Weekly Comments Archive
Archived Issue
Sunday, November 25, 2012
ISSUE #735
Dancing, Dictators and Lame Ducks

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

X

    Contact Randall Reeder