Tag Archives: Government

Dummies for Dummies

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Aspiration for Dummies:

“My ambition is the status quo.” Governor Mike Pence (R-IN)

Education for Dummies:

Indiana children are not required to attend public school until age 7, a problem with an easy solution, the proverbial low-hanging fruit. A bill to require kids to be in school or home-schooled if they are 5 at the time of the start of the school year is one that the Indiana Senate has declined to debate so far this year. Education for Dummies or Legislating for Dummies = Hoping Indiana Kids Are All Late Bloomers. (Read here for more.)

Science for Dummies:

“When a physician removes a child from a woman, that is the largest organ in a body. That’s a big thing. That’s a big surgery. You don’t have any organs in your body that are bigger than that.” State Representative Mary Sue McClurkin (R-Pelham) of Mississippi

Playing Fair for Dummies:

“You didn’t win but I did.” Christina Shaw, hairstylist and lottery winner, who told her co-workers that the tickets she purchased from all the workers’ contributions wasn’t lucky but the one she purchased for herself was. Who gets the 9.5 million dollars in winnings will now be up to the courts to decide because decency and camaraderie either weren’t present or just couldn’t overcome mindless, selfish greed. Perhaps Ms. Shaw didn’t attend school until she was 7, thereby missing the essential early days of kindergarten which include the lessons on How to Share, Why We Share, What is Sharing, and Only Bad Evil Monster-Trolls Don’t Like to Share.

Public Opinion on Immigration for Dummies:
Two separate recent letters to the editor printed in the Indianapolis Star tackled the topic of illegal immigration. One of the letters advised undocumented immigrants to contact the “U.S. Naturalization and Immigration Services Department,” a department which doesn’t exist. Undocumented workers could, of course, peruse the website for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, administered by the Department of Homeland Security. Concerned citizens interested in the enforcement of immigration law could also give a rudimentary glance at the website for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency, which was formed by merging the investigative branches of the U.S. Customs Service and what was once called the “U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Services.” The intent of the writer was probably good, but a perfunctory web search might have prevented recommending a service which never existed or the close shave of using outdated information culled from, my guess, too many hours of 90′s TV crime dramas with yellow-jacketed agents breaking down doors and shouting “INS!”

Another letter suggested the United States use drones on the southern border to deter illegal crossings. An idea which follows the implentation of it by over 7 years: drones have been flying over the U.S.-Mexico border since 2005.

Legislative Opinion for Dummies:

But, hey, if Joe Public gets confused about policies, agencies, and entities regarding immigration, it’s hardly a surprise. The legislative branch seems also to be a bit confused. The bipartisan group of House members working on an immigration bill are including the suggestion that a nationwide system to verify the legal status of workers be established. Which is explicitly the entire purpose of E-Verify, a system which, say it with me, already exists.
The bill is also purported to include plans to “beef up” national security on the border. Goody, I hope they include the use of drones.
While the inclusions are notable, equally remarkable is the glaring exclusion: a prong, plank, or plan to address the problems which plague the legal immigration system. Frankly, dealing with immigration as though it’s only made up of “illegal” issues is like consuming just the peanut butter portion of a PB-and-J sandwich, a deeply dissatisfying act which misses the point entirely and defies the whole concept and identity of the sandwich itself, or the problem itself. It’s an immigration sandwich, y’all, and scraping the creamy “illegal” filling from the equally essential “legal” portion means you’re not dealing with the sandwich at all. You’re just messing around with the ingredients. And as everyone knows, you’re not supposed to play with your food.
Denial for Dummies:
“This is not something that’s kooky.” Indiana Senate President Pro Tempore David Long (R-District 16, Fort Wayne) about the resolution calling for a U.S. constitutional convention to force a rewrite of the Constitution of the United States, a resolution which passed the Senate on Tuesday, February 26th. Long gave a speech on Tuesday where he said “states’ rights have all but disappeared” because the federal government has issued mandates which provide the choice to states of going along with a federal law or losing related federal funds. Long and those who permitted this bill to pass are conflating rights with choice and seem to believe that states are entitled to federal funds with no obligation to follow the rules that accompany those funds.
And on Wednesday, Senator Long placed the Senate in a split-second pseudo-session solely to avoid the senators having to pay taxes on their per-diem cash receipts during the mid-session recess. At least the good Senator did not call this gambit “kooky.” Instead he said that the action was just doing what the “IRS tells us to do.” As the staff of the Indianapolis Star wrote, “the IRS tells lawmakers to pretend to come to work?”
Of course they don’t, because if they did, that would indeed be “kooky.”
(Read more: Matthew Tully’s article on “kooky style,” Senate’s Wednesday use of the gavel, and regarding the bill for a constitutional convention.)
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Underemployment and the New Economy: Full-time Problems, Part-time Work, and No Solutions

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Most Americans still believe that our economy is based on this basic premise: that it is possible for most people to work their way to the middle class, however loosely that's defined; that hard work and education will lead to success for most people and if people struggle, that's mostly due to poor decisions, sub-par work ethic, or lack of personal responsibility.

The recent suggestion by President Obama to raise the federal minimum wage is based on the premise that many people are working full-time jobs and still not making it. Which is true, many are. But many (more?) are stuck in situations where full-time jobs are not options– and not due to personal choice or failures or even personal and family conditions. A job market that is full of mostly retail and service positions is not one that is predominantly “full-time” (for purposes here, full-time employment is 36-40 hours per week even though legal definitions usually permit the employer or industry to define what is full-time in their sector or market). There's been quiet but growing attention in the media to the changing face of employment. Stories in the New York Times (here, here, here) and NPR (this and this) have pointed out that a growing majority of retail and service jobs prefer to operate with part-time workers because it better meets the demands of their business and allows flexibility of scheduling to meet the level of traffic, down to 15-minute increments. Profits expand when labor costs can be micro-controlled using mini-shifts of 2 to 3 hours or even placing employees on unpaid on-call status throughout the week. This is bad for workers, who have no set schedules, can't get enough hours to earn a living, can't arrange childcare or even pick up the necessary second and third part-time job to meet their monthly expenses. Lifting the minimum wage can help— but its effects will be limited if the whole idea of it is based on a “living wage for full-time work.” This is not just about the obvious employers like Walmart and Jamba Juice. The health care industry is also prone to giving part-time hours and, even less stable from the worker's point of view, PRN (on-call, as-needed) shifts. The education sector, particularly universities and vocational-technical schools also rely heavily on adjunct faculty and associate professors who similarly have no guarantees and no stability, teaching perhaps two classes one semester and then none for one or more semesters. And then there's the increasing use of temporary staffing services which provide short-term jobs, generally low-paying, with lag periods between assignments when no work is available. As an increasing number of companies use these staffing services in place of hiring full-time, permanent employees, the job market offers even less traditional full-time jobs.

The traditional job market most Americans believe in didn't go away entirely due to the Great Recession. The traditional job market has been changed by an economy that's fundamentally different from the past. The new job market does have full-time permanent positions: but what proportion of jobs are covered by that? A light majority, possibly, but, it appears, a declining one. Even when the economy recovers to, optimistically, 5% unemployment, the signs seem to indicate that the new economy, the recovered economy, will actually be majority part-time, PRN, and temporary employment. The new job market in 2 to 3 years will be based in no small part on jobs that are non-traditional and impermanent. The new condition for a growing plurality of Americans will be under-employment not by choice, lack of education, or personal “fault,” but due to an economy that works differently than it ever has in the modern era.

Without some change to wages or even social supports (TANF, UI, WIC) and employment regulations, this new mode of employment will be bad for everyone. The individual workers and their families will be affected immediately. But even in the short-term, businesses are affected by lack of demand as people cannot afford to purchase goods and services for themselves. In the medium to long-term, it will affect finance and the world of money in the U.S. writ large: how do the permanently under-employed and permanently transient workers qualify for credit? How would solid loans be made to workers who work for a staffing agency one quarter of the year and spend the following three quarters in various part-time jobs? How stable would be credit given to people who cannot demonstrate a reasonable ability to repay that credit because they have no reliable income? So the choice of lenders would be between denying all such applications (very, very bad for the national economy) or risking the entire credit and financing system on sub-grade, high-risk loans. Housing crisis, anyone? Fiscal crisis, anyone?

Equally troubling is the idea that neither public nor private entities appear to be accurately measuring these trends, let alone coming up with solutions to them. Unemployment is still measured largely by people who self-report through the Current Population Survey that they are both unemployed and looking for full-time work. This misses, as is so often said, those who are underemployed, temporarily employed, or so frustrated they've dropped out of the labor market entirely. The Bureau of Labor Statistics is working on a number of alternative metrics but those aren't the norm right now— and it always depends on the level of communication between government agencies and how the data is used. And even then, there are the questions. Who is measuring and compiling all the necessary elements of this new labor economy: the nature of the jobs in existence, the jobs that will be created? Do they measure only the number of jobs by industry or are they doing an accurate job of measuring by type (part-time, full-time) and by stability (temporary, seasonal, intermittent, permanent)? Of course, how these terms are defined makes a world of difference: permitting industry to define “full-time” may be useful for questions of safety— truck drivers, air traffic controllers, or surgeons— but is much less useful in questions of employment and wages. If the measurement of employment, like unemployment, is both incomplete and based on self-reporting, the measurement will be inadequate to provide the data needed to create solutions to the problems of the new economy.

Current benefits programs like unemployment insurance (UI) and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) are already being used as income supports by many who are already stuck in and limited by the new economy, which means benefits are being used in ways they weren't designed for and for purposes they aren't efficient or effective at meeting. The UI system was intended for people who are involuntarily unemployed in the short-term. The media and the government have already focused heavily on the problem of the long-term unemployed. However, there is a growing use of UI benefits by underemployed, part-time, temporary, and on-call workers– people who are employed. In many cases, their income is absolutely inadequate to meet their basic needs but they may make too much money to qualify for TANF, WIC, or similar programs and UI will only cover them for a limited period (in Indiana, it's 26 weeks). In many cases, these benefits are difficult to navigate for working people precisely because they were intended for the impoverished— and, in American mind and American policy, these are two characteristics that weren't intended to elide.

Like unemployment and wages, the systems of these benefit programs also rely heavily on self-reporting and the nature of the corresponding laws for these programs requires time-consuming interviews and paperwork to ascertain eligibility for the benefits. Here again, eligibility is defined by being unemployed, not “under-employed,” and unemployed in the short-term. Think “Welfare to Work”. The problem is, assistance frequently comes weeks after people have already fallen into desperation. And assistance stops when partial employment, temporary, or on-call employment has been accepted or, at least, after that under or temporary employment has become “customary”. If the long term trajectory of the nature of jobs in this country is trending toward extended under, partial, and temporary employment for a significant portion of Americans, these programs are and will be insufficient to provide what will be needed.

Is a new benefit program needed as a form of income support? Politically, that would be nearly impossible.

Are new regulations needed to protect workers? (And protect businesses and the overall economy?) Again, that would be nearly impossible to achieve, politically.

Will we need to change the way creditworthiness is defined and go to micro-loans at low interest rates?

Do we require a change to how we think about wages and place people/workers on “retainers”– a minimum amount of monthly income to remain on jobs where the number of hours must be flexible and inconsistent? Who would pay these retainers? The government? Federal or state? The employers?

What probably can't happen is changing the economy back to one where full-time, 40 hours per week, permanent jobs are the norm. The businesses and services we have, need, and expect don't function that way. The peculiarly American insistence that our desires and needs alike be met 24 hours per day or delivered the next day creates businesses and services which don't fit neatly into 40 hour per week boxes. Of course, businesses could change the dynamic so they use less workers for more hours per week and/or pay reasonable wages– both of which have benefits and problems of their own and will never happen as long as businesses' goals are mostly maximizing profits and increasing growth in terms of “now” and “this quarter.” Sure, we could have jobs that are busy-work: the old digging holes and then filling them conundrum. But this is not a reasonable solution. It isn't reality-based.

The problem is not being adequately measured, let alone addressed. Nostalgia and denial are standing in the way. Too many in power don't yet recognize the problem or at least, don't acknowledge that there has been a significant and probably permanent change in the nature and demands of work– but no change to the real needs and overabundance of supply of workers to fill the “decreased” or, rather, intermittent, micro-variable roles that need filled (by hour, not year). And even good policy solutions like lifting the minimum wage, EITC, TANF, and UI are based on a world and economy that lies in the past: a world of full-time permanent jobs. So, of course, we should continue with the good policy solutions– they address real problems. They just don't address this one. And that is the Real Problem.

So what do we do?

International Notebook Clean-up Day (Quotes from the Last Many, Many Moons)

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“That's when you know you're living right, when you're an eighty-something percent free throw shooter and you get your own rebound. But I think he needs a haircut.” I.U. Men's Basketball Coach Tom Crean of Jordan Hulls, following the 01/12/13 game against Minnesota. Indianapolis Star.

“There are no conditions of life to which a man cannot get accustomed, especially if he sees them accepted by everyone around him.” Leo Tolstoy

“Some argue that [flat and falling wages, labor conditions, loss of well-paying "middle class" jobs, and inequality] was an unavoidable result of deeper shifts: global competition, cheap goods made in China, technological changes. Although those factors played a part, they have not been decisive. In Europe, where the same changes took place, inequality has remained much lower than in the United States. The decisive factor has been politics and public policy: tax rates, spending choices, labor laws, regulations, campaign finance rules…. Inequality hardens society into a class system, imprisoning people in the circumstances of their birth– a rebuke to the very idea of the American dream. Inequality divides us from one another in schools, in neighborhoods, at work, on airplanes, in hospitals, in what we eat, the condition of our bodies, in what we think, in our children's futures, in how we die…Inequality corrodes trust among fellow citizens, making it seem as if the game is rigged. Inequality provokes a generalized anger that finds targets where it can…Inequality saps the will to conceive of ambitious solutions to large collective problems, because those problems no longer seem very collective. Inequality undermines democracy.” George Packer, “The Broken Contract: Inequality and American Decline,” Foreign Affairs, November-December 2011. (Don't let the date on this one fool you. This is still an engrossing journal article with important things to say about what's happened in American life and what it means.)

“Government, politics, corporations, the media, organized religion, organized labor, banks, businesses, and other mainstays of a healthy society are failing…With few notable exceptions, the nation's onetime social pillars are ill-equipped for the 21st century. Most critically, they are failing to adapt quickly enough for a population buffeted by wrenching economic, technological, and demographic change.” Ron Fournier and Sophie Quinton, “In Nothing We Trust,” National Journal, April 19, 2012. (still a worthwhile and relevant read.)

“The care of human happiness, not the destruction of life, is the first and only object of good government.” Thomas Jefferson

“We, the people, recognize that we have responsibilities as well as rights; that our destinies are bound together; that a freedom which asks only what's in it for me, a freedom without a commitment to others, a freedom without love or charity or duty or patriotism, is unworthy of our founding ideals and those who died in their defense. As citizens, we understand that America is not about what can be done for us. It's about what can be done by us, together, through the hard and frustrating but necessary work of self-government. That's what we believe.” President Barack Obama

“Going to war, being at war, should be painful for the entire country, from the start. Henceforth, when we ship the troops off to battle, let's pay for it… 'Freedom isn't free' shouldn't be a bumper sticker– it should be policy.” Rachel Maddow, Drift.

Midnight Endorsement: IN-House 58

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Indiana State Congressional District 58


Prediction: Incumbent Woody Burton (R) will win this race. It's a lock. There's no opponent. But Emerald/Orange is going to go crazy and endorse her author-owner-operator. Yes, folks, the official Emerald/Orange endorsement is for…me. I'm writing myself in (maybe) — not because I think I'm the best candidate. The best candidate is out there somewhere but (a) I don't know them personally yet and (b) they're sitting this one out, apparently. So, I'm endorsing myself as a write-in because here's what I'd get to work on in the Indiana General Assembly if I were going to be sworn-in to office in January:

 

  • Lifting the state minimum wage. Yes, that's right. Because working full-time at any job should pay a living wage. Because if we as a society and a state say that we value work, we should actually, radically, you know, value work. $7.25 per hour just isn't good enough. Indiana looks smarter and governs smarter if it not only acknowledges reality but actually responds to it. This is a good place to start.
  • Repealing Right to Work legislation.
  • Creating a tax deduction for technology. This would operate similarly to the Renter's Deduction on state taxes. A portion (up to a cap) of the expenses that people shell out for their internet access, mobile phone service, and computers, modems, routers would be deductible. Why? Because paying for that stuff is really expensive and really necessary. It's no longer possible to fully participate in life or have equal opportunities to anything unless you have solid, convenient, and affordable 24-hour access to the internet. It just isn't. For the lower middle class, for the working poor, for the poor-poor, relegating them to libraries for their 20 allotted minutes on line at the libraries' convenience is not the answer. It's not good enough. It's not democratic. It's not fair. And there's a collective interest for all of us, I think, in ensuring that we have as many Hoosier players on the field as possible. So let's give a deduction for the equipment.
  • Creating a tax deduction for any business that paints their roof white or installs a green roof.
  • Working with farmers to create a bill and some incentives that might encourage farmland preservation. Indiana is blessed with some of the best agricultural property in the country. And every day, more and more of it is put up for sale for some new housing development or yet another strip mall. For starters, central Indiana is over-supplied with housing stock (not necessarily affordable housing, of which there's a dearth, but still) so we don't have an immediate need for another suburb at this point. For seconders, central Indiana has empty and partially vacant pre-existing retail spaces. So building a pretty one isn't a looming crisis, either. But the primary issue here is this: while right now our production is high thanks to genetic engineering, hybrid varieties, mostly fertile soil, inexpensive water, and a couple centuries of know-how (We're Indiana. We're really good at this.), in a reality-based universe, climate change will cause disruptions to food supplies. Climate change– or even a spell of bad summers, a new agricultural disease, or water supply issues could reduce the productivity per acre. That would be bad. And making sure we still have preserves of farmland to use if that happened would be a solid investment in the future. I'm not saying farm every acre all the time; I'm just saying it's worth keeping the farmland on reserve as opposed to degrading it and canceling that option out.
  • Working with teachers and the Department of Education to double-down on public schools and to create systems of assessing teacher performance that, frankly, don't suck. If we're going to keep the voucher program in place, fine. But I want public schools to be competitive choices. I want every school (public or private or whatever) to provide a solid, well-rounded education, to be the pride and core of their communities, and to have appropriately compensated and encouraged staff– and that includes cafeteria workers, bus drivers, and janitors. And while we're at it, we should add universal pre-K to the list.
  • Removing pension and 401 disbursements from the list of income that is deductible from unemployment insurance benefits. This is a small, wonky little thing, but seriously, unemployed people earned those things while they were employed, so deducting it like it's discretionary income isn't reasonable. It'd be like deducting any cash they withdrew from savings accounts. It already isn't deductible in cases of extreme and unforeseeable emergency. Oddly, losing one's job and having no income doesn't fall under that definition. I think it should.
  • And while I was working on these things, this is what else I'd do: create a website for myself-as-legislator that's actually helpful and informative. Yes, legislators already have websites. I don't think they're good enough. So if I were in the whole business of representative government, I'd put up a website that actually works toward that ideal. For every bill that was in progress, up for a vote, or through a vote, there'd be an entry that would describe the bill and what it does; what's good, bad, and neutral about it– and for whom; and I'd say why I support or don't support it. Because I'd think my constituents might want to know that stuff. And even if they didn't, it should be out there, just in case. It should be right up front so people don't have to be insiders or political junkies or have an indecent amount of free time or risk tying themselves up in google-knots to suss out what just happened at the Statehouse.
Well, or I could just vote for Woody Burton. He really does seem nice. And, oh yeah, he's going to win. So I suppose he'll be alright if he isn't endorsed by a second-rate blog.

 

Trois Choses Pour Tuesday (erm, Mardi)

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More Stuff Other People Said

“No one has yet won an election in the United States by lecturing America about limits, even if common sense suggests such homilies may be overdue.” Simon Schama

Obama “says we need more firemen, more policemen, more teachers—did he not get the message of Wisconsin? The American people did! It’s time for us to cut back on government and help the American people!” Mitt Romney

“If Congress isn’t going to do anything to protect the U.S. economy and the Federal Reserve isn’t going to do any more to protect the U.S. economy then, yes, we are at the mercy of what happens in Europe and in China and in other parts of the world. But that is because we have chosen to be at their mercy. We are not helpless. We’re just acting like we are.” Ezra Klein

“Self-reliance and teamwork are not opposing virtues. We must have both.” Bill Clinton, 1996 Inaugural Address

“The truth is that, as technological societies become more advanced they have bigger government because they can afford it. And to the extent that government is public investment in public goods, including education of a skilled workforce, then it pays for itself through higher economic growth in time.” Michael Lind, who also points out that countries spending as much as 50% of GDP on government are frequently as  or more economically competitive than the U.S. while Third and Fourth World countries typically spend far less on government as a percent of GDP than does the United States.

“Truth is great and will prevail if left to herself…she is the proper and sufficient antagonist to error, and has nothing to fear from the conflict unless by human interposition disarmed of her natural weapons, free argument and debate, errors ceasing to be dangerous when it is permitted freely to contradict them.” Thomas Jefferson

By the Numbers

1—Liter of water required to grow one calorie of food. (U.S. State Department)

4—Percent reduction in the number of violent crimes reported in 2011 from the number reported during 2010. The number of property crimes declined by 0.8% in the same period. (FBI; USAToday)

80—Percent of economics experts, including the director of the CBO, who agree that unemployment rates in the U.S. were lower at the end of 2010 than they would have been without the 2009 stimulus. (Washington Post; University of Chicago Booth School of Business)

13,000—Number of public sector jobs  lost in the U.S. during the month of May. Private sector jobs increased. (MSNBC)

6 Million—Amount spent annually by Virginia to protect the city of Norfolk alone from the rising sea levels of the Atlantic Ocean. (MSNBC)

76.8 Million – Dollars raised by the Republicans for Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign in May.  $60 million dollars were raised in that month by the Democrats for President Obama. (CBS News)

3.1 Billion—Dollar amount of solar cells the U.S. purchased from China in 2011. This equals more than half the American market for these devices. (U.S. Department of Commerce; Washington Post)

Miss Otis Regrets

“Dear Emerald Orange, I can’t help but notice that your normally lame blog has become increasingly inane. You seem to have nothing to say except to repeat the media droppings that others have left behind. What gives? Are you even trying? Love, Blog Reader”

Dear Blog Reader: Yes, yes, I am very trying (chortle), ask anyone. What gives? Lots of what I suppose could be termed “life,” which has made it difficult to post anything approximating original (although I did create a nifty table for the Indiana 9th District Race; like, from scratch and everything). And in fairness, I never claimed Emerald Orange would be anything but lame. So there. But I regret the blog has become nothing but “media droppings” of late. So, if anyone would like to relieve Emerald Orange from the quote-and-numbers doldrums, feel free to ask a question or heck, guest post. Just send an e-mail to emeraldorange@live.com, or throw a comment in, and presto-change-o, Better Blog. Much thanks. Love, Michelle. (Although, if your guest post is offensive or, heaven forfend, spam, you have no chance of appearing on my lame little blog. XOXO, BFF 4-Ever.)

Stuff Other People Said

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“Well, about everybody’s more liberal than me.” John Gregg, Democratic candidate for Indiana governor

President Obama “cut taxes and spending…He didn’t go on a spending spree. He didn’t break up the too big to fail banks—they’ve only gotten bigger and fail-ier…Under Obama there’s more drilling than ever…Obama spent most of last year conceding the Republican premise that government needs cutting…[T]he Dow was at 7949 when he took office. Now it’s 12,000 and over. Corporate profits are at their highest ever. If he’s a Socialist, he’s a lousy one.” Bill Maher

“Yes, Obama duped young people by not doing every single thing they want. So now they’ll all vote Republican. It’s like when I want some bread, I won’t settle for half a loaf. Instead, I will have a muffin made of broken glass.” Stephen Colbert

“Forget what President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney say they want to do next year. The better question might be: How do they intend to get any of it done… The frequent elections in the House and staggered elections in the Senate, the expansion of the filibuster, the influence of the Supreme Court and the polarization of the political parties combine to constrain power. You can win an election and quickly find you lack the support to pass major priorities.” Ezra Klein

“The whole purpose of a constitution in this country, at its sacred core, is to expand rights, not restrict them.” Ben Jealous

“…the majority of Americans are conservative. They believe in things like the Constitution. I know that’s weird to some people.” Marco Rubio

“…you have Grover Norquist wandering the earth in his white robes saying that if you raise taxes one penny, he’ll defeat you. He can’t murder you, he can’t burn down your house, the only thing he can do to you, as an elected official, is defeat you for reelection. And if that means more to you than your country when we need patriots to come out in a situation where we’re in extremity, you shouldn’t even be in Congress…If you want to be a purist, go somewhere on a mountaintop and praise the east or something, but if you want to be in politics, you learn to compromise and you learn to compromise an issue without compromising yourself. Show me a guy who won’t compromise and I’ll show you a guy with rock for brains.” The always-entertaining Alan Simpson, who paired up with Erskine Bowles for an interview on Fareed Zakaria GPS, May 27. FZGPS is always great, but that first segment interview with Bowles and Simpson was especially so. Podcasts are available on iTunes (the audio version is free) or you can read the transcript here.

The Unquashable Note-Taker Strikes Again

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Rock the Quote

“Europe’s like a man who’s suffering chronic arteriosclerosis and who has also been hit by a truck.” David Frum, speaking about Europe’s economy (the diseased man) and the Euro crisis (truck).

“…financial markets are inherently unstable. They will neither self-correct nor self-regulate. Their instability poses a threat to markets and economies and people across the globe. Therefore, they need to be regulated…and JP’s [Morgan Chase] loss should be taken as a warning that our tendency is to set them too low.” Jared Bernstein

“We’ve had it backward for the last thirty years. Rich businesspeople like me don’t create jobs. Rather, they are a consequence of an ecosystemic feedback loop animated by middle-class consumers.” Nick Hanauer

“Well, growth is still the best antidote for poverty. But one of the things we’ve learned…is growth alone isn’t enough so we try to talk about inclusive growth…[W]hat inclusive growth means to me is that you also need an efficient social safety net, so that when the vicissitudes of economies or world events strike, that people at the bottom aren’t crushed or you don’t lose a generation through…improper nutrition or education…At the same time, there’s still a lot of people just above the poverty line. So there’s a need to sort of create opportunity.” Robert Zoellick, outgoing president of the World Bank

“Conservatives believe in the ties that bind us, that society is stronger when we make vows to each other and we support each other. So I don’t support gay marriage in spite of being a conservative. I support gay marriage because I am a conservative.” British Prime Minister David Cameron

“Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber.” Plato

By the Numbers

2.4—Percent of total employment in the U.S. accounted for by green jobs in 2010. That’s roughly 3.1 million green jobs, 860,000 of which were in the public sector. (U.S. Department of Labor, Washington Post, Indianapolis Star)

15.4—Percent of U.S. GDP made up of tax revenues in 2011. Under President Reagan, tax revenues equaled 18.2% of GDP. To find a pre-financial crisis year where taxes equaled 15.4% of GDP, one would have to go all the way back to 1950 (pre-Medicaid/Medicare. Heck, that’s pre-Hawaii statehood). (Ezra Klein, Washington Post, MSNBC)

50-100—Percent of the increase in death rates for older male workers in the years immediately following a job loss. (Daniel Sullivan, Till von Wachter; Columbia University)

75—Percent of medicines consumed in the U.S. which are generic/off-label. The cost of the 25% of medicines which are not generic equal 90% of the $310 billion spent annually in the U.S. on prescription drugs. (Gardiner Harris, New York Times, NPR, The Diane Rehm Show)

263—Approximate number of organizations the U.S. government has either created or re-configured to tackle aspects of the war on terror since September 11, 2001. 33 new building complexes have been built for the intelligence bureaucracies alone (17 million square feet, which equals 22 U.S. Capitols or 3 Pentagons). (Fareed Zakaria GPS; CNN)

1864—The first year the motto “In God We Trust” appeared on an American coin. It did not appear on paper currency until 1957. (Diarmaid McCullough)

230,000—Number of employees working for the Department of Homeland Security. (Fareed Zakaria GPS; CNN)

I Am Coinstar

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“Please wait while Coinstar catches up.”

For those who’ve been sagacious (and financially liquid) enough to have never experienced the wonders of cashing your coins in public at the grocery  store, this will make no sense (I deliberately avoided “cents” here. You’re welcome.), but upon loading one’s coins into the little tray, there will inevitably come the moment where the user is out of coins but Coinstar’s tray is still chock-full of them. The screen will then read: “My, you have a lot of coins! Please wait while Coinstar catches up.”

Well, I am currently Coinstar. I am overloaded with metaphorical coins. Subsequently, it appears I have gone quiet on Twitter and the blog. Luckily (for whom, she wonders), there is the backlog of notes and quotes I have scribbled over the past while, so here, yet another “quotes from the news” post, perhaps a little less fresh than the usual batches. My notebook is Coinstar, too, and it’s past time to empty the tray. Presumably there will come a day when I can post Other Stuff again. But for now…

“Just when you think you’ve heard it all in Washington, somebody comes up with a new way to go off the deep end.” President Barack Obama

“Covering Newt Gingrich running for president was like free pizza.” Rachel Maddow

“In my ideal world, we would eliminate a payroll tax, which is a tax on jobs, and replace it. I think we ought to have a carbon tax to replace it. I think we ought to have a consumption tax over the long run to replace a good share of the income tax. These are not ideas that necessarily divide liberals or conservatives. Part of the problem we have is, as we cut budgets, the temptation is to add more tax incentives and disincentives as ways of accomplishing policy goals that you can’t do through the budget and so you inevitably encrust the system. But we have an opportunity, if we could get over the dysfunctional tribal politics that we have right now, to actually create a tax system that could be a model for the rest of the world instead of one that’s imperfect at best.” Norm Ornstein

“I think we’re increasingly having to confront the fact that the death penalty in this country isn’t a question that should be answered by simply asking ‘Do people deserve to die for the crimes they commit.’  I think we have to ask ‘Do we deserve to kill.’” Bryan Stevenson

“In the real world, people need Medicare; they need retirement security; they need a safety net. This Ryan budget, endorsed by Mitt Romney, loses that.” Jared Bernstein

“…one of the arguments that you hear…is  ’if the government can require us to do this, what else can they require us to do.” But…of course, there are many, many things that the government forces you to buy. I mean, you have to pay taxes into the Medicare system and the argument here is that what’s different is they are requiring people to go out and buy a product from private companies. These are still private insurance companies that are providing this and it struck me that, you know, if they had just gone whole hog and put in a single-payer system and just required people to pay taxes into a government system, I don’t think it would have triggered these questions about the interstate commerce clause.” Karen Tumulty, on the ACA and the constitutionality of the insurance mandate.

“[President Obama] has a strong streak of idealism in him, which is all to the good because it’s very much associated with the American message to the world. But what has impressed me from talking to him…[is] that he does understand what is unique and novel about the 21st century. He does understand…the nature of power has changed; that the role of the West as the dominant force in the world has come to an end, that new centers of power are rising. The population of the world is really politically awakened. In that context we cannot exercise the kind of power we briefly seemed to have gained after the fall of the Soviet Union and which, unfortunately…we largely dissipated.” Zbiegniew Brzezinski

By the Numbers, Sunday Edition

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13 Percent of world’s undiscovered oil that is found in the Arctic. As much as 30% of the world’s untapped natural gas resources can be found there. The Arctic is warming twice as fast as the rest of the globe, opening shipping lanes, competition for oil and gas resources, and potentials for conflict among nations. (U.S. Geological Survey; Associated Press)

33 Number of states in the U.S. with capital punishment. This number will become 32 when Governor Malloy signs the bill in Connecticut removing capital punishment from Connecticut law. (MSNBC)

33 Percent, roughly, of adult population in the state of Indiana that has a post-secondary degree. Indiana is 40th in the nation in number of post-secondary degree and certificate holders among adults. (WFYI)

40 Percent of Americans who believe life on Earth was created as-is. About 20% of Americans believe in theistic evolution. 25% believe in evolution by natural selection. Among American scientists, 87% believe in evolution by natural selection. (Pew Center for Religion and Public Life; NPR; Diane Rehm Show)

56 Number of American soldiers serving in Afghanistan who were investigated on suspicion of using or distributing heroin, morphine, or other opiates in 2010 and 2011. Eight soldiers during the same time period died from drug overdoses. There were 70,000 drug offenses by roughly 36,000 U.S. soldiers between 2006-2011, overall. (Army Criminal Investigation Command; Indianapolis Star)

77 Cents earned by an American woman for every dollar earned by an American man. In Indiana, that number is 72 cents per dollar. (National Women’s Law Center; WFYI)

7.1 Million Number of Americans currently under correctional supervision, including imprisonment, probation, and parole. That is 760 prisoners for every 100,000 citizens. Most Eurozone countries are 1/7th of that number, per capita. In 1980, the U.S.’s numbers were 1/4th of what they are now. (CNN; Fareed Zakaria GPS)

American Foreign Policy after Iraq and Afghanistan: Notes from Lee Hamilton’s March 1st Lecture

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The following are my notes from the 2012 Israel Lecture in U.S. Public Policy given by Lee Hamilton at the Lilly Performance Hall, University of Indianapolis, March 1, 2012. I tweeted afterwards that Mr. Hamilton was brilliant and surprisingly, wonderfully funny. The humor won’t come through here, but hopefully the gist of his speech will. Happy Reading.

American Foreign Policy after Iraq and Afghanistan, The Honorable Lee H. Hamilton

There are four central realities facing the U.S. as era of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan end.

(1.) Preeminence of American Power: The U.S. is still the central player on the global stage; it is the only one with a global reach, but it is hobbled by obstacles and it is not an unchallenged power. (2.) Shifting Alignment/Alliances of Great Powers and the Rise of New Powers: New nature of international relationships is defined by fluidity, both in identity of greater/lesser powers and the dynamics between them. Russia, China, India, Brazil, Turkey, Indonesia are waxing while the old European power is facing political, financial, and social decline. Europe and the West are weakening; Asia rising. The balance is now multi-polar but eastward looking. President Obama recently said “Can’t put U.S. back to work unless Asia is successful.” (Note that among multi-polar world, the balance could really rest with a bipolar world: U.S. and China.) The U.S. for now is still the preeminent power, but the lead is shrinking. (3.) Globalization: The megatrend is globalization, our “hyperconnectedness” is the single most important reality; refers to economics/trade/currency and information. Interdependence. Powerful tool for prosperity but not always good for progressive goals and is often met with resistance in U.S.(outsourcing and employment rates; low growth). Too often, globalization not global: there are winners and losers. Raises living standards but unevenly and causes disruptions and downturns. Double-edged sword: both good and bad; opportunities and crises alike. (4.) Turmoil and Insecurity: Economic, political, environmental, and health. Example of ca. 10 million deaths in Africa over past couple years due to these forces. (Why wasn’t it on the front page of the paper, the evening news?) Enormous ramifications for all of us, whether or not we are paying attention. Recent Pentagon briefing included key phrase “in a period of persistent conflict.” Chaos and conflict are and will be constant realities.

The seven key challenges to the U.S. in this era are:

(1.) Nuclear Proliferation: Nuclear attack not the most likely risk to us, but the most consequential and very unpredictable (N. Korea, Iran, and ???) We have sanctions and certain safeguards but risk is still there; must curb growth of arms and armsholders. (2.) Managing Global Economy: Characterized by low/declining growth and imbalances generated by trade deficits and poverty. Fragility is the challenge. Somehow we must support responsible globalization: one which includes and manages growth while protecting the weak and preventing inflation. Which model will the world use to achieve growth. The U.S. is confident in market capitalism but the world is not convinced (e.g. China’s growth has been 9-10% annually for past decade while ours has been struggling to find 1-2%). China’s growth will slow, but still, many in the world will not take our word for it that our way/the free market is most efficacious. The preferred model is not obvious and this debate will be a bigger one in world affairs than the U.S. realizes. (As a sidenote, the U.S. cannot be a world leader, preeminent if it fails to get its economy in order. The U.S. must solve its shortage of demand/lack of growth and its debt. Problem is: solving one is bad for the other.) (3.) Energy: How do we power the future? This is the great failure of U.S. policy in the past 3-4 decades, our failure to reduce our need for foreign oil. While it’s improving, it’s still too far from being resolved. “We’re very slow learners.” Favors an all of the above approach, expanding supply, efficiency, and alternative sources. Can’t continue to be slow on this. (4.) China: Most important bilateral relationship in the world, between China and U.S; China is our only peer/competitor. Could become formidable problem or rival. The U.S. cannot solve any of the major problems without Chinese cooperation. Dismisses view that China is belligerent towards us but acknowledges their wariness and self-protectiveness. Must keep dialogues and diplomacy with China open and be persistent with communication. Many of the big foreign policy questions in years ahead involve China. (5.) Cybersecurity: Key challenge because critical infrastructure (financial, electrical, water) is online and much of it is privatized. Companies do not have capacity to fend off a cyberattack. Federal government might, but companies rightfully have concerns about government involvement in their businesses. Need better communication between public/private. The risk is great (potential damage + speed of attack + anonymity of and difficulty tracing/apprehending attackers. Attackers can be a teen with a laptop or a government. Damage would be difficult to manage either way.) (6.) Terrorism: This is not an existential threat, but it does still exist. (7.) Turmoil: Toughest question facing us on this front is asking when we intervene (e.g. Syria). “You’ve got to be careful when you start supplying arms to people.” E.g. Afghanistan, only to have our gifted weapons turned against us by those we had previously armed. Unintended consequences of intervention can be devastating and long-lived. How do we/the President decide when to intervene and in which way?

Conclusion: With these realities and challenges in mind, should U.S. be optimistic or pessimistic about foreign relations in the future? “What difference does it make?” More important than what we think about the future is what we do. Best thing citizens can do is to make our own spots better and stronger. The U.S. is always striving. Good outcomes are possible but not inevitable. Could be prosperity or it could be chaos; but either way, American leadership will be needed.

(There were three questions asked in the discussion following the lecture. My intention is to post the notes from those in the Comments for this post soonish.)