. Romney says culture is what creates success, by which he means the Mormon culture. Ryan is an acolyte of atheist Ayn Rand but picks bits of her "philosophy," such as it is, that justifies his belief in himself. God, what a pair of putzes. With no compassion whatsoever, their hunger for power shows so little class.

Romney/Ryan want the rich to get richer and the poor to suffer: 

Romney/Ryan want to end Social Security to enrich Goldman Sachs, the bankers who ruined the economy then profited from the chaos. 

Romney/Ryan want to end Medicare to enrich the insurance industry which will enrich them in turn and pay their political hyenas. 

Romney/Ryan want to rig the "non-free market"  in favor of large corporations in which they have a stake, to hell with individuals, laborers and small business owners. 

Romney/Ryan will take away individual rights and give them to giant corporations who view all citizens simply as consumers.

Romney/Ryan lie and cheat and steal. We can't let them steal our country. We just can't.

Mitt Romney: Mormon missionary to America?

Mitt Romney's opacity should concern America in ways beyond hiding his tax returns. Documents were destroyed after he ran the Salt Lake Olympics, hard drives were removed from Massachusetts computers after he was Governor, conflicting information keeps surfacing about the capitalist of creative destruction at Bain.

Romney has been called unknown if not unknowable. This is by intent. Romney has erased his history. So to know the man, one needs to look at his culture. That culture is Mormon.

The isolated nature of Mormonism and Romney's insulated background of privilege together explain the gaffs, awkwardness, role-playing, uniformity and the persistence.

Romney downplays his Mormon background because of bigotry in America toward Mormons and because a focus on the beliefs and practices of the Mormon Church make it less likely he would be elected.

And getting elected is Romney's God-given responsibility, his Mission to America.

Being “at ease” with others requires shared assumptions, shared habits, shared speech, shared values. Mitt Romney comes from a different place than most. A Starbucks-addled, wine sipping urbanite would feel awkward at a Mormon gathering after being told no coffee. No alcohol. No nicotine. "For anyone?" No. And no abortions, gay love, or swearing, either.

At the same time, Romney's values are shared by many non-Mormons. Alcohol's effect on our society is tragic; nicotine is a profit-delivery system at the expense of individual health and national treasure; one can only wish dollars spent on America's craving for caffeine funded education reform.

And healthy, loving, caring families like many in the Mormon community promote gracious adults. A gentleness surrounds many Mormons like an aura. It isn't reticence, we are told, it is taking the time “to consider whether an act is consistent with my values before acting, if what I am about to say or do is consistent with my values,” says an ex-Mormon. These are good habits.

There are strict expectations about behavior in the Mormon Church, though quietly expressed. There is equality but rigid hierarchy. It is judgmental without overt criticism. It is communal but not democratic. Obedience is not open for discussion.

Mitt Romney epitomizes life within the Mormon nest of church and family. Outsiders are kept at a distance. There is little exposure to the lives and ideas of the rest of America. That and his upper-class privilege cause him to say without self-consciousness “Some of my best friends own NASCAR teams” or “I am not concerned about the poor” or "the Jewish culture explains why Israelis have higher incomes than Palestinians."

It is common practice for Mormon “home teachers,” an Elder and a Priest, never only one, to visit every Mormon home once a month. During this visit they bring a “lesson” from the church and also check on the family. If a church member asks for help they will be helped. If the house is in disrepair and the husband ill they will call in assistance. If the wife is sick the Relief Society Sisters, who also go out once a month, offer the family support.

A family's adherence to the precepts of the church are also evaluated. This sense of being reviewed and judged pervades the culture. Romney's candidacy would not exist if it did not have the blessing of the Church.

According to doctrine, Jesus Christ heads the Mormon Church and the President of the Church is a Prophet of God. Through this prophet God speaks. Twelve apostles serve the church president just as the twelve served Christ. These men reveal God's word as direct and continual revelation to his people through the conduit of the priesthood which is held by every adult male Mormon in good standing.

"Romney would consult with the leadership of the church prior to making this decision to run for president and it would have been sanctioned for him to do this," said one ex-Mormon.. “If a Jack Mormon was running for president the Church would be subtly condemning him."

Which begs for the question: What happens when a Mormon Prophet, the church president, “calls” a priesthood holder to the Presidency of the United States? If the Mormon Church is supporting the candidacy to what extent does it have control over the candidate?

There is a very real possibility that Mitt Romney believes he is on a mission from God and that being President of the United States is his calling. In the Mormon faith one does not refuse The Call. This calling comes directly from God. One does not deny God. Doing God's will is the ultimate case of ends justifying the means.

One of the strengths of Mormonism is how it cares for members, the interweave of individuals into family, community and church. While occasionally derided, this interdependence is also a source of support. What the Mormon Church does for members is what liberals envision as the role of government

The Mormon Church may view the current debate about the relationship of individual to society as a power struggle between church and state. If the state provides it lessens the role of the church. If families care for their own it lessens the need for the state.

Republicans imbued Ronald Reagan and George Bush with the myth these role-players were rugged individuals of The West. Mormons do not represent the “rugged individualism” so beloved of the Reagan Right. They are as communal as any in group in America (Utah, home of the Mormon Church, is sometimes referred to as “The Beehive State"). In this sense Romney's values are more similar to inward-looking, self-validating, closed-societies than those of the lone cowboy riding his trusty horse into the sunset.

This is not about the rights of the Mormon Church, the Urim and Thummim, undergarments or any other ritual, whether the U.S. Constitution is a Mormon document divinely inspired, angels appearing to Joseph Smith, Jesus returning to earth in Missouri or Mormons baptizing Jewish victims of the Holocaust.

Mormonism does not disqualify Romney any more than being a Catholic disqualified JFK or being black disqualifies Barak Obama. But If Mitt Romney is on a Mission to America, Americans need to think about how our lives will change with Mitt Romney as president.

Instead of discussing policy, Romney spews soundbites. His record of secrecy, from his tax returns to  Bain to the Olympics to Massachusetts, is appalling. So it is necessary to look deeper than his words and the influence of the Mormon Church on Mitt Romney should not be discounted.

Drop abortion insurance.

The abortion issue in the health care debate is divisive, unnecessary and wrong. It is time to drop it and move on to getting health care for more Americans.

Including abortion as a health care entitlement in this country at this time is simply a mistake. It was always an over reaching, an example of the hubris of the left, a bit of Bush-like "we won, get over it." They thought they had the votes to ram it through. Then they didn't.

Aside from the vitriol it was bound to inflame, we can not afford to be a nanny state, taking care of every misstep any individual is likely to make. It is time the left recognized that consequences are as important in reforming the health care system as universal coverage.

That is another use of the word "choice." Enabling every individual we want to insure to avoid any consequences of choices they make is to guarantee a system we can't afford.

It would be nice to increase premiums on people who have too many Big Macs and Big Gulps as well. If they choose to skate the thin ice of obesity, heart disease and diabetes, they and not we should pay the higher price. No, I don't know how to separate life style choices from inherited traits.

But those issue are not hot button issues like abortion. On that we also have to recognize we live in a pluralistic society, and there are some things we just can't ask our neighbors to pay for.

Otherwise they won't pay for anything at all.