Archive for July 1st, 2006
With the upcoming 4th of July holiday many people have a 4 day weekend. I suggest that this is the perfect opportunity for a bit of self-reflection and some deep thinking about the current state of affairs in this country. I posit that our founding fathers would be shocked and dismayed at what has become of our once great country that was based on the principles of freedom and liberty.
The following article is very illuminating, please take the time to read the whole thing. You owe it to yourself and your country.
by Ron Paul
Before the U.S. House of Representatives, June 29, 2006
I have been involved in politics for over 30 years and have never seen the American people so angry. It’s not unusual to sense a modest amount of outrage, but it seems the anger today is unusually intense and quite possibly worse than ever. It’s not easily explained, but I have some thoughts on this matter. Generally, anger and frustration among people are related to economic conditions; bread and butter issues. Yet today, according to government statistics, things are going well. We have low unemployment, low inflation, more homeowners than ever before, and abundant leisure with abundant luxuries. Even the poor have cell phones, televisions, and computers. Public school is free, and anyone can get free medical care at any emergency room in the country. Almost all taxes are paid by the top 50% of income earners. The lower 50% pay essentially no income taxes, yet general dissatisfaction and anger are commonplace. The old slogan “It’s the economy, stupid,” just doesn’t seem to explain things
Some say it’s the war, yet we’ve lived with war throughout the 20th century. The bigger they were the more we pulled together. And the current war, by comparison, has fewer American casualties than the rest. So it can’t just be the war itself.
People complain about corruption, but what’s new about government corruption? In the 19th century we had railroad scandals; in the 20th century we endured the Teapot Dome scandal, Watergate, Koreagate, and many others without too much anger and resentment. Yet today it seems anger is pervasive and worse than we’ve experienced in the past.
Could it be that war, vague yet persistent economic uncertainty, corruption, and the immigration problem all contribute to the anger we feel in America? Perhaps, but it’s almost as though people aren’t exactly sure why they are so uneasy. They only know that they’ve had it and aren’t going to put up with it anymore.
The rest is here.
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Any who is a fan of the guitar greats, does not want to miss Robin Trower. He will be performing a free concert tonight, Saturday, July 1, in the Gateway Park in the Tonawandas. More info here.
Here’s a tease of what to expect tonight.
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New York attorney general and gubernatorial front-runner Eliot Spitzer said Friday the state’s banking and insurance regulators aren’t doing enough to protect residents, especially those with low income, from abusive financial practices.
No one is forced into abusive financial practices.
Meanwhile, the Republican candidate, former Assembly Minority Leader John J. Faso, said authorities must enforce the law. But he said the real solution to Buffalo’s problems is an improved economy that helps the poor, not “more government.”
BINGO!
“Mere passage of laws doesn’t necessarily mean that people will follow them,” said Faso, a former member of Buffalo’s control board. “The underlying solution to the problem is an improved economy in Buffalo. It is not more government.”
Score - Faso 1, Spitzer 0
New York can’t afford Eliot $pitzer!
Albany support lacking for control board reforms
Reforms that the City of Buffalo’s state financial control board seeks in state labor laws, contract rules and pension policies are not likely to go very far in Albany, according to some people who watch and monitor the state Capitol.
“I’d like to be more optimistic, but I’ve been here too long,” said Mark P. Alesse, state director of the National Federation of Independent Business.
This is what is driving businesses and people out of the area. Even if no new programs or raises are put into effect, our taxes will go up every time another person decides to move.
He expects “special interests” to mount a powerful campaign to thwart control board efforts aimed at changing the Taylor Law and other policies that critics say hurt municipalities. Alesse contended that reformers have long demonstrated the merits of overhauling some state policies.
“Merits don’t count much in Albany; politics do,” Alesse said.
In fact, when two local legislators this year tried to get a panel established just to look at the state’s Taylor Law, their proposal died in committee.
“The main barrier has been the power of the public employee unions,” said E.J. McMahon, director of the fiscally conservative Manhattan Institute Empire Center for New York State Policy.
Until the voters wake up and realize that this is the root of the problem and vote for a solution, nothing will change.
The control board last week said that it cannot alone - and just with spending cuts - return Buffalo to fiscal stability. Unless the state reforms labor laws, contract rules and pension policies, the state must continue to send more and more money to Buffalo and other upstate cities, board members said.
Some state lawmakers from the Buffalo area warn that escalating tensions between unions and Buffalo’s control board could undermine attempts to revamp laws. The local delegation believes that the 26-month wage freeze imposed by Buffalo’s control board is an impediment to reform efforts.
Having “one-way conversations” won’t produce meaningful change, said Assemblywoman Crystal D. Peoples, D-Buffalo.
If Peoples can’t face the reality of the situation, she needs to get out. How long has Crystal been in office now? Has anything improved during that time? I don’t think so.
“We need to bring all parties to the table. These kind of changes can’t be made in a vacuum, because they impact people’s lives.”
“Blaming it all on the unions is the wrong approach,” said Assemblyman Sam Hoyt, D-Buffalo.
Sam is right, it is not all the fault of the unions. The politicians who are bought off must share in the blame.
That is not to say that Hoyt disagrees with some of the changes the control board seeks. He co-sponsored, with Assemblyman Robin L. Schimminger, D-Kenmore, a bill to amend the Taylor Law to require arbitrators to make a municipality’s ability to pay the main criterion when imposing contracts. The bill never made it out of committee.
Meanwhile, as the control board lobbies for state reforms, city union leaders have been advancing a different Albany agenda. They want the state to shut down the control board, or at least rein in its powers.
Assembly Majority Leader Paul A. Tokasz, a Cheektowaga Democrat who is among the most powerful members of the local delegation, declined to discuss his views on state reforms. He contended that some of his comments in prior articles have been “twisted around” in newspaper editorials and on radio talk shows.
Tokasz would say only that the State Legislature session has ended and that it is unclear whether lawmakers would return early prior to the fall elections.
Tokasz is a fool. He can’t speak out about the real problems because he’ll lose his “supporters”. If he speaks out against the reforms he just confirms that he is part of the problem. That explains his silence.
Schimminger, chairman of the Economic Development Committee, said that one should not overlook the fact that he and other state lawmakers have pushed for reforms, albeit unsuccessfully.
For example, he and State Sen. Mary Lou Rath, R-Williamsville, sponsored bills that would have created a blue-ribbon commission to review the Taylor Law.
Hoyt said he thinks there will be a greater likelihood of seeing major policy shifts next year when a newly elected governor takes office. Democrat Eliot L. Spitzer has a commanding lead in the polls, and he has vowed to make sweeping changes. He also has the backing several unions in the state.
Does Hoyt think Spitzer would consider changes that could put him at odds with powerful labor groups that historically have allied with the Democratic Party?
“Anyone who thinks Eliot Spitzer is a status quo guy doesn’t know Eliot Spitzer,” Hoyt said. “And anyone who thinks he’ll be a yes-man for any special interest doesn’t know him.”
Spitzer recently reflected on upstate New York’s struggling economy by saying that some areas look like Appalachia. But when asked in Albany on Wednesday, Spitzer declined to give his position on whether any changes need to occur with what’s known as the Triborough Amendment, which keeps the terms of expired labor contracts in place, or the Wicks Law, which requires union hiring in public projects.
Standing in front of the state’s top union officials at an Albany hotel where he just received the state AFL-CIO endorsement, Spitzer was asked if he did not know whether the Wicks Law should be changed. “No, I said I wouldn’t tell you,” he said. “There are decisions that you make about policy shifts that do not and should not be announced immediately because it will have an impact upon the ability to effectuate policy shifts that you need.”
Spitzer’s silence is just as telling as Tockasz’s. Then the master of deception chimes in with this statement - “it will have an impact upon the ability to effectuate policy shifts that you need”. Isn’t that why he is running for Governor? Because it is the “right thing to do?” Don’t the voters have a “right” to know where he actually stands on important issues? Anyone who believes that Spitzer is here to improve things must also believe the line “I’m from the government and I’m here to help you.”
Buffalo’s control board is also pushing for changes in the Wicks Law, which requires municipalities to use multiple contractors instead of a single contractor on projects that exceed $50,000.
State Sen. Dale M. Volker, R-Depew, has long fought to raise the threshold so that smaller projects are not bound by the mandate. Schimminger has pushed for a repeal of the Wicks Law.
Score - Schimminger 1, Volker 0!
