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I Want to Live Like a Republican
So I
Guess I'll Have to Vote Democratic
In four parts
By Ken Kousky
As I look
over the last 4 years, it's clear our current administration in Washington has
made me more concerned than I've ever been about the future world we are leaving
our children.
I'm worried about law and order and terrorism, but I'm equally worried about
unknown sources of cancer and things like global climate change.
Maybe
it's not just the administration, maybe it's watching kids graduate from
college, get married, or maybe it's turning 50, but my basic values which came
from growing up in a Republican household are fundamentally what the moderate
Republicans in New York say they believe in.
Sadly, these are the beliefs that this administration has trampled on so visibly
and recklessly that I have to wonder what anyone with Republican values should
do when these values have all been seriously assaulted for the last 4 years,
I
have to explore what's gone wrong and I have to leave the burden of blame at the
doorsteps of this administration.
First, my basic
Republican values are simple:
* Law and order:
I believe we have to be tough at home and abroad. There is real evil in the
world and we need to muster the courage to address it. We need to stand up to
genocide as we are now witnessing in Sudan.
I
know FOX won't report it, but I read the Wall Street Journal,
Fortune and the Economist, and we can't deny that America turned it's
back on the worst atrocities of the century.
I
guess you can kill ten times as many people as Saddam so long as they're poor
blacks that don't own oil. If the victims were not black Africans and had oil
wells and we offered our largest corporations billions to help us handle the
logistics, I guess even Republican values would have added the murderers in
Sudan to the axis of evil. Not that anybody can defend Saddam, and for truth
loving Republicans, nobody, not even Michael Moore is defending Saddam.
But
it is patriotic to ask if going to war in Iraq is the best way to make the world
safer - especially for us at home.
With
Homeland Security grossly under-funded, with the FBI and Secret
Service (which under DHS is suppose to address cyber-crime) both
short staffed, it hurts to see contractors (who hosted the Texas delegate in
NYC, miles from Ground Zero the other night) gouging us with overpriced hotdogs
for the troops and subsidized gas for the Iraqis.
Maybe
it's just an issue of priorities. We have scarce resources and we shouldn't be
squandering them. When America should have stood tall and put an end to the
murder of tens of thousands of innocents in Sudan we hid from the fight because
we were overextended. There was no industrial economic gain, there was no oil
and there was no role for Halliburton - just a chance to stand tall as
Americans - part of what I was taught in a Republican home.
I
believe in law and order and that we have a global responsibility to put an end
to illegitimate regimes. I guess the Republican value is 'Regime Change when a
Regime is illegitimate.' But Republicans know the danger of letting the
government pick who it likes and who it doesn't like. And Republican's believe
patriotically in the constitution that defines due process.
See, the problem with Preemptive Strikes is that we're going after the
bad guy before they're bad.
So, I
guess we can be pretty wild in picking who we want to get.
Prison beds are forecast in many states by looking at the forth grade illiteracy
rate. Knowing what a great indicator we have it's not a big step to be
preemptive at home too. Locking up those fourth graders now would certainly
reduce crime. That's a certainty. Not very American, but I think "preemptive'
was what a generation of American's fought and often died for in trying to put
an end to Hitler's preemptive solutions.
I'm
all for reducing crime at home and abroad, but it is tricky stuff. Complicated,
too. I guess too complicated for most, but the Republican values I knew included
being well read, well informed and taking the real news, not the sit-com
journalism seriously.
Maybe
it's more important to think about America first. I mean at home, on the streets
where we live. That, too, should be a solid Republican value.
At
home, while growing the greatest deficit this country has ever seen, we reduced
funding for over a hundred thousand local police. We're spending wildly in Iraq
but still having to make radical cuts in funding for local police. Here in
Saginaw, while the Federal government spends out of control we have lost real
police on the street.
My
grandmother told me about my Uncle Joe, the first person she ever knew who had
voted for a Democrat. Not sure what his issues were but I feel like I need to
have a conversation with him these days.
It
seems to me that if we believe in law and order we need to apply the law
equitably and appropriately. That's a Republican value. Our unilateral war
alienated our allies and alienated Muslims around the world. Our faulty
intelligence was to blame. They got their data from a guy who turned out to be
chummy with the Iranians, the ones who stand to gain the most from our follies.
But wasn't it to stop the Sunni Muslims that we armed Sadamm in the first place.
Boy I'm confused, and I try to be well read!
A
Republican Secretary of the Treasury pointed out that this administration was
focused on Iraq from its opening cabinet meetings.
Somehow my law and order ideas just don't seem to be very Republican these days.
One
more item - this September, the ban on assault weapons, keeping them from
terrorists, street gangs and sportsmen who might need machine guns to shoot a
buck (Republicans in Michigan are more likely to consider getting them with a
bow rather than a machine gun), is up for renewal. A litmus test of a true law
and order President will be his willingness to take on the special interest
funding that is pushing to allow this ban to expire.
My
perspectives on Republican values are not part of the fanatic shrill debates
presented by FOX Network or countered by Move-On. Maybe there's a
new generation of Republicans who need assault rifles, really only consider the
axis of evil as those that disrupt oil flows, and don't need police on the
streets anymore. Maybe the new Republican's all have assault rifles, so getting
rid of 100,000 cops is OK.
I'm
for law and order and that means funding police, for me that's here in Saginaw,
not paying outsourced bounty hunters in Iraq and outsourced mess halls that
charge $30 per hotdog.
At
least outsourcing military intelligence work and military police work has
generated millions of dollars of revenue for special interest corporations and
that should help the economy. But Republican values can't support it at the
expense of the integrity of the U.S. military.
No
American veteran should face the shame brought on by Abu Ghraib's prison. When
the White House Counsel writes memos on who and how we can push the traditional
limits and bans on torture, you know something is amiss. Republican values
can't tolerate this administration.
This
isn't a Republican law and order government and so I guess we need to look for
an alternative.
Uncle
Joe, what would you do?
REPUBLICAN VALUES *
PART 2
I was raised with
Republican values but I don't see them in this administration.
Republicans believe in Fiscal Conservatism. When Reagan cut taxes on the
marginal tax rate, the taxes on the next dollar a person earned, the rate for
high earning professionals was often over 70 percent.
Anecdotal examples were plentiful of some individuals who were even paying over
eighty cents. Eighty cents on each additional dollar they earned went off in
taxes.
Wow,
that was bad and Reagan heroically put in end to it.
For a
small fortunate minority, these taxes were so high that they may actually have
cut back working since they got to take home so little. But really, even with
all my wealthy Republican friends, I don't know anybody today who has given up
work because their taxes are simply too high.
Today, the marginal tax rate for the wealthiest 1 percent continues to hover at
less than half that rate.
Simply put, or more importantly for Republican values I should say honestly put,
taxes today are not a major disincentive to work. They are not encouraging
highly productive professionals not to work. What was true for Reagan economics
and supply side economics simply, and honestly, doesn't work today as
demonstrated over the last 4 years. So, no serious economist, not even those who
worked for President Reagan, believe that cutting taxes today will create a big
supply side stimulus.
And,
I guess the data is bearing that out as we see the negative effect of the
current taxes-paid-by-deficit strategy at work.
Now
this doesn't mean I wouldn't like to shift the burden of police and fire
protection, roads and schools, medical coverage and social security to others.
I'd love to pay less in taxes, keep up all the consumption and let somebody else
pay for it. And the Bush administration has figured this out. In fact, that's
just what this administration has done!
By
cutting taxes while increasing government spending they're making everybody
happy. Sort of like a drunk with a credit card. Republicans know that debts have
to be repaid and this one will have to be repaid by our kids. That's how it
works.
The
only thing I don't like, with my Republican values, is that the one's who will
have to pay will be my kids. Remember the greatest Republican economist of all
time, Milton Freidman, said, "there's no such thing as a free lunch".
Guess we just left the bill at the table for our kids. That's not in line with
the Republican values I grew up with.
The
tax cuts that Bush has funded have come completely at the expense of a growing
deficit - dollar for dollar. One quarter of the multi-billion dollar deficit is
from this tax cut.
So, now we have a big deficit. Selling bonds, basically IOU's, largely to
international investors, funds our deficit. This means that we have a growing
debt. Here's the great trick. We can sell long-term bonds so it's our children
who have a growing debt that must be paid - and paid in large part to
foreigners.
By
the way, we're not talking about a trivial deficit. We're talking about the
greatest deficit in history with numbers that stagger the imagination of Reagan
economists, Reagan economic advisors and Reagan Cabinet members. Bush began
with a $5.6 trillion dollar surplus and now we have a $5.2 trillion deficit.
WOW,
that's unbelievable. Where did it go? We cut police, Homeland Security doesn't
have enough, the SEC enforcement on corporate fraud doesn't have enough, and the
FBI doesn't have enough. This is really frightening economics. Federal
spending in the first three years of this administration has grown 22%. All
this noise about big spenders needs to be made, but lets point the message with
a few facts and a little truth. For the sake of our kids, lets drive some
Republican values into Washington and clean up this spending crisis.
The
Bush tax cut consists of nothing more than stealing from our children. One
quarter of the current deficit came from the tax cut. We didn't cut spending -
we stole from our kids.
Spending money you don't have is done everyday. It's not a traditional
Republican value and it's bad for all of our futures. But everybody overspends
at times. It's done through borrowing and it means you have to pay it back. When
a government spends money it doesn't have it's able to create what economists
call an "inter-generational transfer". I call it stealing from your kids.
Money
moves from future generations to the current generation - from my kids to me.
Our tax money goes for schools, police, roads we use today. Their taxes will
have to go for what we get today AND to pay interest and principle on the debt
so there simply will be less for them. Oh well.
They're young and they're Americans and with a solid Republican work ethic they
can work it off.
We're spending money on ever-increasing programs without paying for them. But
we ARE making a promise to repay the debt in the future. Just as Social
Security burdens begin to skyrocket on our children, they'll simultaneously
confront a growing percentage of their taxes going to pay off debts.
These
taxes won't pay for goods and services they get to consume. It won't pay for
their children's schools, and it won't pay for improving their highways. It
won't pay for cleaning up environmental messes. It will simply be a repayment
to foreigners for the money we're borrowing today to continue this unbelievable
spending binge.
Grandma, if you're looking down on me, I think that if we want to live like
Republicans, we're going to have to vote for a Democrat.
I was
trying to get a perspective on how bad this really is. Should I really worry
about this? Am I really stealing that much from my kids? You know, it's a big
economy. So, I tried to do the math per person - for me, for my kids.
Gosh,
I guess I owe my kids a big hug and thanks for the $4,000 joy ride I've had this
year. That looks to be how much I've not paid in taxes that they WILL have to
pay. I raised my kids with Republican values, too, so they'll enjoy the extra
challenge and they'll jump in and work a little harder. Thanks kids.
Here
are my calculations. If there are 100 million taxpayers in the United States
today, and the deficit spending this year is adding over $400 billion, I shared
it by the 100 million, so I estimated $4,000 each year of additional debt to be
repaid per taxpayer.
I'll
be retiring so I won't be one of those taxpayers, but they will be. That's this
cool thing I called an "inter-generational" transfer. Take from them, give to
us. Hey kids, I just spent $1,000 from each of you this summer. And, I'm doing
it again this fall. With four kids I'm getting $4,000 off my taxes paid for at
your expense. (Kids, you are welcome on my boat since you are contributing to
it).
But
hey, this really is stealing from our kids. They won't get better schools when
they pay their taxes and they won't get police or roads. Their money will go to
those buying US bonds. Since a large chuck of those lending our government the
money for our current spending spree are foreigners, our kids will be sending
checks to foreigners to pay back what we're borrowing today.
Looking at our balance of payment deficit is another way to see what we're
doing.
But Republican values taught me to pay attention to the bigger financial
picture. As the USA starts to look like a problem spender to the rest of the
world, they're becoming less willing to hold our bonds or our dollars.
They
have enough greenbacks out there so the value of our dollars is also falling
around the world. This will make cars, gas, clothes and anything else we import
more expensive in the future. In a way, it's an additional hidden tax on our
overspending. When we hear the dollar is going down against the Euro it means
our money isn't worth as much as their money. It means we've been pumping it out
to cover our runaway spending. It means our kids get less for their dollars
since we're devaluing them by our economic policies.
But
the biggest question President Reagan and now President Bush ask us is whether
we're better off because of the tax cut. It did help keep the economy moving
along and there was some bit of stimulus for Reagan, but it's made things far
worse off this time. I don't know how to hide from that simple reality.
I
guess that if the money is going to contractors gouging us in Iraq, it isn't
going into productive capital. It isn't going into schools, highways and police.
It's not buying things that we can use, so I guess it's also not a very nice
thing to do to our kids.
If
we took a billion dollars of the overspending and improperly accounted funds
that Halliburton got and used it to build better schools or prisons, better
highways or airports, better energy alternatives, it could help our kids. Or if
we would have continued the funding of 100,000 local police officers under the
community law enforcement program we could point to safer communities.
The
sad thing is that in spite of all this spending we have very, very little to
show for it. Republican's, at least those I grew up around, stood for prudent
spending so that if we did have to borrow, it was for a wise, sound purpose.
Too
bad we didn't have Republican values driving our economy over the last four
years.
My
Republican values suggest that we should pay more attention to our children's
future and be more conservative with our spending. Tax cuts that benefit very
few at the expense of our kids don't mesh with my values.
Part III -
Republican Values and the Environment
There are serious
problems with our wasteful over-consumption of what Mother Nature can handle.
We've dumped so many chemicals in our rivers that we can't eat the Walleye we
catch at the Walleye Festival each year. Something's broken here but
we're not doing a lot to clean things up.
Conservation is cool - for the most conservative NRA hunter to the tree-hugging
bird-watching liberal, we're at least all united in wanting to get the cancer
causing agents out of our water and yard. We're in agreement that we want to
slow global climate change and we even want to protect wild lands.
So
living with Republican conservationist values it's hard to understand the
wholesale collapse of protecting America the Beautiful. Why would any Republican
give away so much of our natural heritage to timber and mining companies? This
isn't a Republican approach to the problem. It's not what Arnold or Rudy stand
for. I don't get it.
Even
the Pentagon admits that global warming has the potential of massive disruptive
forces in the coming years. While Bush, Sr. led us to the Kyoto accord and
endorsed conservation as a basic Republican value, his son eagerly consumes all
he can get his hands on and pulls us out of one of the most important global
initiatives his father undertook.
Whether it's cutting federal monies or opening up the national trust of the few
remaining pristine wildlife refuges, it certainly doesn't square with any
Republican values I've heard about.
It's hard to imagine any administration that has been more consistently wrong
about protecting the environment. While this might traditionally be seen as an
issue for our children, since we can waste now and it's their world that ends up
damaged, evidence suggests that even those of us under 60 will confront
environmental havoc.
The
interesting thing about most forecasts on environmental disruption is that its
first impact is a tremendous increase in our consumption of fuels. If it gets
hotter, we air condition, if it gets cooler we heat, but if the environment
changes from what we've planned for and built around, we'll see a dramatic
increase in the demand for energy.
By
not taking care of the environment, we're also not taking care of the economy
and by not taking care of the environment; we're also increasing the need for
Americans to fight wars with Middle Eastern countries in order to protect our
access to oil.
Part Four - Big
Government, Special Interests and Government in the Bedroom
Special
interests: The Republican values I was raised with taught that the needs of
the majority and the needs of the public supercedes the needs of special
interests, even when these special interests are powerful and well financed.
For
example, I stated earlier that there is no appropriate or legitimate role for
semi-automatic assault weapons in the United States outside of the military and
law enforcement. A courageous president would admit to this truth. A
Republican (or a Democrat with integrity) would admit to this truth. Not
standing up to the special interest gun lobby when its demands are excessive is
a failure of leadership and a failure of courage and a failure of integrity.
But
it's not just the gun lobby that has managed to push through special interests
results. The special interests of the financial industry were actively
undermining the foundations of SEC enforcement only weeks prior to the Enron
fiasco. The real scandal of Enron was the fact that this administration
openly allowed these kinds of activities.
Certainly, Clinton didn't provide strong leadership in this regard either but
Republican values demand better.
So, with special interests limiting government, who's getting this massive
deficit? Where's the money going?
The
truth would help us all here. Whether Republicans or Democrats, the truth
matters. The truth about weapons of mass destruction, the truth about our
intelligence operations, the truth about contractors and outsourced renegades in
Iraq all matter. The truth about swift boats and smear campaigns that derailed
John McCain's campaign all need to be reconciled with basic Republican values.
And
BIG government to me is when we start telling people what kind of sex is
allowable in the privacy of their homes. BIG excessive government is when we
start intervening in family planning and a woman's choice.
The
Republican platform seems to have been hijacked. If it ever came to pass, it
would put an end to fertility clinics that, in the process of fertilizing eggs
and re-inserting them, dispose of extra-fertilized eggs. This is a common
practice that has allowed thousands of couples to have kids. Big government is
when these kinds of issues are decided in Washington. That's not the Republican
values I learned about as a kid.
Something funny has happened to Republican values. Either they're not what I
thought they were, in which case, Uncle Joe, we need to find a better party, or,
the Republican Party has been hijacked by radical, conservative extremists who
don't understand Republican or American values.
Now
that's a shame Grandma, but if you're listening. I think you've given rise to a
lot of new Democrats.
Bush's only hope to win this election is to stand up for Republican values.
Right
now, if you want to live like a Republican, it's clear that we'll have to vote
like a Democrat.
Ken Kousky is a veteran of the IT software and services industries. As an
educator he's taught at the
University of Pennsylvania
and Washington University in both the School of Engineering and the Business
School. His years of experience as both an educator and an entrepreneur are
reflected in his business and professional accomplishments. He is a visionary in
the computing technology, education and marketing industry with three successful
start-ups, two major mergers and an IPO under his belt. Ken is CEO of IP3,
Inc. an IT marketing and software development firm based out of Saginaw. He is
also an adjunct faculty member at Washington University's Olin Schools where he
has been teaching eCommerce and is currently serving on the board of
OpenUmbrella.org, a non-profit addressing market awareness and understanding of
open source technologies.
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