Wisconsin, now Indiana
In the 2010 elections Republicans won large majorities in the Wisconsin House, the Wisconsin Senate, and they won the Governorship as well. As would be expected they have introduced legislation that reflects their ideology.
The 14 Democratic Senators in Wisconsin fled the state to completely halt most of the legislative process in Wisconsin. I have several phrases that I think accurately describe these fourteen Democratic Senators from Wisconsin:
- Cowards, they lost the last election in a big way and ran away rather then do the jobs they were elected to do.
- Fools, I do not think their actions will help them get re-elected in the future. Yes it will “pump up” their union supporters; however I think most of the electorate; even in liberal Wisconsin, is offended that they ran away from their job. Most Americans would be FIRED if they refused to come to work.
- Jerks, these Democrats are a good example of what is wrong in America. They are pandering to a small portion of their political base rather than doing their jobs.
- Spoiled Children, I have two children, they are eight and nine years old. If my children pulled a stunt like this they would be punished immediately and severely.
Pick’en
Our country has failed three times in “pick’en”:
1) Way back when, we should have picked our own cotton,
2) Then, later, we should have picked our own fruits & vegetables, and
3) Last, we should NOT have picked a “community organizer” as our President in 2008!
Stuff You Might Not Have Seen Otherwise
I’m thinking about posting YouTube videos here and there that I find interesting/absurd/idiotic/etc. Some may be political - some not. Figured it might be a nice change of pace though. So here are a couple videos you might not have seen (or cared to).
The first is a man asking his county commissioners to do something about the cars speeding down his street. It has, shall we say, an unexpected ending. The second is an Obama personator performing a parody of a Notorious B.I.G song. Even the lyrics are funny - “Spend cheese with my peeps all day, borrowed the money from China mayne”; “And my whole crew is loungin’, celebrate every day no more public housin”.
Wisconsin
The new Governor of Wisconsin is trying to pass legislation that would make public employees pay more towards their retirement, more towards their health care, and remove most of their collective bargaining rights.
The truth of the matter is that Government employees have not felt the effects of this recession near as much as private sector workers. Further, the truth of the matter is that public employees should pay SIGNIFICANTLY more towards their retirement plans and health care. That being said I am not necessarily in favor of abolishing their collective bargaining rights.
There are a lot of studies put out by liberals that conclude that public sector workers are under compensated in comparison to private sector workers. There are a lot of studies put out by conservatives that conclude that public workers are over compensated in comparison to private sector workers. I tend to believe the conservative studies in this case; the liberal studies conclude that public employees require far more education than private sector jobs and I tend to think they exaggerate the necessity for public employees to have advanced college degrees.
I think we should ignore the studies put out by both conservatives and liberals. I think that one would have to conclude that public sector workers are over compensated because the public sector compensation could easily be lowered by at LEAST 10% and those jobs would still be filled and filled fast. Compensation should be determined by supply and demand. I believe that we have a structural unemployment problem; I believe that there are a lot of unemployed people who would happily take public sector jobs and they would take those jobs for significantly less compensation and they would likely do a competent job.
I have heard many public sector union officials claim that if public sector compensation were lowered that the public sector would lose valuable employees and not be able to replace them. I have to wonder if ANY of these union officials or public sector workers understand how many Americans are looking for work? I further wonder if they realize how many workers have completely given up looking for work? The average public sector worker in Wisconsin makes between $80,000 and $90,000 per year in total compensation.
Does anyone reading this blog think that if these workers all received a 10% compensation cut that these public workers would quit their jobs and go looking for work in the private sector?
If they did quit their jobs does anyone reading this blog think that there would not be a large number of qualified applicants who would apply to fill these vacancies and happily take jobs paying 10% less than what public sector workers currently make?
Mike Sylvester
Some Political Advice for Teachers
The state’s teachers are outraged, outraged I tell you, about the current legislation being considered by the state legislature. The union has them worked into a frenzy and convinced that the end of public education is nigh. But here’s the thing that irks me about the entire situation and something each and everyone one of you teachers need to ask yourself:
If protecting the educational status quo and the teachers union was that damn important then why did you vote Republican?
I’m sure a few of you out there that are now so upset did understand what was at stake during the last election cycle but the majority likely had no clue. You probably voted Republican because you didn’t want “teh gays” to start marryin’ each other. So just in case you still don’t get it let me help you out.
The Republican party, and especially governor Mitch Daniels, would eliminate your union ass tomorrow if they could. They will do everything in their power to systematically weaken the union’s position in order to enact what they think is positive change in the educational community. I’m not even going to debate the merits of their position or the union’s - I’m simply stating a fact.
And if you are that hell bent pro-teachers union and didn’t realize this then you are a fool and you are going to get the government you deserve. Writing letters and calling representatives now isn’t going to do a damn thing at this point. What you’re witnessing is a political battle (R’s vs D’s) and has absolutely nothing to do with the merits of the individual bills. The time for you to make a difference isn’t when you read about it in the paper; no, the fix is in by then bubba.
The election booth was where you could’ve waged your battle but you didn’t and now you are going to lose and lose big…
I really dislike the Patriot Act
I have railed against the Patriot Act on multiple occasions on this blog. I truly dislike this act.
It was (and is) portrayed as a set of laws that help the Federal Government pursue the never-ending “war on terror.” Most of the provisions of this bill were written long before the 9/11. Once there was an emergency the Patriot Act was rammed through Congress.
In a highly public report in 2009 the Department of Justice analyzed the “sneak and peek” searches that were performed in 2008 under the powers of the Patriot Act. The results were staggering.
There were a total of 763 “sneak and peek” searches performed in 2008 under the provisions of the Patriot Act. Of those 763 searches a grand total of THREE involved investigations into terrorism.
The Patriot Act is a crime fighting bill and has little if anything to do with fighting supposed “terrorism.”
Some of the more controversial provisions of the Patriot Act were extended for yet another three months today by the US Senate in a vote of 86 to 12. 12 US Senators voted to restore a few of the civil liberties that were taken away from law abiding US citizens by the Patriot Act.
Two Republicans (Mike Lee and Rand Paul) voted the right way along with ten Democrats.
Mike
A Quick Thought On School Vouchers
The teachers unions are up in arms about a variety of legislation that is sure to “destroy public education once and for all”. Many of them seem to actually believe the hyperbole being pumped out by the union. Make no mistake, the governor is no friend of unions and would like to see their position weakened. But the unions have done a pretty fine job destroying themselves the last 10 years and seem to offer no real alternative to fixing the problems that urban districts face.
Having said that, the idea that the current voucher legislation would do anything positive is asinine. First let’s just start by saying that the private schools don’t want the money if it comes with restrictions. Do you think Canterbury wants to admit a bunch of voucher-holding transfers from FWCS? Hardly as they charge the fees they do to keep the riff raff out - that really is the point of private school after all.
Second, the vouchers won’t be enough to meet the tuition needs for private schools. So what will happen is a bunch of cronies of state government officials will create new private schools that will loot the new voucher system without improving academics.
Lastly, vouchers won’t help because more money won’t help. School choice isn’t the problem - parents are. Lousy parents produce lousy students and there isn’t a damn thing the best teachers can do to solve that problem despite what you might have seen in some lame B-movie. Bringing in an administration with the spine to impose discipline and remove problem students from the classroom and the schools is the first thing that needs to happen…
Putting Your Harrison Square Money Where Your Mouth Is
I don’t think there’s any doubt that councilman Tim Pape has been the biggest champion of the Harrison Square project since Day 1. Even when the project floundered he stuck by it and was a vocal supporter. So while all the back-slapping local bankers abandoned the project (after showing up in droves to support its passage), Pape should be commended for putting his money where his mouth is.
The recent announcement regarding the final piece of phase 1 for the Harrison Square project has the Carson Boxberger law firm taking up the entire 2nd floor of The Harrison. Since Pape is the managing partner of Carson Boxberger there can be no doubt that he was instrumental in the decision to move to the new building. Regardless of what one thinks of the project it’s nice to see one of the champions actually putting some skin in the game…
State Senate Licenses Ginseng (the era of smaller government is just around the corner)
The state legislature has important work to do. They unemployment fund is bankrupt and the state, in general, is bankrupt due to future pension obligations that are woefully underfunded. However, the State Senate still found the time to debate the need to license ginseng harvesters, dealers and growers.
Thanks to this bill you now must be licensed to grow or deal ginseng - I’m not kidding. And you can be fined $500 and/or spend 60 days in jail for harvesting ginseng without a license. Again, I’m not kidding. The sad part is that this bill passed 44-6 in the Republican controlled senate. I’m also quite certain that each and every one of those voting YEA would try to convince you that they are small-government conservatives. They are not.
If it’s any consolation, newly elected State Senator Jim Banks did vote against the legislation. Maybe there is hope afterall…
2010 Federal Income taxes
As the readers of this blog know I am a CPA and my firm prepares a little over 700 tax returns a year. Just over 500 personal returns and then just over 200 corporate returns for small businesses.
This may be the best blog post I have written in a long time; you should read it.
I am home with the kids tonight, my wife is in the office doing tax returns. I just put my kids to bed and I am bored. Dangerous things happen when I am bored. Our Federal income tax code is over 3.5 million words and is basically just a mechanism of social engineering and a means of keeping incumbent politicians in office. I want to show you some examples of theoretical 2010 Federal income tax returns that I just created this evening for fun for this post.
Lets say we have a married couple (Bob and Emily) with three kids who are all under age 17. Lets say the couple earns wages of $21,250 in 2010 and that is their only source of income and further lets say no Federal income tax is with-held from their paychecks. Lets say they rent an apartment and cannot itemize their deductions. They will get a Federal Tax Refund of $9,204. So this family will pay nothing in Federal income tax for 2010 and will instead be paid $9,204 by the IRS. For these same circumstances:
- If the wages increase to $30K with no Federal with-holding they will get back $7,626.
- If the wages increase to $40K with no Federal with-holding they will get back $4,515.
- If the wages increase to $50K with no Federal with-holding they will get back $1,581.
- If the wages increase to $60K with no Federal with-holding they will get back $81.
- If the wages increase to $60,550 they will pay $1 in Federal income tax.
