The Horrors And Destruction That Donald Trump Has Imposed On America...Just Kidding! Part 14

Before we start today’s discussion, let’s review my voting history: 

• I have never voted for a Republican for President in my life. 
• Thus, I did not vote for Trump. 
• I have rarely voted for a Republican for national office in my life. 

About 18 months ago, many liberals, Democrats, and millennials were besides themselves with grief and fear because their pre-ordained queen, Hillary Clinton, was not elected President. Instead, Donald Trump was elected, an individual that these same people despised, hated, and feared, an individual they felt would endanger and possibly destroy the country and our democracy. For the past year and a half they fretted, worried and lashed out at anything or anyone that even remotely smelled of Donald Trump.

Given that Trump has been in office for over 21 months or so, I thought, that as someone who did not vote for him, it would be a good idea to review the horror, trauma, and terrible things that Trump has subjected the country to in just eighteen month’s time. This is obviously a very sarcastic comment when you take an unbiased look at what has happened during the Trump Presidency. The many previous posts we did on this topic identified over 180 good things that have happened to America and Americans since Trump became President can found by entering the phrase “the horrors and destruction” in the search box above.

Since the last “horrors and destruction” post some additional accomplishments and good tidings have occurred as a result of this Presidency:

-A revamped NAFTA treaty structure with Mexico and Canada has been finalized which will open up a multi-billion dollar Canadian dairy market to American dairy farmers.

-The American auto industry has hailed the new trade agreement as a winner for the domestic auto industry which should result in higher sales and higher employment in that industry.

-As a result of the trade deal, foreign auto manufacturers have announced plans or intentions to move more auto production into the U.S. including BMW, Daimler, and Nissan which should result in more, higher paying jobs in that industry.

-The national unemployment rate at 3.7% has hit the lowest level in 49 years.

-The Federal Reserve predicts that the unemployment rate could go as low as 3.5% in 2019 and still stay below 4% through 2021.

-The Bureau of Labor Statistics recently reported that there are now 16,000 fewer Federal government employees than when the Trump administration began, a very small positive step in getting the Federal government spending under control.

-Lowest paid workers in the economy are seeing the strongest wage gains, registering a 5.1% average increase in wages in the second quarter vs. 1.7% for all workers as the hot economy and low unemployment levels fuel wage growth.

- According to CNBC’s Global CFO Council, the U.S. economy is the only major national economy in the world that is growing, with all other major economies rated as stable or declining.

-Trump has donated the latest portion of his annual salary to establish a new entrepreneurship program for military veterans, giving his salary to the U.S. Small Business Administration, which will use the money to establish an “Emerging Leaders” program solely focused on helping veterans start small businesses after military life.

Another 9 reasons to add to the previous 176 or so reasons why the first year and a half of the Trump Presidency has not wrought disaster on the country.

For those of you that have hated on Trump since day one, and given your obvious gross error in judgment relative to Trump, let me ask that you to do us all a favor by implementing the following changes in your behavior and attitude:

• Chill out, tamp down your TDS affliction. No matter how much you hate Trump on a sexist, personal basis, get over it. He is the legally and duly elected President, he will be around for a while so refocus your hatred on more constructive issues and matters. You will live a lot longer if you take your hatred out of your heart and soul and devote it to something positive.
• I would really appreciate it if some of you would apologize to the Trump voters you have disrespected in some of the grossest terms possible over the past year. You have called millions of voters racists, ignorant, stupid, Nazis, KKK members, and other horrible names simply because you disagreed with their voting choice. No American should be called such disgusting names simply because they exercised their Constitutional rights to the best of their abilities. Plus, slandering over 60 million Americans is no way to unite the country and get it focused on the real issues facing us all.
• More personally, I would like, no I am demanding, an apology from some of you for your slanderous and disgusting name calling because in doing so, you insulted and disrespected my sister, my family members, my friends, and my co-workers who simply voted their conscience. I will defend their right to vote anyway they wanted and will no put up with your childish and vicious venom and bile directed at them, very important people in my life.
• And finally, I challenge you to read the following blog post, a post that shows quite clearly that it was hateful people like some of you and your silence during the Obama years that actually caused Trump to be elected. Thus, the people you hate for voting for Trump are actually looking back at you in the mirror:

https://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2016/03/how-american-liberals-and-washington.html

If you were silent in the dozens of instances listed in this post then you were responsible for the very thing you hate: a Trump Presidency. Or put another way, a so far successful and productive Trump Presidency. Over 180 accomplishments in a little more than a year and a half is not too shabby despite many of you wanting both Trump and the country to fail.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:


http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.bankruptingamerica.org
http://www.conventionofstates.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

Making Government More Efficient - A Lesson From BMW

As our national debt levels have skyrocketed, most rational and knowledgeable Americans in the country realize that something has to be done to get our government spending and budget under control before we bankrupt the country. This blog has previously suggested any number of ways to start the downsizing process:

• Bring home the hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops we have deployed all over the world in deployments that serve another time and another era but which no longer serve any military or diplomatic purpose, saving hundreds of billions of dollars a year in defense costs.
• Aggressively address, track, and prosecute those that defraud government programs such as Medicare and Medicaid or who do not pay their fair share of income taxes. The Obama administration has conceded that almost $100 billion is lost every year in government medical programs through fraud and criminal activity.
• Eliminate all earmarks, which only serve as a deceptive way of financing incumbents' re-election campaigns, saving almost $20 billion a year.
• The Cato Institute has been working on a long term project where they have been going through the Federal budget line by line and have already identified places and programs that can be cut or scaled back to save over $600 billion a year.

Thus, there are many obvious ways to get our government growth under control. However, an article in the October 10, 2010 edition of the St. Petersburg Times provided some insight from BMW that could be used by the Federal government to wring additional savings and efficiencies out of the Federal government bureaucracy. According to the article, by 2007 BMW was faced with an aging work force and declining productivity. Older workers tended to call in sick longer than the younger employees and they had to work harder to keep up with the demands of their work. To combat the increasing inefficiency of an aging workforce, the company put together a pilot production line, staffed by older workers, and let the workers make whatever changes they felt were necessary to keep this production line productive and efficient. This experimental production line resulted in the following accomplishments: 

• The older workers came up with 70 process improvements to their work.
• These changes included using larger fonts on their computer monitors and installing wooden floors to make standing easier on older knees and legs.
• They adapted their tools to larger handles and started using orthopedic footwear to make standing and working easier and less painful.
• Workers were rotated between more physically and less physically stressful jobs during the same shift to keep them fresh and installed adjustable chairs which allowed workers to sit for at least part of their shift.

What was the result of instituting these worker-identified changes? Productivity went up 7%, absenteeism dropped to 2%, which was lower than the overall plant average, and the line achieved zero defects. The cost for all of these wonderful, money saving performance improvements was only $50,000 which included both the cost of new equipment and additional training.

The lesson to be learned form this BMW success story is that there is much to be learned by the people that do the real job everyday. They can see where efficiencies and savings can be found, if only you give them the chance. This phenomenon was suggested under Step 1 in "Love My Country, Loathe My Government."  Step 1 calls for an annual 10% downsizing of government for five years in order to wring out waste, fraud, and redundancy. A major process envisioned under Step 1 was to set up a procedure where Federal employees could easily suggest ways to improve the operating processes of the Federal government by either identifying waste or suggesting new ways of doing things.

As an incentive for looking for changes in operations, a lottery system would be set up where Federal employees would have a chance to receive a monetary reward if their suggestions were actually implemented. It is pretty obvious from watching any Congressional hearing that members of the political class sitting on those committees are quite clueless when it comes to understanding how the intricacies of how government functions work. They would never be able to identify the small ways to save taxpayer money without sacrificing functionality or quality. If you find enough ways to save a small amount of money, you eventually end up saving a lot of taxpayer money. As Senator Everett Dirksen once said: " A billion dollars here, a billion dollars there. Before you know it we are talking about real money."

Let's do some math. Obama's current budget is $3.5 TRILLION. If you could repeat the experience of BMW, where they used their line workers to identify cost and time savings, and get a 7% increase in productivity of the Federal government, you could cut the Federal budget by about $245 billion ($3.5 TRILLION times 7%) without sacrificing any quality or service. $245 billion and we are all of a sudden in Dirksen territory. That comes down to an equivalent of more than $1,200 per U.S. family per year. For the first time in our history, you would have the Federal government doing more with less, a mantra that has driven the private sector of our economy from day one.

Thus, reducing the size of government needs to be attacked at both the macro and micro level. At the macro level, we need to do the big changes such as bringing our troops home, eliminating earmarks, and prosecuting fraud. At he micro level, we need to exploit the knowledge and insights that our veteran Federal workers can bring to the table to fine tune the government so that it acts and looks more like a lean, mean fighting machine and less like an overblown Jabba The Hutt.

Our new book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at www.loathemygovernment.com. It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit these other sites for freedom:

http://www.cato.org/
http://www.reason.com/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://www.realpolichick.blogspot.com/
http://www.flipcongress2010/