Civitas ReviewThe Blog of the Civitas Institute

Nov

30

---

Tweet Share Email

Amid all the talk of the approaching fiscal cliff in Washington, most of the focus coming from pundits is focused on who will (or should) receive the blame. But when discussing the situation, it is vital to understand just where the federal dollars go in order to understand what needs to be done.

This short 5-minute video created by a retired accountant clearly and simply demonstrates what may be a shocking revelation to some: the federal government could shut down all of its “discretionary” operations and still spend more than the revenue they take in.

The video uses the President’s own budget figures and shows how “mandatory” programs (i.e. mostly entitement programs like Social Security & Medicare along with other promised benefits like Medicaid and pensions for federal retirees) require more outlays alone than the entire $2.5 trillion in federal revenues. In short, past politicians have promised way too many goodies in order to buy the votes of large voting blocs.  The problem with making so many promises to so many, of course, is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.

To see the video, click here. 

4

Nov

28

---

Tweet Share Email

If you don’t understand what Director Gary Bartlett is trying to explain to the State Board of Elections in this video that’s okay, it’s pretty evident the Board doesn’t understand too much either. The video is a clip of the State Board of Elections meeting yesterday.   It shows Bartlett’s attempt to explain provisional voters whose votes counted but maybe shouldn’t have counted to the Board.

Best I can tell, from Bartlett’s cryptic explanation, these voters moved out of the county and updated their driver license, but went back to vote in the county where they were registered to vote and their vote counted.  Bartlett said that the county boards did not have time in the provisional process to verify where the voters lived because they weren’t “caught in time.”

That’s okay though, according to Bartlett, this type of “discrepancy” is only a problem if there is a contest where the votes would impact the outcome.  Take for example State Senate District 1, where the Republican is leading by 21 votes and there are 20 questionable provisional votes.  As an aside you have to wonder how many same day registrants had their votes counted and their verification notices returned undeliverable in Senate 1…

Maybe the most disconcerting thing to me is the way the Board thinks about voting in general – you can hear the Republican member (Chuck Winfree) begin to discuss the possibility of allowing votes to count if the voter doesn’t live in the county where they voted but does live in the district.  No doubt Winfree thinks he should be reappointed to the new Board of Elections that the new Governor will appoint in May of 2013.  SOMEBODY HELP US PLEASE.

This type of interpretation of the law is frightening – but, unfortunately nothing new for North Carolina’s Board of Elections.  This is exactly how we have gotten into the mess we are in now — Not enough time to research provisionals – let them count, not enough time to verify same day registrants – let them count, not enough time to challenge voters who shouldn’t have voted – let them count.  How are we ever going to determine who really wins in North Carolina anymore?

But we shouldn’t be surprised, this is the logical next step I guess. Some time ago the State Board of Elections determined that if a voter decided not to vote in their precinct on Election Day and voted in another precinct that their votes would count for all the races they are eligible to vote in their precinct.

In the last seconds of the video Bartlett says, “one of the things that I think we should do is request that information before each election from the DMV to do a crosscheck to see how many people have moved who have not updated…” This Board has become all too reliant on information about voters from the Post Office and the DMV (scary huh?), but will not even attempt to contact almost 20,000 voters on the voter rolls who appear to be 112 years old.

We need a State Board of Elections that expects North Carolina voters to be responsible citizens and register to vote by a deadline, keep their voter registration current and tell the truth.

May 2013 can’t get here fast enough.

Nov

27

---

Tweet Share Email

The North Carolina chapter of a national “Fix the Debt” coalition was launched in Raleigh. The new group wants immediate action in Congress to avoid the “fiscal cliff” approaching next year. The co-chairs include former Republican Governor Jim Holshouser, former Democratic Governor Jim Hunt and former GlaxoSmithKline CEO Bob Ingram. The steering committee includes people from both sides of the political spectrum. They didn’t endorse a specific plan to address the $16 trillion in national debt but the Simpson-Bowles plan came up a few times as a good example. They said it was the kind of comprehensive plan needed. Hunt, Holshouser and Ingram urged the lame duck Congress to start working on a bipartisan plan right away. They called for a “balanced” solution that would include more revenue. Part of the job of the new coalition is to convince voters in North Carolina to support a broad range of fixes. Holshouser was asked how Republicans could convince members of their party to forgive lawmakers in Washington who signed a pledge not to raise taxes if they violate that pledge. He and Ingram answered the question…

Nov

27

---

Tweet Share Email

What’s the next financial disaster?    In an alarming piece in yesterday’s American Thinker, Gary Jason argues the ducks are finally coming home to roost on an overbuilt, overpriced and overvalued system of American higher education. The culprit?  Federal student financial aid.  The evidence is hard to ignore. Average student loan balance ($26,682) is growing rapidly. The percentage of households headed by someone younger than 35 with student loan debt  is  40 percent. And, the two-year default rate  rose from 8.8 percent in 2008 to 9.1 percent in 2010; the fifth consecutive rate of increases.

Want more bad news?  Remember these stats don’t count borrowers who are allowed to postpone payments because of economic hardship.  With half of all recent graduates unemployed, you can bet the default rates will only increase.

Remember for the last four decades student financial aid has been fueled by the perceived “need” to make college more affordable and to ensure our students are able to compete in the global economy….  And what have we gotten for the billions that have been spent?

Educational attainment has increased, but at a hefty price.  The availability of student financial aid has spurred endless increases in college tuition and fees and contributed to administrative bloat, with no real increase in educational quality.  Furthermore, expanding college access to students of average ability has only decreased real net returns on investment in higher education.

You’d think such outcomes would cause us to rethink federal policy. Don’t bank on it.  Earlier this spring Congress and the President both proved themselves without spine when the possibility of potential increase in student loan interest rates.  Election year politics?  Maybe.  Still name the last time any politician had the courage to cut entitlements?

Jason provides the real reason why we the current program needs to be overhauled. He writes:

Remember, under recently adopted rules, payment on student loans will be capped at only 10 percent of the borrower’s “discretionary” income, and the balance “forgiven” after twenty years. What this means is that more and more massive amounts of bad student loan debt will be saddled on the backs of taxpayers, many of whom never got to go to college in the first place.

There you have it: another bailout.  In the meantime, let’s refuse to make any changes and keep doing the same thing.  What did they say about the definition of insanity?

Nov

27

---

Tweet Share Email

An article in the Wall Street Journal today again reminds us of the real U.S. debt — and the real financial burden NC imposes on taxpayers.

To look at NC, let’s turn to a study earlier this year from the Institute for Truth in Accounting. It analyzed the real financial liabilities of all the states, and assets too. It concluded that in North Carolina each state taxpayer’s financial burden is $14,800. That puts the Tar Heel State 35th in the nation — and as news reports make clear, few of the other states are paragons of financial stability and acumen.

So what does that mean for you?

Imagine getting the mail at your home. There’s an envelope from the state of North Carolina. You open it. It says you owe the state $14,800.

What would you think?

That’s the real, but little-told, story of what North Carolina is facing.

Washington can bail us out? Um, no.

The WSJ authors note the federal government doesn’t like to tell us the truth. The many stories about the national debt are horrifying enough. But that figure fails to include big debts such as Medicare and Social Security liabilities, which are kept out of the headlines, and the facts are buried federal documents. The  dig into the documents, and get the real figures: They conclude: “The actual liabilities of the federal government—including Social Security, Medicare, and federal employees’ future retirement benefits—already exceed $86.8 trillion.”

That’s more than five times the entire Gross Domestic Product.

Let’s say that somehow the nation, instead of running trillion-dollar deficits, began running $1 trillion surpluses. Great, huh?

Putting this in a very simple form, the debt could then be paid off in 86 years.

Think of it.

Or thinking of opening another letter, this one from the IRS. It has a bill saying that, as a taxpayer, your share of the national debt  is $641,791.

How would you pay that?

Think about it.