Opinion

The two causes of the national debt being the warfare state and the welfare state both are easy to correct with any intestinal fortitude by members of Congress.

The warfare state is an excessive support of the defense-industrial complex and no related tax increase.

Harry Truman was the last president to raise taxes in wartime. Now our defense spending is larger than the next three countries combined. Our defense spending is also three times larger in adjusted dollars than that recommended by General Eisenhower.

The “Eisenhower Minimum” as it is called is what is needed for adequate self-protection and does not support world policing. It does not support large numbers of infantry on foreign soil, two navies, worldwide-based Air Forces and numerous foreign Army/Navy bases.

The Eisenhower defense budget was originally design to support a large nuclear deterrent (which can now be used for Special Forces and homeland security), adequate research, a single navy to protect commercial shipping, and a standing army on homeland bases.

Included in this Eisenhower budget was large equipment and ordinance reserves for immediate support of any call-up required for self-protection.

The warfare state has resulted from the desire of our leaders to project military power for purposes of supporting foreign governments from both internal/external treats and the false manifest destiny to spread democracy throughout the world.

Neither of these goals is appropriate and they increase the likely hood of terrorism rather than protect our population from terrorism.

The welfare state results from the misguided efforts of our leaders to provide a total population economic safety net or to eliminate the natural condition of poverty.

This largeness of government assistance to provide for an all-encompassing total population safety net has developed a population that is generational repeating dependent on government assistance.

This safety net has grown to include generous Social Security disability payments for numerous physical and mental conditions.

The original purpose of Social Security was to provide an old age economic safety net. In addition to mission creep in Social Security eligibility, the various federally funded free food programs (originally for the truly needy) have expanded to include low cost or no cost food for school program that provide for many more than the truly needy.

Similarly the extension upon extension of unemployment benefits (beyond that supported by previous contributions) includes a large component of fraud estimated to be one third the total payments.

Another component of the welfare state and the federal government largeness is the federal monetary assistance to corporations and various state and local governments.

Corporate welfare includes funding foreign marketing, funding specific industry research (i.e. vineyard diseases), individual grants to specific individuals, universities or corporations for product development. Government research should be limited to basic science except for defense related products.

In addition, corporate welfare includes numerous income tax advantages to reduce expenses or increase markets for favored industries. Government to government welfare includes federal grants for all purposes not related to disaster relief.

An example of excessive government to government welfare and abuse is the redundant existence of federal funded fish and game agencies and then these agencies making extravagant grants to (of all things) repair county roads.

The solution to the welfare state is a very strict means test and to reduce or eliminate assistance based on these means tests. Similarly this would include eliminating corporate welfare and government to government welfare.

Garamendi, Thompson, Feinstein and Boxer are all professional politicians and their main concern is re-election.

Increasing our fortunes is dependent any actions that also increase their fame and/or fortunes. These California politicians support the failed economic theory that national budget deficit to not matter.

We all pay now and our children will in future for their greed.

John Daniels lives in Lakeport, Calif.

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Written by: John Daniels

Published: 12 July 2014

I was visiting my son in Arlington, Va., a suburb of the nation’s capital. Almost every day I walked for a few hours through the crowded streets.

One day it rained and the rain had cleansed the accumulated residue of industrialization from the air, and the temperature was mild, and the humidity was low. In short, it was a good day to walk; in fact, it was a good day to be alive.

Then I realized that the ubiquitous cell phone conversations were disturbing my peace of mind.

Had these conversations been about cabals, or had even a wisp of concupiscence, I would have been a happy listener; I love gossip and even playing the voyeur, if so cast.

However, these cell phone conversations were utterly banal, and hence, invasive without having any redeeming value to me.

I was annoyed. I could not think of any way of defending myself against the megaphones of mediocrity.

And then it came to me. I could be annoying as well. In fact, my mother and several ex-girlfriends had even commented that I was good it, maybe a natural.

I have committed to memory a few famous Shakespearian soliloquies, a poem by Lawrence Ferlinghetti from his book “A Coney Island of the mind,” Robert Burns “To a Mousie,” and tidbits of several other poems from Keats, T.S. Elliot, and Ralph Waldo Emerson.

I paused for a moment and considered my intent. I am a little long in the tooth (70) for such mischievous behavior. On the other hand, I have never completely grown up either, so, what the hell!

I did not have to wait long to strike. A young woman was walking just ahead of me on the street. I had to make sure she really had a cell phone and was not just a crazy person talking to herself, because I am opposed to making fun of the disabled.

Then I saw it. She definitely had a cell phone, and, she was talking loudly and animatedly, about nothing of interest. I thought of the line “… full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”

So, imagining myself as Sir Lawrence Olivier, and using my diaphragm so that the folks in the back row of Albert Hall could hear me, I began “Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow, each day creeps on in its petty pace …”

It worked! I could tell that she was having trouble hearing because she hunched her body, cocked her head like the RCA dog, and cupped both hands around the phone.

And no, I would not be “a poor player that struts and frets his time upon the stage to be heard no more.”

I did come back again and again. But, alas, as the little boy said to Alan Ladd in the movies when he was about to tussle with a barroom full of bad guys, “Shane, there’s too many.”

Nelson Strasser lives in Lakeport, Calif.

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Written by: Nelson Strasser

Published: 06 July 2014

We have been vacationing in Lake County for nearly 50 years beginning when we were children. We store our boat there, and our times there has become a family tradition, with three generations coming together for what has always been a 10 day vacation.

This year we didn't even put the boat in the water, told our daughter and grandkids not to come up and went home after five days. We have friends who have joined us for many years and they went home after just two days.

So let's see, just counting our family and them, it cost the Skylark more than $2,000, not to mention the restaurants, bait shops, golf courses, wineries and other places we frequent that all lost money due to the condition of the lake.

If you multiply that by a couple of 100 more people, you're talking about A LOT of money.

Downtown we saw stores boarded up, and except for some bass boats, we saw virtually no boats on the lake.

We saw very few of the old familiar family type boats like ours, pulling skiers, tubes, wake boards, etc. The ones we did see were constantly stopping to clear their props from entangled weeds. We know people who live there who don't put their boats in the water anymore.

We went to TNT's to eat on the deck and had to go inside to eat, due to the stench of algae and bloated, dead carp on the shoreline.

What has happened to our beautiful lake? I know the drought hasn't helped, but the weed problem has been there for the last seven or eight years.

We used to avoid a lot of it by coming up in early June, but I guess now the weeds start showing in May. Families can't really come up anymore to enjoy the lake after school lets out.

How could the people of Lake County vote down a measure to clean up the lake? Don't they realize that without the lake, Lakeport and Lake County are more like Madera and Fresno County? I'm not sure those are exactly places families and tourists flock to for vacations.

I feel very sad and had to share my frustrations with you.  

Lake County has so much to offer, but let's face it, Clear Lake itself is the most valuable commodity. The old lake deserves better treatment and care.

Marty Redman lives in San Jose, Calif.

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Written by: Marty Redman

Published: 24 June 2014