Nutter's Washington

Climate Change: Unleash the EPA to Save our Future

The Obama Administration announced yesterday its intent to raise the price of electricity for everyone in the country. The feat will be accomplished by regulatory fiat by the Environment Protection Agency on existing power plants by forcing an artificial reduction of the emissions of carbon dioxide known as one of the Green House Gases. GHG are thought in some circles to be a chief cause of the pheromone of climate change or global warming.

 

I have worked for the past five years of analyzing various proposals to curb GHG.  I have to say, I no idea if there is climate change or not. I am pretty certain CO2 levels have been rising over the years in the world, but that is not the issue here.

 The action by the Administration was predictable and inevitable. Having failed to get Congress to pass a “cap and trade” scheme in 2010, the Administration waited until after the election to move their program forward and forward it will come.

The EPA has been asked to issue proposed regulations in the next 12 months. I suspect they have working on them for some time so this will not be a problem.  

Power plants that currently use coal (about 38% of electricity is generated from coal) will have figure out a way to comply either by fuel switching, technological change or just shutting down. However that plays out, electricity cost will increase and in some areas increase considerably. Although the details of what is to come is not known, cost increase is certain, also predictable, and inevitable.

Tax Reform: What is Taking so Long?

The following was featured on Marketwatch. com

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/tax-reform-plans-should-be-put-on-the-table-2013-06-24 

There is a dire need to overhaul the Federal income tax system. Tax complexity, a sluggish economy and international competition are driving Congress to seriously consider of an update. It is about time. However, the issues and the politics are very intricate and success is not assured. 

Three broad areas have emerged to form a triangle of reform. The first is the reduction of the tax rate. In conjunction with lowering the tax rate, the second leg is how to minimize the loss of revenue to the government by examining the tax base and eliminating “tax expenditures”. Reduction of such expenditures is also seen as promoting tax simplification and reducing the importance of tax considerations in business decision-making. Lastly, the third side of the triangle is the politics of the substance. How can the public be convinced massive change will be beneficial?

The legislative process for tax reform is being led by Senator Max Baucus (D-MT), the retiring Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and Congressman Dave Camp (R-MI), Chairman of the Way and Means Committee. Each Committee has laid out in a semi-systematic way a program for putting some sort of starting point forward. It is slow but methodical. Maybe too slow.

Numerous hearings have been held. The Finance Committee has published 10 papers on various options while the Ways and Means Committee has organized 11 subgroups to consider different areas of the tax law. More than 1300 comments have been submitted to the Ways and Means Committee.

The tax code is a mess and littered with a bunch of garbage and ineffective narrow provisions. It is an unwieldy product of an entrenched political system. I do not know how anyone can defend it.

Tax Reform: Prospects and Issues for Manufacturing

There is considerable support in Congress, the business community and the Administration to revise the corporate income tax. The U.S. has a marginal rate which is the highest in the world. Tax complexity, a sluggish economy and international competition are driving the possibility of an update. However, the issues and the politics are very complicated.

Three broad areas have emerged to form a “triangle of reform”. The first side is the reduction of the corporate income tax rate. In conjunction with lowering the tax rate, the second leg how to minimize the loss of revenue to the government by examining the makeup of income and eliminating “tax expenditures”. Reduction of such expenditures is also seen as promoting tax simplification and reducing the importance of tax considerations in business decision-making. Lastly, as the third side of the triangle, there is the basis on which the United States taxes multinational corporations.

C corporations are taxed at statutory rates ranging from 15 percent to 35 percent. However, certain domestic production activities are effectively taxed at lower rates by virtue of a deduction equal to a percentage of the income from such activities. The deduction is equal to nine percent of the income from manufacturing, construction, and certain other activities specified by statute Thus, generally the maximum tax rate for a C corporation on its domestic production activities income is effectively 31.85 percent.

Bob Dole: Lessons to be Learned

I had the opportunity and pleasure to spend about an hour with former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole on Friday. I shy away from commenting on personal matters but I want to say, it was just plain grand to see my former “boss”. 

Bob Dole had an enormous impact on my professional life, how I view politics and the craft of a real legislator. I am grateful for the opportunity he gave me long time ago. I have enormous respect for him for his service to the country, his genuine care and work for veterans and interests on diverse subjects like nutrition.

He will celebrate his 90^th birthday this year. While he does not get around as well as he used to, his wit, perception and insight are abundant. His story is well known. As he used to say, “born in Kansas, raised in Kansas, went to war, suffered a head wound and went into politics.” I still laugh.

The politicians of today are different from the "old guard", like Senator Dole. The polarization and just plain nastiness in the Halls of Congress and in the White House is a disservice to all of us. This acrimoney is not exclusive to one particular party. Senator Dole was indeed political and he was partisan. However, he knew problems had to be addressed and solved. Sometimes he won, sometimes not and sometimes it was just rained out. It was not always about trying to make the other guy look bad or score some political points. 

There are times when principles cannot be compromised, when you know the direction the other side is taking is wrong and misguided. I respect when a person actually stands for something. However, there are also times for working together, compromise, civility and different approaches. Bob Dole understood that and it is a lesson worth remembering.

 

 

 

TSA: Idiotic, No Common Sense and a Jar of Jam

I got a call this morning from a friend at Dulles Airport. It seems she bought a 5 ounce jar of home-made preservatives at a local farmer's market on Saturday. It was a gift for her grandson. She intended to deliver it in person this afternoon.

Not to be. It was confiscated by the TSA at the security checkpoint. This was not gasoline, a knife, a shoe device, a gun, blackjack or lethal weapon. It was jam. It looked like jam, was in a clear jam jar with a nice label and it tasted like jam because it was jam. Horror of horrors,  5 full ounces of the deadly stuff known to TSA whose only harm could be to cause tooth decay and a purple tongue.  

My friend is a middle aged, friendly, patriotic and kind person. Your neighbor, perhaps. She is no threat. Chances of her doing anything even bordering on rash are less than zero. I do not think she could throw the jar into the next row.  She said she pleaded with the nice blue clad shirted TSA guy but even though he said ,yes, indeed it was stupid, he could not let the jam pass. Another victory for national security. Another sheep being lead to the slaughter. 

This is why people resent government. They spy on us, they target the tax police on us, they wire tap the press, they lie about brave men dying in the desert, and now show their potency and common sense that a jar of jam destined for an eleven year old boy brought to him by his grandmother is not allowed to arrive at its destination. Take that old women and frisk that baby next to you.

The TSA is suppose to make traveling safe. Big responsibility. However, I would have not felt in danger with the jam on board. 

How did things become so bad? So rigid, so lacking in common sense. How did we let this happen to us?  

Classes at Gitmo: Hard to Make This Up and Believe--Life Skills?

Yesterday I heard something on the radio during my long and tedious commute that was hard to believe. I mentioned it to a very liberal Obama is never wrong friend who accused me of making it up or it was propaganda slime from some extremists right wing group. I investigated it further and it turns out to be true.

Now many strange and unbelievable things happen that seems like someone is making them up. Things so bizarre, the double take is in order. Things that go beyond head scratching, things that highlight hypocrisy. Things that are beyond laughable. 

The Obama administration has been screeching about the budget sequestration for months. Seems like it reduces a tad and just a tad the size of government. Cries of school children being denied this or that, perilous skyways from cutbacks, old people pushed off the cliff and on and on. Make up your own horror. 

 Well, it seems like there is no shortage of money as there is money to fund classes for the terrorist detainees at Guantanamo Bay.

With a detainee population of 166 whose skills are bomb making and killing Americans, the Guantanamo Bay facility uses our money to offer the detained killers courses such as "Interviewing and Resume Writing " and "Writing Success."

No, wait it gets better----According to their own web site, this group of people sworn to wipe America out are being taught courses in the following:

• Life Skills
• Computer Familiarity
• Personal Health and Wellness
• Personal Finance and Business
• Pashtu to English
• Arabic to English
• Art Classes in Camp 6

 Computer skills so they can communicate better? Finance to move money more efficiently? Writing a resume?

What moron thought of all of this and what moron approved it?

While not in classes the terrorists can use a library with more than 17,000 books, various video games, and lot of movies and music to check out.  A full time librarian manages it for them.

This purpose here is not to debate the use of “Gitmo” to hold these people. This people are prisoners for a reason but deserve a suitable environment, (however you want to define it) for their fate in life. However, it is absurd and a waste of scarce government resources to go to these lengths. It is hypocrisy to whine about the sequester when spending exists like this.

It makes me wonder what lunatics are running the asylum and frankly, it makes me ashamed. So, close Head Start, Mr. President, but teach these guys” life skills”. Hard to make this up.

 

Congress is back in town: What next?

Congress is back. Can you feel the difference? After a week or so out of Washington, the House and Senate are back to business. Oh boy, the wit and wisdom of Harry Reid. 

The question is what are they doing? What are they going to do? Most importantly, what should they be doing? I am not sure where Mr. Obama is, probably out campaigning.

This is the time of year Congress turns its attention to the consideration and passage of annual appropriation bills. Decisions have to be made on funding all those great government programs, like conferences for the IRS. 

It has become the norm, however, that Congress does not approve individual spending bills but rolls everything into one giant proposal called a “Continuing Resolution”. The government is operating under one now. It is called continuing because for the most part it just continues the programs and spending from the previous year. At times, the whole mess contains some sort of increase on the debt limit to accommodate the increases in the federal deficit.

Since the debt limit has already been crossed, raising the debt ceiling has to be addressed before the Treasury exhausts its ability manage the going over the debt limit by chicanery and creative bookkeeping. This will be one to watch later on. Democrats have no interest in restraining borrowing or the debt limit while Republicans become apoplectic over the notion of more debt.

Along with all the spending going on, there is the federal budget, the blueprint for spending. The House passed one and, for the first time in 4 years, do did the Senate. The approaches are far apart and it may be the respective sides will not work out their differences. No real surprise there.