The Disappearance of Proposition 2

Here in Ohio the Democrats and media are “hammering” Gov. Kasich and the Republicans for the cuts in the Local Government Funds that they passed in 2011.  It’s becoming a major campaign issue as even many local Republican mayors and council members are asking for the cuts to be restored.  Will it have an impact on the 2014 elections?  It’s beginning to look like it will.  And all the while, Republicans hardly offer a defense.

So let’s look back at 2011.  Ohio was facing an $8 billion dollar deficit.  Ohio towns and cities were finding themselves saddled with huge employee benefit expenses.  And cities and towns were on their own until the hole they were in would qualify under the “Emergency” definition.  It was only at that point that the State Auditor’s office could step in to help.

So the legislation took action at the behest of Gov. Kasich.  They addressed the issues in three ways:

1.      They cut the Local Government Fund payments to towns and cities (helped reduce the states deficit)

2.      They passed legislation (Senate Bill 5) giving cities and towns more control over their employee’s benefits costs (designed to help them deal with the cuts in funding)

3.      They added monitoring for “fiscal caution” status to the State Auditor’s office (giving it greater ability to help towns and cities who were having issues)

This looked like a good set of solutions to the issues that both were facing.  But that’s not where things stopped.

In 2012 Ohio’s public unions worked with Democrats in an attempt to repeal Senate Bill 5. They got a proposition on the ballot and conducted a campaign to convince voters to vote in favor of repealing Senate Bill 5.  Their main message was that Police and Fire staffing levels would be cut if Senate Bill 5 wasn’t repealed.  Voters took the bait and Proposition 2 was passed by a large majority.

But that left Ohio’s towns and cities with cuts to the Local Government Funds, but without the added flexibility to deal with the lost revenue that came with Senate Bill 5.  As a result, cities and towns have had to cut services, including in some cases Police and Fire protection.

So now the very same individuals who pushed for repeal of Senate Bill 5 are blaming the Republicans for the impact that their proposition caused.  And cities and towns are left with growing employee benefit costs that are well out of line with what the private sector would pay.

Unfortunately Republicans are so scared of the term “Senate Bill 5” that they refuse to tell citizens the truth.  It looks like November elections in Ohio will be much more interesting than they need to be. 

This may just be a case of Ohio Republicans snatching defeat from the jaws of victory!

 

The World’s Biggest Ponzi Scheme

Ponzi Scheme: “A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment operation where the operator, an individual or organization, pays returns to its investors from new capital paid to the operators by new investors, rather than from profit earned by the operator.”  Source: Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponzi_scheme

Liberals are upset if you call Social Security a “ponzi scheme”.  But what do you call a program where individuals are “encouraged” to contribute and the returns aren’t based on investment principles and market returns.  If you want to see an extreme historic example of that in action check out Ida May Fuller.  She was the first official recipient of Social Security (Old Age) benefits.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ida_May_Fuller

According to the article, Ida contributed $24.75 into Social Security over 3 years prior to retiring.  She received benefits from 1939 until her death in 1975 (age 100).  Over that period of time she received $22,888.92 in benefits. 

 The Social Security Act was passed into law in 1935 at a time when there were 322 Democrats and 103 Republicans in the House of Representatives and 69 Democrats and 25 Republicans in the Senate.  From 1935 until 1982 Democrats controlled the House of Representatives in all but one term (average majority of 83 seats) and the Senate in all but two terms (average majority of 21 seats).  So the fate and future of the Social Security program was firmly in the hands of the Democrats.

Democrats have proudly proclaimed that Social Security was a “Pay As You Go” program.  That meant that current workers contributions were used to pay current retirees.  This seemed to work fine until 1982.  That year the Social Security Trust Fund balance dropped to only $12.5 billion or $112 for each individual contributing to the program that year.  Many of those workers had been contributing for their entire careers, but the funds weren’t there.  They had been paid out to retirees.  The trust fund had paid out 99% of what had been contributed since its inception, leaving nothing to pay the worker’s future benefits with. 

At that point Congress did two things to “save” Social Security.  They raised the percentage of earnings being “contributed” into the trust fund and the maximum income level that withholdings came out of.  What started out in 1935 as a very minor “contribution” to help senior citizens became a major drain on the middle class’s income to support the Social Security and Medicare programs.  Individuals not only had to pay for the benefits of retirees, but contribute what was to be for their own benefits.

Democrats have consistently rejected any attempts to actually reform the program and put it on sound footing.  In recent years they’ve resorted to lying about the program’s impact on the Federal Budget.  While they claim that Social Security isn’t in the Budget, it appears in each of the WH OMB’s budget projections.  And while they tell people that it doesn’t add to the deficit, the 2015 WH OMB Budget projections show that Social Security Outlays ($11.7 trillion) will exceed Social Security Payroll Tax Receipts ($9.7 trillion) by $2 trillion over the next ten years.

There is one big difference between Social Security and a normal “ponzi schemes”.  Since Social Security was established by Congress, it’s “legal”.  And since the Social Security rules were set up by Congress, Congress can change them at any point in time.  And based on the current discussions on how to “fix” the Social Security program, for many Americans their contributions to a retirement plan is about to be turned into nothing more than a different name for a Federal Income Tax.

But Democrats still insist Social Security is the most successful program Congress has ever established.  The rest of us know it’s been nothing but a huge “ponzi scheme”.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Security_(United_States)

Patriot's Day

I sent the following email to "Washington".  I think its self explanatory:

 

 

Dear members of the House and Senate and staff members,

 

Patriot's Day.

 

In Massachusetts it's still a major holiday.  It doesn't celebrate the Boston Marathon, though the marathon is run on Patriot's Day each year.

 

 

Does Patriot's Day mean anything to you?

 

"On the 18th of April in seventy-five,

Hardly a man is now alive,

Who remembers that famous day of the year,

The midnight ride of ..."

 

Patriot's Day celebrates the events that truly started the American Revolution.  It started with the British decision to march to Concord to confiscate the colonist's powder and arms.  Two lights were seen from a church steeple.  Seeing them, Paul Revere and others road that night to spread the alarm.  Patriots gathered on the common in Lexington, MA ready to risk their lives confronting the British regulars.  The fight broke out.  Then the British marched to Concord and were confronted at an old bridge.  They failed to go further and had a long bloody march back to Boston.

 

That's what Patriot's Day is in remembrance of.

 

Many of us in the "tea party" are just common folk who honor the memory of those first patriots by attempting to bring some sense of sanity back to our Federal Government and Nation.

 

$18 billion in debt (projected for the end of calendar year 2014) and trillion dollar deficits (when you factor in the known increase in interest expense that will occur when interest rates return to normal) are surely signs that some sanity is needed.  So as they answered the call on the original patriot's day, some of us are attempting to answer the call today.

 

Yet we are despised, ridiculed and targeted?  For what?  Asking our leaders to use common sense and to do what is right.

 

We're attempting to answer the call, will you?

 

They Answered the Call:     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlvMO7qNBuY

 

Here’s to you Mr. Jefferson:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLAg8a0vCZQ&feature=related

 

Alan Davis