Friday, April 23, 2010

Saving Lives vs. Rail Transportation

What is more important, saving lives or advocating railroad transportation? I asked myself that question after reading Teen pleads guilty in pizza murder in the Metro section of the April 23rd, 2010 print edition of the Florida Times Union.

Obviously, saving lives is more important. However,
for Corrine Brown I believe advocating railroad transportation is more important (Ms. Brown chairs the Railroad subcommittee of the Transportation committee; the only other committee she sits on is Veteran Affairs).

Without even asking Ms. Brown, I know she would whole-heartily disagree. Who would not? Is it not human nature to have some natural instinct to care for others? However, realities of our own individual lives may leads us to take action(s) in the near-term that conflicts with this natural instinct.

In the case of Ms. Brown and the Democratic Leadership, it made perfect sense to place her on the Transportation Committee when she was elected in 1992 for 2 reasons:

1. There are railroads, airports, ports and waterways in her district; and

2. She and the Democratic Party would more likely receive donation from companies and individuals in these sectors than they would in say….early childhood development, lifelong learning, and communities.

I do not fault the individuals and companies that have donated to Corrine Brown. I would expect them to. I am all for railroad transportation, but what I do expect is for my representative, Ms Brown, to focus on representing more of the district than a select few for her and her political party’s financial well being (I say political party because the Republican Party is just as guilty). If she truly cared about the district then she would have found a way to be on a committee that would have a greater positive impact on the citizens of Florida’s 3rd Congressional District (CD-3).

The following table shows all the committees our representatives could sit on (can click on chart to enlarge).

Based on what you may know of CD-3, which do you think would be appropriate? When I surveyed voters in the district, an overwhelming majority selected Education and Labor first. Transportation was typically fourth on the list after Financial Services and Small Business.

If I have not helped you convince yourself, please look at the subcommittees for Education and Labor and Transportation shown below and think about which would have the most impact on the people in CD-3 (can click on chart to enlarge).

Back to the above mentioned news article. The story is similar to most news articles pertaining to CD-3, young black person commits a crime ….. Sometimes, news outlets report about community representatives (ministers, social workers, community activists, etc..) that speak out against the police for either going over the line or not doing enough to prevent such a crime. I could lead into personal responsibility, family unity, etc…being most important in preventing crimes, but the purpose of this bog entry is show that Ms. Brown could have done more. I could go as far as to say that she has blood on her hands. However, she is like most of our elected officials in Washington. She is concerned more about donations and running for office than doing what is right.

For the past 18 years she has spent approximately 10,000 hours (or 5 years if one assumes a full-time career) on transportation matters. Just think, if she spent that same amount of time on the Education and Labor committee then is possible that one life in the district could have been saved? I definitely think so and it is just example on why we need term limits. She and the Democratic Party are obviously not going to change. She is too well entrenched. Term limits would force her out and give us the opportunity to have better representation.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Term Limits = Voices Heard

Have you ever thought about the one thing that we can do today to help solve a large percentage of the problems associated with our Congress? I have, a lot. I conclude it is quite simple. We vote for candidates that support term limits. To better understand my thesis, I will explain the ‘why’ and the ‘how’ below.

The ‘Why’

The key benefit of term limits is that more candidates will run, which means that there will be a greater chance that our voices will be heard in Washington.

When was the last time that Corrine Brown went door to door as aggressively as I did? The answer was back in the 1990s. She now spends her time supporting special interest (her donors: individuals & PACs) possibly at places like football games. More specifically, she primarily supports railroads.

Should she not support early childhood development, lifelong learning, and communities? Yes, but there is no money in these areas, but there is money in railroads.

She has used the community’s goodwill to her and to her financial supporters best interest. No serious contender has run against her in a decade because the powers-to-be in the community (i.e. ministers, community activists, etc…) have not held her accountable, which is a crying shame.

However, Corrine Brown is not much different than most other representatives. Our representatives bow to these well-funded interests because they need the donations to stay in office. It is a win/win/lose situation. The candidate wins, the special interest wins (see below) because they know it is hard to vote out an incumbent absent a scandal and the community loses (District 3 still has high poverty, high unemployment, high crime, etc.).

Special Interest Wins

If not convinced, please think about this. Why do young, healthy people that choose to be uninsured now have to pay for insurance? Short answer, the well-funded interest (in this case, the insurance industry) paid-off your representative (through campaign donations) to make it happen in the recently passed healthcare bill. As a result of this bill, government will grow, which means we will pay higher taxes. One of those taxes will be hidden in the cost medical devices, which will be passed on to all consumers through insurance premiums.

If not railroads or healthcare, it will be something else in favor of well-funded interests until we receive term limits.

I know I have not connected the dots as well as I could, so I reserve the right to keep coming back to this point.

The ‘How’

Support is action, not talk. Once in office, our representative’s top priority should be term limits, similar to our current President’s making healthcare his top priority.

We know it will be a top priority when our elected officials do whatever they can to create a bill, vote on the bill and pass the bill to add an amendment to our Constitution whereby members of Congress can serve only ‘x’ number of terms. We will know it is a top priority when:

1. We see them on C-SPAN at 10:30 PM EST speaking on the floor with the same fervor that current members spoke about healthcare the past six months;

2. The Speaker of the House stands on the steps of the Capital and makes a proclamation that the bill is great for America similar to what the current Speaker did in support of healthcare; and

3. Other similar visible acts.

If we do not see such actions then we know it is not a top priority and we must act accordingly. We most vote for the best challenger that indicates that they will help create and vote for such a bill. If they fail to do so after being elected then we must act again. We vote for the best challenger (I do not care if the challenger is not as smart, not as nice, etc..All I care about is putting term limits in place). We keep doing this until our members of Congress are subject to term limits. It is that simple.

Last Thought

The Founders of our nation did not have to contend with term limits because life expectancy 200+ years took care of that.

Friday, April 9, 2010

My Email To Chairman Bernanke

Below you will see a copy of my email that I sent to Chairman Bernanke based on an April 7, 2010 news report in the Wall Street Journal entitled Bernanke Says U.S. Should Tackle Debt.

Did I expect him to respond? No. Why should I? He probably receives thousands daily and probably has a staff solely dedicated to reading his email. However, I was hoping, albeit remotely, someone from his office would respond. Anybody can talk the talk, but few will truly walk the walk.

I put my money where my mouth is; I just ran out of money (please see post below). However, I plan to keep walking and may be even start running. I may also be tilting at wind mills, but DAMN IT!, if we do not change, then a CRISIS will force us to change.

What we are currently experiencing is not a crisis. I realize and understand for those unemployed, it definitely is, but for our nation it is not. I plan to explore this topic in greater detail in a future post.

If Chairman Bernanke is truly serious about our debt - beyond just trying to ensure he pacifies owners of our debt (wink, wink - China) - then how hard is it for him to direct his staff to take some actions. With a little brainstorming, a few great ideas could pop out. My suggestions are:

1. Put together a one page talking paper for the masses which:

A. Can be easily consumed (not written to an 8th grade level, but a 4th grade level);

B. Highlights the challenges associated with our debt;

C. Highlights how we, as nation, may reduce our debt; and

D. Can be easily found and downloaded from the Federal Reserve website or sent to people in response to their emails;

2. Arrange to go to all the lobbyist firms and trade associations to help them see - requires a little salesmanship - the benefit(s) to their respective industries by supporting politicians that are committed to reducing the debt (currently politics is primarily about the money and we have allowed the these organizations to have too much sway over our elected officials, another future post);

3. Work with K-12 education groups to start promoting a better understanding of a sound fiscal policy (our children will bear the true cost of our debt; so should not we prepare them to handle it? – another future post); and

4. The list could go on.

I/we do not need Chairman Bernanke to perform some of the above-mentioned items. I/we can do it our selves. Even though I need to focus on my business and family as you probably would prefer doing, I am making time to work on this matter because I believe it to be of utmost importance. Hopefully, I can help you convince yourself and others of the same. Please read the September 4, 2009 opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal by John Fund for a possible start.

Copy of email to Chairman Bernanke:

Dear Chairman Bernanke:

Thank you for commenting yesterday on the challenges associated with our national debt.

I wholeheartedly applaud you for doing so.

However, I believe you cannot mention once and move on.

I strongly encourage that you pound the table daily on this matter.

We did not get here overnight nor will we get out of our mess overnight. I believe the only way our elected officials will tackle the debt is when those that help them get elected realize that it is important. The only way that will happen is if someone, such as you, makes it his or her mission to constantly sound the alarm.

I recently attempted a run for Congress as a citizen candidate primarily for this reason, but due to lack of funds I ended my campaign. The following link to my blog, http://flcd-3.blogspot.com/, highlights my short-lived, but enlightening campaign.

I would like to help you help our nation tackle this issue, please let me know how I may assist you.

Best,

James Gilman