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| 20 years of volunteer service! Nada and Robert Stuckey have dedicated their lives to the preservation of the Clark Hotel Historical Museum since arriving in Van Horn back in 1984. They did not get started with the Museum in earnest until about 1990 but since then, the Museum has been their life. Robert has devoted most of his time to researching the history of Van Horn and Culberson County and can rightly be called an authority on Culberson County. Recently, they came across a box of photos without names, dates or places and would welcome your dropping by the Museum to see if you can identify any of the people or places. It’s part of our history and they’re dedicated to getting it right. Elsewhere in this issue you’ll find a photo entitle “Who is this?” If you can identify the person and the date, please let Robert or Nada know. They are doing awonderful job and get little thanks for it. Thank you, Robert and Nada! |
- The grand lesson of the 20th century is that Big Government retards economic progress. The evidence of this lesson goes beyond the socialist countries and their dramatic economic failures. Several decades ago, as a young economist, I encountered repeated studies that showed a high correlation between two macroeconomic phenomena: The larger the government’s share of a country’s GDP, the slower the rate of economic growth tended to be. Conversely, economic growth flourished where government was relatively small. Many Americans seemed, and still seem, impervious to this lesson despite our own history. The same correlation was evident in the 1920s, when President Harding cut the size of federal spending in half, leading to a decade of prosperity, and in the 1930s, when the economy tanked under Presidents Hoover and Roosevelt and their huge expansions of government. Despite this clear historical evidence, President Obama is committed to growing government. He has increased federal spending to over 27 percent of GDP, up from 20.5 percent when George W. Bush left office. Obama indisputably favors the public sector over the private. When Michelle Obama gave her famous speech a couple of years ago, urging young people to avoid working for profit-seeking (i.e., private) companies, she was doing more than simply expressing an opinion: She articulated her husband’s agenda. It started on day one, when Obama staffed his cabinet and other top positions in his administration with a record-low percentage of people with private-sector experience—fewer than 10 percent (the historical average is near 40 percent).
Since then, he has consistently worked to bring more and more people onto the government payroll. He increased the number of paid positions in Americorps by 224 percent; Teach for America by 94 percent; Peace Corps, 24 percent. The health-insurance bill created dozens of new agencies. The just-passed financial reform bill creates a new bureaucracy with an initial budget of nearly a billion dollars per year. One source recently reported that Team Obama is revoking contracts with private firms and transferring the work to government employees. The government even hires former employees of the private contractors, giving them significant pay-and-benefit hikes. That may be good for them, but at a time of record budget deficits, finding ways to increase the costs of government doesn’t make economic sense. In his compact 1944 classic, Bureaucracy, economist Ludwig von Mises explained why bureaucracies are inherently uneconomical. Whether under socialist or democratic governments, bureaucracies are not disciplined by the profit-loss calculus. Insulated from the competitive marketplace, they become bloated and inefficient. When private businesses serve customers poorly, their revenues decline. If their losses are severe enough, they fold. Exactly the opposite happens with bureaucracies. If they fail to get the job done, Congress typically appropriates more funds for them. We saw this with FEMA after Hurricane Katrina, and the same dynamic will play out with Obamacare, too, unless it is repealed. It’s the nature of the beast. No society can afford to bear the costs of many bureaucracies. As much as Obama prefers government workers, most people need to be in the private sector generating the wealth that government appropriates for bureaucratic functions. This implies that Obama has veered down a dead-end detour. He wants government agencies to be in charge of this, that, and the other thing, but how can we pay for it all? A bureau-centric policy agenda inevitably impedes economic growth. Obamanomics, in short, ignores two economic truths: Expanding government’s share of GDP cripples economic growth. So does a proliferation of new government bureaucracies. From this we may predict that Obama’s policies will saddle us with continuing economic sluggishness. Given that Americans tend to replace presidents when the economy is struggling, can we predict that Obama will be a one-term president? I don’t think so. The presidential campaign of 2012 could be a repeat of 1936 (FDR’s first run for re-election). The historical record shows that many voters in 1936 were disappointed about the terrible shape of the overall economy after four years of New Deal programs. Many who were unhappy about the economy voted for Roosevelt anyhow. Why? Because they were benefiting personally from his massive spending programs. Obama’s stimulus plan has been and will continue to be spent in ways that benefit targeted groups. His recent request for another $50 billion to give to teachers, firefighters, and police (traditionally, these have been locally funded public employees, and therefore independent of Washington) is just one example of Obama’s politically strategic spending. Obama has ignored the economic lessons of history, but he has taken to heart the political lesson of FDR’s formula for electoral success. It would be prudent and timely for us citizens to grasp both the economic and political lessons of our history. Dr. Mark W. Hendrickson is an adjunct faculty member, economist, and contributing scholar with The Center for Vision & Values at Grove City College.
State Capital Highlights
By Ed Sterling, Texas Press Association
Congress’ passage of unemployment benefits extension to help many Texans
Out-of-work Texans will have until Nov. 27 to qualify for unemployment benefits, the Texas Workforce Commission reported July 23.
This is thanks to passage of the Unemployment Compensation Extension Act of 2010 by Congress on July 22. President Obama signed the act into law without delay.
About 150,000 Texans had exhausted their unemployment benefits, the Texas Workforce Commission said.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the federal government’s basic extended benefits program provides up to 13 additional weeks of benefits when a state is experiencing high unemployment.
The national unemployment rate was 9.5 percent for the month of June. Texas’ unemployment rate was 8.2 percent that month.
Milestone arrest is made
Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott announced that as of July 13, his office’s Fugitive and Cyber Crimes units had combined for more than 2,000 arrests in the last seven years.
“Thanks to the hard work and perseverance of these dedicated peace officers, more than 2,000 criminals have been taken off the streets and held accountable for their unlawful conduct,” Abbott said on July 22. “We are grateful to the local, state and federal law enforcement officials from around the state who helped make this milestone possible and continue to work with us to protect Texas families.”
The 2,000th, Kirk Brandon Muller, 41, of Austin, was arrested in Travis County for having unauthorized contact with a child, a violation of his mandated parole requirements.
In 1993 in Travis County, Muller was convicted on four counts of indecency with a child by sexual contact and sentenced to 20 years in prison. Muller’s victims were four young girls ranging from nine to four years old, Abbott’s office reported.
Vets’ mortgage rates lowest
Mortgage rates for Texas veterans hit a record low last week of just 4.33 percent for a 30-year fixed rate loan, Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson announced July 22.
Disabled veterans can borrow at even a lower rate of just 3.83 percent, he added.
“This is great news for Texas veterans,” Patterson said. “Rates this low help those who served buy homes now and keep them later.” The record low rate was set July 16 by the Veterans Land Board, which Patterson chairs.
Before, the lowest interest rate ever available to Texas veterans was 4.51 percent in June 2003.The highest rate ever offered by the Veterans Land Board was 10.145 percent in 1985.
Uninsured vehicles on decline
Since the launch of the TexasSure auto insurance verification program two years ago, the number of uninsured vehicles on Texas roads is showing signs of decline, the Texas Department of Insurance reported last week.
Soon after its launch, the database showed that statewide, nearly one fourth of vehicles registered in Texas could not be matched to an insurance policy.
By June 2010, the number of unmatched registered vehicles had declined to 21.65 percent.
TexasSure “uninsured notices” are sent to the owners of registered vehicles that appear not to have auto liability insurance.
Customers are provided with the vehicle registration information on file and instructions to resolve issues. Customers may respond by mail, phone or online.
The program’s database helps law enforcement confirm whether a Texas-registered vehicle has valid auto liability insurance. It is able to match nearly all reported auto insurance policies to a registered vehicle.
The database has been available to all 254 county tax assessor-collectors since June 2008 and to Texas law enforcement since October 2008.
Vote would help charter schools
The State Board of Education on July 23 voted 7-6 to allow up to $100 million of the Permanent School Fund to be used to build or buy buildings the state could lease to charter schools.
But the funds could only be used that way with approval from the attorney general or after passage of a new legislation.
Presently, the Permanent School Fund, which is currently worth about $22 billion, may only be used to purchase textbooks and other instructional materials.
DPS celebrates 75th anniversary
The Texas Department of Public Safety celebrated its 75th year on July 25.
To commemorate the anniversary, 20 motorcycle riders left the DPS office in Austin on a 2,376-mile tour of the state.