Item 2: A consistent theme of RTP&GG is the intractable and devastating problem of exploding government debt caused by unsustainable entitlements granted to government employee union benefits packages, social security and Medicaid/Medicare recipients, and soon to be compounded with Obamacare. This is not to mention the problem that has been discussed here quite a bit of the ever-expanding size of American government.
It has been generally acknowledged that current and past government leaders have been unable to make any headway against the government unions exemplified by NEA and SEIU. Numerous RTP&GG posts explain the reasons for this failure, which I won't go into here.
We cheered Wisconsin Rep Paul Ryan when he stood up to Obama during Obama's attempt to appear bipartisan at his Health Care Summit. A clearly intelligent, able debater that wouldn't back down. That's what we've desperately needed to push our viewpoint in the national media. But as with Obama himself, and, to a lesser extent Sarah Palin, Paul Ryan still has a thin resume. I think experience is actually going to count for something in the next election as opposed to solely a candidate's ability to flap his or her lips.
Well, Chris Christie doesn't yet have a lot of executive experience, but he's setting himself up to go get him some real quick or die trying:
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie refused to back down Tuesday from his demand that teachers take a pay freeze and start contributing to their health care benefits as the state teachers union declined to take action against a local boss who prayed for the governor's death.
And here is the nub of the whole great big problem:
He added that the state's system is unsustainable because teachers who contribute $124,000 during their lifetime for their pensions get $3.3 million in pension payments and $500,000 in health care benefitsThat's a taste. Read the whole thing. Let's be honest: no worker would be happy to see what he's attempting to force on the teachers of New Jersey. But guess what, in this increasingly bad economy, all the rest of us poor proles have already had it forced on us. And whether they like it or not, government employees are going to have to face the music sometime. The question is whether the nation and all the local governments man-up and do what needs to be done before Adam Smith's Invisible Hand does it for us. If Christie can rein in the New Jersey unions, particularly with all that goes along with unions in New Jersey, he will have proven that he is a guy who can Get Things Done, which is exactly what Fiscally Responsible Conservatives need.
IF he can succeed in his mission in New Jersey, I think in 2012, he could be a top contender. I think (again, assuming Christie is successful) a Christie/Ryan ticket would be unstoppable.
However, I'm not a blind follower of Messiahs (well, at least not 21st century ones) and I admit that he still has to follow through with what he's not just talked about, but actually begun. If the goombas in New Jersey stop him cold, then he's just another Republican governor, not Conservatives Great Big Hope.
Go Big Man!
As of now, it looks like Christie is standing up to the unions. Hopefully he can keep it up and that this will spread to other states. Tackling these unfunded liabilities and pensions are going to be a major and difficult battle. I don't know if people can handle this. "Everybody is against socialism until they start getting a hand out." Once they get this hand out, they will do anything to keep it. California alone has a half a trillion deficit in its pensions fund, or they have half a trillion unfunded liabilities in their pensions. I don't have an article for Cali, but here is one for the states in general that came before the revelations in Cali,
ReplyDelete"Pensions are debts, too, after all, paid over time just like bonds. But states do not disclose how much they owe retirees when they disclose their bonded debt, and state officials steadfastly oppose valuing their pensions at market rates. Joshua Rauh, an economist at Northwestern University, and Robert Novy-Marx of the University of Chicago, recently recalculated the value of the 50 states' pension obligations the way the bond markets value debt. They put the number at $5.17 trillion. After the $1.94 trillion set aside in state pension funds was subtracted, there was a gap of $3.23 trillion -- more than three times the amount the states owe their bondholders.'When you see that, you recognize that states are in trouble even more than we recognize,' Mr. Rauh said."
http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-budgeting/article/109211/state-debt-woes-grow-too-big-to-camouflage
This is a concise article on the effects that state unions have on state's budgets. http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Public-sector-unions-and-state-debt-go-hand-in-hand-89852362.html
I will have to see these tough decisions on unfunded liabilities/benefits implemented or at least some progress made on a nation-wide scale before I am convinced that a major change is coming. No doubt that laws of economics will result in the collapse of these programs, the question is how will this collapse affect social cohesion and will people respond to it and will they demand further government involvement to save these problems? Hopefully people just realize that the government can't provide for all their needs.
Good post. I can see that I will have a hard time though. Since he is on the east coast and the first thing he has begun doing is cutting education. I understand it needs to be done but the public usually looks at that in a negative way.
ReplyDeleteIm rooting for him. He should lose some weight too. I can already see the lefties portraying him as a fat greedy pig.
I meant to say,"I can see that he will have a hard time though."
ReplyDeleteWhile it sounds like a simple and stupid observation, Americans will never vote for such a fat man to be their President, especially not in the modern age with T.V. I don't remember a fat, as fat at he is, President in modern times.
ReplyDeleteThis is a good article on the history of socialized medicine. http://mises.org/daily/4276
It states that this is a Republican ideal. To counter this statement. http://www.heritage.org/Multimedia/Video/2010/03/Franc-on-MSNBC-3-31-10
From this statement presented in the video at min four, I am questioning the Heritage Foundation's stance on limited government involvement. They are arguing against government, yet at the same time proposing the government manipulating people's behavior. The statement by one of the Heritage guy is also not in line with limited government.
Either way, the Republicans/conservatives do not equate or mean with smaller government.
What is everyone's take on this Goldman Sachs fraud allegation?
ReplyDeleteI'm sure that I'm gonna hear all about the evil banks and evil wall street in my economics today.