Continuous Fights

We Have Them All The Time

I notice that Democrats try to pick consistent fights with Republicans over and over again because they think they have the upper hand. But, if you hit people over the head with actual numbers and facts, they tend to wake up. Twenty percent will never wake up but they were at St Patrick’s Day parades today telling people that the Irish are with the Palestinians so they should be too.

Some people are dumb.

I want to preface this with a story. It guides my thinking.

When I was a sales rep for 3M Company, I had a distributor that would ship private label or other companies’ products when I wrote orders for mine. I’d go into a shop, sell a case of brake cleaner and this distributor would ship the competitors, not mine.

That pissed me off.

I told my boss, Harry Toussaint. Harry was one of the greatest managers a young kid could ever have. You’d have been lucky to work for him. Harry got ticked too.

We decided to have a pow-wow with the President of the distributor who was shipping competitive stuff. They bought A LOT of other products from us. Harry was taking a big risk. But, it was worth it to him to have a moment with them.

We asked point blank, if we write orders for our stuff, are you going to ship someone else’s? The President of the distributor answered in the affirmative, but then said, “Except when it comes to sandpaper and some of your adhesives, coatings, and sealers everyone wants.” They wanted to cherry-pick our line.

Harry said, “I am sorry, we are pulling the entire line from you. We are going to compete with you and we are going to beat you.” Guess what, we did.

The entire sales branch took a hit on their sheets. Some of them were pissed at me for picking that fight. We all saw our top-line sales go down since we lost a distributor. But, eventually, we made it up. We beat them.

When you know you have an enemy, there is no placating them. You can’t pick and choose. There is no appeasement. You can’t hold their hand one day and punch them in the mouth the next, especially when you are considered the bigger person.

Republicans have been told to be “the bigger person”. I think in these fights, they need to punch people in the mouth.

Here are the three fights.

Education.

We need more money for education! We have to educate the great unwashed! We have great public schools in the US and we must fund them!

Except, when you look at the data the public school system in the US really stinks in sum. Money pouring into a school system is not correlated at all to better student performance. Look at the city of Chicago or the state of Illinois.

When you pour more money into public schools, you pour more money into bureaucracy and the teacher’s union.

By the way, teachers make a helluva lot of money risk-free and they want more. Do this math in your own area. Look at the average teacher’s salary. Take the total pension they will receive over their lifetime and discount it back into today’s salary. That’s their real salary since their pensions are risk-free. They also have guaranteed cost of living raises each year come hell or high water. The best way to do all government employee pensions is defined contribution, not benefit.

Guess what? Those two constituencies, the teachers union and educational bureaucracy, are the mortal enemies of Republicans.

School choice is taking off and if you are a Republican and do not embrace it, do not run for office or resign. It is more of a market-based way to educate people and will pay big dividends if fully implemented. Kids who come from places that only have a traditional public school system will be left behind.

When you show the success numbers for kids in private and alternative schools, show them the actual money the Educational Industrial Complex mines, they usually come to your side.

Defund the Department of Education. Disband the bureaucracy. Pass a school choice bill and sign it into law.

Abortion

Republicans are afraid of this issue, and they dance around it. They shouldn’t. If you poll people, most people are totally against late-term abortions and most are against second-trimester abortions. The Supreme Court correctly overturned Roe v Wade and turned it back to the states. There isn’t one woman in America who can’t get an abortion today whenever she wants. Not one.

The chardonnay-drinking suburban women that this appeals to will say, “Oh, I wouldn’t get one but everyone should have the option.” People like optionality because they don’t want to make a decision. But, in public policy, you have to make a decision.

I do think America is far different than other countries and we tend to have a lot more humanity in our culture and system of laws than other countries. We value life more than other countries. Abortion ought to reflect that.

Given the polling, the first step is to compromise at 12 weeks. Most “enlightened” European countries have bans after that. Don’t do it in the federal legislature. Let federalism work.

The thing the federal legislature should do is defund the Industrial Abortion Complex. Take out all federal funding and if you are in a red state, state funding. Make them go the 501(c)(3) route. Those who support abortion can fund them.

Then, educate. Change the conversation.

One of the reasons we engage in this debate is because people do not have hope. That relates back to their education. Poor education, no hope. No job prospects, no hope. Broken family, no hope. People that have hope and have an optimistic view of the future have babies.

Go out and do the hand-to-hand combat to educate people. Show them ultrasounds and educate them on the science behind babies. The baby is in a totally separate environment from the mother. It’s unique and when it is a clump of cells it is human.

When people get educated on this issue, they become more and more pro-life. It’s the uneducated that are for abortion.

Tied into this issue is the transgender issue which I wrote about here.

Again, the pro-kill babies crowd isn’t on the Republican’s side. You aren’t going to make pals with them, so crush them.

For the “socially liberal fiscally conservative” corporate crowd, where do you stand on the transgender thing? Are you putting tampon dispensers in male bathrooms? I stand with the women who filed the lawsuit last week.

Taxes

Taxes are a perpetual fight. The tax cuts passed by Trump expire soon. That’s why you hear a lot of dialogue on it. Billionaires don’t pay enough. Corporations don’t pay enough. When it comes to states, some states raise taxes with reckless abandon. I know a person in Chicago that pays $330k in property taxes each year on their home. Sure, it’s a nice house but that seems quite excessive. No one seems to be paying enough.

When you look at the data, it turns out the top income earners in America pay most if not all of the taxes. The rich aren’t paying their fair share. They are paying far more than their fair share.

At the same time, governments never cut their budgets. Spending is out of control and is the direct cause of inflationary pressure.

Even Think Tanks fight about taxes. Instead of doing anything about it, they fight around the edges.

Change the tax code. Professor John Cochrane is 100% correct when he says we ought to scrap our entire tax code and tax consumption instead. When that is done, economic incentives change. We focus on growth. We are rewarded for higher and higher income. We have a tax system that gives a pre-bate to poor people so they pay no tax, and ensnares people in the underground economy along with the millions of illegals who aren’t paying taxes.

Consumption taxes would provide billions that are being avoided today and cut our deficit assuming no increases in spending.

Health Care

Health care costs in America consistently go higher. There are a few reasons for that. The major one is there is a lack of competition in health care. Supply is restricted, and demand goes up. The elasticity of supply is tight, so providers can continuously raise prices.

Ever try to pay cash for a medical procedure? The providers can not even figure out what price to charge you so they quote a high one.

The Democrat’s ideas are all about socialized medicine which will further restrict care and cause prices to go up. Hint, $35 insulin doesn’t mean insulin is $35.

Bust up the insurance, hospital, and doctor monopolies. Allow for unfettered free market competition. Take away mandates for care. Let a thousand innovative roses bloom and see what happens. I think we will see costs come down.

Spending

70% of the federal budget is spent before anyone gets to Washington and takes the oath of office. If you follow Rand Paul on Twitter, you can see all the stupid spending that takes place. It is inserted into bills and it is pure pork barrel politics. It’s not enough to kill earmarks. The entire budget and budgeting process needs to be revamped.

The government cannot invest. It only spends. Government spending leads to inflation. The government doesn’t contribute to GDP. It’s a net zero or negative on our standard of living.

At the same time, cutting spending will cause some difficult discussions to take place. Entitlement spending is a major part of the budget. That isn’t just welfare, but things like social security, Medicare, and other federal programs.

We need to figure out an off-ramp for all of them. Otherwise, we stay on Hayak’s road to serfdom.

Trump

Trump won the primaries. He won the delegates. He’s the nominee. Republicans need to support him. Don’t be like Liz Cheney, Mike Pence, Mitt Romney, and other out-of-touch people. They are just bitter because they have no pull and no power. They were never intricate and essential to the conservative movement in America. They only surfed on top of it.

Supporting a 3rd party is stupid in a two-party system. Until third parties get real money and structure behind them, ignore them. Oh, and No Labels is just the smug intellectual elites wanting a seat at the table. They love to get paid to talk and serve on boards. They went to the right schools. They know best how to lead your life and will happily make choices for you so you don’t tax your brain doing it for yourself.

Trump is not a conservative. But, he’s going to sign conservative legislation if it comes up on his desk. That’s why winning the House and Senate and populating them with conservatives is important. He knows where his bread is buttered. He’s got four years to make a mark. He can’t do it alone.

Trump was the bull that the China shop needed in 2016. He got the bad guys to unmask themselves. We know where they are. There are a lot of them.

I don’t appreciate a lot of Trump’s rhetoric. I don’t appreciate some of his policies. But, he’s who we have to dance with and it isn’t changing. He is much better than the alternative.