Why We Cannot Pass a Budget

"With the exception of reconciliation legislation, it effectively takes 60 votes to consider any legislation in the Senate so it really does not matter whether the resolution has been adopted; if you have 60, you can consider the legislation, if you don't, you can't.
The bottom line is the budget process set out in the Budget Act works pretty well when the Congress can agree on budget policies. When they cannot, no process in the world can make things work smoothly, but Congress muddles through and does what absolutely has to be done (like keeping the government from shutting down or defaulting on the debt). Not having a budget resolution in place is a symptom of the inability to reach agreement – not the cause of Congress not being able to accomplish things."

Irresistable Quotes

Mark Mckinnon(R) former aide to Bush and McCain comments on his party “ Nothing on taxes. Nothing on gun control. Nothing on climate change. Nothing on gay marriage. Nothing on immigration reform (or an incremental, piece-by-piece approach, which will result in nothing). It's a very odd situation when the losing party is the party refusing to negotiate. It may be how you disrupt, but it is not how you govern, or how you ever hope to regain a majority.”

Understanding Afghanistan

Afghanistan is an impoverished nation with currently unharvestable natural resources. There are some estimates in the trillions of dollars with oil in the north, gold, iron ore, copper and lithium. Ongoing conflicts prevent exploration of these resources. Their largest cash crop is poppy. Like most US conflicts, we funded the opposition to fight against Russia in the late 1970’s. That opposition included Bin Laden and the mujahidin. When the Russians left in 1989, we left as well. Hook and Spanier' 'American Foreign Policy Since WWII'  define this moment as our ‘benign neglect’ when we walked away from a country with the warlords in different regions fighting for power and control over parts of Afghanistan and the opium trade. These conflicts continued until 1996 when the ultra-religious Taliban took control. They imposed the most conservative Sharia law which is a strict religious doctrine as well as the chosen tool of oppression and instigation of fear under their brutal leadership. Al Qaeda and Bin Laden took up residence in Afghanistan and shared a mutual hate for the US, although the Taliban was more locally focused and Al Qaeda was globally Western in their attention.

We invaded Afghanistan after 9/11 in our pursuit of retribution against Bin Laden, Al Qaeda and their Taliban hosts with Operation Anaconda. It has been suggested that we failed to provide the requested support needed to capture Bin Laden in the fight of Tora Bora because we were two weeks out from invading Iraq. Certainly getting Bin Laden would have diffused public desire to invade Iraq if it was perceived that we had gotten the man who engineered 9/11. Bush gave his ‘it’s not about one man’ speech  to signal the end of his pursuit of Bin Laden and said that we needed to pursue the larger war on terror with a new target on Iraq.

In Afghanistan we were readying to start the half attempt at ‘nation building’ under the Bonn Accords sponsored by the UN. In reality, we pushed many of our resources into the mess we were creating in Iraq while we put a corrupt government in power in Afghanistan. Karzai was our president of choice. Under their new election rules, women must comprise twenty five percent of legislator positions. Having been such an oppressed population, the Afghan women were unprepared for this role but were eager to learn.

What we did accomplish in Afghanistan was a reversal of policies imposed by the Taliban. Girls were put back in school. Unlike Iraqi women who went to school, earned college degrees with many wearing western clothes, Afghan women were extremely oppressed with no rights what so ever. Music not only is now allowed, they have their own type of Afghanistan Idol on TV. Although this may sound like progress, I remember an interview with the producer and he said he is regularly threatened and takes great security measures to stay alive.  

I believe the success of any society is centered on the role of women. When women do better, families and the communities they live in do better. The NYTimes reported that Afghanistan was listed among the top three most dangerous countries for women ranked by the Thompson Reuters Foundation. They have one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world, little access to healthcare and education and economic opportunity are scarce. The Human Rights Watch paint a similar grim picture for women as armed or Taliban insurgents attack girls’ schools, women in leadership roles and local police arrest women who resist forced marriages. The UN News reports "Once again, reality confounds perception in this country," Mr. Ging said. "So many brave Afghans are fighting for human rights and women's rights; all they need is modest support from the international community." Most attacks occur in more rural communities where resistance to social change is high and protection is low, but insurgent infiltration into the more densely populated areas are felt as they propagate fear and intimidation through bombing or shootings.

Only fifty percent of the Afghan population now lives in areas now controlled by Afghan Security Forces. There are over 150,000 members on the Afghan National Police Force comprising Afghan Civil Police, Border Police, Uniform Police and Special Forces with women accounting for less than 1% of the total force because of cultural hurdles. There is significant integration of different sects, although in areas dominated by say the Pashtuns, there are largely Pashtun police because they tend to stay local.

There are only an estimated 100 or so suspected Al Qaeda insurgents that remain in Afghanistan which has been reported in mainstream media. The most recent assessment of the government of Afghanistan by the Department of Defense in April 2012 is “The Afghan Government is gradually developing the capacity to provide stable, effective, and responsive governance to the Afghan population. However, the government’s long-term sustainability is jeopardized by multiple factors, including widespread corruption, dependence on international aid and mentoring support, and an imbalance of power that favors the executive branch over the legislative and judicial branches. Limited human capacity with appropriate formal training or civilian education within the civil service sector also impedes the development of stable and sustainable government across Afghanistan.”

Afghanistan was in the dark ages when we invaded their country. The Taliban culture was extremely oppressive in a society that was impoverished and largely ruled by regional warlords. We occupied the country while doing little to assist establishing a new government and institutions because our focus and resources were directed towards Iraq. If we could reflect on our own country's struggles with human rights and the fight against cultural barriers to change, we can understand that it takes decades and generations to make those changes. It has only been a single decade of trying to transform Afghanistan and bring it into the current century. The majority of Afghans support these changes but their lives are threatened for embracing them by the insurgents and locals who resist it. I believe the defense report made clear the impediments working against potential long term success. I believe there will be a civil war again due to the culture that remains entrenched especially in those communities not under control of the Afghan Security Forces. The pervasive corruption can undermine and delegitimize the current Afghan government. Support for it will be critical as their strength will certainly be tested. It is not about a cut and run policy in Afghanistan. We have been there for over ten years. No matter how much money we spend or what we do to try to nation build, are mission there cannot be achieved. It's time to come home.

 

Afghanistan: A Human Rights Tragedy. 2012, Nov 20. UN News. Retrieved from http://www.rawa.org/temp/runews/2012/11/30/afghanistan-a-human-rights-tragedy-2.html#ixzz2Ef0wuztq  Nov9, 2012

Bennhold, Katrin. 2011, June 15. Afghan Women Most Imperiled, Report Finds. New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/15/world/europe/15iht-women15.html?_r=0   Nov 9,2012

Human Rights in Afghanistan. 2012 Nov.  Human Rights Watch. Retrieved from http://www.hrw.org/asia/afghanistan   Nov 9,2012

Report on Progress toward Security and Stability in Afghanistan. 2012, April. Council on Foreign Relations. Retrieved from http://www.cfr.org/afghanistan/report-progress-toward-security-stability-afghanistan-april-2012/p28138 Nov 9, 2012

United States Plan for Sustaining the Afghan National Security Forces. 2012, April. Department of Defense. Retrieved from www.defense.gov/pubs/pdfs/Report_Final_SecDef_04_27_12.pdf   Nov 9.2012

Iraq: Our Failed American Foreign Policy

 

After 10 years of occupation and 'nation building', I believe we left Iraq largely in a mess.  It is necessary to address both Iraq and the northern Kurds when discussing Iraq as a whole. The Kurds continue to embrace their decade’s long drive for independence. The fact that they sit on the bulk of Iraqi oil does not enhance the likelihood that Iraq will let this happen. It is necessary to give historical perspective of the Kurds to offer insight to the conflicts.

The Kurds are the oldest ethnic population with a unique culture despite their fall to various ruling powers. They have always struggled for independence but were caught in the crossfire of superpower struggles and the US was complicit in supporting the destruction of the Kurdish Democratic Party post WWII. The Kurds are the causality always caught in the fighting between larger powers which has only strengthened and kept alive their sentiments about independence.  Barzani of the 1970’s aspired to be the “51st state of the USA”. No one, including the US, wanted the Kurds to be independent of Iraq because they viewed the ‘semi-autonomous’ status of the Kurds as a means to keep Iraq a weaker state. The US true to historical form under Kissenger/Nixon, abandoned the Kurds when the Iraqis came down hard on them. We also refused to admit any Kurds for political asylum in the 1970’s.  

Marriana Charountaki , author of ‘The Kurds and US Foreign Policy’ describes in her well researched scholastic book five different phases of  US foreign policy towards the Kurds. The book critic, Mohammed Shareef of Durham University is more aligned with my opinion that the changes US foreign policy related to the Kurds were a direct response to our changing strategies rather than Charountaki’s assumptions that the Kurds shaped American foreign policy. It is only a difference of cause and effect. Seems this book would be a fascinating read.

The Kurds, after being mass murdered by chemical WMD, were long protected from Saddam under the no fly zone by the USA under Operation Provide Comfort in 1992. They had developed a significant level of autonomy from the Iraqi government by establishing their own defense and government institutions. Although initially wrought with infighting, they grew strong and independent. They were also largely unaffected by the US invasion because they were allied with us. They did not suffer the kinds of infrastructure destruction that places like Bagdad did. It is difficult if not impossible to scratch back the independence that the Kurds enjoyed under the protection of the US no fly zone. They advanced independent institutions and a military that presents a formidable opposition to the Iraqi military.

The Kurds live on top of the Iraqi oil reserves and if they were to achieve independence, Iraq would lose its largest income source. The Kurds could see themselves as another Quatar…small but rich. Kurdish President Barzani (interesting that there was a Barzani leader back in the 70’s…any relation?) is in conflict with Iraq because of his independent oil deals that conflict with Iraqi laws. It has been a multigenerational goal of the Kurds for independence from Iraq and their time of security and independence from Iraq has only emboldened and strengthened this aspiration. There is a large Kurdish population within the Turkish borders and Turkey views Kurdish independence as a potential threat. We have alliances with Turkey and I would lean toward us not supporting any attempt for the Kurds to establish their independence. It would be seen as a threat to Turkish borders and I believe Iran would feel the same. 

In Iraq, support for the USA will put your life at risk. I would suggest that there is little ability for US influence in Iraqi stability or survival of its fragile democracy. We are unwelcome by its leadership. Our failed policies there are the root cause of negative Iraqi sentiment towards the US within the Iraqi government. We invaded their country based on false reasons and lacked any post invasion plan which allowed for wide spread chaos and dismantling of government institutions. When we tried to clean up the mess we made, it had become an impossible mission. Bush’s statement of ‘mission accomplished’ and its photo op was premature and arrogant which was characteristic of his presidency and his American foreign policy.

Sectarian power struggles between the Shiite and Sunni is so evident that Shiite President al-Maliki sent out an arrest warrant for Sunni Vice President al-Hashimi with two death sentences to be delivered if he leaves the care and protection of the Turks where he is in exile. Ethnic warring continues between Kurds and the Arabs with no resolution in sight. Maliki has been slowly empowering his office on a slow walk to totalitarianism or dictatorship.

The USA lacked a post invasion plan and dismantled the Iraqi military and disenfranchised what should have been developed into a pillar of stability for the country. Power shifted from the minority Sunni to the majority Shiite as sectarian divisions were reignited. There were neighborhoods where Sunni were intermarrying with Shiite, but that sort of integration is now impossible. The civil war between them had begun. Iraq had no Al Qaeda before we invaded, but they are entrenched there now. Iraqi leadership has been engaged in ethnic cleansing as millions have fled the country.

As the world’s economy slows and limps along, so does the flow of foreign investments into Iraq for infrastructure rebuilding. It is a good thing for Iraq that their oil production and Iranian sanctions have led to an offset of funding to continue progress in investments in such key areas as electricity, transportation and provision of potable water. The predictors for Iraqi economic growth are encouraging as they dig themselves out from under the political disorder we contributed to. I do not see democracy as we know it flourishing given the ethnic and sectarian divisions and resulting conflicts. I expect the Iraqi relationship with Iran to become stressed in the future as Iran will seek to have greater influence and Iraq will start to fight against it. Perhaps a loose alliance against the US will be the end outcome since both their leaderships, not necessarily their people, have a well earned distrust and dislike of the US and our foriegn policies.

 Sources:

Brief History of Kurdistan. Retrieved from   https://www.mtholyoke.edu/~jlshupe/history.html  Nov 9, 2012.

Kamber, Micheal. 2012, Dec. 7. Iraq. New York Times. Retrieved from http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/iraq/index.html

Opportunities for Infrastructure Financing in Iraq. 2010, April.  MENA-OECD Investment Programme. Retrieved from http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=web&cd=2&sqi=2&ved=0CDUQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.oecd.org%2Fcountries%2Firaq%2F45172287.pdf&ei=s7zEUJaSOueW0QGUuYCgCw&usg=AFQjCNESQiXKpflWPi-UREywCGfKUYTs8A&sig2=mJLTEK85cnP3fKoSCn3lTw

Shareef, Mohammed. 2011.The Kurds and US Foreign Policy: International Relations in the Middle East since 1945. Insight Turkey. Retrieved from http://www.insightturkey.com/the-kurds-and-us-foreign-policy-international-relations-in-the-middle-east-since-1945/book-reviews/70  Nov 9,2012.

My Curiosity

When we consider our history of foreign policy, given how many military coups we initiated against democratically elected officials, we can hardly say we did it in the name of democracy and freedom. We supported fascist (ruled by corporations) and oligarchical (ruled by a few wealthy) governments in their place. So why is it so far a stretch to believe that those forces are not at work in our own country??

Irresistable Quotes

As Elizabeth Warren proclaimed: “You built a factory out there? Good for you,” yet “you moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for; you hired workers the rest of us paid to educate; you were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for.” And then she br...

illiantly defined the community-democracy partnership: “Now look, you built a factory and it turned into something terrific, or a great idea? God bless. Keep a big hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is, you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along.”

Restoration of Faith in Government: In the Gut of Party Ideologies

The party divisions can largely be explained on the subtle emphasis of what we champion as our strongest value. Work hard and reap the rewards, has been our mantra for generations and the definition of what the American Dream and success means to us individually. We wrongly assume that our culture is flush with opportunity when much of this is directly related to where you are born, and the status you were born into. This perception narrows our view when our lack of knowledge, beyond our own sphere of reality, is skewed by our own personal and individual experience.

An important note is to differentiate the ‘New Modern Conservative Party’(NMCP) that has hijacked the Republican Party from what we have historically known as the conservative wing of our political system. The NMCP is the extremist minority now driving the Republican’s platform. Republicans frequently verbalize their disdain for the ‘freeloaders’ or the ‘entitlement-recipients’. Most Republicans support seniors and those in the depths of despair with no other options. Republicans, as a good friend has told me, are not heartless. But the wide net of “welfare” naturally captures all of the above. Democrats are aware of, and frown upon, the same “freeloaders” but tend to look at the broader group and picture as a whole. They do not put on the front burner the “freeloader”. Democrats recognize first those who have fallen on hard times or have been trapped in the cycle of poverty. They are far more willing to invest in solutions to break the cycle of poverty and give greater opportunity to those willing to seize it. They are willing to separate out entitlements for seniors, disabled or the truly needy, rather than throw away the baby with the bath water screaming ‘we must cut government!’.

The term ‘glass ceiling’ was coined late in the 20^th century and in 1964 Affirmative Action was a response to the entrenched inequity in the much touted land of opportunity. It was expected to be a temporary measure to help break the cycle of oppression. Affirmative Action has been controversial and is itself discriminatory in its effort to reconcile racial and gender oppression. Over 50 years later it is grossly naive to believe that discrimination has been cleansed from the fabric of our culture. The current attack on women’s issues and denial of equal pay for equal work is but one indicator. I was taught ‘walk a mile in my shoes’ before making a judgment. I have not lived the life of one who has dealt with the care of an elderly parent,  lost my job with no relief in sight, suffered a loss of my home, had no health insurance, reached the limit of health insurance for a sick child, or have personally felt the pains of discrimination. I can empathize, but it is not what I am living. My life goes on largely unaffected by those whose lives have been dealt a hard blow.

Unfortunately, the attempts to equalize opportunity have left us with the consequences of ethnic divisions and have polarized our country when unqualified participants are given opportunity over more qualified applicants. The integration we sought has at times realized a backfire because we are failing to hit the roots of oppression or address the American psyche of expectation. We can argue whether these laws are fair and just, and wring our hands in turmoil, but there is no justice until we reach the highest level of enlightenment, justice for all.

In our healthcare system, we really don’t have to be the ‘do everything’ society when it does not change the outcome. However, most healthcare providers feel compelled to do just that. If we stopped financially reimbursing poor outcomes, the behavior will change. If Medicaid fraud is punished in a more personal way, with penalties and jail time for all involved, it would go a long way to discourage the inclination to do so. In Massachusetts, alone, fourteen pharmaceutical companies within a five year period defrauded Medicaid of $240 million. If we demanded they pay it back in total restitution rather than slap them on the wrist, admit no wrong doing and pay a 10% fine, perhaps we could alter this successful business model that rewards the top with salary and bonus incentives to rob us blind. Our capacity to reign in government waste and abuse requires us to not to just look down, but also up. Rewarding Wall Street with taxpayer bailouts accomplished only one thing…reward for bad behavior. It is not just the individual. It is corporations. We fail to look up because we perpetuate the delusion that they alone create jobs.  We should be grateful. We can ignore the outrageous salaries and bonuses because they ‘earned’ it. With all our productivity gains, no financial rewards as our median incomes fall, we should just be ‘lucky we have a job’ and understand we made a choice in our career options and somehow deserve not to be rewarded for excellent performance because we did not earn it. Apparently hard work should only be rewarded if you chose the right career or position of power. This concept kills the American standard of work hard and you will be rewarded.   

Everyone holds their own belief system regarding different the entitlement cultures in America. Some look down and frown upon the government employee who has a retirement pension system that does not comes close to their retirement option expectations of financial security. Or the disabled ‘freeloader’ we are certain could work doing something or anything other than ‘us’ paying for him to do nothing. Or those that abuse our system by those who carrying multiple identities to de-fraud us of our taxpayer dollars. Or even those who have inheritances that allow them to buy $300,000 dollar cars and never have to work a day in their lives. It is the majority of Americans that embodies the value system in which we believe we are the ones who work hard for our success. This is amplified when one witnesses the struggles of family or friends who work hard to achieve success and the visible physical and mental wear and tear is evidence of it.

Perhaps we should finger print all those receiving government benefits, including children to prevent abuse of our system or at least create some sort of iron clad identification system. The ACLU may argue that it is discrimination. I would say it seems more like common sense to me. That would eliminate the three social security numbers for one individual or children being claimed by multiple parents. It would also help with Medicare and Medicaid fraud from healthcare providers. I believe this would be opposed not just by the individual, but big companies as well because many are engaging in fraudulent abuse of our taxpayer dollars. Perhaps we could incentivize voluntary sterilization programs or expand access to birth control instead of hampering access in order to temper unwanted pregnancies and the unwanted children that Republicans and Democrats alike believe are problematic to the straining the government systems.

America is the perceived land of endless opportunity. We all send our children on searches for the ‘one in a million’ shot at hitting it big in a professional sport. We sacrifice old standards of all eating dinner together to run from town to town and state to state to embrace the concept of ‘he/she could be the future star of his/her particular sport. The reality is it is one in a million. What do we do with the other 999,999 kids who don’t make it? We champion that one in a million to hold everyone else accountable. The bar is there and we are conveniently lulled into denying that barriers exist. Do we really believe that the town’s school system does not matter? Or that parental involvement is essential and what do we do when the parents are working two jobs, or are disabled or otherwise absent? What do we do then? Create a throw away child and perpetuate what we most despise in our culture? Are we then complicit in creating it?

Our fear of redistribution of wealth is the boogeyman to signify stealing from the rich to give to the freeloaders, but yet no government can exist without it, not even a capitalistic society. It is the measure of redistribution that creates a public school system that generates educated work forces, or develops necessary roads, rail and bridges to deliver goods or a responsive government that does not allow its citizenry to starve. Redistribution does not require an equal share to everyone regardless of one’s efforts, but it is the only means to get to anything that may resemble an equal opportunity. Otherwise, why do we ask about the status of the school system when we are relocating? It is a shared view between Republicans and Democrats to provide the tools to do better or to make a life for yourself. It is not expected to create a lifelong dependence on government. We are a nation with a majority of centrists whether Democrat, Old Republican or Independent. We believe in and value hard work and being rewarded for those efforts whether we are at the bottom or at the top. There is nothing more disenchanting as when your benefits are cut and your CEO gets a large bonus.

We all have our ‘to do lists’. It may be “I have to clean up the leaves”. It may be “I need to find a good contractor to build my million dollar room”. It may be “I need to find food or shelter for my kids”. We all experience life in different ways, but let us not be blinded to the reality that not everyone is sharing the same experience. That working hard is no longer a guarantee of what we believe to be our emblems of success and financial reward and each struggle is defined differently by those whose unique experience is their individual reality.