Please Stop Lying to Me

When we were young children, most of us were taught that lying is wrong. It is morally wrong, hurtful and down right insulting to the person being lied to.

I disagree with a number of the positions of the current Republican Party. Disagreement is fine, it is healthy and good. That is, after all, the most wondrous part of our democratic system.

However, lying and disagreement are two distinctly different things. So, I implore the GOP—a party I have historically supported—to stop lying to me and to the American people. It is annoying, dangerous and down right offensive.

Bobby Jindal, the current Governor of Louisiana and the supposed rising star of the GOP delivered an uninspiring and frustrating rebuttal to President Obama’s February 24, 2009 address to the joint session of Congress. In fact, Governor Jindal’s rebuttal was down right offensive and continues the recently developed GOP tradition of bold lies and blatant misrepresentation of core facts.

1. The stimulus bill DOES NOT include funding for a high speed train to run between Las Vegas and Disneyland. The stimulus bill DOES include $8 billion for mass transit construction. The bill does not specify that these funds will be spent on high-speed train construction and certainly does not specify a train that would run between Las Vegas and Disneyland. Various projects and regions are competing for shares of the $8 billion. The Las Vegas/Disneyland project, which did receive $45 million in funding for an initial environmental impact study from President George W. Bush, is far from a lock.

2. Hurricane Katrina delivered unimaginable devastation to millions within the state of Louisiana and other Gulf Coast states. Millions have behaved bravely and selflessly in the aftermath of the disaster. But, Mr. Jindal please do not suggest to me that the Federal Government did not have a key role in facilitating Hurricane Katrina recovery. Granted, much of Katrina recovery was botched in the short-term and the longer-term after the storm under leadership from a Republican president and ill-prepared Louisiana state officials. But the Federal Government has spent $175 billion on Katrina Recovery.

Recovery spending was 110% necessary, but let’s not imply that it did not happen. Yes, government (especially poorly run government) messes things up at times. The federal government, under President Bush, certainly failed to respond effectively to Katrina in numerous ways. However, let’s stop blaming the “concept” of appropriate federal government and start blaming poor management and poor leadership.

(link to full text of Govenor Jindal's speech is listed at the end of this post)


3. “That is why Republicans put forward plans to create jobs by lowering income tax rates for working families, cutting taxes for small businesses, strengthening incentives for businesses to invest in new equipment and hire new workers, and stabilizing home values by creating a new tax credit for home-buyers. These plans would cost less and create more jobs. But Democratic leaders in Congress -- they rejected this approach.” (quote from Governor Jindal’s 2/24/09 rebuttal speech)

Just a minor point, Mr. Jindal. $288 billion in tax cuts were included in the stimulus bill. Nearly all of the tax cuts requested above were included in the bill.

(links to outline of tax cuts in stimulus bill and Full American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 are included at the end of this post)


I am all for alternative ideas. Given the current economic crisis. we need all of the good ideas we can get. But, lying to and misleading the American people is counter-productive and dangerous. Not all of our citizens are as obsessive as I am. Many American citizens do not peck away like a crazy person at their computers during and after important political addresses to fact check fishy sounding claims.

We are free to disagree with each other—that is what makes the country great. But let’s respect each other enough; let’s love our country enough to conduct honest debates rooted in facts.


Text of Bobby Jindal’s full rebuttal speech
Outline of tax cuts in the stimulus bill
Full American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009

The Toughest Tasks of All

TARP 1, TARP 2, the stimulus package. Likely more stimuli and likely more TARP-type programs in the months ahead. As nauseous as they make me these moves are, in my opinion, necessary.

The current economic crisis is being compared to the Great Depression and, yes, there are a great number of similarities. The primary barriers between most of us and the soup line are several of the New Deal programs put into place by Roosevelt—FDIC, Social Security, FHA, SEC, etc. But make no mistake; today the majority of us, without the air cushion provided by our federal government, would be in desperate straights. Times are tough, but most of us are not watering down soup, nor living in Hoovervilles.

Although we are being protected from starvation, I do not like being dependent on the largess of Washington to protect myself and my family. In the face of a true melt-down of our financial systems and markets, few of us are protected no matter how responsible we are. I save, I don’t spend money on a lot of unnecessary things, I live in a house I can afford, and I don’t have huge credit card bills. But, if our systems were to collapse, this responsible approach is worthless.

One could save responsibly for years, but if the dollar collapses, truly collapses, it could all be gone in the blink of an eye. I would be selling my wedding rings and scrounging my personal possessions for anything of tangible value to feed my family along with the rest of America.

I do not like this realization one bit. In fact, I detest it. So how do we avoid this type of calamity again?

1. Overhaul our healthcare system. No American should ever fall prey to bankruptcy due to medical costs.

2. Revise bankruptcy laws. With the assurance that no American will go bankrupt due to medical/healthcare situations, revise our bankruptcy laws for individuals and companies. Perhaps re-implement debtors’ prisons. Maybe this sounds arcane and medieval, but I am not kidding. Today, bankruptcy for many businesses and individuals is a financial tool, not an absolute last resort. Our bankruptcy laws facilitate irresponsible spending and unwise risks that fall straight onto the backs of the American people.

3. Institutional punishment for irresponsible corporate governance. A large part of what makes America great is our entrepreneurial spirit—our national desire and willingness to give it a shot. There is inherent risk in this approach, and we cannot snuff out our desire to “go for it.” However, our business leaders are smart people. In their hearts they knew better than to take the kind of greedy gambles that were taken in this and other “busts”—we all knew better (even though many of us chose to ignore our better instincts). But, our culture and our systems do not punish, truly punish, greed and irresponsible risk.

4. Institutional punishment for irresponsible personal governance. Per point #2, bankruptcy should not be easy, without consequence and there should be negative social stigma attached—today there is not. Today, filing bankruptcy is an every day activity hardly more traumatic than taking your trash to the curb.

5. Change the culture of corporate America. Corporate America is nearly entirely driven by quarter-to-quarter earnings. Many, if not most, companies no longer plan their operations for tomorrow—they are nearly solely worried about their next earnings report. Of course, earnings are important. But corporate America propped up (and will certainly do so again) their earnings with many short-sighted measures—essentially freezing wages for the true middle class, creating “exotic” financial mechanisms, cutting R&D investments……

America cannot and will not continue to lead the world with this type of approach. We have cut off, in many ways, the very hand that fed us—our people and our innovation.

6. Change the culture of our government. If businesses and individuals are responsible, so must our government be. We must create a culture of zero tolerance for unethical behavior. Granted, this is a slippery slope. Differing opinions, or mistakes made despite careful thinking are not unethical behaviors. However, the current turbulence has certainly forced more than one rat out of their holes.

Is it possible to avoid hysterical witch hunts, forgive honest mistakes, while holding each other, our business leaders and our government accountable? I believe that ultimately we are smart enough and reasonable enough to pull it off (I think…I hope).

As naïve and simple as it sounds, I often revert to the financial wisdom my father taught me as a child. Money does not fall from the sky. If you want something you have to earn more or spend less.

We can create all of the exotic investment mechanisms and creative business and economic models we like, but at the end of the day are we as a nation, as companies, as individuals spending less than we earn? This is the only question that matters. By posing any other question, by creating “bubble markets,” by creating inflated fortunes on paper, by creating a secular religion of spending more than we earn…we are just kidding ourselves.

The next bust will always be around the corner and at some point Uncle Sam may very well not have the clout or strength to pick us up and dust us off.