Observation: Trump

Posted on March 13, 2016

“The Donald” captures headlines because he is outrageous and outlandish. But he clearly spotlights some very basic issues bothering many Americans. Spotlighting these issues gets him votes, notwithstanding how outrageous and outlandish he is.

Take for example “immigration”. He advocates stopping illegal immigration. This makes sense. But he advocates doing so by building a “wall” between Mexico and the United States. That wall would be 1,954 miles long. Assuming it would have to be at least twelve feet high (the height of the “Berlin Wall”), it would probably cost somewhere between 6 and 8 billion US dollars to build (and maybe much more depending on terrain). In America, where our government spends over 3 trillion dollars a year, this may seem like a small amount. But in Mexico, where their government spent only 322 billion dollars last year, this is a very large amount. Nevertheless, Donald Trump insists he will build this wall, and get Mexico to pay for it.

The concept of stopping illegal immigration with such a wall is outrageous. A wall like this would take years to build. It would send a terrible message to the rest of the world about what America stands for, and how it deals with its neighbors. And it would utterly fail to stop illegal immigration. Remember: Mexico has 12 foot ladders and some very good tunnel makers (who may be looking for work now that “El Chapo” is not employing them anymore).

The concept of Mexico paying for such a wall is outlandish. Its economy is hurting with slow growth and the low price of oil, and its government is currently operating at deficits of 3% to 4% of GDP. Even if Mexico wanted such a wall (which they don’t), they are not in a position to afford it.

The message from this Observation: it is indeed important for our President to focus on the right problems (and perhaps Trump would do this). But it is equally important that he have the right solutions for these problems (which Trump clearly does not). Over and over again Trump offers outrageous and outlandish solutions. These Trump solutions will not solve problems, and will undoubtedly make the problems worse.

“It ain’t what you do; its how you do it”. Don’t vote for Trump…Bill O’Neill

Categories: National Viewpoint, Politics, Spending

Personal Responsibility

Posted on March 5, 2016

I am a passionate believer in freedom, both yours and mine…our freedom of speech…our freedom of religion…our freedom of the press…our economic freedom…our freedom from excessive regulation and taxation…and our freedom to pursue our own happiness in our own way. Our freedoms should be constrained only when their exercise unfairly abuses the freedom of someone else.

It was the foresight of our Founding Fathers not to take these freedoms from us. For it was these freedoms which empowered our people to establish and grow our nation, and to prosper like no other people ever have. In less than two centuries, the United States of America became the most powerful nation on earth, and it citizens came to enjoy the highest standard of living ever know.

When people are free from excessive restraints, and encouraged to pursue their own happiness in their own way, they can realize their inherent power of self fulfillment, a power given at birth by our Creator. People can then achieve a sustained sense of well being. Unleashing this power, and encouraging its use, creates great nations. Great nations enable their people to improve their lives; the standard of living advances for everyone and people are truly happy because they are independent and successful. Welfare states enslave their people creating an addictive dependency; and the crushing taxes required to support welfare states demoralize its productive people. (The people who are unable to fend for themselves must be helped, of course, but preferably by charity; government should be the last resort here).

Great Nations Are the Creation Of Their People

Great nations are not the creation of their governments. They are the creation of their people. A great nation’s government must encourage its people to independently pursue their own happiness, and then give them the freedom to do it (i.e. “get out of the way”). To the extent people cede responsibilities to their government, government may be required to put some limits on freedoms and to enact the taxes required to pay for its activities. But these constraints should be the exception. Freedom should be the rule. Communist governments and other welfare states consistently fail because they make the exceptions to freedom the rule; they enslave their people and smother their inherent power.

There is a caveat however. The people of a great nation must be “personally responsible.” Personal responsibility goes beyond merely doing what the law requires. It means doing what you inherently know to be right. It means holding yourself to be as responsible to other people as you are to yourself. It requires you to develop and follow your moral compass. It is grounded in love, for others and yourself. Personal responsibility acts both inwardly (to yourself) and outwardly (to other people). At its highest level, it is doing the right thing, in the right way, every time.

remove personal responsibility and freedom can and will lead to chaos

When our nation was founded, our people were personally responsible in this way. There are always some exceptions, but personal responsibility characterized our hard working pioneers. Our Founding Fathers did not usurp the freedom of our people to pursue their own paths to happiness. And it worked: freedom, guided by personal responsibility, produced the highest standard of living ever known and the best and most powerful nation on earth.

But remove personal responsibility and freedom can and will lead to chaos. It may take a while, and authoritarian governments may intervene along the way, but the end result is always chaos. And this chaos inevitably brings on revolution, atrophy, hyper-inflation, or some other horrible condition equally as bad.

A simple example will illuminate this.

Assume a hypothetical country wisely gave its people the freedom to pursue their own happiness however they wished. Over time, these people invented cars and developed roads. The only government interventions were the minimum traffic controls necessary to maintain order on the roads. For a while, people drove their cars responsibly. Everything worked well, and everyone prospered. But then some of the people started to lose their sense of personal responsibility and drive cars that were not properly maintained, or drive in disobedience of the traffic regulations, or drive while intoxicated, or drive with seriously impaired eye sight, or drive while totally distracted by technology gadgets. And of course, accidents, injuries and deaths on the roads increased. In response, the country would have to impose an increasing number of regulations, each of which would further restrict driving freedom. If more and more people chose to drive in this irresponsible way, until the great majority of drivers were irresponsible, there would be utter chaos on the roads. And the government would be forced to take away all freedoms to drive. It might do this by excessive regulation of individual drivers, or even a total elimination of individual drivers or cars.

The Message Is Simple

Freedom without personal responsibility leads to chaos. And chaos invariably leads to the loss of freedom. Without freedom people and nations cannot prosper. (See “A Responsibility Dream” posted on this site on March 28, 2013). The freedom to obtain the American Dream must be enabled by the personal responsibility of those who dream the Dream.. You can’t have one without the other…Bill O’Neill

Categories: Freedom, National Viewpoint, Responsibility

Spending Addiction

Posted on December 6, 2015

Two years ago, in 2013, conservatives in the United States Congress passed a “sequester” law. It reduced Federal discretionary spending across the board by $85 billion. It was a blunt hatchet approach to a problem that required a careful scalpel. It was also done too late and did too little. But the conservatives who understood our Federal debt and unfunded liability problems, were desperate to do something. The sequestered amounts were $85 billion per year, a big number to most of us, but only about 2.4% of what our Federal government spends in total each year. Nevertheless, it made at least a small statement that unconstrained Federal spending can not continue the way it had been going. It was the initial act of a spending addict to break its destructive habit.

Our Government Abandoned Its Attempt to Break It’s Spending Addiction

Alas, just a few weeks ago, our Congress reneged on the “sequester” constraints and approved a budget which ended the little good it had done just two years before. While the additional spending restored to the Federal budget will amount to only a small percentage of our government’s total annual spending, its symbolic effect is heartbreaking. Our government abandoned even its feeble attempt to break its spending addiction. In so doing it is doing just what so many addicts do:

• They deny they have a problem because they can succumb to their addiction without becoming totally dysfunctional. Our government can still borrow money to cover its deficits. In fact, it even borrows from itself, so theoretically its borrowing power is unlimited.

• They insist they are different because they are better and can handle addictions others can’t. Up until a few months ago, I am sure the Greek government also felt that way. The problem, of course, is that no government can indefinitely deny the fundamentals of market economics. If they try, the markets are swift and harsh in their retribution. Just ask the Greeks.

• They justify what they are doing by saying almost everyone else is doing much the same thing. True, some governments in the world today continue to spend beyond their means. In fact, over the past century, there have been many governments which have done this. But, without exception, they all end up the same way. They overspend; then they borrow to cover deficits; then they print money to pay back their loans (or to cover deficits); ultimately they print so much money that their county falls into hyper inflation. This wipes out the government and all its people because its fiat money (un-backed by assets) becomes virtually worthless. The poor suffer the most. Just ask the Zimbabweans; and when you do, ask them to show you one of their one hundred trillion ($ 100,000,000,000,000) Zimbabwean dollar bills (which were legal tender until just a few years ago).

Our Politicians Are Addicted to Federal Spending

Make no mistake about it. Our Federal government has an EXPENSE problem not a REVENUE problem. It has this problem because the majority of our politicians are addicted to Federal spending. They make the laws that spend the money (not their own money, but our collective money), and by their spending they hope to “buy” the votes of their constituents. And it is these votes which give them job security (i.e. re-election). Irrational, self-destruction, and dreadful, yes. But almost all addictions are.

If we hope to solve this problem for our children and grandchildren, we must approach it like the addiction it is. We must first stop the growth in federal spending. Then we must start reducing this spending until it is balanced by the revenues generated by a reasonable and fair system of taxation. Then we must generate surpluses to start re-paying our debts ($18 trillion) and funding our unfunded liabilities (around $100 trillion). And finally, we must make sure our politicians never do this again.

We Must Not Let Politicians Destroy Our Country.

We are a great people. We were a great country. We must not let politicians destroy us or our country. This transcends political parties. Both parties must share the blame for our present problems, and both must cooperate to solve these problems. Our time has run out. Every unchecked addiction eventually gets to a point of no return. Our Federal spending addiction is just about there now. We can no longer ignore it, nor can we let our politicians “duck it.” It’s time for some tough decisions and some hard medicine. We must act BRAVELY, we must act NOW…Bill O’Neill

Categories: Deficits, National Viewpoint, Politics, Spending

Stump Speech

Posted on September 8, 2015

As our nation prepares for the election of its next President, I think about what I would say if I were a candidate for that position. I am in fact too old to be that candidate, and I lack the “machinery” and the “money” to get elected. But if I were a candidate, this would be my Stump Speech. It describes the candidate I would most like to be our next President.

“Fellow Americans: I humbly stand before you today seeking the most powerful and important position in our country, and the position that leads the free world, the Presidency of the United States of America. I do not seek this position for the power it would confer upon me, nor for its prestige or the other benefits that come with it. In my mind, the detriments inherent in becoming our President far outweigh these attractions. You could honestly say, “he doesn’t really want the job.”

My Motive:

But I seek to lead this once-great country of ours in order to return it to the principles that made it the greatest nation known to man…the nation that made the American Dream possible for its citizens…the nation that became the envy of every other nation on earth. I am motivated to do this for you and for me, but much more so for your children and my children, and for your grandchildren and my grandchildren. I want all of them to have the opportunity to pursue our American Dream. All of my Presidential decisions will be guided by this motivation, my desire to give all our children and all our grandchildren the best opportunity to live their lives in a free society, to pursue true happiness and to achieve a sustained sense of well being. The American Dream offers this opportunity. It is the only Dream that does.

My Principles:

Over the coming months, you will hear and read much from other Presidential candidates, and from their supporters and their detractors. Most of this will be focused on the candidate’s stance on individual issues. While issue positions have importance, particularly if you only care about a single issue, I believe it is far more important to know the fundamental principles that will guide your candidate…the principles that are part of his or her inner fabric…the principles that he or she will rely upon as President to prioritize what needs to be done, and to make the momentous decisions our President must make. Our President represents each of us on every decision he or she makes. Consequently, I want you to know the fundamental principles which are at the core of who I am, the principles which will guide my every decision from the Oval Office.

• I believe there exists a Supreme Being we generally call “God,” and that God can be acknowledged, understood and worshiped in many ways.

• I believe that God created each of us to be equal, and therefore our government should recognize each of us as equal. This means that we are given equal rights and respect, and as far as possible we are given equal opportunities. It does not mean we are guaranteed equal outcomes (because this leads to a totalitarian state where no one is free and no one is happy).

• I believe the power of love (a positive) is stronger than the power of hate (a negative).

• I believe that “family” is the basic (but not the only) unit of society.

• I believe in the principles upon which our nation was founded. It was indeed adherence to these principles of our Founding Fathers that enabled our fledgling, wilderness nation to become the greatest nation on earth in less than two centuries.

• I believe our Declaration of Independence, our Constitution and our Bill of Rights should be read and re-read often by every single member of our Federal government.

• I believe the proper role of our Federal government is to create a climate in which the lives and safety of its citizens are secure (protecting our inalienable right to “Life”)…a climate in which the freedom granted to each of our citizens is maximized, limited only by the responsibility each citizen must have to respect the lives, rights, and properties of all other citizens ( protecting our inalienable right to “Liberty,” but balanced by “responsibility”)…a climate in which each citizen can pursue true happiness and well-being, as he or she defines it, and in the way he or she wishes (protecting our inalienable right to the “Pursuit of Happiness”).

• I also believe that economic dependency (where not necessitated by physical or mental impairments) does not lead to happiness, and usually destroys self respect. In fact, it is a form of enslavement.

• I believe that our Federal government should be a limited government, having only those powers expressly given to it by the Constitution, and always exercising those powers in an effective and efficient way, and in the long-term best interests of all our citizens.

• I believe that all other powers, not so given to the Federal government, belong to our people, or to their respective States.

• I believe that governments, just like our families, must ultimately operate to a balanced budget. Deficits can be financed by borrowings for a while, but not indefinitely because of the build-up of accumulated debt. When this debt, and the unfunded liabilities that often go with it, gets so high that government cannot borrow anymore, that government, and its people, become enslaved to the consequences.

• Governments with unbalanced budgets usually believe that they have a “revenue” problem. Most often they have an “expense” problem. Therefore, I believe the first effort to balance an unbalanced government budget should be on the “expense” side.

• Each government tax, and each government regulation, works to further limit the economic and entrepreneurial freedom of our people. Therefore, I believe we should strive to limit these taxes and regulations to only those that are absolutely necessary to accomplish the proper responsibilities of our government.

• Taxation is a “government taking by force” (which is fundamentally “bad”) in order to fund a “necessary government activity” (which should be fundamentally “good”). Therefore, I believe every tax must be justified by the necessity of the government activity it funds, and by the effectiveness and efficiency of how this activity is carried on.

• To the extent taxation is required, I believe it must be as “fair” as possible to all parties involved. While “fairness” may be quite different to people at the extremes, it should be a sustainable standard that the overwhelming majority of our people would generally judge to be “fair” all things considered.

• Because government regulations limit the freedom of our citizens (which is fundamentally “bad”) each must be fully justified by the “good” to be accomplished by the regulation. In other words, I believe each regulation must be “cost justified.” Those that are not, should be eliminated.

• In every society, there will be some who cannot fend for themselves, perhaps for a part of their lives and perhaps for their entire lives. In these cases, our society must adequately care for them. I believe private charity does this best, but to the extent that private charity does not step in, then government must step in. No one can be left to “starve in the streets.”

• I believe the primary responsibility of our government is to its own people. While we should never bow to any threats or abuse by other governments or peoples, we should not, and cannot, be the world’s “policeman.” Other governments and peoples must work out their own problems. We should help them follow our path to prosperity if they wish, but we should never force them to adopt our ways, or our form of government, if they don’t.

• And finally, I believe that the freedom we all desire, the freedom upon which we were founded, the freedom envied by the rest of the world…is not only the freedom to “succeed”, but also the freedom to “fail”, because you cannot have the first without the second. This freedom to succeed also requires personal responsibility, because you cannot succeed unless I am personally responsible, and I cannot succeed unless you are personally responsible.

If you elect me to be your President, I pledge to you that I will be guided by my motivation to return our country to greatness for our children and grandchildren, and I promise you that I will adhere to the fundamental principles outlined above because they are at the very core of who I am.

My Priorities

If you elect me to be your President, my first priority will be the single greatest threat to our future, which is the accumulated debt rung up by our country ($18 trillion so far) and the unfunded liabilities we currently have which greatly exacerbate this problem (over $72 trillion of promises to make future retirement and health care payments, for which we have no funds set aside). This, I believe, is our greatest threat, and the single thing which could, and if not corrected will, absolutely destroy our country and reduce it to economic and social ruin. The American Dream will become the “American Nightmare” if we don’t solve this problem. There is no “ducking it.” There are other priorities too, but this is number one.

Ultimately, you will want to know how I stand on other issues, and I am willing to openly share my views on anything you ask. But knowing my motivation and my principles now is of primary importance as you decide who is to be your President for the next four years. This President will have an enormous impact on our country and all of its people, and may well be our last chance to re-shape the environment we leave to those who will come after us.

One more important thought: many of the issues which grab media attention today are more social issues than issues which properly belong in the realm of our Federal government; these issues should be treated accordingly. And many other issues involve situations of “conflicting rights.” Where the rights of one person conflict with the rights of another person, any resolution seems wrong, and many in the media love to “hype” this. Government policies, however, must examine the pros and cons of each set of rights, and come to an acceptable solution, one which our citizens generally agree to be “fair” to the parties involved (like the “right” to kill in “self defense”). This approach will resolve these issues, issues that have festered for far too long in our society.

My Style

By nature, I am optimistic, but I am also a realist. I am collegial, but focused. And I believe we can, if we have the collective will, accomplish anything we set our minds to. It won’t be easy, and it will take time. Where we differ with one another, our discussions must be fact-based and civil, and completely devoid of “political” motives. “Demonizing” and “dehumanizing” should never be tolerated. We must focus on resolving problems, maximizing opportunities for our economy to grow and for all our people to prosper, and returning our country to the principles of our Founding Fathers, the principles which made us great. To do this, I will reach out to everyone.

My Promise

By now, you should know me pretty well. I promise that I will always be the person I have just described because it is who I am intrinsically no matter what I am doing. I cannot promise you that I can successfully accomplish everything I will set out to do as your President (no President can). Many, many people (some of whom are “politically” motivated) must work together to attain these successes. But I can promise you that I will surround myself with the most talented, caring and like-minded people I can find to help me in these momentous tasks. And I also promise you that I will try, I will try very hard, to the best of my ability and to the limits of my energy, because what I will be doing is for the future of our children and our grandchildren. I do not seek the Presidency for myself. I seek it for them. On their behalf, thank you for considering me to be the President of the United States. Please vote for me if you believe I am the best person to return our country to once again be the home of the “American Dream”, the country we want to leave to our children and grandchildren.”

Bill O’Neill

Categories: Deficits, Freedom, National Viewpoint, Politics

Observation: Independence

Posted on July 4, 2013

Today, we celebrate our independence from the British Government. Our Founding Fathers declared this independence over two centuries ago, and fought to make it a reality. They wanted our young nation to be free from oppressive control by a foreign monarch. They wanted us to be “not dependent”.

We Have Become Dependent On Our own Government

We started off that way. And we are still “free”, nominally at least. But, particularly over more recent years, we have lost our independence, and have become dependent on our own government. As a people, we look to our government to provide us with education, jobs, health care, and retirement benefits. If we are disadvantaged or poor, we demand that our government provide us with lifetime income. Government programs that started as a “humanitarian safety net” have now become a “vested right” in the eyes of many. We feel entitled to a high standard of living; if we can’t, or won’t, earn it, we expect our government to provide it for us.

Our Current Dependence is High Risk

We have, in short, become dependent on government again. While it is a different government this time (it is “us” not “them”), it is nevertheless a dependence on government. Too bad. We seem to have lost the sense of personal responsibility our Founding Fathers had, an ingrained sense that made them independent. Our current dependence on government is high risk (because it relies on a source without assets or earning power). It also greatly diminishes our national character, and may ultimately destroy this once-great nation of ours…Bill O’Neill

Categories: Independence, National Viewpoint

Observation: Terrorism

Posted on April 29, 2013

I am in the mid-East now, and have had the opportunity to experience three of the world’s major religions “up close and personal”. Christianity (which has 2.2 billion believers), Islam (which has 1.3 billion believers) and Judaism (which has 14 million believers) account for about half the people on earth today. All three were founded in this area of the world. All three acknowledge one God (but by different names), and believe that human beings must obey the Will of this God. Two of the three believe in life after death (Judaism is not sure). All three have holy texts and scriptures which guide their believers, and many of the lessons contained in these writings are similar. There are even similarities in their religious practices and holidays. While there are differences in the “trappings” of these religions, the similarities in fundamentals are overwhelming.

His God And Those That He kills Are The Same God

When a terrorist says his religion justifies (even requires) the indiscriminate killing of those who practice another religion, he lies. His God, and the God of those he kills, are the same God. And the belief in after-life with this God, the written guidance which comes from this God, and indeed many of the practices of the religions, are fundamentally the same. We know the terrorist lies when he invokes his religion to justify his terrorism, because he is indiscriminately killing his religious brothers and sisters.

Why Does He Lie?

Why does he lie? Because he must obscure the reality of his heinous and despicable crimes against humanity in some sort of “cloak” which makes these acts appear “justified”. Otherwise, he could not commit these horrible killings. But the cloak of religion is transparent. His God and my God are the same God. His God would never sanction the killing of another who believed in the same God but worshipped through a different religion. Invoking the Holy Trinity, Allah or Yahweh to justify terrorism is the desperate act of an imbecile to rationalize that which he knows to be horribly wrong…Bill O’Neill

Categories: Global Viewpoint, Terrorism

A Responsibility Dream

Posted on March 28, 2013

Earlier this month, while visiting an entrepreneurial daughter on the West Coast, we boated over to Alcatraz Island which sits in San Francisco Bay. The visit re-kindled an old dream of mine, one which actually started on the East Coast of our country.

Shining Symbol Of A Free People

There is a small island off the tip of Manhattan. A fort was constructed there for the War of 1812, and inside its courtyard now stands the most majestic statue in the world, a shining symbol of a free people, the Statue of Liberty. It was erected in 1886, a joint effort by the people of America (who funded the pedestal) and the people of France (who designed and funded the Statue). In the 1980’s, a public-private partnership raised $87 million to restore the Statue and the restoration was completed in time for “Lady Liberty’s” 100th anniversary. The UN then declared the Statue a World Heritage Site.

All That Is Great About Our Country

The Statue of Liberty is huge, standing 305 feet tall from its pedestal base to the tip of its torch. From head to toe, Lady Liberty herself is 112 feet tall and has a 35 foot waistline. She weighs 450 thousand pounds. There are 354 steps inside the Statue and pedestal, and visitors to the crown have 25 viewing windows from which to peer out at America.

Known throughout the world, the Statue of Liberty symbolizes all that is great about our country: the opportunities, hopes and aspirations made possible in a land where individual freedoms are assured by both our Constitution and a long-standing culture of liberty. So powerful was the message that it drew hard-working, responsible people from around the world to come to America to raise their families, to pursue their dreams, and to take pride in introducing each new generation to a higher plane of life. The Statue of Liberty became the symbol of the American Dream. And many generations of Americans achieved this Dream.

We forgot something vitally important: to sustain our success as a people and as a nation, we must individually retain a strong sense of personal responsibility.

But, over time, an erosion set in. As we became more successful materially, and reached the highest standard of living ever known, too many of us started to become less resourceful, less self-reliant, less responsible. Not everyone, of course, but too many of us started looking for the “free ride.” This portion of our population now wants all the latest material comforts (from cell phones to HDTV), but are unwilling to work for them. They want the joys of children, but are unwilling to commit to lifelong parental partnerships to raise these children. They want a secure retirement, but are unwilling to save for it. As more and more of our people lost their sense of personal responsibility, our elected officials (politicians) pandered to this weakness (to “buy” votes, of course), and this seemed to validate and accelerate the loss of responsibility.

We Must Individually Retain A Strong Sense of Personal Responsibility.

We forgot something vitally important: to sustain our success as a people and as a nation, we must individually retain a strong sense of personal responsibility. The same sense our Founding Fathers had when they declared our Independence and adopted our Constitution. The same sense the people of our young nation had when they tamed our country’s wilderness. The same sense our poor immigrants had when they came to America to build their fortunes. The same sense that enabled us to revolutionize the world through the Industrial Revolution, to win two World Wars, and to develop technology which now enables us to do things almost beyond imagination.

Now however, we must come to realize that freedom without responsibility results in chaos.

Now however, we must come to realize that freedom without responsibility results in chaos. The early signs of this coming chaos are all around us: political parties that deadlock the decision making of government; massively unbalanced federal budgets; enormous accumulated federal debt; a government which prints huge amounts of its own money (thereby devaluing its money) to feed its spending habits; a culture of illegal drugs; a wide-spread acceptance of unwed motherhood; an ever larger portion of our population in jail; an embedded attitude of entitlement; deteriorating results in our public schools; a declining standard of overall health (notwithstanding the fact that we far outspend all other nations for health care); and on, and on, and on. Unless we revive our individual sense of responsibility, and do it soon, this chaos will consume us and our nation. The shining torch held by Lady Liberty will be extinguished, and America will deteriorate into a land of broken dreams, hopelessness, and dispair.

Personal Responsibility

Personal responsibility. It balances freedom. Together they enabled the American Dream to become a reality. We had them both before. That’s how we became great. But we are losing responsibility now. We must regain it. We need a symbol, visible to all (not only in America, but around the world). This symbol must say we are reclaiming our sense of personal responsibility, each of us are. This symbol must be as powerful as the Statue of Liberty.

Personal responsibility. It balances freedom. Together they enabled the American Dream to become a reality.

We need a Statue of Responsibility! This is my dream. And we should build it on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay.

Alcatraz is a small, hard rock island jutting up just a short distance inside the Golden Gate Bridge. It was widely known as an inescapable federal prison, and confined about 1,500 of our nation’s most notorious convicts from 1934 to 1963. Previously however (since 1853) it was the site of a lighthouse and early fortress, a Civil War fortification, and a military prison, before becoming a federal penitentiary. The island is now under the protection of the National Park Service, which is engaged in an effort to restore the integrity of its deteriorating buildings.

The prisoner’s recreation yard on the north end of Alcatraz Island would be the perfect spot to erect the Statue of Responsibility. The location is clearly visible to all who enter our country by coming under the Golden Gate Bridge, as well as to all those living in San Francisco and around the Bay. I envision a statue of a man holding the hand of a child (“father and child”); a statue rising at least 100 feet above its pedestal; a statue depicting a “responsible” father and a “trusting” child. The Statue of Responsibility should be equal to the Statue of Liberty in size, grandure, and impact. Hopefully its pedestal could be funded by Asian nations (whose people have immigrated to our country) and the Statue itself by voluntary contributions from our own people.

We need a Statue of Responsibility! This is my dream.

The symbolism of this father-child Statue of Responsibility would be clear (“responsibility earns trust”); the message powerful (“liberty” must be balanced with “responsibility”); and the reach global (a message to all the people of the world that we the people of America intend to re-gain the other key ingredient to our past success, namely “personal responsibility”). “Lady Liberty” on the East Coast entry to our country; “Father Responsibility” on the West Coast entry; together, they “bookend” the American Dream in between. We will not let chaos take over because we lack personal responsibility!

I envision a statue of a man holding the hand of a child (“father and child”)

Let’s get started on this now...Bill O’Neill

Categories: National Viewpoint

Tagged: Responsibility

Sequester Cuts

Posted on March 11, 2013

Out of Washington comes the news that the expenses of our federal government will be reduced by $85 billion this year (its accounting year which ends on September 30, 2013, and therefore has about seven months to go). No one likes the legislation that forces these reductions even though most people agree that we MUST REDUCE GOVERNMENT SPENDING. What goes here? Lets look at the facts.

If They Are Not Permanent Reductions, What Good Are They?

The cuts have been labeled a “sequester” which implies “to set apart” or “to separate”, but not “to eliminate”. If these cuts are not permanent reductions in what our government will otherwise spend, what good are they? They become merely an empty promise: we will not spend the amounts today, but we may spend them tomorrow. Picture an alcoholic saying “I usually have 10 drinks a day, but tomorrow I’ll have only 9. Hooray, I am cured! And by the way, the day after tomorrow I may have 12 drinks to make up for the one I will miss tomorrow”.

The $85 billion to be cut from government expenses amounts to only 2.4% of what our government will spend this year, and only 9.1% of its projected loss.

Doesn’t Make Much Of A Dent

The cuts amount to $85 billion over the next seven months. Sounds like a lot of money, and indeed it is. But they must be judged in the context of ALL the monies our federal government will spend this year, which are currently budgeted at $3.6 trillion. And the budgeted loss for the period is $930 billion before the cuts. The $85 billion to be cut from government expenses amounts to only 2.4% of what our government will spend this year, and only 9.1% of its projected loss. Doesn’t make much of a dent in the problem does it?

Meat Ax Vs Scalpel Approach

The cuts are coming from a “meat ax” approach to the problem rather than a “scalpel” approach. On an overall basis, our federal government spends $3.6 trillion a year. This, incidentally, amounts to $11,000 for EVERY man, woman and child in our country, and the government spends this amount EVERY year! This spending currently falls into three maj0r categories: the largest is the mandatory (mostly “entitlement”) spending, which accounts for approximately $2.1 trillion a year; the next largest is defense spending, which currently amounts to about $700 billion a year; and finally there is other domestic spending, which is about $600 billion a year. And, of course, we must also pay interest on the federal debt we have accumulated over the years. Looking at these sequester cuts by category, the entitlements budget will be cut $16.3 billion (or 0.8%, which is less than 1%); the defense budget will be cut $42.6 billion (6.1%); and other domestic spending will be cut $26.4 billion (4.4%). The individual line item expenses that were cut were done with very little, if any, analysis of the impacts the cuts would cause. This approach hardly inspires the trust and confidence we should have in our elected officials.

The wrong thing, done the wrong way, at the wrong time.

Sometimes the resolution of a difficult issue (like these sequester cuts), that leaves all the parties somewhat unhappy, is a good resolution. Not so here. Each of the parties (political and otherwise) is VERY UNHAPPY. The sequester cuts come way too late (they should have been worked out throughout 2012 in a very deliberative and thoughtful way). They are way too little (they only reduce out-of-control federal spending by 2.4%, and will make less than a 10% reduction in the huge loss projected for the year). And they are way too sloppy (they fail to target federal waste and inefficiency, and hardly make a dent in entitlements, which are without any doubt our really big problem). The wrong thing, done the wrong way, at the wrong time.

Why? It comes down to a very dirty word. The word is “politics”. I’ll have more to say about that later…Bill O’Neill

Categories: Deficits, National Viewpoint

Tagged: Federal Spending

A Trillion

Posted on March 4, 2013

To truly understand the meaning of a word, we must be able to conceptualize it. It is easy to understand the word “twelve”: I can picture the twelve apostles or twelve eggs in a carton. I clearly know the meaning of “twelve”. But it is hard to conceptualize the word “infinite”: there is nothing in my experience I can use to relate to this word. Something that has no limits is beyond my comprehension. Consequently, I have a very fuzzy understanding of the meaning of “infinite”.

But we still don’t really “get it”. It is just TOO BIG to understand. And politicians in Washington undoubtedly want to keep it that way. As long as we (the voters) don’t understand it, they (the politicians) won’t be held accountable for it.

To Big To Understand

We should be able to understand the meaning of the word “trillion”. After all, it is a finite number, something we can count, something we can define with certainty. But it is such a BIG number, most of us have no comprehension of its meaning. We really don’t understand it, and consequently we ignore it. We see the word often in our newspapers, and hear it banished about frequently in Washington, D.C. We know that it is an enormous number, and that it will have a huge impact on our future. But we still don’t really “get it”. It is just TOO BIG to understand. And politicians in Washington who deal with the federal budget, undoubtedly want to keep it that way. As long as we (the voters) don’t understand it, they (the politicians) won’t be held accountable for it.

This is a very, very dangerous situation. We hold our politicians accountable for the small stuff because we understand small stuff (for example, mis-appropriating campaign funds or marital infidelity). But we don’t hold them accountable for the really big stuff (like trillion dollar deficits every year). They (the politicians) are not being responsible with our money and the future of our country. And we (the voters) are not being responsible either: by not understanding what our politicians are doing to us and to our country, we enable them to be irresponsible. The situation cries out for a “curb rein” of responsibility. And the curb rein starts with us. Once we (the voters) have a clear understanding of just how big a trillion really is, we can start to hold our politicians accountable for what they are doing to us and our country.

How big is a trillion? It’s the amount you would earn if you were paid $1 per second, worked 40 hours per week and stayed on the job for 31,700 years.

Some Illustrations

OK. How big is “a trillion”? It’s this big: 1,000,000,000,000. Still hard to get your mind around the meaning? Then let’s try some illustrations you might be able to conceptualize. A trillion is: (a) a million millions; (b) a little over $3,000 for every man, woman and child in the United States; (c) or, to spread it around a little more, $150 or so for every single human being on our planet earth (there are 7 billion of us currently); (d) the number of steps you would take to walk completely around the earth at the equator if you circled the earth 22,800 times; (e) the number of seconds that have passed since the Neanderthals walked the earth 32,000 years ago; (f) the amount you would earn if you were paid $1 per second, worked 40 hours per week and stayed on the job for 31,700 years; (g) the number of dollar bills piled up in a stack 68,000 miles high (a third of the distance to the moon); (h) the number of miles you would travel if you circled the earth at the equator 40 million times; (i) the number of cheeseburgers you could buy to feed every human being on earth a cheeseburger every day for almost 3 months; (j) the number of weeks our universe will have been here (from the “big bang” which was 13.7 billion years ago) when we get to the year 5,530,002,013 (that is, the year 5 billion, 530 million, 2 thousand and 13). There are many, many more ways as well to illustrate just how big a trillion really is. I encourage you to post back any illustrations you really like. In the end, pick the one that best helps you to “get it”. And remember always that this is only one trillion.

Take Responsibility for it

They say ignorance is bliss, and we have been blissful about a trillion for a long time. Now however, we must become powerful about it, take responsibility for it, and bring it under control. Knowledge of the whole, fact-based truth is the ultimate power. This power is within our reach if we are willing to think deeply and care enough about the future of our country to pursue the truth, the whole truth.

In the future, I will be sharing with you more thoughts along these lines…Bill O’Neill

Categories: Deficits, Global Viewpoint, National Viewpoint

Tagged: Federal Spending