Sunday, July 30, 2017

Follow the Money

Money is fungible ….and finite.  It appears that the political class either doesn’t understand that or is willfully blind to those realities. 

As someone that reviews and assesses budgets in my professional life, I understand that cash is like oxygen to an organization.  If you want to understand what an organization’s priorities are and where it is really going, follow the cash.  It tells you everything about where an organization is headed. This concept applies in government as well as in business.  And in both places, people will often go to great lengths to obscure where money is really flowing.

To understand some of the Obama deals that Trump is unwinding, and to know exactly what the Obama Administration was up to, all you need to do is follow the money.   Often, the Obama deals were thinly veiled redistribution efforts; others used public funds to finance left wing groups; still others astonishingly funded terror operations and tyranny.  When you add it all up, it paints a disturbing picture of what the Obama Administration was attempting to accomplish- all outside the bounds of the intent of the Founders, who intended Congress to maintain power of the purse.

Number One.  The Paris Climate Accord.  Thankfully, dahling, we’ll never have Paris.  The pundits shrieked and stamped their feet after Donald Trump announced that the U.S. would not abide by the Paris Accord,  complaining about the abdication of U.S. leadership by pulling out.  The Paris Accord followed the Obama blueprint for international deals.  The U.S.  grants concessions and provides cash in the hopes that others will act beneficently later with no meaningful enforcement or remedy provisions in the deal.  But if you follow the commitments, you would see that the U.S. committed to reductions in carbon emissions now (with the loss of approximately 1 million jobs), but reductions by the other major emitters – India and China—would not start until the year 2030.  What do you think would be likely to happen when we ring the doorbell of the Chinese in the year and remind them of their commitment?  Only the hopelessly naïve would trust that the Chinese would live up to their end of the bargain.

But an even more odious aspect of the Paris Accord was the “green fund” under which the U.S. committed $1 billion (not appropriated by Congress) while India and China committed nothing.  These funds were to be used to finance “green projects” in developing nations.  The Chinese would not fund directly but since we are borrowing (much from the Chinese) to fund our deficit, we would be borrowing from the Chinese to hand money over to an international body which would, in turn, finance “green projects” in countries run by tinpot dictators like Maduro of Venezuela.  What could possibly go wrong?  Think 1,000 points of Solyndra.

Number Two. Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).  The deal with Iran preceded the Paris Accord.  Trump has not yet abrogated it but has “put Iran on notice” and initiated additional sanctions.  JPCOA was structured similarly to the Paris Accord.  We provide cash up front, permit the Iranians to self-monitor and there would be no real remedies or penalties if Iran is caught violating the deal.  Obama detached this deal from all other aspects of the relationship, including missile technology development.  As part of the deal, the Obama administration released Iranian funds held since the Iranian Revolution and shipped the mullahs $400 million in cash.  Not surprisingly, Iran and Hezbollah have since gone on a military spending spree, and Iran continues apace with its missile program.  Even John Kerry and Susan Rice admitted at the time that part of the funds would finance terrorism.  Of course it would.  Money is fungible.  Iran has some sort of governmental budgeting process.  The additional windfall of cash will be used to finance terror and Iran’s military.  The U.S. may be the only nation in history to finance the military buildup of a sworn enemy.

Number Three.  Government financing of leftist groups. Attorney General Jeff Sessions finally ended the Obama practice of using funds garnered from fines and settlement amounts levied against banks and diverting these funds to favored left leaning groups instead of back into Treasury where they belong.  This end around Congress was a clever Constitutional avoidance maneuver, designed to circumvent Congressional spending power.  The government threatened to sue large banks over transgressions related to the ’08 real estate debacle and purported racial bias.  Rather than face protracted litigation and trials, banks settled these claims.  Bank settlements totaled in the hundreds of millions of dollars. The Obama Administration sprinkled these funds to various “community group” instead of sending the money back to Treasury.   Of course, no vote by Congress was taken to appropriate these funds.

Number Four.  Planned Parenthood.  Planned Parenthood is fond of spouting out its misleading claim that only 3% of its services go toward abortion.  The reality is that Planned Parenthood is responsible for approximately one third of the abortions performed in the U.S.  Whether you agree with Roe v Wade or not, abortion is a pretty nasty business and Planned Parenthood has gone to great lengths to distort its business and suppress the callousness with which the organization and abortion providers view these “services.”    Planned Parenthood was caught on videotape dickering over the price of fetus body parts, and in another recent video taken at a conference of abortionists, the speakers glibly  talked about fetuses being “tough little buggers” and even guffawed at some of the practices.   It’s easy to see that some people do not want their tax dollars flowing to these activities.  But even worse, Planned Parenthood donated $730,000 to the losing Democratic candidate in the 6th Congressional District in Georgia.  Since money is fungible, taxpayers are funding a Democratic candidate’s campaign.  If Planned Parenthood so desperately needs taxpayer funds to finance their services, then how can Planned Parenthood be financing the candidacy of a politician?

Fourth is NATO.  Trump was blistered in the press for chiding Angela Merkel for Germany’s failure to live up to its commitment to spend 2% of its GDP on defense.   Internationalists like Richard Haass were horrified at Trump’s blunt criticism of Merkel (and other NATO members) for not stepping up to THE COMMITMENTS THAT HAVE ALREADY BEEN MADE.  But why should the U.S. taxpayer continue to underwrite Europe’s security, especially when Merkel has opened Europe’s borders to Islamic immigration (which will add hundreds of thousands of dependents on the European welfare state).  Merkel won’t have to make hard budgetary and policy choices as long as the U.S. is footing a disproportionate share of its security.   With the U.S. budget in permanent structural deficit, this is simply no longer possible.  The situation is made worse by the Obama administration’s decision to end the “two war policy” –that is the policy of maintaining sufficient readiness to fight two major conflicts simultaneously.   Obama ended this policy just as risk of needing to fight two simultaneous conflicts has dramatically increased.  The U.S. is being challenged daily by Russia, China, Iran, North Korea and radical Islam.  Now, more than at any time since WWII, Europe needs to choose more guns than butter if it wishes to defend itself. 

Which brings me to Number Five and this one is local.  The Illinois legislature, led by Democratic boss Mike Madigan corralled enough Republicans to override Governor Bruce Rauner’s veto and passed a 32% tax increase with no structural changes in operations.  The entire tax increase will be eaten up by required pension payments.  But remember that money is fungible.   The tax increase is a transfer of money that would otherwise be available for taxpayers to fund their own retirement accounts to the pensions of state employees, many of whom retired 10 years earlier than workers in the private sector.  The net result is that private sector workers are slaving away to pay for the comfortable leisurely retirement of others.  And since higher education (education is preparing the young for the future) in Illinois is one area that is being asked to tighten its belt to provide for public sector pensioners (the past), the state legislature is effectively robbing the future to pay for the past.  In both instances, state government is taking resources from currently  productive people and businesses and future productive people to make payments to past political cronies to whom they have overcommitted.  Illinois politicians have figured out how to steal from our children’s piggybanks.

When you take the time to watch where money is moving, you will see that Western governments are underwriting Islamic immigration to the West, shortchanging the defense of Europe, financing the killing of fetuses and leftist groups,  draining education and productive workers to pay for fat pensions for state workers, and most hideously and perversely, financing terror.

If you want to truly understand where politicians are taking us, always follow the money.  The money trail will tell the tale.  And this is, in part, behind the blind hatred of Donald Trump on the left.  He has figured this out and is in the process of stopping the self-destructive horrible deals that have been crafted by the political establishment.


Wednesday, July 12, 2017

Happy 200th

A little over 3 ½ decades ago, I sat quietly on a large rock overlooking a glassy, peaceful pond in rural central Maine, scribbling away at a draft of my summer mid-term paper for my American Literature course taught by the distinguished Robert Streeter (now deceased).  The paper was to be on the transcendentalists Emerson and Thoreau.  Professor Streeter had such an unbridled enthusiasm for American Literature that he nearly resurrected these authors for the summer—Franklin, Hawthorne, Melville, Anne Bradstreet.  To this day, I can recite the first paragraph of “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” by heart.  But I have always had a special connection to Thoreau.

That day in Maine was one of the peak experiences in my life—how perfect it was to write about Thoreau on a pond on the East Coast.  I still remember that day—bright and sunny, with a few puffs of clouds in the sky, the croaking frogs, the cattails and the reeds, the dragonflies dancing over the tops of them.

Henry David Thoreau is my favorite American essayist, a foundational member of the American canon in literature.  There have been few writers that at one time have captured the essence of nature, the American spirit, and helped define man’s relationship to society and nature.  It is fitting that the Library of America’s volume entitled American Earth begins with Thoreau’s works.

Last summer I attended an outdoor play Nature at the Morton Arboretum, which was a walking play about Emerson and Thoreau and their relationship.   Held in the elements, nature fittingly became a participant in the production.   The part of Emerson was in fact played by a descendant of Ralph Waldo Emerson.   It was one of the most innovative and enrapturing productions I have ever seen.
Earlier this summer I attended a presentation by Laura Dassow Walls, a professor at Notre Dame, whose new biography on Thoreau is being released in connection with his birthday celebration.   I had an opportunity to meet and chat with Ms. Walls and look forward to reading her book.  I had hoped to join the celebration of his birthday in Concord which is being marked by a weeklong series of events put on by the Thoreau Society (thoreausociety.org) but alas, life did not cooperate.  Walden Pond will need to remain on my bucket list for now.  

But here’s to the writer that has helped shaped my thinking in many ways—about life, and being human and government.   And here are a couple of my favorite Thoreauisms:

  • ·         Simplify, simplify.
  • ·         Most men live lives of quiet desperation.
  • ·         Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not the fish they are after.
  • ·         Men have become tools of their tools [did he foresee the smartphone?]
  • ·         That government that governs best governs least.

This weekend I gave a nod to Mr. Thoreau during my weekly golf game.  I told my partners that I was going to lock my phone in my bag and ban discussion of Donald Trump during our game.  Instead, I focused on the natural surroundings and sights, sounds, and smells of the course. I paid attention to the trees, the long grasses, the cry of the hawk that patrols the 5th hole, the scream of blue jays, the sound of the water.  I soaked in the sunshine and turned it into a sensual experience.  It was the most enjoyable round I’ve had in years.  I still enjoyed the time with my group (Thoreau was not an anti-social guy), but it was an entirely different experience staying in the moment without distractions.

Since I can’t go to Concord, I will celebrate his birthday by doing the next best thing.  I will take a volume of his writings to the Chicago Botanic Garden Wednesday evening and find a place to read quietly.  

Thoreau, in part, inspired me to regularly keep a journal throughout my entire adult life, which has been a great source of pleasure and reflection, raw material for other writing as well as a source of history for my family.

Happy birthday, Henry David.  I am grateful for the ways in which you have enriched my life.

                              

Monday, July 10, 2017

Road Warrior

“Home field advantage” often conveys a big edge in performance in most team sports.   Hockey, basketball and football teams compete for an entire season to gain a higher seed and , therefore, home field advantage throughout the playoffs.  But occasionally there is that anomalous team that actually does better on the road.

Donald Trump is that kind of guy.

It seems that when he is at home, he gets tangled up in Twitter wars with this or that Trump bashing pundit that distracts from his agenda.  Perhaps when he  preparing to meet foreign leaders, he is too busy to have his thumbs on his smartphone.

This week in Warsaw, Trump gave the best speech abroad since Reagan’s “Tear down this wall”  speech over 30 years ago.  He abandoned his “America first” focus and delivered a full throated defense of Western Civilization and made a case of why it is worth defending.  The speech was in direct contrast to the speeches abroad given by Barack Obama (most notably the Cairo speech, in which he spent much of his time apologizing to the world for the West’s arrogance.  Lost in the fetish of multiculturalism are the wonderful attributes of Western Civilization—respect for individual rights, individual liberty, consent of the governed, free speech, equality under the law, innovation, wealth creation.   Advancing those virtues abroad were largely absent during the Obama years.  They are what set us apart from the Chinese tyranny, the Russian oligarchy, and the Middle East dictatorships.   These values are what make us superior and are worth fighting to defend.

It was fitting that the speech was made in Warsaw.  Poland was caught between two dictatorships during WWII—Hitler and Stalin and it suffered under Soviet rule for 45 years.
The Poles know tyranny.  Yet they endured.  And the Russian bear remain  at their doorstep.  The , Poles along with the Czechs and the Hungarians are resisting the EU dictates to take more Islamic immigrants. They are not afraid to defend their culture and do not accept terrorism as “part and parcel of modern life.” 

His speech was stirring, acknowledging the durability of the Poles, the importance of religion and warned of the threats from within and without (including excessive regulation) that threaten Western culture.   The Poles loved it and the throng chanted “USA” on several occasions.

Trump has been derided as bigoted and sneered at because of his America first foreign policy.
But his Middle East speech and his Warsaw speech showed something quite different.  His Middle East speech laid out a vision for what Islamic culture could be if it expunged the plague of terrorism.  In Poland, he challenged the West and asked if it had the will to survive.  In both places, he talked about the greatness of those people, their accomplishments and their civilizations. 

I found it puzzling that Richard Haass found the speech “tired and tedious.”  I found it stirring and so did the Poles.  It was almost as if Haass and I had read two different texts.


I found the speech inspiring, and it would be terribly ironic if Trump became a great foreign policy president.