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By now, most of you folks have returned home from your long vacation trips to Hawaii or other lovely tourist destination. While you were away, Congress managed to stop the bus just before it careened over the fiscal cliff. They glued a patch on a flat tire, hoping it will hold air for a couple months till they can borrow enough dough for a new one.

Republicans want to cut spending. They are divided on raising taxes on the rich, but they are one hundred percent in agreement on cuts. But they want the Democrats to say which cuts they will accept so they don’t get all the blame. President Obama never learned how to subtract, but looking at the House Republicans you can tell he’s real good at dividing.

They will be arguing for two months over the debt ceiling; that’s the next crisis. President Obama made it clear he is opposed to anything even resembling a cut. He announced, flat out, “I will not negotiate,” and headed back to the golf course. That leaves it up to the Vice-President to do the horse trading with Republicans.

Bumping up against the debt limit is not as bad as it seems because we still collect enough taxes to cover 60% of our expenses. So the Treasury Secretary can pay the interest on the debt and paychecks for essential employees and let the rest slide.

Well, how do you know which ones are essential? They could try this idea. Have all the weather forecasters in Washington announce that a three-foot snow will hit tomorrow morning. The President would send an email to government employees informing them that only essential ones need to come to work; the rest have the week off.  Right there’s your 40 percent.

That may be silly, but here’s something serious we can agree on: we need to cut spending on entitlements and other government services, grow the economy, and generate more revenue to balance the budget. So you gather Congress, the President, leaders from both political parties, all the big donors, big companies, labor unions, TV and radio commentators, and news media. You tell ‘em, “We’re gonna solve this problem to save the country. Ninety percent won’t like it, but like castor oil, it’s for their own good.” And here’s the clincher: once the deal is struck, no one can complain about it. No future candidate can blame an officeholder for voting for it, and if he did, they would get no financial support and no help rounding up votes. No one can run on a platform opposed to any part of the deal.

Yes, we have freedom of speech. Anyone can holler all they want to. But if none of the individuals or organizations listed above pay any attention to ‘em, they won’t get far.

The Senate passed a $60 Billion relief bill for the victims of Hurricane Sandy in the Northeast. But the House got to reading it and was shocked to find out the hurricane had blown all the way to Alaska, and a bunch of states in between. When those Congressmen started stripping out the everything that some Senator had tacked onto the bill, it got down to about $15 Billion. Now that right there tells you why we have a budget problem; every spending bill that goes through Congress is weighted down with about three-fourths excess spending that has nothing to do with the announced purpose of the bill. It’s like these telephone solicitors for obscure charities; if a fourth of the money goes for the intended purpose, you’re lucky.

Historic quote by Will Rogers:
“Politics is the best show in America. I love animals and I love politicians, and I like to watch both of ’em at play, either back home in their native state, or after they’ve been captured and sent to a zoo, or to Washington.” Notes

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.”   

As I write this on Sunday night, we should be preparing for a New Years’ Eve celebration. Instead, we are 24 hours from being shoved off a cliff.

Congress did agree on a farm bill, temporarily, because of a threatened spike in milk prices. Too bad the fiscal cliff that threatens the whole economy doesn’t get the same attention before we all get milked.

The big question in Washington is, “Who gets the blame?” President Obama WANTS the blame for new taxes on the top 2%. He has talked so much about that tax that the other 98% are ignoring the taxes and increased costs that almost everybody will pay in 2013, including health care taxes and Social Security. Meanwhile, the President is determined to avoid the blame for any real cuts in government benefits and programs that Republicans insist on.

While the President has repeated over and over that he wants between $0.8 and $1.6 Trillion over 10 years in new taxes on the rich, he is foggy on what to cut. Well, I dug up a list, and his cuts for 2013 add up to $0.001 Trillion. Over 10 years that would be $0.01 Trillion.

Washington Democrats do not know the meaning of the word “cut.” Tonight Harry Reid praised Republicans for “taking Social Security cuts off the table.” But Republicans never proposed a cut, only a possible reduction in the annual increase in payments.

The President is determined. He is “holding the course” hoping that eventually the spirit and determination of successful Americans will overcome all obstacles thrown in their path and put the country on solid economic footing again. He is counting on the big taxpayers to keep on working long hours to earn more, then investing productively whatever dollars they don’t send to Washington rather than squirreling them away.

Have we ever had a president so dependent on those he openly dislikes? Suppose the business folks that he put down when he said ‘You didn’t build that’ decided to pull back, relax, and become lackadaisical about turning a profit, hiring more people, and growing the business. Suppose the oil and gas and coal companies gave up drilling and mining in the U.S. and Canada, letting the price of gasoline and electricity double.

However, President Obama is a student of Franklin Roosevelt. President Roosevelt admitted he made a mistake by cutting spending in his fifth year (1937), which resulted  in a bump in unemployment and prolonged the Depression. So he could be right to insist on no cuts.

Historic quotes by Will Rogers:
“Congress meets tomorrow morning. Let us all pray. Oh Lord, give us strength to bear that which is about to be inflicted upon us. Be merciful with them, oh Lord, for they know not what they’re doing. Amen.”  DT #102, Dec. 5, 1926
“This country has gotten where it is in spite of politics, not by the aid of it. That we have carried as much political bunk as we have and still survived shows we are a super nation.” DT #1948, Nov. 1, 1932

Do you remember back a year and a half, when Congress couldn’t agree on a budget? But they did agree to set a date, January 1, 2013, when they would agree on a plan. It looked like a good plan, and it was, but they forgot it would be the same birds in there.
Now, your average fifth grader, in a year and a half, will pick up quite a bit of knowledge. And he’ll likely be a bit wiser.  But not Congress or the President. They drove us another Trillion in debt, learned nothing, and lost whatever wisdom they had, if any.
They should have set the date for Dec. 15 to get this mess settled before Christmas. Or even better, Nov. 1 so we would have known the damage before we voted for ‘em.
So here we are, 300,000,000 of us hanging on the edge of the cliff, and our leaders are on Christmas vacation.
Near as I can figure, this is what those birds expect from Santa Claus. Republicans want: reduced spending so the $16 Trillion national debt decreases; as a last resort, they’ll raise taxes but only if about $3 is cut for every $1 of higher taxes. Democrats want: higher taxes on the rich and spending cut no more than 1%; also ignore the Debt.
What will we get? If you pay taxes, you’ll pay more next year. If you’re worried about the debt, get used to it. Instead of 3:1, the ratio of cuts to income will be more like 1:1.

Congress is ready to allocate $60 Billion for storm victims along the coast of New Jersey, New York and Connecticut. That seems like a steep contribution from the other 47 states, considering those 3 are among the wealthiest in the country. My suggestion, if we’re forced to donate the money, is divide it among those who lost their houses, but with the proviso they have to build somewhere inland, and build on rock, not sand. Barrier islands are called barrier islands for a reason. They’re just piles of shifting sand and nothing should be put on ‘em except tents.

Secretary of State Clinton got sick, fell and suffered a concussion. She postponed a talk with the Senate to explain the Benghazi massacre, because, like injured NFL players, she had to sit out a week or two. Maybe she can borrow a helmet from the Washington Redskins. I wonder who is running the State Dept. this week. If her mind is muddled from the concussion, she can’t be quarterbacking the team.

Good thing Mexico released that former Marine, Jon Hammar. Otherwise a bunch of Marines, led by Col. Bill O’Reilly, would have swooped in and rescued him. The whole operation would have taken less than an hour, to fit into his time slot on Fox News.

Historic quotes by Will Rogers:
“I didn’t know that Christmas did mean so much till you have to spend one away off like this one from home.” DT #1693, Dec. 27, 1931
“Spending when we didn’t have it put us where we are today. Saving when we have got it will get us back to where we was before we went cuckoo.” DT #1353, Nov. 24, 1930
“People have just got to get used to debt. If we just let the fellow we owe do the worrying, the United States will be the happiest land on earth.” DT #2421, May 7, 1934

The tragic murder of 20 first-graders and 6 teachers in Connecticut has put a damper over Christmas for the whole country. No one can explain such a senseless, cowardly act. We’ll depend on ministers and other religious leaders to bring comfort to the families and other students in Newtown. Ironically, if those same preachers volunteered to offer a prayer each morning at the school, that would be prohibited.

Naturally, guns are blamed for this massacre. And it’s doubtful if the killer would have done much damage armed only with a hunting knife. Now, I’m sure against banning guns. But for those folks who insist they need a semi-automatic military attack rifle and thousands of rounds of ammunition for self-protection, ask this question: how much good did it do the murderer’s Mom?

It’s not just about guns. These loner, mentally deranged boys and young men are over exposed to violence and mass killing in Hollywood movies and video games. Maybe the surprise is there aren’t more horrible cases, whether it’s a suicide, or murders of family members or random helpless victims.

News reporters said the murderer’s mom used to take her son to a shooting range for practice. If that is true, I wonder if she also took him to church. Or to Boy Scouts, or 4-H.

The Fiscal Cliff is still staring us in the face. Speaker John Boehner finally agreed to raise the tax rate, but only for those making at least a million dollars. He had already come up with about a Trillion in what he calls new revenue. Meanwhile, President Obama is still looking for a few Trillion in spending cuts to put on the table. He hasn’t found any, and neither has any other Democrat. I heard a Congresswoman from Texas on TV. She was asked at least twenty times if she could name even one expenditure she would offer to cut to reduce the $16 Trillion debt. Not one dollar was she willing to give up.

Can you imagine being married to a Democrat like that? You would say, “Honey, we have two mortgages, maxed out credit cards, and you got laid off. We’ve got to cut back on spending.” The spouse replies, “No, you’ll just have to make more money.”

The federal government has a slew of new regulations ready to spring on us. Here’s one I got wind of: rainwater is a pollutant. That will be a shock to farmers in drought-stricken Kansas and Oklahoma. They might say, “Maybe the EPA can force these excess rainfall states, where rain is illegal, to ship some of it our way.”  Ironically, a couple of years ago EPA wanted to rule that dust from farms is a pollutant. If Washington would just pass a law like the one on “share the wealth”, they could even out the rainfall and eliminate the dust.

Historic quote by Will Rogers:
“It must be marvelous to just belong to some legislative body and just pick money out of the air.” DT #2673, Feb. 28, 1935

This Great Recession that started 5 years ago is hanging on longer than any since the 1930s. Why can’t anybody in Washington figure out what it takes to get businesses to hire more people and produce more?

The President did figure out how to get the unemployment rate down: persuade more workers to drop out.  Last month 350,000 quit looking for work and only 150,000 others found a job. He got the unemployment rate under 8 percent, but by now it ought to be under 5.

The President is asking Congress for $1.6 Trillion in added taxes. And where are the $5 Trillion in cuts he promised earlier to help reduce the deficits? The only answer we get from his spokesmen is, “We’ve agreed on $0.023 Trillion cuts to farmers, and, trust us, we’ll come up with the other $4.977 Trillion later.”

Concerning deficits, Nancy Pelosi, who served four years as Speaker of the House, said, “You cannot cut your way to deficit reduction.” We hear that our school children don’t know arithmetic. Well, neither does Mrs. Pelosi. And even scarier, the majority of Americans seem to agree with her.

Our farmers are so efficient that 80 percent of the Agriculture budget is diverted to feed poor people. Can you imagine if 80% of the Defense budget was diverted to something other than protecting our shores?  Well, come to think of it, a huge chunk of it is used to protect Europe, Japan, and other countries; maybe we should bring our troops home from Germany and Italy and South Korea. Or send ‘em a bill. I rather doubt any country would pay us.

You probably know that the drought last summer reduced the amount of corn and other crops produced in the middle of the country. Well, now the dry weather is drastically lowering the water level in the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. Barges hauling grain, fertilizer, oil and coal are dragging bottom at St. Louis. If it doesn’t rain upriver, soon you may be able to walk across the Mississippi without Devine guidance.

The President and his family are eager get out of the White House next Monday. They want to fly to Hawaii for a 3-week holiday. Frankly, I think Air Force One should stay grounded until the Democrats and Republicans reach an agreement on the Fiscal Cliff. No progress in the past week. We hear about the tax increase on the rich, but there’s a pile of other things on the edge of that cliff that will cost all of us. There’s 300 million living under that cliff and we had better find a mattress to crawl under. And a mattress will protect you better if it has plenty of cash hidden in it.

Historic quote by Will Rogers:
“Glad Congress gave Mr. Roosevelt permission to spend that $4.8 Billion himself.  That would be an awful lot of money if you was paying it, but when you are just borrowing it, it ain’t so much.” DT #2644, Jan. 25, 1935

The melodrama in Washington continues. Since the election, folks have been wondering what budget cuts President Obama would propose in return for the tax increase on the rich. He gave us a hint this week: none.
The President was reelected with the idea he would raise taxes $0.8 Trillion on the rich and would propose budget cuts about $2 Trillion to reduce the deficit. But now he is asking for $1.6 Trillion in taxes, and says it is up to the Republicans in Congress, not him, to cut expenses.
Now, suppose the Republican, Mitt Romney, had been elected President. Would he have waited for the Congressional Democrats to propose cuts? Of course not. The President is the leader. Maybe he only wants to play Santa Claus, but if you’re $16 Trillion in debt, sometimes a President has to play Scrooge.
Instead of suggesting anywhere near $5 Trillion in cuts, he wants to ADD $300 billion in new spending. That reminds me of the old negotiating story: a farmer advertised a pig for sale for $10. A buyer offered $8. The farmer says, “Let’s compromise. $10.50.”  The buyer says, “How about $8.50.” Then suddenly he realizes, “Hey, you just raised the price, not lowered it.” The farmer chuckles, “You’re sharp. You got me. I’ll let you have the pig for only $11.”
House Speaker John Boehner said today, “We’re going to solve the Nation’s debt problem.”  Well, I’ve got my doubts. Our “debt problem”is $16 Trillion and it’s increasing a Trillion a year. Here’s how to check if Mr. Boehner is right. If you’re young, and an optimist, make a note on your calendar for December 2022 to see if the debt is lower or higher than $16 Trillion. For us old folks, if we can make it a year, we can check on it next December.
Solving our budget problem takes common sense. Find the common ground we can agree on. Ask what the Constitution requires, and what can we do without or get funded by state and local governments or privately. If you absolutely need more revenue, it’ll come from those that have got it. If you have to make cuts, those cuts will come from those who are getting it. As the President might say, that’s the balanced approach.
The college football season is winding down. Notre Dame and Alabama will decide the  championship Jan. 7, and a bunch of other teams will play in bowls before then. Don’t be shocked if you see the President battling the Republicans in the “Fiscal Cliff Bowl” on Dec. 31.

Historic quote by Will Rogers:
“Do you know I used to play a pretty good end, that is a substitute end. I don’t think they ever used me, but the rough way they were playing in those days, that didn’t hurt my feelings any, not getting in there. I played what you might call a Wide End. I would play out so far that the other 21 would be pretty well piled up before I could possibly reach ’em.” Will Rogers, WA #627, Dec. 30, 1934

COLUMBUS: Palestinians in Gaza were dancing in the streets after their government agreed to stop shooting rockets into Israel.  Why now? If they had told their elected Muslim leaders in 2007 to stop shooting at Jews, they could have become so proficient at dancing by now they would be finalists on “Dancing with the Stars.”

Egyptians were surprised to wake up this week and find out they elected a Dictator. Last year they threw out Mubarek, then they turn around and 52% of them voted for a man that lied to ‘em. Imagine that. Now it appears we are paying this Dictator Morsi to keep the peace between Gaza and Israel by preventing Iran from sneaking rockets across Egypt into Gaza. The success of this arrangement may depend on whether these Gaza folks prefer dancing to shooting.

The Fiscal Cliff is still looming over us. Last week I asked, exactly what budget items is the President willing to cut. Since then he flew to Burma, defended Susan Rice, and pardoned a couple of turkeys, but nary a mention of any suggested cuts in his budget. Democrats are kinda hinting that if Republicans will agree to raise taxes by $100 Billion a year on the rich, they will agree to cut expenses $250 Billion a year. But no one will say where the cuts are coming from. They seem to know, just like an old turkey gobbler, if you stick your neck out when someone is holding an axe, it’s liable to get chopped off.

Well, the President is about the only one immune from the chopping block so it’s up to him to take the lead. Since 40 percent of the total budget goes for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, and those three are rising rapidly, that seems like a good place to start. Defense takes 20 percent and while a lot of folks want to cut that drastically, we’ve got to remember that defense of this country is in the Constitution. The other three, no matter their great value, are not in the Constitution.

I think the President could come at this Trillion dollar deficit from a different angle. We have about 25 million Americans either unemployed or underemployed. Suppose he asked the question, “What can my administration do that would encourage business and industry to employ half of those people full time?”

If he got 12 to 15 million more people working, and paying taxes instead of collecting them, why the deficit would cut itself. The Lame-duck Congress could go home and enjoy Christmas. And the President could play golf without criticism. Well, not as much anyway.

Historic quotes by Will Rogers:
“The lame ducks met Monday… they are lame because their constituents were thinking faster than they was.” DT #1974, Dec. 1, 1932

“Everybody is knocking this Lame-duck Congress, but do you know those fellows have a chance to make a real name for themselves and make us ashamed that we fired ‘em?” DT #1976, Dec. 4, 1932

COLUMBUS: By now you’ve all heard that Gen. Petraeus had to resign from the CIA because of a sex scandal. Soon as the election results were announced, all the TV stations jumped on this story about the “other woman.” It turns out the only reason we learned about the “other woman” is because she thought there was another “other woman.”
Because of this General’s affair, some of you are just now learning that our Libya ambassador was killed Sept. 11 by a planned terrorist attack. The CIA knew it immediately and so did the State Department, FBI, and Defense Dept. About the only ones that didn’t know it were the President and U.N. Ambassador, Susan Rice.
The President said last week that Rice knew nothing about Benghazi, and that’s why he picked her to explain it to the country on television Sept. 16. That’s like asking me to explain Mozart and Beethoven. “They both liked music, but not the words. Let’s see, they’re not from around here, and anyway they’ve been dead a long time.”
Since the election’s over, folks are learning more about this “Fiscal Cliff” in Washington. Because the capital gains tax is supposed to double on January 1, anybody whose business has appreciated greatly in the last few years (and there aren’t many) is trying to sell so he can cash in at the lower rate and keep more of his dough. Here’s a word of caution for these newly minted millionaires: the estate tax almost doubles in 2013 so keep an eye on the next of kin around Christmas so you don’t get knocked off, accidently of course.
The President met with the leaders from Congress on his tax plan. He wants to raise tax rates on the wealthy and John Boehner says he’s willing to raise tax revenue from the same folks, but not their rates. So the big argument these two are having over the top 2% is rate vs. revenue. Obama wants to raise the rate so he can brag about it to the other 98%. Republicans will accept raising revenues so they can brag that they held the line on rates. The top 2% already pay about 60% of the total income taxes, so why not let ‘em pay 70%. Seems logical to everyone else as long as no one loses their job.
The problem is we’re hooked on the wrong argument. The important question is: Where is the President willing to cut expenses? How many bureaucrats and regulators in Washington is he willing to let go? Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security are the elephant in the room. What can they agree on to keep those three from going broke? Let ‘em do some horse trading.
And don’t tell us what an agreement will do over ten years. Nobody knows. Just show us what it will do next year compared to this past year.

I watched “Dust Bowl” on public television tonight (Sunday). Two more hours tomorrow night. Ken Burns did a great job with it.

Historic quote by Will Rogers:

“(The dust storms) are a terrible thing, and it’s going to bring up some (peculiar) cases in law. If Colorado blows over and lights on top of Kansas, it looks kinder like Kansas ought to pay for the extra top soil. But Kansas can sue ‘em for covering up their crops.” Radio, March 28, 1935

The election is finally over. It did not end in a tie. And as it turned out, Ohio, Florida and Virginia did not matter. Wow, look at the millions of dollars and days of campaigning they all wasted there.

President Obama was reelected by a huge margin in the Electoral College by folks that want four more years like the last four. It seems that a lot of men and women who don’t have a full time job and are on food stamps have kinda gotten used to it and voted to keep it that way. With that attitude, who can fault ‘em for not taking a chance on Romney.

Mitt Romney was gracious in defeat and John Boehner said the Republicans are willing to work with the president to raise revenue if they can reduce expenditures. President Obama said he has a pen ready to sign a bill to raise tax rates, but didn’t say anything about budget cuts.

The Republicans are in deep trouble and I have a suggestion, if they choose to accept it. See, young single women voted overwhelmingly for the Democrat. Men, including young ones, voted for the Republican. Married women voted for the Republican. So, the future of the entire Republican Party depends on persuading these young successful Republican men to marry young Democratic women and convert ‘em.

In California they voted to raise taxes because they’re $55 Billion in the hole. Can’t wait to check back in four years to see what the number is. No matter how much they take in, that bunch in Sacramento will figure out a way to spend it all.

Historic quote by Will Rogers:
“We ought to split this country up, anyhow.  Let the Republicans have the East, and then let ’em run it just like they want to.  And then the Democrats take the West.
If a person wants to be a Republican, why let him go east, and if he wants to be a Democrat, why come west.
It’s got some possibilities at that.  I know a lot of you will say, “We must preserve the Union.”  Well,  the Union is over preserved right now. It’s pretty near pickled.
Of course  the Republicans would have all the money, but the Democrats would have all the fun.
If the country split that would naturally do away with the national debt.  Both sides would start in owing nothing.  And the Republicans would perhaps continue the same way, but the Democrats, it wouldn’t take them long to dig up a deficit.
And then the Democrats could take whatever they’re using for money, and they could inflate or do anything they wanted to with it.  And the Republicans, who say we should never have gone off the gold, well, if they had their own country they could go back on it if they want to.
I can’t picture, personally, a more ideal existence all around.  The only trouble would be neither one would be happy because they wouldn’t have nobody to lay anything on to. So I doubt if the plan will ever get very far, because this is not a time for common sense.”  Radio, June 9, 1935