Getting It Right 1/21/09

Getting Our "Fair Share" ...Politics As Ususal Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance

This column presents a non-partisan, conservative viewpoint about items of interest in our community and our lives. Focus is on items impacting your pocket book, your personal freedoms, and your rights. I hope you will read the column regularly and it occasionally influences your opinions and actions. Now, on to the subject of the week:
"Shoveling money at Shovel Ready projects."
This is the criteria apparently being pushed to the forefront as the new administration in Washington engages in a "rush to employ" program in a desperate attempt to plug the worsening hole of growing unemployment which threatens to "sink" the American economy. In response to this oncoming "geyser" of funding which is about to spew from the federal bureaucracy, our local governments and agencies are rushing to develop a presentation plan for projects we hope will be funded in this tidal wave of money.
I have no problem with local initiatives to prepare for funding in stimulus plan, but I do have a lot of problem with the administration’s approach on a national basis. Doing all of these "Porkish" projects in public works to build water systems, pave roads, build public buildings, tearing up serviceable items so they can be replaced with shiny new ones, may put a significant number of people to work for a year or two. However, these projects will NOT solve the real problem facing our nation. This problem must be solved before we can ever hope to restore our national economy to any semblance of its former glory. We must solve the problem of how to make our products competitive in the world market. If we can not do this…we will never succeed as a nation. If we can not succeed in this effort, we are doomed to a continuing downward spiral. This economic threat is real and must be faced with wise, astute direction.
A major portion of the available funding for a recovery program must be directed at projects which improve our ability to compete as a nation. To ignore this requirement is lunacy.
As I have stated previously, projects which reduce our future energy dependence on the greedy, anti-Christian sheiks of the Mid-East who hope to destroy our society must be given top priority. These projects would include wind farms, solar energy research and development, a national delivery system for our vast reserves of natural gas, building nuclear energy plants, clean coal research, development of known oil reserves, and increased search for new reserves. The plan should also provide for conversion of vehicles to accommodate several energy sources such as electric, gasoline, and natural gas, with industrial assistance to help manufacturing conversion, and retail stations conversions.
On the scene of international trade, I would favor resumption of the practice of imposing duties and trade restrictions on any nation that does not engage in "fair" trade. We are currently engaging in a "free trade" philosophy with many nations which continue to use forced labor and child labor in their manufacturing, where the government subsidizes the cost of manufacturing of goods which will be exported in order to give their products a competitive advantage on the international scene, and with countries that still restrict the free access of American products to their markets. Our politicians have made stupid deals in these instances. They in effect, have "given away the farm", and our domestic industries are paying for it.
In the "Short Term" –Public works projects maybe the best approach to stopping the current frightening climb of unemployment in our nation. This approach is certainly better than giving every person a $500 check to use to run to Wal-Mart to buy a foreign made TV. It will at least create jobs until the defined projects are over, maybe one or two years. However, at the end of that time we will again be facing huge debts and will have no long term jobs for our population.
I hope our new leadership will have the strength of resolve and character that will be required to lead our nation out of the existing "economic dilemma".
Rudiments- Odds and Ends Worth Mentioning:
· $145,000,000 on the Inauguration. Waste?
· ‘Baby Doc’ Duvalier in Haiti had a 5 million dollar wedding in the national palace while people were starving outside the palace in the streets. This wasn’t that bad…but in these declining economic times, it somehow reminded me of the action of that Dictator.
· I understand there may be a serious Port - A - Potty problem at inauguration. Our infinitely wise federal bureaucracy ordered 5,000 of these much needed johns to serve the crowd of 2 million or more that will herd into the capital for the event. By codes applied to industry, they would need double that number to properly serve the needs of the throng….There may be a lot of fidgeting in the audience, with strained looks on faces.
· Today we have a new President….Let us all hope he has a high level of wisdom, and let us all pray he has an equally high level of principle. If he demonstrates these qualities, he will be "Getting It Right".
Note: The opinions stated in this column are solely those of the author and do not represent those of Hatcher Publications.