Author: Randall Reeder

The President is giving us the state of the nation, as he sees it. Whether he sees it the way the rest of us see it, I got my doubts.

While the President may mention the lower unemployment rate, the folks who have given up finding work won’t be impressed. The extra 20 million people receiving food stamps will thank him for a full stomach, but would prefer to earn it themselves.

If he points out that Dow Jones has doubled since he became president, stockholders will smile in agreement. But the ones who don’t own stocks will feel cheated because the “rich got richer” and income inequality got worse.

Because income inequality is gaining so much attention, it got me to wondering: If the stock market had dropped by half instead of doubling, would that have increased the income of the middle class and poverty-stricken? Would the economic well being of the vast majority be better than it is compared to five years ago? Not a chance. Not a chance.

Naturally, we want those folks to have more opportunities to increase their income. Maybe the President could offer some assurances that would encourage businesses to hire more people and work ‘em longer. We’ve got millions of young people with hardly any skills; they need a job, any job, where they can show up on time, do what they’re told, work hard, and earn enough respect to get promoted.

Do you suppose our vast supply of natural gas, oil and coal could help put more people to work? And the Keystone pipeline from Canada could add even more oil to boost our economy, and theirs. Canada has been waiting several years for President Obama to make a decision. Canada is patient, but will they wait ‘til 2017? Not a chance.

Historic quotes by Will Rogers:
“The rest of the country knows the condition of the country, for they live in it… but (Congress) has no idea what is going on in America. So the President has to tell ‘em.” WA #371, Feb. 2, 1930

 “There is not a single person that knows any more about what (this year) has in store for us than a billy goat. Ten million people have gone without work for three years just listening to ‘big men’ solve their problems.” DT #2000, Jan. 1, 1933

“There is nobody we would rather be partners with in something than Canada.” DT #2376, March 15, 1934

California is always bragging about the wonderful weather. While the Midwest is freezing cold and snowy, California is warm and sunny. Why I bet you’ve never once seen an advertisement for California where it was raining. And any snow in the picture is way up on a mountaintop in the distance.
Well, here lately California has been wishing they had some rain. Californians sunbathing on the beach look up at the mountains and all they see is bare ground where it’s supposed to be snow capped.
Governor Brown is asking everyone to cut back on their water use by 20 percent. Californians don’t like to cut back on anything, especially water. They might be willing to replace 20 percent of their drinking water with fine wine, but filling the pool or watering the grass, it’s got to be the real thing. Like city folks back East that don’t know where their food comes from, Californians know nothing about the source of their water. They never see water in its raw, unrefined condition. “You mean the water coming out of the spigot used to be rain? Wow!”
President Obama announced he will set up something called “Promise Zones” in five states. That’s all we need is more promises from Washington. We were promised lower deficits, Al-Qaida is on the run, the Benghazi attack was a local demonstration, the end of the recession is near, and you can keep your doctor. Years ago, we were promised that Medicare would cost less than a million dollars a year and Detroit is a city on the rise. How are all those promises working out for you?
In the National Football League, Denver will play Seattle in the Super Bowl. It’s to be played in New Jersey, outdoors, in February. Instead, they should let these two teams from out West go down to Los Angeles and play the game in the Rose Bowl. If it happened to rain, or even snow, during the game, Californians would be thrilled.
Historic quotes by Will Rogers:
“They have been hunting water in the West much longer than they have gold. If a wonderful spring come out of a mountainside, men left gold, silver and copper mines to come and grab that spring. Water ain’t gold in the West, water is diamonds and platinum.” WA #562, Oct. 1, 1933
    “The government is doing what they can to help ‘em out (with the drought), but even a Democrat can’t make it rain.” DT #2476, July 10, 1934

Good news from the South Pole. Within hours of Janet Yellen being approved as Chair of the Federal Reserve, she and the climate change scientists melted the ice enough for the stuck ship to escape and sail to warmer waters.

Because the Antarctic trip was a total failure, these scientists have asked for a new and bigger grant: a million dollars a year for as long as it takes. This time they plan to charter a boat to Fiji. And to prove the perils of climate change, they commit to live there on the beach until the water rises and covers the islands. Now, brother, that’s dedication.

Do you remember a few years ago, the “Bridge to Nowhere?” Well, in New Jersey they have a bridge to somewhere, but no way to get on it. For four days last September, somebody in the Governor’s office closed some lanes to the George Washington Bridge to do a “traffic study.” (The study concluded that when you reduce the number of lanes on a bridge into New York City, traffic backs up in New Jersey.)

When Gov. Christy heard that it was not really a “study”, but a political prank, he immediately fired the ones responsible. Well, not everyone believed the Governor, including Attorney General Eric Holder, “We’ve got to get to the bottom of this traffic jam scandal. The best fifty lawyers in the Justice Dept. are immediately assigned to investigate this outrageous act. Top priority.” When a journalist asked Mr. Holder how this scandal compares to the IRS scandal, and the Benghazi attack, he was shocked, “This is MUCH more important; in those two incidents, nobody got fired.”

Colorado legalized the sale of marijuana starting on January 1, and they expect to take in $67 million in tax revenue. Some of you might remember that in 1933, President Roosevelt did something similar with beer, kinda bringing Prohibition to a halt. I don’t know whether marijuana will be a paying proposition for Colorado, but here was “my” comment on Roosevelt: “Roosevelt says, ‘Let ‘em drink.’ That’s all. ‘Let ‘em drink.’ And he collected $10 million in revenue in the first two weeks, and if he’d had good beer he’d have paid the national debt by now.”

Have you read about these historic events? A hundred years ago this week, Henry Ford raised wages to $5.00 a day for his assembly line workers to keep good workers from leaving, improving the quality of the Model T cars. Exactly fifty years later, in 1964, President Johnson started the “War on Poverty” to reduce the number of poverty-stricken folks. Today we have more people in poverty, (the rate has stayed around 12 to 15%) and food stamp usage has increased from less than a million people to over 45 million in 50 yrs.

President Obama announced a “War on Income Inequality.” He didn’t call it war but that’s what it is. Median income in this country is about $50,000 a year, so his goal is for all of us to make $50,000. He can start with himself, then convince Congressmen, the Supreme Court, and everyone who works for the government to work for $50,000. Interestingly, this announcement comes a hundred years after Ford pretty much doubled wages in his factory, greatly increasing income inequality compared to other workers. His heart is in the right place, but President Obama has as much chance of leveling out incomes as LBJ did in eliminating poverty. Or of Fiji sinking into the Pacific.

Historic quote by Will Rogers:
“We’ll hold the distinction of being the only nation in the history of the world that ever went to the poor house in an automobile.” Radio, Oct. 18, 1931.

#785   Jan. 5, 2014

I read where Mr. Bernanke is optimistic that the economy will continue improving in 2014. But he’s leaving the Federal Reserve, so I doubt anyone will listen to him. Janet Yellen will replace him, and she says she is going to attack global warming and, I guess, let the economy take care of itself.
Dr. Yellen might change her tune when she hears about the ship loaded with global warming scientists that went to Antarctica to show the world how warm it has gotten. Instead of basking in the warm ocean waters, the boat got blocked in by solid ice. They called in icebreakers, three of ‘em, and two of them got stuck, too. Finally a helicopter went in and hauled out the scientists. But their boat and the icebreakers are locked in there, maybe until Yellen and the scientists figure out how to melt the ice.
We’ve had two or three trains that derailed carrying crude oil from Canada, resulting in fires and several deaths. I saw a television news broadcaster kinda pleading, “Why can’t we come up with another way to transport oil?”
The New York Times announced two major findings. First, the killing of our Ambassador and three others in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11, 2012, was because an anti-Muslim video really upset a handful of peace-loving Libyans. (They did not indicate whether President Obama or Secretary Clinton should have removed all personnel from Benghazi weeks before the spontaneous attack.)  Second, Eric Snowden’s leaks should go unpunished, even though they cost us a hundred million dollars and set back our national security twenty years. Snowden claims he is a whistleblower, but a true whistleblower is one who sees that something is wrong and notifies his superiors, not a traitor who shares a whole boatload of national secrets with an enemy.
I’ll have to dig up some old issues of the New York Times to see if they supported the humanitarian efforts of John Dillinger, Al Capone and the Dalton Gang.
President Obama returned to Washington with his two daughters. I read that he let the First Lady stay another week or two as a special birthday present. I’ve got to wonder how much his ‘gift’ will cost the rest of us. But I bet she’ll order up an immediate first class return trip on Air Force One if she gets wind that a surprise trip to D.C. is planned by a certain Danish Prime Minister. Actually I hope she enjoys celebrating her 50th birthday in Hawaii. There’s about a hundred million of us in frigid sections of the mainland that would love to go help her blow out the candles.
New York City elected a new mayor, Bill DeBlasio. He says he wants to get rid of income inequality. He didn’t say precisely whether he wants the rich to move out of town, or for poor immigrants to go away. Either way would do it. Look at Detroit.
DeBlasio also wants to rid the city of horses. The horse-drawn carriages that tourists love to ride in Central Park will be replaced by electric carts. Yep, that’s sure to attract more tourists.

Historic quotes by Will Rogers:
“With New Year’s comes predictions of our leading men. This year they will read as follows, all of them: ‘I am an optimist, and always have been, but we must be assured of no inflation and a fair return on our investment. If the government will just lay off us everything will be fine.’ Now watch and see how far this misses it.” DT #2618, Dec. 26, 1934
 “A man that don’t love a horse, there’s something the matter with him. If he has no sympathy for the man that does love horses then there is something worse the matter with him.”   

COLUMBUS: As we come to the end of the year, folks are complaining about Congress, saying they didn’t do nothin’. They didn’t pass any bills.

Here’s Will Rogers on a similar Congress in 1924:  “Washington, D.C. papers say: ‘Congress is deadlocked and can’t act’. I think that is the greatest blessing that could befall this country.”  In 1926 he also said: “We cuss ‘em, and we joke about ‘em, but they are all good fellows at heart, and if they wasn’t in Congress, why, they would be doing something else against us that might be even worse.”

Everybody is making predictions about the economy for the new year. Here’s one for consideration: more unemployed people will find jobs in the next three months than in any other three month period in the last five years. I have a suggestion for young ones unemployed and still living at home. Get up early, change from your pajamas into nice clothes, and walk down the street looking for work. Remember, you don’t say, “Can I have a job?” No, you ask, “Do you have any work that needs to be done?” It might be for only a few hours, but it’s a start.

President Obama wants to reduce income inequality by raising the minimum wage. The main cause of inequality isn’t the ones making $7.50 an hour; it’s the ones making zero.

When the President returns to Washington he should call in each of his agency heads, one at a time, and ask, What changes can you make that will make it easier for businesses to hire more workers? Start with the EPA, then the Departments of Labor, and Energy, and Health, and so on. Up to now he’s always thinking of ways for the government to hire more people. But nobody that’s broke ever hired anybody extra, and neither should a government that’s broke.

If we’re going to put all these folks to work, where will they find the jobs? Well, in case you haven’t heard, the oil and gas business is booming. And we have plenty of coal, too, if we’re allowed to use it.

I’ll also go out on a limb and predict that Congress will pass a farm bill, with Democrats and Republicans agreeing that four fifths of the money appropriated will go to feed the poor. Of course, a year ago I predicted the farm bill would pass, and probably the year before that. But I’m not the only one that missed with earlier predictions. Al Gore said five years ago that “by 2013 the Arctic ice will all melt.”  The folks who suffered through ice storms recently in Texas and Oklahoma are curious if that cold weather originated at the balmy North Pole.

Historic quote by Will Rogers:

    “These people that you are asked to aid, why they are not asking for charity, they are naturally asking for a job, but if you can’t give them a job, why the next best thing you can do is see that they have food and the necessities of life. You know, there’s not a one of us has anything that these people that are without it now haven’t contributed to what we’ve got… The most unemployed or the hungriest man in America has contributed in some way to the wealth of every millionaire in America.” Radio, Oct 18, 1931

The Federal Reserve met last week to do a thorough examination of the economy. Ben Bernanke announced the patient is improving, and will soon be able to walk on its own. He’s been supporting it with $85 Billion a month of “printing press” money (some of us call it counterfeit), and he will remove $10 Billion of the $85 Billion and keep an eye on it to make sure the economy doesn’t stumble and fall on its face.

Wall Street liked the announcement and set another record. Those folks are thrilled the printing press was only slowed down a little, and not scrapped.

President Obama is glad the economy is growing. Unemployment is down to 7%. But he looks at Wall Street and says the rich are not sharing enough of the wealth with the poor. Pope Francis agrees with him that “income inequality” is a problem.

Personally, I think the Pope can do more to solve it than the President. If he would follow the example of Brigham Young and have all his followers give 10% to be distributed among the poor that would sure help balance the scales. The President might be able to do the same thing, but he would have to persuade us to give about 30%.

Concerning the Affordable Care Act, the President said on Friday, “Eighty-five percent of Americans have benefitted. It’s working as intended.” Not everyone agrees with him, especially the other fifteen percent. He has made so many changes that no one is quite sure what his “intention” is. The 5 million who have lost their insurance will now be able to sign up for a simple “catastrophic” plan. Previously, it had been outlawed. With a January deadline looming, the President turned the whole situation over to Secretary Sebelius and the insurance companies and flew off to Hawaii to play golf.

Have you been following this Duck Dynasty controversy? It has divided the country even more than Obamacare. I had been contemplating what to say about it myself, when Jay Leno beat me to it with the perfect comment. He said that Phil Robertson, the patriarch of the family, criticized gays, so gay people are upset with him. “Then he went on to criticize adulterers, drunks and swindlers. And now Congress is mad at him.”  Yes, I sure wish I had thought of it first.

Historic quotes by Will Rogers: (on Christmas)

    “I am too busy replacing presents to write today. I bought some mechanical and electric things for the kids and wore ‘em out playing with ‘em myself.” DT #120, Dec. 23, 1926
 “Merry Christmas, my constant readers, both of you. No scandal today. There is some, but it will be more scandalous by tomorrow.  Men, act surprised this morning as if you didn’t know the tie was coming.” DT #121, Dec. 24, 1926

The world has been celebrating Nelson Mandela’s life in South Africa. Despite spending more than twenty years in prison, which would have destroyed the will of most men, he proceeded to lead “his people” out of perpetual slavery without a revolution.

Oddly, during the various celebrations of his life, instead of learning more about his 95 years, Americans primarily learned that the Prime Minister of Denmark is a lovely blond. We also thought we were learning Zulu sign language, but that turned out to be gibberish.

Last week I reported on the experience of an Obamacare Navigator. I talked to him again  to see if the healthcare.gov computer system is working better. You may remember that he had helped six people try to get enrolled. Well, in the last week six more called and two of ‘em came to the office to enroll. One got far enough to get an ID number. But so far for this Navigator, no client has made it all the way to making a payment for health insurance. And among the ones he helped, none are the healthy young men we need to sign up.

The Navigator told me people are taking the problems in stride. None of his clients have resorted to yelling or attacking his computer with a chainsaw. Their patience is logical because for ones who do get their information entered, hackers may get it before the insurance companies.

I have heard from others on their experience with the new healthcare programs. In Maryland, where the state operates the system, it seems to be working to get people signed up. But a self-employed friend in another state has been trying to sign up for weeks, and got no farther than “error messages.”

The White House has announced they want insurance companies to figure out how to cover folks when they show up at the hospital January 1, even if they aren’t enrolled. Secretary Sebelius had three years to get this system up and running, yet they give the insurance companies and medical professionals three weeks to work out a reimbursement plan. Of course folks will get treated. But doctors should send the bill to the Oval Office.

Congress reached an agreement on a budget, but not without some weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth among Republicans. The situation of Speaker Boehner vs. the Tea Party members reminds me of this Will Rogers quote (except I’ve switched the parties): “Republicans never agree on anything, that’s why they’re Republicans. If they agreed with each other, they would be Democrats.”

Historic quote by Will Rogers:
“The trouble with Democrats up to now has been that they have been giving the people ‘what they thought the people ought to have’ instead of what the people wanted.” Saturday Evening Post, March 30, 1929

Do you know what a Navigator is? You might think it’s a guy on a boat that helps the Captain go in the right direction.

Today there’s another kind of Navigator, ones that are helping three hundred million Americans get their health insurance headed in the right direction. Not all at once, mind you, but millions and millions must get onboard the big ship named Obamacare by December 23.  That ship, the biggest ever built, was launched two months ago and its engines have been sputtering and coughing so much it’s moving mighty slow. How many knots? Well, more nots than knots.

I talked to one of these Navigators, trying to get to the bottom of the problem. Not all Navigators are alike, but here’s one situation. He got trained in October and they gave him three thick notebooks. I had to ask, anywhere in those thousands of pages of instructions, does it say, If you like your doctor you can keep your doctor?

Where this fellow lives, there are about 750 poor folks who had been able to see a doctor for little or no money, but they were told they couldn’t do that anymore and had to sign up on the Affordable Care website. They were asked to call this Navigator if they needed help.

Well, here’s what happened to those 750. About 150 called    to ask what’s going on, why am I losing this deal that I like? Keep in mind probably half of ‘em don’t have a computer or internet, so they need help signing up. He started three weeks ago, helping these 750, and he has about two weeks remaining to get ‘em all onboard by the December 23 deadline.

How many has he signed up so far? Six. Yes, six out of 750. But not all six. Two got started but the website froze up. They got passwords, but no ID.  Two others were eligible for Medicaid (free health care), but got stuck. Calling the 800 number didn’t help; put on hold. More than two hours working with each, and still not signed up. Well, why not fill out the forms and mail ‘em in? No, he was informed that mailed forms wouldn’t get read and approved soon enough by the government. You can’t blame the Post Office. But it makes you wonder, if Santa and his elves can handle millions of letters, why can’t Obama.

And the other two? Those two got on, passwords selected and received their ID numbers. So those two are done? No, they have to pick an insurance plan. There’s only one company, but they do have a choice of platinum, gold, silver or bronze plans. Do you think many of these 750 can afford platinum or gold?

Remember, these folks had health care privileges at a local clinic. But after January 1, they have to have Obamacare. Well, six down (partly), only 744 to go.

Historic quote by Will Rogers: (writing after his gall bladder operation)
“If you want to stay well, just bet a lot of rich (insurance) companies that you will get sick. Then if you can’t have any luck getting sick, have the policy cut down, and before six months you’ll be saying, “Doctor, the pain is right there.” Ether and Me, 1927

President Obama announced that Secretary Kerry and diplomats from a few other nations have worked out a deal with Iran on nuclear energy. There is a lot of disagreement on exactly what’s in the agreement. Near as I can tell, Iran has promised not to build a nuclear bomb for six months if we give them $7 Billion.

Israel and Saudi Arabia were not in on the deal, and neither was a bunch of our Senators. They seem to doubt we should take the word of the Ayatollah and Ahmadinejad.

Did you hear than J.P. Morgan Chase agreed to pay a fine of $13 Billion? I didn’t even know the bank had $13 Billion. Where’s the money coming from? Well, it’s coming from those that have got it: the stockholders, primarily the mutual funds that own those stocks. Where’s the money going? Well, I heard $7 Billion is going to Iran.

Oh, I know it’s not the same $7 Billion. But John Kerry has to get it from somewhere. And even though they announced a 6-month agreement, I bet it’s for 12. They don’t want ‘em to bomb anybody till after the election on November 4. Couldn’t stand the bad news. Even on the Affordable Care Act they postponed one deadline from October 15 to November 15.

That health care website has only signed up a hundred thousand people. Democrats are disappointed, but not as much as computer hackers. They’ve been counting on grabbing millions of bank account numbers for their Christmas shopping.

The Senate voted to outlaw filibusters on nominations made by the President. A few years ago Senator Reid was against this “nuclear option,” but as Senate Leader he’s all for it. From now on it will take only 51 votes to approve a nomination, not 60. Shucks, I don’t know which is better, but filibusters are more fun.

I sure wish Congress would get serious and pass the farm bill. The holdup over how much to slice from food stamps is like the tail wagging the dog. Except the “tail” is four times bigger than the dog.

Historic quotes by Will Rogers:

“The only problem that confronts this country today is at least 7,000,000 people are out of work…. These people that you are asked to aid, why they are not asking for charity, they are naturally asking for a job, but if you can’t give ‘em a job, why the next best thing you can do is see that they have food and the necessities of life.” Radio, Oct 18, 1931

(on Thanksgiving Day) “In the days of its founders they were willing to give thanks for mighty little, for mighty little was all they expected. But now neither government or nature can give enough but what we think it’s too little. Those old boys in the Fall of the year, if they could gather in a few pumpkins, potatoes and some corn for the winter, they was in a thanking mood. But if we can’t gather in a new Buick, a new radio, a tuxedo and some government relief, why we feel like the world is agin us.” DT #2594, Nov. 28, 1934

“Diplomats are just as essential to starting a war as soldiers are for finishing it.” Saturday Evening Post, June 9, 1928

“There is one thing no nation can accuse us of, and that is secret diplomacy. Our foreign dealings are an open book, generally a check book.” WA #45, Nov. 18, 1923

Are you confused? I sure am, and I’m the first to admit it. President Obama has been saying for three years that if you like your health care plan you can keep it. If you like your doctor you can keep your doctor. Period. Exclamation point!

Before the Affordable Care Act passed, Speaker Pelosi announced that Congress had to pass it before we could find out what was in it. Now it appears that President Obama still hasn’t found out what’s in it. I rather doubt Mrs. Pelosi knows either.

President Obama said he is sorry that millions of people are losing their health insurance after he assured them otherwise. But he still did not apologize for misleading the public in the first place, and for doing it consistently for more than three years. If he had come clean after the bill was signed and finally passed muster with the Supreme Court (after changing the word “penalty” to “tax”) the present occupant of the White House would probably be Mitt Romney. How many votes would he have lost if he had announced last October, “I was wrong. Some of you can keep your health insurance, but millions will be dropped because of Obamacare. Some will save money, but most will pay more. And by the way, losing an Ambassador and three others in Benghazi to a planned terror attack was my fault.”

Now, the President implies he wants to help people get back their dropped insurance plans. How can he persuade private insurance companies to extend canceled policies when he cannot even persuade Democrats in the Senate to change part of the healthcare law? Nobody trusts Congress or the President since they exempted themselves and their staffs from paying the same out-of-pocket monthly cost as other individuals. Labor unions lobbied for the health care law, but they have also been granted an exemption.

We spent $600 Million on a website that barely works, and may cost a Billion to get it running full speed. Maybe we should have used that Billion to subsidize insurance for those with pre-existing conditions, and leave the rest of us alone. Wouldn’t that be common sense?

As I say, I’m confused. If you figure out a logical conclusion to this mess, let me know.

Historic quotes by Will Rogers:

“This day is no doubt the greatest day in all the world history. Armistice Day, when you think that a half dozen men could sit down and casually sign a pact to stop millions of men from killing each other. But if they don’t stop these guys making these speeches over the radio on Armistice Day, why we are liable to have the same war over again, only worse.” DT #1028, Nov. 11, 1929

“Celebrated twelve years of continuous peace yesterday, and we looked about as bad as we did twelve years ago when we celebrated the end of two years of war… Peace is kinder like prosperity. There is mighty few nations that can stand it.” DT #1343, Nov. 12, 1930