Author: Randall Reeder

August 28, 2011

COLUMBUS: President Obama’s approval rating has dropped lower than ever. He’s probably just as smart now as he was 3 or 4 years ago. The problem is, a candidate has to promise a lot of things he knows will never get done, just to get elected. Mr. Obama promised everyone a job, a house, and a chicken in every pot. That got him a lot of cheers. And votes.
But reality set in. The only new jobs are with the government, the house is worth less than the mortgage, and the chicken was bought with food stamps. Of course I’m exaggerating. But a President gets more credit than deserved when things go right, and more blame when they don’t.
A week ago, the President blamed bad luck for part of his poor showing. And that was BEFORE he was hit with an earthquake and a hurricane. The Virginia earthquake was fairly minor (there was no tsunami after) and Hurricane Irene probably caused less damage from wind than from flooding. Vermont floods might cause more damage than the wind did in New York City. Philadelphia was dealt a blow with about 20 inches of rain in the last two weeks.
Katrina hit New Orleans six years ago this week, and it was a few days later when we found out how bad it was. Like in that hurricane, sometimes people in charge deserve more blame for the resulting destruction than the hurricane.
We have to admit that sometimes we make dumb decisions. Now, getting flooded out by a 250-year storm in Pennsylvania can’t be blamed on the homeowner. But if you live on “Sand Dune Lane”, in a house built on a sand dune at the edge of an ocean, when it gets swept away in a storm you should not blame the President. And the rest of us should not have to pay for rebuilding it either.

Historic quotes by Will Rogers:
“(Herbert) Hoover, (didn’t) go out, like the other Cabinet Members, to play Golf when they finished reading their weekly reports… Hoover, being a great Red Cross man, he picked up a few Tornadoes and Hurricanes to kinder help fill in his spare time, and now and again a flood to sorter keep his hand in feeding the destitute. The first thing you know he had made himself so valuable at it that it looked like we couldent have a Calamity till he could get there to handle it. A lot of Calamitys that would have happened, we had to hold ’em off just on that account, for the man was booked up.” How To Be Funny, Jan. 19, 1929

COLUMBUS: The President has been saying that Qaddafi’s “days are numbered.” Well, it appears that Qaddafi has run out of both numbers and days. The next question is, What will become of  Libya? And more importantly, what will become of their oil? Is Syria next?

The President is vacationing on Martha’s Vineyard. I think he got it backwards. He should have spent 3 days on a bus tour of that highfalutin island, and 10 days on a family vacation in farm towns of Minnesota, Illinois and Iowa. Every day his family would have been invited to a different farm for dinner, then spend the afternoon doing farm chores. Baling hay and milking cows beats golf any day. (You know, that million dollar bus could come in handy on the farm; if you cleared out the seats it would haul at least 200 square bales.) For supper, local churches would have been glad to organize a covered dish meal. And ten days in farm country could have picked up more electoral votes than Mr. Obama will ever gain from Massachusetts.

The Federal Reserve is meeting in Jackson Hole to figure out how to get us out of this economic mess. Is that smart when you’re already in a hole? Why not meet on Jackson Mountain or Jackson’s Mill, or even Jackson Flat. Anywhere but a Hole.

They already dropped the interest rate to pert near zero. Pretty soon, instead of collecting interest they’ll be paying you one or two percent just to take some cash off their hands. Bernanke is gonna print another Trillion dollars of bogus bills, no matter what Governor Perry says Texans will do to him.

Vice-President Biden went to China to assure the Chinese that we will never default on the Treasury bonds they hold, no matter what Congress does. This makes you wonder why the President refused to give the same assurance to Americans last month.

Of course China wants us to stay prosperous and growing. Otherwise where would they find new technology to steal?

Historic quotes by Will Rogers:

“There is two things that can disrupt business in this country. One is war and the other is a meeting of the Federal Reserve.” DT #837, April 2, 1930
 “Sell your house and lot this morning, for the Federal Reserve Board meets this afternoon.” DT #839, April 4, 1930
(Will Rogers pretending to be President Coolidge, on a radio broadcast. Read it as if you are listening to it.)  “I am proud to report, that the country as a whole is prosperous. I don’t mean by that, that the whole country is prosperous, but as a hole, it is prosperous. Now a hole is not supposed to be prosperous, and we are certainly in a hole.  In conclusion, everybody I come into contact with is doing well. They have to be doing well or they don’t come in contact with me.”

COLUMBUS: Iowa Republicans held a big fund-raiser, also known as the Straw Poll. Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann, kinda running as Iowa’s “Favorite Daughter” candidate,  rounded up over 4800 of her childhood friends and won the poll by 150 votes over Ron Paul of Texas. Just 17,000 bonafide Iowans drove to Ames to vote for a Republican for President. That may sound like a good crowd, but three times as many will drive there for a football game.
I know a few farmers in Iowa, and I bet any one of them could have gotten 5000 other farmers to take the day off and go to Ames and vote for ‘em. Well, another farmer, this one from west Texas, announced he’s running. Rick Perry says Texas is due another President.
Gov. Pawlenty got creamed in the Straw Poll and put himself out to pasture. He spent a million dollars for 2000 votes, and figured at that price he couldn’t afford enough votes to beat Obama. Other candidates want his 2000 supporters, but so far no one has offered anywhere near what they cost him.
President Obama heard his name mentioned so many times in Iowa he wants to see what the ruckus is all about. He’ll fly in on Air Force One and trade it for Greyhound One to tour along the Mississippi River in Minnesota, Iowa, and Illinois. What those folks want to hear is which of his programs he will cut to reduce the deficit, and which regulations he will forego so business can expand and hire more people. But what he’ll likely talk about is a new stimulus package, including a plan to install a gigantic culvert for the Mississippi to run through from St. Paul to St. Louis.
In Philadelphia, the mayor has cracked down on teenage hoodlums who are copying the violence and destruction going on in England. Police caught more than 50 one night, which sounds more impressive than it is. See, it ain’t hard for a policeman to outrun a guy carrying a 60-inch flat screen TV with his pants down around his knees.
The Obama health care bill got sent to the Supreme Court. A friend in Las Vegas asked for my opinion on being forced to buy health insurance. The quote below answers that question, sort of.

Historic quote by Will Rogers: (following a gall bladder operation in 1927)
One day I was a-laying in the hospital (recovering) and I just happened to have the only bright thought that had come to me in weeks.  “Say, this thing I’m doubled up here with comes under the heading of ‘sickness’.”  For wasn’t I getting well from an operation?
So I thought of those policies I had been paying on for years. This sickness is going to turn out all right, at that. I began to think how I could stretch it out into what might be termed a slow convalescence. So I was grinning like a moving-picture producer who has just thought of a suggestive title for his new picture. So when my wife called again I broke the good news to her.
I says, “If we can get a bonafide doctor to say that I have been sick and couldn’t spin a rope and talk about Coolidge, we are in for some disability.”
Well, I notice the wife didn’t seem so boisterous about this idea. Then I got to thinking: “Maybe I haven’t been sick enough, or maybe I haven’t got a bonafide doctor.”
Then the truth did slowly come out; she told me the sad story of cutting down on the insurance. It read like a sentence to me. She said my physical condition had misled them. Of course she said there would be some salvage out of our short-sightedness, but that the operation would be by no means money-making. Whereas if the original policies had prevailed I would have reaped a neat benefit.
So if you want to stay well, just bet a lot of rich 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.” (From “Ether and Me”, 1927)

For a glimpse of bright future, go to a State Fair

COLUMBUS: Well, after all the wrangling and arguing, Congress and the President agreed on a budget plan. It wasn’t a good plan, but it was the only one they could get. Did it please anybody? Not a chance. Stockholders sold their stocks, losing more than a Trillion in a day. Standard & Poor’s lowered our credit rating a notch. Congress’ approval rating is in the tank. Unemployment refuses to drop below nine percent. And how bad is it when one of the countries making fun of our economy is Russia?
The only person who says he likes our economy is Warren Buffett, and he owns so much of it he is just protecting his investment. Of course, I trust Warren’s opinion more than I do Russia’s.
President Obama turned 50 this week. Remember when Marilyn Monroe sang “Happy Birthday” to President Kennedy? With all the emphasis on cutting costs I think this president was left with either Roseanne Barr or Whoopi Goldberg. At 50, he is fit and trim, in great shape. But he probably feels ten years older than when he took office.
This is Fair season. The Ohio State Fair is wrapping up, and Iowa’s Fair starts this week. They both boast about their butter cow sculptures, and rightly so, but this year Iowa has the advantage. Every Republican candidate under the sun is in Iowa buttering up the voters for the Iowa Straw Poll on Saturday. They say it don’t mean anything, but any candidate who gets creamed in Iowa is soon put out to pasture.
The President is trying to round up more jobs. The harder he works at it, the farther behind we seem to fall. I think if he spent a few days at a State Fair he would get an inkling of the future of this country. I saw a whole slew of 4-H members competing the past two weeks in Ohio, and these young folks know how to give a speech, they know their subject, and they know how to navigate a tight course whether it’s driving a tractor, designing a robot, guiding a welding rod, or leading a young bull. You watch these bright young folks and you come away impressed that when they complete their formal educations, whether high school, college, or an advanced degree, they will be ready to step into a good career or create their own business. As teenagers, many already have.

Historic quotes by Will Rogers:

“It’s called the 4-H Club. Somebody was inspired when they founded that. It’s all over the country. By golly they are a great bunch of kids.” DT #2585, Nov. 18, 1934

“The only salvation I can see for the young is to increase the college term to an additional four years. That’s another one of my plans. You’ll say, “Well, what could they learn in another four years?”  Well, there must be some little something about making a living that they haven’t learned yet, and they could kind of work on that for the next four years.” Radio, June 2, 1935

Debt crisis may be averted

COLUMBUS: It ain’t easy writing a column when the news is changing by the minute. It appears, as we turn out the lights tonight, that Harry Reid and John Boehner have concocted a bill that the President won’t veto.

President Obama gave a short speech on this compromise bill to raise the debt ceiling to around $17 Trillion. He said he wants more taxes on the rich and that we will have the “lowest level of annual domestic spending since Eisenhower was president.”

Nobody knows for sure what’s in this bill so it may wind up with more taxes. But anyone who lived through the 1950s will be shocked to hear that federal spending is lower today. I looked it up. The highest budget under Ike was less than $0.1 Trillion. During his 8 years the total debt increased by $25 Billion to a whopping $0.29 Trillion in 1960. Of course the population has doubled, but we’re spending as much in week as Eisenhower did in a year. We’ll add as much federal debt in the month of August as the country did in our first 180 years.

Budget arguments are nothing new. “Every statesman wants to vote appropriations, but is afraid to vote taxes. The oratory of Washington is on “reconstruction,” but the heart of Washington is on (the next election). We never will get anywhere with our finances till we pass a law saying that every time we appropriate something we got to pass another bill along with it stating where the money is coming from.” (1932)

I sure hope they settle this mess by August 2 so the President (and the rest of us) can enjoy his 50th birthday party in Chicago August 3. Cake for everybody.

This is my 666th Weekly Comments, and I hope we’re all still around for #667.

Historic quotes by Will Rogers: (from Weekly Article #666)

Well all I know about dogs is not much, but in Alaska there is an awful lot of dependence put in dogs. Of course the plane has diminished the dog travel a lot but still the backbone of the Arctic is a dog’s backbone. I met up there, just as I was leaving Fairbanks, that famous musher and dog race winner, Seppala. He become immortal on that famous drive with the (diphtheria) serum to Nome (in 1925)… Seppala is as identified with dogs as Mae West is with buxomness…
Well I dident have long to talk to him that morning, as we was trying to get off, and the river was narrow and many bends and Wiley was afraid that with a full load of gas that we might have some difficulty in taking off, so we had some gas sent out to a lake about 50 miles out, and then flew there and loaded up and took off. We were headed at the time for Point Barrow the furtherest north of any piece of land on the North American Continent…
Joe Crosson the ace pilot that we were with so much in Fairbanks, an old friend of Wiley’s, has a mine and we went out there. He has a partner, a Swedish fellow, that runs it and he had just killed a bear right at his house door. And the Swedish fellow tells how Mickey (his wirehaired fox terrier) went out one night and run the bear in. Well as a matter of fact Mickey went out and the bear chased him in, and Earnest had to shoot the bear to keep him from running Mickey under the bed. They say there is more fellows been caught by a bear just that way. An old pet dog jumps the bear and then they hike straight to you, and the bear after ’em, and the first thing you know you got a bear in your lap, and a dog between your feet. There is two kinds of bear dogs: the ones that drive ’em away and the ones that bring ’em in. Little Mickey thought he had done it (because) Earnest said he chewed all the hair off the bear, after death.” WA #666 (This unfinished article was in Will’s typewriter when the plane crashed near Pt. Barrow, August 15, 1935)

Heat in Washington leads to a wacky idea

COLUMBUS: Heat and drought has taken over most of the country. It’s been dry and hot in Oklahoma and Texas for months, but folks back east paid no attention until it struck them too.
Television announcers have been advising everyone to stay inside where it’s cooler, and do nothing. And that’s exactly what Congress and the President are doing. Nothing. At times I have said we should not complain when Congress does nothing because “when they do nothing they don’t hurt anybody.” I also said we should not settle anything during hot weather because “heat and reason don’t go together.”
But since they could not settle the debt problem back when it was cooler, we just have to take our chances with the heat. When you’re spending $10 Billion a day, and only taking in $6 Billion, your banker had better be your best friend. Why, every morning before breakfast President Obama  signs another $4 Billion IOU to the First Bank of China.
Republicans in Congress passed a bill called Cut, Cap and Balance.  Democrats don’t seem to like it, but have offered no bill of their, at least not in writing. Nobody can agree on nothin’.
Suppose they compromise this way: The Senate Democrats and President Obama go sit in a corner and write a deficit reduction plan for the next 6 months. Lay it out exactly. Then the Republicans go in the opposite corner and write their plan for the 6 months after that. That way the debt ceiling get raised and both sides get an equal shot at reducing the deficit and improving the economy. Next July let the Supreme Court analyze the half year under the Democrat plan, and the half year under the Republican plan. Whichever plan the Court figures did the most good for the country will be adopted for the 6 months after that. Regardless of which plan the Supreme Court picks, the voters will have the final say in November 2012.
If you say, “that idea is wacky”, well, just blame it on the heat.

Historic quotes by Will Rogers: (from Weekly Article #665)
“These Eskimos have one of the most (scheduled) lives there is, almost to a day of the various months or seasons, they will go from the hunting or trapping of one animal to the other. White fox takes up just so many days, perhaps a couple of months, but there is almost a certain time that they will stop and move to another place to take up another game. Muskrat, then their seal and fishing for their supply of dog food. They all come in and hold a celebration on Christmas, then by New Years they are out again.
Then the polar bear season occupies so much of their time. He is pretty hard to get…Then they got the caribou to hunt. There is literally thousands of caribou all over Alaska and the Yukon, and Northwest Territories…
A whale used to net ’em about 18 or 20 thousand dollars, when whalebone was selling, but the minute the women started reducing, and trying to get some sort of shape with a rubber corset, the old whalers were pretty near put out of business… Polar bear hides are not worth anything now they say. Furs have been pretty cheap.
It’s a great country, where you have to live off the country, hunt, trap, kill and live. Four mails a year into that place, two and a half months when it’s not frozen in.” WA #665, written about Aug. 14, 1935

Cut air-conditioning to solve debt impasse

COLUMBUS: The boys in Washington are still arguing over the debt.  They can’t seem to agree on how to reduce spending by 40% (as suggested by Republicans) or increase tax collections by 40% (suggested by Democrats). What was true in 1931 is still true today: “A debt is just as hard for a government to pay as it is for an individual. No debt ever come due at a good time. Borrowing is the only thing that is handy all the time.”

If you are looking for a way to reduce costs, here’s an idea. Shut off the air-conditioner in every federal building in Washington, and force them to stay in there until they agree on something. Not only would they save on the electric bill, Republican Congressmen might see that eliminating mortgage deductions on half-million dollar mansions, including their own, ain’t unreasonable. And Democrat Senators might see that since folks are living longer, maybe raising the age for Medicare and Social Security to 70 ain’t so bad either. If the Oval Office got up to a hundred degrees, the President might be more inclined to offer some of his favorite programs for the chopping block. Spending a Trillion dollars on high speed trains that run 39 mph may lose its luster. And maybe all of them together can agree on doing without a few new tanks, fighter jets and Humvees.

I read where some women’s groups claim that the ladies are getting a raw deal from Washington. That raising the retirement age to 67 is not fair to the so-called weaker sex. Well, since women are outliving men by 4 or 5 years, maybe they ought to work longer than men; let men retire at 67, but women work till 70 or 71. Of course no Congressman (or sane comedian) would even raise that possibility. We all know that women never really get to retire, and when the husband retires their work just gets harder.

Here are two closing thoughts from the 1930s. “By the end of next year, 1936, our per capita debt will be $270 each… It costs ten times more to govern us than it used to, and we are not governed one-tenth as good.”

Historic quotes by Will Rogers: (from Weekly Article #664)

  “These little towns and cities in Alaska have mighty fine little papers. They take all the big news and whittle it down till you can read it and understand it… They cover about all of Congress that is fit to cover; you see, we cover a lot that we shouldent…
That Yukon (River) that you have read so much about that is formed away in the Yukon Territory of Canada. We flew down it from the head, and it winds and twists till it comes out away down near San Marchiel, in the Bering Sea, 2,000 miles away…
You look on a map and all the country that is north of the real mainland of Canada, all those tremendous Islands and gulfs up there, a white man is not allowed to fish, hunt or trap in. It’s entirely for the support of the Indians that live up there. We never had thought of that. And say, the old Injun and the Eskimo is a mighty smart trader up there.
One thing I don’t believe I could ever be (is a trapper.)… The hospitality and generosity of a trapper, or a man that lives way out, would put us to absolute shame… They would mush through the Winter 50 below for days to help a friend.” WA #664, written about Aug. 13, 1935

Solve the debt crisis, sell a state

COLUMBUS: Obama and Congress are negotiating on the debt ceiling and deficit. But I am making no predictions. Last week I was off by 20 years on that murder case. I can afford an error of a few years, but my bank account can’t handle it if I miss by a couple of Trillion dollars.
No prediction, but I do have a suggestion: Let Obama agree to give up all the expensive programs he put through, and in return the Republicans would agree to give up the costly ones they passed under President Bush. Not the wars following 9-11-2001 (that’s already been spent). But, for example, the one giving free prescription drugs to old folks whether they could afford them or not, and the no child left behind program that pretty much failed to make our students smarter. Now, anyone presently benefitting from those could continue, but no new people will be added. That’s where the big savings will come. Like Social Security and Medicare, the ones on it now won’t be affected, but folks around 50 may have to work to 70 to get it.
Now you’re saying, “That will reduce expenses, but what about income taxes for the rich? Can’t we raise ‘em?” Yes, but here’s my plan. In two years their tax rates will go up to where they were in 2000, but only if the unemployment rate is above 5% on July 1, 2013. See, if these rich folks want to keep their Bush tax cuts they have to go out and hire enough people to eliminate the unemployment problem. They always claim that raising taxes will cut jobs; well, let’s see ‘em prove that by keeping those taxes low, they can put more people to work.  It is not a great plan, but it will cut expenses, Republicans can claim they did not raise taxes, and it creates a ton of new jobs.
We sure need the jobs. Only 18,000 new ones last month. McDonald’s stopped hiring.
Folks are worried sick about a government shutdown. Oh, Lord, what will happen to us if government employees stop getting paid? Well, Minnesota shut down government more than a week ago, and have any of us outside the state noticed? You can still buy Scotch tape, Wheaties, and Pillsbury flour. And Minnesota farmers are milking their cows and feeding their turkeys. The fish are biting, and even if you can’t buy a hunting license you can still shoot a moose.
Greece says they have a debt crisis, but it’s really a work crisis. Nobody wants to work. They would rather protest, carry signs, throw rocks, and set fires. And anyone who is working will soon go on vacation for half the summer. That will get rid of the protesters temporarily; from habit they’ll go to the beach.
What Greece needs to do is sell off a few islands. Those Greek Isles are so popular you would be surprised what they would bring at auction.
Maybe we could do the same. Republicans would probably agree to sell Massachusetts and Connecticut. But the price would be depressed because the buyer would be compelled to accept Harvard and Yale. So if government really wants to rake in the dough sell Iowa. With farmland going for $10,000 an acre, it would come closer to canceling the debt than any three of our eastern states.

Historic quotes by Will Rogers: (from Weekly Article #663)
 “If there is a prettier trip in the World than from Seattle to Alaska by what they call Inland Passage, I never saw it…
Did you ever pay much attention to a map of Alaska? Well there is some astonishing things about it. Now we have a long narrow strip of land that I don’t think is but 30 miles back from the ocean to the top of the ridge of mountains, and then comes Canada. We cut Canada off from the ocean for five or six hundred miles.
We bought it from Russia in 1867. Seward was Secretary of State, and he bought it from the Russians and the Ambassador at that time from there was (Edouard de Stoeckl).
We paid $7,200,000, and the thing is almost as big as the United States. At that time they called it “Seward’s Folly.” Kinder like it is now, we never know when we are doing well till away later. I guess it’s the best bargain we ever made.
I never could see why Nations don’t sell each other land like they ought to instead of having them go to war to get it. I don’t think we are as civilized as we used to be back in those days. Now (Alaska) was away off from Russia’s main body, and they sold it.”  WA #663, written about Aug. 10, 1935

Federal deficit debate obscured by murder trial

COLUMBUS: President Obama went on television last week to tell how he would reduce the deficit by a Trillion dollars. All he could think of was to cut private jets and increase taxes on high incomes. The President thinks the economy will improve if company bigwigs fly commercial and spend more time waiting in airports. Meanwhile in China, businesses plan to buy thousands of those same planes so their executives can work more efficiently. “If your time is worth anything, travel by air. If not, you might just as well walk.” (1927)

One of the biggest drags on the economy for the past month or two is this trial down in Florida. Granted, it did create jobs for a slew of TV reporters and mediocre lawyers for three years. This young mom killed her 2-year old, and she’ll spend about 20 years in jail, but the whole situation has dragged on like a mystery novel with no end. But it will end. The jurors have been sequestered away from civilization for so long, that whenever the lawyers stop talking, in about half a day they will find her guilty of something, just so they can go home. [Added note: I clearly underestimated the abilities of the defense lawyers and overestimated the intelligence of the jurors.]

While the whole country was distracted by the murder trial in Orlando, former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich was tried and convicted. He was found guilty of 17 counts of… well, guilty of being a Chicago Democrat.

You can tell the debt ceiling argument is coming to a head when a Congressman is willing to give up vacation days. If you think the debt ceiling ain’t important, imagine if your monthly bills were $5,000, and starting next month, you could only pay out $3000. Which $2000 of spending would you give up? Maybe stop eating out (buy bulk, and cook at home), no air conditioning, cancel the cable TV and cell phone, no new clothes, park the car, no vacation, no concerts, no movies. Could you do it? And not just for one month, for at least two or three years. Well, that’s what is facing Congress. What the President offered only adds up to about $200 a month in my little example. Even though this “family” was living on a little more than $3000 when he took over the finances, it ain’t all his fault. For too long the role model for Washington spending has been Greece.

Enjoy the Fourth. It’s a great day to celebrate a country’s birthday.

Historic quotes by Will Rogers: (from Weekly Article #662)

    “Well, all I know is just what I hear when I talk to somebody and as I generally do all the talking, why I don’t hear much. But I started out on this trip with the idea that I was going to do some listening.
Rex Beach hit Juneau just before we took off. [Beach was an author/novelist famous for portrayals of life in Alaska.] Rex and his wife Greta are responsible for me in the movies. They was making a great Alaskan picture (in 1918), and the character was “Laughing Bill Hyde.” It was one of his famous short stories, by that same name. I was playing that summer in the Follies, and they got the “Nut” idea that I could play the part. It was made at the old Fort Lee Studios, in New Jersey, just across the river from New York City. They used to make an awful lot of pictures there.
It was made for Mr. Sam Goldwyn, who has all these years remained the famous producer.  With producers coming and going, and changing, he has held his own right at the top. He was my first picture boss, and we have remained friends all these years, a rare combination.
I have always had a great respect and friendship for Rex and Mrs. Beach. Rex is an unusual man, outside all this writing. He is an authority on a lot of things… Well, Alaska was certainly glad to see him. They remember up here, none of this one-day sensation like down in Cuckooland.
Well, Wiley’s got her warmed up. Let’s go.”  WA #662, written Aug. 9, 1935

June 26, 2011

COLUMBUS: There are plenty of families in this country facing huge debts brought about by home mortgages, credit card bills, lost jobs, or medical bills. But any one of these is nothing compared to the $14,000,000,000,000 deficit strapped around our necks by the folks in Washington. Even if you owe nothing and have money in the bank, your share of that debt for a family of four is almost $200,000.

President Obama is finally ready to enter the ring with Republicans to fight it out over the debt ceiling. But really, it’s a simple arithmetic problem, addition and subtraction. Republicans don’t want to add any taxes and the President don’t want to subtract any spending. He brought thousands of new federal employees to Washington to carry out his platform, and he hates to backtrack. Kinda like the guy who financed a new Cadillac just before he went bankrupt, he don’t want to give it up and go back to a Chevy. Well, the way this country is spending itself into a deeper hole, pretty soon he’ll be driving a horse and buggy.

Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma has his own plan for the deficit, in case the President decides to punt. He says he can reduce it almost a Trillion dollars a year for the next ten years. But he will make the President show his cards first before giving even a hint of how he can do it. Since Tom is a doctor, I suspect he will propose that people stay healthy to reduce the cost of getting them well again. And because everyone insists on living longer, he may propose that we keep working longer, too.

The President announced that 10,000 troops will be leaving Afghanistan soon. On their way home he wants them to stop off in Libya and take out Gaddaffi.

In New York, the wedding lobbyists, combined with the divorce lawyers association, convinced the Legislature to add several thousand prospective brides and grooms. I read where the average wedding costs almost $25,000, so this will be a nice boost to the wedding business. I have not read anything lately about the cost of a divorce, but you can bet, with more clients around the corner, those New York lawyers will raise their fees. “I maintain that it should cost as much to get married as it does to get divorced. Make it look like marriage is worth as much as divorce, even if it ain’t. That would also make the preachers financially independent like it has the lawyers.” (1928)

Historic quotes from Will Rogers: (from Weekly Article #661)
 “It’s a beautiful morning in Seattle, Wash. Wiley and Mrs. Post have been here a few days getting the (plane) from wheels to pontoons.  Seattle is a great travel corner. Mrs. Post and Wiley and I drive out to the field. It’s a combination land and water airport, called the Great Lakes Airway, right on beautiful Lake Washington.
Girl newspaper photographer, very efficient and pleasant, in fact all of ’em are. They seem to know we don’t know where we are going ourselves and they don’t insist on us telling ’em. Well, they ’bout got the gas in; Wiley is getting nervous. I am anxious to get going too. I think we are going to have a great trip, see lots of country that not too many have seen.” WA #661, written Aug. 6, 1935