Why another $50 billion, Mr. Obama?

The Coast Guard has given BP a 48 hour mandate to show improvement or else. Not sure what that or else will be. At the same time President Obama is pushing congressional leaders to pass additional $50B to assist states and local governments. The additional money will be used to keep layoffs of teachers, police and firefighters. I know when the original stimulus bill was passed many, including myself, warned that it was a temporary fix. When will the Obama administration understand that government spending will not bring us out of the recession?

Government needs to re-prioritize their goals. Hamburg faced a threat of losing Local Government Assistance (LGA) from the state of Minnesota in order to balance the budget. After the dust settled, Hamburg did see a cut in LGA funds but not as deep as originally anticipated. The ripple effect we experience is that local governments have become dependent on LGA, the state government dependant on Federal handouts, and where does that leave the Federal government?

I know that people rail against the TEA Party movement for their demands of smaller government. The extra money that Obama is looking for is the exact reason why TEA Party supporters are demanding smaller government. Now, smaller government does not have to mean less government; rather it means smarter government. We cannot sustain the trajectory of government employment, we cannot sustain the trajectory of spending that we have seen over the past four year, and we cannot sustain the trajectory of lost freedoms in a free society. Congress is correct to ignore the extra money Obama is requesting of them. The United States cannot continue to bailout poor financial decisions of all levels of government. Hard choices need to be made and it is time for Americans to demand that of government at every level.

Affirmative Action: Arcane or Required

Affirmative Action had it time in the sun and now it is time for American’s to be judged by their merits and not by their sex, creed, or sexual orientation. In New Haven, Connecticut a group of firefighters saw their hopes for promotion scuttled because the test they took resulted in no minorities eligible for promotion. The Supreme Court will hear the case of reverse discrimination brought forth by 20 New Haven firefighters (19 white and 1 Hispanic).

Chief Justice John Roberts posed the question to Deputy Solicitor General Edwin Kneedler that if the results had been reversed “can you assure me that the government’s position would be the same?” Although Kneedler retorted with “Yes”; I highly doubt it. Affirmative Action, as stated above, was needed and now is no longer required. With the historic election of the first black President, are we, as a society, still staying that minorities are second class citizens and are in need of protection?

It is time for the Supreme Court and others to stop playing politics with Affirmative Action and promote those based on merit. To use the firefighter test as an example, as long as the test is not biased then the results should never be questioned. The trouble with New Haven is they were worried that minorities would sue because no blacks were considered for promotion based on the test scores.

The new minority on the 21st Century is the white heterosexual male. It is time for America to grow up and to judge/promote people on their merit. Affirmative Action is an arcane program. The sad thing about the New Haven firefighter case is that the future hangs in the fate of justices that wield their political power versus the legal candor.