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One would hope moderators engaged in any subsequent debate would ask candidates specific questions about listing the top ten problems we face and give their specific solutions.
Were I still a candidate, and in no specific order, I would list the following problems that must be resolved: 1) Addressing the threat to world order from radical Islamic Terrorists, 2) Unlock U.S. energy development and the ability to make foreign sales, 3) Eliminate oppressive Federal rules and regulations and eliminate various departments and agencies, 4) Propose a specific program for tax reform and simplification , 5) Identify and begin a "focus solution" on key social problems that flow from broken families, terrible education, negative attitude against police and authority, in general, and unemployment. This would entail attacking destructive and divisive PC concepts, 6) Stop the decline in America's military capability, 7) Gut spending while cutting wasteful entitlements and various give away programs, 8) Attack the grid-lock in Congress, 9) Keep government commitments and design programs that will keep Medicare, Social Security solvent etc. and 10) Replace Obamacare, the Iran Deal and restore the kind of governance drafter of the Constitution envisioned.
My solutions would begin with thoughtful and articulate addresses to the nation at large, pertaining to each identified problem, in order to determine the public's reaction and their willingness to pressure their Congressional Representatives and Senators. This can now be more easily accomplished through technology.
In concert with these addresses, I would begin a series of meetings with Congressional Members for the purpose of bringing them into the "solution equation." I would seek their ideas in order to craft my own solutions as to what is doable.
The third effort would be to rebuild relationships with our allies and to lay markers with our adversaries in order to reduce misunderstandings and to establish a clear understanding that America is no longer ruled by Obama and his feckless leadership is a matter of the past.
Finally, I would seek the best advice both from my Cabinet and those outside of government. There are many talented people who choose not to expose themselves to the rigors of public life but who still would answer a Presidential Call. The key is to avoid bloated Commissions that waste time, come up with solutions that are never enacted.
The public must observe rational action based on reason and experience measured results and then when the ball gets moving the momentum shift will begin to work for the president.
As for specific solutions:
1) Allow the military to have a voice and then support their recommendations, 2) Turn the solution over to energy companies, let the free market work and seek to eliminate bureaucrats that occupy The Energy Department, 3) Dust off the studies and implement the advice various Commissions have already given and force Congress to implement them by going public, 4) We already know there are two rational courses. Either tax spending and eliminate taxing income or, if you go the route of taxing income, establish a flat tax , eliminate most deductions and reduce the overall projected tax take. Either approaches will unleash tremendous energy that has been thwarted by insane policies favoring vested interests and matters will take care of themselves, 5) This is one of the toughest problems because it is generational in nature but I would use the Bully Pulpit approach and call upon society at large, the clergy and private NFP organizations and tell them they had the blessings of The White House. I would also tell the unions they had two choices. Join the nation or get out of the way because crippling legislation will be the alternative, 6) Tell The Pentagon they should come up with and prioritize their rebuild needs and the cost of any proposed program that was deemed wasteful would be doubled and taken from their budget, 7) Present Congress a budget that would bring spending in line with projected income and bring pressure on those who did not fall in line regardless of party affiliation, 8) Use the Bully Pulpit and specifically lash out against those who were deaf. FDR specifically attacked "Martin, Barton and Fish publicly," 9) Allow a certain amount of SS money to be placed in private funds and place all such funds out of the reach of Congress by submitting legislation requiring Congress persons to be subjected to the same laws they pass, 10) Rep.Price of Ga. (a doctor) has already proposed a reasonable substitute for Obamacare and there are others and simply tell the Ayatollah release all Americans, re-impose sanctions and tell the other members of the 5 plus one we mean business.
On a more personal note, I would begin a lottery in the 50 states where a winning couple and/or an individual would be invited to The White House to have dinner with the president and his spouse and, in advance, they would be given a list of two or three matters about which they were to express their thoughts and their trip would be at government expense.. The purpose would be to allow the president a chance to hear directly what is on the minds of governed citizens because most presidents are distanced from the public either because of safety or time constraints. All presidents (executives) can benefit from getting an "earful."
The Vice president and spouse should be invited as well as Cabinet members whose functions relate to the matters to be discussed.
Could any of the above be accomplished? Not without committed and artful leadership. Therefore, the person nominated and elected better be able, dedicated, willing to work with Congress and capable of building a Cabinet that is equal to the challenge and bring the people into the equation.
Finally, that person must be intelligent, open to hearing and taking advice and not be in love with themselves. In essence the opposite of Obama. (See 1 below.)
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As for where we are in the campaign and why I thought Henninger's op ed made sense and is worth reading. (See 2 and 2a below.)
This from a dear "MAD" friend and fellow memo reader: " I CANNOT BELIEVE ANY KNOWLEDGEABLE INFORMED SENIOR CITIZEN WOULD CONSIDER DONALD FOR PRESIDENT OF THE U.S.A.
SUCH A POSITION HAS BE ONLY A REACTION TO THE CURRENT SATE OF AFFAIRS IN THIS COUNTRY AS A RESULT OF THE POOR PERFORMANCE AND/OR LACK OF EFFECTIVE ACTION BY THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION, THE CONGRESS AND SUPREME COURT.
WHAT A MESS!
THESE DONALD SUPPORTERS ARE NAIVE AND DREAMING; THIS GUY IS A LOUD-MOUTH PHONY LOOKING TO INCREASE HIS ADDICTION TO BECOME A WORLD-WIDE CELEBRITY.
THE COUNTRY WILL NOT ELECT HIM, IF THE GOP EVER NOMINATES HIM; IT AIN'T HAPPENING !!
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S--
Sound advice from a fellow memo reader! (See 3 below.)
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The Fed did not raise rates. The market is perplexed.
There are those who are happy because low interest rates, to them, means the impact on car and home buying etc. remains positive and inflation is low.
Those who are unhappy interpret the news as meaning China remains in deep do do, Europe is being overwhelmed by Syrians and this means the world economy could be impacted negatively.
Then there are those who feel rates must go up because The Fed has no leverage with rates at virtually zero should something bad happen to the economy.
As for myself, I believe the market will react because whatever The Fed was going to do has probably been discounted and generally "you sell on news" so today's decline is not unexpected nor a continuance should that be the case.That said, as we leave September and move into the period from October to March, from a seasonal standpoint alone, we enter the six consecutive months when the market does its best.
Vacations are over, kids are back in school, Christmas is coming and with gas prices down it could provide a boost in personal spending.
After the market completes some near term retrenching, I would be a nibbler of reasonably priced stocks, possessing decent balance sheets, paying some reasonable dividends.
But most important of all, I don't have the slightest idea what the market is going to do now that I have told you what I think it will!
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Out of town Monday and Tuesday and then Jewish Holidays on Wednesday.
Have a great weekend.
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Dick
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1) How to Rev the Growth Engine
Put partisanship aside like they have in Motor City, and start addressing education, immigration, trade and tax reform.
PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES/COLLECTION MIX: SUB
I’ve traveled to Detroit on business for more than 25 years, and the signs of the city’s recovery are becoming apparent. Although the city has a long way to go, you can feel the increasing energy and spirit of cooperation that businesses, government and nonprofits have to increase economic growth and create greater opportunity for all. The city has exited bankruptcy, fixed thousands of streetlights, and improved emergency response times and started to reduce blight.
Full credit goes to Mayor Mike Duggan, a Democrat, and Gov. Rick Snyder, a Republican. They are trying new ideas and modifying plans as they go along, never pointing fingers or worrying about taking credit.
The collaborative approach fosters an environment where individuals and businesses, large and small, have growing confidence to invest and build. J.P. Morgan Chase is proud of its 80-plus years serving Detroit and, most recently, of the company’s $100 million commitment to help bolster the city’s recovery.
Detroit’s collaborative approach to problem-solving is instructive. With less partisanship and more partnership, leaders in Washington can follow the Motor City’s lead to tackle five areas of pressing national concern. Finding creative ways to address them would substantially boost economic growth and create more opportunity for more Americans, particularly in low-income households.
First is the need for more—and smarter—investment in America’s roads, bridges, tunnels, ports and airports. Physical infrastructure is a natural job creator in the near term and establishes conditions for long-term growth. The federal government and all of our major cities and states should have five- to 20-year intelligent infrastructure plans driven by what we really need—not the political wheeling and dealing that ends up building bridges to nowhere. Detroit’s M1 rail line—a 3.3-mile streetcar line to connect many of the city’s economic, housing, cultural and health-care hubs that will be ready for passengers in the spring of 2017—is a great example of the public and private sector leveraging each other’s resources and expertise.
Second is an immigration policy long overdue for reform. We need a non-politicized approach that properly protects the borders, provides for a true path to citizenship for law-abiding, undocumented immigrants, and allows smart, ambitious and hardworking people to remain here as contributors to the country’s economy.
It is alarming that approximately 40% of the men and women who earn advanced degrees in science, technology engineering and math at American universities are foreign nationals with no legal way of remaining here even when many of them would choose to do so. Sens. John McCain and Chuck Schumer proposed detailed legislation in 2013 that would allow them to stay. The government’s chief actuary has estimated their proposal would increase real GDP by 1.63% and create 3.3 million jobs over 10 years.
The third area of pressing concern is public education. Only about 60% of students in high-poverty areas, including cities, graduate from high school, according to the nonprofit America’s Promise Alliance. Many who do are not equipped with the skills to be successful in the workforce or college.
A 21st-century education system would require high schools, community colleges and business to work together on the development of courses, certificate programs and other training that provide graduates with the skills necessary to flourishing in today’s—and tomorrow’s—economy. In Detroit, J.P. Morgan Chase works with employers, educators and nonprofits to structure courses and training programs that lead to employment. One example is the workforce program of Focus: Hope, a nonprofit, to train machine operators for good-paying jobs in Detroit’s new factories, like Detroit Manufacturing Systems.
Fourth, U.S. trade policy should embrace global markets and international cooperation. The passage of trade-promotion authority is a great example of political leaders putting partisanship aside on behalf of the greater good.
The trade agreements being negotiated with Europe and Asia are projected by the White House and the European Commission to increase U.S. GDP by 0.4% a year once they are fully implemented, and economists project the agreements will create more than one million new jobs in the U.S. by 2027. But American cities including Detroit (where exports of motor vehicles and power equipment are crucial to the economy), could benefit from more trade agreements like this.
Finally, the U.S. needs to address its fiscal problems. The growing economy has temporarily hidden the problem, but the level of debt created by entitlement spending will ultimately become unsustainable and crowd out investments in infrastructure, education, research and development, our military and other vital initiatives.
High corporate taxes are, at the margin, driving capital and businesses overseas. The individual tax system is complicated, inefficient and unfair. The 2011 Simpson-Bowles Commission’s recommendations would have fixed a lot of these problems and promoted the growth of the economy and jobs. And there is bipartisan understanding in Congress that the tax system needs reform.
Despite these challenges, America’s future has never been brighter. The U.S. has the best universities, hospitals and businesses on the planet, and our people are the most entrepreneurial and innovative in the world, from the factory floor to the executive suite. We have by far the widest, deepest and most transparent capital markets, and a citizenry with an unparalleled work ethic and “can do” attitude. And we will have the best military in the world for as long as we have the best economy.
Detroit is an example of what can be done when we put partisanship aside and work together to spur growth and create jobs. But let’s not wait for things to get worse, like we did in Detroit. Let’s ensure that America’s bright future is as good as it can be—and exceptional for centuries to come.
Mr. Dimon is the chairman and CEO of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.
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2) The Joy of Madness
Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders and the mad-as-hell American electorate.
Peter Finch as the mad anchorman Howard Beale in the 1976 film 'Network.’ PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES
Frustration, anger, despair. Allow life’s negatively charged emotions to run free long enough and they all arrive at the same place—madness. We are there.
Or many of us are, in the U.S. and all over a troubled world.
Some 30% of Republican voters want as their president the former host of “Celebrity Apprentice.” About the same percentage of Democrats prefer a 74-year-old Socialist who seems to believe federal revenue is created by pixies.
The British Labour Party just cast its lot with a leader whose choice for finance minister includes among his interests “fomenting the overthrow of capitalism.” A torrent of Syrian refugees has unhinged European liberalism. Islamic State is drowning history itself in blood, while the pope is giving speeches on climate change.
Not least, the future of the slow-growth, anxiety-producing American economy is in the hands of one nice lady named Janet Yellen, who presides over what is literally a central-bank black box. Crazy.
A friend last weekend said he thought the story about the University of New Hampshire’s website publishing a bias-free language guide, which declared that use of the word “American” is “problematic,” was a hoax. Of course, it was real.
Is it trivial of me to conflate campus microaggression theory with Islamic State’s barbarism? I don’t think so. Because it is when people start to conclude that all of this stuff has rolled into a huge, spinning, out-of-control ball of incomprehension that it becomes madness.
That’s when normal people default their politics to the Howard Beale Option. Howard Beale was the anchorman gone ’round the bend in the movie “Network,” who started shouting on his broadcast one evening, “I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!”
Beale’s last-straw rant is a compendium of political crises and petty annoyances that added up to a society running off the rails. Driven mad, Beale yells: “I don’t know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street. All I know is that first, you’ve got to get mad!”
That was 1976. This is 2015. It’s back. What happened?
In June, Republicans were conducting a respectable competition for their presidential nomination among experienced, accomplished public figures—Govs. Jeb Bush, Scott Walker, Chris Christie and Rick Perry, plus provocative newcomers such as Marco Rubio,Carly Fiorina, Ben Carson and the rest.
Unnoticed then but discovered in days after Donald Trump’s Beale-like presidential announcement June 16 (“I will build a great, great wall!”) was that at least 25% of Republican voters had already gone mad. Whether angry mad or just plain crazy mad hardly matters. They’d had it, loooong before the presidential campaign started. An agog political class watched Bernie Sanders prove that 25% of Democrats were also mad as hell.
Why?
In the U.S. and Western world generally there is a spreading sense of weak or poor political leadership. Because he sits as president of the United States, the lead nation,Barack Obama bears responsibility for much of this madness. His conduct of the presidency, more than all the other pilloried persons in public life, led us to Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders.
People think politics is a system for getting what they want. So it is, and the vast ideological gulf between the public-sector Democratic Party and private-sector Republicans has a lot to do with the frustration. The other traditional purpose of politics, though, is to be a release valve, a place to vent, to at least be heard.
Barack Obama is fundamentally antipolitical. He claims Congress doesn’t work. That is an excuse. Doing politics, left or right, isn’t his thing. He has transformed the presidential veto power into a blanket nuclear option that deters politics. You think you’re mad? Talk to members of Congress, Republican or Democrat, and you will discover people also driven nuts by the virtual impossibility over two presidential terms of practicing normal politics.
The political vacuum built up over seven years of the Obama presidency has now popped, in both parties. The right’s angriest people say that if Barack Obama can unilaterally cram down his agenda, they’ll cram down theirs. That isn’t a system. It’s the politics of Mad Max.
Madness is joy because it releases one from the burden of responsibility. The saving grace of the American system is that long-term escape from political responsibility is difficult. After taking a long wallow in the politics of whatever, American voters will face the reality of the U.S.’s 50-state political primary system from February through June. For Republicans, this could mean more than 20 million primary votes cast across five months.
After the revels of 2015, individual thought should displace the madness of crowds. If it doesn’t, keep the gas tank full.
Write to henninger@wsj.com.
2a)Vice President Joe Biden's humble life
Every Friday the vice president takes a helicopter designated as Marine Two from the vice president's residence in northwest Washington to Joint Base Andrews in Maryland. He then hops on Air Force Two to fly back to his home in Delaware . At the end of the weekend, he returns on Air Force Two, usually a Boeing C-32.
On Saturdays in warm weather, Biden regularly returns to Andrews on the airplane to play golf at the base with President Obama. After the game, he flies back to Delaware.
On Sunday evening, he returns on the plane to Washington - all at taxpayer expense. The Boeing C-32 is a specially configured Boeing 757-200 commercial jet. The cost of flying the plane is $22,000 an hour, so each half-hour trip to or from Delaware costs about $10,000. Each golf game costs taxpayers $20,000. At that rate, the annual cost to taxpayers of Biden's weekend trips is well over $1 million. That does not include so-called deadhead flights when the plane often flies back to Washington empty and then returns empty to pick up Biden.
In addition, the Secret Service rents more than 20 condominiums in the Wilmington area for agents who must accompany Biden when he returns to his home state. Rather than try to find hotel space, the Secret Service decided to rent the condos in part because, even when he knows his schedule in advance, Biden rarely tells agents until the last minute when he will be returning to Wilmington beyond his weekend trips. As a result, agents cannot plan their own lives.
A Secret Service agent says that since Air Force Two parks at Andrews, Obama is obviously aware that Biden is running up a huge government tab for each game of golf they play.
Biden's press office had no comment. Asked if President Obama thinks these costs are appropriate and why he has not questioned Biden's flying to play golf with him at a cost of $20,000 per game, the president's press office had no comment.
Biden's commutes have cost taxpayers at least $4 million so far. After my story ran on Newsmax, a major media outlet obtained Pentagon records confirming the trips and costs. But so far, that outlet has not run the story. The rest of the media have ignored it.
In addition to his salary as vice president of $230,700, Biden has free use of the vice president's residence at the Naval Observatory. The vice president's residence is a handsome 9,150-square-foot, three-story mansion overlooking Massachusetts Avenue NW in Washington. Complete with pool, pool house, and indoor gym, the white brick house was built in 1893 as the home of the superintendent of the U.S. Naval Observatory. Congress turned it into the official residence of the vice president in 1974 and gave it the address One Observatory Circle. During the day, at least five Navy stewards attend to every personal need of the second family, including cleaning, cooking, shopping for food, and doing the laundry.
Biden has portrayed himself as a regular Joe, a product of a working-class family who takes on millionaires and Republicans who are said to be out of touch with middle-class Americans.
Last June, Obama appointed Biden to root out wasteful government spending. But behind the scenes, it's a different matter.
Biden's disregard for the cost of constantly shuttling back and forth to his home in Wilmington and his additional trips to golf with the president betray the arrogant, contemptuous attitude we saw him display toward Ryan during the debate.
"The White House is a character crucible," Bertram S. Brown, M.D., a psychiatrist who formerly headed the National Institute of Mental Health, told me for the Secret Service book. "It either creates or distorts character. Few decent people want to subject themselves to the kind of grueling abuse candidates take when they run in the first place," says Dr. Brown.
"Even if an individual is balanced, once someone becomes president, how does one solve the conundrum of staying real and somewhat humble when one is surrounded by the most powerful office in the land, and from becoming overwhelmed by an, at times, pathological environment that treats you every day as an emperor?" The vice president has chosen the emperor approach, revealing his true character.
Ronald Kessler is chief Washington correspondent of Newsmax.com. He is the New York Times best selling author of books on the Secret Service, FBI and CIA.
Why You Should Make Your Kids Do Chores
In her new book, The Gift of Failure: How the Best Parents Learn to Let Go So Their Children Can Succeed, Jessica Lahey extols two virtues: building children’s competence and making them do household chores. One of the two is much-needed wisdom for a segment of the American population—upper middle class and wealthy parents who helicopter parent—that in recent months has been barraged with books outlining the many ways their overprotectiveness is harming their children. The other virtue, contributing to your family by doing household chores, is universal.
Lahey is critical of those moms and dads who can’t tolerate their kids making mistakes. “We don’t expect competence from them, and when they do give household duties a shot, we swoop in, and we fix,” she writes. To her credit, Lahey discloses her own culpability.
I’ve actually taken the sponge out of my son’s hands because he was making more of a mess of the milk he was supposed to be cleaning up. I understand the impulse to want things done better, or faster, or straighter. But what’s more important—that the dishes are immaculate, or that your child develops a sense of purpose and pride because he’s finally contributing in a real and valuable way to the family?
It’s true that kids need to learn from their mistakes and that many parents, myself included, shy away from allowing kids to perform chores at all, let alone without adult correction. But here Lahey is identifying a high-class problem. In fact, a lot of kids perform chores not because they serve as teachable moments about failure, persistence, and hard work, but because if they don’t do the laundry or the cooking, it doesn’t get done.
I was pregnant with my first child when I learned this lesson from a Supercuts hairdresser. She explained to me that when she was raising her four kids alone and working full-time, the kids had to do chores because she just didn’t have the time to do everything herself. When each child was tall enough to reach the buttons on the washer and dryer, mom explained how to use the appliances, and from that day forward, if they wanted clean clothes, they did laundry themselves.
At the time, I thought, Well, I’m not going to be in the same situation. And in truth I’m not. But four kids later and with a bit more understanding I have come to agree with the hairdresser and Lahey when, for decidedly different reasons, they argue that kids should do chores.
For Lahey, allowing children to have household responsibilities is a self-conscious decision meant to instill good values in children. Mom and Dad could do it or they could pay a professional to do it. Instead, however, she argues that kids need to be given the responsibility and then left alone to get it done. As Lahey put it, “communicate family participation as a privilege.” She continues,
Despite all the protests to the contrary, kids want to play useful roles in their family’s success. . . . The contribution of your children to the daily work of keeping a house and running a family will not only be a boon to the family now, but your kids’ increased competence and sense of responsibility will set them apart from their more coddled peers when they head off to college or land their first jobs.
Lahey is right that kids need to be exposed to life skills—even very basic stuff such as putting away clothes and cooking meals. They are well served by learning to do these things for themselves. Her point about the value of contributing to your family, however, goes a bit deeper. The satisfaction that comes with participating in and contributing to family life is crucial for children to experience, and teaches them values such as personal responsibility and hard work.
More importantly, although they might seem like small things, chores remind us that family life requires everyone’s thoughtful participation, every day—even if it’s just remembering to fold the laundry.
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