Tea Parties

Hi Everyone:

Lately there have been a lot of tea parties around the country. Tea parties are so named due to the reference to the 1773 Boston tea party, where Bostonians dumped English tea into the Boston harbor to protest the high taxes England put on the tea. But are today's tea parties about taxes or an increase in US debt? I believe it is about both. Are today's tea parties really representative of the American people or a select few? Granted nobody likes an increase in taxes in any shape or form or an increase in the national debt. But why are there tea parties now and not in the recent past?

Let's review the recent past:

-When Ronald Reagan was president, our national debt went from $85 billion to $225 billion and there were no tea parties.

-When George H.W. Bush campaigned for president, he was asked about tax increases and he famously said, read my lips, no new taxes. He didn't live up to his promise and did indeed increase taxes and there were no tea parties. Why? Oh and don't forget that the national deficit in his last year in office went up to $399 billion and again, there were no tea parties.

-By the end of Bill Clinton's eight years as president, he turned the national deficit of into a $231 billion SURPLUS! This was the largest surplus in US history.

-When George W. Bush became president, he turned the largest surplus into the largest deficit in our history. When you read about the deficit under his watch you will see 2 numbers: $1 trillion and $10 trillion dollars. Well which one is correct? The correct number is $10 trillion. Why? Bush kept the war spending of the 2 current wars off the books. Don't forget that the greatest recession since the great depression began during his watch due to his economic policies. It was Bush who originally wanted to bailout AIG and other big banks and investment firms with hundreds of billions of our tax dollars. Again, there was not one tea party during his eight years in office. Why not?

Now when Obama took office, according to the so-called "Tea-Bag Revolution," it's all his fault that the country is going bankrupt. What? Obama inherited the great recession and all the problems associated with it. Now there are tea parties across this country. Why now and not before? The truth about these tea parties is on the conservative web site AmericanMajority.org. There it states that they are pushing for lower corporate taxes. If you lower corporate taxes during this recession who makes up that loss in revenue? There is nothing about people's incomes taxes or payroll taxes or small business tax breaks in their web site. Small businesses are the backbone of this country.

As a side note, during the recent Governors race in New Jersey, part of Republican Chris Christie's platform was to reduce property and school taxes. Apparently the majority of voters believed him and Christie won, beating incumbent Democrat Jon Corzine. About a week later, Christie viewed New Jersey's budget and he stated that he would probably not be able to lower the taxes after all. There have been no tea parties, why not?

Obviously the tea parties were formed by the Republican/Conservative parties to voice their disapproval of anything Obama does to try to help this country out of the financial mess he inherited. This makes no sense since they never said boo about the deficits of Reagan, Bush and Bush. Why not? It seems that it was alright for their party leaders to have deficits but when the other party has a deficit it is an all out war against it. Someone speaks with a forked tongue. There is no common sense to the tea parties when it is always one sided.

I believe that everyone on both sides of the aisle should work together to solve our financial problems and get off their high horses!!!!! Both sides have worked together previously and they should work together again.

Common sense rules.

Til next week.

NYS Lacks Common Sense re: Pension Reform

Hi Everyone:

Lately I have been reading in the newspaper about retired New York State employees, that has me very po'd. Currently NYS is in dire financial straits. The problems with Wall Street are only part of the problem. The NYS legislature has always been a major part of why this state is so poorly run. It seems that being a NYS employee has more perks after you retire then when one was working for the state.

More and more state employees retire with their full pension and benefits and then are rehired as a NYS employee again. Some retired employees are rehired as police or fire commissioners or elected as a politician or a judge. This double dipping has got to stop ASAP. Somehow this double dipping is legit. I am not sure how that can be? It is great for the retired/rehired employee since they will make more money in a year with their full pension and new salary combined, then they ever did previously. This added cost of paying a pension to a working again NYS employee, is devastating to the state's pension fund. Since the fall of Wall Street, the NYS pension fund has lost billions and billions of dollars. Having double dippers just adds salt to the wound and increases the money necessary to fund the pension fund.

Someone in the NYS legislative branch must see this and hopefully, he/she or they, should write a bill asap. Then the bill should be enacted as law to stop this insanity. When you retire you can always work somewhere else other then for the state, if you are in need of extra income. The law should state that when you retire you are ineligible to work for the state while collecting the pension and benefits. The law should also have some kind of allowance for those retired employees who wish to return to work for the state or are elected to a political position or are requested to return to the state's employment. In that scenario, the retired/rehired employee should have their pensions stopped as well as the benefits that come with it. The new retired/rehired employee can then receive their new salary and the benefits that come with the position.

To me, a bill like that just makes common sense. Double dipping has got to stop!

Common sense rules and double dipping drools.

Til next week.

Delware School Board Uses Common Sense

Hi Everyone:

By now I'm pretty sure you have all heard about the Delaware first grader who brought his favorite camping utensil to school; to eat his lunch with. The utensil contained a folding knife, fork and spoon. To make a long story short, he got into a whole lot of trouble. He faced 45 days of suspension from his regular school and to instead attend 45 days in an alternative school for troublemakers as punishment.

The Christina School District has 17,000 students, which includes parts of the city of Wilmington and its suburbs. Due to what has previously happened in schools, it was no wonder that a zero-tolerance took hold and that there was no deviation allowed from the punishments handed out. Last year, a fifth grader in the Christina School District, was ordered expelled after she brought a birthday cake and a serrated knife to cut it with.

Thankfully, cooler heads prevailed and the expulsion was overturned and that led to a new state law that gave school districts more flexibility on punishments. Unfortunately, the new law only applied to expulsions and not to suspensions. So the same school board now faced a vote on whether to instead suspend the first grader.

The seven member Christina School Board, using some good old common sense, voted unanimously to reduce the punishment for kindergartners and first graders who take weapons to school to a suspension ranging from three to five days. The first grader would be allowed back in school asap.

I really hope for just three things:

1) That each case is individually looked at and not just rubber stamped with "the" punishment.
2) That common sense is part of the equation.
3) That more school districts adopt a similar policy.

Common sense rules.

Til next week.