If It Ain't Broke, Don't Fix It

I spent a part of my Thanksgiving in a conversation with my daughter discussing the steps involved with repairing a leaky toilet in their home.  (What, this isn't the normal holiday conversation you have with your kids?  Really?)  Now that you're riveted to your seats by what's about to come next .... 

 (12/5/13:  An updated version of this effort was just posted to the TFP Website.)

I could do this because I was fortunate enough to have a father who while I was growing up (OK, growing older) was able to instruct me in the basic 'Harry the handyman' skills involved with maintaining a home.  In fact, he went on to instruct me in an apprenticeship program that he had taught at R R Donnelley and Sons that included basic mechanical, electrical, and hydraulic / pneumatic principles when I began my career in the printing industry.  One of the first things he stressed in those lessons was that since maintaining any complex system would be difficult enough for even the most conscientious maintenance staff: 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it'.  This is apparently something that the Congress and the President either never learned, or forgot about when creating the 'Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act' or 'ACA'.  

Oh I know that politicians often like to simplify subjects that they either don't understand themselves or don't think that 'the voters' will, in order to sell us something (usually a bill of goods); but the simple truth of the matter is that when all of this began, the US had a level of health care that was the envy of the world. That's why other world leaders and that pesky '1%' with the cash often came to this country for treatment of their ailments. This is not to say that there weren't things that needed improvement, but most of that seemed to be greater "access" to this wonderful system through minor modifications of health insurance coverage.

While even those who had no insurance or couldn't pay had access to some level of medical care, they needed more. Those with pre-existing medical conditions also needed the ability to obtain or retain insurance (especially when changing jobs). Doctors needed tort reform to reduce the amount of defensive (and expensive) medical procedures being performed for no better reason than to protect themselves from frivolous malpractice lawsuits, without removing the patient's right to seek redress from poor practitioners. Patients and doctors alike needed protection from the crony-capitalism in an insurance industry riddled with restrictive choices mandated by individual state insurance regulators.

In its normal ham-fisted approach to almost every issue however, our federal legislators chose a 'throw the baby out with the bath water' approach, without considering the ramifications of another 'never-ending gobstopper omnibus' effort, as well as the laws of unintended consequences. Far too concerned about winning points for their respective parties that they could store up like nuts for the next election (like there aren't enough nuts around in every election), our legislators allowed themselves to be caught up in the momentum of a 'sweeping reform' which only seem to clean out sound judgment, and good law. Sadly now, the nation is left with a result that even many of those who originally voted for it are less than pleased with.

This is not to say that the ACA doesn't positively address some of the issues that it intended to. Those with pre-existing conditions now have the access to insurance that they deserve. Unfortunately, this came with the cost that far too many of those who had pre-existing insurance plans lost them. Many who needed access to health insurance will finally get it, but in spite of all the back-slapping after its passage, 30 million will remain without it. Instead of freeing up the insurance market between states to make it cheaper, the ACA instead further restricted it to four 'government-approved' plans that make it even more expensive (and, contrary to the law's title, less affordable). Perhaps worst of all is that politicians who touted the necessity of this sweeping change and the fairness of their effort granted themselves their staffs an exemption from the rules that they insist the rest of us follow.

Not surprisingly, those seeking electoral credit for their legislative efforts are instead contracting incurable levels displeasure, disapproval, and disrepute that may cost them the privilege of the jobs they sought to protect with its passage. Curiously, it's only the distraction of the temporary collapse of the HealthCare.gov website used for enrolling in this monstrosity that's offering any protection to these wayward legislators from the greater ruin and future recrimination that awaits them. Tragically (if not perhaps fatally), the CYA and CYP (Cover Your Party) nature of the entrenched politics involved precludes even the most honorable of members of either party from doing what they know in their hearts probably now needs to be done.

So it's time for many to learn a hard lesson that apparently their fathers couldn't or didn't pass on to them. You don't fix a simple leaky toilet by ripping out the entire bathroom. You don't remodel a house by demolishing it and rezoning the neighborhood for commercial. In fact, with anything that needs repair, the first rule must always be: 

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it!"    

       

It's Not My Fault!

 This effort has already been accepted by and will be going up on the website of  the Toledo Free Press here, but I couldn't resist posting it here for no other reason than the ability to put in this YouTube video clip from "The Blues Brothers", a 1980 movie that was filmed nearby my old neighborhood in the Chicago area.


"No, I didn't. Honest... I ran out of gas. I... I had a flat tire. I didn't have enough money for cab fare. My tux didn't come back from the cleaners. An old friend came in from out of town. Someone stole my car. There was an earthquake. A terrible flood. Locust. It wasn't my fault. I swear to God!"
- 'Joliet' Jake Blues ("The Blues Brothers")

Enough news cycles have now passed that a mostly disconnected public has lost interest in the hype of the Government Shutdown and manufactured threat of the Default. If you doubt me, ask how many realize that since last Thursday when the agreement was signed, the limit was raised, and the floodgates were opened; that government debt jumped by the rather amazing amount of $500 billion.

Now some might consider this selective inattention on the part of the electorate astonishing, others are impressed by the government's apparent ability to stop time where spending was concerned right before we purportedly reached our previous limit instead. Still others might point to the dubious (and now clearly proven fraudulent) claim made back in September by the President (and shared by Neil Irwin of the Washington Post): "Because it's called raising the debt ceiling, I think a lot of Americans think it's raising our debt. It is not raising our debt. This does not add a dime to our debt." (Really?) What I find miraculous however, is the lack of blame that's been attached to anyone involved with the situation.

I'm not talking about Democrats (or the mainstream media) blaming the Tea Party Republicans in the House and Senate for the shutdown. That's little more than the expected and rather tired rhetoric used to gear up the fundraising efforts of the base running up to the 2014 election. Nor am I talking about Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who years ago talked about the Republicans being "the party of no" but has recently taking up that mantle upon himself in refusing to look at anything from the House of which he disapproves. Then again, why should they be held accountable when no one either recently or currently in office (elected or appointed) appears to be responsible for anything that's happened in their areas of responsibility?

Four US citizens, including an Ambassador, were killed in Benghazi; and a year later, no one's to blame. In spite of previous attacks that occurred and the fact that the compound in Benghazi was known to be indefensible; nothing was done to correct it. In spite of the fact that we have fast-deployment teams stationed around the world, none of them were deployed (or even put on standby alert).  In spite of the fact that the safety of US sovereign territory and the diplomatic staff is the direct responsibility of the Departments of State and Defense, no one has been called out, held to blame, or in any way punished. Hillary Clinton (State) and Leon Panetta (Defense) were in fact lauded for the performance of their duties when they finally resigned, in spite of having this glaring failure of leadership occur on their watch.

NSA is clearly out of control with the electronic eavesdropping not only on unfriendly foreign governments and terrorists threats, but on friendly governments and citizens in this country as well. Only the most broad and unconstitutional interpretations of the Patriot Act permit anything close to such spying. Only the most naive and low-information citizens can believe that the massive data storage facilities currently being built in Utah will not be used to retain data that the government is Constitutionally not permitted to obtain without a specific warrant. Yet no consequences appear to the forthcoming for the Director of the NSA (Gen. Keith Alexander), or for the current or former Secretary of Defense (Chuck Hagel and Leon Panetta, respectively) ostensibly in charge of this illegal data collection and its center.

As for spying on us, look no further than the IRS, destined to be the new watchdogs of our private healthcare information. The only thing lower than their approval ratings appear to be the ethics of their operating policies. It must be apparent to all but the sight-impaired that managers were either dictating policy or creating a pervasive atmosphere that sought to restrict the free speech rights of political foes of the President. Lois Lerner, an apparent key player in the illegal effort to obtain such information from these Tea Party Groups and an even more illegal effort to share it with the Federal Election Commission; was allowed to retire and begin collecting her pension however, after an almost smug claim to her own Constitutional right of a 5th Amendment privilege.  Ms. Lerner simply admitted her innocence before a Congressional Committee, and rode off into the sunset with her saddlebags full of cash. 
 
As for the current situation with the Affordable Care Act and its implementation, what can one say? Oh sure the website is an over-priced nightmare that cost too much. (The fact that there seems to be a margin of error of $200 million for what it cost, in spite of its epic failure, might be a giveaway as to future cost expectations.) But regardless of whether it's $400 million or $600 million for the failure that it's become, we still don't know what a working site will finally cost. Speaking of cost, we were told that premium costs would go down, but according to the Heritage Foundation, they've gone up in at least 45 of 50 states.  They have to in fact go up in fact, since unless you live in the heavily regulated states of NY or CA, the plan you were told you could keep by the President will not be one that you can in fact retain. It's all but impossible that an existing plan anywhere else will meet new (and still being written) ACA regulations, and that you will be required to take an approved and more expensive plan with higher rates and deductibles that does.  As for HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, what can one say other than the President continues to have the greatest confidence in her (which is government speak for "you're doomed").

Is this incompetence or malice? I don't know and I don't care. What I do care about however, is that everyone elected or appointed to a position in DC lately seems to be pulling a 'Joliet Jake'. Managers and Department heads at the IRS, HHS, State, NSA, and Defense are retained, promoted, or allowed to retire with full pensions in spite of the illegal activity committed or the epic failures under their leadership. Incumbent legislators in the House and Senate who've consistently failed to produce a budget, run up the debt, and sloughed their regulatory responsibilities off to a faceless bureaucracy, are nevertheless re-elected with comfortable majorities. The Constitution that all these with power and privilege vow to protect and defend is no longer treated as the rule of law that limits and binds the government, but instead 'more of guideline' to be followed or ignored at personal whim.

More than any time in this country's history, Washington DC has become not only a 'logic-free zone', but a 'consequence-free territory' for those who live or work in it. 

Island of Misfit Politicians

Not too many years ago, I took a job in an rather dysfunctional office environment.  While there was nothing wrong with the office itself or the place in which it was located, one couldn't help but notice over time that there was something disturbing about this sanctuary of industry.  Try as I might however, I could put no finger on what about this isle of employment that was so unsettling.  No matter who was in charge of it (and that was an ever-changing array of characters) or which employees came or went; there were still far too many incidents of embarrassingly disconcerting behavior, annoying inter-personal conflict, and incomprehensible temper tantrums; episodes which occasionally even rose to the level of infectious mental meltdown.

One day as the Christmas season approached however, and while someone in the office discussed the week's prime time holiday TV schedule, a singular point of clarity shook me to my very foundations.  I suddenly found myself flashing back to the days of my youth and my introduction to a 1964 made-for-TV movie entitled "Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer".  It wasn't the title character whose luminous snout lent this tawdry offering its title; nor even Hermey, a rather strange little elf who wanted to be a dentist that struck a disconcerting chord with me however.  It was instead "The Island of Misfit Toys", that was discovered by Rudolph and his gang of intrepid wanderers in their travels.

This island, for those of you who have somehow missed this quirky claymation classic, is a place full of wagons with square wheels, planes that can't fly, and even a 'Charlie-In-The-Box' (instead of a Jack).  In other words, it was an Island of mutant toys that even the X-men probably couldn't love.  It was also apparently, a place into which I had fit into rather handily for some time ... a fact that looking back on it now, I find strangely demoralizing. 

As I also now look back on the recent made-for-cable-news dramas of the 'partial shutdown' of non-essential federal employees that occurred because once again Congress ignored its fiduciary responsibilities in passing an annual budget; I cannot help but wonder at the comparison.  As I contemplate the 'imminent default' on a national debt that can only occur when these same 'Chicken Littles' threaten us with dire consequences by discussing a failure to pay the interest on debt that they incurred if not allowed to raise the credit limit on the national credit card; I cannot help but be struck by the overwhelming similarities between the cartoon misfit location and Washington DC.

Think about it.  Isn't there something slightly physically off-putting in the appearance of many of these public servants to start with?  Without commenting on the attractiveness of their politics, it's certainly not difficult to face the concept that neither Harry Reid nor Nancy Pelosi is likely to win the 'Sexiest Legislator Alive' in People magazine (even the forthcoming 'Extra-special Halloween Zombie Edition).  As for John Boehner and Mitch McConnell; they too capture the sometimes unattractive spirit of this costumed season by looking more like professional undertakers than senior statesmen.  As for the guy in the White House, one cannot help but notice the eerie (eary?) resemblance to a certain famous Disney character made famous in a 1941 animated feature (or the polka dot version depicted on the Island in Rudolph).

As for those from either side of the aisle whose physical appearance is slightly more appealing (if not downright photogenic), isn't there an unhealthy aroma of zealotry that instead often permeates the room around them, tainting their efforts with something that's more felt than seen?  It's so pervasive that one cannot help but wonder in many of these cases whether a 'Dorian Gray' style portrait might be tucked away in an upstairs room of their ancestral homes, and whose appearance now carries the sins and scars of their misfit nature (political and otherwise).

Even if taken at their most appealing however, all these political misfits are people who have sought a career in the exercise of power over their fellow man.  Regardless of the humility and altruism with which they may have entered the fray, or any misguided attempts to retain them; the modern day game of party politics requires participants a lifetime of self-serving and self-interest in order to lay claim to one's place on this island elitism.  And once having achieved a true misfit level of pompous legislative nobility, few have the strength of character to resign their positions of power until unavoidable senility of Island life, revelation of unforgivable public error, or a decision of overwhelming political disfavor to overtake them.

No, there's little doubt that over the years, Washington DC has become little more than a government incarnation of this imaginary place that in its reality should be called the 'Island of Misfit Politicians' (a term which is probably in fact redundant).  Far different from the sad place of unloved toys of Rudolph's adventure however, these misfits see themselves as well-loved indeed (or at least self-loved) and seek anything but freedom from their sordid island retreat.  Appearing to all but revel in their misfit status and nature, they do all they can to stake whatever greedy claim they can to even the meanest plot on its shores; and instead fight to the death to retain the power and privilege of their misfit island paradise. 

Unlike Rudolph's long ago adventure, I suspect perhaps that far it's too late to rescue any of these misguided misfits and see them off to good homes, should they even allow us the opportunity to do so.  So since we cannot rescue them, perhaps it's past time that we sought to rescue ourselves from them instead.  The continuous exhibition of their misfit nature is tainting even the land around them, and all but unfit to live in. (Where's the EPA when you need them?) 

Before we create the next Island of Misfit Politicians however, we should consider changing the rules to save them from their own misfit nature.  For their own good (and that of the nation), let's limit their time as misfits, their exposure to the toxicity of the Island, and return them to society in general; where with luck, there may yet be hope of them fulfilling a less misfit existence.

 
            

Halloween Costumes - 2013

While this effort has already been picked up by the Toledo Free Press with both it's local Toledo-oriented entries as well as National suggestions,  I thought that it would be worthwhile however for those who might not understand the local  Glass City references to post only those costume ideas that had national implications here.  Besides, there always seems to be additions to this annual effort as the week of its  creation progresses (as a matter of fact, additions have already been made since this was originally posted.), and the TFP has both space and modification restrictions that must be respected.  If you check back later this week therefore, you're likely to discover additions to this entry that you missed earlier.  

Here is the link to the Toledo Free Press website effort that includes the Toledo specific entries as well as most of the national ones.

Halloween is almost upon us, though there's still plenty of time to choose a costume. For those of you who remain 'costume-challenged' for this all-important candy grab however, we here at “Just Blowing Smoke” have once again come up with our annual list of politically-oriented (and politically incorrect) suggestions that could make you the hit of your neighborhood, if not a viral source of public ridicule on Facebook and YouTube.
 

• Place some orange cones on your driveway and install a flimsy gate across the sidewalk leading to your front door with a broken lock and a newly painted 'Closed' sign hanging from it. Leave your porch light on however to encourage participants to push past these feeble barriers. When revelers ring the bell and say 'Trick or Treat', tell them they shouldn't be there but give them candy anyway. If asked about this apparently contradictory behavior, tell them you're the National Park Service.
• Take a big piece of plastic sheeting and paint a wavy blue line across it.  Wrap it around yourself and fasten it together; then make your neighborhood begging rounds.  When asked, tell them that you're a glass, and you think you're half-empty.  What do they think?
• Wear a nice suit and.Trick or Treat from door to door while weeping and mumbling logically contradictory statements on the state of the nation and laws that should be passed as if nobody is listening (they won't be). When asked, wipe a tear from your eye and stammer 'God bless America', before telling them you are Speaker of the House John Boehner. 
• Trick or Treat from door to door, carrying either a recently minted dog turd or freshly filled diaper to sniff right before the door is answered. When residents note your pinched, rather constipated expression and ask about your costume, tell them you are Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and refuse to accept any candy they offer you.
• Wear a piece of poster board on your chest with the neatly printed words: “We are experiencing technical difficulties, please stand by ...” as you walk your neighborhood route. When asked, tell them that you are the 'Affordable Healthcare Website', take their candy, and apologize for not being able to give them anything in return; requesting that they try again later (after all, it's settled law) before moving on.
• Trick or Treat from door to door spouting the most wild, illogical, and even insane beliefs about the news at the top of your voice; making sure to periodically blame Republicans as the cause of the world's ills. When asked, tell them you're a show host for MSNBC.
• Trick or Treat the neighborhood and give the normal greeting when the door is answered. When homeowners attempt to speak however, interrupt their attempts to do so as foolish while disparagingly insisting that you know best about everything and insist that you are only taking their candy 'for the folks'. You will, of course, be masquerading as Fox News host Bill O'Reilly; and should be ashamed of yourself for providing him even that much attention.
• Wear whatever you want in while making your Trick or Treat rounds.  When asked who you're supposed to be and what you've done, tell them you're a member of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). When they explain that they don't know who that is, tell them that neither does anyone else, but that you're charged with cleaning up the poison gas in Syria and that you haven't actually done much of anything yet ... except for winning this year's Nobel Peace Prize.  
• Come to think of it, if you would like to Trick or Treat your neighborhood in a formal tuxedo with tails and can speak with a Norwegian or Swedish accent (I use the Swedish cook one from Sesame Street), you can go as a member of the Nobel Peace Prize Committee.  When they answer the door, give them one of the little blue ribbons you'll need to carry and explain that these days you're giving out the prize to damn near anyone whether they've ever done anything or not.  
• Wear something business casual and carry a clipboard full of computer printouts, along with your 'Trick or Treat' bag.  When homeowners answer the door, page through the list 'harrumphing', while telling them you're from the NSA and they shouldn't feel obligated to give you a special reward not to release the information they've gathered on you. 
• Kick a can from house to house on your Trick or Treat route and lethargically hold out your bag when the door is answered.  If questioned on your costume or your lousy attitude, tell homeowners you're a member of the new Congressional Budget Conference Committee and you're as optimistic of success in your coming Congressional efforts as you are of getting $20 bills from them for a 'Treat'.
• Drag out that old zombie costume from your 'Thriller' days but carry around a newspaper delivery bag instead of a Trick or Treat bag.  When those on your route ask about your costume, you might have to explain that it's the daily newspaper and not the carrier who's all but dead; but most will get the message. 
• If you want to really scare everyone however, you may dress however you'd like and carry a sign around your neck with the old Ronald Reagan quote about "the nine most terrifying words in the English language":  "We're from the government and were here to help."
• Wear a pair of jeans, flannel shirt, and cowboy hat; while also wearing President Obama masque on your 'Trick or Treat' rounds.  When asked, tell them that you are an out-of-work rodeo clown.  
• Walk your neighborhood in whatever you'd like and when the houses in the neighborhood answer their doors, mumble "Trick or Treat" in a disgruntled voice.  When asked about your attitude and costume (or lack of it), tell them that you are a non-essential federal employee, and were much happier when still at home watching "The View" on the shutdown's paid vacation.
  (By the way those of you actually capable of doing this should be ashamed ... not for enjoying the paid vacation, but of watching "The View".)
• Refuse to dress up, Trick or Treat, or decorate your house for Halloween; but buy a bunch of candy and leave your porch light on to encourage neighborhood participation in the festivities. When Trick or Treaters arrive, smile and engage them pleasantly, but refuse to give them any of the clearly visible candy you possess. When asked about this apparent contradiction, tell them you're a member of Congress and you're intention is to keep all the goodies for yourself.

Silly Bits VII

I am traveling this weekend and therefore submitting my weekend post before I depart.  Sorry, no apologies for any apparent silliness involved with this early submission since it could be said to compensate for last weekend's late 'Silly Bits' entry.  On the other hand, one should probably write off any consideration of timing as simply more silliness.   

Silliness is not terribly surprising, considering what's going on where the Debt Ceiling and Government Shutdown are concerned.  Many are beginning to look at this as the 'Silly Season' here in the US.  Not to be outdone however, parts of the rest of the world occasionally insist on trying to compete (mostly unsuccessfully) with the pace of silliness that 'The Land of the Free' and 'The Home of the Brave' is trying to set.  Our first entry in this latest edition is just such an example.

In Oslo, Norway, the announcement awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize was made today.  While a Pakistani schoolgirl, a Congolese doctor, and a US traitor were among those who successfully got through the talent competition and made the finalists; the winner of the Peace Prize begun by Alfred Nobel (the guy who invented dynamite) is in fact not a person this year at all, but an organization.  The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) will receive this year's gold medal and $1.25 million cash award.  (Sorry, there's no sash or tiara; but thank goodness, no swimsuit competition either.)

For those of you who've never heard of the OPCW, don't feel bad.  Most of the world hasn't either.  These are the guys however, who will be responsible for disposing of the chemical weapons in Syria at some point, though they haven't done anything but look around so far.  By now, some of you might be wondering how they could get the prize for something they haven't actually done yet.  You're probably the same ones who applauded the Nobel Committee for awarding it to Barack Obama back in 2009 before having actually done anything as President (even announcing his 'Peace Through Drone Strikes' foreign policy).  This is also the same prize awarded to Al Gore in 2007 for his efforts with regard to climate change.  Can somebody refresh my memory here?  Was his award for generating awareness of the problem or the massive carbon footprint created in his awareness efforts.  (Maybe the Nobel Committee  just has a problem with this award in odd-numbered years.)    

Locally, the latest Shutdown brouhaha was the Defense Department's announcement earlier this week that it wasn't going to pay survivor benefits immediately to families of soldiers killed in action overseas.  Not only would this failure of payment create a hardship for families attempting to meet their loved ones at Dover Air Force Base as the remains were returned for burial, but it would force them to cover the funeral expenses themselves until the shutdown had ended (and they call Republicans heartless). 

The Defense Department, showing a level of sensitivity that only a government agency can (and eerily reminiscent of the IRS), justified their actions by saying that they warned everyone that these 'non-essential' expenses would result from government shutdown.  And all of this in spite of the fact that both Houses of Congress had passed the 'Pay Our Military Act' to fund the military that the President subsequently signed into law.  Evidently however, Executive Branch attorneys in consultation with each other felt differently, and that same Defense Department didn't see fit to pass on to Congressional oversight committees (or apparently much of anyone else except some 'unnamed White House personnel') that this obviously misnamed bill still didn't cover what the legislators who wrote it thought it did.  

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney showed more of his own sensitive nature by attempting to politically justify this horrifying insult to the families of those who've made the ultimate sacrifice in the service of their country.  These offensive and non-responsive comments were to the effect that this wouldn't be a problem if Republicans would just shut down the shutdown.

In a related story, Congress yesterday apparently fixed the hole in their earlier fix where military death benefits were concerned.  In the meanwhile however, Senator Joe Manchin of Virginia had apparently brokered a deal with Ken Fisher's Maryland-based 'Fisher House Foundation' to step in and cover the costs for these military benefits to the families involved for the government until they could step in once again.  Thursday Press Secretary Jay Carney, not satisfied with previous structural damage to the situation that he'd already done, stated that now a legislative solution was unnecessary since the Defense Department struck a deal with the Fisher House (though not giving credit to the Senator who had actually brokered the deal that the White House was taking credit for).

Two things to consider here:

1. Wasn't this the same White House that a while back was looking to eliminate the tax deductions for charitable contributions in order to raise general revenues?  Weren't we told that all things were to be done by government, and that such contributions and organizations were all but unnecessary?  You know, there's a certain consistent inconsistency to the concept of borrowing money from those whose funding you wanted to make harder to obtain in order to make up for your own funding failures.  Perhaps the next step should be instead to make them 'too big to fail'. 
2. Speaking of the Fisher House Foundation and this loan, since where does the Defense Department or the White House (the branch of government that controls it), get the authority to borrow money (especially from a private concern)?  Incurring debt is the exclusive province of the Congress under Article 1, Section 7 of the Constitution.  Therefore entering into even an informal agreement with the Fisher House, regardless of the altruistic nature of the effort, was and is entirely unconstitutional. 

Have a silly week....

TFP Column: Sequestered, Shut Down, and Debt Limited

In spite of the fact that I seem to be contributing in no substantive way to the number of awards one by the Toledo Free Press, Editor-in-Chief Michael Miller continues to accept my submissions. (We all have blind spots)

Who am I however, to question the judgment of this award winning publication by second guessing their use of "Sequestered, Shutdown, and Debt Limited" this week; while we gear up for the next national financial battle over the Debt Limit even before the previous one over the Shutdown is over.

The truth however is that this is the endless drama in Washington DC has become a dysfunctional reality show, and there's no understanding any of it.  There's no watching any of it either; as their lack of plot, poor dialogue, and even worse acting make "Here Comes Honey Boo Boo" a welcome relief.  (Man, I really hate Reality Shows.)

Speaking of welcome relief, it's early enough in the week that you have both the mid-week "Star" edition to look forward to, as well the newspaper that not only continues to be the largest circulation Sunday newspaper, but for the fifth year in a row has one the Best Weekly Newspaper in the State of Ohio (at least according the the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists).  I speaking of course, of none other than the Toledo Free Press.


 

Monumental Stupidity

It would be impossible to believe that those of you reading this could have so isolated yourself as to be unaware that the federal government is currently experiencing a 'shutdown'. Many may not know from the coverage however that the 'limited essential personnel' that remain on the job constitute some seventy-five percent of those employed by the nation's largest employer. It should be additionally noted of the remaining twenty-five percent of federal employees sent home, all have had their pay deferred through such shutdowns and later recompensed.

A degree of hardship still remains for many federal employees across the country who are living paycheck to paycheck or from federal contractors. In most cases however, these hardships are only temporary and those experiencing them will be made whole in the end.

Strangely however, those who appear to suffer the most under these politically-engineered battles, whether they be a shutdown or sequester, appear to be simple citizens, and not employees of the Feds. This materializes itself especially in the case of those choosing to take advantage of our national parks or monuments.

We've all heard the past stories about the cancellation of White House Tours for schoolchildren, tourist trips ruined by locked museums, and vacationing families barred from national parks. This week however, the impregnable barrier was in Washington DC, and was faced by war veterans that were barred from monuments in the nation's capital that celebrated their exploits.

In one of the most monumental cases of poor public relations (pun intended), a group veterans from Mississippi Gulf Coast Honor Flight were barred from crossing barricades set up around the World War II Memorial yesterday. This group of intrepid warriors however, who had faced far fiercer fortifications during their time in uniform, stormed these sorry ramparts and soon celebrated a well-deserved victory within the confines of a space dedicated to their own previous efforts and the memories of their brothers-in-arms.

For those who've never heard of this worthy organization before, Honor Flight is a group of non-profit organizations around the country that arranges trips for veterans to be transported to Washington in order to experience the memorials created to celebrate their service to the nation. Along with the chaperons (who pay for their own trip costs in order to volunteer their service), Honor flight otherwise picks up all of the costs involved for the veterans on what is normally a day-trip for this purpose.

Poorly executed political brinksmanship led representatives of the two major political parties to attempt to lay blame for this sorry example of strategy on each other. Those serving in well paying jobs as elected officials attempted to deny access to those whose service to the nation was far greater; for no better reason than simple political advantage. Such blatant failure to perform their duty only added insult to injury by denying access to those whose service to the nation was performed honorably, was committed for no better reason than trying to win an election 13 months away. The current Commander-in-Chief's sorry approval ratings could do nothing to turn the tide in the propaganda battle, since they could only be celebrated in comparison to even worse numbers for both parties in the national legislature.

Wednesday yet another Honor Flight disembarked in DC, this one filled with those from the Kansas and Missouri areas. Surprisingly, instead of being met with the breached barriers of yesterday's successful assault, these troops were greeted instead with open gates as the conquering heroes that they deserved. Many of those whose misdeeds had caused this situation by surrendering their responsibilities for the last year now performed a complete about face in the last 24 hours. In a show of political expediency that they seemed incapable of achieving only days before within the legislature, some now desperately attempted to regain the political high ground through a public reversal of tactics. The performance of such a tawdry displays of strategic showmanship however, only showed many of them as unworthy to polish the boots that these former warriors once wore.  (Even the French were ashamed.)

Next week the group visiting is instead expected to be from Northwest Ohio. That Honor Flight Group is currently assessing the strategic objective and the timing of their own assault, since according to the National Park Service “any attempt to access them will result in being arrested for trespassing”, except for Arlington National Cemetery. Assuming that one side or the other has still not shown either the tactical ability or the moral courage to end this conflict honorably; I'm afraid that Congress's continued pattern of petty politics and false appeasement will do little but illustrate their monumental stupidity.

Update:
This effort was later picked up and reprinted by the: 

 

Silly Bits VI

The Government appears to be about ready to shut down today.  Since this is one of the silliest things that the government does (a statement which goes much further than I'm sure the two major parties would be willing to concede), what better time to talk about some of the Silly Bits involved where this particular shutdown is concerned.

Shutdown, Schmutdown ... big deal.  After all, we've shut down the government some 17 times in recent history, and for all the common sense that seems to make, the damn thing keeps coming back to life like the evil lead in a Zombie Apocalypse movie.  Besides, all the really cool stuff in Washington DC like White House tours, the parks, and the museums were shut down already because of last year's Sequester. (Or so they've told us.)  

I for one am suspicious about these so-called shutdowns.  They tell us that this one will not threaten the checks of soldiers or the elderly on Social Security, but could eventually threaten the processing of claims for both; all so they can keep the special subsidies for a medical plan for members of Congress and theirs staffs who are making far more than the average citizen.  We'll no doubt keep writing checks for foreign aid (a post in itself that will have to wait for another day); all to keep from granting the same one year delay to individuals signing up for the ACA through legislation that were granted by Presidential fiat to employers. 

Besides, it's getting hard to worry about the bad things that will happen from this government shutdown when House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi already told us only last week that the government has cut everything it can already and can't cut more.  If that's the case, for all we know we might have been shut down already.   

Democrats want to blame Republicans for this potential shutdown, since it was their idea to shut down the government the last time in 1995.  Republicans in turn would like to blame Democrats, since it's Harry Reid and his party in the Senate that seem to have become the party of 'NO' lately in their refusal to compromise (or in many cases, even vote). A pox on both their Houses!

The truth is that Government is on the verge of shutting down because both parties are too busy posturing for position for an election that's 13 months away to have done their job for the previous 12 months.  Both parties require some media face time, good sound bites, and a jumping off point for fund raising.  So instead of doing one of the few things that they are obligated to do under the Constitution to perform, they ignore their fiscal responsibilities (and common sense) and square off on partisan lines at the last minute in such a way that any decision made must be ill-considered at best and a knee-jerk reaction at worst.

I've got an idea!  How about instead of passing a Continuing Resolution, we have them instead pass a law to hold a special election this November for ALL of those currently in office in both houses (regardless of the status of their term).  How about we make a 'very special' election' and not allow incumbents to run in it?  If your party gamesmanship is so important to that you continuously place it above your oath of office, take the bullet for it and go find another place to work.  If you're unable to perform the simplest requirements of the job you have, step a aside and allow us to find someone who will.

According to Democrats and some in the media, Republicans in the both houses of the national legislature should stop messing with Obamacare (The Affordable Health Care Act) because its law.  What a preposterous notion!

It's the job of members of the Congress to challenge laws when and if necessary, and to fix those that need it even after they're passed.  They've been doing this since the inception of this branch of government and as a result, we've seen things as foolish as the 'Jim Crow' laws of this nation redressed.

Of course, still waiting in the wings is the Debt Ceiling and yet another possible stand off .  You remember the Debt Ceiling; it's the limit of the government's ability to borrow money.  Now however, the President is out there on the stump telling us that the nation's debt is going down faster than it has in years.  Am I the only one that sees the logical inconsistency in this?  

If the debt is going down, why have we once again run out of money to borrow?  How is it that what we were told were the 'draconian cuts' of the 2012 Sequester have not prevented this from happening as threatened (promised)?  If we are so quickly again reaching the national credit limit however, shouldn't we be doing even more to bring in line the government's spending with it's revenues (like delaying a very expensive new government program like Obamacare)?

By the way, where does the $85 billion of government debt that the Federal Reserve purchases in bonds every month figure into this concept?  Call it Quantitative Easing or just the monthly bond auction, this government escapade doesn't even show up on the balance sheet.  Likewise, no elected official has to approve it, since this is the Fed's money and not really the government. (Like there's a difference?) This ruinous fiscal policy already has already led to devaluation of the currency and will eventually lead to some fairly massive inflation.  Such devaluation may some good for some in the stock market and those looking at the national debt we're worried about, but it won't do much good for anyone who earns and purchases in US dollars.

During the 2012 election, Presidential candidate Ron Paul held up a silver dime when talking about the current price of gasoline.  He reminded the nation that because of the changing worth of the currency in 'real goods', the value of the metal in what was a ten cent coin when minted was still enough to buy a gallon of gas, even at today's prices.  

As to the idea of a federal government shutdown itself, it should probably be pointed out that the real problem may not be whether it should happen or not; but this:

How did we let this government become "too big to fail" in the first place and allow the potential of its temporary shutdown to matter.   

The federal government long ago exceeded the limitations placed on it in the the Constitution.  This rampant overreach is as much responsible for the potential train wreck than anything else we're facing today.  Perhaps if so much money and power were not relegated to this bug-infested swamp on the Potomac River, we'd be cheering rather than fearing its potential of its temporary demise.  
 

TFP Column: Political Tactical Victims

Congress has returned from its summer vacation, is back in session, and is up to it usual level of shenanigans.  It's hard to tell however, which (if any of them) is taking a principled stand and which are merely trying to position themselves for future political office or suck up to those in power in their respective political party to retain their committee appointments and campaign financing.

For that reason alone, I felt obligated to write about how most of how the rest of us are used as little more than political cannon fodder in these mostly pointless and purely political battles.  Our collateral damage status however, usually only allows us to make the grade as "Political Tactical Victims" in this current struggle.

Fortunately however, this time of year sees a great deal going on in Northwest Ohio and the Glass City, so those who want to stay in the know will spend a little time this weekend either on the website or wrapped in the pages of Toledo's largest Sunday circulation newspaper, which also happens to be Ohio's best weekly newspaper for the last five years in a row.  Of course, I'm talking about none other than the Toledo Freed Press.

 

Bitter Harvest

One of many parts of the budget process left hanging when our legislators ducked out of Washington DC for their ill-conceived summer vacation was passage of the Farm Bill.  Now traditionally, passing a Farm Bill in Congress is never a problem.  Bi-Partisan agreement for them (always a danger sign) has usually been pretty simple to achieve, since in 1973 such bills began combining some of the worst of government handouts.  For the first time however Republicans in the House violated one of those previously unwritten 'I get mine and you get yours' rules in federal budgets by attempting to separate the SNAP program (better known as Food Stamps) from the various subsidy and federally-supported crop insurance programs provided to Agribusiness.  As members traded accusations of waste, fraud, and abuse, it was often difficult to tell where the acrimonious language about corporate subsidies began and rancorous words over starving children ended.   

Now the USDA who's in charge of the money for both programs was justifiably concerned, and has been doing their damnedest to see the money for both programs substantially increase over the years (no doubt thereby increasing their own influence and  power in DC).  They've even gone to the extent of creating literature, programs, and media efforts to sign people up for SNAP (though technically, it's not legal to recruit for SNAP).  With the aid of a number of private groups in recent years (some of whom are receiving other government subsidies) they have in fact been hugely successful in increasing SNAP enrollment from 17 million in 2000 to 45 million in 2011.  The total budget outlay for the program, which once stood at a mere $18 billion in 2000; saw Congressionally approved increases (including one that was a part of the original stimulus program); that have brought it to $72 billion in 2011.  

Not to be left behind in this bi-partisan effort of grabbing what you can, one of the most effective lobbying groups in the country has similarly helped to see crop insurance for farmers, once at $1.5 billion in 2002,  grow to $7.4 billion in 2011.  Even a GOP that has supposedly been taken over by its radical right-wing seems content to leave mandated bio-fuel requirements in place; insuring not only that prices for crops used in their production will remain high, but that their production will be supported by subsidy and insurance programs.  Supposed Free Market advocates in the legislature have likewise retained the crony capitalism of restrictions on things like sugar imports to a mere 15% of the domestic market, while subsidies to sugar producers remain at over $2 billion per year (according to the CATO Institute).

I can hear the cries now however.  "Wait," the populists shout, "there's a difference.  Farmers are just regular, hard-working folks doing a difficult job in tough times.  They're not someone looking for a handout."  Really!  First, let's recognize that regardless of popular myth, we're no longer talking about the gentlemen farmer in agriculture when today 50% of food production comes from the biggest 2% of all farms in the US.  But even if we look at traditional family farms in this country, let's look at how badly those farmers have been doing financially.  Average crop production was up across the country again last year, land values have increased at a double digit rates for the third year in a row, and crop prices look to be up once again in 2013; according to the magazine "The Week".  Farmer income in this country in fact averaged $87,289 in 2011, almost 30 percent higher than that of the average US household income of the same year.       

As for 'hand outs' available for farmers, let's talk a bit about programs begun during the 'Dust Bowl' that were designed to prevent the collapse of agriculture in this country.  Instead of well-intentioned assistance, since the Agricultural Act of 1949 we now 'subsistence farmers' who largely 'subsist' on their checks from the government.  That's the same government which long since made the practice of paying farmers not to farm (a program designed to keep crop prices up) a permanent part of agriculture legislation.  

This means that in the name of caring for 'farmers', typical government program abuse has led us to a point where we send farm subsidy checks to 1,500 residents of New York City (none of whom are not making Salsa to my knowledge) for rural land they own elsewhere.  Extensive efforts by the Just Blowing Smoke Research Department were unable to confirm if any of these same people were simultaneously enrolled in SNAP, but it's possible.  Between the government imposed import controls, crop subsidies, and crop insurance, it would seem difficult if not impossible today not to profit by tilling the fields these days (or not tilling it, as the case might be).

Oh I'm sure that the budget battles will begin again when our esteemed national legislature returns to DC next month.  Congress has shown themselves all but incapable of passing the annual budgets that they're obligated to, relying instead on the magical misdirection of continuing resolutions to promote and prolong partisan bickering for political purposes.  I suspect however, that somewhere amidst the noise and distractions of raising the debt limit and passing that next continuing resolution however, a quiet compromise will be reached with regards to various parts of the Farm Bill.  The seeds of waste, abuse, and corruption were planted long ago in the fields of food production and food assistance.  They've been ably fertilized over the years by lobbyists for Agribusiness and watered by decades of elected officials running for the highest office in the land in early primary states and those who could see no further than the federal funding they could brag about bringing back to their districts.  Considering that sorry state of affairs, it's should therefore be no surprise that we have little more than a bitter harvest to look forward to where the Farm Bill is concerned.

Vacation - My Favorite Time of Year

This time of year brings back many fond memories for me.  Like many children who grew up in the Dark Ages, when video games included such exciting titles as 'Pong' and ... 'Pong', many future nerds were forced by their parents to spend some part of summer vacation time outside, unwittingly exposing their bodies to the deadly UV rays coming from the sun (as opposed to the deadly rays of energy that we were told were coming from primitive television sets at the time).  Apparently there was some addictive property to such UV exposure however, since before we knew it we were not only willing to be ripped from our pre-cable interior existence and our complacent suburban lives, but soon found ourselves actually looking forward to being deported to the even more primitive living conditions which our parents called 'Vacations'.

For my family (and a group of my cousins), these summer migrations became the annual "Great Northern Pilgrimage"  (please note that the word 'White' was not used in the title, since the Canadian border was never crossed).  Early versions of these Lewis and Clark cross country (or more accurately Ford 'Town and Country') expeditions began with simple border crossings from Illinois to Wisconsin for a return each year to nature (along with the lumberjack championships in Hayward), but eventually even the lure of day long fishing and learning to log roll began to pale as expansion of the Interstate system allowed civilization to encroach on these escapes.  Overcrowding soon caused the clan to continue north and west, moving across the Minnesota border many miles, before ending up in an area north of Brainerd called Fifty Lakes.  Here there was little exposure to newspapers, none to television, and the only real concerns were whether the fish were biting or the bear outside of the bait store might be interested in a bottle of orange pop if we made a trip to it for more worms. 

Though unfortunately those days are far behind me, this time of year remains my favorite; not because I'm on vacation, but because both Congress and the President are.  After one last gutless bit of misconduct in sparing themselves from the onerous obligations of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), The Teleprompter Kid and Gang Who Couldn't Shoot Straight (at least with the American Public) road off into the sunset for some well-deserved time off.  Interestingly enough, this summer escape for Congress dates back to the founding of this country and the fact that our nation's capital was built on a bug-infested swamp suitable for only for the habitation of blood-sucking parasites in the days before air conditioning was invented.  (A tradition which has apparently changed little over the intervening years.)  

The President is now temporarily off of his stump speech tour of promoting the recovery of the middle class by vacationing on an island where the truly rich go to escape the plebeian company of the semi-rich and upper middle class (Martha's Vineyard).  There, having traveled with his staff of cooks and servants (and a special fight for the first pet), he'll be able to rest, relax, and form a clearer understanding of the hardships of a growing class of people who remain unemployed or underemployed, while renting a multi-million house ($6.7 to be exact) from a Democratic donor and enjoying rounds of golf at private country clubs.  

Congress meanwhile, is taking a five week break from its partisan bickering to purportedly return to their constituencies and re-establish contact with the 'little people' who sent them to Washington in the first place.  (Besides, all the lobbyists on K Street left town.)  The fact that most of those that they're likely to see are at local events are those contributing to the future campaigns of these professional incumbents is probably only a coincidence (if not a political necessity).  There may be a town hall meeting or two where the unwashed can show up, but they're likely to be held in Senatorial districts not up for re-election or safe Congressional districts.

This year, a lot of people are very angry with the President and Congress for abandoning their posts, since they've done such a lousy job of doing their job that not one Appropriations Bill from the nation's annual budget has been passed a mere six weeks before the fiscal year is set come to an end.  They're concerned over the rumored political strategies from both sides of the aisle threatening to turn the process once again into a series of contentious 'Continuing Resolutions' that allow their elected representatives to write even worse legislation than usual, while ostensibly resolving their petty political squabbles.  And while this last minute annual budget mess is going on, many can't help but likewise notice that the debt ceiling again needs to be raised, and that the only thing keeping the US from defaulting on its debts are some bookkeeping tricks performed by the Treasury Department that would get you thrown into jail if you tried them.  Some might find the presence of such dual national financial crises a curious time for those in charge to leave.  Not I however ...

I find that any departure of the nation's perpetrators at any time provides some necessary time off for the rest of us (and the more often, the merrier).  Without glacially-paced Congressional hearings and discussions of speculative Congressional strategies, I sleep safe at night knowing the nightly news will be far more boring.  With the President off the stump speech circuit (at taxpayer expense) and on vacation (at taxpayer expense), even the cable news show pundits seem far less bitter in their rants.  With both parties off doing fund-raising at home instead of writing comprehensive (incomprehensible) 2,000 page legislation in DC, their miserable minions in the daily newspapers report on cheery weather trends and state fair attendance instead.  Without the constant polling data telling me that no one believes it's getting any better out there, we're allowed to complacently accept our roles as a low information voters, and the world is far more at peace.  Oh sure the problems are still there, but it's not like our elected leaders were making a real effort at resolving them before they left (rather than attempting to make political points); and at least they will be made no worse for a couple weeks while the inmates take a break from running the asylum.  We can all relax while the Harry Reids and the John McCains take time off that they don't deserve ... to give us some that we desperately do. 

No, those days of my youth are over, and it's unlikely that I will be making a 'Great North Pilgrimage' any time soon. There will be no fishing involved for me this year, and bringing that bear a Nehi or Orange Crush these days (if he's even still alive) is far more likely to get me a nasty phone call from New York Mayor Bloomberg (if not a visit from the ASPCA).  But that's Okay with me; for even in these changing times, vacation is still my favorite time of year.

Talk Is Cheap

Congress is talking about reducing the funding to the budget of the Internal Revenue Service.  They're also talking about continuing the investigative hearings into their spending practices and their method of granting (or lack thereof) 501C3 tax exemptions on a fair and impartial basis.  As you would expect however, our weak-willed, self-absorbed elected representatives are actually doing little more than talking where the tax cops are concerned.

Now I don't suppose that you can blame them for attempting to get a good soundbite, the IRS is a rather easy target of opportunity under the best of circumstances and the 2014 mid-term election is already in full swing.  Besides, nobody like taxes, so why should anybody like the people who collect them.  Even if they did like the people who collected taxes (there's no accounting for taste after all, I hear there are some people who even like White Sox fans), they might have earned your ire through through their rather un-American procedural philosophy that taxpayers are guilty unless and until they can prove themselves innocent.  If you hadn't already experienced this particularly egregious perversion of American jurisprudence, you might them find them worse than the run-of-the-mill government weasels for recent revelations of their wasteful spending at internal 'training sessions'.  (After all, there's nothing like a government agency committing sins that it wouldn't let you get away with to infuriate you.)  If you could get past their waste and abuse, you might dislike them instead for attacking Conservative groups attempting to get tax-exempt status.  If you didn't care whether they attacked Conservative groups or not, you might still want to work up a little preemptive antagonism as this government agency gets a boost in size and authority in order to take on its new role in the increasingly onerous Affordable Health Care Act.  (Maybe we can all be considered dead until able to prove that we're worth keeping alive.)

Certainly if you are a member of the majority in a Republican-controlled House of Representatives, there are more than enough reasons in the above list for you to want to take a very public (and politically motivated) shot at this particular example of a bureaucratic nightmare when the other party controls the Senate and sits in the White House; especially at a time when it's particularly vulnerable (like when its popularity is one of the few things lower than your own).

Of course while your attacks are vitriolic, vocal and very public (a 'V is for Vendetta' moment), none of them are anything more than symbolic.  You say you want to very publicly cut this agency's budget, but not its power or  responsibilities; and for no better reason than recent revelations make you mad ... but you still have to find a way to collect taxes.  On the other hand, you refuse to punish yourself for creating the monstrosity of a tax code that requires this tainted bureaucracy of this scope and scale in the first place.  You refuse to admit that you've created a nightmare of a Biblical proportions that even the agency in charge of it doesn't understand, that you've spent decades filling it with special interest regulations that serve no one but the lobbyists that have cow-towed to you for decades, and that most much of it purposely (or out of plain dumb luck) a morass of self-contradictory bullshit that means whatever the government chooses it to mean.  You could certainly pull the teeth (and the budget) of the IRS all but entirely by going to a flat or fair tax, but of course that would mean admitting your previous errors of omission and commission; not to mention alienating constituency groups of Certified Public Accountants, software companies, tax preparers, and of course unionized federal employees at the IRS, all of whom contribute to political campaigns.

You're perfectly willing to stand on the floor in Congress with a microphone in your hand and call for punishment of IRS employees who are doing little more than emulating in their own bureaucratic abuses what they see in legislative branches that created them (at least, as long as the cameras are rolling).  In fact, in your ginned up indignation, you insist upon it.  If Legislators are upset with conference hotel rates however... where do they stand on those for members and their staffs while on Congressional junkets?  Are they unhappy with the travel budgets to get these bureaucratic drones to places where they can be educated in the latest special interest rule changes that Congress created ... perhaps we can deduct them from the the cost of flying members of Congress and their six-figure assistants on military aircraft to places around the world.  Are you one of those legislators now weary from standing on principle against the targeting of certain groups attempting to get 'tax-free status', ... perhaps it never occurred to you to solve the problem by doing away with the concept of tax-free politics in the first place.  Perhaps both parties should be reminded that its taxpayers pick up the tabs for primary elections used for no other purpose than as beauty contests for members of two rather exclusive political clubs in the first place.

Quite frankly, you in Congress can stick your phoney-baloney righteous indignation in the same dark hole where you've buried any attempts to make the tax code easy enough for anyone without a degree in economics to understand.  While you're at it, save your camera posing for the mug shots that deserve to be the only photo ops you deserve.  Why even when you've finally gained enough national animus to launch a truly bi-partisan effort to once and for all clean up the broken system that you created; you waste it by spending your time ignoring your own culpability and using the opportunity instead for the purposes of political grandstanding.  

Sorry people, but where this situation is concerned, the emperor has not a stitch of clothing on and it's about time somebody mentioned it.  The the sum total of current Congressional outrage amounts to little more than a stinking pile of natural fertilizer that doesn't even deserve a farm bill subsidy (and that's going some).  If you want to pull the teeth, reduce the budget, and fix the IRS once and for all, by all means go ahead; but do it by fixing the mess you made of the tax code in the first place.  Everything else is talk, and talk is cheap ....