Paul Soglin: Waxing America

Woodrow Wilson, Max Weber Support Obama Cabinet Selections

The controversy is swirling over the cabinet selections of President-elect Barack Obama. Some on the left are concerned that appointments in areas such as international affairs, economic matters and national defense are too conservative. Liberals to keep pressure on Obama for results. Meanwhile conservatives are either lauding the appointments or chuckling, hoping that there will be a rift between Obama and his more liberal supporters. ‘In with a bang’ Obama dismays the faithful.

I am betting on Obama.

I have to. He is doing exactly what I did in 1973 when first elected mayor with a political base even further left than Obama's. There were only minor problems moving Madison in a progressive direction in a situation where I inherited every top department and division head. There were some rogues, but they were eventually weeded out.

Obama has to prove he can govern. That is going to take two years. For that he does not need ideologues or partisans. If the appointees are to the left, so much the better, but what he needs is experience and competence in cabinet level appointees who will carry out his programs and policies.

As any student of the German sociologist Max Weber or the Princeton University Professor Woodrow Wilson knows, public servants, with rare exceptions, are committed to the rule of law and further are committed to serving their democratically elected leaders.

There are exceptions. There are public servants who violate these principles, but they are more likely to be found in administrations where the leader is also a rogue. Just ask Richard Nixon.

And Dick Cheney does not count; he is an elected official and a rogue. He is not and never was a bureaucrat.

So long as Obama is clear and decisive in making decisions, and maintains a presence as the hierarchal leader, there should not be problems of Cabinet members substituting their ideas for his.

Where change will appear first is in the appointments to the commissions and the boards. Look for changes in the FCC (not the resurrection of the fairness doctrine but the challenges to monopolies), FDA (drug safety and pricing), and certainly the FTC (consumer protection).

November Elections 2008: The Morning After

I woke up this morning glad to have done the radio show on WTDY last night with Sly and Bill McCoshen, a Wisconsin Republican who will, hopefully, have a lot to say about the future of his party, but disappointed that I did not attend the parties where so many of my friends celebrated last night.

I was surprised at my own emotional response to the election of Barack Obama. I was more filled with wonderment about what the next four years will bring rather than joy over his election.  Perhaps it was the projections that he was going to win that took the edge off the victory.

In any case, for the first time in my lifetime, and that includes the election of JFK in 1960, or my years as mayor when Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton were elected, I am truly excited about the future and the unknown possibilities for our nation and the world. The economy and the wars will prevent any immediate social change, but it is coming.

The engagement of so many young people of so many different colors in this election holds more hope for the future. Voting is the first level of civic engagement. With persistence and hard work, hopefully they will stay engaged by running for office themselves, getting involved in their children's' education, and voting in subsequent local and state elections.

• I missed the gathering of the supporters of the Madison school referendum which won by a large margin, putting to rest the myth that there is some kind of secret plot by the supporters of public education to place these measures on the ballot when turnout is low.
• The Democrats took control of the Wisconsin Assembly. Marc Pocan gets a big thank you for adopting a "50 state" strategy and finding great Democratic candidates in as many Assembly districts as possible.
• Perhaps the biggest local disappointment was the apparent defeat of outstanding Trish O'Neil in the 47th District. She was the victim of one of the nastiest television advertisements this election season.
• While Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC) was defanged, it is evident that extreme right-wing money and energy was shifted to outside groups like  Coalition for America's Families, the Club for Growth and All Children Matter which continues to produce WMC-style attack ads.
• In Oshkosh, Gordon Hintz was returned for a second term to the Assembly's 54th district with 66% of the vote.  Keep an eye on him. Here is a legislator who is effective, principled, and a nice guy.
• The biggest Midwest disappointment was Al Franken's apparent loss to incumbent Republican Norm Coleman in the Minnesota US Senate race. Franken would have made a great senator and Coleman is an opportunistic jerk. Coleman has some serious ethical problems in casting future votes regarding the financial bailout which he supported, since AIG put $25 million into the US Chamber of Commerce over a five year period and then the right wing business group spent a hefty sum in his support.
• Best news from the left coast: As of this posting, it appears that same sex marriage survives in Californian. Barely.  Update 2:42 UGH
• Those who checked in here last night can see from my solitary post that it is too difficult to do live radio and  blog simultaneously.
• Congratulations to the high school students who got involved in the school referendum and and all of the electoral races even though they will not vote for a few more years.
• I suppose my nice introduction of Bill McCoshen, above, will get back to the social conservatives and doom him as an influential leader in fixing the Republican Party. With moderate business leaders estranged from their party, and Democrats in control of both houses of the legislature and the Governor's office, they have no place to go. Now is the time for the Democrats to reach out and form a coalition of labor, business, and education leaders to fix and fund education from kindergarten through college in Wisconsin.

Guilty pleasure I will pass on today - No right wing Milwaukee talk radio; I have too much work to do and it will be more fun spending the spare time chatting with friends.

Republican Resurrection of Red Baiting: Consistent with the 1950's

This presidential campaign is not about the 1960's. According to the Republicans it is about the 1950's .

The 1950's were a continuation of racism and segregation. The 1960's was about economic and social justice and the death of Jim Crow.

The 1950's were the zenith of United States foreign policy built on a platform that claimed our economic, morale, and racial superiority to the people of Africa, Asia, and South America. It was a foreign policy built upon the premises that we were entiled to our fair share of the world's natural resources, canals, and corrupt dictators, and we defined fair share.

The 1960's were about a new foreign policy built on supporting justice and freedom, and by supporting peoples' battles for liberation from tyranny, not imposing our version.

The 1950's were about hating the New York Yankees.  The 1960's were about hating the New York Yankees.

The 1950's were based on the myth of rugged individualism and Horatio Alger.

The 1960's were about recognizing the social compact and that most successful Americans did not make it by themselves but made it through the support of friends and neighbors, just as we did in this country a century earlier with barn raisings, helping with the harvest, and a good public school education.

The 1950's were about red scares, red baiting, the Communist Menace, the House Unamerican Activities Committee (HUAC),  pinkos, and fellow travelers.

The 1960's were about political judgments based on the content of one's own beliefs.

The 1950's gave us rock n' roll, the civil rights movement, and the opening of doorways for millions of Americans of all races, colors, and heritages.  But there was a lot that was very unattractive about the 1950's.

After this election, perhaps John McCain would like to join the twenty-first century. The last century is good for instruction but not for reliving. He should tell Sarah Palin.

Wisconsin Pays for Sarah Palin's Communist System

Wisconsin pays for Sarah Palin's Communist ways in Alaska. Stalin, move over.

The irony of the redistribution of money from one set of states to another is that the receiving states are generally Red States. The result is a taking of hard earned money from states like Wisconsin and sending those dollars to Alaska.

Here are some of the example of the redistribution of wealth that Palin and her pinko fellow travelers support:

• Interstate Highways. The construction of the federal interstate highway system, supposedly for national defense purposes, was financed by us northeners. Tax dollars from Illinois went to Alabama, from New York to Texas and from Wisconsin to Alaska. States too cheap to build their own highways saw new expressways financed by the industrial North and Midwest.
• Rural Eelectrification. We all know the story of the financing of the TVA. The north paid to bring electricity to the rural south. The way the south paid back the north was by opening non-union factories.
• Postal Service for Alaska.  Anyone who watches late night TV knows that shipping to Alaska and Hawaii costs more. To send a first class letter from Alaska to the lower forty-eight should require a doubling of the first class rates. Sarah Palin insists that Jill the Plumber pay for subsidizing mail to Alaska.
• Family travel. When I was in public office the public never paid for Sara or the kids' travel or lodging expenses. Making Joe the Plumber pay for $240 night lodging or $700 apiece airline tickets for her kids is the ultimate in Communism. Maybe she thinks taking from the poor and giving to the rich makes it OK.
• Federal gas-tax money. Alaska Thanks You.

According to Taxpayers for Common Sense, a non-partisan watchdog group in Washington, that breaks down to $1,150 for every Alaskan in "earmark" funding for in-state projects alone, 25 times what the average American garners for his or her home state.

That comes to $6.60 paid to Alaska for each dollar paid in. Wisconsin does a little better than breaking even getting back $1.05.

• All Taxes. Alaska ranks between 3rd and 5th over the last five years in receiving federal tax dollars. They get back about $1.85 for every dollar they send to Washington. Wisconsin gets back $0.84; we rank about 45th.
• The Bailout of AIG and Lehman Bro's. Enuf said.

Throughout her entire political career, Sarah Palin, Communist and fellow traveler, has had no problem taking redistributed wealth.

She has no problem with redistributing the wealth.

She never asks if the redistribution results in investment in infrastructure and human capacity that is environmentally sound and the best way to stimulate private investment.

Sarah Palin knows that even before the adoption of the flat federal income tax in 1894, the United States government has redistributed wealth. The movement of money from one group of taxpayers to another was advanced by the adoption of the Sixteenth amendment to the Constitution, the advent of the automobile on American roads, and accelerated by the Great Depression.

Economic Disaster That A Fool Could Forecast

Like most states, we are caught up in the cruel torture of national policies that are driven by greed, imperialism, and stupidity. Readrers of Waxing America will recall that in the spring of 2007 I forecasted a stock market crash and repeated it last January, Another War; Another Recession. Whatdidyah Expect?

Last  spring I used my limited abilities in forecasting the economy and predicted a stock market crash... For the second time in my lifetime a stupid, foolish war built on lies not only wrecked havoc with another country but it is destroying the American economy.

It does not take a rocket scientist to get it right... Go on take 10% of your income and set it on fire, throw it down the toilet, or just rip it up. And just for good measure, borrow a lot of money and rip it up too.

It is so simple. You cannot destroy your resources and your assets. Imagine the homes and schools that might have been built. Billions of dollars - now that is stimulation for the economy.

I am not a genius in these matters; it is that I am not driven by blind ideology in arriving at conclusions about the ecomony. A few years experience in the public and private sectors, an understanding of history and a willingness to distance myself from bad public planning, or lack of planning, no matter how politically popular the proposal, do help.

As the fall elections approach, candidates for the Wisconsin legislature and Congress from both political parties will warm your frontal lobes with cuddly promises of 'no tax increases,' cutting fat from the budget, and reducing spending.

If you are attracted to those soft sweet sounds, complete the job and instead of voting, just get a lobotomy.

If you want a candidate who will  provide a lump of coal to warm you in your decrepit retirement, and a dull knife so you can remove your spouse's appendix by candlelight in your toothless waning years, I suggest looking for the following promises:

• A pledge to the business community to provide an educated, trained workforce, not lower taxes.
• A pledge to increase spending on education from kindergarten through the University of Wisconsin and Voc-Tech Systems.
• A commitment to spend money on infrastructure that places a priority on the environment, health, and safety.
• A commitment to regulate where appropriate and needed.
• That infratstructure will be funded through borrowing as should any reasonable capital budget item.
• The operating budget, unlike the capital budget, will be funded by general purpose revenues, and only general purpose revenues. No borrowing here.
• It will be necessary to increase taxes. The increase will be progressive and will fall on wealthier taxpayers.
• A commitment to regulate where required for health and safety.
• A declaration that international trade which exports great jobs and imports poisonous pet food and baby formula is not working.
• There will be no reductions of state revenue payments to local units of government. These reductions only end up with increase in the property tax which has the impact of shifting taxes from the wealthy to the middle class.
• On the national level there will be increases in the income tax- progressive increases.
• If we fight a war, there will be honest talk. It is impossible to have guns and butter. If we fight a war there must be sacrifices at home as well as on the battlefield.
• If the candidate tells you they are highly regarded by Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC), tell that candidate to move to Alaska.

 

 

It does not take a rocket scientist to get it right... Go on take 10% of your income and set it on fire, throw it down the toilet, or just rip it up. And just for good measure, borrow a lot of money and rip it up too.

It is so simple. You cannot destroy your resources and your assets. Imagine the homes and schools that might have been built. Billions of dollars - now that is stimulation for the economy.

Republicans Blaming Pelosi: They Sure Showed Her and Millions of Americans

As the dust settled on Wall Street and the savings and retirement hopes of millions of Americans crumbled, it was clear the the House Republicans had their way. The Associated Press headline said it all, Bailout bill slapped aside; record stock plunge.

Down in the  twenty-fourth paragraph, long after the carnage and mayhem were reported came this:

Republicans blamed Pelosi's scathing speech near the close of the debate — which assailed Bush's economic policies and a "right-wing ideology of anything goes, no supervision, no discipline, no regulation" of financial markets — for the defeat. It was not much different from her usual tough words against the president and his party.

If there was ever demonstrable proof of the infantile nature of the extreme right wing of the Republican Party this was it. Out of spite, create the greatest one-day loss in the history of the marketplace. So much for the rationality of capitalism.

My guess is that not far off in the future we will see today's losses recouped, but that will be little consolation to the the millions of Americans who lost billions of dollars over a hissy fit.

My thoughts about the Democrats who voted against the bill are not kind, but at least their behavior was rational. Fearful of rabid Republican opponents who would use the issue in the election a month away, they ducked, or as we like to say here at Waxing America, "A candid examination of right-wing policies and the Democrats who play along..."

Wall Street Bought the House, House GOP Bites the Hand that Fed It

The financial meltdown and the economic and political crisis are the result of the twenty year relationship between House of Representatives' Republican leadership and the financial services industry, which includes every major bank, insurance company, and brokerage house in the United States.

The deal orchestrated in the 1990's by the extreme right wing House Republicans and the banks was simple. The banks provided the money to elect House Republicans, who would pass legislation to end regulation in the financial services industry.

The money was spread around to Republicans, both moderates and fanatical right wingers, without distinction.

That was key to the deal. The banks and insurance companies could not question the Republican House candidates on other issues.

It made no difference what the financial people thought about choice, protectng the nation''s infrastructure, funding stem cell research, or education. They got the Republicans selected by the GOP leadership.

Now these ideological thugs with a large enough presence in the House are threatening any kind of reasonable resolution to the pending economic crisis.

The operation is not much different than the relationship bewteen Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC) and their last remaining foothold in the State Capitol, the Republicans in the Assembly.

In Washington, the right wing is biting the hand that fed them for two decades without regard for the nation or thier own political future.

It would be interesting to look into the records of major Wisconsin insurance companies, borkerage houses, and banks to see the flow of cash that went either directly to these candidates or indirectly into front organizations for the United States Chamber of Commerce and their trade groups and then funneled to so called issue committees.

Frankly, I would ask for my money back.

It's time for payback.

 

Solving the Financial Crisis. A Modest Proposal

As much as it disgusts me, the bailout of the financial institutions run by greedy, egotistical managers and executives presents a less devastating result than letting them go under.

Ten years from now, my family, my friends, the working people who make this country great and ask for nothing more than a fair shake, will be better off with a properly structured loan to an industry run amuck.

Before we get into the details, the first thing we must understand is that bailout or not, the Republican Party, the author of this ideological meltdown, is responsible for the biggest tax hike and the biggest waste of taxpayers dollars in history.

For a bailout to work:

• There must be a return to Glass-Steagall, the Depression-era body of law that provided safeguards against these excesses.
• No foreign banks deserve one cent of American money. If their respective nations wish to save them, they can bail them out. They already made enough money in the past decade.
• A special investigator should be appointed to look into the relationship of banking lobbyists and the principals responsible for this former disaster, special financial guru to John McCain, former Texas Senator Phil Gramm, and hit man Newt Gingrich, who thinks the solution to this problem is eliminating the capital gains tax.
• Any borrower should be allowed to extend their home loan one month for each year left on the mortgage and those deferred payments should have a maximum interest rate of 3%.
• No executive of a bailed-out company shall be compensated more than $1 million annually, and that will include company cars, homes, boats, contributions to retirement plans and life insurance. Life insurance can be taken out on the executive if the United States government is the beneficiary until the institution's loans are paid off. Frankly I am being too generous, but I cannot stand to see pirates cry.
• Labor, real work that contributes to the growth of the economy has to be recognized as being more honorable, more noble, and more essential, than flim-flam paper exercises that are nothing more than speculation in industries that are exporting jobs to countries where workers are paid less than $5 a day.
• For every million dollars a financial institution receives, they must repay the entire amount at an interest rate of 3.75%.  All loans must be repaid within a decade.

  
   

Who Is Responsible for the Economic and Financial Crisis?

The present crisis is the culmination of a series of events that go back to the election of Ronald Reagan as President and flowed through the subsequent years as the right wing mastered modern day communications, particularly cable TV.

The pinnacle was in 1999 with the repeal of Glass-Steagall, the Depression Era legislation that brought regulation and some degree of consumer protection to the financial marketplace. The public would not be wandering the dark hall of manipulators, oil speculators, and other creeps who took the art of capital formation to a new low, making money by pushing paper and never creating anything of value.

The Reagan Administration gutted regulation administratively in key areas of commerce and finance and was followed by the Republican control of the Congress and the ascendancy of Newt Gingrich, culminating in the adoption of the Financial Modernization Act of 1999.

This piece of legislation was drafted in 1998, and over the next year the Republicans overcame all opposition. To understand what happened it is necessary to examine the legislative process and the political climate of the time.

The Republicans were dominant and the Democrats were on the run. Fearful of losing more Congressional representation, the Democrats often capitulated, fearful if they stood up to  Gingrich, they too would lose their next election.

True Believers:   Lead by the bill's principal author, Phil Graham, this group were cronies of the oil interests and the speculators. It included reactionaries from Gingrich to Grover Norquist.

The Supporters:  These were all of the Republicans and one Democrat in the Senate accompanied by a similar alignment in the House of Representatives, though there were more blue-dog Democrats who joined the GOP. The critical vote came when the Senate version of the bill was adopted.

On  May 6,1999, the Senate adopted its version of the bill on a vote of 54-44.  Supporting that bill was John McCain; in opposition were all Democrats except Hollings of South Carolina. Joe Biden wisely voted 'no.'

For a more detailed explanation see this post, The crisis is so bad the financial press turns bolshie, February 17, 2008.

After the House vote, the bill went to conference committee.

The Negotiators. In conference committee, negotiators  from both Houses of Congress worked out their differences. President Clinton got involved realizing that with final passage there would be a veto proof majority. The final version of the bill was adopted by the Senate in November by 90-8. Joe Biden again voted 'No.'

John McCain, in the most blatant example of cowardice, refused to vote for or against the bill. He voted 'present.'

 

For more detail: John McCain's lying is contagious

 

 

 

 

 

Gingrich: I Screwed Working Americans Once, I Can Do It Again

Newt Gingrich with his Contract on America was one of the principal architects of the 1999 repeal of a key depression era reform, the Glass-Stegall Act, that stabilized the United States economy and prevented unfettered speculation that could trigger economic collapse and bring ruin to hundreds of millions of families -people like Waxing America readers.

The product of his theoretical rubbish first bore fruits with the Enron and Worldcom disasters and this past week brought us the worst economic collapse in three generations.

Regardless of the outcome we must be clear about one thing. You and I and millions of hard working Americans who never had a chance to rip off bmillions, will pay.

In an instant, without increasing the tax rates, they made sure we pay.  This is going to come out of our taxes - money we already paid and money we will pay to the federal and state governments.

The loss of our hard-earned savings, the equity in our homes, and the collapse of local businesses are going to take their toll as well. 

There are some people who lost millions, hundreds of millions, and others who lost billions. Most of them made that money without creating true wealth; they created nothing of lasting value. They shuffled paper.

Now Newt Gingrich wants to lower the capital gains taxes to zero.

The man has learned nothing.

The curious thing is that he is not doing this for his own personal aggrandizement. True he enjoys the money he makes and the wealth he creates for his right wing friends.  

His real motivation is that he fashions himself as an economc theorist and wishes to be recognized for his intellectual prowess.

Not content with the destruction he created, he plows forward.

The man is a fool.

He should be tried for treason.