WHY AMERICA’S RECENT (2021-present) HUGE INCREASE IN CRIME?

Crime has increased dramatically in the past two years in America’s large cities and is spilling over to the suburbs and towns.  In order to stop the increase and even reverse it, we must understand what is causing it.  Politicians say it’s the frustration caused by the Covid pandemic: others look at where the crime is occurring and the policies being pursued in those localities and conclude it stems from bad policies that were enacted in the past year that encouraged crime.  This post attempts to find the root causes of our crime-wave in order to offer viable solutions.

To begin, we need to see just how much crime there was in prior years to determine if it’s as bad as the press says it is.  Of the sixteen American cities where homicides have vastly escalated, 15 are run by Democrat mayors and city councils.  This is important because those policies affecting the criminal justice system in 15 are very similar and therefore may be the cause of the very large spike in homicides.  The policies we’re referring to are: 1) defunding the police, 2) not prosecuting robberies where the dollar amount of the stolen merchandise is under a specified amount, 3) city district attorneys not requiring cash bail for criminals who are then let free until their court date, 4) double standards for not prosecuting crimes against some groups (BLM, Antifa), 5) etc.

The aforementioned policies are absurd, however, for those that believe they are good, I submit the following:

  1. Defunding the police does not make police more careful about not violating civil rights.  Prosecuting bad policemen is part of the answer.  Training is another part.  Less police mean less enforcement.  Less enforcement means more crime.
  2. Not prosecuting robberies of under a certain cost inevitably leads to many more robberies because criminals know that will get away with it.
  3. District attorneys not requiring cash bail leads to many more criminals being free and on the street until their court dates.
  4. When some groups (BLM, Antifa) get away with rioting and destruction of businesses, but other groups are held to a much higher standard (January 6 protesters), faith in the fairness of  American Justice is lost (and tells people on the Left that they can get away with arson, looting, and mugging).

All of the above seem self-evident…it’s not rocket science to conclude what I concluded.  Therefore, why would such policies ever be adopted? There are some people that believe our justice system is unfair to minorities and the poor; however, courts offer free legal representation to anyone who can’t afford it.  While it may not be ideal, it does significantly help.  The criminal justice system policies being advocated and used by the Far-left have unintended consequences for law-abiding citizens that are intolerable.  Politicians and District Attorneys that advocate such policies need to be voted out of office and their destructive policies reversed.

BLAME MITCH McCONNELL

Whatever President Trump has promised during the presidential campaign, but does not accomplish, blame Senate Majority Leader, Republican Mitch McConnell from Kentucky.  Although he is very experienced and knowledgable, having served as a senator since 1985 and having been the Senate Majority leader since 2015, the 76-year-old senator may prove deadly for Trump and the Republicans keeping the House and Senate in November 2018.

It’s no surprise that Democrat senators oppose everything the President is trying to do.  However, Senator McConnell has the authority, but refuses to use it, to facilitate passage of the President’s legislative agenda, because he can foster changes in the Senate’s archaic rules by abolishing the filibuster rule which require 60 senators to pass most legislation in the Senate.  He can foster a change to be a 51-senator requirement to pass legislation and abolish the Senate’s legislative filibuster rule.  So why would he not do this?  He says that Republicans will eventually be in the minority again and does not want set the precedent to the Democrats for this Senate rule.  Does McConnell have a good point?  That’s what this article will consider.

“Strike while the iron is hot” is one of my beliefs!  The current situation with a Republican President, House and Senate may never occur again so the opportunity it provides needs to be used right now.  Democrat leadership would not hesitate for a second to do it.  So many wonderful things for the U.S. could be done now if the Senate vote threshold were only 51 votes instead of the current 60 votes needed to pass most legislation.  All major legislation has been voted down by the Democrats in the Senate.  Even when an independent-minded Democrat senator is voted in, Democrat leadership threatens him/her with not funding their upcoming races and also with running strong candidates against them in their primary elections.  Thus, they toe the Democrat line.

Let’s hope Senator McConnell sees the light and changes the Senate filibuster rule.  If he doesn’t, he really should be blamed for the huge backlog in the Senate, as well as its inability to pass significant legislation, including legislation for the much-needed wall on our southern border.

 

CONSEQUENCES to the U.S. from PRESIDENT OBAMA’S ECONOMIC POLICIES

President Obama meant well.  He sounded sincere and touted “fairness” as his primary concern in his governance of the nation.  However, it’s true that “the road to hell is paved with people with good intentions.”  In plain English, it almost doesn’t matter if the President was sincere  and meant well if the results of his policies were to cause great  harm to hundreds of millions of people.  Until the Obama Presidency the percentage of Americans with full-time jobs (“Civilian Labor-force Participation Rate”) had not been as low as then (62% of civilian labor force) since the late seventies and if unemployment statistics were calculated the way they were in the year 2000, unemployment would be about 10%.  If they were calculated the way they were during the Great Depression, unemployment would be over 20%.  Below is my analysis of those major policies of President Obama that destroyed the American dream for many Americans and which President Trump, who came after President Obama, and the Congress had to reform:

A. OBAMACARE/AFFORDABLE CARE ACT: This  law was a wet blanket on the economy. While everyone is for good healthcare, and for insuring people with pre-existing conditions, as well as kids up to the age of 26 years-of-age on their parents insurance, Obamacare is a bureaucratic nightmare with much more expensive premiums for most people, and unbelievably-high deductibles and co-pays.  This turns most Obamacare policies into catastrophic care only because most people will never meet their deductibles and will therefore be paying out-of-pocket for most of their healthcare.  This turkey needed to go and hopefully replaced with something much better.

B. IMPEDING ENERGY PRODUCTION:  A decision on the Keystone pipeline was made for political reasons.  Oil production on government land was significantly down, however, basically because the environmental lobby was against all fossil fuels.  Meanwhile, America has more gas, oil, coal, and shale oil than all of the countries in the Middle East combined but government regulations prevented most of it from being developed.  The wealth created by all of this energy could pay off the National debt, the trillions in unfunded liabilities, and produce an economic boom the likes of which no country has ever seen.  And as thoroughly, scientifically, and irrefutably proven in David Archibald’s, Twilight of Abundance, the warming trend of the earth over the last century and up until recently,  is due mostly to Sun Spots and Solar Flares, not to the burning of fossil fuels.  

C. DEFICITS/NATIONAL DEBT: President Obama doubled the National Debt (from $9 trillion to $20).  The Federal government is still borrowing billions/month from the Federal Reserve so the annual budget deficits grew to over 1/2 trillion dollars/year.  Each year the Annual Budget Deficit is added to the total National debt and when Obama left office was about $20 trillion.  This amount of deficit spending and National Debt is unsustainable. The Federal Reserve  has the authority to print money and by doing so has been able to get away with this huge deficit spending,  but doing so without the backing of gold and/or legitimate loans from other countries, simply inflates our currency.  The U.S. dollar is currently the world’s “reserve currency,”  but our borrowing and spending may eventually change that.  When it occurs, the dollar will immediately decrease in value by about 30%, our credit rating dramatically reduced and interest rates on our borrowing dramatically increased, and our ability to borrow severely curtailed.

D. REGULATIONS:  Regulations are necessary in our society but government needs to be very careful in not over-regulating since this can and does add significant costs to the economy, negatively impacts business creation, and reduces freedoms.  The regulations written pursuant to Dodd-Frank, the Endangered Species Act (ESA), and the Affordable Care Act  (“Obamacare”), among many others, are excessively burdensome to people and the economy.  ESA, for example, had caused the destruction of many crops in California’s Central Valley due to the Delta Smelt, a small fish on the Endangered Species list. Dodd-Frank is a financial nightmare that does nothing to prevent future bank problems.  Obamacare has and is destroying jobs.

E.  HIGH TAXES:  Money taken from the economy in taxes should be limited because it hurts the economy.  Tax money should be used only for legitimate purposes.  Higher taxes is a drag and drain on the economy so  government needs to be careful to spend it wisely.  Lowering tax rates on everyone who pays taxes in order to stimulate the economy is the preferred way of increasing tax revenues and growing the economy to pay for Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, unemployment benefits, etc.

F. CORPORATE TAXES:  A significant Obama policy  that had unintentionally done  harm to many people was the retention of the 35% corporate tax (reduced under Trump to 21%), which was higher than any other country in the world except for Japan.  This has led to the flight  of many U.S. corporations and businesses to other countries, and with this flight, the jobs and taxes that go with them.

G. PROLONGED UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS:  Extension of the duration of unemployment benefits for more than  12 months is very harmful to the unemployed as evidenced by studies showing  the unemployed usually do not even look for jobs until a few weeks prior to their unemployment benefits expiring.  At one point, Obama, in conjunction with a Democrat Congress, extended unemployment benefits to 24 months. “Compassion” was the stated reason, but “buying votes” I believe was the real reason.

H., I., J.,K., L., M., N., etc.

In closing, most Americans were proud that the U.S. elected an African-American President 151 years after the Emancipation Proclamation freed  American slaves, even if they personally did not vote for Barack Obama.  The United States inherited slavery from England when it took over the country in 1776 but had to temporarily retain slavery  in order to form the Union to include Southern States (the “Great Compromise”).  At the first opportunity, the U.S. rid itself of slavery (in 1863).

The first African-American President unfortunately had no experience in managing anything or in guiding an economy and therefore the U.S. consequently  hurt  badly economically.  While I believe President Obama meant well, he also still believed that failed liberal/”progressive” economic policies (“Keynesian economics”) were the way to stimulate the economy and therefore turned a blind eye to workable economic policies.

President Reagan demonstrated how to get an economy working and the proof is the fact that the Gross Domestic Product (which measures the size of the economy) of the United States almost doubled 1n the 10 years following Reagan’s implementation of his large reduction in tax rates (1983-1993) and curtailing Federal regulations.  President Kennedy also stimulated the economy during a recession in the 60’s by cutting tax rates.