Political Football

Go HERE to read a good article about Rudy’s visit to Iowa today. I will not cover the same ground, so please read the linked article for background.

Click HERE to see the details from the power point presentation of Rudy’s fiscal discussion points.

The presentation started almost an hour late (about 11:30), which bothered me. I couldn’t tell or didn’t pay attention to see if it bothered the crowd that I would estimate at over 300, not the 200 that the linked article referenced.

A lot of the National Rudy Team was there – I counted about 5 times as many staffers buzzing around as the last time he was in Des Moines, about 10 of them college aged kids dressed nicely. When I went out to the HDQs about 3pm, it was bustling with the look of a work in progress war room.

This may sound odd, but Rudy’s talk reminded me of a play I loved – viewing it several times in development and production – it was about Christmas Past. Songs, stories, poems, the backstory about “The Night Before Christmas”… When it was over you were surprised but wanted to hear more.

Rudy’s talk today was more of an Econ 201 class than a political speech and that is what I like about the guy.

A friend (Luis) says: A bad politician points to a problem and says: “Look, there’s a problem.”

A good politician points to the same problem and says: “Look, there’s a problem that needs to be fixed.”

A leader looks at the problem and says: “Look there’s a problem, I’ve faced that problem before. I fixed it then, and I will fix it again. This is how.”
Rudy is a Leader.

Rudy started his talk by mentioning what’s going on in the National Legislature over the last months – irresponsible earmarks embedded in bills. Rudy wants the earmark sponsor written into the bill and not submitted until there is a OMB estimate of cost for consideration.

There are typically 10s of thousands of earmarks each year submitted for approval – pet projects by legislators. Since this congress was seated in January 2007 (not even a full 6 months yet) there have been 32,000 earmarks submitted. Not 32 HUNDRED 32 THOUSAND. THAT is not the congress the Democrats promised in their reform movement that swept them into control of both houses. [although it may explain their dismal approval rating]

This entire talk was on commitment # 3 -

I will restore fiscal discipline and cut wasteful Washington spending.

“It’s not a Problem to be solved, it’s a Culture that must be changed.”

“We need to restore fiscal discipline end wasteful government spending in Washington,” Giuliani said. “…It’s one of the major things that I think has to be done.” According to Giuliani, 42 percent of federal workers will retire over the next decade and, if he’s elected president, Giuliani would propose that half those jobs not be refilled. That would be a decrease of 21 Billion dollars in salaries in 2017. We can do that through automation of processes, or identifying process that have already been automated. The Federal government is sluggish and not responsive to today’s needs.

“This congress wants to reverse the tax cuts, with no regard to the impact it will have on investments in this economy.”

“A great example is the Death Tax. You know what that is right? Inheritance tax. The worst tax there is because you’re taxed twice. Worse yet, it hurts most, those whose investments aren’t fluid – like business and property owners.”

In 2009 the Death Tax is set at 45% [see chart below]

2001 $675,000 55%
2002 $1 million 50%
2003 $1 million 49%
2004 $1.5 million 48%
2005 $1.5 million 47%
2006 $2 million 46%
2007 $2 million 45%
2008 $2 million 45%
2009 $3.5 million 45%
2010 repealed 0%
2011 $1 million 55%

Rudy joked that it would be wise to remain healthy in 2010, or certainly be nice to your kids if you ended up on a ventilator – there is ONE year (2010) where there is no death tax. But then in 2011 it goes back to 55%!

With a family business or farm it doesn’t take much to go over the million dollar mark – it’s just not right. It’s just plain stupid.

He talked about the 19th century that saw the beginning of the Industrial Bureaucracy and we’ve not adjusted what has become a bloated Bureaucracy. After the additional Bureaucracy added primarily by FDR then LBJ – we are long overdue in overhauling how government runs.

Positive thinking creates positive mindsets creates positive results. This is a small example but he talked about changing the name of the Welfare Office when he was Mayor. It is now called the Job Center.

“Large Government restrains business”

He went through 5-7 slides in a professorial manner, clicking through the slides himself. A link to the discussion points on the joinrudy website is at the top of this post.

One slide I do remember said that government should be run like business. Capital Budgets and Operating Budgets. It’s ok to pass on to our children those costs they will benefit from (building, etc) but not annual operating costs.

The Government is not built to be accountable. “You can’t be made accountable for things that are not measured.” Or so says Rudy [sounds like my boss!] – so there will be measurements instituted on effectiveness or ineffectiveness of programs.

Each program enacted will have a sunset date and be reviewed for effectiveness. If it is not providing greater value than its cost it will be scrapped. period. [ HAS he been talking to my boss? seriously. ]

We must do this because we now live in a global economy. “Everything is viewed in a competitive light”. We can’t say it’s ok because it’s American, because it’s us – we have to find ways of producing more with less – in government as well as business. Everyone else is and they’ll clean our clocks if we don’t [ok some of those are my words].

“We must reduce the burden that the government puts on the Private Sector and allow the Private Sector to thrive.”

Democrats add additional layers of Bureaucracy to government, increasing the tax burden on citizens and businesses to pay for the additional laywers, then complain that businesses outsource work. Where is the advantage NOT to outsource in that scenario, in that global economy?

He also talked about needing the Line Item Veto as President. (partially related to the Earmark issue noted earlier)

Finally he spoke about how much he loved America and how great a country it is. People are cutting us down but at the same time people still want to come to America. We need to stand tall, the world needs us to stand tall.

We can do this together.

I would like to be your next President.

I am asking for your support.

Thank you for your time.

God Bless America.

The Mayor and Maggie Tinsman of Davenport after the talk.

more on his presentation here

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