I like this guy. Contrary to the current occupant of The White House, Herman Cain has a clue about free market capitalism, knows what it takes to create jobs, has created jobs, has executive experience in running big operations and in improving them, and is proud of America and American exceptionalism. What’s not to like?
Tag Archives: Politics
Patriot Act Gets Four More Years
Extending the Patriot Act! Here Here Mr. President.
Holy Cow. A trifecta. Good move in the House, Senate, and President Obama.
Miami-Dade Mayoral Race Goes To Runoff
The Miami-Dade mayoral election goes to a runoff election June 28, 2011. The special election was needed to replace ousted mayor Alvarez who was successfully recalled.
Unfortunately, my candidate (if I lived down there) Farid Khavari didn’t make the top two. They are former Hialeah Mayor Julio Robaina and former County Commissioner Carlos Gimenez.
The special election being what it was, with one month to campaign and now one more month to campaign again for a runoff, the paper summed up the special election experience this way . . .
The field included a host of political novices who shared a mutual frustration with county government. But immediate name recognition or political experience, along with a knack for quickly raising money, proved to be prerequisites in a race that provided so little time for newcomers to connect with voters.
FairTax, Something For Everyone
As the current debate over fiscal reform suggests, very few proposals for fundamental changes in tax policy have the potential to command support across the ideological spectrum. The “FairTax” is the great exception. Correctly understood, the Fair Tax Act (HR 25, S13 with 67 cosponsors), which would replace almost all federal taxes with a direct tax on consumption, should appeal to conservatives, progressives, and libertarians alike.
Miami-Dade County Mayoral Special Election
Dr. Farid Khavari, former Independent candidate for Florida governor, is taking his economic plan to the county level. It will benefit a county, especially Miami-Dade county, in the same way it will benefit the state if it was adopted statewide.
The voters in Miami-Dade county are lucky to have Khavari, the man with the economic plan, that can help cut costs for government and the citizens.
Early voting kicks off in the special election to pick a new Miami-Dade County mayor. Voters can start casting their ballots Monday. The election is scheduled for Tuesday, May 24.
Miami-Dade Gets a Chance to Be The Strongest Economy in The Country!
By John Bengston
The United States is deep down in a recession, bordering on a depression, Florida is one of the states being hit hardest and Miami Dade is the hardest hit county in Florida. Needless to say, the folks of Miami Dade are having a tough time.
Recently, voters in the county recalled their mayor after he had increased their property taxes and gave 75% to his upper staff as raises. The big question is now what?
One candidate has stepped forward and said that because of his background in economics he can make this county the prosperous economic beacon for the rest of the country to follow.
It turns out that he is not crazy, but in fact has a multiplex economic recovery plan to accomplish this task of miracle proportion and as sweet icing on the cake, he says he will also eliminate property taxes.
I must say I was very intrigued, as I am sure you are too. I will attempt to simplify and share the highlights of this plan in a small amount of space.
One major theme is to reduce costs, which makes sense, but it turns out he was referring to the cost of most everything and doing so without reducing profits. By looking into the make up of pricing for a product or service, the outgoing expenses of a household, the leading recurring costs that can be reduced are Property Taxes, Financial Interest and Energy. Dr. Khavari refers to these as PIE costs. (Property taxes, Interest and Energy.)
When you purchase a product or service PIE costs have been added to the price at every stage. Reduce or remove these costs from products & services and the cost of living is reduced. It is simple logic so far.
Whether you are paying on a home or paying rent, these PIE costs are a large portion on your outgoing expenses.
To accomplish this on a large scale such as a county of 2.4 million people, we must have a financing apparatus setup such as a publicly-owned county bank to be the financial engine. This is a closed loop banking system where the profits are re-circulated within the community and belong to the residents of the county.
Credit would be readily available for mortgages at 2%, cars at 3% and Energy conversion loans at 2%. It is obvious that money would be saved on interest payments.
Next the energy conversion loans allow equipment such as solar and wind to be installed on homes and businesses, whereas the payment would be less than the current energy costs and in a few years the equipment will be paid for and energy will be free. The same will apply to government buildings, transportation, hospitals etc….
The manufacturing, sales, installations and servicing of these systems will create jobs in every trade and profession.
And finally a portion of the profits will replace property taxes as the funding for local government.
Extra bonuses include the residents being untied from future increased energy costs, future increases in property taxes, dependence on foreign oil, environmentally cleaner, remove the risk of man made or natural disasters from such as BP in the Gulf or Nuclear plants in Japan or from having a whole city without power for an extended amount of time.
And of course over 150,000 new good paying private sector jobs that allow commerce, which creates more jobs etc…
There are many more initiatives to Dr Khavari’s plan and they are based on similar prosperity promoting concepts. This article brings you to the water’s edge, but for a big gulp of what could be the new beginning – visit www.KhavariForMayor.com.
Farid Khavari, Ph.D., is an economist who has written nine books and numerous articles dealing with economics, environment, crude oil, energy, raw materials, banking and financial issues, healthcare, outsourcing, insourcing, cost and social cost. Dr. Khavari is a candidate for Miami-Dade County Mayor.
Muslim Mobs Burn Churches
Something strange happened to that whole democracy movement in Egypt.
Muslim mobs set two Cairo churches on fire overnight during sectarian clashes that left 12 dead and more than 200 injured. The deepening religious violence in military-ruled Egypt exacerbated an already chaotic and lawless transition to democracy.
Things sure are better now that Mubarak is out. And we can credit President Obama for that. What?
These church burnings were triggered by rumors of an interfaith couple. She’s Muslim, he’s not Muslim. He’s Christian.
Link: Church burning deepens tumult of Egypt transition | Islamic Mob Burns Down Church in Egypt
bin Laden’s Parting Shot
UPDATE 5/7/2011: Here is a picture of Usama bin Laden at room temperature.
Despite President Obama’s political calculations, pictures of the dead bin Laden are starting to come out. To think that releasing the culmination of this part of the war would stir up more enemies is ridiculous. They already are our enemy because we are theirs. Not showing them will not change that nor will it change their desire to kill us all anyway.
And this, from the same guy that demanded the release of the Abu Ghraib prisoner pics. Let’s see them all Mr. President. Let our people and our enemy know what happens when the U.S. gets attacked.
After all, what is a pictorial of the bin Laden years without his parting shot?
Oh that’s right. The picture has not been released. Yet! That won’t happen until White House Press Secretary Jay Carney tells us just how transparent an administration they are. And the longer we wait, the weaker we look. In so many ways.
bin Laden Dead, Bush’s Fault?
It was president Obama’s scant reference giving credit to the CIA, Navy Seals, and other agencies that did the heavy work in closing this chapter in the War on Terror that I was compelled to give the proper credit due to them. Just filling the void left by the Commander In Chief. In his “I” “we” and “my” speech yesterday from The White House, this only mention is totally inadequate.
We give thanks for the men who carried out this operation, for they exemplify the professionalism, patriotism, and unparalleled courage of those who serve our country. And they are part of a generation that has borne the heaviest share of the burden since that September day.
I also thought it odd that the previous administration was given no credit. Obama said this . . .
Over the last 10 years, thanks to the tireless and heroic work of our military and our counterterrorism professionals, we’ve made great strides in that effort. We’ve disrupted terrorist attacks and strengthened our homeland defense. In Afghanistan, we removed the Taliban government, which had given bin Laden and al Qaeda safe haven and support. And around the globe, we worked with our friends and allies to capture or kill scores of al Qaeda terrorists, including several who were a part of the 9/11 plot.+
It’s funny that President Obama missed a golden opportunity to once again blame Bush and Cheney for making it all possible. Obama gets the credit for not scrapping the plan and for supporting all the war protocols that were set-up and approved during the Bush administration including, harsh interrogation, using Gitmo, and using rendition. All of which played a role in killing Usama bin Laden. Obama gets a big Atta-Boy for that.
But that he ignored the role of his predecessor shows how “no-class” he still is.
Can’t Spend Our Way Out, Not Like This
As luck would have it (what?), with the vote coming up whether or not to extend the debt ceiling again, a friend of mine asked me the following.
How about nursing the economy along with government programs for a while longer to get the economy up and running stronger, then phasing out some government activities?
The first thing that caused me to catch my breath was the thought that a government spending program would only last for a while. We would be in a lot better fiscal shape had we not been subject to politicians that want to take care of us in any way they can, tacking on one bureaucracy over another for vote keeping (and human wasting) legislation that we can no longer afford. Then there was the thought of phasing out some government activities. Sorry but I don’t recall that ever happening. And our debt is so bad it is going to take more than some activities. I’m talking cabinet positions and the bureaucracy and price tag, both tangible and intangible, that goes with them. If the President were to ask me, I’d say the party is over.
But to my friend, I said the kind of nursing the government is doing to the economy is like throwing an anchor to a swimmer. The kind of nursing that we need is something that makes it easier for the private sector to do business. Stop interfering with the markets as though they can be controlled without killing them. To see how well markets respond to political machinations, check out the empty shelves in the super markets in Venezuela. The ‘stimulus’ programs, aside from adding trillions of dollars to our debt, did not really stimulate private sector businesses or jobs. IMHO, they were not meant to do that. Because what they did was to enlarge the government by increasing government jobs, and create a security blanket for labor unions.
The way out of this mess starts with going back to pre-stimulus levels of spending. Pick any year before 2009 and make that the baseline. Obama wants us to accept the current baseline to include all his stimulus spending. No way Jose.
Remember how great things were under the Clinton administration? We all managed to survive those years. And Bill had some fun in the oval office too. This debt is an anchor around not only us, but our grandchildren. It requires drastic measures. Let’s go back to 1995 levels. Let’s replace Obamacare with a private sector solution, like H.R. 3400 in the last (111th) congress. Let’s repeal Bush’s unsustainable prescription drug program, or replace it with something we can afford. Means testing for all such programs.
Got to do tax reform too. We don’t have this debt because we didn’t tax enough. We have this debt because we’re spending more than we’re taking in. Trillions more. The only tax proposal out there that acts to stimulate economic activity and fund the government is the FairTax. Do that. It is the kind of bold change that we need at this time. Well, other than voting the big spenders and statists out of office.
In short, any part of the above will remove the FUD factor, and people will be able to take risks again, create jobs, prosper, and we will start growing ourself out of debt.
Sen. Sherrod Brown, Govern By Ideology
This is rich. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) objects to Republicans wanting to link increasing the debt limit with a Balanced Budget Amendment. Says they are trying to “govern by ideology.”
OK, if not spending more than you have is an ideology, then it is the right one. I call that common sense. What is unusual is for a Democrat to intimate that spending more than you have is an ideology.
Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) recently made national headlines when he compared those of us who oppose unchecked union power to Adolph Hitler and Joseph Stalin.
Now, Sherrod Brown is attacking those of us who oppose raising the debt limit without passage of the Balanced Budget Amendment. He said we “want to govern by ideology.”