Republicans...The Chicago Cubs of Politics?

Before the resurrection on the Boston Redsox as a baseball A-list franchise, the Chicago Cubs and the Boston Redsox were the hallmarks of baseball futility. Both franchises were cursed, the Redsox by The Bambino, the Cubs by a goat. The Redsox broke the curse of The Bambino winning not one but two world series championships. The Cubs meanwhile continue perfecting the art of the futile. The late, great Chicago columnist Mike Royko made the obscure theory of the “Ex Cub Factor” famous in 1990 when he proclaimed that the dynastic Oakland A’s of the late 1980’s and early 1990’s would lose the world series to the over-matched and middling Cincinnati Reds.

For those not familiar with the Ex-Cub Factor, the curse works like this - any baseball team that makes the world series with 3 or more ex-Cubs on their roster will lose the world series. Since 1946 this has held true for 13 of 14 world series teams with 3 or more ex-cubs on their world series roster. Only the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1960, on a fluke homerun by light hitting second baseman Bill Mazeroski bested the Ex Cub factor. However, in the only series to defy the Ex Cub Factor, the winning Pirates were outscored by the Yankees 55-27 over the seven game stand. Even when bested, The Ex Cub Factor gets in its shots.

In 1990 the country yawned in anticipation of the coming world series which was nothing more than a coronation of the Oakland A’s who made a laughing stock of the San Francisco Giants in the 1989 series, beating them convincingly four games to zero. However, late in the season, the A’s added their 3rd ex-Cub to their roster, seemingly daring the the Ex Cub Factor to show itself. Only long suffering Cub fan Mike Royko spotted this critical roster gaffe by the A’s and predicted certain victory for the Cincinnati Reds. Not only did the Reds win the world series, but in a defiant show of force, the Ex Cub Factor made a mockery of the 1990 series and the Red won in a route, four games to none.

I think the republicans might have their own curse, maybe it’s the “retread candidate curse”, but watching the GOP presidential circus is making me think they are starting to resemble the 1990 Oakland A’s. I don’t think that in modern times there has been a more vulnerable sitting president than President Obama. His polling numbers are beyond awful. His disapproval ratings are higher than his approval ratings. 70% of the country feels the country is headed in the wrong direction. Even his personal likability numbers are hitting new lows. The economic recovery that should have been has been muted by his over bearing tax and regulatory policies. Unemployment is so bad that unemployment numbers only go down when the number of people who quit looking for work goes up. The CBO has rescored his healthcare plan and published what everyone with half a brain already knew, that healthcare costs and the deficit will go up not down when Obamacare becomes the law of the land. Obama spiked an oil pipeline that would bring more North American oil to the United States and produce thousands of private sector jobs to appease his environmental base…and so on and so on….Obama makes Jimmy Carter look like a reasonable successful president.

However, given the republican field, when most anyone outside of a circus clown could beat president Obama in November, I would bet you $ 100 right now, that the republicans are going to nominate one of a only handful of people living today who cannot win in November. Newt Gingrich? Really? Six months ago, I suspect that the Obama’s were lamenting their last Christmas in the White House and how much they were going to miss vacationing around the world on the taxpayer’s dime. I imagine today they are measuring for new drapes and looking forward to hosting sweet 16 birthday parties in the White House for the First Daughters.

Maybe I have this wrong. Maybe the republicans really aren’t the political versions of the Chicago Cubs. Maybe they aren’t cursed by an Ex Cub factor or a Retread Candidate Curse. However, no one, and I mean no one outside the state of Ohio thought the Reds could beat the A’s in 1990. While the 2012 presidential election is there for the taking in 2012, on a silver platter, if Newt is the nominee, I suspect the republicans will give it back.

Marvelous Marv Throneberry was one of the worst fielding first basemen in baseball history on one of the worst teams in baseball history, the 1962 New York Mets. A story is told that after a game in which he committed his usual 2 errors, the last of which, a dropped routine popup, cost the Mets the game, there was a birthday celebration in the clubhouse for one of the Mets players. Each player had a piece of cake with the exception of Marvelous Marv. Legend has it that Throneberry complained aloud that everyone had cake and he had none. Marv’s legendary manager Casey Stengel looked at Marv and blurted out for the entire clubhouse to hear “We was gonna give you a piece of cake, but we was afraid you was gonna drop it!”

Why does this story make me think of the republicans? Why does the Ex Cub Factor make me nervous? Maybe I am just missing baseball season. Maybe I am overly pessimistic. However, I just have a strong feeling that the republicans are expecting to get a piece of cake this November…but I think they are gonna drop it.

Summer of Love Part II? Maybe Not

I was 5 years old during the Summer of Love. I didn't know it was the summer of love. For me, 1967 was the summer of learning how to ride a two-wheel bike and catch a baseball. I didn't know where San Francisco was or that there was a war in Vietnam. I always felt like I kind of missed out on something, by being around during the Summer of Love, but too little to have any idea of what was going on.

This might be part of the reason why The Occupiers have been so interesting to me. While they are literally a poor-man's version of the hippie revolution of 1967, I guess they are the closest thing we have today to counter-culture. I thought maybe the Occupy Movement had enough cachet, enough backbone, and enough conviction to become relevant and recreate some of the social awareness of the Summer of Love. I am a big enough person to admit when I am wrong. I wouldn't insult the Summer of Love by comparing the Occupy movement with it.

There is no more trite cliche than "you can never go back home"...I guess it could be extended to say you can never go back to 1967 either...no matter how filthy you look or how badly you smell. I was in Boston on business a few weeks ago and made it a point to visit "Occupy Boston". What a letdown. Occupy Boston was essentially city of tents that should have been put in the dumpster back in 1967. I don't know if Philip Morris is the official sponsor of the Occupy movement, but when I went to visit it was mostly a bunch of folks who needed a shower standing around bumming smokes from each other. Maybe they were on a break or something, but there wasn't a lot of protesting going on. No chants, no drums, no human microphone speeches. The only activity was a couple of occupiers making a sign letting people know that they needed donations of blankets, coats, socks, men's & women's underwear. I noticed they left soap off the list. I thought about asking if they forgot about toiletries in general, but I was wearing a suit and tie that day and presumed that they probably weren't that interested in hearing my suggestions. They probably should have added cigarettes to the list too, because they looked like they were running low, but again, I didn't want to seem like a butt-insky. In addition to the signs asking for donations of things they needed, there were lots of other signs making ridiculous statements or suggestions like "People before profits" "no electoral college" "tax the greedy, feed the needy" "We have jobs, we need revolution" They have jobs? really? I didn't know camping out in Boston was a job. A little solid advice for them...if they want to keep that job they better quit hanging around smoking cigarettes and get back to work. There were some clearly self-serving signs like "Outlaw Student Debt"...I wonder who wrote that one.

I was really disappointed in the occupiers I saw. Maybe, like the Redsox of old, the Boston Occupiers are just lousy occupiers...the cellar dwellers of the occupy movement. However, I also spent a fair amount of time on the OWS website reading and chatting with occupiers on their forum. Again, major disappointment. Rational ideas and realistic solutions are absent from the OWS debate, pushed aside by calls for a ban on currency and a return to essentially a barter economy. Really? Barter economy? That's how we are going to get out of the nation's financial mess?

Whether they know it or not, the occupiers have some legitimate gripes. The government is out of control. The cozy relationships between Wall Street and Washington are an abomination of our treasured capitalist system. Crony capitalism looks after the fat cats often to the detriment of those trying to work their way up the ladder. What is their solution? Asking for handouts, demanding that debt be illegal, and accusing George Bush of planning 9/11 are not solutions. They are lunacy. Also, camping on private or municipal property making a nuisance of oneself is no way to make an impact on society. I know the occupiers hate leadership and any sense of authority through a hierarchy, but if they want anyone to take them seriously, they need leadership, they need a message, and they need an agenda. Absent any of these they are just smelly loiterers who are running low on smokes. I doubt there are many five year old kids today who are going to look back and feel like they missed something because they were too young to be an occupier.

Optimism Misplaced?

Not everyone is a big dog person, but I am. I think dogs are great. It's not that they don't have their downside, but on balance dogs are a big "thumbs up". We have had a cocker spaniel for about 8 years. She is a great little dog. While she gets a little put out when she has to spend time in the back yard by herself and sometimes she just can't seem to relax, she is an eternal optimist. I think that is what I like about dogs most. They are by their nature very optimistic creatures. Whenever I see my dog, she is wagging what's left of her clipped tail at a furious pace. No matter what she has been doing or thinking, when she sees any of her family members she is filled with optimism. Is she going to get a meal? Are we going out to throw the Frisbee? Is she getting a treat? Are we going for a walk or a ride in the car? More often than not, she is disappointed and she is not getting one of the handful of activities that make her day. However, every time she sees one of us, she is as optimistic as the last that something good is going to happen.

I think UVa football fans share a lot in common with my dog. We are eternal optimists. We have to be. Every year we begin the season with unreasonable if not unbridled optimism. Sometimes our optimism is rewarded with great games like this weekend's win against a very good, previously undefeated Georgia Tech team. Other times, our optimism is dashed in games like our loss to a solid but over matched Southern Mississippi team. We were very optimistic going into that game. Statistically we were the dominant team. Between the 20 yard lines we were by far the better team, yet we found a way to lose the game. Then there are games like our win against the Idaho Vandals. We dominated the game. We were not just the better team, but the much better team, yet we barely won...in very unsatisfying fashion. I think in dog terms the Idaho game has to be a lot like when my excited dog realizes that her optimism is going to be rewarded by going for a ride in the car...only to find out that the car ride is actually a trip to stay at the vet's kennel while we go away for a week at the beach.

I think that the time is upon us, when ever optimistic yet long suffering UVa fans are about to start getting more treats and less rides to the vet. While this team still has a long way to go to deliver consistently competitive performances against both mediocre and strong programs alike, we are clearly on the right path. Our kids look faster, more often than not they are in the right position, but most importantly, they have a tremendous determination. There is no "quit" in this team. I have seen them make some dreadful mistakes only to bounce right back with a reciprocal stellar play. Mike London and his staff are getting good kids who can play into the program. With only one full recruiting class under his belt and a second due to arrive next summer, we are starting to see the tide turn in our favor. I am sure we have some more rides to the vet in our future, but I can see are a lot more treats and Frisbee sessions in our future than I can recall in a number of years. Is my optimism misplaced? Only time will tell. However, I can state without question that my optimism is as high as it has been in many years.

The Economics of Shovels

Obama always talks about "shovel ready" projects. He likes to tout shovel-ready jobs that he can fund with money the govenment borrows from abroad... or at least he always talks about the first part of that statement. I wonder if Obama ever used a shovel or understands a shovel's value in the market. I am sure he undertands the theory of the shovel and maybe even the physics of the shovel, but does know why we need shovels or know all of the things I can do with a shovel? Based on his speech yesterday about raising taxes yesterday, I don't think he knows anything about shovels other than that if he needs one, he should be able to come over and take mine.


I think Obama's speech yesterday was a complete capitulation to the economic doldrums we have seen since 2008. A campaign speech versus a policy speech, the subtext of Obama's speech was that you can't get more by earning it in our economy today. Instead, you can get more by taking from the mean guys...the millionaires and billionaires. The president told us that the way for us to get more for everyone is to take it from someone else. How is that going to work?How is that leadership?

The president snarked "it's not class warefare, it's math" Really? For someone who is supposed to be so smart, he doesn't seem to be very good at math. Beyond all the false comparisons in the "Buffett Rule" and his ommissions about double taxation of corporate taxes, how can he miss the simple math that the federal spending has far outpaced the capacity for even the most robust economy to support it? How did he miss that math? How can the president miss the math that job creation is essentially zero. What is the math behind creating jobs by taking money from one pocket and putting it in another? Did the president quanitfy the lost jobs and economic output in our domestic energy industry? Where is that math?

I think the only math problem the president has is that the math behind his proposals doesn't work.

A Jobs Bill that Doesn't Cost a Dime...and will fill Govt Coffers

I don't have many rules in my staff meetings. However one rule I do have is that you can't gripe about something without an idea or suggestion to fix the problem. I don't like President Obama's jobs bill nor his plan to pay for it. I don't dislike it because I don't like Obama or because I favor rich fat cats. I don't like his plan because it won't work. It has not worked in the past and it won't work now. This position is not political or personal, it's just reality.

If I make this comment, it is now my obligation to propose an alternative that will work. None of this is new, nor is it brain surgery.

1) The Tax Code - scrap it in total and start over. Propose a new tax system that at its inception will be revenue neutral. Tax all income above the national poverty rate at a single rate - likely less than 20%. No deductions for mortgages, charitable contributions, child credits, nothing. Corporations pay the same rate...and they get a one time tax holiday to repatriate foreign earnings at 10%. 1% national sales tax that requires a 3/4 majority in congress to raise. Everyone pays at a lower rate and they can do their taxes on the back of a cocktail napkin.

2) Obama Care - Scrap it and start over. Everyone outside of the Obama administration, his cheerleaders in the mainstream media, and his storm troopers at Salon, MoveOn, etc knows that this is a bad plan. Using the media analogy of passing legislation is like making sausage, if we made sausage when passing Obamacare, then we made a bad batch of sausage and it is giving the American economy a stroke. Scrap this bad plan and start over. There are laudable ideas in the 2000 pages of Obamacare, great, use them and a starting point, but getting this boot off the neck of the economy will create millions of jobs.

3) Invest in domestic energy production - Our high energy prices equate to a surtax that we transfer to the OPEC nations every day. Drill offshore, drill in Alaska, mine oil sand and shale and we will drive our energy costs down. We will create real jobs - we won't have to make up fictional statistics about "saved" jobs, rather we will create real jobs in an industry sector that his been shackled by our government for years.

You know how much these ideas cost? Nothing.If Obama announced this as his new plan, markets would soar, energy prices would drop, unemployment would trend down. Let's not forget the other consequence of this plan...government revenues would soar. I am not an advocate of starving the government, but rather than doubling down on policies that have failed and spending money we don't have, why not give this a whirl. The results can't be any worse than the proposal on the table. If Obama proposed this, his second term would be secure. Heck, I'd probably vote for him if he could get this plan passed before the 2012 elections. Want to put the ball in the Republicans court and see if they bounce it off their knee out of bounds? Try this plan and see what those guys do. I know what I would do, I'd high-five my buddy Obama.

The Minimalist

I have never been what I would consider a minimalist. If the fit of my suit britches is any indication lately, I am anything but a minimalist. I have also never been a good distance runner. In fact I have never finished a distance race of any note in anything higher than the bottom 15% of finishers.

So what is the intersection between these two realities? I would like to run one last marathon before I hang up my distance running pursuits. I will be fifty when I make this last race attempt. Maybe the appeal of the alliteration is the appeal...a final and fifth finish at fifty has a nice ring to it. However, I am not built for distance running. Short stocky legs, thick build, a catcher's speed, distance running is not my natural state. If my survival in the wild depended on my speed, I would meet my Darwinian demise in short order.

After four marathons in the past 9 years, I am starting to ache. When I go for my sporadic runs of 4 or 5 miles today...I ache. My knees ache, my ankles ache, my left heel aches.

Over the past few months, I read articles about how barefoot running was the new craze for distance running. If you had aches and pains while running, the solution was minimalist running, natural barefoot running. I was a skeptic to say the least. Then I started to see articles about minimalist shoes that simulated the effect of barefoot running, delivering all its benefits while protecting your feet from rocks, pavement, etc. I was curious. Was this a way to get the benefits of barefoot running without the risk of gashing the bottoms of your feet or worrying about running on hot pavement?

I bought a pair of New Balance Minimus shoes last weekend. I have done three runs of roughly 3.5 miles in these "barefoot" shoes. While the jury is still out on whether or not they cure the aches and pains I had running in traditional shoes, there is no question that they created new and acute pains in my legs by using muscles I never knew I had in my calves and thighs. Apparently, running barefoot promotes an entirely new gate in one's running stride. It is almost like learning to run all over again. When I woke up in the morning after my first "barefoot run" I felt like I had run a full marathon...getting to the bathroom was a struggle, not because of exacerbation of the normal aches, but I had new and acute strains that were greatly amusing to my lovely wife who found the whole idea of minimus shoes and simulated barefoot running a little bit "out there".However, after 20+ years of marriage, she has learned to find the humor in my experiments.

I am not sure how this story will end. I am going to try to do 4 miles tomorrow morning in my barefoot shoes. It is my intent to run the 2012 Richmond Marathon in barefoot shoes. I am not a minimalist, nor a good runner. It is my hope that combining these two negatives will have a positive result. If you see me running in these ridiculous looking shoes, I expect to be heckled, so don't hold back, any humorous heckling will take my mind off my aching calves.

Doing Homework

Since no one likes to do homework while they are on vacation, I thought I would do my patriotic duty and do Obama's homework for him. BTW, I don't care if Obama is on vacation. He should get a vaca like anyone else. From a political point of view his timing and location are a bit odd, but it's his vacation, I don't care where he goes. If I were in charge of his public persona though, I would have suggested a working staycation to show solidarity with those who are having a tough time in the current economy, but it is his vacation, he can do whatever he wants, I really don't care However, since he is on vacation, the least I can do is prepare a jobs plan for him to present after labor day. If he actually does this, he will be elected to a second term, without question. So it would be my suggestion that he take this plan, turn it into a speech and get ready for his second term.

A job creating plan does not have to cost a dime, so there is no stimulus, no presents for corporations, and no need for infusions of foreign cash. Here we go:

1) Overhaul the tax code - I am sick and tired of social engineering through the tax code and it doesn't work, it is a drag on the economy. Governments trying to pick winners and losers in the market and the economy through tax policy has been an abject failure and has left us a tax code that is far too complicated and ineffective.

Single individual tax rate of 17.5% (I have some flexibility on the optimal rate) for every dollar earned above the poverty rate. No deductions for anything, no loopholes for anyone. No real estate interest rate deduction, no earned income tax credit, no nothing, no deductions, no credit. Everyone can figure out their tax liability with a pencil and paper and 5 minutes of time.

Corporate tax rate of 15%. No loopholes, no deductions. Income on foreign operations and investments can be repatriated at 15%. A rush of cash will come back to the US for investment in the business.

1% national sales tax on everything except food and medicine. This will make sure that everyone is vested in and paying into funding government. The more you consume, the more you pay into the system. Any attempt to raise this rate will require a 3/4 majority of both houses of congress.

2) Repeal Obamacare. Face it, this is bad legislation adding to both the uncertainty and cost of doing business. It has been scored by the CBO as adding a trillion dollars to the national debt over the next ten years. The plan is a loser and an example of bad government. Admit it and set about fixing the problem. Stat over. Get non-partisan instustry experts to weigh in. Commit to a market-based system of competition across the national landscape. No protections for healthcare providers within state lines. Everyone providing healthcare must compete nationally.

3) Raise social security and medicare benefit eligibility to 70 years old for anyone under 50. People are living longer and pulling way more out of these programs than they paid in. That's wrong. Raise the age at which folks start to pull benefit out of the system, which will grab a few more years of contributions and maybe we can start getting these runaway programs under control. I would also start some level of means testing that would reduce benefits to wealthy retirees. The wealthy retirees would still receive a reduced level of benefits - they have to, they are owed. They paid into the system for years, they are entitled to at least the amount of their payments into the system plus interest compounded at the risk free rate over the course of their working careers. However, if I have done well and have a very good retirement income, I should not pull more out of these soon-to-be insolvent systems than I paid in. I could have several levels of testing to try to best align people's retirement incomes with the funds they paid into the system over their working careers.

4) Corporate welfare stops. Farm subsidies, ethanol subsidies, manipulating commodity prices, tax breaks for pet industries, etc. The government should not be in the business of picking winners and subsidizing industry it deems more worthy than others. Business will either succeed or fail on its own. That is what free markets are about. Let them do their jobs.

5) Foster domestic energy development. Drill off the coasts, in Alaska, and in the Gulf of Mexico. Harvest oil shale and coal. Authoize new nukes and refining plants. We can be energy independent in 10 years. Get it done by letting business go to work creating our own energy. If solar & wind energy is part of that equation, great, I hope it does well, but it has to compete with the next best alternative. No intervention by the government to provide an advantage of one energy source over another. Imagine the rush of investment and hiring in an energy sector that is unfettered by capricious and punitive government regulation.

There you go. A plan that will spur economic growth and make every ones April 15th a lot less stressful. It will drive up tax revenues and hiring by creating an environment in which capital and investment are rewarded which will result in massive investments in business which will result in very brisk hiring.

More jobs, more tax revenues, and far less debt. Seems like a no-brainer to me. I want Obama to enjoy his vacation, so I did his homework for him. I don't expect any thanks, but I am looking forward to participating in the coming economic boom.

When Leadership Goes on Vacation

Without question, one of the greatest leaders in American history was Abraham Lincoln. If you have not read "Team of Rivals", do yourself a favor and read it when you have some free time. It will provide a stark contrast between effective, hard-nosed, courageous leadership and what we have inflicted upon ourselves by electing Barack Obama to the most important and complex executive leadership position in the history of the world.

I am tired of hearing about the bad hand Obama was dealt when he took office. Lincoln did not exactly inherit a basket of fruit when he took office. President Buchanan left a pending disaster when he left office. Having read read several books on Abraham Lincoln, I don't recall him griping about the mess he inherited. That's because Lincoln was a leader. He took the heat when things went wrong. He surrounded himself with talented people and he got things done. He owned the problems. He communicated ideas, solutions, and strategies to a nation torn apart by war. He considered himself president of the entire nation, even the part of the nation in rebellion.

Please contrast this to president Obama. In one of his most inept, self-serving, and shameful speeches ever, on a day when markets across the world were looking for resolute strategies and actionable ideas Obama delivered a blame-shifting, petulant, weak-kneed harangue that further rattled skittish markets.

When Obama took the reigns of power in 2009, he had literally zero leadership experience and zero executive experience. We are paying the price for that now in a big way. I have never led a major public corporation or been a public executive. However, I have held executive leadership positions in small companies and local leadership positions in large companies. This does not make me an expert on executive leadership, but it gives me infinitely more experience than Barack Obama. Here are a few tips for the naive yet condescending "leader" of our nation:

When things get rough, your people look to you for strength. They want a rally point. They want direction. They want to hear what you think and more importantly what you are going to do to make things better.

When things don't go well, leaders take ownership. They take responsibility for the situation at hand, whether they caused it or not. Leaders don't care how we got here, leaders care how we are going to get out of here.

When business or the economy is in the tank, people want assurances that you are in charge, that you understand the problem, and that you have clear and actionable plans to reverse course. People don't care about blame, they aren't interested in the rear view mirror. Employees and citizens are forward looking. They have obligations and responsibilities. They have dreams and aspirations. Passing the buck, making excuses, and blaming others for the current state of affairs does not advance the ball. The opportunity cost of lost time and energy dreaming up blame-game strategies is something real leaders will not pay under any circumstance.

The democrats and republicans all have attack dogs and paid mouth pieces to lead their partisan charges. Barack, you need to let your hired guns do their jobs. Let David Axelrod worry about vilifying the Tea Party, you have work to do and problems to fix. You don't have time to waste worrying about how to make your opponents look bad. (here is a little free advice, republicans are pretty good at making themselves look bad without any help)Instead, you need to figure out what it means to be a leader. You need to bring your on-the-job executive training to an close and start leading this nation. Develop a plan Mr President. Quit passing the buck. Quit attacking the Tea Party. Quit blaming President Bush. You are the president, you are supposed to be leading this nation. We are in trouble, get off your high horse, quit playing the blame game, and fix the problem. (Here's a little more free advice - a thriving economy spins off much more in tax revenues than a shrinking one. Economies don't thrive on government spending. Excessive government spending represents an opportunity cost of capital not being put to its best use. If you don't understand this, go talk to Walter Williams, he will explain it you.)

Barack Obama, you are president of the United States. You are the most important executive in the world. It is time to start acting like it. Your incompetence is crushing us. No one cares whose fault this is. It is time to solve the problem. If you had any executive acumen or leadership experience, you would know this already.

Leaders lead. Politicians assign blame. Which one have you been for the past 3 years? No one gave you this job, you asked for it. It's past time to start doing it like a leader and not like a politician.

Another Easy Problem Made Hard

Debt problem? Well, this is pretty easy. Stop spending so much dadgum money, and quit committing to spending so much dadgum money in the future. The problem goes away very easily following this simple strategy. Want to solve this problem? Great, let's get to work:

ObamaCare...gone. I just saved us well over a $ 1 trillion dollars over the next 10 years.

Cut funding for Iraq and Afghanistan by 50% by the end of the coming fiscal year, and then by 75% the following year. Lybia, not spending another dime bombing Lybia. I might let New York ship their garbage over there an dump it in Moammar's front lawn, but that should be revenue neutral. Hell, given what those trendy Manhattanites throw away, I might be able to sell that junk and turn Moammar's lawn into a revenue center. New Yorks' junk is Lybia's trasure. I just saved another trillion plus over the next 10years.

Raise Social Security age by 2 years for anyone under 55 and index all future increases to inflation. Boom, just saved another trillion plus.

I haven't even started on Medicare and Medicaid yet. I guarantee there is trillion of saving is each program over the next ten years, minimum.

Subsidies for Ethanol...over. Really easy one there, I saved billions, lowered food prices, and cleaned up the environment in one swoop. Feeling hot today, so let's keep going.

In 5 minutes, I have cut spending by well over 7 trillion dollars, probably even more.

Need more revenue? Done. I am cutting the corporate tax to 10% and wiping out the loopholes, so now every profitable business is paying into the coffers no matter how much they pay their tax attorney...in fact they can probably put those folks to work creating value for the stock holders instead of figuring out how to sidestep paying taxes. Guess what else? Those trillions of profits trapped over seas because no rational business person would repatriate them at 65 cents on the dollar, all those bucks just came home to momma and are driving net new investments in the domestic private sector.

BTW, since the doom of ObamaCare is now gone and business knows what it will cost to hire new employees, unemployment is getting ready to drop...driving up tax receipts and driving down billions in federal aid to unemployed families.

If the CBO would score me on this, I am thinking over 10 years just saved at least 8-10 trillion in spending and drove tax revenues through the roof with robust economic growth, and I did all this for free. Once again, simple problems made very difficult by our geniuses in Washington.

I'd like to have those ninnies who write for Salon and The Daily Kos try to come up with a better plan. After they finished complimenting each other on how smart they are, admiring the new ripped up t-shirt collection, and cursing former president Bush, I am pretty sure they would settle on a plan to raise taxes on those mean "rich" people who buy things, hire people, and provide capital for markets that need it. Corporate jets would not only lose their tax breaks, I am pretty sure they would be banned...except the ones that Al Gore, Jane Fonda, and George Soros use. I am guessing oil would be taxed more, so we would have less of it. That's helpful.I am pretty sure we would spend more money we don't have on green energy projects that don't work. When green energy is ready, I am pretty sure the capitalists left in this country will figure out how to make a killing by making it affordable and accessible to the masses. If Washington provides it through subsidies, it will be as successful as ethanol. 'nuff said.

We have 300M people in the United States. Is everyone going to love my plan? Nope. But I am not trying to make everyone love me, I am trying to solve the problem. Maybe that's where things go awry in Washington. If Obama was as freaking smart as he thinks he is and as his minions on MSNBC tell us he is, you'd think he could figure this out on his own. That Ivy league diploma is losing a little bit of its shine.

Well, that didn't take very long. You can thank me later.

No Mas! - Probabaly not what you are thinking....

This is for my niece Lindsay who told me I needed to lighten up in my blog posts...

A while ago, one of the many delightfully wandering and inane conversations over beer with one of my good friends, who I have known since 6th grade, meandered to the Tom Hanks movie “Castaway”. Why the conversation went there, I have no idea, but in the random walk of conversation topics, this was just as likely as any other topic. My friend stated that he would not have lasted a week as a castaway on an island because as he aged his eyesight had gotten so bad that not only could he not read a stop sign without contacts lenses, but he couldn’t see a stop sign without contacts. He stated that as soon as his contact lenses dried up, he would essentially became the “blind castaway” and walk off a cliff he couldn’t see in broad daylight. The thought that popped in my head as he described his likely fate as a castaway was…”reality show” somewhere in this tale of woe was a great reality show.

Several years ago, when I was training for my second marathon, I became overly sensitive to even moderate heat and/or humidity. When I am exercising, working in the yard, or running with my luggage down a long concourse to catch a flight, if there is a trace of heat or humidity, I start to perspire…profusely. My golfing friends have noticed this (how could they not?) and now I am the justified object of ridicule when I have to change my shirt after walking 9 holes. I usually forget that my shorts are plaid and pack a second shirt that is striped which helps my back nine immeasurably. The last time I sweated out my golf shirt and was changing to my backup, I had a thought pop in my head…”reality show”.

Ideas bounce around in my head for a long time before they fuse with other equally ridiculous ideas and are merged into a ridiculous concept. Sitting on the tarmac waiting to takeoff this week, my two reality show ideas fused into what I think is a winning idea.

Let’s take two people, like my friend and me…with seemingly minor ailments in modern, civilized society, and put them on separate but essentially equal remote tropical islands as castaways and see how harmless ailments are magnified into intolerable handicaps until the ailment eventually becomes their undoing. The show would be called “No Mas!”. Here is how an episode might work:

My essentially blind friend would be put on an island by himself with a film crew to record his every move and make sure he does not actually walk off a cliff once his contacts dry up.They would film him trying to forage for food, chasing what he thought were edible rodents that turned out to be rocks. Chasing what he thought was a harmless edible monkey that turned out to be a feral boar with 4 inch fangs. Assume he was able to fashion a fishing spear while he could still see. Now imagine him throwing the spear trying to catch fish after his contacts have dried up. If a fish was large enough for him to see, it would likely be a submerged bolder or a shark the size of Jaws….either way, spear fishing rocks or man eating sharks is good reality show fun. Imagine he was able to find crabs to eat. Any crab he could see would be enormous. In his blinded state, he might be able to grab a giant crab, but there is no way he could see to fend off the crab’s giant pinchers. So a crab-grab is really a suicide mission of the hand (manocide?) Food might be within his grasp, but there is going to be hell to pay. Viewers would certainly be treated to a series of slapstick head bumps and trip-and-fall events as well as tossing and losing his fishing spear at objects, none of which were fish….zainey reality show fun.

On the flip side, I would be on another island, doing everything I could to either preserve fluid or find fluids. I imagine that my stay would be more of a game of strategy but no less futile. Do I just try not to sweat, or do I risk sweating, looking for water, knowing that the drain and the bottom of the tub is letting water run out faster than I am finding it? How does one not sweat in the tropical heat and sun? I can imagine trying a conservation strategy first. Standing up to my neck in sea water trying my best not to sweat until the sun goes down and it is safe for me to move around. Given my acute ADD, I suspect I could stand still in neck-deep water for maybe 10 minutes before I became totally bored or totally paranoid and convinced that I was going to be attacked by a school of piranhas. Conservation having been tried and failed as a way to win the game, I suspect I would then begin a futile search for water – looking for dew drops on leaves that dried up while I was standing in water up to my neck, running around looking for streams that don’t exist, all the while sweating like a mule. I expect strategy would devolve into beating coconuts to death. The race for hydration would be on…could I refill the tub before the last drop ran out, before my competitor declared “No Mas!”?

“No Mas!” ends when one of the castaways has had enough and raises the “No Mas!” flag signaling he has had enough. Alternately, the castaway could light a roman candle that spells out “No Mas!” in firework smoke. The first castaway to declare “No Mas!” would lose, unbeknownst to the other castaway. This is where “No Mas!” really takes shape. Say I declare “No Mas!” first. I lose the game, but also I get picked up by a helicopter and flown to a tropical Four Seasons to recover from my ordeal. My competitor stays on his island, bumping his head on tree limbs and getting his hands mauled by crabs…despite that fact he is the unwitting “winner” of “No Mas!”. Once he declares also “No Mas!” he would be declared the “No Mas!”winner….and told that I had been sunning myself at the Four Seasons for the past week. I suppose he would get a check for like $ 200K or something and maybe I get the runners up check that for “No Mas!” which is the other “No Mas!” joke because the runner up check is for “Nada”.

Maybe I haven’t had enough sleep, but this sounds like good clean fun to me, fun until the point when I have to declare “No Mas”. We could follow this up with “Celebrity No Mas!”

Summer's Special Challenges

It is officially summer and the travel season is in full swing. For better or worse I have been a pretty frequent year-round traveller for many years. I can't help but notice that the attire of the American travelling public seems to be in a perpetual state of decline. Summer seems to bring out the worst in travel attire. Airports, train stations, hotel lobbys are all pretty much the same story. Rag-tag travellers, frequently sporting clothes that should have been tossed years ago.

It is odd that people seem to intentionally dress down when travelling. I understand travel dress that is comfortable, but some of the outfits of the travelling public are at best ridiculous. Walking to catch a train this week in Union Station, it seemed that each gate had a cadre of clowns getting ready to board their train, each more ridoculously clad than the last. It kind of makes me pine for the days that I have seen in old movies and news clips, but never experienced when people dressed up when they travelled. Rich, poor, black, white...male travellers were wearing coats and ties, female travellers in dresses. What drove me to long for the days of dressing up to travel? The male foot, that's what.

I have nothing against the male foot. In fact, I am a fan. I have two myself and use them daily. They have carried me across the finish lines of four marathons. They get me to work every day. I walk 18 holes far more often than I ride. I don't know what I would do without them. However, there is a fact about the male foot the travellers need to understand. The male foot, while tremendously useful, is neither attractive nor decorative. Its asthetics are the inverse of its functionality. It needs to be kept away from sight. Especially when travelling, the male foot needs to be like a good umpire crew in a baseball game. They are doing their job, the game could not proceed without them, but when they are at their best, no one notices them, they are essentially invisible. The male foot needs to be similarly invisible when travelling. The only thing that makes an airplane meal on a cross country flight less appealing is sharing that meal with exposed male feet in flip flops.

While the male foot in flip flops or sandals is the nadir of the male traveller's woredrobe. A close second is the sockless male foot stuffed into a flimpsy black Italian loafers, when wearing shorts. Who in the world thinks this is a good look? When your mother told you that if you were in an accident, she hoped you would be wearing clean underwear...I think she assumed that your outward appearance would not include fat feet stuffed into loafers paired with short pants...while you stood in line to board your flight to Paris. Maybe Parisians are rude to Americans because they can spot us a mile away.

No one is ever going to call my sense of fashion hip or trendy. Puttering around the house or the neighborhood, I am the first one to choose comfort over style and am all for flip flops and shorts. However, I think we can get the male foot undercover where it belongs. I call on wives and mothers everywhere to help keep the male foot hidden from view. Help us help you. This is not the time to be polite. We are drowning in a sea of bad male footwear. I think this is a case of "by any means necessary". Ladies, this fight is up to you. Good luck, like always, we can't help ourselves and are counting on you.

Not Exactly "Give Peace a Chance" But Time for a Change

I am not a war monger. I am certainly no peace nick. I believe that when the United States is pushed into a situation where war is the only answer we should go in 100%, win with devastating force, and then get out after we have accomplished our objectives.

I am also a realist and understand that the United States has finite resources. Our cash resources are becoming more finite every month. Our access to seemingly endless credit is thankfully drawing to a close. This is cause for great angst and consternation for citizens, investors, and patriots.

I think the time has come to wind down both the Afghanistan and Iraq campaigns, not because they are not worthy and noble, but because we have not gone in with everything we have to win decisive victory and hence have costly years-long struggles in which we are playing by self imposed "rules" so we do not upset local leaders, other nations, and "independent" voters. Mostly however, I believe we have to draw down our resources in Afghanistan and Iraq with all haste because we simply do not have the cash to pay for these endeavors in nation building. It is time for America to decide what it can afford and what it cannot. Two foreign campaigns with less than clear final resolution have become something we simply do not have the cash to support.

I realize that we have to plan for as orderly a transition as possible, but I would plan to cut funding for both Iraq and Afghanistan by 75% in 12 months. Our foreign campaign should then shift into a large scale, new-century warfare. I would invest heavily in Drone attacks, intelligence operations, special forces, and cyber attacks against our enemies. A massive investment in these new tools of war would cost far less than our traditional deployments of hundreds of thousands of troops across the globe. The objective would be to keep Al Qaeda, the Taliban, et al off balance by continually and aggressively striking at their leadership and infrastructure assets killing and destroying whomever and whatever we have to without reservation.

I recognize that this change in US policy is not without national security risk. However, as the nation begins to realize that there is not an infinite source of cash to fund endless social programs and entitlements, we are a the point where everything that is a cost to the United States government has to be on the table for review. Our investments in Iraq and Afghanistan have been costly, with questionable hard returns. These are investments we cannot continue to fund, so we need a swift exist strategy and a massive shift to more cost effective ways of fighting those who would destroy us, before we do it to ourselves.

The Greatest Victory

On its 67th anniversary, D-Day stands as one of the great accomplishments in military history. An invasion of necessity, not of choice, dictated by the Nazi takeover of the continent of Europe, the invasion to liberate Europe remains startling in its impact on our world. It is equally awe inspiring in its story, its drama, and its magnitude.

Over two years in its preparation, I am always struck by how the allies pulled victory from the jaws of defeat and changed the face of the world. Despite years of careful planning, training, and mock invasions, before the first Higgins boat dropped its ramp, the D-Day invasion plans were in disarray. Pre-invasion paratroopers were scattered across Normandy, with few in the right DZ, sometimes miles from their objective. Separated from their equipment by a last minute decision to add a tethered equipment bag to the jump, soldiers were in the wrong place, ill-equipped, not ill-prepared, but in a tenuous situation to say the least.

On the beaches of Normandy, bombing raids the nights before D-Day intended to soften the German resistance completely missed their targets. Expected rag-tag German conscripts defending the beaches turned out to be well armed, well trained, highly motivated German units more than ready to repel an attack. Expected fox holes for cover on the beaches weren't there. Units uniformly missed their landing zones. Swimming tanks sunk. The weather was awful, the low tide created hundreds of yards of open killing fields for German defenders, waves of allied units were met with machine gun fire from well fortified German positions.

After years of training, the entire D-Day operation was in tatters minutes after H-Hour. Omaha Beach was particularly disastrous as entire platoons were wiped our before they hit the beach. The boys from Bedford Virginia took the highest casualty toll of any unit in the invasion force. In its early stages, D-Day was a recipe for disaster. Eisenhower had a public statement at the ready stating why the D-Day invasion had failed and restating the allied commitment to the liberation of Europe.

However, D-Day wasn't a disaster. It wasn't the greatest allied set back in WW II. D-Day was in fact our finest hour. Though thousands of slain brave soldiers will be forever young, storming the beaches of Normandy, fighting to liberate people they never knew and would never meet, the story of D-Day is one of "get it done". It is what made America great and what can keep America great. The American soldiers on Omaha beach found ways to traverse the beaches, scale the cliffs, take out German positions, and secure a toehold on the continent of Europe. It was gruesome. It was gutty. It was the shining example of American resolve and the ultimate example of American ingenuity. Lost soldiers regrouped into new platoons, NCOs devised new attack strategies while under fire on the beach, and the expeditionary force that should have been obliterated and shoved back into the sea carried the day and set in motion the ultimate destruction of the German atrocity.

On Monday, when we remember the events of D-Day, when we reflect on the thousands whose final resting spot is marked with a tiny white stone thousands of miles away, I hope we think of American resolve. I hope it inspires us to stand on our own two feet, to cut our own path, and to strive for greatest good. Every day the news paper obituaries read of the deaths of those who served in WW II. These were the ones fortunate enough to return home. They, along with their fallen brothers in arms left a large legacy for all of us to follow. I hope we are up to the task. I hope the leadership of our nation, stops on Monday to reflect upon the magnitude of this event, of the sacrifices made by those who got it done on D-Day. The problems we are facing today pale in comparison. I think a little reflection and perspective might be just what this country needs as we forge ahead. Let's storm the beach, let's climb the cliffs, let's take on the fight. I think we owe it to those who showed us how 67 years ago.

Climate Change...Is there anything it can't do?

If climate change alarmists weren't a threat to economic prosperity and personal liberty they would be very entertaining and highly valued in tense times when we could all use some comic relief.

Active hurricane seasons are caused by global warming. Passive hurricane seasons apparently are also caused by global warming. Lots of snow, global warming. Absence of snow, you guessed it, global warming. Incongruous events of drought and flood are simultaneously the result of global warming and more global warming. Is there anything that is not a consequence of global warming? Red Sox finally break the curse of the Bambino...brought to you I assume by global warming.

When I opened today's RTD to see the front page adorned with an article connecting the tragic tornadoes in the midwest with global warming, I laughed not at the tragedy, but at the predictability of the conclusions drawn by climate change zealots. I knew this was coming, I was only surprised that it had taken this long to find its way into the media.

Apparently the only constant in our lives untouched by the reach of global warming is the perpetual futility of the Chicago Cubs pursuit of a world series championship. Happily something is more powerful than the reach of global warming, and if you have watched the Cubs play this year, I am sure you will agree.

Undeniable Truth About Tax Policy

Unfortunately, the presidential election season is in full swing a full 18 months before election day. If any season is going to start early and run longer than normal, I wish it were duck season, but I digress. Since the president has started giving stump speeches masked as policy speeches, republicans have started their predictable implosions, and the three networks have hit high gear backing their man, I suspect there is going to be a lot of commentary about taxes and tax policy. The blather is likely to be intolerable grandstanding. Here are some simple truths to keep in mind to cut through the electioneering coming over the next 18 months:

Tax rates matter less than tax revenues. The optimal tax rates are the rates that generate the most tax revenue. The tax rates that generate the most tax revenue are the rates that generate the most economic activity and the highest sustained rate of growth.

The reality is, no one knows what the optimal tax rate is. There is lots of theoretical discussion and spirited debate, but finding the optimal rate is part art, part science. However, we know a few things for certain:

The highest revenue take in US history occurred in 2007 at $ 2.56T. To give a little perspective on tax revenue growth as well as spending growth, 20 years earlier, tax receipts were $ .854T...yet we are in a spiral of debt spending. The top marginal rate in the 3 largest tax revenue years (2005-2007) in history was 35%. Is that cause and effect? Nope. However, one could easily argue that a lower rate could have generated a larger, more sustained economic growth, generating even higher revenues. The dopes who make comments to the effect that "The 2003 tax cuts were tax cuts we couldn't afford" and "were not paid for" are simply denying the truth of history as tax receipts were never higher than during the Bush years. The Bush tax rates generated a flood of tax revenues. The problem was the government spent every last dollar plus about 15 cents for each dollar collected. The Obama crew has upped the debt spending ante to spending $ 1.40 for every dollar we collect in tax revenue. When the wave of the economic cycle turned in 2008 as is always does, tax revenue declined, yet spending went through the roof, hence our $ 14T in debt.

Tax rates should optimize economic activity. Finding and selling the optimal rate is a difficult act. However, it is part of the historical record that the largest takes in tax revenue history were collected with the current marginal rates. If we had not topped our record collections with record spending, we may not be in the ditch we are in today. Tax policy is important for driving economic growth. Spending policy is important to avoid killing it.

Speaking of seasons...we have a full duck season, almost 2 full baseball seasons, and two 4th of July's to go before we cast votes in the next election. That is not a rosey forecaast.

My All-Time Great Baseball Lineup...

I have always liked to bounce around the idea of my ideal starting line up if I could pick any players from the modern era (call it 1950 to the present)who would be in my starting lineup. Willie Mays is the only easy decision I had putting my "all-time" lineup togther, the rest were pretty tough and many great players did not make the list. BTW, cheaters like Barry Bonds, Mark McGuire, and Roger Clemens are not eligible, neither is Ricky Henderson because he always seemed like such a pain in the rump - the Ty Cobb of his time. Here we go...

1B - Albert Pujols
2B - Jackie Robonson
SS - Ozzie Smith
3B - Brooks Robinson
C - Johnny Bench
LF - Mickey Mantle
CF - Willie Mays
RF - Ken Griffey, Jr

Some of the decisions are made with the thought of putting a line up together and rating defensive skill as an important decision criteria. It would have been easy to pick Mike Schmidt at the third base, but while a great fielder, Brooks Robinson was better and seemed a better bat control hitter versus having another "bopper" in the lineup. Similar thoughts with SS where clearly Cal Ripken and A-Rod make sense, but no one was a better fielder than Ozzie and he provides additional speed to this line up.

Batting Order....maybe

2B - Jackie Robinson
3B - Brooks Robinson
LF - Mickey Mantle
CF - Willie Mays
1B - Albert Pujols
RF - Ken Griffey, Jr
C - Johnny Bench
SS - Ozzie Smith

Starting Rotation:

Sandy Koufax
Bob Gibson
Greg Maddux
Randy Johnson
Juan Marichal

The reality is that you could come up with a second line up just as good as this one. Just off the top of my head, an outfield of Hank Aaron, Frank Robinson, and Roberto Clemente would be pretty impressive. An infield of Jeff Bagwell at first (maybe Willie McCovey instead) Joe Morgan at second, Cal Ripken at short, Mike Schmidt at third, and Yogi Berra or Roy Campanella behind the plate makes a formidable lineup.

Baseball is a game of history and statistics. It is what makes it a great game, maybe the greatest game.

"At Least It's Clean Dirt" - Mother's Day Tribute to "Boy Moms"

I am convinced that when God makes moms, He has a plan. He knows whether He is creating a "girl mom", a "boy mom", or an "mixed mom". All moms are special people. I am married to a quintessential girl mom which has been a delightful and perpetual learning experience for me. My mom is the mother of three boys. She is, and continues to be, the epitome of a "boy mom", a great "boy mom", and in my opinion the best "boy mom".

"Boy moms" have a special patience, a special understanding, and a special outlook on life. I am not saying it is better than the other kinds of moms, its just a little different when you are the mom in a house full of boys. Things get broken, things get lost, mud and dirt become a routine part of life. Let me explain...

Boys are rarely great communicators, especially when we reach the completely awkward and taciturn adolescent years. One of the first signs that a mom is a "boy mom" starts with complete comfort in being called just that..."mom". Not "mommy" or "mother", but "mom". Mom is the perfect name for boys to call their mother. It is easy for us to say and it can sometimes be grunted as much as spoken. However most important of all, when boys have lost something we really need right away, like a baseball glove or car keys, we scream "MOOOOOMMMM!!!!" at the top our lungs. My mom almost always knew where my glove was, where my shoes were, or where I had left my car keys. The problem was solved, the panic ended, the crisis over. "Boy moms" are great problem solvers...especially for boys' unique, self inflicted problems, that boy moms know really aren't problems at all.

"Boy moms" are the world's best sports fans, whether they like sports or not. They attend an endless number of sporting events on weekends, during the week, night or day. My mom spent countless hours sitting on hard, cold steel bleachers, watching her boys play football and baseball. Cheering when we did well, and still cheering when we didn't.

Probably above all other attributes, "boy moms" know how to roll with the punches and make the best of the ridiculous situations that only boys create.

Occasionally my brothers and I would get to spend the night with our grandparents.(Until I had kids of my own, I didn't realize that this meant my parents had plans for the night and were looking forward to well earned a break from their boys.) My maternal grandmother was a classic southern, christian lady. She made the best homemade applesauce I have ever had, she was an avid fan of Lawrence Welk, and she was a stickler for good manners. She was a great influence on my brothers and me. However, she was not a "boy mom" and my mom knew she was not a "boy mom". Whenever we went to my grandparents house, it was important that my mom drop off boys who were presentable.

I recall one summer day when we were going to spend the night with my grandparents. I think we had specific instructions that day that we were spending the night at "Grandmom's" so don't get too dirty. ("Boy moms" know that instructions to stay clean are acts of folly, so a request for only moderate filth is reasonable) So, my older brother and I spent the day in the woods behind our house digging random holes in the mud, building forts that immediately collapsed, and essentially wallowing in dirt. When we came in, my mom knew she was going to have a tough time making us presentable for my grandparents. After we bathed we were still filthy. I recall my mom getting a brush and soap holding our arms over the bathroom sink, scrubbing us for what seemed like hours. Futile hours at that, as the Virginia red clay ground into our arms, hands and fingernails would not yield. Realizing that the fight was over, that this was one of those times she was just going to have to roll with it, my mom turned off the water, toweled us off and said "well, at least its clean dirt"

I think that is what makes "boy moms" special...at least it's clean dirt. She knew that we were going to show up at our grandparent's house with head to toe mud stains, she knew that she would likely get a call about it after our stay, and she also knew that it was all okay...this is what boys do, and she loved us for it.

It was great growing up with the world's best "boy mom". Thanks mom! Happy Mother's Day! We love you!

....Then let's just sell Alaska!

I am a big fan of the creative, out of the box ideas to solve seemingly intractable problems. Sometimes when an idea is good enough, you can solve more than one problem with the same idea. I think I have a winner here, a homerun, a grandslam, the idea of the decade, maybe the century.

I think we should sell Alaska.

Look, if we are not going to make the best use of Alaska's resources, dadgummit, let's sell it to someone with enough capitalist moxy who will. Why does this make so much sense?...Easy:

1) Energy and commodity prices are at record highs and going higher.

2) We are drowning in debt.

This is one of those rare opportunities to help solve multiple problems with one stroke of genius. Alaska is chocked full of natural resources....and not just oil. We apparently are too timid or too preoccupied with other things, like congressional hearings into steroid use in baseball or what kind of coffee cups to use on Capitol Hill to get around to making the best use of Alaskan resources, so, our time is up. Time to sell Alaska to a country that will make Alaska the breadbasket (or barrel) of natural resources for the world. We have shown for 50 years that we are not interested in making Alaska all that it can be. Alaska has been misallocated, so it is time to reallocate.

All proceeds from the sale of Alaska go directly to retiring debt. I doubt we will get 14 trillion for it, but who knows, those Chinese have a lot of cash sitting around. The good news for whoever buys Alaska is that at least they will have a tangible asset for their money instead of just a promise by the US Government to pay them back. This will help our debt problem. It will deliver a tremendous supply of oil and natural gas tothe market driving down energy costs. Let's face it, other than a few displaced Alaskans, this is a win/win/win.

I am hoping England can come up with the cash to buy Alaska. They already know how to do the oil business and I feel like we kind of owe them one for kicking their butts in the Revolution.

The only fly in this ointment is how to make 49 stars look good on the American flag. I hope this is not a deal breaker, because I think this idea, once in the market, will quickly get legs.

Stop the Silliness from Washington

Well, the budget debate has morphed into campaign blather a full 18 months before the 2012 elections. I am not sure I can take 18 months of electioneering, but I wish we could at least put to rest some of the inane and silly rhetoric coming out of the mouths of our politicians and particularly our president.

I know the president is a smart guy and I know he knows that the reality of this comment is as ridiculous as it sounds, but the comments continue - to the effect that, "if we could just get back to the top marginal tax rates of the Clinton years...." fill in the blank here because the president and his minions have said them all..."we would solve the budget problem, we would restore economic growth, we would lower unemployment"...I think we solve world hunger too. The reality is, and the president knows it, there is no causal relationship, no magic that made the top marginal rate of just 39.6% the driver for all that was economically good in the United States in 1999. It was just one part of the equation of the economic expansion of the time...that ended BTW, like all expansions eventually end. Who is to say if the marginal rate had been 29.6% the expansion would not have been greater and lasted longer? I don't know, but neither does anyone else. Maybe it would have had the opposite effect (I doubt it)but no one knows. So the proclamations that better times lie ahead if we could just raise the top rate are just silliness.

Here is what we do know. In 1999:

Top marginal tax rate: 39.6%

US population: 278M

Total Federal Spending: $ 1.702T

Federal Spending per Ca pita: $6,123



Here is more of what we know. In 2010:

Top marginal tax rate: 35%

US population: 308M

Total Federal Spending: $ 3.456T

Federal Spending per Ca pita: $11,194


Hmmm, it seems to me that a couple of the variables have changed if we were going to roll back to the 1999 top marginal rates.

While the population increased from 1999 to 2010 by 10.8%, federal spending increased by 202%. If we rolled back tax rates to 1999 levels and rolled back spending per ca pita to 1999 levels then our federal budget would be just under $ 1.9T. I would suggest given the increases in productivity and technological advances over that time period, one could argue that government should be able to deliver more and better services to the population for less money - in absolute terms, not per ca pita. Business across the country are massively more productive and tremendously more efficient now than they were in 1999. So why not the Feds?

The everyday reality is that this is a complex problem with many variables. However, as evidenced by some pretty simple math, we have a spending problem, not a revenue problem. Statements of fantasy about "the Clinton tax rates" as a panacea or even a major part of the solution are not only false, but down right silly. If people support higher tax rates for punitive reasons, if they want to stick it to those greedy rich people and redistribute other people's money to the rest of the country, fine, I don't think it is smart policy, but I respect the point of view. To put out falsehoods that a reversal of policy to the Clinton top marginal rates is part of a serious national get well program is not just misleading, it is dishonest and hides what is likely a broader agenda - it also makes people distrust the rest of the president's agenda because this cornerstone suggestion is so clearly false.

Look, if you want to redistribute wealth, just say so and let's have the debate. Don't mask that objective with claims that are easily debunked in 10 minutes with a couple of Google searches and a calculator. It just cheapens your position. I am all for transparency in math and motives. If we could get this from Washington, it might make the next 18 months a little more bearable.

Did I Miss Something? Really?

Thanks to the miracle of Youtube (which was founded, developed, and brought to market with zero government assistance) I was able to watch the president's campaign speech last night...

Did I miss something? Have we all been transported to a parallel universe? Tax rates are now called "spending in the tax code"? I think I need my tin foil cap and some kite string, because we are not in Kansas any more.

First, let's get a few things straight. The current top marginal tax rate is just that, the current top rate. It is not "the Bush Tax Cut". That phrase, so well worn in the media, assumes that the current rates, implemented by former president Bush, broke some natural equilibrium for tax rates that is higher than the current rates. Such an assumption is pure hogwash. The top marginal tax rate has changed over 30 times since 1913. The current rates are not "cuts" that need to be restored to their natural order. They are simply the current rates, that are every bit as legitimate and natural as the 7% marginal rate or the 91% marginal rate. The argument is what rate optimizes revenue - through economic growth.

Second, reducing tax rates is not "spending". At least not in the universe in which we used to live. Apparently, according to Obama's speech, my income belongs to Washington and the amount I am allowed keep is now "spending". Well, that is in interesting turn of events. I guess the post office lost that piece of mail, because no one told me that my income belongs to Washington and that money I don't send to Washington is now classified as spending. Does Obama really believe this or was he just ginning up his base...of loonies who do believe that?

Let's agree on a few things before whatever planet we have been transported to explodes from the sheer madness of the inane budget talking points. First, the United States is broke. We are borrowing 40 cents of every dollar we are spending in the budget that just passed today. At some juncture, the rest of the world will be unable or unwilling to lend us the money we need. Second, the money we are spending today and will spend tomorrow is uncollateralized debt...there is no tangible asset to back this spending other than the promise of the US government to pay. China can't re posses grandma's knee replacement. The rest of the world is lending us trillions of dollars so we can continue to provide unsustainable government commitments. I wonder how much longer that will last? Second, people who are serious about getting the United States fiscal house in order don't hate old people, they don't want people in poverty, and they do not want kids eating dirt for dinner as many on MSNBC, Solon.com, moveon.org, etc suggest.

However, let's agree that there are choices we are going to be forced to make. If a federal school lunch program is our top priority, then fine. Fund it. But what are you going to be willing to give up? If keeping seniors medical care costs low is the best use of our scarce resources, great. What are you willing to give up so granny can get her sugar pills? We have no money, so in order to get those pills, somethng has to give. We don't have a revenue problem, we have a spending problem. The discussion moving forward needs to be centered not around whose pie can we confiscate so we can flush it down the toilet like we have done in the past, but rather deciding what are we willing to fund? What are the priorities of the country? This is the "national conversation" that needs to occur.

Suggestions? Okay, I have a few.

Cut the crap in the tax code. Get rid of loopholes and deductions? Fine, done. Broaden and lower that rates so anyone can file their tax returns with a pencil and paper in 30 minutes.

While we are at it, lower the corporate rate to 15% get trapped earning repatriated to the US and get GE, Google, and Boeing etc back on the tax rolls.

1% national sales tax...I am fine with that as it gets everyone vested in pulling the wagon....but only if we eliminate capital gain taxes to get the economic engine running again. However in order to raise the national sales tax, congress must have a super majority.

Raise the retirement age for Social security and medicare for anyone under 50 to age 70. Let anyone under 50 opt out of both if they so choose.

Base line for domestic spending...pick a year any year....2008...2005...2003. I don't care. Just pick one and that will be the baseline for domestic spending and we will make choices in what we fund and don't fund and go from there.

I can go on, but it is too easy. Hopefully the next time I get transported to another universe it will be one where people let me make the decisions and where UVa football wins at least 8 games a year :) Now that would be way out there.

Ultimately a Win-Win Scenario

Should Virginians support Wisconsin Goveror Scott Walker or the government union workers in the standoff in Madison? As an ardent free market capitalist, I know I should back Governor Walker, however as a fiercely loyal Virginian, I hestiate, just a little.

While Virginia legislators can pat themselves on the back for the comparitively competitive state of the Virginia economy, the reality is that as the northern-most right to work state in the Union combined with anti-tax executive leadership from Governors Wilder, Allen, and Gilmore that mitigated profligate general assembly spending, Virginia's economy has grown sharply in boom times while weathering recessions better than most states and certainly better than all of our union-based bretheren to the north. So, while my free market instincts suggest that I should fully support Governor Walker and his attempts to reign in budget-busting union costs and benefits, I pause when I think that Virginia's future economic success might be less assured if Wisconsin and other union states emancipate themselves from the shackles of union servitude. While I know that Governors Walker, Christie, and Daniels are on the right side of the issue, the loyal Virginian in me recognizes the local value in the success of the unionized government workers and the transient mercinary protesters throwing a 50,000 strong temper tantrum.

The reality is, the situation is a win-win for Virginia. If Governor Walker prevails, it is a triumph for the free market. Virginia and other right to work states will have to up the ante to create an even better business envornment for investment capital that rightly seeks the highest returns with the least risk. If the Union protestors prevail, then Virginia will continue to enjoy a structural market advantage over our neighbors to the north. If Virginia wins either way, I guess we can just sit back and enjoy the show

Spring Cleaning of the Mind

Every year for about the last ten years I have approached December with the same goal...hang on to my training regimen just enough so that we when the time starts to really kick up the workout intensity in March/April I am not starting from scratch. Every year that has been the objective...and every year I have started a new training routine after 90-100 days of "workouts" that include holiday meals, duck blind food, and krispy kremes. Each year the first 3-4 weeks of training are a little more brutal than the last. I ran last week for the first time in 2011...it was not pretty. I ran again today...still not pretty. I have at least 3 weeks of this before things start to get better.

I checked the "totals" on the runner's GPS my wife gave me a few years ago. It shows a total of 1,672 miles. That is essentially running from my house to Denver. Do you know how many of those miles I ran with an iPod or a training partner? Zero. An appropriate response to that would might be "that's not normal" - no argument here. Another response might be "you are not normal" again, difficult to argue that point.

I think the biggest reason I don't run with an iPod or a companion is that I like the solitude of a solo run. I find that time out for a run, especially and hour plus run, is one of great mental clarity. Alone with your thoughts and the input of the surrounding environment plodding by creates a great environment to think, ponder, and suppose. I think a lot about my family, I think about my work, I think about politics and world events, I think UVa football. I think about blog posts I can write. I am not sure what it is about a run that make for such a good thinking environment for me, but I feel like I clear out a lot of mental clutter when I run. Maybe good food that is bad for me is not the only thing that builds up during my annual exercise hiatus...I think a lot of mental clutter builds up too...clutter that needs to be cleaned out like my garage every spring.

Tomorrow's run will be under an hour for sure, and will not be a think of beauty by any measure, but it will be another step in the spring cleaning of the mind. I am kind of looking forward to it now...a little.