Rolfe McCollister

Anger at government grows

Rolfe McCollister — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 18:00:00 EST

We know most folks like to direct their frustration with having to pay taxes every April 15 toward the collecting government agency, the IRS. But it is June, and Americans are even more angry today because of recent revelations about the IRS and the National Security Agency—and rightfully so. These include the targeting of American citizens by the IRS for participating in democracy and the collection of the communication records of millions of Americans, regardless of whether they were suspected of any wrongdoing. Really?On top of that, there was breaking news about wasteful spending on conferences and the production of frivolous video parodies for entertainment at the IRS, reminiscent of the scandalous revelations about the Government Services Administration a year ago. This is new ammunition for us to eradicate the IRS, simplify the tax code and move to a flat tax you can calculate on a postcard, as Steve Forbes advocated during his 1996 and 2000 runs for president.The GSA, remember, was found to have staged a lavish Las Vegas conference—also with videos—costing you and me $820,000 in hard-earned tax dollars. According to Wikipedia, the GSA was “established in 1949 to help manage and support the basic functioning of federal agencies ... and develops governmentwide cost-minimizing policies, and other management tasks.” Is this a joke?The Huffington Post said, “Among the report's findings, GSA spent $95 per person for a dinner reception at the M Resort Spa and Casino in Henderson, Nev.; $75,000 on a bike-building training exercise; $19 per person for an 'American artisanal cheese display'; $7,000 in sushi; $3,200 for a mind reader; $3,700 for T-shirts; and more than $2,500 on water bottles.”I would like to ask you, could you spend your money like this? Would your company spend its money like this? Could your family afford a vacation like this? I guess it could if the government was picking up the tab. Sad news: We are picking up the tab. Americans have to work harder and cut back on their vacations in order to cover the costs of videos, sushi, T-shirts and a mind reader for GSA employees. Will your children understand when the Disney trip gets scrapped? Would your employees understand it if you had to pay more taxes and freeze raises? Meanwhile, some government workers got a lavish free vacation or a good laugh from a dance video.CNN reported that the GSA said, “These videos reinforce once again the complete lack of judgment exhibited during the 2010 Western Regions Conference. Our agency continues to be appalled by this indefensible behavior, and we are taking every step possible to ensure that nothing like this ever happens again.”This isn't a lack of judgment; it is a culture of wasteful government spending that I believe is widespread and leads to abuses every day. It's driven by the fact that it's not their money—it's yours. If the head of GSA had been spending her personal money, it would have been a much different conference.Then, GSA spokesman Adam Elkington told CNN the agency welcomes “responsible oversight” and “remains committed to eliminating excessive federal spending and promoting government efficiency.” Another joke?The culture of waste reared its ugly head again last week when the Treasury Inspector General revealed that the IRS, as the National Review Online reported, “spent $49 million on 225 conferences across the country between 2010 and 2012—and that is only the beginning of its fiscal abuses. They include: $4.1 million on a 2010 conference in Anaheim, Calif., for 2,609 employees (a price of $1,584 per person), including: $135,350 for outside speakers; $50,187 for parody videos (of the television series Star Trek, for example) featuring IRS employees. Another video shows employees learning how to dance the 'Cupid Shuffle'—at a cost of $1,591 in staff time, the report estimates. The IRS also spent $27,500 for a second keynoter billed as an 'innovation expert'; $11,430 for a 'happiness expert'; and $64,000 for 'gifts/trinkets' for attendees.”The National Review also noted: “Among workshop titles for the Anaheim conference? This gem: 'Political Savvy: How Not to Shoot Yourself in the Foot.' Apparently no one paid much attention.”In the last year we have learned of millions in wasteful spending by two major government agencies, one of which is supposed to “develop governmentwide cost-minimizing policies” and one of which is in charge of collecting our money. I have no doubt this has been going on in most federal government agencies for years. Government has gotten too big, has developed a frightening sense of entitlement, and is obviously out of control—and waste is rampant.But the sense of entitlement and lack of accountability doesn't just apply to the spending of our tax dollars. Even more alarming is the abuse of power. First we had the example of the Department of Justice, which targeted a Fox news journalist and secured the phone records of 20 Associated Press reporters and editors in an ostensible effort to limit government leaks. The AP claims the seizure was unconstitutional and has had a chilling effect on sources talking to them, because the sources feel the AP staff members could be monitored by the government.A good deal more chilling was last week's report from the British publication The Guardian that, for more than a month, Verizon Wireless has regularly provided the National Security Agency with logs of every phone call that Verizon Wireless customers make in the United States.“The secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court granted the order to the FBI on April 25, giving the government unlimited authority to obtain the data for a specified three-month period ending on July 19,” The Guardian's Glenn Greenwald reported. “Under the terms of the blanket order, the numbers of both parties on a call are handed over, as is location data, call duration, unique identifiers, and the time and duration of all calls. The contents of the conversation itself are not covered.”Isn't this beginning to sound like the former Soviet Union or China?The same could be said regarding the IRS targeting of our own citizens and organizations they disagree with politically. It has been a standing joke and suspicion for years that you should watch what you say and do, because those in political power could use the IRS to audit and harass opponents and make their lives hell. Now we are seeing evidence that some were doing just that—but at whose direction?All the facts aren't in yet, and the top official at the IRS has “taken the 5th.” One of the former IRS commissioners went to meetings at the White House 157 times. To meet with who? And why? We, the American people, need answers to assure us this is still “government by the people, and for the people” ... and not a government coming after the people.I don't blame Americans for being angry. They should also be scared at what they are seeing. Who is the next target? And I don't think you should be asked for one more tax dollar to pay for a lavish conference, funny video or someone else's vacation. These examples of outrageous, wasteful spending—ones we now know of and ones we don't—tell me it is not a revenue problem but a spending one. And the cry from those in the government offices is always, “Send more money.”For what, T-shirts and sushi?

Good jobs are the dream

Rolfe McCollister — Mon, 27 May 2013 18:00:00 EST

"Having a good job is now the great global dream; it’s the number one social value for everyone. This is one of our most powerful findings ever. 'A good job' is more important than having a family, more compelling than democracy and freedom, religion, peace and so on. Those are all very important, but they are now subordinate to the almighty good job. So it follows that everything turns on delivering this ultimate need. Stimulating job growth is the new currency of all leaders because if you don't deliver on it you will experience instability, brain drain, sometimes revolution—all of the worst outcomes of failed leadership."These are the words of Jim Clifton, the CEO of Gallup, creator of the Gallup World Poll and author of The Coming Jobs War (a global war), when he was interviewed by Dan Schawbel for Forbes magazine in late 2011.Clifton also told Schawbel how big the problem is. “According to Gallup's World Poll, there are three billion people out of seven billion who want a good job. There are only 1.2 billion jobs to go around. So there's a short-fall of 1.8 billion jobs.” If you have one of those, you can see you are among the fortunate in the world. Your glass is more than half full. (Clifton says the definition of a “good job” is one that is 30-plus hours a week.)According to Clifton, jobs can be created, but wrong thinking and bad assumptions thwart the process. He pointed out three:“1) Innovation is not scarce. Entrepreneurship is scarce. We are spending billions and wasting years of conversations on innovation and it isn't paying off. Great business people are more valuable and rarer than great ideas.“2) America has about six million active businesses. Ninety-nine percent of them are small businesses. An incalculably huge mistake leaders are making now is spending time, money, strategies, and especially policies for those who need 'help' getting a job. A useful way to look at any citizen is this, 'Can she herself create jobs or does she need a job created for her?' We are spending all our time on the cart and doing little or nothing on the horse. We have our assumptions and futurism that backward. The horse (small and medium business) stopped, so we fix the cart (jobs). If we change all our strategies and policies to favor the job creators (small and medium businesses), the horse and cart will get moving again. We have our compassion right, but the logic is staggeringly stupid.“3) It is wrong thinking to imagine that Washington has solutions. Job creation is a city problem. There is great variation in job creation by city in the United States. San Francisco and the greater Valley keep pumping away while Detroit isn't. Austin's cart works while Albany's doesn't. Cities need to look inwardly and say, 'What can I do to create great economic energy, to bring new customers for all existing companies and start-ups?'”Clifton concluded by sharing these observations with Schawbel: “The worst failure is probably failure of vision. We have turned our national assets too much to those who 'need' help versus toward those who can 'offer' help—the small and medium businesses that are the primary job creators and employers.”Then he asks, “Do we focus money and policies and speeches primarily on the people who need America's help or those who can offer help, the small and medium businesses. Because we can't have competing assumptions and win the coming jobs war. If we don't swing our hero worship quickly to great entrepreneurs, not only will we not get the old jobs back, we won't get new ones either.”We must salute, encourage, assist, recruit and support the entrepreneurs in our city, state and nation to win this war. Our good jobs, our future—and our dreams—will depend on it.Gov. Bobby Jindal gets it. His No. 1 priority when he first came into office was “jobs.” He can now point to the fact that, over the last four years, Louisiana has significantly outperformed the South and the United States. He notes that only six states in our country have more jobs today than in January 2008. Louisiana and Texas are the only two such states in the South. In fact, Louisiana's job growth has been second-fastest in the South since 2008, and third-fastest over the last 12 months.Since 2008 Jindal and LED Secretary Stephen Moret have teamed up to deliver on that promise of jobs by attracting economic development projects that are creating more than 51,500 new direct and indirect jobs, more than $12.6 billion in new capital investment and hundreds of millions in new annual sales for small businesses across the state (which provides capital for growth for these entrepreneurs, who can then create more jobs). Recently, Jindal and Moret added to that number by announcing IBM was coming to downtown Baton Rouge, which will eventually result in 800 more “good jobs.”Jindal and Moret also point to Louisiana's No. 1 economic rankings as evidence the state is outperforming the South and the nation, which bodes well for the future. For the third consecutive year, Business Facilities magazine has ranked LED FastStart—Louisiana's customized workforce program for expanding companies—as the top state workforce development program in America. In addition, the magazine's 2012 “Rankings Report” lists Louisiana No. 1 for economic growth potential.A recent report by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics showed Louisiana added 16,000 nonfarm jobs during the 12 months ending in April, finishing up just under 1% at 1,943,700 jobs. It noted the private sector added 21,100 jobs during that period; but state, local and federal government employment fell by 5,100 jobs. And that's where the “good jobs” should be coming from—the private sector.Our state still faces challenges, but when it comes to job growth during these last four years that were characterized by a national recession, Louisiana has been envied by many and matched by few—because that was Jindal's priority and promise.LED points out that the number of women-owned businesses in Louisiana increased by 84% from 1997 to 2013, according to the American Express OPEN “State of Women-owned Businesses Report.” Louisiana is now home to 129,800 women-owned businesses and ranks fourth in the nation for growth. That's a lot more jobs created by entrepreneurs.Among those women are some of the “influential women” who are honored and featured in this issue. All of our honorees are making an impact. Like the previous women we've celebrated with this program, each one epitomizes leadership and has achieved much in her respective field. We appreciate their contributions to our city and state.After more than 100 years, beginning with Charles Manship Sr., The Advocate now changes hands. The Manship family has been a dominant player in media in the state, at one time owning two dailies, one TV station and several radio stations. As local owners, they have always been very supportive of the community they call home—and their philanthropy is evident. I know that will continue, as they remain engaged with WBRZ-TV, their foundation and LSU's Manship School.I want to extend best wishes to my fellow publisher, David Manship, and the Manship family as they begin a new chapter and pass the torch.And to the new owner, Mr. John Georges, welcome to Baton Rouge. You have big shoes to fill.