Tag: Key challenges facing new Congress

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Priorities for The New Congress, Part 4

The New York Analysis of Policy and Government has reviewed, over the past several days, the key issues facing the incoming Congress. None, however, is more pressing than the diminished state of America’s armed forces, at a time when Russia and China are rapidly increasing their strength and gaining an advantage over U.S. forces in vital areas.

 Defense

There is a human tendency to ignore unpleasant facts, particularly those that deconstruct one’s view of reality.  The fact is, America’s national security is severely threatened in a way that even exceeds that which existed in both the Second World War and the Cold War. Never before has the United States faced a combined enemy with greater geographic, population, technological, economic and industrial resources.

Russia is now the globe’s strongest nuclear power.  China’s navy is larger in size and will soon be technologically equal to America’s. The combined might of the Russo-Chinese alliance, unburdened by the popular restraints against war found in most democratic nations, faces a U.S. military that is exhausted from the Gulf wars and Afghanistan, dramatically underfunded during the Obama Administration, and with an inventory of weapons that are aged and geared towards unsophisticated adversaries.

In the aftermath of the Soviet Union’s demise, there was an unrealistic belief that no major power would arise to threaten the U.S. military. Francis Fukuyama, a distinguished political science, advanced a theory entitled “The End of History,” which many took to mean there would be no further great power conflicts.

While it is manifestly evident that events have clearly proved that concept dramatically incorrect, America’s armed forces were and are still funded and maintained as though the extraordinary military buildup and aggressive adventurism that both Moscow and Beijing have engaged in doesn’t exist.  While the Pentagon’s defense budget has been increased during the Trump Administration, the hike in spending has been woefully insufficient.

There is another facet to the dilemma. The U.S. defense industrial base, the collection of manufacturing companies and technological organizations vital to rebuilding and resupplying the nation’s armed forces have diminished sharply in number.  The once-powerful “arsenal of democracy” that helped win the wars of the 20th century (including the Cold War) no longer exist.  A prime example: only one plant in the entire country produces tanks, and the Obama Administration wanted to close it down.

Unfortunately, in the new technological era, even smaller nations can threaten America’s very survival. The most significant existential threat to the United States comes from a potential Electro-Magnetic Pulse (EMP) assault.  In extraordinary testimony  delivered to the House of Representatives Committee on Homeland Security, Dr. William R. Graham, Chairman, and  Dr. Peter Vincent Pry, chief of staff,  of the Commission to Assess the Threat to America from Electromagnetic Pulse revealed explosive details, including decades of neglect of the menace, how Russia transferred EMP technology to North Korea, and how North Korea already has the capacity to wreck devastation across the United States.
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The EMP Commission found that even primitive, low-yield nuclear weapons are such a significant EMP threat that rogue states, like North Korea, or terrorists may well prefer using a nuclear weapon for EMP attack, instead of destroying a city: “Therefore, terrorists or state actors that possess relatively unsophisticated missiles armed with nuclear weapons may well calculate that, instead of destroying a city or military base, they may obtain the greatest political-military utility from one or a few such weapons by using them—or threatening their use—in an EMP attack.”

What would be the result of an EMP attack?

The effects would be calamitous.  Without power, and without the means to move people and goods (an EMP would also render all trains, planes, and automobiles useless, since all those modes of transportation rely on both electronics and computer systems) or the means to pump water, the vast majority of Americans, estimates indicate approximately 90%, would die of starvation and thirst within a relatively short period of time. Those dependent on the miracles of modern medicine, including pacemakers and other devices, would face an even quicker death.  It would take decades to replace the destroyed power structure.

The federal EMP Commission warns that “The high-altitude nuclear weapon-generated electromagnetic pulse (EMP) is one of a small number of threats that has the potential to hold our society seriously at risk and might result in defeat of our military forces… What is different now is that some potential sources of EMP threats are difficult to deter—they can be terrorist groups that have no state identity, have only one or a few weapons, and are motivated to attack the US without regard for their own safety. Rogue states, such as North Korea and Iran, may also be developing the capability to pose an EMP threat to the United States, and may also be unpredictable and difficult to deter…Certain types of relatively low-yield nuclear weapons can be employed to generate potentially catastrophic EMP effects over wide geographic areas, and designs for variants of such weapons may have been illicitly trafficked for a quarter-century.”

Incredibly, despite the fact that it would take less than $10 billion to protect the power grid, (the technology is readily available and comparatively simple) neither Republican nor Democrat administrations have acted to address the threat. $10 billion would have been just a small fraction of President Obama’s $800 billion stimulus package, much of which was essentially wasted because the former president alleged that he couldn’t find “shovel ready jobs.”

Photo: Abrams Tank (U.S. Dept. of Defense)

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Priorities for The New Congress, Part 3

Although the new Democrat majority in the House of Representatives seeks to make investigations against President Trump a priority, more practical concerns need to take center stage.  The New York Analysis of Policy and Government has reviewed health care, education, and the economy. Today’s topic: Infrastructure.

Infrastructure

There is no area where more bipartisan agreement exists than that of repairing America’s crumbling infrastructure. Both parties, and most Americans, have taken note of the need to address the crisis.

The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) rates the nation’s infrastructure at only a D+.

ASCE notes: “Our nation is at a crossroads. Deteriorating infrastructure is impeding our ability to compete in the thriving global economy, and improvements are necessary to ensure our country is built for the future. While we have made some progress, reversing the trajectory after decades of underinvestment in our infrastructure requires transformative action from Congress, states, infrastructure owners, and the American people. Our nation’s infrastructure challenges are significant but solvable. Through strategic, sustained investment, bold leadership, comprehensive planning, and careful preparation for the needs of the future, America’s infrastructure will be improved and restored. For the U.S. economy to be the most competitive in the world, we need a first-class infrastructure system—transport systems that move people and goods efficiently and at reasonable cost by land, water, and air; power transmission systems that deliver reliable, low-cost power from a sustainable range of energy sources; and water systems that protect public health. To achieve this, leaders on both sides of the political aisle need to make good on promises they have made to improve our nation’s infrastructure and ensure these pledges don’t fall by the wayside after each election cycle.”

Business Insider notes that a repair backlog of about $90 billion exists on mass transit facilities. ASCE notes that over 55,000 bridges are structurally deficient.

There has been inadequate attention paid to the restoration of neglected freight lines, which if restored, could dramatically reduce road congestion and the resulting air pollution. Some urban areas, such as New York City, have less rail freight access than existed in the early 20th Century.

But can work on this begin in 2019? From the potholed roads and overaged bridges of the Northeast to the worrisome levees of New Orleans and the inadequate mass transit of California, the United States is in urgent need of infrastructure upgrade and repair. That’s only part of the problem. The nation’s electrical grid, currently unprotected, could be wiped out by an EMP attack originating from either an attack or a natural solar event.

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Standing in the way of addressing the challenge is the national debt, which doubled under President Obama and now exceeds $20 trillion. Despite Washington’s record high intake of revenue recently, additional annual deficits are still being added.

Far too often, infrastructure funding from both Washington and the states is not used efficiently. Ill-conceived or executed projects, such as California’s rapid rail project, is a prime example.

Some rapid-rail projects that fail to take into account expense factors have cost taxpayers extraordinary sums while accomplishing little. Robert Samuelson, writing in the Washington Post, notes: “Somehow, it’s become fashionable to think that high-speed trains connecting major cities will help ‘save the planet.’ They won’t. They’re a perfect example of wasteful spending masquerading as a respectable social cause. They would further burden already overburdened governments and drain dollars from worthier programs…” A Congressional Research Service report found that these types of efforts face many challenges, and urged Congress to consider whether they are worthwhile investments.

The tendency to divert funding from urgent needs to pork-barrel projects, and the “featherbedding” by both politically-connected unions and companies adds to the challenge. Political animosity occasionally stands in the way of truly necessary endeavors.  One example: the need for an additional underwater tunnel from the U.S. mainland to New York City has become a skirmish in the wider war between Rep. Jerry Nadler, who advocates the project, and President Trump, whom Nadler seeks to impeach.

Our review concludes tomorrow.

Photo: 19th Century rail station Duchess County Fair (AANM)

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Priorities for the New Congress, Part 2

Will the newly elected Congress overcome partisan bickering and address crucial needs? Yesterday, the New York Analysis of Policy and Government reviewed health care and the economy.  Today, we look at the growing Education crisis.

Education

One of the most fundamental requirements for the future success of the United States is the development of a well-educated generation, competitive with global peers.  This is not happening. Our failing school system is producing students who are disturbingly deficient in both science and language skills, as well as being ignorant of their own nation’s history and structure.

The federal government has been steadily increasing its role in education, states have been spending more, and the results have not been beneficial. The Wall Street Journal notes that the U.S. rates a dismal 27th place in education among developed nations. The U.S. Dept. of Education reports that “Today, the United States has one of the highest high school dropout rates in the world. Among students who do complete high school and go on to college, nearly half require remedial courses, and nearly half never graduate.”

The Foundation for Economic Education reports that “Examining the full picture, data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis and the U.S. Department of Education shows that inflation-adjusted government spending on higher education increased by 23 percent from 2008 to 2016, hitting a record high of $183 billion in 2016. On a per-student basis in the same period, this spending increased by 16 percent and also reached an all-time high of more than $9,000 per student.”

The same goes for tuition.  A CNBC analysis  reveals the huge jump.

Private nonprofit four-year institution:

  • Tuition for 1987-1988: $15,160
  • Tuition for 2017-2018: $34,740

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Public four-year institution:

  • Tuition for 1987-1988: $3,190
  • Tuition for 2017-2018: $9,970

Despite all that extra spending, students are not doing well. A Brookings study revealed that:

“Learning has stagnated…For the nation’s 17-year-olds, there have been no gains in literacy since the National Assessment of Educational Progress began in 1971. Performance is somewhat better on math, but there has still been no progress since 1990. The long-term stagnation cannot be attributed to racial or ethnic differences in the U.S. population. Literacy scores for white students peaked in 1975; in math, scores peaked in the early 1990s. Education productivity growth for U.S.  education has been particularly weak. International literacy and numeracy data from the OECD’s assessment of adult skills confirms this troubling picture. The numeracy and literacy skills of those born since 1980 are no more developed than for those born between 1968 and 1977. For the average OECD country, by contrast, people born between 1978 and 1987 score significantly better than all previous generations. Comparing the oldest—those born from 1947 to 1957—to youngest cohorts—those born from 1988 to 1996, the U.S. gains are especially weak. The United States ranks dead last among 26 countries tested on math gains, and second to last on literacy gains across these generations. The countries which have made the largest math gains include South Korea, Slovenia, France, Poland, Finland, and the Netherlands. This weak performance is even more disturbing given that the U.S. spends more on education, on a per student basis, than almost any other country. So what’s going wrong?

“The sources of educational failure: For higher education, a major factor driving up costs has been a growth in the number of highly-paid non-teaching professionals. In 1988, for every 100 full-time equivalent students, there were on average 23 college employees. By 2012, that number had increased to 31 employees, with a shift toward the highest paying non-teaching occupations. Managers and professionals now outnumber faculty, who comprise just a third of the higher education workforce. To a large extent, rising costs have been absorbed by increased student borrowing, subsidized by the federal government, and supplemented through grant aid.”

Gerard Robinson, writing for the American Enterprise Institute  notes: “…a look back at the progress we’ve made under reformers’ traditional response to fixing low-performing schools – simply showering them with more money – makes it clear that this approach has been a costly failure…”

The diminished emphasis on basic subjects, and the increased use of educational institutions for politically-biased indoctrination must be addressed.

Our Review continues Tomorrow.

Photo: A 19th Century school  house, Duchess County Fair  (AANM)

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Quick Analysis

Priorities for The New Congress

The 2018 midterm elections are over, and it’s time for Congress to get to work.  America faces significant, and in some cases urgent, challenges both at home and abroad.

There is a worrisome possibility that addressing the nation’s pressing needs will take a backseat to politics.  Democrats’ fury over losing the 2016 presidential election continues to divert their attention away from issues that are truly essential to the citizenry, and towards partisan tactics, including endless investigations into frequently unfounded allegations.

There is also bipartisan blindness on any number of issues, as Washington’s long-standing and unfortunate inability to grasp Mainstreet concerns continues.

The New York Analysis of Policy and Government reviewed five key issues that Congress should rapidly work on.  First up: Health Care, and the Economy.

Healthcare

There will be a great deal of emphasis on fixing healthcare issues, some of which have existed for decades and some of which arose or worsened under the Obamacare legislation. Extensive debate about topics such as affordability, especially coverage for pre-existing conditions, can be expected.

There will be no easy answers to all this, and no viable international examples to follow.  Medical care in countries with nationalized health care is even worse.

There are common sense approaches to improving medical care and reducing costs. Major steps would include:

  • End limitations on allowing insurance companies to compete across state lines. This can dramatically lower costs.
  • Enact tort reform to limit nonsense law suits and drive down the costs of practicing medicine. A key factor that drives costs up and diminishes the timeliness and quality of care: The battery of unnecessary, costly and repetitive tests patients frequently undergo, not for their own benefit but for the concerns of medical practitioners and institutions’ lawsuit avoidance. Tort reform to address this will be difficult, as lawyers’ organizations are among the most powerful lobbyists.
  • Mandate more transparency in billing practices, particularly from hospitals. Nebulous and often faulty billing practices add a whole additional layer of consternation. Strict standards of transparency and “plain English” billing should be mandated.
  • Allow physicians’ assistants and registered nurses to do far more.
  • Permit greater flexibility and choice in health insurance policies.
  • End excessive and costly red tape preventing new medications and treatments from gaining approval for use.

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An additional but often ignored challenge is the dismal level of customer service when dealing with medical institutions. In no other endeavor would the long waiting times both to get appointments and in doctor’s offices, particularly specialists, be tolerated. Further, the growing trend of sharply limiting the opportunity for patients to speak to their physicians for more than a few seconds is harmful. As crucial as it is, medicine is a service industry. Developing additional spaces for qualified applicants to medical schools should be a priority in the effort to remedy this.

The Economy

Both Ronald Reagan and John F. Kennedy successfully sparked and significantly improved the economy through tax cuts.  President Trump has been the latest example. Not only should attempts to undo his tax cuts be repulsed, but further tax cuts should be enacted.

Middle income families have been downtrodden for far too long, particularly since President Clinton gave China greater access to the American marketplace, resulting in the loss of about 66,000 U.S. manufacturing plants.  It’s time that China and other nations treated America fairly.

It is not a violation of the concept of free trade to demand that U.S. companies be afforded the same opportunity to compete overseas as other nations are given in America.   Disunity within Congress could threaten progress by emboldening adversaries such as China that opposition to the White House will result in a softening of resolve to confront the issue.  A more united stance on the Trump Administration’s attempt to finally address the unfair trade policies that have hampered the American economy for far too long would lead to greater results.  Ironically, a key Democrat constituency, blue collar workers, stands to gain the most from Trump trade goals.

Finally, one of the key disincentives to starting or expanding businesses, especially smaller enterprises, is the dead weight of excess regulation.  Slash that red tape to the bare minimum necessary for safety, and let the American entrepreneurial spirit take flight.

Our review continues tomorrow.

Photo: National Park Service