DadTalk

About Those High Gas Prices…

You may have noticed I’ve been somewhat quiet about financial stories lately. In large part, that’s because the media is doing a much better covering the economic crises than it had during the housing bubble.

But the other reason has to do with a sort of disillusionment with America’s financial system. You see, I’ve come to understand that intentionally or not, the entire economic system is designed to help the wealthy far more than the average working Joe.

Rather than launch a dissertation, I’m going to keep this simple with two seemingly unconnected stories. The first story touches an issue near and dear to our hearts: gas prices have risen 41 days in a row, reports The New York Times.

As I’m sure you’re aware, high gas prices can have a severe impact on household spending. Besides pumping more bucks straight into your gas tank, consumer prices on all sorts of products usually rise. In January, Americans were spending $600 million a day on gas. Today, gas costs consumers about $1 billion a day.

But here’s how I suspect most Americans see it:

What Happened to Last Known Jaguar in U.S.?

 Most people would be pretty freaked out to see a 150+ pound jaguar roaming their back yard. Reports of mountain lions where I hike make me nervous enough.

But the endangered jaguar is also one of the four great cats of the world. And until recently, only one lived in the United States. Now it’s dead after it was snared in southern Arizona near the Mexico border.

The death of Macho B has triggered an investigation into its death, reports The New York Times and The Arizona Daily Star.

I probably would not be writing about Macho’s death if it wasn’t for Seth’s first grade research topic: the jaguar. Seth and Lael fell in love with the cat after watching Dora the Explorer.

Coincidentally, I had just finished reading a National Geographic article on efforts to preserve jaguar habitat by connecting the cat’s broken up territory. Sadly, it is unlikely more cats will show up in the United States as the government’s border fence puts up still more obstacles to the great cat.

One thing we’ve learned about the jaguar: while the cat may go after livestock, they rarely attack humans. Too bad we can’t leave them alone even in the uninhabited parts of our country.

Additional:

• Jaguar Picture: First Caught in U.S.
• Readers Criticize Agency in Macho B’s Death
• I Baited Jaguar Trap, Research Worker Says
• Did Jaguar Macho B Have to Die?

Is AIG Bailout a Smokescreen?

I can’t help but wonder: Why are lawmakers and politicians so motivated to recoup the $165 million in bonuses from a few AIG employees?

Why aren’t lawmakers and pundits equally or more concerned about the $11,000,000,000 that has departed the United States to benefit the French bank Société Générale or the $5,400,000,000 sent to Germany-based Deustche Bank? And why are we funding $8,100,000,000 to benefit the millionaires at Goldman Sachs?

(Notice how big the numbers are when you include all the zeros?)

The justified furor over the AIG bonuses is diverting our attention from the real issues: Why are U.S. taxpayers funding trillions of dollars worth of unregulated gambling disguised as credit default swaps?

Keep in mind, if it wasn’t for the AIG bailout, those three banks – among several other on the list – might have gone bust. By bailing out AIG, these banks were also bailed out but WITHOUT obligation to the U.S. taxpayer. Therein lies the real stench.

So why aren’t lawmakers (and pundits) screaming just as loud: Give us our money back, Société Générale, Deustche Bank and Goldman Sachs?

If lawmakers were really doing their jobs, they would be regulating the credit default markets rather than distracting us with comparative pocket change.

Will Obama Plan to Improve U.S. Food Safety Fall Short?

On Friday, I received about 10 emails from the Food and Drug Administration for recalls related to peanut products. So perhaps it was appropriate that President Obama chose this week to announce an effort to fix America’s food-safety system.

From Obama’s radio address:

Food safety is something I take seriously, not just as your President, but as a parent. When I heard peanut products were being contaminated earlier this year, I immediately thought of my 7-year old daughter, Sasha, who has peanut butter sandwiches for lunch probably three times a week. No parent should have to worry that their child is going to get sick from their lunch.

In an unusual show of bipartisanship, Congress may already onboard, reports The New York Times. It’s just amazing to me that it has taken years and years for government to take action.

Consider this:

Legislator (Auto)-Responds to Letter on Education Cuts

Below is the first response I've received from three Arizona lawmakers and the governor after I sent them this letter protesting education cuts:

Thank you for sharing with me your concerns about Arizona’s budget crisis and the harm that spending reductions will cause. I share your concerns and want you to know that I am attempting to keep any necessary cuts to a minimum and find other sources of revenue. I am also pushing to give schools and agencies that receive reductions maximum flexibility to move what monies they have around.

Solving Arizona’s $3.3 billion structural deficit is a daunting task and one that cannot be done solely by cuts or solely by a tax increase. It is my hope that we can begin to increase spending for vital programs in 2011, as new revenue sources are found and the economy (hopefully) improves.

PS: Please excuse this form letter reply but the large number of emails I receive on the budget problem makes personal replies impossible.

John Kavanagh
Arizona House of Representatives

Observing an Education Rally From Inside the Parent Bubble

Because of my 25 plus years in journalism, I’ve never taken the liberty of being a public activist about much anything. Can’t be biased, you know.

So it was odd sitting on one of two buses loaded with more than 100 red-bloused moms and kids just before heading off to an education rally in downtown Phoenix on Wednesday. I emphasize moms because as far as I could tell, I was one of only four dads, but the other three were also school employees.

The rally was designed to send a message to Arizona Republicans, who are resisting calls for tax hikes to pay for the state’s expected $3 billion shortfall next year, reports The East Valley Tribune. Arizona, like California, requires two-thirds majority to increase revenue.

We arrived at a rally already in full session. (Our school has later release times for older kids, which delayed our departure.)

Letter Dad Implores Lawmakers to Preserve AZ Education

Following cuts to education in Arizona, I decided to send the following letter to my three state legislators and the new governor of Arizona:

Dear State lawmakers,

I ask that you reconsider ongoing and future budget cuts to education in Arizona. While the cuts have been labeled fiscally responsible, I argue that it’s an approach that will cause long-term harm to the people of this great state.

Consider, parents are becoming MORE reliant on public education, not less, as household budgets tighten. And I’m luckier than most, because I live in one of the handful of great school districts found in Arizona. I’m doubly lucky because my son, Seth, has a great first grade teacher who can handle her oversized class of 24 children. But that’s likely to change under continuing budget cuts. By next year, Scottsdale parents can expect larger class sizes. If it wasn’t for an override tax, class sizes would be larger still. The vast majority of children in other school districts are much worse off.

Food Recalls FDA Needs Citizen Inspectors to Improve U.S. Food Safety

“To say that food safety in this country is a patchwork system is giving it too much credit. It is a hit or miss gamble, and that is truly frightening. It’s time to find the gaps in the system and remedy them.”

– Agriculture Committee Chairman Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa

As I’ve been reporting for years, the Food and Drug Administration is failing Americans. Because the agency remains broken, the outbreak of salmonella in peanut butter has killed eight and sickened 575 people so far, according to The New York Times.

And yet the FDA keeps claiming, like a misbehaving child, that everything is just fine, reports The Associated Press. In fact, the agency has the unmitigated gall to claim that it was already on the trail of the processor blamed for contaminating thousands of products containing peanut butter products.

Really? If the FDA was on the ball, why did the agency, according to the Los Angeles Times, quietly slip into an existing report that the Peanut Corp. of America knowingly shipped out batches of product that had tested positive for salmonella? Why didn’t the FDA announce these new findings more vocally? By the way, some of the contaminated lots were destined for school lunch programs around the nation.

Here’s how the FDA responded to the latest criticisms:

Health Insurance for Kids Refunded With New Law

It’s taken two years, but the United States is finally reinstating funding for a health insurance program that benefits low-income children, reports The New York Times.

That’s because the House approved a bill that was twice vetoed by President Bush. President Obama signed the bill on Wednesday.

The program is designed for families too poor to afford health care for their children, but too wealthy to qualify for Medicaid.

While some Republicans continue to grouse that the new law is leading us down the slippery slope of socialism, it’s kind of odd: the original program was created in 1997 and just needed to be reauthorized. But critics are correct that the Obama administration will continue to pursue an expansion of government health insurance for all Americans.

When you consider how costly private health insurance has become, and how many companies can no longer afford to offer coverage, it’s just a matter of time now before this issue comes to a head.

Additional:

• 10 Million Unhappy Kids

Stimulus Plan Will Pump Billions into Education

Odd are, if you live in a state like Arizona, California or Florida, you’ve heard stories that school budgets have been or will be cut soon. In most cases, this is due to falling property and/or sales tax revenues resulting from the housing market meltdown.

While this is an unhappy development in education, President Obama’s economic stimulus plan may pump $150 billion over two years into the nation’s education budget, reports The New York Times. Congress earmarked $79 billion of the money to help states avoid cutting education programs.

“This is going to avert literally hundreds of thousands of teacher layoffs,” Education Secretary Arne Duncan tells the Times. The rest of the money would go toward rebuilding schools and better fund No Child Left Behind:

The bill would, for the first time, involve the federal government in a significant fashion in the building and renovation of schools, which has been the responsibility of states and districts. It includes $20 billion for school renovation and modernization, with $14 billion for elementary and secondary schools and $6 billion for higher education. It also includes tax provisions under which the federal government would pay the interest on construction bonds issued by school districts.

Providing states huge amounts of money sets a new precedent for federal involvement in education, one sure to provoke attacks from ideological quarters today and risk heavy-handed policy control in the future. Complaints are already flying: “It’s like an alcoholic at the end of the night when the bars close, and the solution is to open the bar for another hour,” Frederick Hess, an education policy analyst at the American Enterprise Institute, tells the Times.

But for the time being, the news of money going into education may help some parents exhale. After all, we’ve heard rumors in our own school district that class sizes will go up unless more money is found.

So while I’m unhappy about the huge bailouts on a whole, perhaps there is a silver lining for now.