Two percent of employed Americans work for the government!

 Weekly Opinion Editorial

VOLUNTARY TERMINATIONS!

by Steve Fair

         Republicans since the 1930s have championed the concept of ‘smaller government.’  That wasn’t always the case.  Lincoln and Republicans in the 1860s believed expansion of government’s footprint would save the nation.  Democrats, who controlled the southern states opposed growing government.

     Twentieth century Republicans and Democrats reversed their beliefs and under the leadership of President Franklin Roosevelt the Ds became advocates for more bureaucracy.  1930s Republicans opposed many of FDR’s New Deal policies and the script was flipped.  Three observations:

     First, policy positions are about votes.  In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, both Parties took positions they believed would influence western voters.  As America expanded west, appealing to those voters was critical to electoral success.  Tell ‘em what they want to hear was the order of the day.  Not much different than today.  In the early days of western expansion, businesses needed infrastructure, a stable currency and help with tariffs.  Both Parties willingly provided the help, but Republicans took the position of less government regulation. 

     Second, neither Party is for limited government.  Both want government regulation.  They just differ in how much they want.  Republican elected officials claim to want government downsized/rightsized/optimized during campaigning, but fail to deliver on reducing government’s footprint when elected.  Republicans and Democrats are always trying to pin the federal deficit on each other, but the truth is both Parties have embraced deficit spending to keep government growing.  Congress has control of the purse and bears the bulk of the responsibility. 

     Third, will the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) work?  President Trump has appointed billionaires Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to head up the unofficial government agency.  In a Wall Street Journal op/ed last week, they wrote the aim to cut $500 billion of the next year’s federal budget.  That’s a start, but the U.S. government spent $1.7 trillion more in 2023 than they took in.  The total federal budget was $6.13 trillion in 2023.  Musk claims America is headed to bankruptcy if spending isn’t reigned in. There are nearly 3 million federal employees.  About 2% of employed Americans work for the government, a number that has remained stable for the past decade.  Government is the 15^th largest employer in America, larger than the agriculture and mining industries.   

        Musk and Ramaswamy say they will target spending that is unauthorized by Congress, as well as programs agencies implement that aren’t in line with legislator’s intentions.  They also want to cut the number of federal employees.  Since COVID, a large number of federal employees work from home.  Musk and Ramaswamy want to require them to be in the office five days a week.  They predict that policy change will result in ‘a wave of voluntary terminations.’ 

     Musk is not timid when it comes to making hard decisions.  When he bought Twitter (now X) in 2022, he slashed the workforce by 80%.  The company went from 8,000 employees to 1,500.  The diversity and inclusion departments, and the content moderation teams were the most impacted.  The layoffs shocked the social media industry and many believed it would tank the company.  Because Twitter was losing money, Musk said the cuts were necessary to make it viable.  The newly branded X is not yet profitable, it is moving closer. 

     The duo may actually begin the process of fulfilling a century old GOP promise to reduce the size of government, but don’t believe it until you see it. 

Trump’s legacy could be saving America from bankruptcy!

 Weekly Opinion Editorial

SAVE AMERICA FROM BANKRUPTCY!

by Steve Fair

     President elect Trump has moved quickly to build his second term cabinet.  He has filled more than half of his fifteen (15) cabinet level positions.  Florida Senator Marco Rubio for Secretary of State, Fox News host and military vet Pette Hegseth for Defense Secretary, and Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz for Attorney General are his picks for the major cabinet positions. 

     North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum is his choice to be Secretary of the Interior.  Robert F Kennedy, an environmental lawyer, is his pick for Secretary of Health and Human Services.  Former Georgia congressman Doug Collins has been chosen to lead the US Department of Veterans' Affairs.  South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem has been nominated for Secretary of Homeland Security.  Former Democrat Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard has been nominated to lead the CIA.  President-elect Donald Trump has selected former New York Rep. Lee Zeldin to serve as his administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.  Liberty Energy CEO Christ Wright has been tapped to lead the Energy Department. 

     The only positions left unfilled are: Treasury, Agriculture, Commerce, Labor, HHS, Transportation, and Education.  Three observations on Trump’s picks:

     First, Trump values loyalty.  All his cabinet level appointments are vocal supporters of Donald Trump.  Unlike in his first term, where he appointed experienced politicos, Trump seems to be choosing personal friends.  These picks would likely execute out his decisions without pushback.  President Trump has long said he made a mistake in his first term in choosing the wrong people to help him execute his plans.    

          Second, placing loyalty above competence is dangerous.  Several of Trump’s appointees don’t appear to be qualified.  For example, Lee Zeldin is nominated as the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), but has little history with climate or regulatory issues. Pete Hegseth, a Fox News weekend co-host tapped to serve as secretary of defense, but has no Pentagon experience. Clearly both agencies need reform, but putting someone in charge who has little experience is risky.  Placing loyalty above competence could result in failing to accomplish what Trump ultimately wants to attain.  Hopefully, Trump will have these advisors on a short leash.

      Third, change is coming.  Based on Trump’s picks for the cabinet, it will not be business as usual in Washington.  Trump’s picks are unconventional and unorthodox.  They will ‘shake things up.’  Government is past due for reorganization, restructure, reform, and transformation.  Change happens in the private sector on a regular basis, but change in government is scarcer than hen’s teeth.  The problem with change without a clear purpose is it often leads to confusion, inefficiency and demoralization, making things worse, not better. 

    A potential game change is Trump’s appointment of Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy as heads of a new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).  Their stated marching orders are to: (1) dismantle government bureaucracy, (2) slash excess regulations, (3) cut wasteful expenditures and (4) restructure federal agencies.  Just the stated goals of DOGE should strike fear in the hearts of government bureaucrats. 

     America’s major challenge is fiscal!  Government spends more than they take in and waste is rampant.  Both political Parties have shown no resolve to address out of control spending.  Trump promised he would balance the federal budget in his first term, but didn’t even come close.  If Musk and Ramaswamy are effective and reduce government’s footprint, Trump’s real legacy would be that he saved America from bankruptcy.

Democratic Party has become a home for radicals!

 Weekly Opinion Editorial

ELECTION POSTMORTEM!

by Steve Fair

         Last week, America elected Donald J. Trump to a second term.  Trump is only the second U.S. President to serve non-consecutive terms.  The first was President Stephen Grover Cleveland who served as the nation’s 22^nd and 24^th president.   Cleveland was the first Democrat elected president after the Civil War and served from 1885-1889 and from 1893-1897. 

     As expected, Republicans flipped the U.S. Senate (53-47) and will also retain the majority in the U.S. House.  Overall, it was a stellar day for the GOP. 

     Tuesday was the third consecutive presidential election where pollsters missed prognosticating actual results.  Across all the battleground states, pollsters contended VP Kamala Harris was leading.  They claimed Harris was going to put Iowa in play, that Georgia and North Carolina would vote blue, and Harris would win the popular vote.  None of that happened. 

     Polls are only as good as the collected data and Trump supporters clearly don’t participate in polls or don’t answer honestly, which shews outcomes.  Pollsters have become less accurate than meteorologists and main stream media anchors.   Three reasons Trump won a second term:

     First, Harris misread what was important to voters.  She thought her pro-abortion stance would motivate infrequent and first-time voters to flood the polls, but that didn’t happen.  She deemphasized border security and the economy.  Harris was not able to differentiate herself from President Biden.  Her statement she wouldn’t have done anything different than Biden came back to haunt her. 

     Second, Americans voted with their wallet.  Harris attempted to convince voters they were economically better off than they were four years ago.  But it wasn’t true.  Food and gasoline costs more.  Wages haven’t kept pace with inflation.  A Gallup poll found 52% of Americans thought they and their family are worse off today than they were four years ago.   

     Third, the Democratic Party has become a home for radicals.  For years, the Democrats positioned and marketed the Party as home for the working man/the average Joe.  But recently, ‘average Joes’ are being pushed out of the tent.  Pro-life, traditional marriage conservative Ds face hostility from those sporting ‘co-exist’ bumper stickers.  Those who preach tolerance don’t practice it. 

     Those ‘old school’ conservative Democrats in the Rust Belt states voted for Trump last week.  It remains to be seen if they will permanently leave the Party and join the GOP.   

     Democrats are pointing fingers of blame for the thrashing.  Many hold Joe Biden liable for not dropping out sooner.  Others claim the Ds have abandoned their ‘working man’ image and are out of touch with what the average American finds important.  Whatever the reason for the trouncing, in the near future, Democrats face a fight between radicals and centrists over control of the Party.  

     What will a second Trump term look like?  ‘America First’ in domestic and foreign policy, tightening of the southern border, loosing of government regulations, and judges who exercise judicial restraint.  What it will not be is the end of democracy.  Plato observed democracies inevitably fail because they always birth a tyrant.  Trump is a despot in liberal’s minds.  But Democrats misread voter’s concerns in the 2024 election, so their prophesy and analytical skills are dubious.

The ‘end justifies the means,’ mentality saturates politics in 2024!

 Weekly Opinion Editorial

CHANGING VALUES!

by Steve Fair

     The theory of consumption values (TCV) asserts individual’s buy stuff based on five values: functional, emotional, social, epistemic, and conditional.  Economists, sociologists, psychologists, marketers, and political scientists are continually studying what influences people’s decision-making processes and how they can capitalize on that knowledge. 

     Consumer behavior is always changing.  In the United States, for example, 75% of consumers tried a new way to shop after the COVID-19 pandemic. On-line shopping has exploded in growth.  Brand loyalty is at an all time low.  Vitamin consumption is at an all time high.   

     Personal values significantly influence consumer behavior, guiding individual preferences and decisions. These values, shaped by cultural, family, and personal experiences, dictate what products, services, or candidates people find essential or desirable.  How does consumer behavior reflect America’s values?

     First, America’s moral values have plummeted.  In a recent Gallup poll, 54% of U.S. adults rated the countries’ moral values as poor.  Another 33% rate them as only fair, 10% good and only 1% excellent.  Republicans are more negative about the values of the country than Democrats, but 83% of all Americans believe the values in the U.S. are on the slide.  Republicans (65%) attribute the decline to lack of religious training, Democrats (63%) believe it is a combination of issues in the home and the overall culture.    

      A University of Chicago study found Republicans and Democrats were not that different in their core values, but neither group want to hear that. Nine out of ten Ds and Rs surveyed agreed fairness, compassion and personal responsibility should be guiding values in life for an individual.  Yet only about a third of either group believed the opposing Party actually practices those values.  Skepticism, cynicism, and mistrust fuel a lack of civility. 

      Second, consumer behavior reflects America’s changing moral values.  In the first half of 2024, shoplifting in the U.S. was up 24% vs. 2023.  What was once considered dishonesty and thieve, shoplifting has now become mainstream.  A recent study found shoplifting is now more common among those with some college education and earning middle class income than the poor. 

     Some people steal because they believe large corporations are profiteering and they are righting a wrong.  They believe the company will absorb the loss, but retailers are not sponges.  They pass the cost of the pilfering by raising prices.  Everyone pays for light fingered Louies’ purloining in higher prices.

     The ‘end justifies the means,’ mentality saturates politics in 2024.  Unethical and immoral behavior is considered acceptable. Win at any cost is the order of the day and anyone who preaches restraint is branded a wimp and a weakling.   

     Third, America’s moral values are always reflected at the polls and at the grocery shelf.  When angry Americans hoard toilet paper, rip retail clerks, and have no tolerance for shortages, they get impatient, angry, entitled elected officials. .    

     In a self-governing system of government, citizens get the government they deserve- every time.  That is consistent with TCV: people buy products and vote for people who align with their personal values.  When filching merchandise from a retailer has become acceptable behavior, who is surprised by elected officials with similar values?