STUFF POTUS left out of SOTU

"He shall from time to time give to the Congress information of the state of the union, and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary ..."-Article II, Sect. 3 of the United States Constitution.

Essentially what this means, and with help from Kenny Rogers, the President drops in to tell us what condition our condition is in.

In reality it's become an evening of pomp and circumstance with little in the way of substance. Afterwards a representative of the "Loyal Opposition" gives their take on things followed by hours of punditry by Washington Insiders who explain to us folks on Main Street USA what was really said. That crowd long ago forgot we can think for ourselves.

An evening of Hoo-Hah. Ho-Hum.

So with help from some pretty smart folks including a recent presentation by Greg Anton, a nationally recognized CPA, here are the parts the President left out, at least about the deficit. Mr. Anton has even been invited to the White House for his input on our growing financial mess. He said they were polite but didn't pay much attention.

A bit of a preamble is in order. I'll be using the word "Trillion" a lot here as in dollars. So just how much is a Trillion?

• One Trillion Dollars is $1,000,000,000,000.
• A trillion dollar bills stacked on top of each other would reach 68,000 miles. That's a third of a way to the moon. Ask Gene Cernan, he's been there.
• A trillion seconds is 32,000 (thirty-two thousand) years. That's a long time.

OK, hopefully this helps you understand just how big a number a trillion really is.

When President Obama took office, the National Deficit, at least according to the way the government tracks such things was 11.5 trillion dollars. Now it's about 16.5 trillion dollars. The Republicans make a big deal about this. But a fellow by the name of George Bush helped get us to the 11.5 trillion figure and despite all the blather about Bill Clinton and his "Budget Surplus" he chipped in too. This scam has been going on for decades.

So here we sit with a National Deficit of $16,700,000,000,000. Or so the government tell us. Actually they're fibbing a bit. OK, they're fibbing a lot.

Folks like Greg Anton who understand things like balance and loss sheets put the actual deficit at over SIXTY-SEVEN TRILLION DOLLARS! (All caps for emphasis and assuming you've grasped the earlier bullet points by this time)

You see, the government doesn't do its books like we have to here on Main Street. They get to leave out all sorts of short and long term liabilities and stuff. Like, Social Security and Medicare. Well, they are listed, but as footnotes and in no way reflected as liabilities. So a lot of money is "off the books." If we filed our taxes that way, we'd end up in jail.

Here's where we're really at: (Bullet point alert!!)

• The net worth of all the households here in the United States, houses, cars, lawnmowers and assorted knick knacks etc is around $65 Trillion. 
•  Our real debt, including real obligations as a nation is the aforementioned $67.7 Trillion.

If the United States was a mortgage, we'd be underwater. We owe more than the country is worth. So we are underwater. The amount we owe continues to grow, despite what you heard last night and what you've been hearing for years and years and years. It's growing so fast in fact, that countries like China are having a harder and harder time buying up our debt. There's simply too much of it.

I'll be blunt. Our government, both the Executive and Legislative Branches have been misleading us. An irony because they were elected to ...lead us instead. Democrats and Republicans alike.

If you'd really like to dig into all this, check out a non-partisan group of caring Americans at www.FixTheDebt.org. 

I urge you to spend some time and do your own research. You might also want to read the findings and solutions of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Debt Reform. It's about 65 pages long and as they say, a "Real page-turner." Senator Alan K. Simpson (R-Wyoming) and Erskine Bowles (Former Clinton Chief-of-Staff) chaired the bi-partisan group at the request of President Obama. They did their job, presented the report to the President who then stuck it in a drawer after the photo-op.

The report does offer solutions. But there is little if any sugar to help the medicine go down. It's going to take more than Warren Buffett paying more taxes. With around 50% of the population not paying any Federal Income Tax, most will have to start paying something.

Social Security is secure, although retirement ages will have to be raised in the coming years. There will also have to be means testing. Sorry Warren, no Social Security for you or your secretary. As for Medicare and Medicaid, we have simply over-promised far too long. There just is no way to meet coming demands. Defense will have to be cut. Before you get all lathered up over that, we spend more on defense than any country in the world. According to folks like Al Simpson and Erskine Bowles we spend more on defense than the next 15 nations below us combined. And most of them are allies! Also look for stuff like the tax deduction on mortgage interest to be phased out. As a bit of a sidebar, Canada has never had that deduction or anything like Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac or Snoop Snoop Poopy Dog. Yet they have a higher percentage of home ownership than we do.

To be absolutely clear, we have no choice in the matter. Well, unless we want to end up like Greece with 25% unemployment and rioting in the streets. Sadly, it might take something that drastic to really get our attention.

So, all stuff left out last night.

We can get out of this mess if we act now. As in immediately if not sooner. We have a role in all this. If like me, you belong to an organization like the South Metro Denver Chamber of Commerce, you get to meet our elected representatives to Washington. Ask them, politely, to stop lying and start fixing and if they don't you'll work hard to make sure they lose their jobs.

You can also write, phone, e-mail these folks or best of all, show up to their Town Hall Meetings. Be polite, but firm. Tell them to stop lying and to start doing. Don't, I repeat don't count on many of the media to ask the questions. They're too, uh, obtuse to ask. One journalist I do recommend you read is Al Lewis of Dow Jones Newswires. He's done the math.

We're under water. Let's not let this nation drown. Like the Titanic, we're running out of lifeboats.

Brian Olson
Owner/Consultant
Conversation Starters Public Relations
"We start the conversation about you"

Colorado Energy Office Poster Child of Gov't Waste

As a member of the Business Leaders for Responsible Government of the South Metro Denver Chamber of Commerce, I pay close attention to how government spends our money. Maybe I should say how government wastes our money.

As I write this the national deficit is well north of $16 Trillion. If you still haven't figured out why we're in such a deep, dark and dangerous hole, look no further than the Colorado Energy Office.

In this story by 9News KUSA, we find out the folks at the energy office have been a bit lax in accounting for our money.

Some examples:

• The agency spent $1500.00 to send an employee for training. This after the employee had resigned a month earlier.
• Another line item listed $25,000.00 for "memberships." To what we don't know.
• All sorts of our money was spent on travel, conferences and the like with no expense reports filed by those who went.

It all adds up. Big-time.

The Colorado Energy Office can't account for $252 Million dollars in spending between 2009 and 2012. WTF? (I'm not referring to the last three days of the work week)

The Pueblo Chieftain reports that "Auditors found that between 2007 and 2012, the agency had no comprehensive annual budget for 34 programs and couldn’t determine the amount spent on any of them. Auditors reviewed eight of those programs in depth, finding that staff couldn’t identify goals or whether any of them had been achieved."

Most of the money came from "Federal Stimulus Funds." A better name would be OUR TAX DOLLARS. Where the heck do people, especially at agencies like the Colorado gang think this money comes from?

The bottom line here is this isn't by any measure an isolated incident. Not just in Colorado but the entire government from Federal to the most local of agencies.

Meanwhile Colorado Energy Office interim director, Kevin Patterson, told lawmakers that fixes have begun. Too late Kevin. We don't need fixes, we need to get the money back, we need those who blew it on a good time to be punished. It's called accountability.

But these days, government and accountability is an oxymoron. Thus, "We the People" lose. Every time.

Brian Olson
Owner/Consultant
Conversation Starters Public Relations
"We start the conversation about you" (We also love to blow the whistle when called for)

All Those Zeros Add Up!

I heard my old friend, retired Senator Alan Simpson talking about the national debt. If Congress decides to raise it again, Simpson said our debt would be 14 Trillion, 600 Billion Dollars!

"I don't even know what that is" he exclaimed. Neither do I other than it must have a lot of zeros. I still think we need to officially designate Gazillion as the next measurement because if things don't stop it's where we'll crash.

Above all Simpson made an excellent point. Regardless of your political bent, ask your elected representatives exactly what they plan on doing to cut the budget. Substantive cuts. The real deal. Not vague posturing. Simpson predicts most if not all, will simply dance around the answer. Sadly he's right.

14 Trillion, 600 Billion Dollars. Think on that.

Brian Olson
Conversation Starters Public Relations
"We start the conversation about you"

Where there's no will, there's no way.

Op-Ed

You've likely heard of, but perhaps not read the recommendations of the Presidential Debt Reduction Commission. You can read it here. The commission is led by former Wyoming Senator Alan K. Simpson and Clinton Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles. (This disclaimer: I've known Senator Simpson for some 25 years, seeing him most recently this past September)

Simpson's comments while making the rounds of interviews have been his usual colorful self. Bowles has been a bit more scholarly in tone. Either way, the focus is clear: Increase revenues and cut spending.

It's basic economics, which is understood everywhere else except government. It's hard to understand, why government can't understand, that you can't spend money you don't have.

The nation is broke. Deficits and debt are measured in the Trillions and we'll soon have to invent a new word for the next level. For now I'll use a Gazillion.

Gadzooks.

There of course have been howls of outrage about what needs to be done to dig out of this hole. Simpson responds, ""America, you have a serious problem and time is short to address it." Bowles makes his feeling clear as well describing Washington's penchant for spending money like drunken sailors as " a cancer, destroying our nation from within."

Some pundits question why we on Main Street should bear the brunt of all this. They say it was Washington, not us who created the problem. Actually it is our fault. We elected the same people year after year, decade after decade to bring home the bacon. It's our job and responsibility as citizens to pay attention to what's going on in Washington. The power lies with us, we only lend it to those we elect to represent us.

We were asleep at the switch while Washington maxed out the national credit card, manufactured new ones and maxed those too. The bills have come due. We've run out of paper and plastic.

If we have the will, we will find a way to dig out from the mountain of debt that is our sad legacy to our kids, our grand kids and their kids. It's going to hurt, big-time, for a long time.

But if we don't have the will, there's no way out. China owns the second mortgage on the White House and are licking their chops to foreclose.

Think about it.

Brian Olson
Conversation Starters LLC
"We start the conversation about you"

Random Thoughts

Lots of stuff on my mind today, (In no particular order of importance.)

Speaking of sports:
What a debacle at Invesco. I know, it's always darkest before the dawn but right now it sure is dark!

Baylor comes to Austin this Saturday. Baylor is ranked and bowl eligible. Texas is just rank. They're going to retire Colt McCoy's number at the game, here's hoping his replacement's got game.

The baseball season is too long. NHL and NBA seasons are underway before the World Series has even started.

Speaking of the economy:
"They" says the recession is over. I don't think the 17% of Americans not working or hardly working would agree.

What comes after Trillion? Gazillion? Because the ways things are going, we're going to need a new number to measure the deficit.

How can we expect to help countries like Haiti when 13 million American kids will go to bed hungry tonight?

Speaking of politics:
I get a kick out of candidates here in Colorado who wear cowboy hats and jeans in their campaign ads, pretending they're just like "us." Wonder what candidates in Florida wear? Shorts and flip-flops?

Why can't people vote online?

The Tea Party is here to stay. It's ever-morphing but with the constant and growing belief that government has failed us. We share in the blame. Too many of us believe what we see in attack ads, yet don't tune into the numerous televised or attend public debates.

Speaking of the new television season:
I love Hawaii 5-0. It's so outrageously over the top, with a great cast and it doesn't take itself too serously. The Good Wife remains intelligent, thoughtful dramatic television. Ditto for House and Blue Bloods. The CSI trilogy is getting tired. Weird plotlines. Still trying to get into The Event, but it's hard work.

Ok, I'm done thinking.

Brian Olson
Conversation Starters LLC
"We start the conversation about you"