Real Government Waste

 

With all this rhetoric about cutting waste at the Federal level, I say we cut to the chase and get rid of one of the biggest wastes of federal tax dollars, namely, the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives, commonly referred to as Congress.

According to the U.S. Government website, “To ensure a separation of powers, the U.S. Federal Government is made up of three branches: legislative, executive and judicial. To ensure the government is effective and citizens’ rights are protected, each branch has its own powers and responsibilities, including working with the other branches. The legislative branch is made up of the House and Senate, known collectively as the Congress. Among other powers, the legislative branch makes all laws, declares war, regulates interstate and foreign commerce and controls taxing and spending policies. The Constitution puts Congress in charge of the budget, granting it the power to collect taxes, borrow money, and approve spending.”  In other words, it has “the power of the purse”

With President Trump’s establishment of DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) headed by billionaire, Elon Musk, it is obvious that “the power of the purse” no longer resides with Congress. Now by a series of executive orders Congress spending mandates are being altered, and in some cases completely cancelled.

I am sure the authors of the U.S Constitution are turning over in their graves with this present Executive Branch (President) grasp of power, for they probably never imagined that such an action would, or could occur.  But, now thanks to a legislative gimmick known collectively as ‘executive orders,’ Congress’ control of spending allocations has evaporated. DOGE now has “the power of the purse” and makes the decisions about what agencies and departments of the U.S. government get funded and how much monies they receive.

Again, something never imagined by our Constitution authors. And, apparently our esteemed Republican government leaders in control of Congress have no problems with abdicating this power; quite possibly due to the lack of a spine to resist.

However, as a work colleague once told me when I was promoted to a supervisory position, once you give away power, you can never get it back.  So the future repercussions of this spineless action are yet to be known.

I rest my case. Let’s just send every member of Congress the same letter as other Federal employees are receiving which begins with, “The Agency finds, based on your performance, that you have not demonstrated that your further employment at the Agency would be in the public interest.” 

 

Elimination by Executive Order

 

With the stroke of a pen President Donald Trump has apparently attempted to wipe out the existence of an entire subculture in U.S. society, LGBTQ + folks.  His latest executive orders have banned any such reference or discussion of these individuals in all federal documents and online government websites. Last Friday, if one tried to view certain online government general information sites, they were greeted with the message “temporarily unavailable” across their respective screens.

These orders are consistent with Trump's election campaign, in which he pledged to "protect children” from, and I quote, “the left wing gender insanity.” 

He has further declared that there are only two sexes, males and females. Anything else no longer exists.

President Trump has also targeted the doctor/patient relationship regarding the health care for transgender youth by an executive order that any clinician who provides what he terms ‘trans heath care’ to these youth will be struck from the Medicare and Medicaid benefits system.

Trump also proposes enacting an executive order that would cut federal funding for any school which he deems as “pushing” any content for children which references gay or transgender individuals.

As is usually the case with our esteemed leader, these executive orders are legally vague and contain subjective terminology, which most likely will result in drawn out legal battles.

However, while all this wiping out of a subculture may be applauded and seem long overdue to many of his supporters, the facts of the matter are, according to the latest Gallup Poll, there are approximately 8 percent of these ‘banned’ folks in the U.S. population. They function in all walks of life in our society, from health care workers to auto mechanics, and the population continues to thrive and grow successfully.

So those of you, who want to facilitate the adoption of wearing horse blinders and pretend that by executive orders these folks have suddenly been exterminated from our society, need to get a grip because they ain’t going nowheres, in spite of your denial.  They deserve to be respected and loved.

Dubbed by Louisiana Legislators

Well folks I hope you don’t pass out when you get your next cable bill or video streaming service bill.

Apparently, Louisiana residents have been hooked winked by our Governor and legislators. The problem is I can’t figure out if it was deliberate or the result of 'mass confusion.'  During the last special legislative session our esteemed legislators, in an effort to fund Governor Landry’s so called ‘Louisiana Tax Overhaul,’ voted not only to keep the about to expire state 4.75% tax rate in place, but to increase it to 5% along with increasing the number of entities eligible for this taxation. 

Included in the increased taxation mix were video cable services like Cox, Spectrum, AT&T, etc., and streaming services like HBO Max, Disney, Netflix, Peacock, Paramount +, Amazon Prime, etc.

Something happen during the final passage of the legislation that resulted in specifying that these services be taxed at an additional 5%.  So instead of taxing these services at 5% as specified in the initial tax plan that included just more eligible items, the video services ended up being slapped with an additional 5% resulting in double taxation at a 10% rate.

The extent of this confusion was clearly on display when I called the Louisiana Department of Revenue and asked what the tax rate was on these services.  The initial reply by employees was 5%, the same figure as initially specified in the bill increasing the state sales tax from 4.75% to %5.

However, after I hung up the phone, I received an apologetic email saying that they misspoke because “upon further investigation” it was, in fact 10%.

I contacted, for obvious reasons, a nameless legislator’s office and was emphatically told the tax for the services in question was 5%. I then contacted my local rep, who was also surprised that streaming customers were paying a 10% sales tax rate

So, did Governor Landry cleverly plan this ‘bait and switch’ and hooked winked everyone in Baton Rouge, or were our esteem leaders simply ‘remiss’ for not knowing what was included in the Tax Reform legislative packages they were passing?

Guess it doesn’t really matter because their constituents have all been greatly harmed by their actions, resulting in double taxation on TV streaming services.  Good luck with

Ten Commandments

With all this push by Governor Landry, State Attorney General, Liz Murrill, and our state legislators on the importance of displaying the Ten Commandments in every public classroom; it is apparent by this action that these folks feel that Louisiana parents/guardians are not doing their job teaching religious values to their children.  Who gave them the right to make such a judgement?  And, why stop with just the display? 

Perhaps, these esteemed leaders should also require that each child be mandated to bring a note to school from a religious institution of their parents’ choosing attesting to the fact that they have been in attendance that week. After all then all these folks could be assured that the kids are receiving the ‘proper’ religious guidance to truly live by the message of the Ten Commandments.

Personally, I find this entire fiasco not only highly insulting, but also contrary to one of the Republican Party’s main mantras, “government mandated over-site infringing on an individual’s rights.”

How one desires to instill the moral and ethical values in their children to act responsibly in our society is none of Landry’s, Murrill’s, or our legislators’ business, and they all need to stop trying to hide the fact that they are quite blatantly mandating it.

Do you really think these same folks would accept a mandate that all governing officials swear allegiance to abide by the Ten Commandments and failure to do so could result in their removal from office?

Guess we wouldn’t have too many governing officials left; starting with the President of the U.S. on down. 

And God only knows who would be left in our beloved state!

Don't Believe Everything Trump Promises

 

The naivety of some of my fellow Louisiana friends never ceases to amaze me especially when it comes to the myth that the election of Donald Trump is somehow going to magically reduce the cost of living as it relates to the purchasing power of everyday products. Part of his plan to do this involves the proposal of a 60% or more across the board tariff on all Chinese made goods.  In reality, this approach will increase the cost of almost everything one purchases. I challenge you to formulate a list of non-food items that don’t contain Chinese parts.  One such example of this Chinese infiltration is the automobile and appliance industry.  GM, Ford, and Volvo already sell Chinese made vehicles in the U.S., while the others made in the U.S., with the exception of Tesla, all contain major Chinese parts.  Still others are manufactured in Mexico, another country touted as needing tariffs by Trump. The same can also be said for appliances.  And, sadly, the list of other classes of products with Chinese parts is too voluminous to list.

Additionally, many of the name brand and generic medications that millions of Americans rely on every day, from antibiotics and blood pressure medicines, to cancer drugs and blood thinners, are being manufactured in China, or rely on materials that come from China.

With Trump’s plan, the cost of all goods intertwined with Chinese manufacturing will dramatically increase and, contrary to what Trump would have his supporters believe, take more money from one’s paycheck, not reduce it.  Additionally, retaliatory tariffs will be imposed on American made goods sold in China, thus impacting U. S. corporations’ bottom line profits, which in turn could lead to further price increases of their U.S. sold products to maintain their profits.

In closing, one of my favorite inflationary subjects, ‘shrinkflation,’ which we all have experienced, and which Trump also proposes to solve, is the downsizing of packaged goods, still being sold at previous prices. Are you naïve enough to think that when Trump is elected, companies like Pepsi Cola, which owns Fritos, Cheetos, Doritos, Quaker Oats, Starbucks, and Lays, are now suddenly going to increase the size of their chip bags to previous levels, or roll back their prices to make less profit? When in the history of this country have corporations ever benevolently-assumed that approach?  Those prices and sizes are here to stay no matter who is elected President.

If you choose to vote for Trump, have at it, but don’t be naïve and expect prices to magically return to the prices that they were during his first term, including the price of gasoline. He has no solution or magic wand to make that happen, as evidenced by his present tariffs approach.

As the famous Bob Dylan song title puts it, “The Times They Are A-Changin.”  We are now past the point of no return on many economic fronts.

 

Landry not supportive of educational reform

In a recent story in the Advocate about Governor Landry hiring a new education policy advisor, and the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education appointing a new executive director, the following statement appeared, “Education has been a top priority for Landry since taking office.”  I find that statement somewhat farcical since Landry’s ‘Dream Package’ of education reform just passed in the most recent legislative session entailed allowing school boards to hire chaplains, requiring public schools to post a copy of the Ten Commandments in each classroom, clarifying how parents can avoid getting their children vaccinated for school, setting up Educational Saving Accounts to financially bail out private schools with taxpayers’ money, allowing home schooled students to participate in public school’s extra-curriculum activities, specifying the pronoun a child can be referred to in school,  and the lowering of teacher requirements.

Initially, he had no problems with our legislators completely eliminating pre-k education funding, which due to public outcries, at the last minute, was eventually restored to last year’s funding level to service a paltry 2000 students.

Governor Landry made no push to allocate funds for K-3 tutorial programs, the grades which are the crucial ones where Louisiana students begin to fall behind national peers in their educational skills.  And he proposed no other legislation that directly impacted learning. Additionally, he has told higher education leaders to plan for a $250 million cut in their funding next fiscal year.

So basically our esteemed governor has done very little to address the actual educational needs of our children by focusing on classroom skills learning, but instead chose to laser in on the ‘hot topics’ of the day that have little or no impact.  Hardly a governor with education as a top priority, so please stop saying so.

When will the political lies stop?

To be clear the attempted assassination of former President Trump is a tragedy that puts us in the same category as some third world country. However, it clearly illustrates the reason why both major political parties need to get a grip on what they are doing to our society. Immediately after the incident House Republicans Mike Collins of Georgia and Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert claimed in the press that President Biden should be arrested and prosecuted for inciting the assassination attempt, because he referred to Donald Trump in a recent speech that "he was a threat to democracy and we need to put him in the bulls eye and defeat him." They lifted the phrase, “Put him in the bull’s eye” as justification for their claim.  Sadly, these individuals are so ignorant that they don’t even realize that their rhetoric based on an out of context lie further contributes to the divisive hatred that now exists in this country regarding our presidential candidates, and the subsequent rise in threatened violence towards them.

Additionally, these two individuals seem to forget how 9 months ago Trump mocked Paul Pelosi, the 82 year old husband of House member Nancy Pelosi, who was violently assaulted with a hammer, and how he told jokes about the incident at a political rally to the laughter of his supporters. Trump’s son even posted on social media that the incident occurred because of a sexual encounter gone awry.  Joking about violent acts? Or Trump’s speech who some used as a battle cry to storm the Capital over displeasure with the 2020 election, accompanied with the subsequent threatening of Vice President Mike Pence and Rep. Nancy Pelosi.  Trump still refers to them as ‘patriotic heroes’ and hints at a possible pardon for some who were convicted of crimes over it.  Consequently, everyone in both parties needs to drop the blame game agenda.

However, the extent to which this lie-inspired divisiveness has exploded is most recently illustrated by left-leaning The New Republic Magazine which had as its cover an altered picture of Donald Trump resembling Hitler, accompanied by a featured story comparing Donald Trump to Hitler and Fascism.

I am reminded of the old biblical saying, “You reap what you sow.” The press continues to relish and perpetuate the lies spread by each political party about the other presidential candidate. We, as a society, now relish in these lies, use them as battle cries, and internalize them to do whatever we deem necessary to accomplish each party’s desires.

Obviously, we are at a critical point in the societal history of our country. Do we still believe in the democratic process to accomplish goals for the betterment of our society through the voting process, or do we do as third world countries do, take matters into our own hands through violent, destructive acts as we have just witnessed?

And what makes this decision even more overbearing is the continual lies, distortions, and blame games we are fed by our legislators, social media, the press and the present presidential candidates.  But, then again maybe what we are witnessing is a genuine desire to elevate political agendas over everything else, including human life.  If that is true, I truly feel sorry for my kids and grandkids.