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‘CADILLAC PRICES FOR YUGO RESULTS’

The more things don’t change…I said similar things during my time on my hamlet’s Budget Committee while evaluating our School District’s budget – it was always a case of that old joke “Go ahead, find the boots”*.  I’ve been off the BudComm for a few years now but nothing has changed – lower enrollements and higher costs.  As I said during a BudComm meeting last week, it seems that the School Board is not working for the taxpayers and protecting their tax monies but an active agent for the teachers union.

Anyways, that above quote is from the current BudComm Chair Norm Silber – and I agree with it totally (and glad he’s one of our NH House Reps):

Gilford Budget Committee chairman criticizes amount spent on schools
By GAIL OBER, LACONIA DAILY SUN

GILFORD — Gilford spends $22,000 a year on each of its students, but ranks in the middle of the state on standardized tests, and that’s made Budget Committee Chairman Norman Silber unhappy.

It SHOULD make every taxpayer unhappy – including slobberin School Board sycophants (and educators) Joe Wernig and Debra LaLiberte (who revisted her political sashaying and posturing (I gotta resurrect that video of her literally impolitely sashaying and berating the BudComm) – I guess NO BudComm Chair or member is every good enough for her.  It is either “give the School Board all that they want” or the highway. That haughty arrogance both abounds and suffuses through the whole Edu-Industrial Complex.  And then you wonder how they have public school costs the same or much higher than private schools?

And here’s the Yugo part:

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“…he shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed“

As always, I try to struggle to watch the Sunday talking head shows as there are sometimes some decent nuggets to be heard (remember, most of the people on here are Progressives and Liberals – I listen to see how they actually think).  In one of the middle segments, Chuck Todd is talking with US Diane Feinstein (D-Californistan / Mexifornia) and this popped up about the impending Inauguration of Donald Trump:

Feinstein: …and there is so much fear in this country. I come from the biggest State, get 10s of thousands of phone calls, and emails, from people that are fearful of what is going to happen.  It is the job of this new President to reassure people that he is just not the President of his base but he is the president of everyone and that means a coming together.

Notice how she slips in that false premise.  That aside, what IS the job of the President?  Most of our readers know this

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All of these Sunday talk shows have a panel discussion during their shows – and that’s pretty much why I watch.  This time, quite the reveal.  Beside the host of Meet The Press, Chuck Todd (who pretty much stayed out of this back and forth), the people involved in this discussion were:

• “The Atlantic” [a very Left leaning magazine] Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg
• Danielle Pletka, SVP for Foreign and Defense Policy Studies, American Enterprise Institution [a right leaning think tank]
• Helene Cooper, Pentagon Correspondent for the  NYT (a very Left leaning newspaper and a reporter to match)

Sidenote: I really hadn’t heard Pletka before – hopefully we’ll see her more often

The discussion swung to the topic of the President-elect (and soon to be President) Trump’s penchant to use Twitter as a communications tool.  It is clear that the MSMers (Todd, Goldberg, Cooper) are all aghast that a person in that office would speak out, speak out often, and (their real ax grinding) going around them. Cooper starts it off with a slight against Trump (emphasis mine):

Cooper: …The idea that the President of the United States is going to be having tantrums on Twitter whenever someone gets under his skin I think is frightening to a lot of people…

This is the paranoia of TDS (Trump Derangement Syndrome). He’s not even Prez yet and he’s absolutely driving the Left to bed-wetting. It has to be the leftovers, in part, of KNOWING that Hillary should have been The One – and isn’t. But that bit about a “tantrum” – it will return in a moment.

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Really!  Because you are successful, the Concord Monitor judges you to be EEEVVVIIIILLL simply because INCOME INEQUALITY!  Yep, just go that Marxist route of just because your ability is there, it must go to someone else because of their need (reformatted, emphasis mine).

Editorial: Tax reform must target inequality
Sunday, January 15, 2017

First, they start off with a joke (it HAS to be a joke, right?)

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When you lay down policies that would have adverse results on a given business, Democrat politicians get upset when it’s shown that these same Democrats:

• Keep failing the Law of Unintended Consequences
• Can’t do math
• Don’t understand that almost all businesses are going to act in their own self-interest.

So, Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney was all aflitter about “saving his city’s citizens” from the most WORST plague imaginable:

Soda

Pop, Fizzies.  Or, as they used to say when I was growing up – tonic. Yep, after solving all of his city’s problems of great import, he decided that he had to save them all from themselves. Regardless of whether they thought that they “needed” to be saved.  Once again, the Progressive “tell” of “You don’t need that.” From Reason the sad tale of “I will social engineer you to make you better”:

Philly Mayor Blames ‘Price Gouging’ for Outrage Generated by City’s New Soda Tax
Businesses are passing along the cost of the tax to consumers, because that’s how taxes work. Someone get Jim Kenney an economics textbook.

After driving up the cost of soda and other sugary drinks with a new tax, the mayor of Philadelphia is now trying to blame businesses for charging higher prices (and for the outrage those prices have generated).

Funny, I thought he was elected to run the city – not their lives.  But that’s what Progressivism is.

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What I don’t get about Socialists / Progressives is that they hold two beliefs at the same time:

1. We can give anything we want to everyone.  Because we have the ability
2. Economics is a zero sum game and there’s not enough for everyone.

Must be hard going though life stupid.  And then vicious when they want to fulfill #1 and run into #2.  Dan Mitchell, an economics guy that I have quoted from time to time (note: must do more often) has this to say that they are going to get worse: The Left’s Siren Song of Coerced Equality (reformatted, emphasis mine):

Traditionally, folks on the left favored a conventional welfare state, which revolved around two components.

1. Means-tested programs for the ostensible purpose of alleviating poverty (e.g.., Medicaid, food stamps, welfare, etc).
2. Social-insurance programs for the ostensible purpose of alleviating sickness, unemployment, and aging (e.g., Social Security, Medicare, unemployment insurance, etc).

This agenda was always a bad idea for both macro and micro reasons, and has become a very bad idea because of demographic changes [i.e., fewer workers to support those not working -Skip]But now the left has expanded its goals to policies that are far more radical. Instead of a well-meaning (albeit misguided) desire to protect people from risk, they now want coerced equality. And this agenda also has two components:

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“The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small,but whether it works — whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified.”  – President Obama, Inauguration (2009)

And as government gets bigger and tries to do more and more, it works less well at all of it.  You can thank Progressives for that.  This, however, just beggers the imagination – seriously, govt workers have to be taught that lying is bad???? Emphasis mine:

Orange County: government workers were not on clear notice not to lie in court, falsify evidence

“Using taxpayer funds, government officials in Orange County have spent the last 16 years arguing the most absurd legal proposition in the entire nation: How could social workers have known it was wrong to lie, falsify records and hide exculpatory evidence in 2000 so that a judge would forcibly take two young daughters from their mother for six-and-a-half years?”

Lying is wrong.  Period.  Full stop.  Bad, bad, bad.  But seriously, after hearing for years that govt workers are smarter, more sophisticated, and just plain better than most of us in the private sector.  While one anecdote can prove little, this is telling me that government workers ARE better at something – being immoral.  Think about it – when is lying moral (especially in a courtroom)?

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As I’ve said before, TMEW and I owned a small business – one that was HIGHLY regulated: a daycare center.  We KNOW regulations, good, meh, and “are you freaking serious?” And we were beseeched on all sides by all kinds of “regulators” that absolutely were convinced that they knew what was best for our business – but it didn’t matter how much money, time, or aggrevation it would have cost as they never had to bear the consequences of their actions on us.

For me, Bernie Sanders epitomizes how the Left views small businesses.  How is their attention span or internal worldview of them any different than the feudal aristocracy’s of the emerging merchant class back in the Middle Ages?

“The cultural chasm between the left and middle America extends beyond that to the left and their total lack of understanding of what it means to run a business — particularly a small business — in this country. The video exchange below between Bernie Sanders and a small business owner is eye opening. It’s only about 2-1/2 minutes long so watch it all.

The man begins by saying he’s a small business owner and says Obama’s regulations and taxes are like “getting kicked in the teeth.” He asks why Obama is so against the business owner.”

This is exactly why

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I am SO sick of this guy constantly being the Antagonizer-in-Chief.  At almost each and every turn, in almost every speech and interview, he just seems to delight in putting the shiv in and twisting it just that much more.  Thankfully, the straw(man) season is just about over and we won’t have to listen to this stuff again (at least as President):

But we’re not where we need to be. All of us have more work to do. After all, if every economic issue is framed as a struggle between a hardworking white middle class and undeserving minorities, then workers of all shades will be left fighting for scraps while the wealthy withdraw further into their private enclaves.

Either:

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If the Hollywood set wants to churn out movies that make sport of my interests (“Miss Sloane”), campaign for someone (Hillary) that stands for NOTHING that I believe in, and then decides to browbeat me simply because my political outlook does not match mine, that their “patting ourselves on the back” celebrations become Leftist political rallies, I can only have one reaction.

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Prof. Victor Davis Hanson, one of my favorite authors to read, has a piece over at The Corner where he tries to get a handle on what Trumpism, the political philosophy, might be.  I think that a lot on the Right, even as we might wish a more rigorous system, can agree on it without saying “am I being a sellout to orthodox Conservativism”?  Read the whole thing but here a few of the paragraphs / pull quotes that caught my eye (reformatted, emphasis mine):

What Exactly Is Trumpism?

…The Republican Washington–to–New York establishment is alienated by Trump. It finds his behavior reckless and his ideology unpredictable…That he has now brought them more opportunity for conservative political change than any Republican candidate in a century only adds insult to their sense of injury.…there are no Trump political philosophers…

Nonetheless, from the 2016 campaign and from President-elect Trump’s slated appointments, past interviews, and tweets, we can see a coherent worldview emerging, something different from both orthodox conservativism and liberalism, though certainly Trumpism is far closer to the former than to the latter…

Tradition

Trumpism promotes traditionalism. Trump showcases “Merry Christmas!” because his parents did. He believes in dressing formally and being addressed as Mr. Trump. And he insists that his children be well-behaved and polite.

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“The media parrots Democratic Party talking points without embarrassment, which helped elect Obama president. But as those talking points corroded the credibility of the press, the parroting helped elect President Trump.”

(H/T: Don Surber via Instapundit)

Hypocrites:

Gun-Controlled Hollywood Surrounds Golden Globes with Good Guys with Guns (H/T: Breitbart)

If environmentalism is the left’s religion, then Planned Parenthood is their place of worship.  (H/T: RedState)

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From The Corner:

Historic GOP Victory in Kentucky Leads to Flurry of Conservative Legislation

After taking the state house of representative for the first time in 95 years, Kentucky Republicans have passed a series of conservative reforms poised to rollback decades of Democratic economic meddling, as well as protect the unborn.

So what did they do that is such a good example for NH to following?  Abbreviated:

• House Bill 1 to make Kentucky the 27th right-to-work state in the country. No longer will it be legal for mandatory union dues to be collected from workers who do not wish to join the union, removing the grip of organized labor on workers who are not willing participants.

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“Free compliance advisors are available for on-sight consultation aimed at helping small businesses comply with regulations.”

At what point “a lot of Government” too much government?  Another example of government regulation run amok being buisness harmful.

Manhattan culinary staple China Fun shutters, blaming government over-regulation

We keep pointing these examples under the principle that at some point, Government’s micro-management is attacking the heart of America’s economy – that of small buisnesses.  We’ve seen 10s of thousands of new Federal regulations strangling growth overall (to the point of an overall average of about 1.7% GDP growth over Obama’s term) issued by bureaucrats that have never signed the front of a paycheck nor have concern over what this avalanche costs those businesses.  There is no feedback cycle that makes it personal with an adverse outcome for themselves when it tanks a business.  And States and local government, often times not also understanding the Law of Unintended Consequences in beeing seen as “doing something”.

The story (reformatted, emphasis mine):

For 25 years, China Fun was renowned for its peerless soup dumplings and piquant General Tso’s chicken. What left a bad taste in the mouths of its owners and loyal patrons was the restaurant’s sudden Jan. 3 closing, blamed by management on suffocating government demands. “The climate for small businesses like ours in New York have become such that it’s difficult to justify taking risks and running — nevermind starting — a legitimate mom-and-pop business,” read a letter posted by the owners in the restaurant’s front door.

And I think this next line doesn’t just include businesses but ANYTHING that has pockets as it seems those that “govern” have turned their backs on government but re-engineering society:

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That’s been a big complaint stemming from the time that the Reps held all three branches – they still acted like they were in the minority.  Too scared to stand up and man up to the Principles they gave campaign lip service to – and they wondered why they were kicked to the curb in 2008?  No one trusted them.  It has taken them 8 long years to regain some of it back.  Notice I said “some” – I think much of why they now hold Congress and the Oval Office (well, the later in two weeks) is not the Rs themselves but an unwillingness to let Hildebeast carry on a third Obama term.  But I digress.

So the VERY first thing that they wanted to do was to get rid of the Office of Congressional Ethics?  Yeah, that’s really being “laser focused” on the real problems at hand as this newest Congress gets started.  Sorry, it just showed me that they Haven’t. Learned. A. Dang. Thing.  Business as usual and watching their own backsides. The reasons why they got put there in the first place?

Second place.  Or third.  Or “anything but”.  And then you know what happened that made me think – instead of the Rs keeping Trump in line, it may well be that the best thing that has ever happened to the DC Republicans is Trump:

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