Budget deficit reduction

Obama has said that he will propose a spending freeze of 447 billion dollars over the next 3 years in his State of the Union. This only includes domestic programs and leaves out the biggest expenditure in the budget, the Department of Defense.
This, in a time of deep recession is not only reckless but also ill advised. Not only will it not reduce the budget deficit but it will aggravate the recession.
Obama’s team should read some history. When Frank D. Roosevelt succumbed to the pressure of reducing the deficit in the thirties he then admitted years later that he made a mistake by extending the depression.
I understand those who say that we need to attack deficits, but by the same token that raising taxes is not a good idea during recessions, trying to reduce deficits during deep recessions, is reckless.
To make matters worse when they talk about cutting or eliminating programs the same sectors of the population, the needy, are the first ones to get hit.
Many people say that Hitler should have read history before invading Russia (the Soviet Union at the time), as he would avoided some common mistakes that Napoleon had made 100 years before during his unsuccessful invasion of Russia.
Here we are facing the same problem.
If he wants to reduce the high unemployment that is at the core of the discussion right now, deficit reduction is not going to take care of it.
It is unfortunate that the Obama administration is more concerned with damage control because of the loose in Massachusetts than what it is about setting policies that will revive the economy. The president seems to have lost his footing, and by doing that he has also lost the energy that he had during the campaign, and is loosing his base.
If he thinks that he will please any conservatives with this measure he is mistaken. Some members of the house have started mocking the cut as “going on a diet after winning a pie-eating contest”. The country is too polarized, and the opposition is only focused on obstructing any proposal that he brings to Capitol Hill, so that they have a platform to run next November.
There are other measures to reduce unemployment, but due to lack of activity and investment of the private sector it will take a substantial amount of time to get out of the hole that we are in.

An unfortunate decision of the supreme court

When I first came to the United States I felt that the country was in decline, such as any other empire in history, and that my kids or grandchildren would be the ones witnessing the end of it, but as I was telling a conservative friend recently, we are living the end of the empire, pretty much in every aspect that we can think of, education, social, infrastructure. Today this supreme court, and it is no mistake that I have not written it in capital letters, the same that gave us president George W. Bush, arguably the worst president in the history of this country, legislated from the bench, and allowed, what I think may end up being, the last nail in the coffin, the icing on the cake, and that is to allow corporations and unions to donate unlimited political funds.
Where are the people that have always said “I do not want justices who will legislate from the bench”.
First let us analize this idea that corporations and unions are in the same plain field. That is like saying that parents and children are in a same plain field. Whoever thinks that is the case is lives in a different world.
Corporations can outfund unions many times.
Corporations through their chosen ones will have the opportunity to outlaw the first amendment, unions, and everything else that is in their way.
We have seen in just the healthcare process what corporations, before the decision of today, are able to do with unlimited funds to defeat a possible law that could mildly reduce their huge profits.
Some people out there would say that “this is democracy at its best”.
With corporations running the house there will be no democracy, it will the government of the people, for the corporations and by the corporations.
God help the United States and what the future may bring with this decision.

The Massachusetts election

As the Democrats lost a Senate Seat that had been in the hands of Edward Kennedy for almost fifty years many things will be on the line, the biggest one health care reform.
As it was, the Senate seat was a water down version of the House bill, which, in my opinion, is not going to do the trick containing costs, and extending coverage to every citizen. That is what the Europeans and Canadians have done, and it works. If it wouldn’t, like Republicans say it doesn’t, they would have reformed it by now.
After almost 25 years in this country I am still in amazement how people in this country vote against their own interests.
They think that by sending a member of the opposition they are punishing the present administration. In reality they are only punishing themselves, because if health care is not reformed, which is what these voters are implying with their votes, they will pay the consequences sooner or later, in fairness sooner rather later, with higher costs and less coverage.
But it is easy to blame the voters for their choice, but this seat was not in a Conservative state within the bible belt of the country.
It was in, what is possibly, the most liberal state in the Union, Massachusetts.
And we can blame candidate Coakley for what seems to have been a poorly run campaign, but at the end of the day, it is the Party who was at fault.
Just like Rush Limbaugh says that the way that conservatives will win is by moving to the right, unless the Democratic party moves to the left, with conviction, and not by putting their toes in the water to test the temperature of the country, they will lose badly in November. For starters they should remove Senator Lieberman from his chairmanship of the Homeland Security Committee, and push Senator Nelson to run as either as an Independent or as a Republican. He does not hold any Democratic values. And even if that means having less members in the Senate it will define the Party. Right now it wants to please everybody, which is impossible.
Somebody said many years that you cannot server two masters.

Obama's First Year as President

As we celebrate Obama’s first year as president I have mixed feelings regarding his administration. On a one hand I am glad that we are no longer under the Bush-Cheney mismanagement in every respect, financial, diplomatic. On the other hand there are major disappointments regarding Obama, starting with some of his choices such as Summer and Geitner. These are people who were in part involved with the debacle that we are still living with, and that we will pay financially for years to come. What makes matters worse is that we have thrown money to big banks that we didn’t have and that, in retrospect, we should have never done. Those banks turned around and used the money to give themselves big bonuses, and lobby Congress to block any major reform. Main Street America has been hurting in part because these institutions have been reluctant to lend to businesses and to borrowers who wanted to take advantage of the cheep and abundant housing market. Of course there are still people out there who still believe that the housing market has touched bottom and turned around, and others who say that values still need to go further down. To both I say the same: “if you can foresee the future let me borrow your crystal ball”.
Going back to the banking industry, together with the pharmaceutical and health insurance industry, they are the leaches of this country, and are running the place to the ground.
There is a movement out there right now who is trying to encourage people to take their hard earned money and take it from the big banks and put it in local banks. Unfortunately the average American is misinformed and greatly brainwashed into believing that their money is safer in big institutions. Nothing could be further from the truth. Their money is just as secure in small and large institutions alike because it is guaranteed by the Federal Government. And if we have to base ourselves in recent events the institutions gambling with the peoples monies were the large ones.
I remember when I moved to the United States in 1985 banks could not cross state lines, and regardless of the regulations there were in New York institutions such as Manufacturers Hannover Trust, The Bank of New York, Chemical. These banks are long longer in existence, they were taken over. Then banks were allowed to cross state lines. This did nothing for small business and the average citizen. The banking industry needs to be heavily regulated.
Another disappointment has been the stimulus. First with an economy that is 16 trillion in size, 750 billion is just a drop in the bucket, second the types of investments and when they take place is not going to turn around the unemployment number soon, and with that the democrats will likely lose the House and quite a few Senate seats in November. With this happening a lot of Obama’s plans will most likely not happen. What makes matters worse is that if the Democrats cannot hold to the Massachusetts Senate seat that will be decided in the very near future, Obama’s healthcare bill will also be history.
Another big disappointment is the healthcare bill, and what has seemed a total lack of passion on Obama’s part. As much as I dislike EVERYTHING the Republicans stand for if this would have been their proposal, like the tax cuts of 2001, the Invasion of Iraq of 2003, and so on, we would have had a bill passed and signed by now, and would have taken effect immediately, not in 2014 like the proposals in the Legislative branch have right now.
I wonder if this is how he is treating his number one bill, under circumstances that will unlikely repeat themselves for some time, having the House, filibuster proof Senate and the Executive branch. How is he going to manage if Democrats loose the House and Senate seats. We know that Republicans have been the party of NO, but if he doesn’t have more force, the future doesn’t look good for him and his party.
Maybe the election of 2010 will come as a rude awakening to Obama and the rest of the Democrats.

Snow and the South

For the past few years our family chooses a driving destination in the US to spend the last week of the year. What I mean by driving is that we can drive ourselves there and back. These have included in the past places such as Savannah, GA, Orlando, FL, Cleveland, OH, Atlanta,GA, Memphis & Nashville, TN.
In general these were destinations that could be covered in a day’s time. But two years ago we decided to break away from that mold and decided to drive to San Antonio, TX. It took us two days to get from New Jersey to San Antonio. We stayed overnight in Memphis, TN.
But before I just get stuck with a trip from two years ago the main reason why I am writing this is because this year we decided to drive to New Mexico. We knew it would take us a couple of long day drives, between 18 to 20 hours a day.
But the thing we did not expect was that there would be a blizzard that affected Oklahoma and other states. The only reason I’m only mentioning Oklahoma is because it was the state we had to drive through on our way to New Mexico, our final destination.
As we crossed the border from Arkansas into Oklahoma we started noticing ice on the road, together with cars stranded on both sides of the road. The worst section was from Henryetta to Oklahoma City, a little bit over 90 miles that should only take around 90 minutes or less (based on a speed of 70 miles per hour) took over 3 and ½ hours to complete. What aggravated me the most was not the weather conditions, the ice, the snow on the ground but the lack of total preparation on the state of Oklahoma. In this day and age, where we know in advance when we will have a hurricane and its intensity, it is hard to believe that states are not prepared to clean the roads as soon as it starts coming down, or at least as soon as it is over. But, based on the amount of stranded vehicles, and the lack of plows that we saw on the road (4) that tells me that they took this storm very lightly. To make matters worse I then heard on TV that their budget for the DPW (Department of works) was almost out. This is what I love about conservative states, instead of being prepared, which in my book means maybe raising taxes to cover for these possible things during the winter months, they prefer to mislead the public by saying that taxes can stay low, and then let its citizens be stranded on roads because of their shortsightedness. Politicians are more interested in getting themselves re-elected, and to defend the interest of the big fish who finance their campaigns than in the well being of the majority of people.
I used to complain in New Jersey because I felt that many times they take too long to clean the roads, but after this experience I don’t think I will ever do that again.
As far as the rest of our vacation is concerned we had a wonderful time visiting this wonderful country blessed with an amazing variety of landscapes, nationalities and heritages.

Apoyo en momentos dificiles

Hace unos días recibí una triste noticia, la seňora de una persona que considero más que un amigo había fallecido.
Este blog es sobre que decirle a un familiar que acaba de perder a un ser querido, sin ser metido, sin ser entrometido, sin tocar el tema que es más obvio, el hecho de haber perdido ese ser querido, y por otro lado intentando de hacerle sentir a esa persona que uno está tratando, dentro de sus limitaciones, de darle un poco de apoyo, un intento de levantarle el ánimo.
Siempre dá la impresión que a uno, como en mi caso que siempre está hablando, en muchos casos de más, en ese momento le faltan las palabras. Es como si tuviese la mente en blanco, y lo peor de todo es que está en el momento tratando de pensar en algo y nada viene a la mente.
Yo soy uno de ellos que me paso dando vueltas con el tema, que no me lo puedo sacar de la cabeza. Porque algo por dentro me dice esta persona te necesita, no podes en estas circunstancias borrarte. Es muy facil estar de joda, divirtiendote, pero cuando algo malo pasa no se puede dejar a esa persona de lado. No creo en el dicho que dice: “ríe, y el mundo reirá contigo, llora y llorarás solo”. Porque esos no son mis valores. En ingles hay un dicho que dice: “a friend in need is a friend indeed”, traducido (o adpatado) un amigo en necesidad es un verdadero amigo. Y ésta es mi forma de pensar y los valores que guían mi vida.
En definitiva lo que quiero decir con ésto es que en estos momentos, difíciles, es cuando se ve la amistad que uno tiene y siente, aunque las palabras no vengan a la mente, y la presencia física, como en mi caso, no se pueda dar, saber que en espíritu, en oraciones, en cualquier tipo de apoyo sentimental esa persona pueda saber que no están completamente solos en la tormenta, y que hay alguien que de una u otra manera está con ellos teniendo, o tendiendole la mano.

Envejeciendo

De un tiempo a esta parte he estado pensando en el hecho de que estoy envejeciendo. Esto puede parecer paranoia, pero no lo es. Me encuentro padeciendo las típicas cosas de mi edad, anteojos, cholesterol alto, alta presión, el hecho que cuando cargo algo pesado o cuando subo laderas empinadas me canso. Me acuerdo cuando mi abuelo, hace unos cuantos aňos atrás, nos quiso ayudar a cargar con un colchón, y le dijimos que no, se sientió ofendido. Habíamos herido sus sentimientos. En ese momento era más joven y no entendía que lo que habiamos hecho era hacerle sentir que no podia hacerlo más. El espíritu es joven pero…
También me doy cuenta que estoy envejeciendo, primero, por medio de mis padres, y el hecho de que están envejeciendo, segundo, por mis hijos, dado que están creciendo. Victoria se va a ir a una universidad en cuestión de meses, e Ian se ha convertido en un hombre. Es increible lo rápido que pasa el tiempo. Lo digo no solamente porque mis hijos crecen, sino lo que más me ha hecho consciente de ello fué la reunion que tuvimos en mi ultimo viaje a Argentina. No me afectó el hecho de verlos cambiados a mis ex-compaňeros , dado que me miro todos los días en el espejo, y todos hemos cambiado, pero lo que más me afectó, y creo que todavía lo estoy razionalizando, es el hecho de que han pasado 35 aňos desde que egresamos del colegio secundario. Es realmente el hecho del paso del tiempo que me ha shoqueado. Todavía no puedo creer que tanto tiempo ha pasado desde nuestra graduación . No soy uno de esos que desea vivir en el pasado, aunque a muchos le dé esa impresión. Estoy agradecido por esos momentos, los guardo en mi corazón pero estoy contento con el presente. El presente no es perfecto, pero nada lo es, tampoco lo era el pasado. Pero lo que quiero decir con presente es que es todo lo que tengo, lo estoy viviendo, disfrutando cada momento. Para mi mirar hacia el futuro no tiene sentido. Si nos obsesionamos con el futuro no disfrutamos el presente. El pasado es una memoria, y siempre elegimos las memorias que más nos interesan, por eso pensamos que el pasado era mejor.
Con respecto a envejecer es alarmante que rápido pasa el tiempo. La vida pasa en un abrir y cerrar de ojos. O también podemos mirar el vaso medio lleno y decir “el tiempo pasa rápido cuando la estamos pasando bien”.