Weather or Not

Severe Outflow by R. Edwards

We’re Like, Protesting or Something

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When I see these so-called “protestors”, I see neither true idealists nor democracy in action. Instead I see well-fed, spoiled, entitled, over-priveleged, self-indulgent pretenders, merely looking for a convenient excuse to hang out, put on a show, and accomplish nothing useful–all while mindlessly following their fellow lemmings in some watered-down version of a pseudo-countercultural fad. Spare me.

How many of these people can name ten specific factual aspects of the issues they protest?

How many can write a coherently composed, correctly spelled, properly punctuated, factually correct, full-page essay explaining the Bernie Madoff story?

How many can cite even rough CBO figures as to the corporate-bailout packages tendered conditionally to AIG or GM, and name the conditions attached?

How many can explain QE1, QE2 and the differences between them?

How many can state, without looking it up on their electronics, the purpose of P-PIP and name its two component programs?

From the interviews I’ve seen so far, I’ll bet fewer than 1% on any single one of those–far, far fewer if answering all. By contrast, the percentage who are using this social occasion to suck on cancer sticks, smoke dope and play on iPads and cell phones? Far, far higher. Yeah, they’re “the other 99%”, all right.

Posers.

In many regards, I don’t necessarily side with the financiers or the corporations in this ordeal; but instead with common sense. Supposed “protesters”: if you’re going to wail against the wealthy, against Wall Street, against some ideal of the ruling class and their money, at least don’t be a materialistic hypocrite by shamelessly displaying the fruits of mommy’s and daddy’s productivity and affluence. Instead, put your own money where your mouth is.

Decry wealth and the wealthy? Fine. Then how about being authentic about your ideals, sacrifice your stuff, and spend your money and effort instead contributing to the Red Cross or other relief agencies for natural disasters, or aid for the ongoing famine in the Horn of Africa?

If this is “the other 99%”, no wonder the nation is so uneasy and disturbed.

The Most Essential Government Function

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The news among government workers and politicians swirls first around a possible shutdown of “non-essential” functions, and conditional on that, around proposed cuts to the remainder of the 2011 fiscal-year budget that would, in their most extreme scenarios, force assorted closures and furloughs in storm-warning and forecasting services. Will the worst-case scenario come to pass? Likely not…but the NWS Employees’ Organization’s discussion of it is a needed check-and-balance against the opposite, “we don’t need storm warnings” type of ignorant extreme the other way. Ultimately, something in the middle is the most probable outcome.

As a card-carrying Republican (who has accused many a Republican politician of being too liberal fiscally), I’m about as much of a fiscal conservative and deficit hawk as anybody can be rationally. The difference is that I see the austerity blade as something to be wielded carefully, thoughtfully and meritoriously, instead of indiscriminately or for political posturing.

One size does not fit all! Some government is more important, some less! Most governmental cutbacks in these situations are lazy, mindless, across-the-board proposals concocted by politicians and not experts, and as such, have no basis in value, function or merit at all. As such, they throw out both the bathwater and the baby.

For more in-depth discussion on this topic and how it applies to severe storm and hurricane watches and warnings, see the following invited post that I provided to the BLOG of jazz musician, keen writer, and fellow storm observer Bob Hartig: Protection of Life and Property: The Necessary Government Role.

Yes, my bare-bones litmus test for what’s worth keeping, if it has to come to that, is simple: protection of life and property. No governmental function is more basic or important. Protection of life and property should be the final straw, the last thing ever jeopardized.

We all need to make sacrifices, and this absolutely includes governmental agencies and employees. My salary freeze is one example, and I am NOT complaining about it in the face of even greater sacrifices being made by other hard-working Americans.

Below, I’ll state some examples of what would and wouldn’t pass my litmus test, which represents the extreme end (last resort) of what to handle in paring down the national debt. Most other folks’ standards for where to stop cutting actually seem far less stringent than mine. These are not all-inclusive, but instead represent examples being bantered to and fro at this time.

  1. SOLIDLY PASSES “LIVESAVING” LITMUS TEST: Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, National Guard, Federal law enforcement (FBI, Secret Service, Border patrol, etc.,) National Weather Service forecasting centers and offices, DOA food and meat inspectors, NFS firefighting, NASA satellites, FAA air-traffic control, Federal courts, V.A. hospitals, Federal prisons, electric-power regulation and security
  2. PARTS DO, PARTS DON’T: These contain elements that are mission-critical when the last mission is protection of public safety; but also, contain large swaths of functions that are not absolutely necessary: NASA (except for defense, comms and weather satellites), National Forest Service (except fire-weather and firefighting), DoD procurement, DOA (outside food inspectors), DHS, CIA, HHS, DOT, DOE, EPA, FEMA, most foreign aid, Medicare/Medicaid (lots of waste and fraud to hack out!), NWS outside forecasting offices/centers, and NOAA outside the NWS. A very careful and precise knife needs to be used; critical and non-critical functions are often closely intermixed in these!
  3. NON-LIFESAVING FUNCTION (DOES NOT PASS TEST): These are “nice but not critically necessary” or simply aren’t clearly pertinent to imminent protection of taxpayers’ lives. A few of these I personally detest, others I strongly support and would hate to see them go…but again, these are not critical for life-saving. As such, they’re fair game… TARP bailouts, IRS, National Endowment for the Arts, National Public Radio, HUD, most of assorted welfare entitlements, UN representation, White House “czars”, most of Commerce outside NOAA, and the overwhelming majority of the Interior, Education and Labor Departments.

I can assure this: If the IRS were largely gone, that would mean we would have a simple, flat and largely automated taxing system, and that would be not only a money-saver for government but a fantastic cause for celebration!

Mass Irresponsibility Breeds American Socialism

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A few months ago I touched on what then was the coming socialistic government takeover of banks in a BLOG entry dealing with a major source of the “mortgage meltdown.” Look around. It’s happening.

As a fiscal conservative, this whole TARP and “stimulus bill” ordeal is hugely disappointing. The effective government takeover of various institutions troubles me, of course; but at least as bothersome is the notion that a simple financial concept, to which my family and millions of others subscribe in balancing our checkbooks, could have prevented this mess — from the government itself to the largest banks to every individual applicant who dug a hole over his/her head.

That notion is this: Don’t buy more than you can afford.

Duh.

Yet in response, I read and hear a common whiny intonation uttered by certain demagogues (conservative or liberal), economists (who clearly must not have a tight budget to keep at home) and politicians (Republican or Democrat), and even one or two friends of mine, who seem to see no problem with spending our way deeper into debts, public or private. “It’s not that simple!”

Bull crap. It absolutely, positively is that simple, and a matter of self-discipline. Don’t buy more than you can afford! Stick with that concept, whether government, corporate or individual, and this problem never starts. Ask any and every family who sticks to a budget and spends within their means, and importantly, saves for the hard times. Ask any state or local government who does. They all prove, in deed instead of in word, that it can be done.

Stick with that ethic, and the problem only occurs to those highly uncommon individual or corporate cases where circumstances totally out of their control compel insolvency (e.g., a catastrophic illness or accident on the individual scale). Bankruptcy or bailouts become so rare that we, collectively, could afford them for individuals and companies who truly suffer misfortunes through no fault of their own. And because of their rarity, the cost is far cheaper to the economy than what’s happening now.

That “complexity” cop-out is garbage for another reason. It also acts as a smokescreen to cover all manner of fiscal excess and nefariousness. Those who express it are mere enablers — excusing the addictive engorging of fiscal drunkards on the booze of debt spending — while in bizarre and delusional denial of the root solution to the problem as expressed in the seven simple, boldface words above.

Some people like to find victims. Not me. But if you really want one, I’ve got one: Capitalism. Capitalism itself isn’t the problem, it’s the victim. The problem is corporate, governmental and especially personal irresponsibility (on a massively accumulated scale). And yet, and yet…

We’re about to fork over hundreds of billions of dollars in a “stimulus package” that is mostly pure government spending on pet projects, with far less honest-to-goodness job stimulus than advertised. Whither the national debt? Democrats and Republicans alike have proven feckless at dealing with it, once put in any position of influence. Bush…Obama…Republican Congress, Democrat Congress…in this regard, what’s the difference? None. [Clearly there are other huge differences, but that’s off topic!]

I don’t believe in the validity of complaints without solutions. As is often the case, the solution is simple, even as deep as we are into this hole. Read those seven boldface words again.