Activist Judges

After being the established law of the land for 17 years an activist judge in California has ruled the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” rule as unconstitutional. If this policy is to be over-turned it should be over-turned in Congress; not by one Federal judge 17 years after it became law.

I have mixed feelings about gays in the US military. Please remember I served several years on a nuclear powered submarine and that is a very isolated environment that no one can understand who has not served on a submarine (or something like it).

It has taken me a long time to get there; however, I now think “don’t ask, don’t tell” should be repealed and that gays should be allowed to openly serve in the military. For a long time I have felt that gays should be able to have civil unions and that they should receive the same rights as heterosexuals who are married.

Once the activist judge issued her order the Obama Administration asked her to delay the enforcement of her order. She refused today. It is 100% absurd that one Federal Judge can overturn a law that has been in place for 17 years and turn the Pentagon “on its ear.”

Mike Sylvester

Indiana Senate Race

Evan Bayh absolutely back-stabbed the voters of Indiana when he decided not to run for re-election and purposefully waited to announce it; ensuring that there was no primary.

Once Mr. Bayh (Democrat) made his announcement Mr. Coats, a former Indiana Senator (Republican) decided to run for re-election. Unfortunately with the backing of the DC political machine he was able to win the Republican primary.

The Indiana Senate race has three candidates:

Mr. Coats (Republican)
Mr. Ellsworth (Democrat)
Mrs. Sink-Burris (Libertarian)

I have spent the last few years as a member of both the Republican and Libertarian Parties. I find my philosophy to be somewhere in between those two Parties.

I certainly at this point cannot vote for Mr. Ellsworth. The Democratic Party needs to lose their majorities and the health care policy they passed needs to be entirely repealed. This is a national priority.

I certainly cannot vote for Mr. Coats. There are two main reasons for this:

First and foremost he has not lived in Indiana for about one decade. I do not vote for carpetbaggers from other states. I disliked it when Hillary Clinton did it and I try not to be a hypocrite. Worse yet even if he wins the election I do not expect him to move to Indiana.
Mr. Coats moved directly from the US Senate into a position as a lobbyist. This is not illegal; however, it certainly should be.

I personally know the Libertarian candidate Rebecca Sink-Burris and I will definitely be voting for her next month. She is an excellent candidate and I will vote with her with a clear conscious.

Mike

Yet another issue President Obama is wrong about…

The Republicans have long been strong advocates of the failed war on drugs. Our previous Congressman Mark Souder was a huge believer in the “failed” war on drugs.

I do not do drugs and I have no desire to do drugs.

As many of you know I do not believe in the failed “war on drugs.” I think it is a complete waste of taxpayer dollars. You can purchase drugs in any city in this country, in any high school, and in most if not all prisons and jails in this country. The ”war on drugs” has costs us hundreds of billions of dollars and drug use is still common and illegal drugs are easy to purchase.

There is no reason to believe that the “failed war on drugs” will ever succeed. I personally feel it is a complete waste of money.

California may legalalize “mj” in a couple of weeks.

So the Obama Administration has come out and said it will still aggressively prosecute the war on drugs even if the voters of California vote to legalize “mj.”

I had a strong dislike for the Bush Administration; however, the Obama Administration has proved to be even worse on issue after issue.

The Democrats tend to be smarter on the failed war on drugs than the Republicans in my opinion; however, even with strong Democratic majorities and a Democratic President we have made no progress on scaling back the failed war on drugs.

Good grief.

Mike Sylvester

What is going on with the economy?

Gold is at an all time high and the stock market has recently went up about 10%.

This is not normal; anyone have any ideas why this has happened?

Mike Sylvester

“Foreclosure Gate”

Housing prices have plunged in the United States over the last three years. Over those same three years unemployment has increased to almost 10%.

The Housing Bubble burst for several reasons; however, the main reason is because homeowners took out loans from banks they could not afford to pay back, the banks foolishly loaned them the money without requiring a down payment and without doing due diligence on the loan, and because the Federal Government “encouraged” both banks and taxpayers to take out loans they could not afford and completely failed to regulate the industry.

Many Americans have stopped paying their mortgages. This is for three main reasons:

They took out loans far higher than they could afford in the first place.
Many people have lost their jobs or have taken jobs that pay less than their previous jobs.
Many people have negative equity in their homes and are just walking away from their homes.

The Obama Administration has wasted a lot of taxpayer money on programs that have largely failed to keep people in their homes.

Currently many homeowners are going through the foreclosure process. The foreclosure process is a very sad process; however, it is a necessary process. Currently there are a very large number of homes in the foreclosure process.

Several months ago the Democratic House of Representatives passed by voice vote a bill that would lower the requirements placed on companies to process foreclosures unanimously.

A couple of weeks ago the US Senate did not have to to approve a budget; however, Harry Reid did have time to pass the same resolution by unanimous voice vote to make foreclosures easier.

President Obama (Demcorat) vetoed the legislation sent to him by the Democratic House and Senate a couple of weeks before the November election. This is unheard of.

Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid have both publicly said they are going to investigate how this could have happened; they both do not understand how the bill passed their chambers… They are both absolute morons.

“Foreclosure Gate” is the controversy that has erupted because some of the major banks have taken shortcuts during the foreclosure process and likely have not properly reviewed the foreclosure documents. That likely means that they have foreclosed on a few homes in error. This is a major problem and the banks need to pay the costs associated with those mistakes.

That being said, I am certain that well over 99.9% of the foreclosures are legitimate.

There are going to be so many lawsuits concerning this issue that it will prop up the legal industry for years. Unfortunately it is also going to slow down the foreclosure process for years to come which will end up hurting the already weakened housing market. Here is why:

Many people with bids to purchase recently foreclosed on homes have withdrawn their bids. They did this because they do not want to buy a foreclosed on house that is the subject of a legal battle.
Many people will be worried about #1 and will decide not to purchase houses that have been foreclosed on. This will cause the supply of houses on the market to increase which will put negative pressure on housing prices.
Banks will have to slow down the foreclosure process. This means it will take longer for them to foreclose on homes. This will hurt the banks because they are going to have large legal expenses and they are going to have even larger write offs on their bad loans.

There are many people calling for a national foreclosure moratorium. I am against a national foreclosure moratorium. It would be absurd to put a moratorium on foreclosures because a very small number of people were foreclosed on who should not have been foreclosed on.

For once the White House is handling this in an intelligent fashion. First off the White House vetoed the legislation the banks submitted to Congress and Congress passed to ease the foreclosure process. That was smart. Second off the White House has come out against a national moratorium on foreclosures.

Mike

Democrats in Congress completely fail to perform their basic duties

Well it is official, the Democrats in the House and Senate have both adjourned. The Democrats have decided that it is more important to send their members home to campaign than to pass legislation that is vital to this country.

Believe it or not the Democrats have had majorities in both the House and Senate for four years. They have had a Democratic President for the last two years. With their majorities and a Democratic President they should easily be able to pass necessary legislation.

The Federal fiscal year ends today. The new Federal budget year starts tomorrow. The Democrats have failed to pass any portion of the budget for the Federal Government. Instead the Democrats pushed through a stopgap measure that will allow the Federal Government to continue to operate without an official budget.

Passing a budget is one of the most basic and most important functions of Congress. It is 100% shameful that the Democrats have “punted” this issue until after the November election.

The Democrats in Congress are cowardly, incompetent, and deserve to be thrown out of office.

I am sick and tired of the Democrats in Congress. They are going to get trounced in November and they should get trounced. They have failed to fulfill their campaign promises, they have failed to govern, and they have shown a complete lack of understanding of the US economy.

Now we just have to hope the Republican Party wakes up and realizes how pathetic it has been recently by spending too much money, expanding the reach of Government, and making the tax code more and more complicated.

Mike Sylvester

Why would anyone vote for Democrats in National Elections in November?

The Democrats are headed towards large and deserved electoral losses. The Republicans are going to win in a big way; not because they are impressive, they will win because they are not Democrats.

Here are just a few reasons why the Democrats will be thrown out of office in mass:

1. They are going to leave DC next week without passing a single budget bill. The Federal Budget runs through the 30th of this month. The most important job of Congress is approving the budgets of the various agencies. The Democrats have completely failed to do this.

2. The Democratic Party has ran on an anti-war platform for several years. They have controlled Congress since the 2006 elections and the Presidency since the 2008 election. This year we will spend more on our forces in Iraq and Afghanistan than we were spending per year under the Republicans. Where is the outrage from the anti-war left? They are hypocritically silent and it will be interesting to see if they go to the polls and vote for Democrats who have failed to draw down troops levels or cut military spending. Heck the Democrats have significantly increased military spending and spending on Homeland Security. When the Republicans did that every year the anti-war Democrats marched and protested… Hypocrites…

3. The economy of the US has been poor for a couple of years. I truly believe that the economy is poor due to the actions of both Democrats and Republicans over the last 20-30 years. In all fairness I think both parties are roughly equally responsible for the economic problems that exist today. That being said the Democrats are the majority and the people will punish them for the current economic conditions.

4. The health care reform the Democrats passed this year is a nightmare and will ensure that the Democrats lose a lot of seats in November. The bill is too complicated, it will likely raise health care costs, it will create a bureaucratic paperwork mess, and many Americans oppose it. Small business owners absolutely hate this bill and should hate this bill. The Democrats are going to lose a lot of Independents and small business owners due to this monstrosity. From an electoral standpoint the Democrats passed a bill that no one likes; least of all the progressives in their own Party. This is going to hurt the Democrats at the ballot box because their own base is not excited about this bill.

5. The main issue that the voters are interested in is the economy and jobs. There is no doubt about this. The Democrats wasted most of this year passing the health care reform bill rather than focusing on the economy and jobs. The Democrats chose the wrong issue to pursue this year.

6. The Democrats are in the process of making one of the dumbest political decisions that I have ever seen. For years and years the Democrats have opposed most of the Bush Tax Cuts. Once the Democrats gained the majorities in Congress their hatred of the Bush Tax Cuts has slowly diminished as if by magic. Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi have likely decided that they will not even vote on the Bush Tax Cuts until after the election. This is one of the dumbest political decisions I have ever seen. If the Democrats want to loss fewer seats in November in my opinion the Democrats should immediately introduce legislation that makes SOME of the Bush Tax Cuts permanent. They should make the Republicans vote on these tax cuts now before the November elections. There is no way the Republicans will oppose tax cuts and this would give the Democrats some legislation that they pass right before the election and this would help them convince the voters that they are actually doing something in Washington DC.

7. The popularity of President Obama has dropped significantly. This will hurt the chances of the Democrats.

The Democrats are going to get pounded in November and they should get pounded in November.

The Republicans should not get cocky; the American people do not like them either…

Mike Sylvester

Bush Tax Cuts (Long post, wonkish)

In 2001 and 2003 President Bush enacted large tax cuts in this country. These tax cuts were enacted such that the Federal income tax paid by all Americans decreased.

The Democrats tend to argue that the tax cuts only benefited the wealthy and that is an outright lie no matter how you look at the numbers. Please understand that I prepare hundreds of tax returns each and every year and I have looked at the data countless times. The liberal think tanks (and the Conservative ones as well) tend to just use statistics that emphasize their own political viewpoint.

The truth of the matter is the Bush tax cuts lowered the taxes of all Americans; period. If you really delve into the numbers the Bush tax cuts clearly benefited certain groups of Americans over other groups of Americans. Specifically the following groups of people benefited the most:

The extremely wealthy who benefit the most from the lower rates for qualified dividends and long term capital gains.
The working poor who are eligible for large refundable tax credits in the form of the earned income tax credit.
Those who have qualifying children and do not make too much money benefit from the refundable child tax credit.
Those who incur large college costs and hence qualify for generous education tax credits. (Note this also increases the amount of tuition that colleges can charge).

Republican House Pledge

The House Republicans have released a document that is their “pledge” to America. Overall I agree with many of these items; however, I have several problems with it:

The Republicans signed a contract with America in 1994 and ended up accomplishing very few of the things in it in the long run.
The document is too long; it should have been one or two pages in length.
Based on the political history of both the Democrats and Republicans I think many Americans are distrustful of promises made in the run up to an election. Heck, Nancy Pelosi and Barrack Obama completely lied about a large number of items and the media has not held them accountable for those recent lies.

Things I like:

Small Business tax deduction of 20% of income.
Repeal the insane 1099 laws the Democrats imposed on Small Business Owners in the Health Care Bill
Cut Government spending, their proposal is far too modest; however, it is a start
End TARP
Reform Fannie and Freddie
Federal hiring freeze on non security employees (Should be ALL employees; however, it is a step in the right direction)
Repeal and Replace Health Care Reform
Impose medical liability reform (Minor step, but, needed)
All Americans to purchase health insurance across state lines
Post bill and allow it to be read three days prior to vote
Limit legislation to ONE major issue at a time
Control our Borders
Authorize state and local Government to enforce immigration laws
Increase access to domestic energy
Oppose Cap and Trade

Items in the “pledge” that I dislike

Keep “Gitmo” open and keep supposed "terrorists" out of US prisons
Fully fund missile defense
Extend the Bush tax cuts for all Americans.

Mike Sylvester

The student loan “racket” in the United States

A couple of months ago the total amount of student loan debt in the United States exceeded the total amount of credit card debt in the United States.

Let me say that another way; Americans owe more money due to loans they took out to pay for college than they owe on their credit cards.

I find that statistic to be absolutely incredible.

The cost of college has increased by even more that the cost of medical care in the United States. The cost of college has increased by astronomical rates partially because the Federal Government and State governments heavily subsidize higher education. The Federal Government spends increasingly more on higher education each and every year; this in turn allows colleges to raise the fees and costs paid by the students. For years and years the States have been pouring increasing amounts of money into higher educations as well; the current recession has reversed that trend at the State level.

Far too many Americans decide to pay for college with student loans. In some cases the cost of paying these loans back (with interest and fees) can be cost justified because the individual is able to make more money and use this additional income to service the loans. Unfortunately in many other cases the costs cannot be justified. Reasons for this include:

The student does not gain the skills or education that allows them to obtain a higher paying job. This happens in some cases by students choosing degrees which lead to no job or poor paying jobs.

Many students take out student loans for expenses that have nothing to do with education; many buy new cars, pay their rent, eat out, etc.

Many students fail to graduate and return to their old jobs.

Many students take a long time to graduate. Remember that you are likely earning a lot less income while you are attending school.

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