AN OPEN LETTER TO AN UNITED STATES SENATOR

16 June 2010

Dear Senator;

Last night President Barack Obama gave a national Oval Office address to the American people. It dealt mostly with the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, an economic and environmental catastrophe for the people and wildlife of the Gulf Coast.

Yet, more alarming than the fact that President Obama had no answers on how to “pug the leak,” or why his administration has acted so slowly to bring all available resources to the problem – is the shameless use of this catastrophe to further his political agenda, i.e. cap and trade legislation. It should be an embarrassment to the President of the United States and his supporters that he would proffer Rahm Emanuel’s sordid bromide, “you never let a serious crisis go to waste,” as a panacea to this historic American disaster.

With, Cap and Trade as with the rest of the Obama legislative agenda: only special interest groups will profit; it will further economically ruin the American economy; and fail to address the problem. What it does do, is to perpetuate the twin hoax of global warming and that green energy can meet all our energy needs.

After a year and a half of the Obama Administration and a Congress controlled by Democrats in both the House and Senate, let’s add up the score:

1. TARP – a transfer of taxpayer’s wealth to bailout the Bankers and Hedge Funds.

2. US Auto Makers -- a transfer of taxpayer’s wealth to bailout the Auto Worker’s Union.

3. Stimulus Bill -- a transfer of taxpayer’s wealth to bailout the Public Sector Employee’s Unions, i.e. State and County Workers, Teacher Unions.

4. AIG Bailout – a transfer of taxpayer’s wealth to bailout again Bankers and Hedge Funds both foreign, i.e. German, Swiss, French, English, etc., and domestic.

5. Health Care Reform – destroy the best healthcare system in the world, bankrupt the US Economy, and do nothing to correct the real problem in healthcare, which is Tort Reform, and hence pay off America’s Trial Lawyers at the expense of the American people.

6. Financial Reform – a 3,000-page reform legislation (House and Senate bills) that nobody has read, that addresses the wrong problems, and that no one understands. Buried in those 3,000 pages are numerous clauses and sub-clauses, codicils, caveats, and amendments, to say nothing of the rule-making process, that will surely complicate reform and create another giant Federal bureaucracy. Where have I seen that before? Oh yes, health care reform. As in heath care, the Obama Administration and the Democratic Congress wouldn't do what's needed because of their friends, in this case, the "banksters," and "hedgies," and "AIGs." We need Glass-Steagall. A 34 page document that served America for 60 years. We need Banks that are Banks, and not casinos.

7. Military Retirement Pay – finally, after the trillions of dollars the Obama Administration and the Democratic Congress authorized to the Bankers, Hedge Funds, AIG, Auto Unions, Public Sector Unions, Teachers Union, Trail Lawyers (indirectly), and ACORN, all at the American tax payers expense – for the first time in recent memory Obama and his Democratic cohorts’ could not find “one cent” for an Annual Cost of Living increase for America’s retired military.

Yes, George W. Bush, did support and sign into law TARP and the Auto Union bailout, but I never liked him much either.

So what’s the score? I have it:

Special Interests Everything;
The American People Nothing.

In sum, we need to learn from others when they speak good sense. In George Orwell’s Animal Farm, the phrase “ all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others,” is astonishingly germane to the Obama agenda this past year and a half. It is only the Special Interests* who thrive in the Obama Administration, to detriment of the greatness and welfare of the American people.

In the last analysis, you don’t represent me Senator.


* Economist James M. Buchanan and other "public choice" theorists explain, a special interest is any community that attempts to gain a particular advantage from government.

BP, Obama, and the United States Coast Guard?

In the Ron Howard movie Apollo 13, the 1970 US Space Program mission to the moon had to be aborted because a fault in electrical equipment inside one of the Service Module’s oxygen tanks produced an explosion. The response by NASA was immediate and adroit. Its leader gave his agency one critical directive – ‘work the problem people.’

The BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is an economic and environmental catastrophe for the people and wildlife of the Gulf Coast. As a doctorate student in Public Policy with specialization in implementation, I was taught that bureaucracy was not a pejorative term. Yet, what we must understand, and this is the critical point, is that you should not ask or expect any bureaucracy to do something that is not part of its mission and institutional capacity.

The mission of the United States Coast Guard has five fundamental roles (Mission Statement US Coast Guard Website www.uscg.mil/top/missions):

Maritime Safety: Eliminate deaths, injuries, and property damage associated with maritime transportation, fishing, and recreational boating. The Coast Guard's motto is Semper Paratus—(Always Ready), and the service is always ready to respond to calls for help at sea.

Maritime Security: Protect America's maritime borders from all intrusions by: (a) halting the flow of illegal drugs, aliens, and contraband into the United States through maritime routes; (b) preventing illegal fishing; and (c) suppressing violations of federal law in the maritime arena.

Maritime Mobility: Facilitate maritime commerce and eliminate interruptions and impediments to the efficient and economical movement of goods and people, while maximizing recreational access to and enjoyment of the water.

National Defense: Defend the nation as one of the five U.S. armed services. Enhance regional stability in support of the
National Security Strategy, utilizing the Coast Guard’s unique and relevant maritime capabilities.

Protection of Natural Resources: Eliminate environmental damage and the degradation of natural resources associated with maritime transportation, fishing, and recreational boating.

It is clear that the Obama Administration made a critically mistake appointing the US Coast Guard as the lead US Government department/agency to deal with the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. This is a catastrophic disaster that requires expertise and knowledge of oil drilling in deep waters, geology, deep-sea exploration, etc. The US Coast Guard does not have this expertise. You wouldn’t send the US Public Health Service on a combat mission to Afghanistan.

The Obama Administration was slow to act, did not correctly assess the full extend of damage this spill will cause, failed to expeditiously bring together the “best and brightest” to work the problem, and assigned the problem to the wrong department.

This analysis is not meant to degrade the capabilities of the US Coast Guard or the leadership of its Commandant, Admiral Bob Papp. Rather, in the last analysis, you can blame BP or some other private company for causing the spill; still it is the Obama Administration that has failed America.