Public Finance

Peonage

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Peonage is a form of involuntary servitude that is undertaken to pay off a debt. Realistically, peonage is what we in the US are facing if we do not get our spending under control.

Today, when politicians propose to continue the spending train with unrealistic, pie-in-the-sky spending cuts that will never happen, they are proposing decades of peonage for us and our posterity. This is worse than wrong policy, it is viscerally offensive to everyone who understands the situation.

The norms of political correctness in the US do not normally permit a white to accuse a black of working to violate the 13th amendment. We do not live in normal times. President Obama is dancing on the edge of a precipice and if he persists in going over the edge, he will be taking the country with him. We must have serious proposals from both parties to step back and restore sustainable government finances. The Republicans have stood and delivered. President Obama and his party have prettied up debt peonage for the nation.

TAX DAY TEA PARTY RALLY PLANNED FOR CHICAGO: April 18, 2011

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[I received the following press release today. I hope many of our readers will attend.]

CHICAGO Thousands of concerned citizens are set to gather at noon on April 18 at Daley Plaza at 50 W. Washington to protest out of control spending, unsustainable deficits and the unprecedented growth of government. People will come together in downtown Chicago, where the tea party movement began, to hold politicians of both parties accountable, stop runaway spending and defend freedom and individual liberty.

“We are very concerned with the direction of our country and our state,” said Chicago coordinator Steve Stevlic. “The decisions made in Washington and Springfield over the next two years will set a path for a generation. We feel the best way to improve the economy, create jobs, and build a sustainable future for our children and grandchildren is to reform government
and restore liberty.”

EVENT DETAILS

What: Chicago Tax Day Tea Party: Reform Government. Restore Liberty.
Where: Daley Plaza, 50 W. Washington St., Chicago
When: Noon on Tax Day, which is Monday, April 18

FEATURED SPEAKERS:
Illinois 8th District Rep. Joe Walsh, who has gained national notoriety for refusing his congressional pension and healthcare benefits, sleeping in his office and opposing the Continuing Resolutions that have funded government at 99 percent of current spending levels
Herman Cain, Businessman, Presidential Candidate
Grover Norquist, President, Americans for Tax Reform
Jonathan Hoenig, Capitalistpig.com
John Tillman, CEO, Illinois Policy Institute
Cisco Cotto, WLS-AM 890 Host
Dan Proft, WLS-AM 890 Host
Adam Andrzejewski, Founder, For the Good of Illinois
Alex Cortes, Let Freedom Ring, Wheresmywaiver.com
Dr. Arie Friedman, Docs 4 Patientcare

Media Contact: Steve Stevlic, Chicago Tea Party Patriots
stevlic@gmail.com or (708) 289-5443

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The Core Values of the Tea Party Patriots are:

Fiscal Responsibility
Constitutionally Limited Government
Free Markets

For more information on the Tea Party Movement in Chicago, Illinois and nationally, please visit:

Chicago
Illinois
Nationa

Chicago And Illinois – Home of the Unions

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Sigh – compared to Indiana and Wisconsin where the legislators are “on the run”, in Chicago and Illinois it is just the usual “tax and spend”. Unions here don’t have to worry about any pesky regulations or laws that might limit their behavior because they own the city and the state and can pretty much do as they please. I’m sure that has nothing to do with the fact that Illinois has among the most under-funded pensions in the US and that our governor is making noise about having the Federal government backstop our pension obligations, as you can see here:

Gov. Pat Quinn included the backstop proposal in the 2012 state budget he released last week. Critics said it would amount to a federal bailout of underfunded state pension programs and pronounced it dead on arrival in Washington. “Hell no–not happenin’,” a House Republican aide said.
 
But one expert said policymakers could consider the idea in the future, as states lobby Congress and the White House for help in tackling their growing pension obligations. A federal guarantee would allow Illinois and other states with fiscal problems to sell pension bonds at lower interest rates.
 
Illinois faces an $80 billion pension shortfall. Quinn’s proposed budget said “significant long-term improvements will come only from additional pension reforms, refinancing the liability and seeking a federal guarantee of the debt, or increasing the required state contributions.” Quinn claims previous state pension reforms will save Illinois taxpayers billions of dollars.

While the Federal government backstop of state pension debt went nowhere, it clearly is a strategy that will be tested at some point in the future, since Illinois has not implemented any of the policy changes necessary to sufficiently fund our obligations or reduce future requirements. Our unions will be on the vanguard of bankrupting Illinois to the point where there is no choice but to apply for Federal aid while the state is flat on our back.

USA, Inc from the view of Kleiner Perkins.

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Powerline today has an analysis of the USA as if it were a firm applying for funds from Kleiner, Perkins. The presentation has a number of slides, some of which I will reproduce here. The link to the full presentation doesn’t work, unfortunately.

[Jonathan adds: Click on the large charts to display them at full size.]

The net worth of the US is on the right side scale. The trend is pretty obvious. The small improvement is probably a sign of some recovery in the past year.

Spending has followed historical events, such as World War II. The trend, however, is not good. After 1930, spending on entitlements began and has grown out of control.

Defense spending is blamed by leftists but there has not been a lot of defense spending since Vietnam.

Taxes have followed a steady trend line until Obama was elected. The sharp rise has not helped as costs far outstrip revenue.

What, then, is the problem ?

Entitlements.

Entitlements plus interest alone will exceed revenue by 2027. That’s 16 years from now.

The left wants to raise taxes.

How high must tax brackets go ?

How do we compare to other countries ?

Better than some and not so good as others.

Can the left stop denying reality and start to discuss it?

No.

Here is the response I got:

I am certain that not everyone here is as stupid as I am.

I try very hard to keep factual information from you. To wit, here is some bad analysis of our fiscal situation.

Of course, I could be wrong and I’m not this dumb. But probably not.

[fixed it for you. If you’re not even going to acknowledge our good faith attempts to allow you to comment while simply requiring that you not insinuate everyone’s stupidity then we can only assume you don’t mind the same treatment in return – mod.

Posted by: Mike K

They constantly use fake versions of my signature, which of course the moderators could stop. It fits their pattern. Modifying my comments is also standard and they actually think this is clever.

No, I am not optimistic.

Union Rule

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The situation in Madison Wisconsin has been so well covered by Ann Althouse on her blog, that I have not felt it necessary to mention it. Yesterday, the situation began to change. This is what union rule would look like:

The state Senators had passed the limited budget bill that included only the collective bargaining provisions. The Democrats had blocked the fiscal portions of the bill by fleeing the state two weeks ago. Walker has had this option since they left but he and Majority Leader FitzGerald, were negotiating with the Democrats in hopes the standoff could be ended. The negotiations (not reported by the MSM, of course) broke down when it became apparent that the Democrats are nationalizing this controversy. Walker then encouraged the Senate Republicans to go ahead with Plan B. They did and the law was signed by Walker yesterday.

Why has this issue been so inflammatory? There are even leftist academics who are advocating serious violence.

My prediction: 10 years from now public higher education, at least in many states, will have ceased to exist. 20 years from now state governments will realize that they still own the buildings and property on their former state university campuses and start charging us rent to use them. 25 years from now citizens will complain that they can’t afford to send their children to college–any college. But by then the peasant class will be so firmly established that it won’t really matter.

Welcome to the 19th century.

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