5/25/2010

There was one story, or at least one phrase, that really played big in my mind today. The story can be found here: http://abcnews.go.com/WN/bp-oil-spill-louisiana-governor-bobby-jindal-asks/story?id=10731680

This may be an outrageous statement for me to make, but shouldn’t the Federal Government immediately grant any request made by Louisiana in regards to the oil spill (unless it involves some sort of obviously harmful activity). How, might I ask, would building islands to protect the increasingly damaged shoreline be something that the Federal Government needs to think about approving? What are the other options? The Obama Administration’s plan of blaming BP and waiting for them to solve this disaster is not working, nor is there enough oil boom (another request that Louisiana is waiting on) to fend off the oil. For an administration that believes that Government is the cure for all of societies ills, they sure are taking their sweet time with fixing this problem. Don’t take my word for it, take James Carville and Chris Matthews word then.

While this is not the best to start a “Drill Baby Drill” chant, it is hardly the time to start prosecuting every single oil company. Did BP screw up? Yes they did, just as much as Exxon did when they left the radar on the Valdez broken and disabled for more than a year (Exxon knew about the broken radar as well). The fact remains that we need oil to survive. It is as simple as that. Is this a horrible tragedy? It absolutely is. It is not the first oil spill, and I will go out on a limb and say it will not be the last. We are humans, we make mistakes (big ones too), but if we are to stop all offshore drilling (the gulf alone produces 25% of our oil…and the U.S is the worlds 3^rd largest producer of oil) we would only increase our dependence on oil from nations who would love to have our well being even more in their hands. I know what the left will say. “How much is too much?” “The risk is larger than the gain!” “Don’t you care about the whales?” All three are decent points, but the case to stop all drilling is a flawed, knee jerk reaction to an event that gets worse by the day. The important thing to take away from this tragedy is not to stop all oil drilling offshore, but to find out what went wrong and prevent it from happening again. At least Obama will take a break for a few hours from his vacation to see the gulf spill in person.

I would also not be a responsible member of the vast right wing conspiracy if I did not make mention of this story: http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/income/2010-05-24-income-shifts-from-private-sector_N.htm

That’s right, Obama has led America to yet another record! This time it is cold, hard proof that the goal of the “stimulus” was to expand the Federal Government in order to boost the economy and not the private sector. Those on the left find this to be a proof that the stimulus is working and is providing money to people who need it most. Unfortunately there is not one sector of the Government that produces wealth. The Federal Government, by design, is a recipient. It takes from entities that create wealth (private business) and redistribute that wealth to those who simply exist (government). This is not to say that all government should be abolished, it shouldn’t, but this is meant to say that a steadily increasing government will create a huge problem over time. We already have more people in this country WHO DO NOT PAY TAXES than we have taxpayers (47% pay, 53% receive). What happens when the public sector begins to grow so large that those who depend on the private sector for their paycheck exceeds those in the private sector? This is not likely, but let’s say, for instance, that dependence on the public sector continues to grow. These people will vote for representatives that will pledge to increase government support and public sector pay. The more attractive government work becomes, or worse, the more attractive not working becomes, the incentive to enter the private sector shrinks. Why work 10 hour days when you can work a maximum of 8? Why work on weekends when you are guaranteed to have them off? Why work when you do not have to? I doubt the US will adopt any of Greece’s policies anytime soon, especially the policy of paying public sector workers for 14 months of work over each 12 month period. However, it is not hard to see that the immense cost of Federal pension plans will begin to impact our economy, especially as the baby boomer’s start to retire in increasingly large numbers.

Don’t worry, I can throw down on the right as well…WE HAVE OUR OWN JOE BIDEN! ProTip- When you have already plagiarized…don’t do it again.

That is all for now.