The Book of the Shadows

The State of the Union is a Constitutional mandated report card the Executive Branch must deliver to the Legislative Branch once every year. It is an update of what accomplishments and failures the nations has had, where the nation needs to go, what it needs to focus on. Often times it is also a “to do” list from the Executive Branch for legislation it wants the Congress to complete in the next year and lays out not just the president’s agenda, but a roadmap of potential compromise and contention.

No this isn't about the new Godzilla movie coming out next year, although it is looking quite amazing so far. This is about a sort of mis-characterized debate that has gone on in our government for a long time; big government versus small government.

This time of the year can often be very magical. A bit of a mini miracle occurred this year, however. Congress did its job and got a deal on the budget.

Esquire magazine conducted a survey whose goal was to determine the political leanings of the American community. Such surveys have been done in the past, and have established the popular assertion that the country as a whole is “center right”, meaning we as the American public are mostly independent, but lean towards the conservative side of the spectrum.

I have a simple view to share regarding the current government shutdown. I’ve resisted making comments on the matter for now because of the fact that, quite frankly, I didn’t expect that it would take so long for things to be put to an end. We have troops in Afghanistan, we’re trying to manage a very volatile Middle East situation right now, the economy has been struggling to return to normalcy… shutting down the government and threatening the debt ceiling is not something reasonable people do at a time like this.

The Republican Party is a party in need of friends. They don’t have many right now. They have a number of loyalists among their members and voters, and they have their opponents in the Democrats. They even have outright enemies all over the place. But they don’t have a whole lot of friends. Perhaps the long talked of revolution in the Republican Party is finally at hand.

I've spent much of my time in this space discussing topics of some levity. Although I have touched on a few serious topics in past posts, I haven't done so in a little while, so I hope I can be excused for going back to the more sober topics for a day. The topic today, below the break, will be Guantanamo Bay prison.

American Corporations hold an estimated $1.5 Trillion in profits overseas that goes untaxed. This hefty sum of money was accumulated in subsidiaries and off-shore accounts over the course of many years, not just the last one or two. An idea that has bounced around for a long time has been to have a "tax-holiday". For those unfamiliar with the idea, it's rather basic and simple - for a designated period of time, certain activities are not taxed. In this instance, it would mean that for some time (some plans suggest 60-90 days) companies would be allowed to bring money back to the United States without paying taxes on it. I don't like this idea. My first problem is that some of the people pushing this idea in Congress are quick to push the concept of moral hazard in many other instances. This is a moral hazard as large as possible. Why? Because it isn't the first time that this idea has been considered and utilized. There have been plans like this previously. ...

I find myself looking back on the events on Tuesday in New Jersey. I listen to the news and read a few articles on the web about President Obama and Governor Christie being together touring the Jersey Shore and looking at the repairs being done. They have a few photo-ops of the two men at game stands chatting, giving each other high fives. Then the president gives a speech where he touts the area, talks about all the good that has been done between the federal, state, and local governments to fix the damage since Hurricane Sandy, how the federal government will remain invested in helping residents and businesses recover. A lot of the talk post the event was not about the actual event. It wasn't about what was done in Jersey, or what is left to be done. It is mostly about whether Republican Gov. Christie will be helped or hurt by being seen "paling" around with the Democratic Pres. Obama. It is the continuation of the same talk that came around when the two elected offic...

In my last post I noted that there was a need for individuals to think about the question How Much Is Enough. The point of the post was that devoid of any desire or need for legislation, individuals should think, both for their own benefit and for the general social welfare, about how much wealth they really need to accumulate and how they will go about doing so. Today I want to speak briefly about policy, particularly as it relates to the tax code and the interplay of corporations in that paradigm. The other day, May 21, Apple CEO Tim Cook went before a Congressional committee to testify. It wasn't part of any high-level investigation or anything of the sort, but they wanted to know how it was Apple over the past few years avoided paying taxes on a very large sum of money, somewhere in the neighborhood of $44 billion. For days leading up to this testimony the media seemed almost fearful that Apple would get raked over the coals with accusations of being railroaded and f...

There is always a need, when something goes wrong, for tough questions to be asked, and for people to be held accountable. This is a fundamental component of the US Congress. It is their Constitutional mandate, to serve as an oversight body. However, the Congress is very poor at doing their job. It's not a matter of not knowing what is going on, or knowing how to do anything to fix the problem. It is rare that they make it that far in their thought process. Which is sad. I look at this matter through the prism of the current IRS scandal. I will admit that I was one of those who at the outset was very critical of the IRS. I was appalled at the idea of the IRS targeting specific groups for undue scrutiny. However what differentiates me from many Congress, and what I hope differentiates most of the sensible people in the country from Congress, is the fact that rather than allowing their views to evolve through the exposure to new information, they dig in - or rather they cli...