Page 32 - Flathead Beacon // 12.25.13

32 | DECEMBER 25, 2013
OPINION FLATHEADBEACON.COM

LIKE I WAS SAYIN’ Kellyn Brown
TWO THOUGHT
FOR Same Topics, Holiday
Opposing Views

It’s the Economy
High-Wire Act

E
By Joe Carbonari
By Tim Baldwin
ARLIER THIS MONTH MY MOTHER CALLED
and told me the news. During their move to a new

If the average American is strapped for Like politics, views on the economy vary: should house Dad had mistakenly thrown away the Christ-
cash — and we are — the demand for goods we provide capital incentive to create jobs or should mas lights. This was a big deal, but I quickly wondered if he
and services is too light to support the robust we provide spending incentive to create investment? had done it on purpose. Hanging lights has a rich history
economy that is necessary to provide the stan- Are both mutually exclusive or inclusive? These are among the Browns.
dard of living that our society has come to ex- questions experts debate and lay people try to under- Everyone seems to approach this tradition a little dif-
pect. Our population continues to grow. Our stand on a macroeconomic level.
ferently. Some stick with a few understated white lights
economy must do so also. The severity of the Certainly America’s economic conditions are running along the trim and doorways of their homes; oth-

Great Recession and its excesses has made complex and the formula of success is larger than any ers create a winter wonderland by illuminating their whole
this growth very diicult and a full recovery one perspective. Adding to the supply-demand for- property with color, inlatable waving snowmen and danc-
very slow in developing. Because the Reces- mula, there are political factors that afect our eco- ing elves. We fell somewhere in between. Mom wanted the
sion was worldwide, our economy has been nomic growth as well, like:
house to look classy, but she also wanted a lot of lights.
but slightly aided by demand from elsewhere.
• The Federal Reserve printing notes and creating So each year my family, like many of yours, took out
Cutting expenditures has helped both pri- debt dangerously disproportionate to our Gross Na- ladders and scaled the sides of our home with these lights
vate budgets and business ones, but it has also tional Product.
in one hand and a hammer and nails in the other. We then
cut demand – so much so that even with the • Unreasonable and over-burdensome govern- walked along a slanted roof covered in ice and snow to hang

low interest rates the Federal Reserve has ma- ment regulations dis-incentivizing investment and them properly. We, like many of you, have scant experi-
nipulated and maintained, businesses have increasing business costs.
ence in approaching this high-wire act since, as you know,
not seen the level of demand necessary for • Taxes incentivizing making less, and thus Christmas only happens but once a year.
them to invest in additional capacity and jobs.
spending less.
I remember watching Dad fall of the roof hanging
The stimulus to demand, that is the spend- • Excessive entitlement programs dis-incentiv- these lights. The hood of our sedan broke his fall and I
ing on the unemployed and projects to employ izing ingenuity and motivation to create individual thought he would be crazy to get back up there again. But
them, by the federal government using low-in- success.
Dad’s a trooper and this is Christmas. He brushed of the

terest borrowed money, was suicient only to Like politics, economics is a relection of human injury as if everyone sacriiced their respective bodies dur-
arrest the descent of the economy and lessen nature. We need education, policies and politics that ing the holidays. And that’s not far of.
its severity. It has not been suicient in mag- incentivize individual and collective improvement.
Accidents related to holiday decorating have been
nitude to fully to get the economy irmly mov- There is perhaps no simple cure with an econom- steadily increasing, especially the last four years. In 2012,
ing forward with the broad-based restoration ic and political system as complicated and diverse as more than 15,000 people visited emergency rooms with
of incomes that is necessary to sustain mo- America’s. One simply hopes that Americans sim- a variety of injuries, more than one-third caused by falls,
mentum.
ply understand that human nature and experience compared to about 12,000 in 2009, according to data from
We need to repair our base before we can should be our guide, not party ideology or agenda, the Consumer Product Safety Commission reported by

start seriously cutting our debt.
and we should require our politicians to keep that in NBC News.
mind when creating institutions and policy.
The CPSC has a section on its website called “Ladder
GUESTCOLUMN Safety 101” with some common sense tips like, “Only allow
| BobBrown
one person on a ladder at a time.” As I grew older, and began
helping light up the house for the season, Dad took his own Timing is Everything
safety precautions.
True story: One year, when I expressed fear about be-
ing so close to the edge of the roof, which was about 20 feet In politics timing is everything and that cer- weitzer was widely rumored to be gearing up to take

high, Dad came up with an odd solution. He tied a rope tainly appears to be the case with Lt. Governor John on Baucus in the Democratic senatorial primary.
around a tree in our backyard and the other around my Walsh and Congressman Steve Daines.
Now Schweitzer appears to be running for presi-
waist and sent me back to work.
A year from now one of them will likely be a U.S. dent. But knowing Schweitzer, he could just as un-
Although well intentioned, this static rope would have Senator, something unimaginable a year ago. Back predictably jump back into the Senate race.
likely caused serious injury if actually used to break my then no one imagined Sen. Max Baucus would an- The frontrunner remains Daines. He has dem-
fall. Luckily, it wasn’t. And we completed our annual tra- nounce his retirement, let alone that he would resign onstrated a thoughtful openness on resource issues
dition without a hitch, lipped the switch and marveled at his seat before the end of his term so he could move that may lead to less conlict and better manage-

our work. We then drove around the city to see what the to China.
ment of Montana’s forests.
other local daredevils came up with that season.
It appears Baucus will become ambassador to It is encouraging, too, that he opposed the recent
In the end, it didn’t really matter if Dad intentionally China at a challenging time, and we wish him well.
“budget deal” because “it does not provide Montan-
or mistakenly threw away the Christmas lights this year. The major beneiciary of Baucus’ decision to re- ans with a much needed solution to our debt crises.”
Mom made him go out and buy more. Dad had to scale the tire was freshman Congressman Daines. His deci- He’s right, and he was right to vote the way he did
ladder again. And I’m glad he did.
sion to resign will beneit Walsh. If Walsh wants the for exactly that reason. The result of the “deal” is a
Perhaps the best part of this season is the traditions appointment to ill the Baucus vacancy, he will get microscopic 1 percent reduction in the federal dei-
friends and family hold dear. The same weird food the it. Gov. Steve Bullock, who will make the appoint- cit over the next 10 years. It’s more about cowardice

same relative brings to dinner each year. The same way in ment, has already endorsed Walsh to replace Baucus than compromise.
which we exchange gifts. And the same stories we tell each in the Senate.
It has taken decades of undisciplined spending
other when we all gather, which somehow get bigger and If instead, Walsh and Bullock decide a safer and reckless tax cuts by reelection-centric politi-
more elaborate with each telling.
strategy would be to appoint a “caretaker” sena- cians to get our country into the debt debacle we are
For us, those lights are a big part of that tradition, the tor, early names speculated about include former in. We could probably get out of it in a matter of years
irst indication when I pull up the driveway that I’m home Congressman Pat Williams and former Baucus and without wrecking the economy, but now only with a
for the holidays and in for a good time with a genuinely lov- Obama political strategist Jim Messina.
serious combination of spending cuts and taxes.

ing, supportive and unique family. It makes it all worth it The likely loser in the maneuvering is former Lt. To save our children from the crushing debt we
(although please read the CPSC tips on decorating and be Governor John Bohlinger, who is running as a Dem- have run up in our time, this generation’s Democrats
safe out there).
ocrat. At a funeral in Helena a few years ago, Boh- are going to have to be brave enough to cut back gov-
From my family to yours, I wish you and yours a Merry linger told me he wanted to run for higher oice. Be- ernment programs. Republicans are going to have
Christmas and a joyous New Year.
cause he has been a candidate of both political par- to show the courage to support increasing taxes.
ties, I told him he might be uniquely positioned to We need a senator who will put our country’s fu-
run as an independent. Now, with surveys showing ture ahead of politics. More than ever in our history,
the cumulative approval rating Congress at 7 per- now is the time. And in history, timing is everything.

cent, maybe he’ll change his mind. Again.
Bob Brown is the former Republican Montana sec-
A year ago Montana’s outgoing Gov. Brian Sch-
retary of state and state Senate president.