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Curmudgeon's Commentary Archive Twittering to
Death PUBLIC DEBT...1/20/12 $15,236,271,879,792.78 Web search:
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An interesting question to ponder over the weekend: Jon Basil Utley, Associate Publisher of The American Conservative, wonders aloud: "Today [Evangelicals] prefer Senator Santorum or Newt Gingrich, both Catholics, to Ron Paul, who is Baptist. Santorum is no libertarian believer in limited government (he would use government to enforce his social values) and urges absolute support for Israel and the military industrial complex. These evangelicals don’t want peace because it would mean postponing Armageddon. That’s why their leaders oppose Ron Paul." Daily ReckoningBill Bonner, founder of Daily Reckoning, met Jon Utley Tuesday evening, which is why this topic cropped up in Bonner's ramble on Friday. Bonner points out Ron Paul opposes abortion, gay marriage and promiscuity. He’s never been divorced. Two of his brothers are ministers. And he’s a Baptist. What more could they want? But evangelicals reject him. Hm-m-m-m-m. Obama Decries
Rising Cost of College Education President Obama will be in the news several times a week from now until election day demanding that one group or another do something to put the brakes on rising costs or "invest in job creation.". Today he wants an overhaul of the higher education financial aid system. He tells colleges and universities that they may lose federal money if they fail to control spiraling tuition costs. Spiraling tuition prices are only a reflection of the longtime inflation policy of the administration and Congress. If he wants to put the lid on inflation Mr. Obama should send Mr. Geithner over to speak to Dr. Bernanke at the Federal Reserve and suggest he stop the inflation machine. The whole idea of the Fed's near zero percent interest policy is to stir up some inflation to make the economy look healthier. Obama gets a lot of mileage out of billionaire Warren Buffet's remark about his secretary paying a higher tax rate than he, Buffett, does. People eat it up. A really, really rich guy suggesting the rich be taxed at higher rates. In 1948 Warren was a teenager. The financial world wasn't paying much attention to him. Not too many were following his daddy, either. Congressman Howard Buffet, was making waves in a persistent call to restore the nation to a system of honest money.
At the time of Buffett's remarks we didn't personally care what backed the dollar. It was Spring, 1948, and we were scheduled to stride down a church aisle with a bride that very summer. (To everyone's astonishment, including our own, we're still together.) It would be the switch from silver coins to nickel-coated copper ones that aroused our interest in money questions in 1965. We wondered why the substitution was necessary. Then, with price inflation causing misery in the 1970s we really got interested in what was happening to the U.S. dollar and luckily crossed paths with the Committee for Monetary Research and Education. CMRE may seem a tad too scholarly for many readers, but some of the best minds on the subject of money contribute to its work. Its library of tracts and books abounds in good sense and accurate analysis. This organization is on the web at CMRE.org Amazon.com emailed us today to remind us we bought $113.03 worth of books from them last year. Hello from Amazon.com, As you may or may not be aware Amazon.com LLC is not required to collect sales or use taxes in all states, including the state of South Carolina. The South Carolina Department of Revenue requires us to provide the following notice to you: You may owe South Carolina use tax on purchases you made from Amazon.com LLC during the previous calendar year. The amount of tax you may owe is based on the total sales price of the items you purchased during the previous calendar year. The total sales price of only purchases you had shipped to South Carolina in 2011 was $113.02. This is the amount that you may include on your South Carolina income tax return to calculate the appropriate use tax owed unless you have already paid the tax.Amazon makes clear it will not supply this information to the state tax collectors, but the reminders to South Carolina customers will probably nudge more taxpayers than usual to "remember" the on-line purchases they made in 2011 upon which a state sales tax is owed.
DeMint's Balanced Budget Amendment Unrealistic. You may have noticed the Public Debt number in the left-hand column of this page has been pretty much stuck at $15.236 trillion since early this month. It isn't that the Treasury Department isn't spending plenty of money - - it just can't BORROW until Congress approves President Obama's recent request for a debt ceiling increase. It's kind of a moot question. The rules are set up to permit an increase of more than a trillion dollars no matter what Congress might do to stifle it. S.C. Senator Jim DeMint says "Since President Obama has taken office, our national debt has increased by more than $4.5 trillion to pay for a failed stimulus, a health care takeover, and bailouts to special interests. It’s time to stop the reckless spending and debt that our children and grandchildren will have to pay for. "Americans are looking for courageous leadership to save our nation from fiscal collapse. Americans understand that we must pass a Balanced Budget Amendment to force Congress from spending more than we’re bringing in. I challenge members of Congress in both parties to open their eyes to what is happening in Europe, to stop with the meaningless show votes, and get serious about our debt crisis before it is too late." DeMint's instincts are good, but the notion that the U.S. Constitution must be amended to "force Congress from spending more than it brings in" istroubling. It says - Congress is incapable of doing what it was elected to do so we-the-people must go to the trouble of contriving stricter rules under which they conduct the people's business. Congress reflects the will of the people. If voters want representatives who are spendthrifts there is nothing tinkering with a Constitution can do to stop it. Congress won't change its habits until the people change their demands. What's the chances of THAT happening?
We just took Charles Murray's "Bubble Test" and, as you can see from our score, we are apparently seriously insulated by an elitist bubble! Murray is a sociologist who believes the main division in America is between the elite and the non-elite. We've never owned a pickup truck...we don't know anything about Who's Who in Nascar. We don't hunt or fish. Obviously, we must be trapped in an "elite bubble" according to Mr. Murray.
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If you've had the feeling your Kindly Editor is pretty much out of touch
with reality, you may be right.