The Crossroads

Is America Great Again?

Not even close.

We are one year into Making America Great Again and seven years into the Wisconsin Taxpayer Revolt. We know what this looks like and have reached the crossroads. Is this what we want to become?

Do we want to be a society where everybody is out for himself or herself, looking to amass as much wealth as they can at the expense of those less able or fortunate?

Do we want to live on planet with less clean air and water with a dwindling food supply and a climate that grows ever harsher to human existence?

Do we want to live in a society where the elderly, disabled and different are deemed disposable and expendable?

Do we want to live in communities where women are second or third class citizens whose job it is to pleasure men and have their babies?

Do we want to live in a society where those at the top of the chain are automatically deemed more valuable than those in subordinate positions?

Do we want to end our commitment to universal quality public education?

Do we want to return to a system that only allows white male property owners to decide who gets to govern the country?

Do we want a country that is not respected or supported by the international community?

Do we really want one-party rule in the halls of government?

2018 must be the year we turn away from these goals of Republican governance and return our society back to one based upon mutual respect and taking care of each other.

We need a tax code which requires everyone to pay their fair share to support basic human needs for food security, adequate universal healthcare, a secure infrastructure that supports business ventures and safe commerce, a stable defense for a peaceful world.

We need to protect Social Security and Medicare to make sure that seniors and the disabled do not go back to impoverished lives and dying in back bedrooms. We need to protect retirements for those who can no longer work.

We need to protect the world we live on by doing what science demands to clean our air and water and minimize the disruption of climate change. We need to maximize the use of renewable energy sources to stop the use of fossil fuels.

We need to value those who work by providing safe working environments, family supporting wages and benefits, collective bargaining rights and reasonable working conditions. Family and medical leave policies must recognize the importance strong families play in productive work.

We need strong public schools that support and educate every child to the best of their individual abilities so they can become productive and intelligent members of our communities. We need to recognize that professional and well-supported teachers are critical to the success of their students and compensate our educators accordingly.

We need to finally recognize and promote the equality of women in the workplace and the rest of society by guaranteeing equal pay for equal work and equal access to opportunity. We need an end to sexual harassment and assault everywhere.

We need to end income inequality and value each member of the community for the contribution they can make. The value of one’s opinions should not depend upon the amount they have in the bank. Everyone should be eligible to and encouraged to vote in fair elections. Election districts must be drawn to encourage competitive elections, not to favor incumbent politicians.

We need to expand protections for America’s natural wild areas and make them accessible for all to see and enjoy. Our National and State Parks are the envy of the world and need to be expanded.

We need a return to respectable diplomacy that respects other countries and their cultures and does not seek to impose American values by might.

2018 is the year we can restore the democracy to end the one party rule that favors the few over the many, but only if you vote. Those who stay home elect tyrants and dictators.

Waring R. Fincke is a retired attorney who serves as a guardian for the elderly and disabled.

Save Social Security

Save Social Security

Social Security was created during the Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal and rescued many elderly Americans from the despair of the Great Depression. When jobs,  savings accounts and those few pensions that existed in the 1930s were wiped out in that upheaval, many seniors sank into poverty and had no support systems to fall back on.

Social Security was designed so the miseries visited on the elderly of low and moderate means after the stock market crashed would never happen again. Payroll taxes on working people and their employers who contribute, in equal amounts, about 12% of an employee’s gross wages, fund the system. These payroll taxes are placed in a separate Social Security Trust Fund administered by the government to maximize the returns payable to people when they reached the age of retirement. This was done purposefully to keep politicians from raiding the Fund for general revenue needs in times when the fund carried a surplus. Even back in the 1930s, we knew there would be fluctuations in the numbers needing benefits and a need to keep the Trust Fund solvent.

Conservative republicans hate the Social Security system. It embodies all that deemed wrong with big government doing what private business could do better. Those on Wall Street cast a covetous eye on the large surpluses in the Trust Fund that they cannot manage or use for investments or rape for profit. They cast aspersions on such a social safety net, demanding that people take control over their own retirement savings and investments or suffer the consequences. They have forgotten the trials and tribulations families faced during the Great Depression when elderly parents starved and died for lack of money.

Over time, conservatives in Congress have whittled away at the Social Security System by raising the age at which a retiree could start collecting benefits, capping the amount of an employee’s wages subject to withholding, imposing means testing for some benefits, limiting disability and spousal benefits, capping cost of living increases by tying them to less than relevant consumer price indexes and others. The biggest betrayal came during the Bush years when Congress took huge sums out of the Trust Fund surpluses in order to pay for other government programs and wars.

The ultimate result set up the big lie that Social Security needs to be scrapped and replaced because the current system will not be able to meet the benefit demands that will arrive as the baby boomer generation hits retirement and current payroll tax revenues decline because there are fewer people working. That date is currently somewhere in the 2030 range and changes as does the economy.

Conservative republicans tell us that Social Security is not sustainable in its current form. They have made it that way. Their solution is, of course, to give the Trust Fund to Wall Street to manage and then pay seniors what might be left after the profiteers take their cut, assuming the managers investments make a decent return.

Political campaigns for Congress and the Presidency depend upon the votes from seniors. They vote in higher numbers than other age groups in the electorate. Candidate Trump and many members of Congress promised not to touch Social Security for those already retired or close to retirement, thinking that would be enough to secure senior support.

Democrats of the populist ilk recognized and campaigned on other positions. Raising or eliminating the cap on payroll taxable income is the easiest fix. It would pump enough money into the Trust Fund to make it solvent for decades. It is only fair that wealthy wage earners continue to pay into the system on wage incomes over $115,000 per year. Bolder folks also campaigned on cost of living increases being tied to price indices more aligned with those items seniors actually buy like food, housing and medications. They also championed increasing benefits to a more sustainable level than the average current $1,400 monthly stipend.

With the failure of the republican repeal and replacement of the Affordable Care Act effort, conservatives now turn to tax reform looking for more ways to cut taxes for the wealthy.

One of the current proposed  “reforms” is to completely eliminate Social Security payroll tax withholding. The short-term benefit will be to put that money back into employee paychecks and employer bank accounts. That is a very attractive incentive. Who would not want what amounts to a $3500 plus annual wage boost?  What they don’t tell you is that it will kill the Social Security revenue stream and bankrupt the system for sure and much sooner than currently predicted.

As you communicate with your member of Congress at one of his town halls, call or write to him, please let him know that further damage to Social Security is not acceptable and that the system needs to be fixed by repaying the money taken from the Trust Fund and raising the cap on payroll taxes subject to withholding to at least $500,000 per year. Your elderly relatives will appreciate it and so will you when you retire.

Buckle Up Buttercup

Buckle Up Buttercup

It will be a bumpy ride

The First Amendment to the United States Constitution guarantees free and robust criticism of the government in two ways. It prohibits the Congress from passing laws that regulate expression by the media and permits the people to petition the government for the “redress of grievances.” This latter protection supports peaceful protest in the public places that calls attention to problems that need fixing.

These guarantees protect those who speak out against perceived injustice from retaliation by those criticized. They also lay the groundwork for a robust exchange of ideas and opinions in the public discourse.

As one who has worked in the public arenas where conflicts are supposed to be resolved for more than four decades, there is not much I have not seen or experienced. I weave those experiences and observations into my columns to share a perspective that varies from the ordinary and sometimes from the conventional beliefs in our community. I respect those who offer a contrary opinion or differ with my assessment of the facts upon which I rely. I have no respect for those who merely stoop to personal attacks because they do not like or appreciate what I write. To those folks, my best advice is to stop reading these columns. Save yourself some aggravation. For those willing to contemplate alternative points of view, stay tuned. The next four years, will provide me with a wealth of material with which to work.

President-elect Trump campaigned as a populist friend of American working people, headed for Washington to “drain the swamp” of those who have made the lives of working Americans miserable. At the top of Trump’s list was the Wall Street bankers and hedge fund managers who crashed the economy that President Obama so diligently resurrected.

The Trump campaign con job is slowly being revealed. His picks for the various positions in his cabinet are all very wealthy folks who could care less for working people and the problems they face. Those tapped to lead in the areas of finance; commerce and economics come from deep in the very swamp Trump claimed he wanted to drain. The net worth of those chosen to fill Trump’s cabinet to date runs to approximately $35 billion, all friends of working people to be sure.

Trump’s chief counsel and Treasury Department picks come out of Goldman Sachs, the poster child for what ails Wall Street and investment banking. Not only will these guys pad the nests of their buddies by deregulating financial institutions, they will join with Paul Ryan and the new Secretary of Health and Human Services in privatizing (read profiting from) Social Security, Medicare and replacing Obamacare with an insurance company friendly healthcare system. We know who this agenda will help and it won’t help working families or their elderly relatives who now enjoy some measure of independence in retirement.

Working families will also soon feel the lash of new “right to work” laws designed to further weaken labor unions and their ability to protect those in the workforce. Trump allies have already convinced a federal judge to overturn new overtime rules that would increase wages for middle class managers. You will see revisions to the tax code that benefit outsourcing corporations, not working people. Your local and state tax dollars will soon be further diluted as funds destined to shore up public education and services to disabled students are diverted to private religious charter schools under Trump’s choice to head the Department of Education.

Conflicts of interest will be another hallmark of the Trump administration. His international business dealings will directly influence his foreign policy decisions. His private holdings here are already reaping huge windfalls as the Secret Service leases two floors in Trump Tower to provide protection to Mrs. Trump and their child who don’t want to bother living in the White House. Other government offices lease space in Trump real estate around the country. Imagine what you can make when you are both the landlord and the tenant. And don’t forget about Elaine Chou, the wife of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has been tapped to run the Transportation Dept.

Some of Trump’s other cabinet picks or candidates are beyond belief. Take Ben Carson who has no experience remotely related to housing or urban development as head of that Department. Betsy DeVoss, who never went to public school, sent her kids to public school or taught in any school, will direct federal education efforts. Ret. General David Patraeus is being considered for Secretary of State. He is on probation for leaking government secrets to his mistress and would have to get permission from his probation officer to leave the country. Sarah Palin, who is being considered for Veterans Affairs, never served in the military, knows nothing about veterans or their problems and has no experience running much of anything except away from government job responsibilities.

To all you Trump voters who wanted change and to “Make America Great Again,” buckle up buttercup because you are in for a very bumpy ride.

Waring R. Fincke is a retired attorney and vice-chair of the Democratic Party of Washington County.

Retired or Retiring Soon - Fix Social Security

Here's one from June that's still relevant today.

Save Social Security

Your Retirement Depends on Making it Stronger

If you are retired like I am, care about someone who is retired or plan to retire at some point, then we have something in common. Social Security. 

Most people who still work do not think about Social Security much, except perhaps to notice the deduction from each paycheck that goes into the Social Security Trust Fund. Many working Americans have fragile 401(k) retirement accounts, some funded by employers and some self-funded, that are supposed to take the place of formerly robust employer funded pension plans. Most, however, have no retirement savings and cannot pay themselves for their future because of the demands of current economic circumstances. 

As the current generation of the soon to be retired start to consider their so-called golden years, they realize their current standard of living is about to decline. Recent surveys note that 44% of Americans over 50 say that Social Security will be their largest source of income in their retirement years. With an average annual benefit of about $16,000, that is not a lot with which to pay for housing, utilities, food, medical expenses not covered by Medicare, transportation and modest entertainment, much less travel, grand children and other retirement goodies. Single women, whose earnings usually have been less than men, fare far worse than the average benefit. In some years, benefit payments increase along with the cost of living. In others, like this year, seniors see no cost of living increase in benefits paid. 

Those in Congress charged with helping people split along partisan ideological lines divorced from the harsh economic realities of modern retirement requirements. 

Republicans opposed to large government “benefit entitlements” want to get out of the retirement savings business all together by turning Social Security over to Wall Street investment firms to manage. There is, after all, a profit to be made investing all that money. Not realizing that the money going into the Social Security Trust Fund comes directly out of working people’s earnings, they claim that payments out of the fund during retirement are a benefit that people are somehow not entitled to in full measure. Benefits must be reduced in order to stretch payments further. Social Security, in their worldview, will soon be “broke” and therefore benefits need to be cut now in order to save it for future retirees. They neglect to mention that privatized investment management could never match Social Security’s current 0.7% administrative cost to benefits paid ratio.

To be fair, there are some Democrats who side with Republicans on cutting Social Security benefits, raising the retirement age when benefits can be claimed and imposing some form of means testing on benefits paid. Most, however, favor increasing benefits to retirees without such restrictions and guarantee increases in benefits paid to cover those expenses most seniors must bear such as increased medical costs and assisted living expenses. A majority of Americans support these more favorable provisions.

Current Democratic presidential hopefuls cover the Social Security spectrum with Hillary Clinton taking a more moderate approach and Bernie Sanders espousing a full blown fix that provides a decent retirement to current participants as well as those who come along after.

President Obama recently joined the discussion in a speech in Indiana this past Wednesday, coming down on Clinton’s left and Sanders’ right. 

Here’s part of what he said. “We can’t afford to weaken Social Security. We should be strengthening Social Security. And not only do we need to strengthen its long-term health, it’s time we finally made Social Security more generous and increased its benefits so that today’s retirees and future generations get the dignified retirement that they’ve earned. And we could start paying for it by asking the wealthiest Americans to contribute a little bit more. They can afford it. I can afford it.”

There are relatively easy fixes to make the Social Security Trust Fund more solvent and stable while increasing benefits to current and future retirees. Remove the $118,000 annual earnings cap on wages subject to Social Security withholding. Raise the tax rate for Social Security withholding taxes from the current 6.2% for employees and employers or 12.4% for the self-employed. Repay the money taken from the fund by previous administrations to pay for other government spending.  Remember, the money you pay into the system now is yours to live on when you retire. Benefits pay to you until you die.

There are lots of organizations working to make Social Security stronger. Try AARP, the Alliance for Retired Americans, Social Security Works or the Strengthen Social Security Coalition. Please join one or more and help protect your retirement.