Mountain Views News          Saturday, April 14, 2012

5

LEFT TURN/RIGHT TURN

 Mountain Views News Saturday, April 14, 2012 

HOWARD Hays As I See It

A Failing U.S. Energy Policy 
Threatens The World

 President Obama has made it abundantly clear in his speeches 
that he believes the U.S. should take a lesser role in world affairs and 
that he believes the U.S. can survive by basing its economy primarily 
on renewable and clean energy sources. In pursuit of these fantasies, 
this president has crafted an energy policy which is in the process 
of critically weakening the U.S. and threatening the stability of the 
world.

 Whether it’s solar, wind, or fill-in-the-blank, so long as it’s not oil 
or coal, this president stands ready to bet the house on the ability of 
these green energy sources to power all that we do in this country. 
That opinion stands in stark contrast to energy-hungry and militarily expansive China, 
which is equally clear in its belief that oil will be the predominant energy source of the 
future for quite some time.

 U.S. energy policy’s predominant goal has clearly been a reduction in U.S. energy 
production. Since the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, this administration has effectively shut 
down new oil exploration in the Gulf of Mexico. Upon taking office, Obama quipped to 
a coal industry lobbyist: good luck getting another coal-fired energy plant approved. The 
vast promise of huge energy pools in our tar sands and shale are being bottled up by federal 
regulators. Roughly 95% of federal onshore land and offshore areas remain off-limits 
to energy exploration. The Keystone XL pipeline project has affectively been effectively 
blocked from bringing any oil into the U.S. In summary, domestic oil production has hit a 
40-year low, we sit atop an approximate 200-year supply of oil, and we are becoming more 
dependent on foreign oil at the very time when our economic competitors are increasing 
their access to energy supplies.

 Chinese energy policy is focused on locking up energy sources wherever they may be 
found. China has begun exploration off the Cuban coast, less than 70 miles from U.S. 
waters. They are drilling in the Gulf in 6,000 feet of water. The much hated Deepwater 
Horizon rig was drilling in 5,500 feet of water. Some estimates project that the Cuban 
basin oil pool contains 9 billion barrels of oil and 22 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. 

 China has provided its domestic energy companies with exploration subsidies 6 times 
larger than what we do for our domestic companies. With Chinese funding, India’s oil 
production is projected to increase 20% over the next 2 years. The Chinese oil company, 
PetroChina, just became the largest producer of oil in the world, surpassing for the first 
time Exxon Mobil. PetroChina’s production increased 3% while Exxon Mobil’s declined 
by 5%.

 The Chinese have also sensed our disinterest in Canadian reserves, and have moved in 
to the position we are abandoning. The Chinese are funding two pipelines which will bring 
oil and natural gas across Canada to Pacific ports, where it will be shipped to China.

 The contrast between the Chinese and U.S. approach unmistakably points to a concerted 
effort on the part of this administration to weaken the strategic and economic posture of 
the U.S. vis a vis our primary competitor on the world stage. We don’t live in a Pollyannaish 
world where all countries are committed to democracy, freedom, human rights and the 
respect of national borders. We live in a world with some pretty nasty players, like China, 
who will take every opportunity to surpass us economically and militarily and then use 
that advantage to pressure us into more accommodating policies.

 Think this can’t happen? Remember that not too long ago Russia pressured western 
European politics with just the hint that the westward leading oil pipelines from the 
Ukraine could be turned off. The Chinese realize that modern economies and modern 
militaries run on energy. Oil is black gold, and whoever owns the gold makes the rules. 
Unless this administration changes its ways, or we change this administration, we’re not 
going to like living under the new rules.

Gregory J. Welborn is an independent opinion columnist. He writes and speaks frequently 
on political, economic and social issues. His columns have appeared in publications such 
as The Los Angeles Daily News, The Orange County Register, The Wall Street Journal and 
USA Today. He can be reached at gwelborn@mvobserver.com. 

 
“An ounce of performance is worth pounds of promises.”

- Mae West

 

 “I›ve been looking at some video clips on YouTube of President Obama - then 
candidate Obama - going through Iowa making promises. The gap between his 
promises and his performance is the largest I›ve seen, well, since the Kardashian 
wedding and the promise of ‹til death do we part. “

- Mitt Romney

 If I had to choose between the two and cast my vote right now, there’d be no 
contest: Mae West was infinitely better at delivering lines than Mitt Romney. But 
the issue the presumptive Republican nominee will be harping on is not delivery of lines, but delivery 
on promises.

 It’s assumed few voters remember what promises were actually made, or keep track of how many 
were kept. The PolitiFact website of the Tampa Bay Times researched its own list of campaign 
promises made by candidate Barack Obama, and how many were subsequently kept by the president. 
The list includes:

 Promise to increase minority access to capital; promise kept through the American Recovery and 
Reinvestment Act, with the S.B.A. providing $14.7 billion in loans primarily to rural firms and those 
run by women, minorities and veterans.

 Promise to halt predatory credit card practices and establish a “credit card bill of rights”; promise 
kept with legislation to ensure transparency and clarity in agreements, and halt practices designed to 
keep consumers in perpetual debt.

 Promise to close the “doughnut hole” in Medicare prescription coverage; promise kept through the 
Affordable Care Act, with 3.6 million seniors having saved $2.1 billion on prescription drugs in 2011, 
and the “doughnut hole” set to disappear by 2020.

 Promise to require insurers to cover pre-existing conditions, and to help low-income Americans 
afford insurance; promise kept through the A.C.A. (PolitiFact reminds that until the Supreme Court 
decides otherwise, the A.C.A. is now the law – so it rates as “Promise Kept”.)

 Promise to sign legislation, twice vetoed by President Bush, expanding the SCHIP program of 
health insurance for children from low-income families; promise kept two weeks after taking office.

 Promise to fully fund the Veterans Administration, add mental health professionals, locate more 
V.A. centers in rural areas and help homeless vets; promise kept with legislation enacted for 2010 
– along with programs at the Dept. of Labor to help wounded vets and others with disabilities find 
employment and transition from disability payments to paychecks.

 Promise to appoint a special advisor and fully fund the Violence Against Women Act; promise kept 
by the end of his first year with advisor named and funds appropriated through the Dept of Justice to 
assist victims of domestic violence and sexual assault.

 Promise to end the war in Iraq: On the president’s first full day in office, military leaders were told 
their new mission was to bring the war to an end. During the campaign, he said troops would be out 
in 16 months. His second month in office, he set the deadline at August 31, 2010 – which was more 
like 19 months, but it was a promise kept.

 Promise to support increasing the size of the Army and Marines, along with Special Ops and Civil 
Affairs. Keeping this promise helped the president keep another promise, that of extending troops’ 
time at home between deployments and ending the “stop-loss” program of forcing troops to stay 
beyond their commitments. Last June, Defense Sec. Robert Gates announced that “stop-loss” had 
ended – another promise kept. 

 Promise to end the practice of keeping war funding off-the-books in supplemental budget measures, 
allowing it to bypass appropriate oversight. Aside from a supplemental measure to fund the troop 
surge in Afghanistan, the promise was kept as war funding returned to the regular budget for 2010. 

 Promise to end torture; promise kept through an executive order signed two days after taking office. 

 Promise to reduce the threat from nuclear stockpiles; promise kept through Senate ratification of 
SALT-I, the first major arms treaty with Russia in eight years. 

 Promise to keep on working with other nations on non-proliferation, and expand federal programs 
to track biological weapons. 

 Promise to compile information on lobbying, ethics and campaign finance in a single searchable 
database; promise kept last week with the unveiling of “ethics.gov”.

 Promise to reverse President Bush’s efforts to prevent the timely release of presidential records; 
promise kept by executive order his first day in office. 

 Promise to support pre-school education and child care “to ease the burden on working families”; 
promise kept through funding in the February 2009 stimulus bill and Early Learning Challenge grants 
from the Dept. of Education.

 Promise to save $6 billion a year by ending government subsidies to private student lenders; 
promise kept with legislation saving $68 billion over eleven years, with half that going to expand Pell 
grants helping low-income students attend college.

 Promise to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy in the military; promise kept as the policy officially 
ended in September, 2011.

 Promise to enact rules to “restore accountability and responsibility” to financial markets; promise 
kept with the July 2010 signing of the financial reform law, providing for a Consumer Financial 
Protection Bureau, rules on mortgage lending, increased oversight over hedge funds and derivatives 
trading, and protections against “too big to fail” companies threatening the entire economy without 
massive taxpayer bailouts.

 “Over the years, I’ve repeatedly made clear that we would take action within Pakistan if we knew 
where bin Laden was. That is what we’ve done.” President Obama announced in May of 2011 that 
another promise had been kept.

 In the months to come, Mitt Romney and surrogates will try saddle the president with a poor 
record in keeping campaign promises, but there will be plenty of others who’ll gladly set the record 
straight. That’s a promise.


CLIFF SCHECTER

ROMNEY: DOWN & PRETTY CLOSE TO 
OUT IN GRAND CAYMAN

MY FATHER’S 
1959 TAX 
RETURN

I stumbled upon my father’s 
1959 income tax return a few 
years ago. How I long for the 
simplicity he enjoyed when 
he filed that year’s taxes.

For 1959, my father paid a 
measly 5 percent in federal 
taxes, even though his name 
wasn’t Rockefeller.

How did he do it? It was 
easy. For a year when the 
top income tax rate was 91 
percent -- President Kennedy 
would slash rates a few years 
later -- deductions were many.

Even middle-class people 
like my dad enjoyed their fair 
share of perks.

He was a heavy smoker then 
-- who wasn’t? -- and was 
able to deduct every penny he 
paid in cigarette taxes.

He was able to deduct every 
penny he paid in gasoline 
taxes. If we had such a perk 
now, the federal government 
would go broke (that is, more 
broke than it is now).

And he was able to deduct 
every penny he paid in state 
sales tax in Pennsylvania, 
another wonderful perk 
that would save the average 
Pennsylvanian a boatload in 
federal taxes every year.

He took a $600 tax deduction 
for each of his two dependents, 
my sisters Kathy and Krissy -- 
a lot of dough relative to his 
income.

For 2011, the deduction for 
each dependent is $3,750. 
On paper that is six times 
what my father got in 1959 
-- but if properly adjusted for 
inflation it would be about 
$5,000 today.

Here’s one that grabbed my 
attention: In 1959, he paid 
only 2.5 percent of his income 
toward FICA (then, Social 
Security; now, Social Security, 
Medicare and Medicaid).

Now, aside from a temporary 
2-percentage-point FICA tax 
break, the average employee 
pays 7.65 percent and his or 
her employer kicks in another 
7.65 percent.

I, being self-employed, have 
the pleasure of paying the full 
15.3 percent myself. Despite 
the 2-percentage-point break 
for 2011, I will write out a 
sizable check to bring current 
the more than $12,000 in 
FICA contributions I am on 
the hook for.

In any event, my father 
had his fair share of simple 
deductions in 1959, which 
helped offset his federal taxes. 
That helped him keep his total 
federal tax tab at a measly 5 
percent.

Better yet, his tax form was 
one sheet of paper printed 
on both sides. He had no 
calculator, nor did he need 
one.

He did a test run in pencil on 
one copy of the form, then 
finalized a second in ink and 
mailed it in; he always got a 
refund.

Which is why I long for the 
simplicity he enjoyed back 
then.

In 1959, the federal tax code 
was about 15,000 pages. 
Today, it is more than 70,000 
pages.

Unlike my father, who was 
able to calculate his taxes 
quickly, I spend days getting 
mine in order, so I can hand 
them off to my CPA, so he can 
tell me I owe lots more than I 
feared I would.

This year, after all my 
deductions for business 
and pain and suffering -- 
including the agitations of 
owning a few rental properties 
and investing a boat load of 
dough renovating one -- I will 
pay about 25 percent of my 
gross income in federal, state 
and local taxes.

I consider myself extremely 
lucky at that rate.

Still, as April 17 approaches 
(April 15’s on a Sunday this 
year), I look back fondly on 
1959. I didn’t pay a dime in 
taxes that year. I didn’t waste 
a moment getting hundreds 
of receipts in order and 
panicking when my CPA told 
me what I owed.

I wasn’t born until 1962.

©2012 Tom Purcell. Tom 
Purcell, a freelance writer 
is also a humor columnist 
for the Pittsburgh Tribune- 
Review. 

TOM Purcell

Rick 
Santorum has 
finally sauntered 
off the big stage, 
leaving him with 
plenty of time 
to lament the 
length of high 
school girls’ 
skirts and bark at 
the moon about 
its nocturnal 
promiscuity.

So you’d think it 
would be high 
times for Team Romney, right? Think again.

What once seemed like the GOP’s race to lose, 
or at the very least a spirited general election 
contest, has become a deconstruction and 
defenestration of Mitt Romney and what 
remains of his party’s brand. To put it in Yogi-
Berra parlance, for the Romney Campaign, 
“it got late early out there.” 

Sure Santorum is technically gone, but 
he’ll be with Romney for the rest of this 
race. Every time the former Massachusetts 
Governor has to answer to an independently-
inclined woman in the Milwaukee or 
Philadelphia suburbs about why he’d “get 
rid” of Planned Parenthood,” or explain to a 
Latino family in Las Vegas or Phoenix why 
he’d “veto” the Dream Act, the ever-cherubic 
apparition of a sweater-vest-clad Santorum 
will be smiling gaily over his shoulder.
There is no doubt some things are beyond 
Romney’s control. The falling unemployment 
rate. The Dow’s hitting and now hovering 
around 13,000. The delay in creating those 
3 jobs building that car elevator thingy 
that takes you between the garage and the 
stadium-sized basement in Romney’s 3rd 
house (and favorite structure not located 
in the Grand Caymans). These were all 
unexpected.

But not putting Santorum away early while 
outspending him like 9:1, so that the social-
issue firebrand could stick around and pull 
the primary so far right Attila the Hun would 
have been a moderate? Mitt has only himself 
and his severely marvelous personality to 
blame for that.

The end result–Romney is so unpopular 
right now that if his dog Seamus were still 
around, he might put Romney in the dog 
kennel on top of the car.

According to CNN polling, the former 
governor will be the only presidential 
candidate since 1996 to exit the primaries 
with a net negative approval rating.

If you want the thumbnail sketch, just take 
a look at North Carolina. This is a state 
President Obama barely won in 2008, 
bringing it into swing state territory for the 
first time in a generation of electing right-
winger Jesse Helms to the Senate consistently. 
Changing demographics have moved the 
state to the Left, no doubt, but going into this 
election most observers would call it a lean-
Republican state if they were being honest.

Yet, at this point, Obama is up 5 points, 49 
percent to 44 percent. And the internals of 
a Public Policy Polling survey tells the story 
of how badly Romney is doing. This man 
who seems like he has been running for 
President since the Ford Administration, 
is only viewed positively by 29 percent of 
voters in the Tar Heel State, with a whopping 
58 percent viewing him unfavorably.

Basically, he’d have to make a pretty steep 
climb north just to reach the favorability 
level of Kanye West or encephalitis.

It is not over yet for Romney, as there are 
many unpredictable things that can happen 
in life and politics (think terrorist attack, 
economic crash, or perhaps mass hypnosis 
of American voters). But one thing is for 
sure–he’d better start Etch A Sketching. Stat.
Cliff Schecter is the President of Libertas, LLC, a 
progressive public relations firm, and the author 
of the 2008 bestseller “The Real McCain.” Email 
Cliff at cliffschecter@gmail.com.