A Dangerous Mix of Money and Power

We’ve all heard politicians and candidates talking about the “ordinary” people they’ve recently run into, and telling teary-eyed stories to show that they feel our pain and really care about us little guys.

This week I heard a radio segment focusing on a personal story recently used by a presidential candidate in her campaign rhetoric while traveling around Iowa. The reporter following her campaign described how this Senator stopped at a local sandwich shop for lunch with her entourage. The Senator settled onto a stool at the counter, ate a sandwich, chatted with her waitress, and then was on her way. According to the reporter, this experience gave the presidential candidate “perfect fodder for her next few stump speeches.”

To be sure, it was glorious fodder. She talked about the working mom she had just met who is raising two boys, working two jobs at minimum wage, struggling to make ends meet, and how, when she becomes President, ordinary people like her waitress will have it much better. It must have all sounded so heartfelt coming from a famous candidate, and no doubt crowds were touched by this sort of profound compassion and concern for their less fortunate neighbors.

The reporter decided to return to the diner to get more background on the one whose life had gotten drawn into a famous candidate’s stump speech, thus becoming part the 2008 presidential election. Yes, it turns out that the waitress indeed has had a difficult life. She has often worked two and three jobs to support her boys. In addition to her job in the sandwich shop she also works at a nursing home to pay her own school loans and make ends meet.

The diner indeed had provided lunch for the candidate and her campaign entourage, but this poor waitress, who was the subject of the campaign rhetoric, insisted that she was not even left a tip for her services. Not five cents for the struggling mom by whom the candidate was so moved.

This story reminds me of an issue that came before the state Budget and Control Board last week. At its meeting, the Board approved major salary increases -- nearly 20 percent increases for some -- for a very small group of agency heads, despite no performance review for the raises, despite some of them being on the job for only a few months, and despite none of them asking for raises. The three most generous raises in the group were for $20,000, $23,000, and almost $36,000!

Governor Sanford and I voted against those hefty increases, particularly since state government is heading into what could be a $220 million deficit next year. Yet the three other members of the Board disagreed with our position, overrode our votes, and approved the raises.

Now these three are serious gentlemen of comfortable means who I assume have been successful in business. I simply can’t imagine they would ever grant an employee of theirs, who had been on the job only a few months, or who had not been given increased responsibilities, a 20% pay raise. But many elected officials think differently of spending taxpayers’ money than spending their own, and spending it generously. For some, politics is about power, and many have grown accustomed to letting the hard-working citizens of South Carolina buy that power for them.

Like the Senator who wouldn’t leave her own spare change for a working mother who had served her, too many of our politicians see taxpayers as merely useful props. Some will talk with great compassion about their concern for the poor. They’ll conceive great governmental programs to improve life for middle class families whose votes they covet. But it will be the very people they say they want to help -- the struggling mom raising two boys alone and waiting tables or the self-reliant middle class mom and dad who want to rear their children as their parents reared them -- who will ultimately pay the tab for the generous big government, big spending schemes of the politicians.

Someone once said that “giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.” In the interest of protecting our financial safety, perhaps it’s time to insist upon more restrictive driving rules for those to whom we’ve given money and power.

It’s Wrong… Patently Wrong!

Even before many of our rights were codified in the U.S. Constitution, the right of an inventor to own all rights to the creations of his own genius was constitutionally protected. The patent system crafted by our founding fathers has been so successful that it has enabled America to produce more inventions than all the rest of the world’s nations combined.

Unlike many countries, America’s patent system has guarded intellectual property by protecting the confidential contents of a patent application until a patent was granted, or by returning an application to the inventor with his secrets intact, so that he could make modifications and possibly resubmit an application.

Unfortunately, foreign interests, multinational corporations, and American “globalists” who believe that people, products, and information ought to be able to cross national borders unfettered are attempting to “harmonize” America’s patent system with systems that exist elsewhere in the world. Based upon globalist ideology, a “Patent Reform Act” has already been passed in the U.S. House of Representatives and is under consideration in the Senate.

For the sake of “harmonizing” the American patent system with systems of foreign nations, foreign interests and multinational corporations are aggressively pressuring Congress to make these changes. After all, they are aware that the so called “reforms” would give them access to the research and development done by small inventors and businesses that account for 40% of America’s innovation, and would free them from having to pay for their inventions.

The proposal would change the rules for filing patents and would give property rights to the “first to file” rather than the first to invent. Obviously, large foreign interests are far better positioned than are most of our own small businesses and individual inventors to hire teams of powerful lobbyists and lawyers in Washington, D.C. to help them gain rights to an American invention they didn’t devise, simply by rushing to submit paperwork before it is submitted by the actual American inventor.

The proposal would require the U.S. Patent Office to open its files and publish all inventions 18 months after the date of application, even though the current application process for an American inventor takes much longer to successfully complete. This would mean that before American ideas and inventions are protected with a patent, confidential information would be published so that any country can pirate American ideas and inventions and put them into production.

The Patent Reform Act would also limit damages that can be awarded for patent infringement and outright theft. Again, the small American company or individual would be at a severe disadvantage in attempting to win just compensation from an unscrupulous multinational corporation or foreign nation.

Finally, the proposal would hurt our most creative and productive citizens while it would help those who pay no taxes in the United States and who have no loyalty whatsoever to our country. It would also reward and assist those countries that already are pirating the intellectual property of American citizens, manufacturing products based on ideas they have stolen from us, and selling those products back to us.

The American government should be working in the best interests of America’s small businesses that create new jobs and account for most of our productivity rather than penalizing them with the Patent Reform Act. If America’s inventors are not protected from foreign nations and multinational corporations, America will lose the foundation for its prosperity with innovation moving overseas just as manufacturing has done.

Because of the rapid changes that have come with the digital age, there indeed might be some updating and improvements needed to our patent system. But given that America still leads the world in technology and innovation, it seems odd that our lawmakers would feel the need to throw out our patent system and pattern it instead on the systems of far less creative countries. Perhaps we should remind our Senators of an old adage: “Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.” To do that would be patently wrong.

Never Too Late

Many Americans were disappointed to learn that existing home sales in the United States fell 8 percent in September, and that sales have plummeted a hefty 19 percent during the past year. At the same time, national median selling prices are down 4 percent from a year ago.

These are worrying statistics, particularly because after a half century of increasing housing prices, many had come to believe that housing prices would always increase. Indeed, many Americans have come to depend on the increasing value of their home to provide security in a crisis and support in their retirement years, rather than to routinely save some of every paycheck for those critical purposes.

There has also been a recent flood of stories about home foreclosures and personal bankruptcies stemming from easy credit and overspending. During recent times of relative prosperity, Americans have become poor savers. The U.S. savings rate has declined from approximately 10 percent in the 1980s to 6 percent in the 1990s and to a negative ½ percent in 2005. That means that Americans spent more than they earned in 2005. The last time the savings rate was negative for an entire year was in the Great Depression years of 1932 and 1933.

Something doesn’t feel right about these numbers. In the last decade, total household net worth for Americans has doubled -- yet America’s personal savings rate has now sunk to among the lowest in the world.

These statistics should not panic us, but they should be a wake-up call for us to return to better financial habits that most Americans remember, but fewer and fewer practice. Our savings dearth has been fostered by politicians who fail to recognize the need for better public policy and tax policy for encouraging more savings, and who at the same time provide awful examples by the careless way they spend every last dollar they can snatch from the public purse and then, once spending them all, continue to spend by incurring runaway public debt.

Government seems oblivious to the problem of our low personal savings rates. American Debt Resources, Inc., a non-profit credit counseling organization is one of many private sector organizations helping Americans reclaim control over their financial future. The organization points out that in any ten year period 75 percent of families will experience a major financial crisis, whether it is loss of a job, illness, divorce, or some other unexpected challenge.

Its advice is to save, and it emphasizes that the best way to save is to always pay oneself before paying anyone else. Its counselors explain that to do that requires “taking a set amount of your paycheck before paying any bills and putting it in savings. Then plan your budget around the remaining income.”

Saving through automatic payroll withholding is a foolproof way to develop better savings habits. That technique allows you to save first before spending the first dollar from your paycheck. I’ve never known anyone to regret that they saved. Automatic saving is one of the best practices available to rich or poor for building wealth and financial security, but it is also one of the most frequently ignored practices.

Time is running out for many baby boomers, and many are underestimating how much they’ll need to make it through their retirement years. A study by The Center for Retirement Research estimates that Americans are saving at a rate that will allow them to replace only 57% of their pre-retirement income after they stop working. Many have optimistically assumed that by selling homes that are constantly appreciating in value they will be able to meet retirement income shortfalls, yet emerging housing statistics challenge the validity of that assumption.

We should all return to better savings habits. Good savings habits are not only good for families, they are vital for our country and its economy. Our household and national savings provide more than just funds for the future, they also provide the capital for investment by new and existing businesses, which in turn ensures that there are well-paying jobs for all Americans.

Albert Einstein said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again -- and expecting different results. Your failure to save will do nothing to produce the financial security you want. The surest way to reclaim a sound financial future and peace of mind is to begin saving today. While time is a saver’s best friend, it’s never too late to begin.

Never Too Soon

In recent years there’s been much discussion about what schools should and should not be teaching. But there is a growing consensus that most schools have overlooked one very important aspect of preparing students for life’s responsibilities. For most of our lives, we are all involved to some degree in financial management – whether that entails budgeting and spending responsibly, buying a house or a car, saving for our children’s education, managing a retirement fund, running an organization or business, or overseeing the finances of government. To be sure, the recent staggering number of people who have been overwhelmed by easy debt or who have lost their homes through foreclosure, along with the runaway spending by government officials at all levels, suggests that much more should be done to teach all Americans better principles of money management.

That is why I was delighted to learn recently that the Credit Union National Association (CUNA) has developed a program to teach very young children about money. Recognizing that attempts to teach financial literacy to high school and middle school students often fail, CUNA has wisely designed its program for preschoolers. Because older students already have been saturated with advertising messages and with peer pressure for the newest and best of everything, no matter the cost, the obstacles for beginning a financial literacy program once bad habits are established are impractical to overcome.

As CUNA points out, “Children learn about money from many sources. Long before they enter school, they observe adults using money and buying things. They watch television daily and see thousands of commercials each year. Like it or not, money is a part of your preschooler’s life.”

The Credit Union National Association calls its program “Thrive by Five,” and it offers “parent and child tested” activities and resources on its website that are meant to give parents ideas for:

* Teaching how money works and what it can do,
* Talking about how your family uses money, and
* Modeling good money management.

In addition to providing tips for teaching preschoolers about money, CUNA’s website contains simple stories about money for preschoolers, a list of 17 things a five-year-old should know about money, and hands-on learning activities that teach concepts such as “saving should be a habit; once money is spent, it’s gone; people have to make choices with money; and don’t trust ads.”

This sounds like an excellent program. It is especially encouraging that our state currently has the highest per-capita rate in the nation of “Thrive by Five” program materials distributed to our schools. Come to think of it, if ”Thrive by Five” is successful for toddlers, why not offer a similar program to those government officials who often provide such poor examples for our youth by the routine way they indifferently exhaust public funds and concurrently chalk up crushing public debt?

Responsible money management is important for everyone, whether individuals, families, businesses, or governments. We are seeing credit card debt, bankruptcies, and mortgage foreclosures increasing out of hand. It would be a true blessing for us all if other civic and business organizations follow CUNA’s lead in assuring that people get an earlier start in learning how to handle money wisely. If this program proves to be effective in the long run, we’ll all benefit tremendously.

PROVIDE A WATERY GRAVE FOR A LOST CAUSE

One has to wonder what drives the Administration and some members of Congress to promote policies that weaken US sovereignty, threaten American industries, export jobs, leave our borders undefended, and subject American businesses, our military personnel, and our citizens to the laws and regulations established by transnational bureaucracies like the United Nations, instead of by our elected representatives in Washington. Do these promoters distrust their own country, are they willing to allow the interests of the UN to take precedence over the interests of our citizens, or are they just idealistically pursuing what Henry Kissinger refers to as the new “international architecture?”

It was just a few months ago that a national uprising of the American people persuaded Congress to soundly defeat a proposed illegal alien amnesty bill. Yet in the last few weeks, the Administration and many amnesty supporters have been attempting to repackage their amnesty bill into something called the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act.

The DREAM Act, which was quietly tacked on to a defense authorization bill, would have granted amnesty to illegal aliens who entered the United States as children. These young illegal aliens would have been granted permanent, lawful status that would have then allowed them to seek permanent lawful status for their parents who brought them into the country illegally as children. Once again, the American people said “no.” Americans understandably want our laws to be respected and our borders secured and defended.

Remarkably, the Administration is now collaborating with Senator Joseph Biden on something called the Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST), a United Nations power grab rejected by President Reagan a quarter of a century ago because among other reasons it would undermine U.S. sovereignty. LOST was first proposed by the United Nations in 1982, and it would give the UN authority on, over, and beneath the ocean’s surface.

LOST would restrict the U.S. Navy’s intelligence gathering and submarine operations; it would require our military to obtain permission from the UN before boarding or detaining any ship it suspects of carrying terrorists or terrorist supplies; it would give the UN its first authority to tax, by imposing hefty fees and assessments on any American company involved in such things as seabed mining; and it would establish a UN tribunal, superior to our nation’s courts, that would have the last word over all maritime issues involving fisheries, marine environmental protection, oceanographic research, and navigation.

Hasn’t our long, difficult experience with the UN made clear what such a treaty would mean for the United States? It would mean that our laws, our sovereignty, our freedoms, and our property rights would be turned over to an assortment of nations that despise what we stand for, yet covet what we have.

Some of our political elites may dream of a new “international architecture,” but the remarkable house that was built in Philadelphia more that 230 years ago has provided Americans with freedom, wealth, and opportunity unknown anywhere else on the face of the earth. It is time to demand that those in Washington defend our remarkable Constitution, as Ronald Reagan did, against all who would undermine it. The LOST Treaty and any similar schemes that assault America’s interests should be slipped into the deep blue sea for a fitting burial.

Phyllis Schlafly on the Law Of The Sea Treaty (LOST)

The Price of Freedom

The Congressional Research Service of the Library of Congress recently published a report entitled American War and Military Operations Casualties: Lists and Statistics (Updated June 29, 2007). As we approach Veterans’ Day this year, it is a document worth reflecting on, because it provides in great detail the U.S. casualty statistics for every war in which the United States has participated, from the Revolutionary War through our current Operation Iraqi Freedom.

The report lists, by branch of service and by a variety of demographics, the 4,435 deaths in the Revolutionary War; 2,300 in the War of 1812; and 1,733 in the Mexican War. While the report lists only Union casualties, other sources reveal that between 618,000 and 700,000 Americans, both blue and grey, died in the Civil War. Taken alone, this vast number of casualties nearly exceeds our combined loss in all other wars from our nation’s first, the Revolutionary War, through Vietnam.

These somber statistics tell of the sacred commitment through the years of those who fought and died to provide freedom for their fellow Americans. In the Spanish-American War, nearly 2,500 of our countrymen perished; two decades later in World War I, nearly 117,000 gave their lives, as did another 500,000 in World War II.

In Korea there were 36,754 American deaths; and in Vietnam, 58,209; in the brief first Persian Gulf War, 382 perished. Since the early nineties, we have continued each year to lose 1,000 to 2,000 of our young men and women in uniform, even during times of relative peace. But that number of annual casualties is actually declining.

In the Global War on Terrorism being waged in Iraq during the past 4½ years, our losses to date have totaled 3,800. While this is much lower than the toll from conflicts of the past, the loss of each American life is heartbreaking and the measure of that sacrifice is enormous. Each life we lose is sacred in the glorious cause of liberty and freedom. And as we thank the families of those who have made the ultimate sacrifice, we at least can gain some solace that the number of our casualties has been on a decline.

One cannot handle this Congressional Research Service report without seeing past the numbers to the hundreds of thousands of selfless young men and women who have paid the ultimate price for the freedoms we cherish. I suspect that nearly every American family has been touched by the loss of at least one loved one within memory, and through those tragic and painful losses, we are all profoundly invested in the great American cause of liberty and justice for all.

There is much controversy stirred up by the axis of the radical political left, including its Hollywood and media allies, over the War in Iraq. They would have us view this war, which most of us sensibly understand is a battlefield of the Global War on Terrorism, as a pointless waste, a quagmire, a war that cannot be won.

But the truth is that with the recent troop “surge” under General Petraeus, there has been a dramatic decline in the number of military and civilian deaths in Iraq. Last month saw the lowest monthly toll since July 2006 and the fourth consecutive drop in the monthly death toll following a high of 121 in May. Civilian deaths are down by over 53 percent.

Some feel that this surge started much too late, but it is clearly working. Thousands of terrorists who, were they not engaged in Iraq might be terrorizing and killing civilians in the United States or wherever people enjoy freedom, have themselves been neutralized as a result of the surge.

The price tag for our freedom has always been beyond measure, but it is a price Americans have always had the courage and will to pay. It would betray the memory, honor, and youthful treasure of so many thousand brave Americans who have given their all defending our freedom, were we to head down the slippery slope of retreat, defeat, and humiliation advocated by the radical left.

The words of the ancient Greek historian, Thucydides, written four centuries before the birth of Christ, remain true today: “The secret of freedom is courage.”

I pray that our nation will never cower from this time-tested truth.

Madness In Our Policies, Danger On Our Roads

Upon leaving office, President Eisenhower was asked to name his greatest accomplishment; he cited the Interstate Highway System. This vast network of safe and well maintained roads has spawned a $623 billion trucking industry that, among the many goods and services it transports, has enabled Americans to enjoy a greater variety of fresh foods at lower prices than are enjoyed by virtually any other nation on earth.

Unfortunately, the White House has recently implemented a provision of the North American Free Trade Act (NAFTA) that will allow up to 100 Mexican trucking companies, and an unspecified number of their trucks, to use our roadways to freely haul their cargo anywhere within the United States. The policy of allowing unsafe, unregulated, low-paid truckers onto our roads threatens an American industry, American jobs, the quality of American life, and the health and safety of all Americans.

Because of enormous opposition at the time from American trucking companies, the Clinton Administration had the good judgment to put a hold on this NAFTA pilot project. This year the U.S. House of Representatives has overwhelmingly voted on multiple occasions to prohibit this onslaught of Mexican trucks.

The Teamsters Union and the Sierra Club have also opposed the project in federal court. Yet despite the overwhelming opposition of a major American industry, the overwhelming and bipartisan opposition from Congress, and even before a federal judge ruled last month to permit the project, the Administration began granting Mexican truckers the unrestricted access to every roadway in the United States.

At a time when our nation is spending billions of dollars fighting a war on drugs, when millions of Americans are demanding that our border be secured because of the legions of illegal aliens already here and the very real threat of terrorists crossing our unprotected border, when so many once-vibrant American industries and jobs have been exported to foreign countries -- one has to wonder what drives such thinking and policies as this. Is the Executive Branch of our government even concerned what our Constitution says and what the people think, or has it become beholden to powerful transnational corporations that have no allegiance whatsoever to our United States?

Our highly regulated trucking companies will find it difficult to compete with foreign companies paying their drivers a fraction of U. S. wages. Further, Mexican drivers, unlike their U.S. counterparts, have no restrictions on the number of hours that a trucker may actually work, and Mexico keeps no data on the criminal and driving records of its truck drivers!

While American companies will be offered reciprocal access to Mexico, most American companies refuse to send trucks into Mexico because some Mexican police are as likely to rob and extort bribes as Mexico’s vibrant crime syndicates are.

At a time when the Administration is continuing to neglect border enforcement, do we really want to provide more people more ways to illegally enter our country? And what assurance do we have that those low-paid Mexican truckers will not be bribed to transport illegal drugs or illegal aliens or materials of mass terror?

When trucks that do not have to abide by the same pollution and safety standards as American trucks injure or kill Americans on our roadways, what protections and guarantees do Americans have that the perpetrator will be insured and will face the same penalties as an American trucker.

Consider a policy that erodes U. S. sovereignty, threatens a major American industry, is likely to export even more jobs out of our country, threatens the health and safety of Americans on our roadways, and could facilitate moving more illegal drugs, aliens and criminal activity into our country. This is not a policy in the interest of the people of the United States. It’s time for Congress to terminate this fool-hearty project that is increasingly undermining our sovereignty and the best interests of we, the people of the United States of America.

September 11, 2001: A Remembrance and a Resolution

Today we mark the sixth anniversary of one of the most somber and shocking days in American history. On this day we remember over 3000 of our countrymen who left behind wives and children, mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters; we remember the brave firefighters, police, and emergency service personnel who gave their lives trying to rescue others. We must never forget their noble sacrifices or the support and help of all Americans who rushed to New York and Washington, D.C. to assist with the rescue and clean up.

Like the attack on Pearl Harbor sixty years earlier, the terrible events of September 11 will “live in infamy” and should never be forgotten. In both attacks, ordinary citizens were going about their daily lives, posing no threat or challenge to anyone. Yet both of these attacks on our countrymen marked the beginning of long, difficult, and costly struggles for the actual survival of western civilization and for the lives, rights, and freedoms we enjoy and often take for granted.

Since that awful September 11, which powerfully underscored the danger of militant Islamic terrorism, more than 5,000 identified terrorists have been captured or killed, and many deadly plots and catastrophes have been averted. Nevertheless, Islamic terrorists still have managed to carry out thousands of deadly terror attacks against an array of targets in the western world.

As we pay tribute to all those who have died at the hands of hate-inspired enemies of our faith, civilization, progress, and of mankind itself, we must never forget that we all have a role to play in this ongoing struggle. This struggle is by no means over, and it is likely that there will be other attempts to kill Americans and destroy all that we cherish.

Many Americans will be called upon to make extraordinary contributions and sacrifices in the years ahead. Sadly, some will give their lives in this struggle. All of us need to pray and lead lives of gratitude for God’s blessings and protection of our country. The Bible speaks to our day when, in Ephesians: 6:11-13, it commands:

Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

Let’s not wait for another attack. Let’s avail ourselves of God’s offered protection now.

Equal -- and Free to Reach for the Stars

Americans rightly believe the “self-evident truth” proclaimed in our founding document, “that all men are created equal” and “that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights.” In proclaiming these truths, our founding fathers were affirming the right of every person to be equal before the law and to freely pursue life, liberty and happiness without needing any special privilege, or having any penalty imposed on anyone. This has been the animating struggle of American history.

However, there is perhaps no American ideal that has been more poorly understood and more frequently misinterpreted than the very American idea of equality.

In the past century we have seen the ideal of equality misinterpreted to mean that all must be equal. Brutal regimes in the Soviet Union, Cuba and Cambodia spoke of equality, but theirs was a forced leveling-down that defied human nature and natural law. Taken to the extreme in those countries, it has meant the persecution and death for those who would excel, the redistribution of wealth, and the making of individuals to be slaves to the collective.

In speaking to an American audience about the true ideal of equality, Margaret Thatcher once said:

"The pursuit of equality itself is a mirage. What’s more desirable and more practicable than the pursuit of equality is the pursuit of equality of opportunity. And opportunity means nothing unless it includes the right to be unequal and the freedom to be different. One of the reasons that we value individuals is not because they’re all the same, but because they’re all different. I believe you have a saying in the Middle West: ‘Don’t cut down the tall poppies. Let them rather grow tall.’ I would say, let our children grow tall and some taller than others if they have the ability in them to do so."

The leveling-down that occurs in our schools, in our tax code, in our bureaucratic rules and regulations, in our union contracts, in the culture of our workplaces, has promoted a notion of equality at odds with what our founding fathers intended, at odds with human nature, and one that encourages, at best, the mediocre and average instead of the excellent.

The mistaken notion of what equality means has led to schools where students are socially promoted even though they fail to master what they should be learning. School administrators frequently complain that because of regulations it is impossible to fire an incompetent teacher, and tenure policies guarantee employment for life, regardless of performance. Businesses, too, are often faced with regulatory obstacles and costly lawsuits when they attempt to remove an incompetent employee.

Americans see the unfortunate result of this misunderstood notion of equality every day when they face incompetence and attitudes of indifference at the supermarket, at the bank, at fast food restaurants, in the post office, or in trying to ensure better education for their children.

It is part of human nature for people to be competitive, to want to excel and win, to seek something better for themselves and their family. But when we give excellence the same rewards we give to the average and the mediocre, each of us, and our nation, is cheated of not only what the “best and the brightest” could offer, but what we could otherwise accomplish in a nation that would truly reward excellence. After all, a nation that has gone to the moon should always reach for the stars.

Competition: The Pathway to Better Public Schools

In recent days there has been a lot of national attention focused on South Carolina’s representative to the Miss Teen USA pageant. Her initial spontaneous response to a question - about a survey showing that many American young people can’t locate the United States on a world map - has been the subject of newspaper stories, editorials, and television programs.

Unfortunately, most of the discussion and ridicule of this young lady is misdirected, and certainly a young teen can be forgiven for a few seconds of stage fright in front of a huge auditorium and a national TV audience. What has been overlooked, and should concern us far more than her response, are the underlying contributing factors to the question that was put to her. I’m talking about the “dumbing down” of America, about cultural illiteracy, about declining test scores, soaring dropout rates, and most bitter of all, South Carolina’s bottom of the barrel ranking in a nation that itself ranks near the bottom of all industrialized nations in math and science achievement.

Nearly a quarter century ago a national, bipartisan panel was asked to examine the quality of education in the United States. Its report entitled “A Nation at Risk” stated “the educational foundations of our society are presently being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a Nation and a people.” The report added, “If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war.”

In the intervening years since that sobering report was issued, little has changed despite massive increases in government spending on K-12 education. In that regard we learned the disappointing news this week that South Carolina’s SAT scores declined for a second consecutive year. In responding to the news, our State Superintendent of Education commented that “It may be that we’ve hit a point in education reform in the state and nation that we need to do more substantive change to keep up with the competition.”

Dr. Rex’s assessment that “we need to do… more to keep up with the competition” is accurate. Yet the problem may be that competition is being stifled because the system that now has the monopoly on K-12 education works tirelessly to prevent private and independent schools from being able to compete on a “level playing field” with public schools.

While our state education leaders have talked about several good ideas for improving schools – greater choice among schools, single gender classes and schools that take into account the different ways in which boys and girls learn, more rigorous course requirements, greater emphasis on basics, longer school days and longer school years, professional development of teachers – there is little real incentive for schools and districts to substantively change when there are no adverse consequences when they fail their students. In fact, many failing schools and districts argue for, and they often receive, even more money in response to repeated failure.

Our State Superintendent is right; we need “substantive change.” We can see that things like spending more, tinkering with the curricula, improving the facilities, these things have not substantively improved the quality of South Carolina’s public schools as many had predicted they would.

To set a goal, as some have suggested, that South Carolina will rank among the top half of all fifty states is itself far too modest a goal. We should do more than simply aspire to reach the mediocrity of other states. Instead we need to look at how the world’s highest performing nations educate their students and replicate their performance.

Every parent knows how quickly children grow up. We cannot continue to ask parents to sacrifice their children as we wait another 5, 10, or 25 years for schools to improve. Every year is critical in the life of a child, and no child should be sacrificed in the hope that more tinkering and more spending might finally make a difference.

South Carolina’s school system needs substantive change, and it needs it now. People who truly support our system of public education should insist on substantive change to make our system better. Competition works. Just as in sports, our schools will most likely perform better when they’re competitively challenged.

Have You No Decency?

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said that “men are respectable only as they respect.” If that is to be the measure, The State newspaper has invited very little respect for an invasive story it ran last weekend about the tragic fire in Charleston resulting in the loss of nine firefighters.

By its own admission, the newspaper obtained the release of several hundred radio transmissions that were exchanged between the doomed firefighters and the dispatchers and fire chief. These transmissions, the agonizing last words uttered by men who realized they were about to die, are expressions of faith and love for wives and family. These transmissions are not news, and to publish them callously invades the privacy of grieving families left without husbands, fathers, brothers, and sons. The general public has no need to know these last, desperate words, and reporting them in the pages of one of the state’s major newspapers only deepens the pain and loss for families that have already suffered far too much.

Perhaps we shouldn’t expect a newspaper owned by a company headquartered on the West Coast to exemplify our southern values of courtesy, consideration for one’s neighbors, and respect for bereaved families. But the newspaper crossed way over the line and descended to the depths of vulgar tabloid journalism in this case.

To add unthinkable insult to injury, the newspaper chose to run its story about the final words of nine brave firefighters next to an advertisement headed “RED HOT MATTRESS PRICES.” The quarter- page advertisement was vividly illustrated with deep red flaming tongues of fire. One is left to wonder whether this was some very disturbed copywriter’s idea, or whether the editing at the newspaper has become that shoddy.

The State newspaper has roots deep in the history of our community. Its founder is memorialized close to the State House grounds. There is no competing major newspaper in the Midlands between which readers can chose, but our people have a right, nevertheless, to expect more than this type of sensationalist tabloid trash from South Carolina’s largest newspaper.

The Constitutional guarantee of “freedom of press” should never relieve a major newspaper of its duty to conduct itself professionally and in good taste. The editors of The State owe an apology to the firefighters’ families and to all South Carolinians they have blatantly disrespected with this story. Have you no decency?

New Treasurer Can Help This State Act Boldly

Published Friday, August 10, 2007

By Richard Eckstrom

Last week, the state Legislature appointed Rep. Converse Chellis of Summerville to complete the term of our former state treasurer who recently resigned. At one time I was state treasurer, so I'm very familiar with the duties of that office.

Treasurer Chellis will assume an extremely competent, professional staff to handle the daily activities of his new office, important activities like investing public funds and servicing state debt. My advice would be for him to rely on his competent staff to handle many of these functions and to devote his own time to critical matters where the citizens of South Carolina are now grossly underserved.

I'm referring to work that needs to be done to fix the serious funding problems of the state retirement system. State officials have been willing to all but ignore these escalating problems for years. When I was elected state treasurer in 1994, I warned that the state retirement system was pitifully underfunded. In fact, at that time the retirement system was short-funded by 25 percent, amounting to a massive shortfall of over $3 billion. Since 1994, because of a series of awful management decisions, that shortfall has been allowed to balloon to about $10 billion! That's a disgrace.

Most elected officials have refused to reasonably address this financial calamity. Some are willing to pay lip service to it, but except for Gov. Mark Sanford, most have not had the political courage to work to eradicate this destructive financial cancer growing on our state.

In contrast, I hope that the new treasurer will have the political courage to work to address this mess. For too long, state leaders have ignored it, and by doing so they've forced us into an almost unmanageable predicament. Denying or refusing to address this difficulty won't make it go away. Doing that has only made it worse.

Frankly, by failing to act for as long as it has, the state may have forced itself into having to restructure the entire retirement plan. Doing so would require legislative action, but I hope that the new treasurer will encourage his hesitant former colleagues to act decisively without further delay.

Above all, as a new member of the Budget and Control Board, I hope that the new treasurer will refuse to commit a blunder routinely made by board members. Whether or not to grant annual COLAs (cost of living allowances) is a board decision. I ask the treasurer, as a fellow CPA, to not further weaken the retirement system by voting to grant additional benefit increases like COLAs until the retirement system's funding crisis is cured. The retirement system already is staggering under a crushing $10 billion load of promises that already have been made -- yet have never been paid for. The system must not be weakened any further.

There is something extremely cynical about promising benefit increases -- without funding those promised increases -- while fully aware that the retirement system already is unable to afford existing commitments. Regrettably, that has been done routinely in the past.

On a related matter, the state has promised public retirees $9 billion in future health insurance coverage and, once again, has not funded its promises. I hope that the new treasurer will encourage the Legislature to set up a fund immediately to begin paying down that $9 billion liability rather than let this situation deteriorate any further.

We must be realistic. The credit rating agencies are wondering how the state plans to pay for today's enormous unfunded retirement benefits. Elected officials have committed us to huge liabilities that are almost beyond comprehension. It is unlikely we will recover our AAA credit rating, which we lost a few years ago, until we honestly commit to a realistic workout plan for this dilemma.

If the Budget and Control Board and the Legislature fail to meet these obligations, South Carolina history would be justified in dealing very harshly with all elected state officials from our era. After all, many of them have created this gigantic mess for the taxpayers. If today's elected officials won't clean up after themselves, the good people of South Carolina would do well to find others who will.

Richard Eckstrom, a former certified public accountant from Greenville, is the comptroller general of South Carolina and one of the five members of the state Budget and Control Board. He served one term as state treasurer and was re-elected in 2006 as comptroller general.

An Open Letter to New State Treasurer

State of South Carolina

Office of Comptroller General

1200 Senate Street

305 Wade Hampton Office Building

Columbia, South Carolina 29201

August 1, 2007

Dear Mr. Treasurer:

I’m looking forward to your appointment. At one time I served in the office you’ll soon occupy, so I know precisely what you’ll be facing when you become the next State Treasurer.

You’ll assume a very competent, professional staff to handle the daily activities of the office, important activities like investing public funds and servicing state debt. My advice would be to lean on your competent staff to handle these functions and to devote your time to acute matters where the citizens of South Carolina are now grossly underserved.

I’m referring to work that needs to be done to fix the serious under funding of the State retirement system. State officials have essentially ignored this growing problem for many years. When I was elected State Treasurer in 1994, I warned that the State retirement system was acutely under funded. In fact, in 1994 the retirement system was short-funded by twenty-five percent, which was a massive shortfall of over $3 billion.

Since 1994, through a series of terrible management decisions the shortfall has ballooned to nearly $10 billion! That’s alarming.

Many state leaders are unwilling to confront this financial disaster. Some are willing merely to talk about it, but very few have shown the political courage to confront the core problem and eliminate it.

In contrast, I hope that you’ll come into office with the political courage to eliminate this destructive financial cancer that’s now growing on our State. For too long state leaders have ignored it and by doing so they’ve forced us into an almost unmanageable predicament. Denying or refusing to address this problem won’t make it go away. Doing that has only made it worse.

Frankly, by failing to act for as long as it did the State may have forced itself into having to restructure the entire retirement plan. That would be the Legislature’s ultimate decision, but I hope that you’ll encourage the Legislature to act decisively.

Above all, as a new member of the Budget and Control Board I hope that you’ll refuse to make a mistake commonly made by Board members. Whether or not to grant annual COLAs is a Board decision. I plead with you not to further weaken the retirement system by voting to grant additional benefit increases like COLAs until the retirement system’s funding problems are cured. The retirement system is already staggering under a crushing load of unfunded promises and it can ill-afford to be weakened further.

There is something cynical about promising benefit increases -- without funding those promised increases -- while fully aware that the retirement system already is drowning in a sea of red ink.

On a related matter, the State has promised public retirees $9 billion in health care benefits and, once again, has not funded those promises. I hope you’ll encourage the Legislature to establish a trust fund immediately to begin liquidating that $9 billion liability.

The credit rating agencies are wondering how the State plans to pay for its unfunded retirement benefits. The recovery of our AAA credit rating is unlikely until we commit to a workout plan. You and I have a duty to all South Carolinians to provide strong financial leadership on these enormous challenges.

Again, I look forward to your appointment and to working with you on these difficult challenges. If we fail to meet this test, South Carolina history books would be justified in dealing very harshly with the elected state officials from our era.


Sincerely,

Richard Eckstrom

S.C. Comptroller General