While Senator John Thune uses his boat trip on the Rio Grande to argue that we should sink more money into one of the dumbest ideas of the previous Administration, DFP reader Edwin Curry argues that wealth inequality and climate change pose far greater risks to the security of our Republic folks coming north to join our workforce and pay taxes:
“Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least.”
~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)One political party is trying to capitalize on an ongoing problem at the southern border to try to stay relevant in a country which more and more is rejecting what they may claim to have to offer. They do not use rational problem-solving skills to address our problems. The apparent inability to prioritize may be one of their biggest faults.
One always must prioritize problems in one’s daily life. It is essential to our very survival. And to choose less important problems to focus attention on weakens the country. Yes, politics is not always rational, but can’t it be rational at least part of the time? When problems pile up and are not addressed, the strategy ingrained into non-applicable political actions are like shots in the dark, and time is wasted. With the increasing number and severity of our problems the need for prioritization only raises in value.
All must expect our wisdom in how we vote, but we also must demand wisdom from our votes cast, and with the southern border we do not see it with this from eighteen US Senators. The southern border problem was a winning political issue only for the Republican Party, but many are tired of repeated use and would prefer attention to be focused elsewhere. One tends to pull one’s hair out for non-action on problems claimed by people over and over, parrot-like, only to do nothing about it when in power in office, with intentions of only retaining the problem within their political tool box to pull out for the next election.
One could make a list of priorities of problems in the country that need to be addressed, practical problems, and attempt to address that list in order of local, state, and national importance.
U.S. Senators are paid $174,000 each year to correctly address the needs of their constituents in their states and to our United States as well in totality. I did not mention the pressing COVID-19 pandemic below, but two growing problems which also have been with us for a long time, and unlike border crossing they are only increasing each year. We have a cornucopia of problems to address. We just need to line them up correctly. Below are three long-term problems which need addressing, and one which one party is only focused on.
Wealth Inequality
In 2019 the top 10% (12.9 million families) owned 76% of total $96.1 trillion in wealth or $73 trillion or $5.66 million per family average. A Pew study indicated that between 2001 and 2016 the upper economic class wealth increased by 25% while the middle class reduced by 20%. The lower classes fare about like the middle, though they have less wiggle room in life.Climate Change
In 2000 the global average atmospheric carbon dioxide was at about 265 parts per million (ppm). February 2021 values were 416.5 ppm. So what, you may ask?Let’s look at Atlantic hurricanes. In the 1980’s there were 52, in the 1990’s were 64, in the 2000’s were 74 and in the 2010’s were 72, with 13 hurricanes in the year 2020. About 41% of all hurricanes hit Florida, with Texas, North Carolina and Louisiana getting hit about half as much of the time.
In 2017, a variety of 16 weather related disasters across the U.S. cost $306.2 billion, or $19 billion each on average. People died as well. There were 344 weather-related deaths in 2017, from flooding, lightning, heat, tornadoes, and rip tides. Increasing extreme weather events increase chances for weather-related fatalities.
If we as a nation do not act wisely over climate change, China and the rest of the world will leave us trailing far behind. There is opportunity in this, more than in sticking to a comfortable but losing status quo.
And finally a rational data-driven look at the southern border problem over the last thirty years:
The Southern Border
In 1990 there were 1.05 million apprehensions, in 1994, 1 million, in 2000, 1.61 million, in 2004, 1.1 million, in 2010, 450,000, in 2014, 490,000, in 2019, 851,000 and in 2020, 400,000.In 1990, $263 million was allocated to CBP, in 2000, $1.06 billion, in 2005, $1.53 billion, in 2020, $3.0 billion, in 2015, $3.8 billion, and in 2020, $4.8 billion.
The societal costs of these people from the south are hotly argued and much misunderstood. They certainly are not voting; there is not one substantiated report of undocumented border-crossers voting, and if there were, it certainly would be announced with vigor.
The undocumented pay into federal, state, sales taxes, etc. for the tune of about $11 billion each year. In 2013 the libertarian Heritage Foundation claimed the cost to be $54 billion a year. The numbers are disputed, but this would still be 5.6 times less that 2017’s extreme weather costs of $306.2 billion. And although they are breaking laws in not seeking asylum properly, one could talk about white-collar criminality in this country until the sun comes up.
If government funding is proportional to the problem at hand, which it certainly should be, the numbers above show the “border crisis” is, frankly, a much lower priority than other matters. And the problem was at its peak in 2000. Would the border make it into the top ten problems our nation faces? It is doubtful with any honest expert analysis.
Our elected officials’ failure to use common sense indicates they don’t deserve their leadership roles. When one intuitively understands that anyone off the street could do better, one loses respect for one’s state and one’s country overall and faith in government and democracy suffers. And although political party unity is admirable in some ways, when this unity is a barrier to needed action to address our problems, it loses its luster quickly.
When Senators do not address problems when able, their credibility dwindles. Let’s get our elected officials steered in the right direction, and if they choose to veer from the course from the rational prioritization of our problems that we all use in our everyday lives, then they need to be gone next election.
We are after all, their supervisors, although they may not agree [Edwin Curry, essay to Dakota Free Press, 2021.03.27].
This is what I have been talking about for quite some time. Not only elected officials, but government employees too. The sense of prioritizing, and directing our resources towards correcting our problems is an abject failure. Policy and management tactics and strategy are controlled by corporate entities through our election process. Candidates for elected positions are controlled by the purse string holding, big money elite. They demand that policy be dictated by corporate profits, regardless of environmental damages. If a farmer fails to use chemicals, he cannot compete in the marketplace. The repeated use of harsher chemicals as weeds mutate and grow resilient has no end in sight. We will continue this practice until the land and water are polluted to the point of no turning back, all in the name of monetary gain for corporations.
Well Cory, you know that prioritize means calling Mar-a-lago to find what it is today. Its a tough world in trumpland.
Our three amigos congressionals are spoon fed by Koch bros fossil fuel and other Industries.
“Koch-backed conservatives and aide to Mitch McConnell are trying to kill an election-reform bill that would keep dark money out of elections.” Newyorker this month
Gosch and/Schoenbeck said on SDPB this week that they were the elected representatives of the voters and the initiatives attempt to take away that authority. They LOVE that word “republic” to displace the democracy we all voters revere.
Dusty needs a shovel to lean on as he wanders wildfire scenes with his hands in his pockets, stepping around well coiffed emergency responders (who are incidentally shilling on news interviews for people to donate “chewing gum”, sundries, and of course “cash money” out right.)
Looks to me like a “crisis we all could have predicted” (c) Republicans all. ;)
Anything for some free press!
Of course I agree with the premise. I add, wealth inequality contains all the other issues and problems our nation faces. Solve that and we become Star Trekian. That is, we evolve beyond capitalism.
And of course, “believe 97-99% of climate scientists” or not, from 2030 to 2100 a warming planet may very well kill most of those living on earth.
Don’t feel bad Cory, and guest presenter: Don Jr. has a much worse problem.
“wealth inequality and climate change pose far greater risks to the security of our Republic [sic: then] folks coming north to join our workforce and pay taxes” because that is as good as his grammar gets on Twitter.
“Than” is the word we are looking for.
I certainly have better things to do than posting here. Grandkids on the east coast, west coast, and across Red States IA and SD, gay, straight, professionals, frontline essential workers, siblings just out of surgery from a “shark bite” of bodily stitches, to a life crushing serious cancer diagnosis and chemo/radiation/surgery regimen starting this week. Thankfully so far only two mild covid cases in our young parents with a March new born, infecting any of us across the country (and Australia). Another w/ an August new born now has a second parent with terminal cancer. An a geriatric, OD attempt from arguably the biggest problem person of the bunch, geez.
We all have these stories. So when Republicans pooh-pooh our democracy and suppress our right to vote over gun rights, after having blatantly, violently attempted to steal yet another presidential election, their posing in the House and Senate, turning SD into a handmaiden for ALEC, Koch, nazis, and weapons manufacturers, is distressing.
I just remember being shocked amid all the above numbers of dollars, when our military budget had breached an outrageous $8 billion! Not that long ago really.
Republicans were the problem in 1964, in 1969, in 1980, in 1990, in 2001, in 2008, in 2016-20, and today, Dusty and Kristi, the modern Republican party, are walking around with their hands in their pockets on the scene of a climate disaster, the rodeo queen one more time dog-whistling right wing extremist paramilitary types, normalizing sedition. Just like Ted Cruz on the border. Jfc
We have a complex system that makes accountability difficult. Thune, Rounds and Johnson do too. But their votes aided the 1.06.21 DC insurrection. And lawless Trump is also primarily responsible for much of economic inequality and climate denial. The GOP is a partner in these crimes.
“Mueller’s report described roughly a dozen episodes of potential obstruction and … Trump’s conduct met each of these elements of the crime in at least four of the episodes:
Trump’s efforts to get White House Counsel Donald McGahn to fire Mueller;
Trump’s attempts to get McGahn to lie about those efforts;
Trump’s attempt to get Attorney General Jeff Sessions to curtail Mueller’s investigation; and
Trump’s efforts to discourage his former 2016 campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, from cooperating with the investigation.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/01/22/trump-charges-george-conway/?arc404=true
Trump is a little fish in the swamp of the GOP. Can Garland’s Justice department take Trump to task?
McConnell: “The $1.9 trillion dollar bill the president signed a couple of weeks ago had no Republican support in the House or the Senate because we thought it was anchored in conditions a year ago rather than currently.”
I have *no* desire to invest time in that seditionist but am curious what *this* angle of his, is?
The $1.9T is certainly a positive step away from economic inequality policy.
Economic inequality: Deprive people of less means their right to vote. Right?
stunning new data from
@brennancenter:
361 bills to restrict voting rights introduced in 47 states as of March 24
That’s up from 253 restrictive bills as of Feb 19, a 43% increase in a month
55 restrictive bills in 24 states moving through legislatures.
Economic inequality of rural/people of lesser means’ internet access, the utility service connecting the world:
@amyklobuchar
9h
Bridging the digital divide must be part of any infrastructure plan. It’s critical for working families to survive and compete in this modern economy.
Robert Reich
@RBReich
Mar 31
The Pentagon spends $2,000,000,000 a day.
We’ve enabled America’s billionaires to grow their wealth by $1.3 trillion during the pandemic alone.
It is simply a lie that we cannot afford to be bold and tackle the great crises facing this country.