Tuesday – August 9, 2011
Glory and failure!
I sat down today and I thought long and hard about what to write. Can’t say there isn’t anything in the news. Can’t say that I couldn’t make a case for what is in the news, good and bad. Can’t say that I don’t put words on paper, after two years, I think I have proven that I can.
So what can we discuss or what can you read that hopefully contains something that you can take away and share?
Let’s start with a bit of history. On today’s date, in 1790, the ship Columbia returned home to Boston after a three year journey. This ship’s story is now hidden in the pages of history, but it had a glorious past. It was the first ship to sail the great oceans of the world with the U.S. flag flying, as it cut through the waves, as its captain circumnavigated the sea.
The ships captain, Robert Gray (May 10, 1755 – c. July, 1806), was an American merchant sea-captain who is known for his achievements in connection with two trading voyages to the northern Pacific coast of North America, between 1790 and 1793, which pioneered the American maritime fur trade in that region. In the course of those voyages, Gray explored portions of that coast and, in 1790, completed the first American circumnavigation of the world. Perhaps his most remembered accomplishment from his explorations was his coming upon and then naming of the Columbia River, in 1792 while on his second voyage.
This story is a story that started with a dream and ended in glory. The journey was not a failure. The journey created the routes of commerce that helped open our nation’s trade routes to the world. It also demonstrated to the world that our nation, after its recent victory of the Revolution, was a nation on the move. It demonstrated that a new great American tradition of exploration was about to begin with a new flag atop its mast.
I am wondering today as I write this FORUM what stories of glory do we have to tell our kids today, our grand kids or any body that will listen. The story of glory in our nation is becoming one of lost murky tales that always fault the American tradition instead of building upon that great tradition of our glory.
Just this month alone the market has crashed. We are finding out more about the extra cost of the Healthcare plan that many of us opposed. These extra costs will only contribute to the soaring deficit that is now impeding future stories of glory that will be replaced with future stories of failure. Our military has suffered a great loss that will take years to overcome with the deaths of 22 Navy Seals from the glory filled Seal Team 6. This month has seen a president go on the defensive with blaming everything and everyone else for this nation’s financial downgrade. Just today, we are learning that there will be a Senate inquiry into the S&P downgrade. Just today, the president’s team has released its strategy of how they will destroy Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican Candidate for President.
This month we have heard the president blame the world and our recent economic meltdown on a Tsunami and other natural disasters. The only disaster that has been caused is by the man who coined the term man made disasters.
Today, we have learned that a new Gallop Poll has 51% of registered voters saying that the president does not deserve re-election.
We have witnessed the failure of our government and our leaders to challenge NASA with a goal and a mission that would have guaranteed our nation’s foothold and continued footprint in space. Instead, our nation will hitch hike a ride into space on a Russian space ship. This is not glory, this is failure at it’s highest levels. Where and how is the American flag going to wave in the future?
Many in the country have not felt that glorious feeling of being able to go out and get that job that was advertised or that they heard about through the grape vine. That grape vine does not exist and that is a failure. Instead, they feel failure when they have no where to turn. Our economy is now being propped up artificially with low interest rates to artificially sustain the economy with more artificial federal buying of our own securities. This is not glory this is the failure of a big government.
Many are blaming Congress. Many are blaming the Tea Party. Let’s look at who is really to blame. Let’s start asking the right questions and looking for the right truth to be told. The path to glory is a hard climb. But the path to failure is one that should never be walked upon.
Glory is being free to create wealth and do with wealth as you please. Failure is having your wealth assessed as punishment for being successful. Social justice when it is used to even out the outcomes based on equal opportunities is a failure. Glory is accepting opportunities and making them better opportunities for those who need a real break.
Ask yourself why do we accept failure and why not demand glory? That is what our flag stood for in 1790. It’s time we search for a way to make it wave a little easier.
Gregory C. Dildilian
Founder and Executive Director
Pinecone Conservatives
A footnote: Failure and glory are sometimes two things that stand together side by side. Failure and glory is something you choose. When the path to failure is consciously chosen, you have to accept the results even if every one is questioning the results. When the path to glory is chosen, there will be no question about accepting the results.
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Monday, August 8, 2011
Everything is in the rating:
Monday- August 8, 2011
Everything is in the rating:
When you don’t know about something or question something, you might look at a rating to determine an opinion or to get the needed information to make a decision. For instance, there are consumer ratings to view for products, such as toasters and cars. When you read a review for a play or a movie you are reading a rating. When you go to a fine restaurant that is rated a two star or a three star you are going there, because of that rating. However, sometimes ratings get clouded with personal perspectives, personal feelings and personal politics.
This is also true of credit and financial outlook ratings. As you know, the United States of America had its debt rating lowered last Friday evening. Our rating was considered a Triple AAA since 1917. For the first time in our history, it went from the gold standard of that triple AAA to a rating of double AA. This is because there is a lack of confidence by the S&P in our ability to pay our debts. This is because our debts are riseing faster, as compared to the GDP nothing more nothing less. Moody’s and Fitch, two other rating services, have now issued concerns over downgrading their triple AAA rating of the United States to that of what the S&P downgraded us to.
All of these ratings are applied with the same criteria to other countries and other financial instruments around the world. This is not confined solely to the United States alone. France and other countries in Europe and Asia now have a higher rating than we do.
To understand the ratings and what these levels mean you must know the basic levels and what they mean. Every time you go down in the rating it is considered a downgrade.
The S&P defines there ratings as:
The triple AAA means the Borrower has an extremely strong capacity to meet their financial commitments.
The double AA means there is a very strong capacity to meet or pay back financial commitments.
The single A rating means there is a strong capacity to meet financial obligations, but they are more vulnerable to changing economic conditions and or other changing commitments.
A Triple BBB rating is the lowest grade suitable for investment.
A D rating is the worst it signals a possibility of financial default.
However, there is no such thing as the “tea party down grade” that seems to be the talking point of the day. David Axelrod, the president’s wordsmith, coined that term on CBS’s Face the Nation. John Kerry said the same when he went after the Tea Party; saying the Tea Party didn’t wanted tax increases and that is what caused the debt crisis and the subsequent downgrade. He went on to say, “The media has got to begin to not give equal time or equal balance to an absolutely absurd notion just because somebody asserts it or simply because somebody says something which everybody knows is factual.” John Kerry ABC News - August 5, 2011.
The Tea Party has been demonized as being the creator of this debt crisis. The Tea Party did not spend the nation’s wealth. The Tea Party did not put the country into a financial tail spin. The Tea Party simply wants the country to live within their means, so that there is a country left to live in. These are my talking points and mine alone.
The S&P warned us that if our debt and spending habits were not addressed there would be a downgrade. Our debt and spending habits were not addressed in the debt deal and the S&P made good on their warning. Say what you will this happened on this presidents watch and no bodies else’s.
Some say the S&P has missed every financial debacle in recent history. Don’t forget the others like Moody’s and Fitch have too. They only give a rating on the information they have. For example, the Democrats made it a point to say that the S&P missed the housing crisis. They did, but everybody else did as well, and don’t you think the information they got was the same that every other investor got? Don’t you think that Congressman Barney Frank and Senator Chris Dodd gave a robust picture of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? At the time, Barney Frank said that Fannie and Freddie were stable and safe and a good investment opportunity. If you view history, through the prism of fact, you will see how the housing crisis started and how it burst. Again, we have the Democrats not stepping up to take the responsibility.
Today, the President made a speech. The President played the blame game nothing more and nothing less. The market has lost 1,100 points in two days of trading. Today was the biggest one day loss, since 2008. Today is day 800 that this President and this Senate have not submitted a budget. Today, our debt rating is a double AA, instead of the triple AAA that the president inherited.
If I were the S&P, I think I would have given a lower rating of a single A or a triple BBB, because this government has no intention on curbing their spending or their borrowing. Our government has no intention on stopping the growth of government either. This President has proven that he is a borrow and spend President. He is not a save and pay President. Past history has proven that, as well.
Part of the equation of solving the debt is getting a handle on three entitlements: Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. When these entitlements were created there were 35 people working for every 1 recipient. Today there is 1 person working for 35 recipients. Until we, as a nation, can get a handle on this and realize that growing government is not the answer and that partisan politics will not return our triple AAA debt rating it will only get worse.
A plan to create jobs through taking down the regulations and the dismantling of hurdles that this president has put on small business is crucial. A review of governmental agencies to reduce redundancy and a plan to perform due diligence is needed. A balanced budget is needed to reign in spending and curb borrowing. And finally a commitment to end partisan politics through statesmanship is required.
A plan to create jobs through reducing the small business tax will turn the economy around because there will be more tax payers. When there are more tax payers paying taxes then a plan to create a surplus must be implemented. When Corporations are given the incentives to create jobs here and produce their products here then we will not have the need to borrow for the expenses that the government is obligated to pay. However this all hinges on getting a handle on the entitlements that have proven to have cost us dearly.
Hear is the good news and the bad news: The bad news first: no jobs, the value of real estate is still in the dumps, because of the Obama downgrade interest rates will now jump, but the good news is that the price of oil is coming down, because the demand is now decreasing.
Now I have a request of you. Come up with your own rating system of your government and your president. I currently give our government an E. I give the President an F. But then again, that’s just me talking about my rating system.
Gregory C. Dildilian
Founder and Executive Director
Pinecone Conservatives
A footnote: Everything is in the ratings. It can make you go to a movie, eat in a restaurant, buy a car or it could make you not want to invest in one thing and make you invest in the other. Unfortunately, that is what is happening now. The United States is not considered a safe bet. That is something a new president will now inherit!
Everything is in the rating:
When you don’t know about something or question something, you might look at a rating to determine an opinion or to get the needed information to make a decision. For instance, there are consumer ratings to view for products, such as toasters and cars. When you read a review for a play or a movie you are reading a rating. When you go to a fine restaurant that is rated a two star or a three star you are going there, because of that rating. However, sometimes ratings get clouded with personal perspectives, personal feelings and personal politics.
This is also true of credit and financial outlook ratings. As you know, the United States of America had its debt rating lowered last Friday evening. Our rating was considered a Triple AAA since 1917. For the first time in our history, it went from the gold standard of that triple AAA to a rating of double AA. This is because there is a lack of confidence by the S&P in our ability to pay our debts. This is because our debts are riseing faster, as compared to the GDP nothing more nothing less. Moody’s and Fitch, two other rating services, have now issued concerns over downgrading their triple AAA rating of the United States to that of what the S&P downgraded us to.
All of these ratings are applied with the same criteria to other countries and other financial instruments around the world. This is not confined solely to the United States alone. France and other countries in Europe and Asia now have a higher rating than we do.
To understand the ratings and what these levels mean you must know the basic levels and what they mean. Every time you go down in the rating it is considered a downgrade.
The S&P defines there ratings as:
The triple AAA means the Borrower has an extremely strong capacity to meet their financial commitments.
The double AA means there is a very strong capacity to meet or pay back financial commitments.
The single A rating means there is a strong capacity to meet financial obligations, but they are more vulnerable to changing economic conditions and or other changing commitments.
A Triple BBB rating is the lowest grade suitable for investment.
A D rating is the worst it signals a possibility of financial default.
However, there is no such thing as the “tea party down grade” that seems to be the talking point of the day. David Axelrod, the president’s wordsmith, coined that term on CBS’s Face the Nation. John Kerry said the same when he went after the Tea Party; saying the Tea Party didn’t wanted tax increases and that is what caused the debt crisis and the subsequent downgrade. He went on to say, “The media has got to begin to not give equal time or equal balance to an absolutely absurd notion just because somebody asserts it or simply because somebody says something which everybody knows is factual.” John Kerry ABC News - August 5, 2011.
The Tea Party has been demonized as being the creator of this debt crisis. The Tea Party did not spend the nation’s wealth. The Tea Party did not put the country into a financial tail spin. The Tea Party simply wants the country to live within their means, so that there is a country left to live in. These are my talking points and mine alone.
The S&P warned us that if our debt and spending habits were not addressed there would be a downgrade. Our debt and spending habits were not addressed in the debt deal and the S&P made good on their warning. Say what you will this happened on this presidents watch and no bodies else’s.
Some say the S&P has missed every financial debacle in recent history. Don’t forget the others like Moody’s and Fitch have too. They only give a rating on the information they have. For example, the Democrats made it a point to say that the S&P missed the housing crisis. They did, but everybody else did as well, and don’t you think the information they got was the same that every other investor got? Don’t you think that Congressman Barney Frank and Senator Chris Dodd gave a robust picture of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? At the time, Barney Frank said that Fannie and Freddie were stable and safe and a good investment opportunity. If you view history, through the prism of fact, you will see how the housing crisis started and how it burst. Again, we have the Democrats not stepping up to take the responsibility.
Today, the President made a speech. The President played the blame game nothing more and nothing less. The market has lost 1,100 points in two days of trading. Today was the biggest one day loss, since 2008. Today is day 800 that this President and this Senate have not submitted a budget. Today, our debt rating is a double AA, instead of the triple AAA that the president inherited.
If I were the S&P, I think I would have given a lower rating of a single A or a triple BBB, because this government has no intention on curbing their spending or their borrowing. Our government has no intention on stopping the growth of government either. This President has proven that he is a borrow and spend President. He is not a save and pay President. Past history has proven that, as well.
Part of the equation of solving the debt is getting a handle on three entitlements: Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. When these entitlements were created there were 35 people working for every 1 recipient. Today there is 1 person working for 35 recipients. Until we, as a nation, can get a handle on this and realize that growing government is not the answer and that partisan politics will not return our triple AAA debt rating it will only get worse.
A plan to create jobs through taking down the regulations and the dismantling of hurdles that this president has put on small business is crucial. A review of governmental agencies to reduce redundancy and a plan to perform due diligence is needed. A balanced budget is needed to reign in spending and curb borrowing. And finally a commitment to end partisan politics through statesmanship is required.
A plan to create jobs through reducing the small business tax will turn the economy around because there will be more tax payers. When there are more tax payers paying taxes then a plan to create a surplus must be implemented. When Corporations are given the incentives to create jobs here and produce their products here then we will not have the need to borrow for the expenses that the government is obligated to pay. However this all hinges on getting a handle on the entitlements that have proven to have cost us dearly.
Hear is the good news and the bad news: The bad news first: no jobs, the value of real estate is still in the dumps, because of the Obama downgrade interest rates will now jump, but the good news is that the price of oil is coming down, because the demand is now decreasing.
Now I have a request of you. Come up with your own rating system of your government and your president. I currently give our government an E. I give the President an F. But then again, that’s just me talking about my rating system.
Gregory C. Dildilian
Founder and Executive Director
Pinecone Conservatives
A footnote: Everything is in the ratings. It can make you go to a movie, eat in a restaurant, buy a car or it could make you not want to invest in one thing and make you invest in the other. Unfortunately, that is what is happening now. The United States is not considered a safe bet. That is something a new president will now inherit!
Friday, August 5, 2011
It's the relationship!
Friday – August 5, 2011
It’s the relationship!
I do not like to gloat; I do not like to take credit; I do not like to predict doom and gloom; I do not like to see my country in trouble. But it is and I told you so.
This is not a day to celebrate; America is hemorrhaging. The nation’s debt is now 97.2% of GDP. You might as well call it 100%. The nation’s debt is now consuming all that is good in our traditions and in our security. We are now a debtor nation. Our individual relationship with government should be questioned. Our individual desires as citizens along with doing the right things as citizens and playing by the rules as citizens, and now suffering for it, is what should be at the forefront in any future debate.
The DOW fell 513 points yesterday, the largest drop since December 1 of 2008 when the financial crisis hit. It was down 4.31% yesterday, it has fallen 10 out of 11 sessions and it is now down 10.54% over a ten day period. It is also the lowest close since December 9 of 2010. The Market is the barometer of confidence in the economy. I predicted that the market would fall last week when the debt deal was being negotiated when everyone else said it would rise.
The cure can no longer be the norm of printing more money because the world’s economy is now a reflection of the American economy.
Our debt today is at 97.2 % of GDP, The bush debt was 69.4% of GDP and the Clinton debt was at 37% of GDP. This trend of upward spending was eventually going to burst the economic bubble; it happened yesterday on Obama’s watch. The president said, Wednesday night at his birthday bash, “I didn’t think the climb was going to be as steep as it is.” He then went on to blame the nation’s financial crisis and the world’s economic condition in part on the Tsunami that hit Japan. He blamed, he’s blamed and he will continue to blame until his work is done. His work has now shown the results that a lot of us warned you about. It is his work and ultimate goal of economic transformation that will transform our relationship with government to that of more government control.
Our economy is now at a stand still. The President has announced his mid west bus tour to discuss the economy and jobs. Is this something that we should feel good about? Is this bus tour going to provide some divine inspiration to fuel a solution? Is this bus tour going to provide the jobs that he is solely responsible for loosing? Will his solution be another divine inspiration like an electric car? The government has bought 1,250 units of the Chevrolet VOLT the public has only bought 125 units to date. Oh by the way you subsidized the sales of this vehicle with $7,500 per vehicle with your tax dollars, did you get a new car? The president put all his hopes on this transformation to green technology and green jobs. It failed because it was a false premise to think that government is the sole creator of jobs and that the divine wisdom of this president would save the Union.
Wednesday night the President had a birthday party and fundraiser. The guests paid $38,500.00 to attend. If they wanted a picture with the president it cost the guests an additional $10,000.00. Now I have a divine inspiration, this idea just might help save the economy. Why doesn’t the president hold fundraisers every day up to the election so that the cash he raises can pay for the damage he has done? He is the only one who seems to be bringing in the cash these days. He will have 1 billion dollars in his campaign war chest very soon. He has about 86 million now. Why doesn’t he start giving this money to the souls that he has caused such hardship for? Now that is compassion and that is spreading the wealth around, something he said he would do in his last campaign.
As Thomas Paine a famous American author wrote: December 23, 1776: “THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated.”
What happened this week is the failure to recognize and understand the traditions that made this country great. What happened this week is the failure to listen to the words of history. What happened this week is the failure of the President of the United States to recognize what our history was and what defined us as a great nation and a compassionate society. That is the president’s failure and it should no longer be ours to deal with.
Taxes, healthcare, uncertainty on a whole list of concerns, gold going up and the price of oil coming down are all signs of a stagnant economy, an economy that is in freefall and an economy that is not performing. Unemployment is stuck at 9.1% we are still loosing 400,000 jobs a month and creating ¼ of that in new jobs. This is not progress this is more of the same and it is on this president’s watch. It is because of his policies and his ideology. This is not the fault of congress or another natural disaster. It is the fault of a national disaster that emanates from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue you won’t need the zip code for this one.
On today’s date in 1861 the The Revenue Act of 1861, formally cited as Act of August 5, 1861, Chap. XLV, 12 Stat. 292, included the first U.S. Federal income tax statute (see Sec.49). The Act, motivated by the need to fund the Civil War, imposed an income tax to be "levied, collected, and paid, upon the annual income of every person residing in the United States, whether such income is derived from any kind of property, or from any profession, trade, employment, or vocation carried on in the United States or elsewhere, or from any other source whatever.
Rates under the Act were 3% on income above $800 and 5% on income of individuals living outside the country.
This single act changed the relationship between the citizen and their government. But this single act was also a needed tool to win the freedom and independence that gave the liberty to many that did not have it. This was reasonable then because it was needed then. But like anything a government does it grew into a beast that ultimately consumed more and more of our revenue.
When your government takes in 2.2 trillion dollars in revenue a year and spends 3.7 trillion dollars a year on programs that most of us derive no benefit from then your relationship with your government is violated. When your government does not listen to the will of the people then your relationship with your government is violated. When government thinks they know more about what you need and does not let you make your own decisions then your relationship with your government is violated. When your president takes credit for the good things and does not take the blame for the bad then your relationship with him and your government is violated. It’s like any marriage when the other one in a relationship does not live up to expectations then your relationship is done.
Its time to dig deep into your soul and ask yourself this one question, “What kind of a relationship do you want with your government”? Because that affects what kind of country we will become. After a little searching of the soul you just might demand that your government redeem itself by giving us our liberty back so that our freedom is unhampered so that we are able to gain our independence once again. This is the freedom that will bind and that will not “try men’s souls.”
Thomas Paine said: “He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.”
This special relationship is what we must extend to our neighbors because in the end it is the relationship that makes America strong and that will ensure a secure America for our posterity.
Gregory C. Dildilian
Founder and Executive Director
Pinecone Conservatives
A footnote: There comes a time when the realization of our individual relationship with our government and each other and each others neighbors is what must be strengthened through the words and actions that unite instead of words and deeds that consumes then divides us.
It’s the relationship!
I do not like to gloat; I do not like to take credit; I do not like to predict doom and gloom; I do not like to see my country in trouble. But it is and I told you so.
This is not a day to celebrate; America is hemorrhaging. The nation’s debt is now 97.2% of GDP. You might as well call it 100%. The nation’s debt is now consuming all that is good in our traditions and in our security. We are now a debtor nation. Our individual relationship with government should be questioned. Our individual desires as citizens along with doing the right things as citizens and playing by the rules as citizens, and now suffering for it, is what should be at the forefront in any future debate.
The DOW fell 513 points yesterday, the largest drop since December 1 of 2008 when the financial crisis hit. It was down 4.31% yesterday, it has fallen 10 out of 11 sessions and it is now down 10.54% over a ten day period. It is also the lowest close since December 9 of 2010. The Market is the barometer of confidence in the economy. I predicted that the market would fall last week when the debt deal was being negotiated when everyone else said it would rise.
The cure can no longer be the norm of printing more money because the world’s economy is now a reflection of the American economy.
Our debt today is at 97.2 % of GDP, The bush debt was 69.4% of GDP and the Clinton debt was at 37% of GDP. This trend of upward spending was eventually going to burst the economic bubble; it happened yesterday on Obama’s watch. The president said, Wednesday night at his birthday bash, “I didn’t think the climb was going to be as steep as it is.” He then went on to blame the nation’s financial crisis and the world’s economic condition in part on the Tsunami that hit Japan. He blamed, he’s blamed and he will continue to blame until his work is done. His work has now shown the results that a lot of us warned you about. It is his work and ultimate goal of economic transformation that will transform our relationship with government to that of more government control.
Our economy is now at a stand still. The President has announced his mid west bus tour to discuss the economy and jobs. Is this something that we should feel good about? Is this bus tour going to provide some divine inspiration to fuel a solution? Is this bus tour going to provide the jobs that he is solely responsible for loosing? Will his solution be another divine inspiration like an electric car? The government has bought 1,250 units of the Chevrolet VOLT the public has only bought 125 units to date. Oh by the way you subsidized the sales of this vehicle with $7,500 per vehicle with your tax dollars, did you get a new car? The president put all his hopes on this transformation to green technology and green jobs. It failed because it was a false premise to think that government is the sole creator of jobs and that the divine wisdom of this president would save the Union.
Wednesday night the President had a birthday party and fundraiser. The guests paid $38,500.00 to attend. If they wanted a picture with the president it cost the guests an additional $10,000.00. Now I have a divine inspiration, this idea just might help save the economy. Why doesn’t the president hold fundraisers every day up to the election so that the cash he raises can pay for the damage he has done? He is the only one who seems to be bringing in the cash these days. He will have 1 billion dollars in his campaign war chest very soon. He has about 86 million now. Why doesn’t he start giving this money to the souls that he has caused such hardship for? Now that is compassion and that is spreading the wealth around, something he said he would do in his last campaign.
As Thomas Paine a famous American author wrote: December 23, 1776: “THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated.”
What happened this week is the failure to recognize and understand the traditions that made this country great. What happened this week is the failure to listen to the words of history. What happened this week is the failure of the President of the United States to recognize what our history was and what defined us as a great nation and a compassionate society. That is the president’s failure and it should no longer be ours to deal with.
Taxes, healthcare, uncertainty on a whole list of concerns, gold going up and the price of oil coming down are all signs of a stagnant economy, an economy that is in freefall and an economy that is not performing. Unemployment is stuck at 9.1% we are still loosing 400,000 jobs a month and creating ¼ of that in new jobs. This is not progress this is more of the same and it is on this president’s watch. It is because of his policies and his ideology. This is not the fault of congress or another natural disaster. It is the fault of a national disaster that emanates from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue you won’t need the zip code for this one.
On today’s date in 1861 the The Revenue Act of 1861, formally cited as Act of August 5, 1861, Chap. XLV, 12 Stat. 292, included the first U.S. Federal income tax statute (see Sec.49). The Act, motivated by the need to fund the Civil War, imposed an income tax to be "levied, collected, and paid, upon the annual income of every person residing in the United States, whether such income is derived from any kind of property, or from any profession, trade, employment, or vocation carried on in the United States or elsewhere, or from any other source whatever.
Rates under the Act were 3% on income above $800 and 5% on income of individuals living outside the country.
This single act changed the relationship between the citizen and their government. But this single act was also a needed tool to win the freedom and independence that gave the liberty to many that did not have it. This was reasonable then because it was needed then. But like anything a government does it grew into a beast that ultimately consumed more and more of our revenue.
When your government takes in 2.2 trillion dollars in revenue a year and spends 3.7 trillion dollars a year on programs that most of us derive no benefit from then your relationship with your government is violated. When your government does not listen to the will of the people then your relationship with your government is violated. When government thinks they know more about what you need and does not let you make your own decisions then your relationship with your government is violated. When your president takes credit for the good things and does not take the blame for the bad then your relationship with him and your government is violated. It’s like any marriage when the other one in a relationship does not live up to expectations then your relationship is done.
Its time to dig deep into your soul and ask yourself this one question, “What kind of a relationship do you want with your government”? Because that affects what kind of country we will become. After a little searching of the soul you just might demand that your government redeem itself by giving us our liberty back so that our freedom is unhampered so that we are able to gain our independence once again. This is the freedom that will bind and that will not “try men’s souls.”
Thomas Paine said: “He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.”
This special relationship is what we must extend to our neighbors because in the end it is the relationship that makes America strong and that will ensure a secure America for our posterity.
Gregory C. Dildilian
Founder and Executive Director
Pinecone Conservatives
A footnote: There comes a time when the realization of our individual relationship with our government and each other and each others neighbors is what must be strengthened through the words and actions that unite instead of words and deeds that consumes then divides us.
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Where are we?
Thursday August 4, 2011
Where are we?
This is a question that is frequently asked when people are lost or who are questioning a relationship. When someone needs direction they might ask, where are we, especially when they are in a group. In a relationship, it becomes more of a personal question that is usually a one on one type of question. This one on one question should also be asked of government, because you do have a relationship, if you realize it or not.
I believe that many in America are lost. Many people come to me and ask simple questions. They are: What do you think of Sarah Palin? Is Mitt Romney going to get the nomination? What the heck is happening in Washington? Did you hear about the latest spending spree? What do you think about what is happening in the Mid East? I always have an answer. Some might not like what I say, but none the less I have an answer.
These are simple questions with complex answers and intriguing results. These questions are also how people search for answers. That is why it is so important to voice your ideas and your thoughts. Most of the time I answer a question straight forward, but sometimes I like to get a bit philosophical.
Someone asked me a question at the barber shop. Ok, it was my barber and I thought twice about how to answer it, because he held the razor. My barber is a great guy, he works his chair and he works for the owner of the shop. He asked me why there is such a debate over the debt ceiling in Washington and what’s going to happen when poor people lose their aid and all the other help that government programs give. Where is the justice in that? He said we can’t have these people just go homeless.
I listened and then I asked the question, why do you think we need to spread the wealth around? He said: well, the Republicans have all the money and thank God the Democrats are there to decide how to spread it around. He said, “I think they call that social justice.” He went onto say that the rich needs to pay for more, because the poor needs more help, because the Republicans have ruined the economy. He said I agree with the president when he said the people who own corporate jets can afford to pay more. The barber believes social justice will make things even, he told me as much. He went on to say a bit more about how the rich people keep minorities at the level they are at. What I have written pretty much sums up what he said. I waited until my neck was shaved and then I asked, do you think I am a liberal? He said I don’t know. I am just speaking my mind.
I waited all of three seconds to process what he had said. My first words were that his premises are faulty and his thoughts couldn’t be more wrong. I asked how many people he personally knows who fly around on corporate jets. He said one, the Republican Donald Trump. I said you are right, but doesn’t he deserve to fly one around, because he worked for it? Doesn’t he deserve to fly one around because he employs many people? And then I said, you haven’t answered the question, because you don’t personally know Mr. Trump and you don’t personally know any one who owns a jet. I said my point in all this is there aren’t enough jet owners around to tax for purposes of spreading the wealth around and if people like Trump were taxed on that then they might not be able to hire as many people as he does. I said you have bought into another faulty premise. I asked the barber if he had Trump’s money what would he do with it? He said go to Disneyland. I then said, you better just keep cutting hair and not talk politics.
As all of this went down, I was thinking of how I could relate this in a FORUM and still be polite in the words I chose. I was polite and I paid my bill. I will go back and I will give my barber a history lesson and the history what our liberty, freedom and independence gives us if we treat it in the way it was intended to be treated.
After considering this brief interlude into the mind of a liberal or someone that is just not informed it dawned on me. This is the way our government, our leaders and yes the President probably want things. No accountability of real history and confusion over the facts. Keep the people fighting the war on class warfare -distort the truth, because that makes it easier to gain the social justice of spreading the wealth around. Then it dawned on me how many people are like the barber and how many people are like me. I guess it depends on the city and the state you live in or it might be as simple as how they process what they hear or maybe it’s a little bit of both.
I have been reading about some of the modern leaders of the twentieth century. I wrote about one of them yesterday. Senator Everett Dirksen was a compassionate conservative. He fought for fiscal responsibility he also fought for the rights of man. He authored much of the civil rights legislation of the sixties. He never thought that by giving the rights that were constitutionally due to some Americans that some others would turn that into an industry for social justice peddling and an excuse for government to spread the wealth around. A conservative notion of spreading freedom and rights around has turned into a spending spree by the liberals. This spending spree has now crippled a nation and its entire people through entitlements and bloated civic programs that never are accountable until someone makes a demand on social justice to settle the accounts.
In short, poor people are not poor, because rich people are rich. Equal opportunity has to be judged, but it should not be judged and viewed through the prism of equalizing the results to satisfy those that demand social justice in the form of tax dollars from the system.
Dirksen said many things and Dirksen was many things to his country. However, he never intended social justice to be used to rob a nation’s wealth through legislation and with the self appointed power that office holders have given themselves today.
Dirksen said: “There is no force so powerful as an idea whose time has come.” My idea of social justice is how to create jobs that provide the opportunity for every American to grow and prosper. Conservatives know that government can never create the type of job that will make people rich. Conservatives know that social justice when it is used to rob a nation of its wealth will at some point fail to keep the peace and break the backs of those who have played by the rules. The time has come for new ideas based on the principles of unbridled free enterprise, determination, creativity and the desire to succeed with compassion is the best formula for successful social justice to occur.
Dirksen also said, when he was in the Senate, “We are becoming so accustomed to millions and billions of dollars that "thousands" has almost passed out of the dictionary.” The time has come for new ideas that will create a force so powerful that bankrupt politicians can no longer serve, let alone pass the legislation that robs our liberty, freedom and independence. I believe this is called compassion for all.
Dirksen said, “When all is said and done, the real citadel of strength of any community is in the hearts and minds and desires of those who dwell there.” I believe in this quote because America is the community that the world sees as the heart and soul of freedom. It was the desire of people like Benjamin Franklin who wanted to create a place that was free of government rule and policies that stifle freedom. It was also men like Dirksen who kept that fight alive in the twentieth century.
Now how’s that for an idea whose time has come.
Gregory C. Dildilian
Founder and Executive Director
Pinecone Conservatives
A footnote: To answer the question, where are we, it should be answered in this way. The true essence of social justice should be measured by the heart and soul of the compassion that is served with fair ideals and that is based on the freedoms that we have been given to better our selves and our community. We now know that entitlements have robbed us of everything that is good including our ideals and the liberty, freedom and independence of those that want to better them selves. Today, in the hopes of spreading the wealth our national debt is now equal to the countries GDP. More on this tomorrow!
Where are we?
This is a question that is frequently asked when people are lost or who are questioning a relationship. When someone needs direction they might ask, where are we, especially when they are in a group. In a relationship, it becomes more of a personal question that is usually a one on one type of question. This one on one question should also be asked of government, because you do have a relationship, if you realize it or not.
I believe that many in America are lost. Many people come to me and ask simple questions. They are: What do you think of Sarah Palin? Is Mitt Romney going to get the nomination? What the heck is happening in Washington? Did you hear about the latest spending spree? What do you think about what is happening in the Mid East? I always have an answer. Some might not like what I say, but none the less I have an answer.
These are simple questions with complex answers and intriguing results. These questions are also how people search for answers. That is why it is so important to voice your ideas and your thoughts. Most of the time I answer a question straight forward, but sometimes I like to get a bit philosophical.
Someone asked me a question at the barber shop. Ok, it was my barber and I thought twice about how to answer it, because he held the razor. My barber is a great guy, he works his chair and he works for the owner of the shop. He asked me why there is such a debate over the debt ceiling in Washington and what’s going to happen when poor people lose their aid and all the other help that government programs give. Where is the justice in that? He said we can’t have these people just go homeless.
I listened and then I asked the question, why do you think we need to spread the wealth around? He said: well, the Republicans have all the money and thank God the Democrats are there to decide how to spread it around. He said, “I think they call that social justice.” He went onto say that the rich needs to pay for more, because the poor needs more help, because the Republicans have ruined the economy. He said I agree with the president when he said the people who own corporate jets can afford to pay more. The barber believes social justice will make things even, he told me as much. He went on to say a bit more about how the rich people keep minorities at the level they are at. What I have written pretty much sums up what he said. I waited until my neck was shaved and then I asked, do you think I am a liberal? He said I don’t know. I am just speaking my mind.
I waited all of three seconds to process what he had said. My first words were that his premises are faulty and his thoughts couldn’t be more wrong. I asked how many people he personally knows who fly around on corporate jets. He said one, the Republican Donald Trump. I said you are right, but doesn’t he deserve to fly one around, because he worked for it? Doesn’t he deserve to fly one around because he employs many people? And then I said, you haven’t answered the question, because you don’t personally know Mr. Trump and you don’t personally know any one who owns a jet. I said my point in all this is there aren’t enough jet owners around to tax for purposes of spreading the wealth around and if people like Trump were taxed on that then they might not be able to hire as many people as he does. I said you have bought into another faulty premise. I asked the barber if he had Trump’s money what would he do with it? He said go to Disneyland. I then said, you better just keep cutting hair and not talk politics.
As all of this went down, I was thinking of how I could relate this in a FORUM and still be polite in the words I chose. I was polite and I paid my bill. I will go back and I will give my barber a history lesson and the history what our liberty, freedom and independence gives us if we treat it in the way it was intended to be treated.
After considering this brief interlude into the mind of a liberal or someone that is just not informed it dawned on me. This is the way our government, our leaders and yes the President probably want things. No accountability of real history and confusion over the facts. Keep the people fighting the war on class warfare -distort the truth, because that makes it easier to gain the social justice of spreading the wealth around. Then it dawned on me how many people are like the barber and how many people are like me. I guess it depends on the city and the state you live in or it might be as simple as how they process what they hear or maybe it’s a little bit of both.
I have been reading about some of the modern leaders of the twentieth century. I wrote about one of them yesterday. Senator Everett Dirksen was a compassionate conservative. He fought for fiscal responsibility he also fought for the rights of man. He authored much of the civil rights legislation of the sixties. He never thought that by giving the rights that were constitutionally due to some Americans that some others would turn that into an industry for social justice peddling and an excuse for government to spread the wealth around. A conservative notion of spreading freedom and rights around has turned into a spending spree by the liberals. This spending spree has now crippled a nation and its entire people through entitlements and bloated civic programs that never are accountable until someone makes a demand on social justice to settle the accounts.
In short, poor people are not poor, because rich people are rich. Equal opportunity has to be judged, but it should not be judged and viewed through the prism of equalizing the results to satisfy those that demand social justice in the form of tax dollars from the system.
Dirksen said many things and Dirksen was many things to his country. However, he never intended social justice to be used to rob a nation’s wealth through legislation and with the self appointed power that office holders have given themselves today.
Dirksen said: “There is no force so powerful as an idea whose time has come.” My idea of social justice is how to create jobs that provide the opportunity for every American to grow and prosper. Conservatives know that government can never create the type of job that will make people rich. Conservatives know that social justice when it is used to rob a nation of its wealth will at some point fail to keep the peace and break the backs of those who have played by the rules. The time has come for new ideas based on the principles of unbridled free enterprise, determination, creativity and the desire to succeed with compassion is the best formula for successful social justice to occur.
Dirksen also said, when he was in the Senate, “We are becoming so accustomed to millions and billions of dollars that "thousands" has almost passed out of the dictionary.” The time has come for new ideas that will create a force so powerful that bankrupt politicians can no longer serve, let alone pass the legislation that robs our liberty, freedom and independence. I believe this is called compassion for all.
Dirksen said, “When all is said and done, the real citadel of strength of any community is in the hearts and minds and desires of those who dwell there.” I believe in this quote because America is the community that the world sees as the heart and soul of freedom. It was the desire of people like Benjamin Franklin who wanted to create a place that was free of government rule and policies that stifle freedom. It was also men like Dirksen who kept that fight alive in the twentieth century.
Now how’s that for an idea whose time has come.
Gregory C. Dildilian
Founder and Executive Director
Pinecone Conservatives
A footnote: To answer the question, where are we, it should be answered in this way. The true essence of social justice should be measured by the heart and soul of the compassion that is served with fair ideals and that is based on the freedoms that we have been given to better our selves and our community. We now know that entitlements have robbed us of everything that is good including our ideals and the liberty, freedom and independence of those that want to better them selves. Today, in the hopes of spreading the wealth our national debt is now equal to the countries GDP. More on this tomorrow!
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
It's in the Congressional record, if you don't believe me!
Wednesday – August 3, 2011
It’s in the Congressional record, if you don’t believe me!
Many people who visit my site on the internet only know me by the stories, the facts and the words I use. Most of what I write just comes to me when I sit down to start the FORUM each day. However, sometimes, I look up pertinent dates in history and sometimes I listen to the news for inspiration. And then sometimes somebody gives me a story about histories record. Today, I have a story that my twin brother, Mark, told me about. He told me about a speech that Senator Everett Dirksen gave on the Senate floor which was entered into the Congressional record in June of 1965.
Most of you who know me by the words I write don’t know that my brother Mark is my identical twin. He is older and wiser than me - by only 8 short minutes. My brother and I have been through thick and thin together. My twin and I have some great stories about growing up - this includes all the twin stuff that only twins can understand. I love my brother, so I am dedicating this FORUM to him, because of the story he told me about as he read yesterday’s FORUM.
Yesterday’s FORUM was titled: “There’s sense and then there are cents.” I related the title to Benjamin Franklin, his life and the times he lived. I wrote about the sense he had, and the stories he told about how to save the cents you have. These stories are still pertinent today. The early patriots had for the first time in their lives their own money, because of the liberty, the freedom and their new found independence that Franklin’s signature was in part responsible for.
Yesterday was also the 235 anniversary of the signing of The Declaration of Independence that holds Franklin’s signature today.
Today’s FORUM, and the story I am referencing , is about how government through the laws that are passed will always try to take a bit of your liberty, a bit of your freedom and a bit of the independence that we are supposed to enjoy and pass down to our posterity.
Today, our debt limit will rise to over 16 trillion dollars because of the debt deal the President signed. Today, the Republicans are being blamed, because it is perceived that the Tea Party caused the crisis over what was normally a done deal before it got to the president’s desk. It was the Tea Party who had the good sense to question the spending and question the sense in raising the debt ceiling by that much without any assurances of paying down the cents that caused the debt crisis in the first place. Vice President Biden even called the Tea Party members in the House “terrorists.”
Today, the Democrats are trying to gain the high ground, because of the Senate’s action with their bi-partisan approach. The president said: “We have avoided default”. This may be true, for now, but there will be another debt ceiling crisis after the election of 2012. Our government has once again kicked the can down the road and we will once again be forced to pick up the tab on that “can” as it continues to be kicked down that same road.
All the while, the President has escaped the scrutiny that should have been the story of the day. Record levels of unemployment, a falling stock market all add up to uncertainty. Many of the nation’s companies are not expanding and creating jobs here, because they do not have confidence in the economy here today. The president has once again escaped all the scrutiny that should have been focused on him today.
The president’s birthday is this Thursday but he will celebrate it in Chicago today. The president will be given campaign donations as birthday gifts tonight at fundraisers for him. This president and his party should now be made irrelevant to the issues that today presents.
The story that my brother told me about was this: In 1965, the raising of our debt ceiling was also an issue and there was also a public debate. The ceiling was a huge $328 billion dollars then. Senator Everett Dirksen, a Republican and a conservative, was against raising the debt ceiling and questioned the sense of doing so, because he new the value of cents. Dirksen was, in his day, the conscience of the Senate. He was not only a proponent of civil rights legislation; he authored much of that legislation in the 60’s. He said: “a billion here, a billion there pretty soon your talking about real money.” Though he did not create these words, the quote is attributed to him as its author.
In June of 1965, Dirksen took to the floor of the Senate and, in his special way, told two stories that reflected the scope and the concern of his time over the debt. Yesterday, I asked where are the Franklin’s now, in the 60’s we came close in that spirit but today our leaders have failed to put the concerns of a nation into words that matter. In 1965 the debt ceiling was a staggering 328 billion dollars today 46 years later that amount is just a drop in the bucket. Today the government spends 100 billion dollars every 10 days!
The Senator, in his gruff style, was known in the Senate as “the Master of Ooze.” The story my brother told me about are the two stories the Senator told, they are:
"As I think of this bill, and the fact that the more progress we make the deeper we go into the hole, I am reminded of a group of men who were working on a street. They had dug quite a number of holes. When they got through, they failed to puddle or tamp the earth when it was returned to the hole, and they had a nice little mound, which was quite a traffic hazard.
"Not knowing what to do with it, they sat down on the curb and had a conference. After a while, one of the fellows snapped his fingers and said, ‘I have it. I know how we will get rid of that overriding earth and remove the hazard. We will just dig the hole deeper.'" [Congressional Record, June 16, 1965, p. 13884].
On the same occasion, Dirksen relied on yet another "spending" story, one he labeled "cat in the well":"One time in the House of Representatives [a colleague] told me a story about a proposition that a teacher put to a boy. He said, ‘Johnny, a cat fell in a well 100 feet deep. Suppose that cat climbed up 1 foot and then fell back 2 feet. How long would it take the cat to get out of the well?' "Johnny worked assiduously with his slate and slate pencil for quite a while, and then when the teacher came down and said, ‘how are you getting along?' Johnny said, ‘Teacher, if you give me another slate and a couple of slate pencils, I am pretty sure that in the next 30 minutes I can land that cat in hell.' "If some people get any cheer out of a $328 billion debt ceiling, I do not find much to cheer about concerning it." [Congressional Record, June 16, 1965, p. 13884].
These words and these stories tell of a time when caution was permitted to be recognized and when people were not demonized for having the sense to be cautious about the cents they were committing to the nation’s debt. As we relate these two stories to today’s story, caution was not permitted to rule the day, because of a President who has now placed us in a deeper hole which is now closer to H***. A few more trillion and a few more slate pencils, but who’s counting?
My twin brother Mark is pretty smart. My twin brother and I are reflection’s of eachother!
Gregory C. Dildilian
Founder and Executive Director
Pinecone Conservatives
A footnote: Sense and cents counted in yesterday’s world. In today’s world, our government spends trillions with no sense of responsibility for the cents. I guess some would say we have come along way. But the question I have is with all the proof about the failed premises of the liberal, how can they still be permitted to be relevant? “But the basic difficulty still remains: It is the expansion of Federal power, about which I wish to express my alarm. How easily we embrace such business.” Senator Everett Dirksen
It’s in the Congressional record, if you don’t believe me!
Many people who visit my site on the internet only know me by the stories, the facts and the words I use. Most of what I write just comes to me when I sit down to start the FORUM each day. However, sometimes, I look up pertinent dates in history and sometimes I listen to the news for inspiration. And then sometimes somebody gives me a story about histories record. Today, I have a story that my twin brother, Mark, told me about. He told me about a speech that Senator Everett Dirksen gave on the Senate floor which was entered into the Congressional record in June of 1965.
Most of you who know me by the words I write don’t know that my brother Mark is my identical twin. He is older and wiser than me - by only 8 short minutes. My brother and I have been through thick and thin together. My twin and I have some great stories about growing up - this includes all the twin stuff that only twins can understand. I love my brother, so I am dedicating this FORUM to him, because of the story he told me about as he read yesterday’s FORUM.
Yesterday’s FORUM was titled: “There’s sense and then there are cents.” I related the title to Benjamin Franklin, his life and the times he lived. I wrote about the sense he had, and the stories he told about how to save the cents you have. These stories are still pertinent today. The early patriots had for the first time in their lives their own money, because of the liberty, the freedom and their new found independence that Franklin’s signature was in part responsible for.
Yesterday was also the 235 anniversary of the signing of The Declaration of Independence that holds Franklin’s signature today.
Today’s FORUM, and the story I am referencing , is about how government through the laws that are passed will always try to take a bit of your liberty, a bit of your freedom and a bit of the independence that we are supposed to enjoy and pass down to our posterity.
Today, our debt limit will rise to over 16 trillion dollars because of the debt deal the President signed. Today, the Republicans are being blamed, because it is perceived that the Tea Party caused the crisis over what was normally a done deal before it got to the president’s desk. It was the Tea Party who had the good sense to question the spending and question the sense in raising the debt ceiling by that much without any assurances of paying down the cents that caused the debt crisis in the first place. Vice President Biden even called the Tea Party members in the House “terrorists.”
Today, the Democrats are trying to gain the high ground, because of the Senate’s action with their bi-partisan approach. The president said: “We have avoided default”. This may be true, for now, but there will be another debt ceiling crisis after the election of 2012. Our government has once again kicked the can down the road and we will once again be forced to pick up the tab on that “can” as it continues to be kicked down that same road.
All the while, the President has escaped the scrutiny that should have been the story of the day. Record levels of unemployment, a falling stock market all add up to uncertainty. Many of the nation’s companies are not expanding and creating jobs here, because they do not have confidence in the economy here today. The president has once again escaped all the scrutiny that should have been focused on him today.
The president’s birthday is this Thursday but he will celebrate it in Chicago today. The president will be given campaign donations as birthday gifts tonight at fundraisers for him. This president and his party should now be made irrelevant to the issues that today presents.
The story that my brother told me about was this: In 1965, the raising of our debt ceiling was also an issue and there was also a public debate. The ceiling was a huge $328 billion dollars then. Senator Everett Dirksen, a Republican and a conservative, was against raising the debt ceiling and questioned the sense of doing so, because he new the value of cents. Dirksen was, in his day, the conscience of the Senate. He was not only a proponent of civil rights legislation; he authored much of that legislation in the 60’s. He said: “a billion here, a billion there pretty soon your talking about real money.” Though he did not create these words, the quote is attributed to him as its author.
In June of 1965, Dirksen took to the floor of the Senate and, in his special way, told two stories that reflected the scope and the concern of his time over the debt. Yesterday, I asked where are the Franklin’s now, in the 60’s we came close in that spirit but today our leaders have failed to put the concerns of a nation into words that matter. In 1965 the debt ceiling was a staggering 328 billion dollars today 46 years later that amount is just a drop in the bucket. Today the government spends 100 billion dollars every 10 days!
The Senator, in his gruff style, was known in the Senate as “the Master of Ooze.” The story my brother told me about are the two stories the Senator told, they are:
"As I think of this bill, and the fact that the more progress we make the deeper we go into the hole, I am reminded of a group of men who were working on a street. They had dug quite a number of holes. When they got through, they failed to puddle or tamp the earth when it was returned to the hole, and they had a nice little mound, which was quite a traffic hazard.
"Not knowing what to do with it, they sat down on the curb and had a conference. After a while, one of the fellows snapped his fingers and said, ‘I have it. I know how we will get rid of that overriding earth and remove the hazard. We will just dig the hole deeper.'" [Congressional Record, June 16, 1965, p. 13884].
On the same occasion, Dirksen relied on yet another "spending" story, one he labeled "cat in the well":"One time in the House of Representatives [a colleague] told me a story about a proposition that a teacher put to a boy. He said, ‘Johnny, a cat fell in a well 100 feet deep. Suppose that cat climbed up 1 foot and then fell back 2 feet. How long would it take the cat to get out of the well?' "Johnny worked assiduously with his slate and slate pencil for quite a while, and then when the teacher came down and said, ‘how are you getting along?' Johnny said, ‘Teacher, if you give me another slate and a couple of slate pencils, I am pretty sure that in the next 30 minutes I can land that cat in hell.' "If some people get any cheer out of a $328 billion debt ceiling, I do not find much to cheer about concerning it." [Congressional Record, June 16, 1965, p. 13884].
These words and these stories tell of a time when caution was permitted to be recognized and when people were not demonized for having the sense to be cautious about the cents they were committing to the nation’s debt. As we relate these two stories to today’s story, caution was not permitted to rule the day, because of a President who has now placed us in a deeper hole which is now closer to H***. A few more trillion and a few more slate pencils, but who’s counting?
My twin brother Mark is pretty smart. My twin brother and I are reflection’s of eachother!
Gregory C. Dildilian
Founder and Executive Director
Pinecone Conservatives
A footnote: Sense and cents counted in yesterday’s world. In today’s world, our government spends trillions with no sense of responsibility for the cents. I guess some would say we have come along way. But the question I have is with all the proof about the failed premises of the liberal, how can they still be permitted to be relevant? “But the basic difficulty still remains: It is the expansion of Federal power, about which I wish to express my alarm. How easily we embrace such business.” Senator Everett Dirksen
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
There's sense and then there are cents:
Tuesday – August 2, 2011
There’s sense and then there are cents:
Who said, “A penny saved is a penny earned”? This quote is attributed to Benjamin Franklin; one of the most famous Americans of his time and continues to be in our time. Benjamin Franklin held many titles including leader, scientist, and world traveler. Besides his many contributions to the scientific world, Benjamin Franklin is known for his inspirational quotes.
During his lifetime, he witnessed the creation of Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos and Handel’s “The Messiah”, the death of Peter the Great, the discovery of Pompeii, the French and Indian Wars, which was followed by the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the Revolutionary War and the adoption of the Georgian Calendar. Through all of this, Franklin made his own mark on the world with his many inventions. Always a practical man and wanting to make life easier for himself and others, a few of Franklin’s inventions include: Swim Fins in 1717, the lightning rod in 1752, the iron furnace stove in 1742, the odometer in 1775 and bifocals in 1784.
I am giving you this brief history, because of all the founding fathers, Franklin was the one that truly knew what sense was, because he had it and, as a result of having sense, he was able to save his cents. Hence a penny saved is a penny earned.
Franklin made it a point to impart his wisdom to others. In 1758, he wrote and published: “Way to Wealth,” a speech of various maxims that attempted to help people live frugal lives. However, “A penny saved is a penny earned” was not his only famous quote he said: “I didn’t fail the test; I just found 100 ways to do it wrong.” - “Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools talk because they have to say something.” – “Believe none of what you hear and half of what you see.” These were truly remarkable words, said in a remarkable time.
On today’s date, in 1776, the Declaration of Independence was formally signed. Franklin was one of the signers. The difference between today and Franklin’s time is that people wanted to serve their country to appeal to its higher sense. Today, when the country needs a Franklin, we cannot find anyone close anywhere in our Government today. Today, we need to search out those people who will serve and who know what the higher sense of serving is all about and who know how to save the cents, so that dollars can be earned. Today, we need people with a sense of what right is and what wrong is. Today, sense and cents will make the difference.
Today, you will not hear that this is the 235 anniversary of the formal signing of the document that spelled out what liberty, Freedom and Independence are. Today, you will hear about the passage of the debt bill that has very little sense applied to it and that doesn’t save the cents of a nation. This was a horrible process that yielded a horrible product.
Today, the question we must ask is; how can you add seven trillion dollars to the National debt and call it a cut in the debt and retain your Triple A credit rating? The credit rating agencies said if you want to avoid a downgrade you must cut four trillion dollars from your overall spending and get a handle on your entitlement cost. This debt deal does not do that. You will not hear this perspective anywhere. What you will hear is that you can trust the process because the process worked. It is not perfect but we have to settle on something.
When a nation continually sends the same people to do the nation’s business nothing will change, because the same people will settle on the same things. When a nation sends a Franklin to do the nation’s business the nation will get a solution based on sense, so that the nation can have its cents applied to what is important to the liberty, freedom and independence of the citizenry, based on the premise of our founding documents. I am beginning to think that just because our current leaders didn’t sign our documents of liberty, freedom and independence they are not so important. Maybe we should have them sign a copy every now and then. I would if I were asked!
The other battle that now looms is in September. Congress will meet to appropriate the funds to keep all the agencies and the other costs of doing business in the government appropriated. Sense would dictate that each agency would have to prove what they need instead of what they want. Sense would dictate that each agency would be audited and each agencies charter would be reviewed for relevance in today’s world, instead of what that agency was created to do 30, 40 and even 50 years ago. Sense would say that you don’t get the nation’s cents, because your agency is outdated in today’s world.
This is just somebody who has sense talking about the cents that you are required to pay for many services that you don’t even get to enjoy. But that’s just too sensible to even talk about, let alone apply.
Gregory C. Dildilian
Founder and Executive Director
Pinecone Conservatives
A footnote: The new politician will have to be able to make the old politician irrelevant in the discussion of 2012. I may be ready to do that very soon!
There’s sense and then there are cents:
Who said, “A penny saved is a penny earned”? This quote is attributed to Benjamin Franklin; one of the most famous Americans of his time and continues to be in our time. Benjamin Franklin held many titles including leader, scientist, and world traveler. Besides his many contributions to the scientific world, Benjamin Franklin is known for his inspirational quotes.
During his lifetime, he witnessed the creation of Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos and Handel’s “The Messiah”, the death of Peter the Great, the discovery of Pompeii, the French and Indian Wars, which was followed by the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the Revolutionary War and the adoption of the Georgian Calendar. Through all of this, Franklin made his own mark on the world with his many inventions. Always a practical man and wanting to make life easier for himself and others, a few of Franklin’s inventions include: Swim Fins in 1717, the lightning rod in 1752, the iron furnace stove in 1742, the odometer in 1775 and bifocals in 1784.
I am giving you this brief history, because of all the founding fathers, Franklin was the one that truly knew what sense was, because he had it and, as a result of having sense, he was able to save his cents. Hence a penny saved is a penny earned.
Franklin made it a point to impart his wisdom to others. In 1758, he wrote and published: “Way to Wealth,” a speech of various maxims that attempted to help people live frugal lives. However, “A penny saved is a penny earned” was not his only famous quote he said: “I didn’t fail the test; I just found 100 ways to do it wrong.” - “Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools talk because they have to say something.” – “Believe none of what you hear and half of what you see.” These were truly remarkable words, said in a remarkable time.
On today’s date, in 1776, the Declaration of Independence was formally signed. Franklin was one of the signers. The difference between today and Franklin’s time is that people wanted to serve their country to appeal to its higher sense. Today, when the country needs a Franklin, we cannot find anyone close anywhere in our Government today. Today, we need to search out those people who will serve and who know what the higher sense of serving is all about and who know how to save the cents, so that dollars can be earned. Today, we need people with a sense of what right is and what wrong is. Today, sense and cents will make the difference.
Today, you will not hear that this is the 235 anniversary of the formal signing of the document that spelled out what liberty, Freedom and Independence are. Today, you will hear about the passage of the debt bill that has very little sense applied to it and that doesn’t save the cents of a nation. This was a horrible process that yielded a horrible product.
Today, the question we must ask is; how can you add seven trillion dollars to the National debt and call it a cut in the debt and retain your Triple A credit rating? The credit rating agencies said if you want to avoid a downgrade you must cut four trillion dollars from your overall spending and get a handle on your entitlement cost. This debt deal does not do that. You will not hear this perspective anywhere. What you will hear is that you can trust the process because the process worked. It is not perfect but we have to settle on something.
When a nation continually sends the same people to do the nation’s business nothing will change, because the same people will settle on the same things. When a nation sends a Franklin to do the nation’s business the nation will get a solution based on sense, so that the nation can have its cents applied to what is important to the liberty, freedom and independence of the citizenry, based on the premise of our founding documents. I am beginning to think that just because our current leaders didn’t sign our documents of liberty, freedom and independence they are not so important. Maybe we should have them sign a copy every now and then. I would if I were asked!
The other battle that now looms is in September. Congress will meet to appropriate the funds to keep all the agencies and the other costs of doing business in the government appropriated. Sense would dictate that each agency would have to prove what they need instead of what they want. Sense would dictate that each agency would be audited and each agencies charter would be reviewed for relevance in today’s world, instead of what that agency was created to do 30, 40 and even 50 years ago. Sense would say that you don’t get the nation’s cents, because your agency is outdated in today’s world.
This is just somebody who has sense talking about the cents that you are required to pay for many services that you don’t even get to enjoy. But that’s just too sensible to even talk about, let alone apply.
Gregory C. Dildilian
Founder and Executive Director
Pinecone Conservatives
A footnote: The new politician will have to be able to make the old politician irrelevant in the discussion of 2012. I may be ready to do that very soon!
Monday, August 1, 2011
It's not today - it's tomorrow!
Monday - August 1, 2011
It’s not today - it’s tomorrow!
The questions facing this country are complex, to say the least. I am not one to say that one party has all the answers, but I am not one to agree that the answers are somewhere in the middle.
The questions today and the deals made today will have an affect on all of our tomorrows. What we are witnessing today is unprecedented. At no other time in our history have we had such a divided government. At no other time have we had a government that has tried to take over every segment of the economy and consequently our lives and do it with such an ideologically based party and president.
I do not blame the current impasse on the Republicans or the Tea Party members of Congress. I blame this impasse on the party that has brought us to where we are today. I blame the president and I blame his party.
The conservatives have the right ideas, but they don’t go far enough. The liberals are lost in their failed premise, because of an ideology that has now been proven to have failed at every level.
The current debt plan coming out of the Senate has minimal cuts the first year and raises the debt ceiling that provides for more future spending. The current plan also calls for large cuts up to 50% in the military. This is a typical liberal thing to do, when the budget needs to be cut. Worse yet, these cuts would be instituted, as a punishment, if a 12 member panel cannot agree on deeper cuts across the board later this year. Our military has been stretched along with all of its resources. The military has been active with a decade of wars. We cannot afford to cut there when we have to add and replace the used up resources now.
Worse yet, the deal that is being agreed to will be voted on in less than 24 hours. This is another no review, no discussion and a big “trust me” bill from your government. The plan calls to raise the debt ceiling by another 2.4 trillion dollars through 2012. The actual cuts only call for 900 billion dollars. This crisis has been brewing for six months only to be agreed to literally at 8:00 pm last night. Are we going to pass the bill only to see what’s in it later on? This is the other $64,000 question that we will have to pay for.
This only demonstrates one thing. The majority of the politicians were not serious about cutting the real costs of government at the beginning of this process. Now that we are at the end of the process, the figures tell the story. It doesn’t do a thing for today or for tomorrow. In this case tomorrow,
August 2, is the deadline for an agreement over this whole debate. At the end of this process, the United States debt might still be down graded even if a default is avoided tomorrow.
I said the liberal premise of big government with big government programs is an ideology that has failed. The liberal premise of big government is now unaffordable. As a result, we have come to a cross road in America. With looming deficits, looming downgrades and the prospect of default with a double dip recession, the prospect of a healthy tomorrow cannot even be talked about in real terms tomorrow when the deadline is reached.
At this point, in the Reagan Presidency, the United States had a 7 % growth rate. The difference between then and today is that Keynesian economics is a model that this administration is following - big deficits, big government spending, and big programs. This approach when tried in a free market has always failed. It failed in the Carter days and it is once again failing today under Obama. Why, because no administration has ever been successful in transforming what America does best. That is practicing free market principals.
It’s easy to be a Monday morning quarterback this morning. So what I am going to say now should set me apart from the other pundits. It should also be a part of the way forward beginning tomorrow even under this current debt deal which does not provide for any sustainable long term solutions.
Our economy lacks certainty. As a result, our debt is now an uncertain investment opportunity. If our economic future is being held hostage by a still looming debt and big spending on failed big government programs the S&P along with Moody’s will downgrade our triple A rating. The triple A rating is enjoyed by only 17 countries in the world today. Tomorrow that may change. This means the prospect of double digit interest rates will become a reality and the interest on student loans will go up. A retracting stock market is most certain and that would cause the nation’s 401K’s, and Keogh plans to retract and it would cause the investments in many of the nation’s IRA plans to go south.
Double digit interest rates would mean that credit would be harder to get and big ticket items such as Car Loans would be on the decrease. This is only what the obvious economic tracking would show. Other underlying economic factors, such as housing starts and manufacturing would be significantly impacted in a negative way. The prospect for long term economic repair might be years away instead of months away.
Tax reform needs to occur with regulatory moratoriums on agencies such as the EPA. In fact all government agencies should have regulatory reforms with moratoriums placed on them now.
Aggressive trade agreements need to be pushed through congress at a lightening fast pace. Import and export duties need to be reformed. Along with lowering taxes for business so that jobs moving offshore come back onto our shore.
The government needs to stop propping up the housing market. Let housing take its natural course and let home values come back to a level that is realistic. Help the home owners who have followed the rules and don’t reward those that haven’t.
Finally, stop the unnecessary assault on business. Entrepreneurship and small business is the productive part of our economy. So why penalize it with more regulation, higher taxes and an environment that doesn’t provide for any expansion policies that are required in a free market economy?
In this whole debate we have lost track of the essential aspects of what makes our economy work. During the Reagan era more jobs were created because more companies were started. This simply provided for more tax payers. If there are more tax payers paying a fair tax then the revenues coming into the Federal coffers grow. If spending is reduced by a few percentage points and capped along with entitlement reform then our economy grows. Confidence comes back and a growth cycle is encouraged by the entrepreneurs that our economy has come to depend on for growth.
The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) which is the value of Goods and services that the United States Produces is not growing. If these reforms were part of the debate today then our GDP would be growing exponentially instead of the 0.4% growth rate in the first quarter and a marginal growth rate of only 1.3% for the second quarter. As I said earlier during the Reagan years our growth rate was 7%. That was due to supply side economics which encouraged investment, entrepreneurship and the lost commodity of confidence not only by the rating agencies but by the investors who invest in ideas and people.
Keynesian Economics and Supply Side Economics cannot work together. The debate today should be over what we want for tomorrow as a nation. The debate today should be over letting the people decide if they want our government to work under the principles of a balanced budget tomorrow. The debate today should include an amendment that the people decide on and not the President, the Senate and the Congress.
Gregory C. Dildilian
Founder and Executive Director
Pinecone Conservatives
A footnote: Today take a step back and consider what you want done tomorrow and then support someone who will act on what you want!
It’s not today - it’s tomorrow!
The questions facing this country are complex, to say the least. I am not one to say that one party has all the answers, but I am not one to agree that the answers are somewhere in the middle.
The questions today and the deals made today will have an affect on all of our tomorrows. What we are witnessing today is unprecedented. At no other time in our history have we had such a divided government. At no other time have we had a government that has tried to take over every segment of the economy and consequently our lives and do it with such an ideologically based party and president.
I do not blame the current impasse on the Republicans or the Tea Party members of Congress. I blame this impasse on the party that has brought us to where we are today. I blame the president and I blame his party.
The conservatives have the right ideas, but they don’t go far enough. The liberals are lost in their failed premise, because of an ideology that has now been proven to have failed at every level.
The current debt plan coming out of the Senate has minimal cuts the first year and raises the debt ceiling that provides for more future spending. The current plan also calls for large cuts up to 50% in the military. This is a typical liberal thing to do, when the budget needs to be cut. Worse yet, these cuts would be instituted, as a punishment, if a 12 member panel cannot agree on deeper cuts across the board later this year. Our military has been stretched along with all of its resources. The military has been active with a decade of wars. We cannot afford to cut there when we have to add and replace the used up resources now.
Worse yet, the deal that is being agreed to will be voted on in less than 24 hours. This is another no review, no discussion and a big “trust me” bill from your government. The plan calls to raise the debt ceiling by another 2.4 trillion dollars through 2012. The actual cuts only call for 900 billion dollars. This crisis has been brewing for six months only to be agreed to literally at 8:00 pm last night. Are we going to pass the bill only to see what’s in it later on? This is the other $64,000 question that we will have to pay for.
This only demonstrates one thing. The majority of the politicians were not serious about cutting the real costs of government at the beginning of this process. Now that we are at the end of the process, the figures tell the story. It doesn’t do a thing for today or for tomorrow. In this case tomorrow,
August 2, is the deadline for an agreement over this whole debate. At the end of this process, the United States debt might still be down graded even if a default is avoided tomorrow.
I said the liberal premise of big government with big government programs is an ideology that has failed. The liberal premise of big government is now unaffordable. As a result, we have come to a cross road in America. With looming deficits, looming downgrades and the prospect of default with a double dip recession, the prospect of a healthy tomorrow cannot even be talked about in real terms tomorrow when the deadline is reached.
At this point, in the Reagan Presidency, the United States had a 7 % growth rate. The difference between then and today is that Keynesian economics is a model that this administration is following - big deficits, big government spending, and big programs. This approach when tried in a free market has always failed. It failed in the Carter days and it is once again failing today under Obama. Why, because no administration has ever been successful in transforming what America does best. That is practicing free market principals.
It’s easy to be a Monday morning quarterback this morning. So what I am going to say now should set me apart from the other pundits. It should also be a part of the way forward beginning tomorrow even under this current debt deal which does not provide for any sustainable long term solutions.
Our economy lacks certainty. As a result, our debt is now an uncertain investment opportunity. If our economic future is being held hostage by a still looming debt and big spending on failed big government programs the S&P along with Moody’s will downgrade our triple A rating. The triple A rating is enjoyed by only 17 countries in the world today. Tomorrow that may change. This means the prospect of double digit interest rates will become a reality and the interest on student loans will go up. A retracting stock market is most certain and that would cause the nation’s 401K’s, and Keogh plans to retract and it would cause the investments in many of the nation’s IRA plans to go south.
Double digit interest rates would mean that credit would be harder to get and big ticket items such as Car Loans would be on the decrease. This is only what the obvious economic tracking would show. Other underlying economic factors, such as housing starts and manufacturing would be significantly impacted in a negative way. The prospect for long term economic repair might be years away instead of months away.
Tax reform needs to occur with regulatory moratoriums on agencies such as the EPA. In fact all government agencies should have regulatory reforms with moratoriums placed on them now.
Aggressive trade agreements need to be pushed through congress at a lightening fast pace. Import and export duties need to be reformed. Along with lowering taxes for business so that jobs moving offshore come back onto our shore.
The government needs to stop propping up the housing market. Let housing take its natural course and let home values come back to a level that is realistic. Help the home owners who have followed the rules and don’t reward those that haven’t.
Finally, stop the unnecessary assault on business. Entrepreneurship and small business is the productive part of our economy. So why penalize it with more regulation, higher taxes and an environment that doesn’t provide for any expansion policies that are required in a free market economy?
In this whole debate we have lost track of the essential aspects of what makes our economy work. During the Reagan era more jobs were created because more companies were started. This simply provided for more tax payers. If there are more tax payers paying a fair tax then the revenues coming into the Federal coffers grow. If spending is reduced by a few percentage points and capped along with entitlement reform then our economy grows. Confidence comes back and a growth cycle is encouraged by the entrepreneurs that our economy has come to depend on for growth.
The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) which is the value of Goods and services that the United States Produces is not growing. If these reforms were part of the debate today then our GDP would be growing exponentially instead of the 0.4% growth rate in the first quarter and a marginal growth rate of only 1.3% for the second quarter. As I said earlier during the Reagan years our growth rate was 7%. That was due to supply side economics which encouraged investment, entrepreneurship and the lost commodity of confidence not only by the rating agencies but by the investors who invest in ideas and people.
Keynesian Economics and Supply Side Economics cannot work together. The debate today should be over what we want for tomorrow as a nation. The debate today should be over letting the people decide if they want our government to work under the principles of a balanced budget tomorrow. The debate today should include an amendment that the people decide on and not the President, the Senate and the Congress.
Gregory C. Dildilian
Founder and Executive Director
Pinecone Conservatives
A footnote: Today take a step back and consider what you want done tomorrow and then support someone who will act on what you want!
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