I BELEIVE...

I believe in Conservatism. This is not to be confused with a being a Republican. Some Republicans are conservative, most are not. George W. Bush certainly wasn’t (isn’t). The same goes for John McCain.
I believe that government plays too big of a role in our lives, and it needs to be cut back. Government has too much control of our lives and spends too much money. We are passing a debt to our children that will significantly affect their standard of living. It’s not right.
I believe adults are responsible for taking care of themselves and their children. Adults who look to their neighbors (fellow taxpayers) to take on this responsibility are not acting like adults.
I believe in free markets. Countries that have free market economies have a higher standard of living than those which don’t. I know of no exceptions to this. Free markets are not perfect, but they are better than any other system known.
I believe in a strong military. We live in a world where groups of people hate us and want to harm us. We need to defend ourselves against them.
I believe in school choice. Parents should decide what school their children go to and have a say in what is taught to them. They care more about the child than legislators, or the NEA. It is a basic responsibility of parenting that should not be left to the state.
I believe the public is safer if the people have the right to carry arms for self defense. I also believe we are safer if we have loaded fire extinguishers nearby, wear seat belts, and wear life jackets (PFDs). All four are kept in preparation for events we hope will never happen. None of them are of any value if they aren’t immediately available when we need them. Personally, I would not be here to write this if it weren’t for seatbelts or PFDs. I have never needed a gun or a fire extinguisher. I hope I never do. I try hard to avoid needing either one. However, I keep both handy and loaded just in case.
I believe discrimination because of race or gender is wrong. This means affirmative action is wrong. It is not “reverse discrimination” it is simply discrimination.
I believe judges, like officials in sports, should rule on what the law says, regardless of the impact of the ruling. Empathy is the responsibility of those who write the laws, not the judges.
I believe that human’s do not have a significant impact on global warming. I am an engineer and a scientist. I have spent a lot of time researching the subject. The earth has gone through many heating and cooling cycles. They appear to be due to solar activity, not my truck.

Pay As You Go - A Blue Dog in Sheep's Clothing

Yesterday Obama and the Blue Dog Democrats came out in support of “Pay As You Go” legislation. The idea is to force Congress to live within their means. That is, only spend as much money as what is collected. To a fiscal conservative, like me, this sounded like a good idea. Then I started looking at the details and I realized that Obama and the Blue Dog Democrats are only changing their outward appearance. Like a wolf in sheep’s clothing. They are trying to appear like they are fiscally conservative, but underneath they are still big spenders.
The problem is, Pay As You Go plan has exceptions. These exceptions are Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and Obama’s proposed healthcare plan. These programs combine to be a majority of the federal budget (see my 5/29/09 blog). It is like you saying you are going to create a household budget where you only spend what you earn every month, except for things like groceries, cars,and housing. Those items are not part of the budget, but everything else is. How successful would you expect to be on reducing your debt using this sort of household budget?
Obama also mentioned that Pay As You Go was in place during the Clinton years when we didn’t have a deficit (we ran a surplus). Two things are worth mentioning about this statement. First,government accounting is cash flow only. Thus when it comes to defining a surplus or a deficit, the calculation is strictly based on cash flow. Say you buy a new diamond ring with no payments until next year. On a cash flow basis, this will not be accounted for until next year. Thus, it does not affect this year’s deficit or surplus. Business’s are not allowed to use this type of accounting. As soon as they make a purchase, it shows up as a liability. Had government used the same accounting practices as private business, Clinton wouldn’t have had a surplus. The second point is the Clinton surplus was largely due to prosperous economic times that resulted in large tax revenues. Why was the economy doing so well during the Clinton years? Just like Obama inherited a bad economy from Bush, Clinton inherited a strong economy created by Reagan.