Thelma and Louise Moment and the Fiscal Cliff

I was asked  what I thought about the 'fiscal cliff' as a fiscal conservative, a Constitutionalist, a Libertarian and a foreign policy hawk. My response surprised a number of individuals who have long known me. My honestly thoughts upon the issue, 'it's Thelma and Louise time, baby!!..Over the cliff with the accelerator to the floor!!!"

The Roman Republic fell because it could not manage its political and economic affairs. The Roman Principate decayed for many of the same reasons. (For those who do are not that familar with Roman history, there never was a Roman Empire. It was the Roman Republic, Roman Principate, and the Roman Dominate.) I see no reason the United States of America won't follow suit if we fail to manage our affairs. As a fiscal conservative and constitutionalist I find the current inability for the governments to rein in their spending to be appalling. For 60 years we always prioritized other goals and crisis ahead of fiscal responsibility. Now it is time to pay the piper; if we do not pay soon the fiscal reckoning will take us down as  easily as any of the past civilizations that crashed under such foolish policies, such as Rome.

As a Libertarian, I have to shake my head at the willful ignorance that the entire American polity shows at all levels. Do Americans really believe they are entitled to governmental services at the levels we have now without much higher taxes? If we are going to take the route of more government services, then it is time to be honest and start paying for them, or if we really do want low taxation, it is time to start cutting to the bone.  I do not see a will to recognize the reality of the situation on any side. At the moment we need more revenue streams into the government and major cut backs on the cost of government. The fiscal cliff will give us both those, major cuts and increased revenues. Maybe with major fiscal crimps on the Federal government we can see some of the reversals of the erosion of the Constitutional freedoms with so much policing of the populace and  paramilitarization of the police, yet that is a topic for another day.

But what of my fourth political personal pole, strong defense; I personally think that the United States has been fooling itself in how we conduct our grand strategy and geopolitical planning for the last 17 years. Maybe a 25% reduction or more on defense spending will force Washington to sit back on its haunches and start thinking instead of throwing money and forces at every problem that comes along. (I have my serious doubts about this..but I can hope).

Maybe I'm a pessimist, but I think the best long term result for America is both parties to lock up in January  The Budget Control Act of 2011 will hurt, but sometimes the bandage has to come off the wound fast.

I watched the footage of Hurricane Sandy as it came ashore on Oct 29, 2012. It left me quite a wide range of impressions and emotions. I see many of the same things every time we have a hurricane along the eastern seaboard or the gulf coast.

Every hurricane or major storm, we are all treated to visages of flooding and destruction. I begin to wonder why we don't long term plan on such matters. A hurricane may not hit a specific coast line for a decade, but the return of such an incident is as given as the sunrise. There are some spots where we as a country have developed counter measures, emergency responses, and defenses against the elements involved in such hurricanes, but why has it not been a national priority to do so over time.

Maybe it is cheaper long term to just rebuild, but the cost in lives, private property, and public damage is astronomical each time. Hurricane Sandy alone is estimated to be doing 6 billion dollars of damage. The subways of New York City became to some degree water filled. That is going to require pumping them out, letting the tunnels dry, and we can only hope they moved the trains out of the tunnels to high ground train yards. I can not see how it is better to just take it time after time with no thought to long term consequences and danger, instead of acting like a society with forethought and prudence.

I was horrified at the Captain of the Bounty. He tried to get around the storm, in a wooden tall ship replica that even with engines can only make 10 knots, yet the storm was moving perpendicular to his voyage at 15 knots. That just shows to me that in a society as individualistic as the United States of America, that to get some long term measures in place is going to take convincing private citizens, municipal governments, private organizations, state governments. We can not just expect a central government to do it all efficiently or even effectively.

Hurricane Katrina back in 2005 showed that FEMA just can not react effectively on a solo basis for a nation as large and wide as ours. The North American continent is a diverse climate with many potential natural disasters on top of all the potential problems a technological society can develop. As a nation we really need a dialogue on forethought and long term planning for such matters more....much more.