Uncomfortable Truths for the Budget Debate

Who Pays Income Taxes and how much?

Tax Year 2008

Level of Wage Earners   Income     % of Collected Income Taxes

Top1%                               $380,354                         38.02
Top 5%                              $159,619                         58.72
Top 10%                            $113,799                         69.94
Top 25%                            $ 67,280                          86.34
Top 50%                            $ 33,048                          97.30
Bottom 50% below          $ 33,048                              2.7
Source: Internal Revenue Service

As the debate over the debt ceiling and budget drones on, here are some truths you should be aware of.

1) In the mid 1960’s, Lyndon Johnson declared “war on poverty” and instituted his progressive Great Society program. At the time he instituted these policies, the number of Americans living in poverty was 14%. Most of those programs are still in place, plus numerous others. Collectively the country has spent untold trillions of dollars in instituting those programs. 45 years later, the number of Americans living in poverty is 14.3%. The number of poor has actually gone up. And you want to know why we are broke!!!

2) 50% of working Americans pay NO federal income tax, and the number is rising. The top 10% of wage earners pay 70% of all income tax collected by the government. The top 1% pays 38% of all taxes collected by the government. So excuse me when I hear Barack Obama talk about “shared sacrifice” that I don’t cry too much. It appears that the lower 50% of wage earners make out like bandits paying nothing. The system can’t go on like this. Everybody should pay something or the system will collapse under its own weight as the ever increasing number of workers who pay nothing demand government services paid for by a shrinking portion of the population.

3) I attended a Senate Bill 5 debate with Representative Bob Hagan speaking on behalf of those who oppose SB 5 and Republican Chairman Mark Munroe speaking for those in support of the measure. What was interesting was the audience. There were several university professors in attendance, plus some teachers, plus some other public employees…all of whom make pretty good livings from the public treasury. The university people I found particularly interesting because I know for a fact several of them in attendance make upwards of close to $100,000.00/year plus benefits with very little employee contribution, if any. Hagan claimed he represented the poor and downtrodden and elderly, and that I didn’t live in his district so he didn’t have to respond to my questions. What he failed to tell the folks is that every time a public employee gets a raise, the poor and the elderly pay the bill either through increased property taxes, increased sales taxes, and/or increased local income taxes. Public employees making in excess of $65,000.00 getting pay raises and benefits to the point that taxes have to be increased helps the poor and the downtrodden how?

4) Also in attendance at the SB 5 meeting were several small businessmen from the downtown area. They asked how Governor Kasich can say he is for creating jobs when he is eliminating government jobs downtown. What is disturbing is that these folks just assume that jobs are created by the government. They don’t realize that it is the private sector that actually creates jobs to pay for the government jobs…not the other way around. Where did these folks learn the wrong assumptions? The fact they even think that way is scary. I admire their courage and risk taking, but you can’t rely on government as a source of wealth because sooner or later, it will run out of other’s people money….as is happening in the United States right now.

5) The press is making much about a report showing the disparity of wealth between whites and minorities is at an all time high. But the press is not reporting two important back stories: 1)the country is still primarily white, and the white population is aging. Seniors, contrary to conventional wisdom, constitute the wealthiest segment of American society because of accumulated income and their houses being paid for. 2) The exact opposite applies to minorities, especially Hispanics, who are younger than the general population, and more likely would have suffered from the financial debacle of 2008. It is NOT because of an increasing disparity of incomes.

Bobby Jindal, Governor of Louisiana, said the other night that when government creates a job, it takes money from the country. When private business creates a job, it gives money to the country. True words. We should take some lessons.

Which Lemonade Stand Would You Prefer?

I watch a lot of business news during the day. CNBC, the NBC business channel, has an early morning program called Squawk Box. It has a unique ability of making things seem alright even when they are not. Nothing rattles these guys, not even 9-ll. One of its anchors passed away a few weeks ago, and the network replaced him with semi-regular guest pundit Andrew Ross Sorkin, who also happens to be a journalist with the New York Times. Ouch!!!!

This morning, in a debate with a Republican congressman, Sorkin commented that the congressman should be specific when saying the too much regulation from government is bad for business. I shook my head in disbelief. It’s pretty clear he has never run a business.

I emailed CNBC with the following comment: “Perhaps Andrew should try to open up a lemonade stand to learn how business works. Wait a minute. He can't. The police would shut him down for not having a $150.00 vendor’s permit.”

There have several incidences around the country where police have shut down kids selling lemonade in their driveway trying to make a buck or two to buy whatever kids their age buy. What a better way to make entrepreneurs. Verizon ran a commercial for months where they showed how little Suzie turned her lemonade stand in a national company. Verizon must live in the old United States. That couldn’t happen in Georgia where the chief of police said that the little girl’s lemonade was dangerous because they didn’t know what was in the lemonade…or who made it.

So what did those kids in Georgia learn? They learned what Andrew Ross Sorkin didn’t. An oppressive government stymies, and even closes down, businesses. Hope for expansion or jobs? Forget about it. Those little girls learned not to go into business…the cops may come and arrest you for someone smoking a cigarette in line while waiting for lemonade with too much sugar.

People joke about the closing of these lemonade stands. But it is absolutely indicative of what is happening in America today. Which vision of America do you want? The vision shown in the Verizon commercial…or the vision shown in the police closing down a ten year olds effort to make a buck selling a cool beverage on a hot day?

Shame on America for letting it come to this.

Risk vs. Reckless

Several tragic deaths have occurred this past week. A firefighter died trying to catch a baseball thrown by a player into the stands at a Texas Ranger’s baseball game. He was sitting in the stadium's second level and leaned over the rail to catch the ball. His young son witnessed the whole thing.

An Iraqi war veteran who was a double leg amputee was thrown from a roller coaster in Buffalo, New York, falling two hundred feet to his death while his college aged nephew riding next to him looked on in horror. In June, an eleven year old girl fell 150 feet to her death out of a ferris wheel gondola. She was alone in the car and investigators still can’t figure out how she got out of the cage. Why was she alone in the gondola car?

Deaths like this are senseless and my heart goes out to these devastated families.  But my sympathy level is fairly low, especially when news commentators are looking for someone to blame and SUE. The family of the war veteran said that the decedent was so happy when he got onto the roller coaster, but not one person from the park challenged him…not one (family’s emphasis). Really? He wasn’t wearing his prosthetics, and the restraint system was a bar across the legs. What am I missing from this story? He needed to be told that’s not a good idea? In addition, what would have happened if the attendant actually challenged the guy and told him he couldn’t ride. I can see the headlines now…War Veteran Denied Ride on Roller Coaster.  Can you spell the Americans with Disabilities Act?

At some point in time people need to take responsibility for their actions. If you are going hiking in the backwoods of a national park, you may get accosted by a wild animal such as the bear that just mauled a man to death in Yellowstone. If you are going yachting off the coast of Somalia, don’t be surprised if pirates board your boat and kill you. If you are going to climb a mountain because it is there, watch out for avalanches or crevices or snow storms or any other myriad of events that can leave you stranded and/or dead.

Risk has always been America’s strong suit. Our country was built on risk. On the other hand, there is risk, and there is recklessness. And it even becomes more of an issue when the dire consequence of one’s reckless behavior is foisted on to someone else, be it through liability or the cost of an associated rescue mission. What has happened to common sense?

Was the baseball worth the fall over the rail? Was “being normal” worth being thrown from a roller coaster car? How’d that walk in the woods work out for you? And if you want to go boating, here’s a thought. How about doing it off the coast of the United States? And here is another good idea, don’t go on a lake bordering Mexico when those bonfires you see on the other side belong to the Mexican drug cartels.

We are all human, and none of us are made alike.  If there was a god, I would have a 32 inch waist and be able to run marathons.  I know my physical limitations because I am overweight, and try to act accordingly.  We all need to realize our limitations, and learn to live within our physical capabilities.

Forest Gump said "stupid is as stupid does." I think right now there's a whole lot of people with a whole lot of stupid. Where does America get some common sense?  There are those of you who will think I am terrible for writing this essay.  But if it makes someone think just once about doing something dangerous in pursuit of God knows what, then it was worth it.

Casey Anthony

The Casey Anthony trial is over, and the Monday morning quarterbacking will be ongoing for the next few months as the principals of the case move from the courtroom to the court of public opinion, and money, in the media. Not since OJ Simpson has a trial generated so much interest. And why not? A missing baby; a mother who is a pathological liar; a whacked out extended family…it was hard to find someone you liked in this mess, including the prosecutors and defense attorneys.

A wise man once said that the law is not about justice. It is about ending disputes. This is a perfect example. Do I think this was a just verdict? No. Do I think it was a proper verdict? Absolutely.

While I despise murderers and rapists and the like, I cherish our legal system more. It is there to protect you and me from the authority of the state. It is what stands between us and the Nazis…the rule of law. It isn’t perfect, but we must cling to it to protect our freedoms.

Like the OJ Simpson case, in the Casey Anthony matter it was pretty obvious what happened and who did what to whom. But there was a fundamental flaw in both cases. The prosecutors had to prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt. That is the prosecutor’s burden. If it can’t be done, there is no statute of limitations on murder. And most of all…don’t pimp up the case to make it appear there is something there when there is not. Juries are much more sophisticated these days. All of those CSI and Law and Order programs have taught us how the system works.

In both the OJ Simpson case and Casey Anthony case, it was a lie that brought the prosecutors’ case down. When Mark Fuhrman, one of the lead detectives in the OJ Simpson case, got caught red handed in a lie, then it became plausible that he tossed the glove over the wall and pilfered a few drops of blood from the trunk of his fellow officer’s car to plant blood evidence on a pair of socks and on a door handle. That spells reasonable doubt, and it took the jury less than two hours to arrive at the not guilty verdict.

The case built around Caylee Anthony's death was ripe with lies. Casey appeared to be a walking sociopath, and the prosecutor did a good job of showing she was a liar of the worst kind. But he could NOT connect the dots as to how Caylee actually died. The forensic evidence was non-existent in any way, shape or form. The prosecution claimed Casey smothered her daughter with duct tape. Wouldn’t a pillow have been easier? Add to that all of the pictures and testimony that Casey was a loving and good mother…what the prosecutor was selling was bound to run into trouble.

And that trouble was George Anthony. The prosecutor presented one theory of death, and attempted to prove it with Casey’s lies. The defense offered another theory of death, also surrounded by the lies of George and Cindy Anthony. The defense claimed that Caylee drowned in the family swimming pool, and George took over the disposal of the body. Ugly allegations of abuse and incest filled the courtroom, which George vehemently denied. But it was clear that something was seriously askew in the Anthony household. None of these folks would recognize the truth if fell in front of them.

While the press was singing the praises of George Anthony, the defense team destroyed his credibility. He lied about phone calls and contacts with the man who found the body the first time and the second time. His wife called 911 and said there was an odor of death in her daughter’s car…what an odd thing to say in a panic 911 call. George reiterated the smell of death, over and over and over again. Hey…just in case you forgot...there was the smell of death in the car. Being a cop from Warren, he knew about those things.  By the way, did I tell you there was the smell of death? 

Then there was his “suicide” attempt. Puhleez. He was a cop. If he wanted to kill himself, he would have succeeded. Instead, we get a self serving suicide note with a trumped up sympathy factor.

Then there was testimony from Casey’s brother refuting testimony of the father relating to phone calls and comments made about the death of Caylee.  And the brother lived in the same house and didn't know Casey was pregnant, and George didn't acknowledge the pregnancy until the 8th month?  Really?

Then there were Cindy’s lies that she searched “chloroform” on the family computer when her punch clock showed she was at work.  Can you spell P-E-R-J-U-R-Y?

But most compelling, and I believe the coup de grace to the prosecution’s case, was the testimony of River Cruise, aka Krystal Holloway, who stated she had an affair with George, and had the phone records and text messages to prove it, and further testified that George told her this was an accident that snowballed out of control. Midst the continual lies from all of the parties to this mess, I believed this woman. She had nothing to gain. And George denied it. Dude, you were caught with your pants down…literally.

So…which scenario do you believe? If you think that Casey Anthony’s bizarre behavior after her daughter went missing is enough to prove that she chloroformed her daughter, put duct tape around her mouth to smother her, put her in her trunk for a few days then threw the body into the woods to rot…then you would have voted to convict.

But if you believe that the little girl drowned in the family pool, and the abusive grandfather told his daughter he would dispose of the body and to disappear for awhile…and don’t tell your mother….and he would find a way to cast suspicion onto someone else…and would wrap the body in tape and plastic bags and dispose of it in the nearby woods calling on some of his questionable contacts to take care of the matter and make it look like a kidnapping and murder…with the police training to know how to do it…. And then  lie on the witness stand over and over again. Well, what do you think?

With absolutely no forensics whatsoever (and I believe time will tell the cops really blew it) is enough to spell reasonable doubt. And that means not guilty on all of the serious charges.

Here is the lesson to be learned. Prosecutors should not overcharge. In my opinion, they probably could have gotten a conviction on a simple, clean manslaughter charge. Prosecutors must not use junk science ( a sniffing machine?) to prove a case. Prosecutors must rely on more than pure circumstantial evidence when there is a plausible explanation contra to the case they are presenting.

At the end of the day, a little girl is dead and we don’t know who, what, where, when and how…and nobody will be held responsible. If you paused a bit, you must acquit.