Newsletter 64

Fighting a recession	Don’t mess with Texas
Letters to the editor	GW
Good show	Members
Annual meeting

Don’t kick that can down the road, pick it up by Bill Morris - If I were the president, my top priorities would be recovery from the financial mess we are in and balancing the budget. In both cases, the key is to shrink the federal government.

I would ask each member of Congress to list his or her favorite cost-cutting actions. And I would request all committee chairs to postpone hearings and other activity, so members of Congress and their staffs would have the time to look for spending cuts.

I would direct the EPA director and other key officials to review all current and proposed regulations and propose ways to cut the aggregate regulatory burden (approaching $2 trillion per year according to some studies) in half. The goal would be to minimize the job-destroying regulations and red tape that are stifling the US economy.

In line with the Tenth Amendment, I would send a lot less federal money to the states. Medicaid would be block granted, with an elimination of federal strings. Education would be exclusively state-run, and the states would levy the taxes needed to pay for it.

I would also work toward privatization of Medicare and Social Security, adopt a more modest foreign policy, and recommend that military spending be cut significantly.

OK, I am not the president and neither are you. However, we can all make the point that Congress should start addressing these problems instead of just talking about them.

Fighting a recession – There are two basic theories for bolstering an ailing economy. One has been shown to work; the other offers political advantages. Two of the all-time greatest successes in cutting taxes and spending, Jim Powell, Forbes, 8/10/11. http://bit.ly/nuK2Ld

Response One: cut spending, cut taxes (if possible), and promote free trade. Thus, in the 1860s, English Prime Minister William Gladstone reduced government expenditures, abolished tariffs, and cut the income tax rate to less than 2%. The nation prospered.

In 1921, the US experienced a severe post-war depression. President Harding wanted to make a tough adjustment quickly. Spending was cut by about 50%, and taxes by about 40%. The economy rebounded in 18 months.

President Coolidge continued Harding's policies. The government ran budget surpluses for most of the 1920s, and 30% of the federal debt was paid off.

Response Two: ramp up government spending, raise taxes and/or borrow money to make ends meet. Recipients of the spending love it, and others feel the government is “doing something” about the economic plight of its citizens.

Thus, President Hoover reacted to the October 1929 stock market crash and ensuing developments by supporting big tax increases, higher spending, and the infamous Smoot-Hawley tariff bill.

President Roosevelt doubled down on Hoover’s policies, relying on deficit spending to stimulate the economy. The Great Depression lasted for a decade.

Could the Gladstone/Harding approach work today? Probably not, Powell’s article says, unless government functions were eliminated. Otherwise, agency heads would wheedle Congress into reversing funding cuts as soon as the public’s attention shifted to other issues.

Letters to the editor – SAFE members can promote smaller, more focused, less costly government with letters to their local newspaper (e.g., the News Journal in Delaware). The price is right, and such letters are said to attract lots of readers.

With 38 letters and columns published in 2011 (not counting letters we didn’t spot or hear about), SAFE seems to be doing pretty well in this area. See http://www.s-a-f-e.org/letters.htm

Join the fun! If you’d like some tips on getting started, call SAFE director Bill Morris on (302) 475-7060. Bill has written hundred of letters over the years, and he was our top producer in 2011.

Marriages are lived on Earth – For our anniversary, my wife asked me for “something shiny that goes from 0 to 200 in about 3 seconds.” So I bought her a scale ... and then the fight started.

Good show - SAFE member Richard Timberlake of Bogart, Georgia, is a recognized expert on the Federal Reserve, monetary policy, and the history of central banking. Dr. Timberlake has many publications to his credit, and he just finished a new book, Constitutional Money, which will be published by the Cato Institute in coming months.

Annual Meeting – The SAFE board met at the Golden Castle (a diner) on November 10. All directors were reelected except Barry Dorsch, who has moved to Fort Worth, Texas. Many thanks to Barry for his SAFE service as a long-time director and past president.

Our new director, Andrew Betley, spent his career with Hercules Incorporated. Andy’s current interests include reading, community service, traveling, and conservative organizations. He and his wife reside in Hockessin.

Reviewing the state of play in DC, we concluded that the Joint Committee on Deficit Reduction would probably deadlock (as it did) because there were not enough votes for real spending cuts. Too bad, we repeatedly told them what to do. http://bit.ly/b4quXY (8/22, 10/10, 11/7, 11/15 & 11/22).

The board has laid on a planning meeting in January to brainstorm how to enhance the effectiveness of our website, newsletter, and other outreach activities. http://bit.ly/vnJZ3k If any of you have suggestions, please send them to Bill Whipple (ww3@atlanticbb.net).

Marriages are lived on Earth, cont’d - At my high school reunion, my wife noticed me eyeing a lady who was downing a drink at a nearby table. “Do you know her?” my wife asked. “She’s an old flame,” I said. “She took to drinking after we split up those many years ago, and I hear she hasn't been sober since.” “Wow,” says my wife, “who would think a person could go on celebrating that long?” ... and then the fight started.

Don’t mess with Texas – After reading our blog entry (Federal Family Flim Flam, 9/5/11) about the government’s overblown response to Hurricane Irene, a reader forwarded an account of how a community in Texas fought one of the rash of wildfires that plagued the Lone Star State this year. Quite a story!

As background, the state government had requested that the wildfires be declared a natural disaster so emergency federal funds would be available. Despite the unprecedented severity of the wildfires, this request was denied.

The Tri-County (Montgomery, Grimes & Waller) fire threatened the homes, businesses, and safety of the local residents. They organized to fight it.

Most of the fire fighters were from volunteer fire companies in the area. They had little experience with wildfires, but pitched in to get the job done. An experienced team from California provided invaluable assistance.

Two mothers, with a staff of twenty volunteers, most of them women who had sons, daughters, husbands, and friends on the fire lines, organized the logistical support.

They figured out what sort of supplies the fire fighters would need, posted the requirements on Facebook and talked with some TV reporters. The supplies started rolling in.

They set up a base at a local high school, where the fire fighters could come to eat, sleep, and regroup.

The California team was impressed by the scope and efficiency of the operation; so were some relief workers from the Red Cross who stopped by.

Then FEMA arrived and told the volunteers they had to leave, FEMA was here now. They were obnoxious, bossy, got in the way, and criticized everything. The volunteers refused to back down and kept doing their job, and doing it well.

Next FEMA said the HEB (“Have Everything Better” Super Markets) supplies and kitchen had to go, that was blatant commercialism. Kenna (one of the organizers) said they stayed.

FEMA threw “a wall-eyed fit” about chewing tobacco and cigarettes being available in the commissary area. Kenna said the firefighters had requested them, and they were staying.

Bottom line: A fire the California experts said would take 2-3 weeks to get under control was 100% contained in 8 days. So much equipment and supplies were donated that 3 container trucks were loaded with the excess and sent to help set up a similar relief center for fire fighters in Bastrop.

GW – This SAFE microblog tracks and comments on the News Journal coverage of global warming and energy policy. For example, a 12/21/11 story on new EPA regulations failed to mention either cost or likely economic harm. http://bit.ly/ghPVOu

According to a story in the Washington Times, “power plant operators will have to choose between installing pollution control equipment, switching to cleaner-burning natural gas or shutting down their plants. None of those choices comes cheap; the EPA estimates the rule will cost $9.6 billion annually, making it one of the most expensive the agency has ever issued.” http://bit.ly/vZomWc And a Wall Street Journal editorial labeled the EPA figure “a gross, deliberate underestimate.”

Members – This microblog tracks the News Journal’s coverage of the Delaware members of Congress. Here is an example, with a comment in brackets. http://bit.ly/dPuWOJ (12/13/11)

On the Senate floor, Senators Carper and Coons engaged in some repartee about how on Dec. 7, 1787, 30 Delawareans gathered at the Golden Fleece Tavern in Dover and voted unanimously to make Delaware the first state to ratify the Constitution. There were various other references to The First State, then and now, and Senator Carper adroitly slipped in a pitch for a Delaware national park. [Promoting Delaware is fine, but Delaware does not need a state park just because all the other states have one – particularly given the seriousness of the fiscal problem.]

SAFE is a non-partisan, all-volunteer organization that was founded in 1996. We advocate smaller, more focused, lower cost government, to be achieved by cutting spending, restructuring “entitlements,” simplifying taxes, and rationalizing regulations.

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