Fixing Things

There is a lot that’s wrong these days. The biggest wrong is a government incapable of doing its job because it is gridlocked over political nonsense. Lost in this wrong are the citizens and the nation. To wit:

• Illinois has messed up its finances and budgets for many decades; each side of the aisle blames the other when they are both equally responsible for creating the mess. They made this happen by not paying current actuarial requirements into the pension funds of state employees. The employees paid their share; the institutions paid their share; but the state did not ante up it’s contractual payment. Result: $50 billion of unfunded pension liabilities; some estimates place the total at $100 billion. No one will compromise to fix this specific problem, or get back to the major tasks left undone. Meanwhile the state is technically bankrupt.
• Congress is gridlocked with republican and democrat power brokers calling the shots. We have temporary funding agreements so the daily business of government can proceed, but policy decisions continue to be deferred until they can’t any longer. The disruption in agency work due to this dysfunction is very real. The IRS is underfunded so it cannot do its audit function properly. Medicare is continually borrowed from by Congress to pay current bills, thus undercutting Medicare’s ability to properly and quickly fund healthcare provider invoices.
• With Congress in disarray social programs that under-gird health, welfare and education are stymied. These programs are the building blocks of a strong quality of life. The job is large enough that only the federal government can provide the kind of assistance and policy focus that makes such programs work. The real horsepower of these programs, however, are provided by state governments, and local volunteers. The central leadership and resources, however, come from the federal government.
• Military takes the lion’s share of the federal budget. That alone is well funded at the expense of all other programs and functions of the federal government. The arguments against social programs are lost in the enormity of other spending programs. Social programs are a mere drop in the bucket in comparison.
• International Relations and foreign affairs are a total mess. Current White House handling has bungled the job so badly that those who have invested their careers in the ‘foreign service’ are leaving and abandoning ship. This occurred in George W. Bush’s administration as well. At this point the foreign service staff is young with neophytes learning their jobs while on the clock. Not a stable or healthy condition.
• Economics is not understood by many who are charged with administering and forming policy related directly to it. The lack of policy is deplorable. The presence of unworkable policy is worse. Political ideologies are thus played with economic policy threatening our nation’s very stability. Free trade is a paradigm to be sought. Macro economics is the policy center for international operations and national strategies. Microeconomics is the policy center for individuals, firms, and non-central state operations. Politicians think in microeconomic terms while they should be dealing in macroeconomic terms. I believe this to be the fundamental problem plaguing American economic policy today. Trump cannot run our federal government as though it is a corporation. It is a very different thing entirely. His controlling personality is cowing his advisors who are not directing his attention where it is needed most.
• But the worst apparatus broken and in need of repair is the role of the White House. That is purely trump-based at this moment in history. And it is operating in a manner sure to do damage to our nation. 

Our country has invested much in education and research and development. The gains from these activities are great. However, we do not extract the maximum good from the gains because we do not catalog them and have them at the ready to use when needed. Better use of this accumulated knowledge and wisdom is needed. That doesn’t mean the government will use the knowledge properly. That’s where specialists enter the picture and need to be used.

Leadership comes from both Congress and the White House. Both, however, are hampered by invested positions of ideology and thirst for power. They see the nation and world in such terms at the expense of what really counts.

We need to regain our footing using actual facts and proven theories to craft policy and protocols that will work. For now we are adrift. The world is watching. The dissolution of America’s strength is very real and watchable by our enemies and frenemies. Not good. Not good at all. Why else do you think North Korea, Iran, the Philippines and Putin are testing our resolve?

We live in a dangerous world. Our first priority is to maintain safety and credibility. Both of those are in doubt under the current White House rule.

Who will step up to challenge trump and either correct the situation or remove him so we can get back to business?

May 17, 2017