Tag Archives: conservative

As thousands of foreign nationals were stranded in Libya, anxious governments mobilized their resources to effect the evacuation of their citizens. Some nations sent military or commercial aircraft. The Chinese diverted a warship that was patrolling the sea lanes near the pirate-laden seas off Somalia, half a world away, to evacuate Chinese nationals. That is a display of power projection.

The United States took a different approach: we hired a ferry boat. It carried about 200 people to a modicum of safety after waiting out bad weather in the harbor. What would have happened, I wonder, if Colonel Khadafy decided to block our efforts to extract our citizens? We might have had, and still might have, a hostage situation to rival the Iran crisis that brought down President Carter’s presidency in 1980.

And so I ask, “Where is the 6th Fleet?” Where are the carriers? They are so vital to US power projection that President Bill Clinton was famously quoted in a 1993 speech aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt, “When word of a crisis breaks out in Washington, it’s no accident that the first question that comes to everyone’s lips is: Where’s the nearest carrier?”

An aircraft carrier is 4 ½ acres and 90,000 tons of sovereign US territory that projects power in the face of despotic regimes like no other instrument of foreign policy can.

So how did it come to pass that the best the US Navy had to offer in the Mediterranean these past weeks was a lonely destroyer?

The short answer is that the only US carrier in the Med departed through the Suez Canal to the North Arabian Sea to join two others already there. Three carriers were needed, I suppose, in the North Arabian Sea to prosecute the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. I am certain that one of the carriers needed to be relieved to head home after a long deployment.

And that is just the point: long deployments, quick turnarounds and a smaller fleet add up to one thing: in the face of astronomical defense budgets, the US Navy is stretched entirely too thin and its’ numbers are in decline. We have 11 carriers today but at any one time, perhaps only 4 are operationally ready and underway. Three are in overhaul; four are just back from a long deployment or getting ready for one. Right now, three of those four are tied to the Persian Gulf, leaving the rest of the globe far too vulnerable.

The United States is an island nation. Some 90% of commerce sails along the ocean: everything from Nike sneakers to Saudi Arabian crude comes by sea. The world grows more fragile and our fleet is in decline. Our fleet is as small as it has been in 100 years. As recently as a decade ago, on any given day, 60 ships of the line were underway, patrolling our own waters or defending the sea lanes against tyranny. Today, that number is merely 20.

Who would think that our world is less complicated than a decade ago? The US Navy can project power to 2/3rds of the world’s population. The Air Force, with its sophisticated stealth aircraft, is confined to bases mainly in the continental US, far from the stress points in the Mediterranean and the Gulf and the Pacific.

The era of Pax Americana is only defensible with a strong and capable Navy. We face peril on the seas. Our fleet will grant to us the privilege of taking the fight to the enemy where they live only so long as they can get and remain underway.

In Memory of Donna Kane

It seems that each week we start by saying, “Wow, what a week,” and this week is no exception. The world still spins on its axis but it does feel as if it is wobbling.

Geo-politics and Geo-economics are clashing with an intensity that I cannot recall in recent history. All across the Arab world and into the heartland of America itself anger ferments. For the first time, the term regime change seems to apply equally to despotic governments in the Middle East as it does to our own State governments in Wisconsin and Virginia. It is Facebook versus dictator; union versus governor.

On Monday Colonel Gaddafi fled Tripoli and is desperately hoping to hold on to the eastern part of his country and wage a war with his own people to hang onto the power he has had for 42 years. Hundreds of Libyans have been killed by his own troops with no end in sight. Foreign nationals are evacuated by civil and military air and naval forces while our American citizens wait patiently for a ferry to dock. And President Obama dances to Motown in the White House; a far different response than that of President Reagan and the Gulf of Sidra incident in 1981.

Tuesday saw oil increase 8 ½ percent in one day on the fear of oil interruption through Libya. And in Wisconsin, Tea Party and Union forces went chin to chin at the Statehouse while Democratic Party lawmakers remained outside of the State in order to avoid voting on limiting the collective bargaining power of public sector unions.

Four American Christian missionaries were killed by Somali pirates while negotiations for their release were being conducted on a nearby naval vessel.

U.S. Rep. David Wu (D-OR) apologized to his staff for his erratic behavior while wearing a tiger costume and taking prescription drugs given to him from a campaign contributor. Wu said on ABC’s “Good Morning America” that it was “unprofessional and inappropriate” for him to send pictures of himself wearing a tiger costume to staff members. I finally agree with a Democrat.

Oil hit $100 on Wednesday as speculators feared the worst in the Middle East, and why not? And our own Congressman Michael Capuano let loose with a remarkably insensitive and politically incorrect statement that the unions ought to get into the street and get bloody. This comment made just weeks after his own colleague Gabby Gifford was shot by a maniac in Tucson.

Citigroup economists reported on Friday that the US economy would fall behind China by the end of the decade and behind India by 2050. They identified Global Growth Indicators to watch for and noted countries such as Bangladesh, Egypt and Iraq as economies to watch. The United States was not among them.

And Newt Gingrich cautioned the President that even Barack Obama cannot suspend the Constitution and become a one-man Supreme Count as he decided not to challenge the Defense of Marriage Act, signed into law by President Clinton in 1996. He simply will ignore it. No, Mr. President, we have a procedure for that. It’s called the Judicial System, the third branch of government.

The world is on fire and the President dances to Motown. I heard that through the grapevine.

Press on.

There is no doubt about the fact that the economy is the number one issue facing the nation at this moment and what drives our economic condition today is the fate of the Federal Budget.

The numbers are staggering. So staggering, in fact, that I believe the average person can’t even comprehend their magnitude. So, I am not going to talk in terms of annual expenditures, but monthly expenditures: annual numbers divided by 12.

And I will even be generous. The annual President’s Budget is $3.8 trillion dollars. Divided by 12, that is roughly $300 billion dollars per month. By the way, that is 10 billion dollars per day. You may argue whether we spend all of that wisely. For the record, we do not. We borrow a lot of money, too. Every month, it amounts to $120 billion. That’s almost a half a billion dollars per day.

Is it still too much to comprehend? Say you get paid, as I do every 2 weeks. Let’s say you spend $3000 each pay period. That’s a nice $78 grand per year. Here’s where it gets funky. Following the Federal model, you would only be earning about $47 grand per year. You would be borrowing the difference, some $2400 each month. That’s about $80 per day. Every day. And every month it keeps rolling.

But you make some assumptions that make you feel better. You’ll work harder. Your boss will recognize you. You’ll get a big fat raise of $10 per hour (up from about $6). You’ll inherit something big. You’ll hit the lottery. It’s no use.

As the saying goes, you can’t dig yourself out of a hole. You have to stop digging. You have to start changing behaviors.

As recently as 2008, our Federal budget was $2.9 trillion per year. Sorry, about $242 million per month. That’s 24% less than today’s budget. Now, ask yourself, “Am I earning 24% more today than three years ago?” In the words of John Boehner, “Hell no.” So why are we spending so much?

We continue to spend because we cannot say, “no.” Seemingly innocuous programs grow in size over time. No programs are sunsetted; none are eliminated. Our government pensions are defined benefits instead of defined contributions. Our fiscal house is in desperate shape and no one wants to give back anything. That goes for corporations to unions and homeowners and welfare recipients. But something has got to give.

With the sound turned down on my hotel TV this week, I watched unruly crowds gathering. I thought it was Egypt or Libya or Bahrain. Instead, it was Madison, Wisconsin! Schools closed, public buildings crowded with protesters, legislators on the run. And over what calamitous act were they demonstrating? Establishing contributions to their healthcare and pensions. The private sector averages a 20% healthcare contribution and about an 8% retirement contribution. The Wisconsin government unions contribute zero towards either.

No one is looking to balance the budget on the backs of public unions but it must start somewhere. We are not immune in Massachusetts. To fully fund our pension liability would require almost 3 annual budgets. That’s 100% of three annual budgets. That’s the hole we have dug for ourselves on Beacon Hill. It is worse for many other States and our appetite at the Federal level is just as voracious.

We are fortunate that the conservative movement has taken control of the House of Representatives. The power of the purse resides there. We have seen some tentative steps emanating from the House on fiscal leadership. We need to see more and we need to support them in their efforts.

I used to say that this is about our children’s future and that is still true. What is becoming very clear now is that our immediate future is at stake. Time is short for all of us.

Cairo, Tripoli, Manama. Now Madison. Protest is coming soon to a city near you.

The gravy train has left the station. Press on.