A DEFICIT OF THINKING

Funny, but mostly true.
Personally I would have liked to see Mr. Wharton come up with something revenue neutral that wouldn't blow up our already insurmountable deficit. Of course, he didn't write the bill...I doubt if the President has the aptitude or where with all to even attempt to author a piece of legislation.

So who writes bills? It certainly isn't McConnell, or Pelosi, or Ryan...or anyone else in Congress either. These people do not even READ pieces of legislation, let alone write them. Underlings might help, but mostly it's lobbyists and very smart people hired by lobbying firms. And they do this to insure the legislation serves their, and not our, best interests. Add in some pork or provision intended to get enough votes for passage, then scream to the hills how the minuscule benefit to the common man is a victory for the party..all the while knowing the fat cats are going to rake it in (and keep the political donations pouring in as a result).  They live on a "quid pro quo" basis.

Personally, I would like to see an across the board 5% decrease in funding for every department in government. Show me a department head who cannot reduce spending, or find 5% of funds squandered, and I'll show you someone who should be fired. Add a five year cap on tax free donations to a 401k and you might have a revenue neutral bill that would pass.

It would be nice to eliminate a few hundred pages of the tax code, but that would require someone...anyone to actually read the tax code. Why does it have to be sooo painfully long and full of legal jargon? Is it so no one will read it....and why does it take literally years to audit a rich persons tax returns? Flatten the tax, eliminate so many deductions and get everyone to pay their fair share and you have my vote.

The tax bill itself, which will eventually be passed in both houses is a 600 page behemoth...a labyrinth of political jargon and bullshit designed to help corporations and the well to do while offering crumbs to you and me.

The worst part: eliminating the provision of Obamacare mandating everyone get some sort of health insurance.  You see health insurance is a sort of ponzi scheme where we need the healthy to pay into a fund so the least healthy of us can be covered for the horrendous cost of hospitalization and after care.

Is this unfair? Maybe...but the healthy should take solace in the fact that when they get sick, there will be a new crop of healthy people who are paying in to cover their expenses. But the entire system will collapse if we don't continuously get in a healthy crop of investors / insured.

Taking thirteen million people off from healthcare roles is not wise or even humane. But it is what I have come to expect from Congress..and especially the conservatives.

And it is going to pass. It will pass with the usual crap about if they line the pockets of the rich and corporations, whose pockets are already burgeoning with profits...will somehow invest the tax saving windfall into additional labor, or higher wages. Ridiculous blather that seems to work time and time again. Ridiculous because it has never worked ever.

History shows time and time again that the Republican "trickle down" theory never works. What's more.. our economy always works better with a liberal in charge. Who was the last President to balance a budget? Bill Clinton. Everyone else blew up the deficit...including Obama (although in his defense, he created stimulus packages to avoid a Bush snowball of an economy headed for a huge great depression).

I certainly do not know every portion of the tax bill (I wonder who does?), and an not an economic scholar...but it seems to me that this bill is being rushed through so no one can read it before the vote, and for the simple fact that the Trump administration needed a win. They needed a win because they haven't done anything of use...except play golf and fire people from their cabinet.

So, here it is...the 2017 tax bill...destined to pass, with its 600 pages no one will read, up to and including the handwritten provisions in the margins...hastily added to ensure they get the votes needed for passage. Because it is such a piece of crap they couldn't even get their majority members to vote for it without a piece of self serving pork added to it.

And the deficit goes up $1.7 TRILLION DOLLARS as a result of this "win." Good job, Mr. Wharton...if you really even graduated from that prestigious business school at all. The way I see it...your graduation from Wharton is on the same bar of plausibility as a drug and alcohol addicted George Bush graduating from Yale...doubtful at best.

But that is the way it goes in our great country...and in
"The World According to Kimba." Thanks for reading.

FOUR PILLARS FOR SELF-IMPROVEMENT

I have spent my career (and life) in management or supervision in one form or another, and in the course of counseling the many employees under my charge, have boiled down my personal philosophy for living down to four basic questions. I think if the young people of today truly put some time into these questions, they might just see the big picture that will unlock their futures.

1. Who are you?
2. Who do you want to be?
3. How will you get there?
4. What mark do you want to leave on the world?

Who are you? Be honest with yourself, if with no other. Truly who are you? Write it down. The beauty, the scars, the hurts and the fears. Take a personal inventory. Write it down. This is the embarking point for your journey called life. You in no way are stuck here. It really doesn't matter where you start, it's where you are when you quit that matters.

Who do you want to be? Not only what you want to be, or what you want to do, or what you want to own, but who do you want to be? If you are lucky, you have some good role models in your life to emulate. But be your own self, be the best YOU you can possibly be. What, and who you are right now is not the end of it. You can improve and aspire, and change. The only people who are the sum total of their finished personal devlopement and growth, and ultimately, their realistic full potential, are those who have quit. Those who gave up. Those who stopped dreaming and yearning, and those who have allowed themselves to grow cynical. Those who stopped believing that with effort and a modicum of planning, dreams can come true at any age.

How will you get there? Chart a specific course. Very specific. Write it down. Winners plan, and make things happen. Lesser achievers sit back and allow things to happen. Losers wonder what happened. Fail to plan and plan to fail. Create a personal road map to guide you along the way. List the people who can help you, the resources you can utilize, the places you need to be, and the education you will need to be ready for the opportunity. This is a living document; amend, delete, add to, and improve it as you grow in maturity and wisdom. There are many paths in life that will take you through your journey. You must keep referring to your map and chart your progress, and look at the direction you are header. Sometimes you might half to take a step back or two, to go forward in the right direction, and that's OK. It's not where you are, it's where you are going that matters.

There it is. Simplistic yes, but effective as a first step for any young person to begin to begin to decipher who they will fit in, or lead, or be in life. A quick, motivational tool that can be used at nearly any age. I will stop here. I have had my employees create personal philosophies, and business credos to help their self awareness; but for now, just four simple, yet complex life questions.

Be sure to put it on paper, and reread it over and over. Say it out loud. And believe. Believe, and aspire, and reach for the heavens.....and never, ever, give up. Dreams do come true, once you stop dreaming, and start doing.

PUT THIS ON MY BILL

I may be sticking my head into the lions mouth, but I believe that a bill insuring revenue-neutral tax reform which provides for a more vibrant growth of the middle class would sail through Congress. I am not an economic scholar but in my mind if you strengthen the lower and middle classes you would increase their ability to spend creating additional revenue through economic growth rather than increases in taxation. Increase their ability to spend and you increase the need to hire, manufacture goods and the economy grows. Include a five per-cent across the board governmental spending reduction and a temporary reduction in the percentage of 401k contributions that are tax free down to four per-cent would be a good start.

Do we spend in ways that HARM US? Absolutely. Too many loopholes, too much money spent interfering in the worlds affairs, too many pork filled add-ons to appropriation bills thrown into the ass end of legislation merely to insure they get the votes they need for passage.

It seems easy to me. Reduce the size of the behemoth tax code by eliminating ridiculous rhetoric and creative exemptions to aid the well to do. Flatten the tax code. Reduce the corporate tax rate down to 28 percent, eliminate all taxes for anyone under the poverty level, and stop using the tax code to affect the behavior of its citizens. So called "sin taxes" should be eliminated as unconstitutional as well.

You cannot fix healthcare until you fix and stabilize the tax code. Put that into a bill and you may get some sense of bipartisanship back on the Beltway. It seems easy to me.
At least in the "World According to Kimba." Thanks for reading.