Archive for December, 2010

WHY NO HYDRO?

Monday, December 27th, 2010

Everytime gas prices rise a couple of cents, the media is all over it.  Invariably, however, #2 oil, from which heating and diesel fuels are derived, go up by staggering amounts every Fall, just in time for the winter heating season.  The rise in diesel fuel prices affects my business directly and currently costs upwards of 150 dollars per day, per truck.  A few years back, when diesel prices approached $5.00 per gallon, it crippled the trucking industry.

After that nightmare, it takes a bigger price hike to get our attention, but the one constant that remains is that our nation is still vulnerable to the fickle nature of world oil prices.  Gaining independence from oil should be a national priority, and there are a number of reasons why.

First, as we watch our economy continue to teeter on the brink of disaster, we must ask ourselves…”where is the next industrial, manufacturing, or technical frontier?”  We have become a service economy but a great nation can’t survive on that alone.  We build barely anything here anymore, and not since the high-tech boom have we seen a really churning economy.  Energy is necessarily one of the next big frontiers.  We should be leading the way.

Second…the planet.  If you’ve read my stuff for any length of time you’ll know I’m not a “Global Warming Nut”, but I do believe that the burning of fossil fuels has had an effect on the atmosphere, and therefore the planet as a whole.  What bothers me most about the GW argument is that it has become politicized.  I have to maintain a little cynicism for someone like Al Gore who turns the cause into a living, but still travels by private jet, lives in a mansion, and has a carbon footprint bigger than Sasquatch on steroids.  Still, I do believe it is morally imperative to be good stewards of the planet, and to not roll the dice on a gamble as large as the inhabitability of Earth.  The atmosphere is remarkably thin in comparison to the size of the ball it protects, and I don’t believe it is implausible that the amount of oil we’ve been burning for the last century or so has taken some ill effect on it. And, beyond the effects of burning oil, think “Gulf Oil Spill” to see the dangers of harvesting oil.

Third…some of the answers are right in front of us.  While I don’t see electric cars that are practical, or solar panels that provide a reasonable cost vs. benefit ratio, I do see, just to our North, over 100 years of successful production of electricity from rivers. This is not a big gamble on some crazy scheme. It works, and we know it.

Fourth…National Security.  Oil has played too big a role, for far too long, in foreign policy decisions and probably even wars.
That, alone, should be impetus enough for a national resolution to ween ourselves off the gooey substance.

Why is there no substantial hydroelectric effort in this country?  Canada has mastered the art and I have marveled at the simplicity and efficiency of their hydro plants.  Remarkably maintenance free, clean and reliable, these massive facilities are manned by a skeleton crew.  I watched a documentary on one of them once, and one of the workers stated that there was simply no need for a staff of hundreds.  The water pours in, turns the turbine, the turbine turns a generator, and the water pours out and back into the river.  The Decew Falls 1 hydro plant, built in 1898, still produces power today and hasn’t missed a day.  Not like a nuclear plant, with a relatively short life, and then a massively expensive dismantling project with radioactive waste that continues to be an expense and hazard for future generations.

In 2004 Canada was the top hydro power producer in the world.  Today, Manitoba, Quebec and British Columbia derive 75% of their electricity from hydro power.  There are two basic types of plants, “run-of-river” which diverts a portion of the water from a river and runs it through the plant, or “impound” type where a dam is built to harness the waters power.  There are many of both types in Canada, still functioning after many years of trouble-free operation.

Sometimes in life, we over-complicate things and while meeting America’s energy needs for the future is not simple, this part of it certainly could be.  Perhaps a good place to start would be a federal streamlining of the permitting process along with some kind of tax initiative for start-ups.  The most difficult question to answer might simply be this…what are we waiting for?

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THE RISING TIDE

Monday, December 20th, 2010

Just before midnight on Thursday the House voted on the massive new legislation that will extend the infamous Bush Tax Cuts for another two years and extend unemployment benefits for many of the jobless across the country.  The vote, among other things, forced me to re-write my weekly column.  No sooner had the ink dried on my column, which took to task the many elected officials who were still supporting a ridiculous litany of earmarks, a vote was passed with much more favorable terms.

Republicans are giddy, and with some reason, although I don’t think there is anything to get too euphoric over here.  The bill’s cost is $858 billion and it will all be borrowed and piled onto the steaming heap we all refer to fondly as our “National Debt”.  More accurately, it is the debt of our children and grandchildren, a transgression we will all have to reckon with on our own terms at some future date.

Still, it was a bi-partisan effort and it includes many terms favorable to finally stabilizing our economy.  Changes to Capital Gains that will aid working families and small businesses.  Changes to the Estate Tax, a financial resource that liberals practically drool over.  It bridles the governments natural desire to come in after a death and clean out the check book.  These are all good things.

Moreover, the message sent across the country at the polls in November seems to have actually, possibly, resonated in Washington.  I believe we can thank the Tea Party movement for this.  In my deleted column I had complained that many of the new comers, though not yet yielding votes, had been rather quiet about the incredible load of earmarks tucked into this legislation.  Two hundred grand to “study” maple syrup in Vermont.  Three million for a Polynesian Rowing Museum in Hawaii.  No…I’m not making it up.  It is exactly this kind of insipid spending that has millions of Americans foaming at the mouth.  I was happy to receive an email from Kelly Ayotte’s headquarters late last night that she, along with eleven other GOP Senate-elects, had sent a letter to President Obama excoriating the pork barrel spending.  Good stuff.  Finally.  Could the line-item veto actually be a possibility in 2012?

None of it is coincidence and every American who attended a Tea Party gathering or voted for a Tea Party-supported candidate should be proud.  Your voice was heard.  Politicians are finally being held accountable and the November blood-bath is the sole reason.  Ensconced politicians were thrown to the curb.  That gets some attention on The Hill.  Imperative now that we stay focused and be sure the trend continues.

Democrats are largely split on this bill and Obama is losing some supporters, but even he realized he was boxed in here.  Not since Herbert Hoover have taxes been raised during a deep recession and we need look no further than the history books to see how that worked for us.  Businesses across the country are looking for some sign of stability.  This may give them a ray of hope.

I know I’m relieved, just a little, to know that there will not be a tax increase on January 1st.  More important, at least for me, is that it is accompanied by a serious effort to reduce spending.  The earmarks are a good place to start.  But as incoming House Speaker “Weepy John Boehner” pointed out, there is still a long way to go if we want to pull this economy out of the hole, and that means much more significant cuts in spending.  We need to go through the ledger the way a new CEO does when he comes in to turn a business around.  You don’t cut with a scalpel, you cut with  a chainsaw.

It’s a step in the right direction…a nod to the rising tide of disenchantment with bloated government, and reason enough to have hope.  Don’t forget, though…it’s another trillion bucks on the Chinese Credit Card.   Merry Christmas.

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BUSH ON BUSH

Monday, December 13th, 2010

Sorry to dash your hopes, but, no…this is not the salacious column on lesbianism you’ve all been waiting for.  Let’s call it a “Bush-League Opinion Merchant’s” take on President George W. Bush, or “Little Bush” as some like to call him.

I have always admired the Bush family, especially the elder, who was also rather soft spoken and demure belying his history as one of the country’s youngest aviators.  He was shot down, too, and was as rough-and-tumble as the rest of them in his time. It broke my heart when I saw him crumble in tears, standing next to Jeb during a speech in Florida, defending his son’s decisions as President.  How hard it must be for a father, watching his son get hammered by the media day after day. They are a tight family. Moreover, they are respectful people, smart, well-humored, and the type you would wish for as neighbors.

The younger Bush struck me as aloof.  Kind of a regular-Joe type of guy.  I never thought of him as a magnificent President, but I thought he was unfairly trashed by the media, and I do think he did a tremendous job during, and in the wake of, September 11th, 2001.  He was exactly what the country needed.  A firm, steady hand…determined not to have the event capsize the country, sincerely heartbroken for the country and the victims of that day, and equally determined not to have it happen again under his watch.  It didn’t…and that is noteworthy.

Early on, during his first campaign, I also never bought into the notion that he was an idiot.  He was a fighter pilot, afterall, and although he never flew in combat, the fact that he mastered the trade well enough to do so, easily disqualified him as being “stupid” in my book.  Instrument flying and the type of training one has to endure to be qualified to fly those machines in combat, and just the fact that you’re trusted with that machine…well…that’s an exclusive club and not one inhabited by dimwits.

Still…he wasn’t the kind of guy that commanded, at least for me, a passionate feeling one way or another.  A good guy and an above-average President, surrounded by the same stench and corruption that is stuck to Washington like old wallpaper, wallpaper being the easier of the two to remove, by the way.

But something is happening as I hear from the former President as he makes his tour promoting his new book, “Decision Points”. I’m liking the guy more than ever.  He has been a class-act since leaving office.  You haven’t heard a peep from the guy.  I’m sure he’s enjoying the downtime, but it is also a sign of his upbringing.  Demure, in a word.  He has kept his opinions largely to himself as I believe he feels it is undignified to constantly be chirping about the new President.  We are, sadly, so used to Presidents who leave office and hit the $100,000. speech circuit and cling to the limelight like a washed up vaudeville act, that when someone leaves and behaves like an adult, we don’t know what to make of it.

I admired Ron Reagan but didn’t pay much attention to politics when he was in office.  Later though, after his death, I read excerpts of the published letters he had written to Nancy.  I was taken aback by the depth of his compassion, what a sensitive man he was.  As I look back at his Presidency, I wish we could have him back.  In hindsight he was everything a President should be.  Firm, stoic, alternately light-hearted or irate.  A dashing man, larger-than-life, who held up well on the world stage.
It was not until much later though, that I began to appreciate the depth of the man.

So it is becoming with “W”.  I saw him doing an interview where he spoke about the moment he decided to quit drinking…that he knew alcohol could not be a part of his life.  I could relate…I quit drinking about 25 years ago.  Bush spoke about being at a dinner party with Laura, his parents and a few other couples.  He was pretty lit, and asked one of the wives what “sex was like after 50…”.  Laura was steamed, his parents were mortified, and forks were dropping all over the room.  It was funny as Hell as he told it, but also poignant and he got a little emotional recalling it.  Interesting.

He spoke about the day of September 11th, of course, and the much-maligned “classroom scene” where he was reading to a class of young children when the news from New York was whispered in his ear.  Again…emotions come to the surface.  His explanation is sensible and exactly what I expected it to be.  I think, in fact, that many of us would have reacted the same way…and for the same reasons.  Again, interesting, hearing for the first time, what that day was like for our President.

All in all, I’m looking forward to reading the book.  I’m more thankful, however, that the book somewhat accidentally served as a vehicle to allow the country a closer look at this guy.  He seems like a good egg to me and I’d be happy to spend an afternoon piling brush with him down at the ranch.  I bet he was a fun guy to throw a few back with too.  I’m also thinking…especially as I watch our current President flip like a circus seal…that we were lucky to have him on watch during those difficult years for the country.

Even the title of this book is a little aloof.  “Decision Points”.  Oh well…what else could he have called it?  “Everything You Ever Needed To Know About Bush”?  Nah…they would have had a field day with that.

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DEATH AND TAXES

Sunday, December 5th, 2010

Two things you can’t escape, it has always been said, are death and taxes.  Until recently, taxes were generally considered  the lesser of the two evils.  Soon, it may become a toss up.  As Americans buckle, household by household, under the weight of a decaying economy, an ever-increasing cost of living, rampant unemployment, run-away energy costs, and now a federal government that is looking for left-overs like a raccoon in a garbage can…well, death sometimes looks like the more tenable option.

Now, after ten years, we are down to the wire on whether or not to extend the Bush-era tax cuts, first legislated back in 2001.
Never mind that our President has had two years to address the issue, his fecklessness has again led to a quagmire.  As I have written many times, it was his inability to vote “yes” or “no” during his brief stay in the Senate that concerned me most, and we have seen that reticence to commit many times during his Presidency.

It’s as though this guy has two speeds…”bulldoze” and “drift”.  Health Care reform?  Get the bulldozer.  Trials for terrorists in New York City?  Bulldozer. Arizona flexing muscle on immigration reform?  Bulldozer, please.  Raise taxes during a deep economic recession?  Drift.

No wonder Americans are pulling their hair out.  First, this should be an easy call.  This is not the time to raise taxes on ANYONE.  And these are not tax “cuts” by the way, it is simply a matter of not raising taxes.  The problem for liberals is that they feel the “rich” are getting away with something.  Only the ability to keep more of the money they earned, left over to reinvest or spend on consumer goods, like a car or a boat or a new home…you know…stuff that creates jobs.  More stunning, liberals believe that the “average” American will be left unscathed.  Not true.  A single person, or couple, making 80K per year, will be giving an average of $900.00 per month to the government if the tax cuts are not extended or made permanent.  That’s just under 11 grand per year, and that’s just your federal tax.

Add to this the tax we pay at the gas pump, sales taxes, meal taxes, registrations and permits, state taxes, property taxes and, well…you get the picture.  We are not far from the point where there is so little left over that going out the door in the morning to toil away at work begins to look a little silly.  No wonder so many of the unemployed want benefits extended another year.  Most of them are doing better than they ever were.  Three years to find a job?  Welcome to Generation X.

Aside from the Gang-Tax that most of us already endure, what is most astounding here is the indecision.  Either way, Obama loses here.  By extending the cuts he further alienates his base.  By eliminating the cuts he almost assures us of a plummet on Wall Street on January 1st.  Financial experts are lining up to post their warnings of the potential fallout from this.  Businesses are on hold with their planning.  Could you plan your budget for next year not knowing what your expenses will be?

The most frustrating part of this is that the vacillating on the part of this administration on this issue, and because  no decision has been rendered ( as of this writing), the Internal Revenue Service has been forced to notify CPA’s that the tax cuts will expire on December 31st.   The IRS sends notices in early December with changes and various errata and because, absent a decision, they must assume the cuts will expire, they must proceed accordingly.

Here’s the fun part.  We will all have to pay taxes as though the cuts expired and then, should they be extended, will then have to petition the IRS for a refund on the difference.  That should be enjoyable.  Furthermore, the IRS announced already that they expect refunds to be slow this year because of the extra burden imposed by notification and then, possibly, rescinding those same notices.

Ahh…government efficiency at it’s best.  These are the same folks who are running health care now.  How does that make your stomach feel?  Of course, if you’re a member of the increasing number of Unions that are being granted “waivers” from ObamaCare, you may be spared, but of course there will be no “waivers” for the rest of us.  Just penalties and fines.

Pay attention here.  This is what “no leadership” looks like.  We will be seeing plenty more of it over the next two years.  Republicans, too, should pay attention.  I am already agitated that the freeze on earmark spending seems unable to meet muster.  Are you kidding me?  There are, apparently, Republicans just voted in who didn’t get the message.  No problem…the rest of us are taking names, and, I expect, that we will be just as eager to throw you out with the rest of them two years hence.

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