This is Viewpoints for Sunday, June 28, 2016

Wager

Letter writer Matt Dykes’ suggestion that the driving skills of everyone over the age of 40 should be compared to the skills of an intoxicated 21-year-old with a blood alcohol concentration of .08 for driver’s license renewal indicates he likely knows more about the legalities of DUIs than the skills and experiences of older drivers.

Perhaps if he ever needs complicated surgery or sound legal advice Dykes will consider using a recent graduate in those professions with ink still wet on his or her license instead of a seasoned practitioner over the age of 60. Certainly those younger workers will be much more agile.

In the alternative, maybe Dykes would just like to wager a couple NuWay chili dogs that his lifetime driving record and vehicle liability insurance rates are better than some of his 70-year-old underlings.

The H-2B Visa Program

I am disappointed that some in Congress are pushing for the Fiscal Year 2017 Department of Human Services appropriations bill to quadruple H-2B visa numbers to 264,000. H-2B visas typically cover seasonal, entry-level or unskilled jobs, such as hotel maids and groundskeepers. Flooding the job market with foreign workers will disproportionately harm young Americans. Increasing H-2B visa numbers will prevent thousands of young Americans from getting their first summer job. It will disproportionately harm those lower-skilled young Americans just entering the workforce, especially lower-skilled and less-educated young black Americans.

Some businesses are more than willing to fire American workers when H-2B workers become available. It’s clear that the H-2B program, which is fraught with abuse, harms young Americans and should not be expanded.

Disqualified?

Former U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey tells MSNBC that not only is Hillary Clinton’s private email server illegal, it “disqualifies” her from holding any federal office. Such as, say, president of the United States. Very specifically points to one federal law, Title 18. Section 2071. For those of us who do not have United States Code committed to memory, here’s what it says:

“(a) Whoever willfully and unlawfully conceals, removes, mutilates, obliterates, or destroys, or attempts to do so, or, with intent to do so takes and carries away any record, proceeding, map, book, paper, document, or other thing, filed or deposited with any clerk or officer of any court of the United States, or in any public office, or with any judicial or public officer of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.

(b) Whoever, having the custody of any such record, proceeding, map, book, document, paper, or other thing, willfully and unlawfully conceals, removes, mutilates, obliterates, falsifies, or destroys the same, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both; and shall forfeit his office and be disqualified from holding any office under the United States. As used in this subsection, the term “office” does not include the office held by any person as a retired officer of the Armed Forces of the United States.”

Burger flippers need only apply

The Chief Income Analyst of The Wall Street Daily wrote on 6/20 that: “Without reliable data, the Fed continues to misread troubling unemployment stats.” And he continues, “According to the Fed’s proprietary labor market indicator, the labor market is softening. And yet, (Fed) Chair Yellen downplays the development. Even so, the action in the Treasury market reflects slowing economic growth prospects, as well as incipient labor market malaise.” And he finishes by saying “The stage is now set for a rise in unemployment. And if history is any indication, a recession will then soon follow.”

My conclusion is we have to cut taxes, or, at least, decline any other taxes so we can spend our own money as we see fit to prop up our local economies. Right? Now, after reading that Daily article I noticed on the same day at the bottom of the fold of The Telegraph’s front page that our tax and spend elected officials (my title for the lot) want to revive the Transportation-SPLOST. What astonishes me the most is that some of these folks are Republicans too.

Have they ignored the massive tax increase from the Transportation Bill of last year that our governor forced upon citizens on things not even related to transportation that we must pay a tax on? And the most perplexing conundrum is the fact that the bills’ tax revenues are supposed to pay for our tax and spend elected officials perceived needs for roads and all such matters. But now that Transportation Bill’s tax funds are not enough for them.

But do elected officials ask economists to forecast what an 8 percent sales tax will do to our local economy by stifling any economic expansion that all taxes do in one way or another? “No” was the answer when I asked that question at a MATS county transportation meeting a while back when we were briefed on reviving this son of T-SPLOST.

The good news is the regional voters will surely reject this son of T-SPLOST if it is forced onto a future ballot — again. And I predict that the other county leaders in our regional pact will in fact say “no” to this 1 percent increase going on any ballot. One of the reasons will be to prevent suffocating our tepid regional growth. And/or the other counties will simply say we are inundated with too many taxes and enough is enough. However, our mayor can force a T-SPLOST vote on Bibb County folks since our state Legislature (Republicans), for some reason, gave counties that option if a single county so desires.

To jump to an 8 percent sales tax is insanity, especially since the governor now has his yearly $1 billion transportation (slush?) fund just for the asking, or, surprise, counties can look to the federal highway fund or simply forgo some projects until those funds come available.

Did I mention our Bibb school board wants a 2-mill increase for a still inadequate school system? Nope. So much for private citizens financing as we see fit. Due to higher tax bites we will simply keep creating predominantly burger flippin’ jobs for the foreseeable future.

This story was originally published June 25, 2016 at 8:00 PM with the headline "This is Viewpoints for Sunday, June 28, 2016."