White House Press Corp Drama – Complains About Access, “Forgiven” –Except for Politico – Suddenly Transparency is at Issue.

The White House Press Corp – Image and Article from DM News “Reporters Notebook – Controlling the Message in the White House”>

The drama that has evolved between the White House Press Corp and President Obama began with a golf outing in Palm Beach – the President preferred to Golf alone with Tiger Woods, the Press Corp was invited along for the ride, but there was no access to the President and his Partner during the games. Consequently, the Press Corp became disgruntled and frustrated over “lack of access” to the President during what surely must have been a crucial meeting. Perhaps it was not so much the lack of access to the actual golf game, for if that is the case, the once-proud organization has been rendered completely useless. It would be better if, after being perceived as nothing more than a “mouthpiece” for the past 5 years and asking relatively no tough questions, those who truly are journalists, and care about their unique position as watchdog between the Oval Office and the Public, have simply had enough.

The White House Press Corp has a history - that began in 1914 at the suggestion of President Wilson. Although not a formal institution at the time, there were reporters who had been assigned to cover the President, Wilson unsure about who to include, passed the decision off to the “Congressional Standing Committee of Correspondents”, the original reporters (11) were incensed, and thus the Official White House Press Corp Association was formed. (WHCA) Generally speaking one would conclude that a journalist assigned to the White House, would be a watchdog of sort, having more access to the President than any others in their field. Ample opportunity has been given in the past to give those members the ability to ask tough questions, and develop, through print, a complete portrait of the individual who held the highest elected office in the nation. Developing, if one will, a series of snapshots that would give the reader a more complete idea of who was sitting in the oval office – a serial biography.

This particular President, compared to his predecessors, according to some, has been given a pass in general, on every topic, on every decision, by those in the media that have access or not – Bush and Clinton enjoyed no such “look the other way” behavior by the crème de la crème, of said media, the White House Press Corp. Times have changed.

Now, that those members had dared to complain, some of their counterparts rallied around the President (See Rachael Maddow, MSNBC, video on the subject (1:45 mark) at Mediabistro.com., the balance ignored the story completely. To those who complained, the President met with all of them, except for one, Politico.

Politico’s most recent piece, is a follow-up to the litany of complaints regarding access and including those links to articles written under the Politico banner regarding access. The Title “President Obama holds off-record meeting with top White House reporters”, speaks about the invitation to the Press Corp, to meet with the President after the complaints, with the exception of Politico’s White House Press Corp member – apparently due to being unapologetic to the President. Politico.

For a once-respected organization, that gave more formidable men and women that Carney, the current Press Secretary, fits, the current crop is perceived as rather benign, taking notes, rather than rendering Carney speechless, without comebacks and stuttering while C-SPAN camera’s roll on.

What did they expect?

More to the point, what good would a pass to watch the President golf with Tiger Woods accomplish? – It’s certainly not the PGA, and there was an appropriate reporter following the game – one from Gold Digest. One might not expect the President of the United States to give any pertinent information during a golf outing, a time when one is enjoying a break from “work”. Moreover, if there was something going on that the Press Corp could file, besides the fact that the President was golfing with Tiger Woods, it is doubtful that there would be anything in the Press as a result. Not in this era, not with this President and not with the collective Press.

When one is looked at as more of a propagandist than one who truly practices a craft, then one has a lot of nerve complaining. That is how this is being perceived by those who have read, watched or listened in stunned disbelief while “Rome” burned, and there was a virtual “blackout” of any further questions that may have answered questions or otherwise shed light on situations that left more than a few on the table. The situation is Benghazi for one, given the national coverage, or lack therefore, of the events leading to the deaths of an American Ambassador, and those Marine’s attempting to protect him. The general public, (otherwise considered “low information voters”) are not even aware of what occurred. (Moreover, the lack of attention to actual news has developed “low information voters” to begin with – the Press being an accomplice so to speak.

One used to count on the news to enlighten, not entertain, or be a mouthpiece for a political idea, a party or President – Op-eds, or editorial content was found in one section of the paper, or one segment of the news, rather than scattered through any given publication, including the sports section, where they now reside.

Politico, being one of the aforementioned, appears to be nothing more, at this point, than a child being “punished” for disobeying a “parent”, and shouting loudly on order to get that “parents” attention. Perhaps if they should loud enough, the President will grant them access – Once granted, they will go back to being the willing, and useful, left wing of the White House. Should they stand for an organization and a profession that had been held in the highest esteem by the general American Public since 1690, when the short-lived Publick Occurrences Both Forreign and Domestick, out of Boston, was published (History.org), then that would spark the beginning of a revolution of sorts, leaving ideology at the door, and doing a bit of straight reporting. Something that is sorely missed, by those who had a belief in the press, at a time when the editorial section was the only place one would find opinion in the grand old newspaper.

Fired Ohio Woman Sues Employer – Suggests Cause was her Vote for Obama – The Manipulation and Downfall of Being a “low-information” voter.

Applebees announced layoffs due to Obamacare - Image with article from the Examiner

Headline: from the Ohio Dispatch : “Ohio woman claims she was fired for Obama vote”, goes into some detail regarding a woman who filed suit against her former employer, a defense contractor, claiming her loss of employment was due to her personal vote for President Obama – she filed the suit (3) three months after her separation. (Read balance of story and comments here at dispatch.com)

The comments under the article are accusatory towards the woman, based upon her vote, rather than what should be obvious, for the most part. Those commenting are suggesting that if the owner of the company fired her due to her vote, it was justified; however they are missing two points.

The first is that the woman most likely was fishing for any excuse to find income after the separation, the national proclivity to bring suit over just about anything, is not lost on the general public (given the findings made in terms of suits filed on the most ridiculous of cases.) What better excuse, than an employee who is found to be out of a job, especially one who had been “last hired”, in a declining economy, with little to stand on, possibly believing that her separation was due to her political leanings?

If one however, reads one’s local or national news outlets, including online, broadcast and print, then one understands that the economy has driven the number of available jobs, and the number of layoffs. In addition, due to the costs to employers of the Affordable Health Care Act, there was sufficient notice, through the media outlets mentioned, that employers were more than vocal about the additional need to scale back on employees hours, as well as noting the costs would make it impossible to either keep those hired, or hire additional employees.

One might look at headlines today, based on a simple “Google News” search and find the following using “layoffs health care law” (simple search):

January 26th, 2013 "Aurora Health Care Says It Will Lay Off Employees Because Of Obamacare " (Huffington Post)

February 1, 2013 "Medical Company Blames ‘Obamacare’ For Layoffs Of Nearly 100 People" (CBSDC)

February 8, 2013 "Looming layoffs, pay freezes, hold the R&D: Regional manufacturer says medical device tax under healthcare law will hurt business”(Penn Live)

Today, February 21, 2013 "Farmington hospital to cut up to 40 jobs"(WGME Maine)

(The above is particularly disturbing for those who are concerned about availability of health care in general, as there are multiple articles in this vein, from Hospitals across the nation. Staff is being reduced to cut costs – those costs cutting measures are associated with the Affordable Health Care Act, as it pertains to providers of Health Care. In short, under the Affordable Health Care Act, providers must find ways in which to reduce the cost of healthcare generally. One such cost cutting measure that patients may face is the 30 day waiting period for appointments to treat the same diagnosis. This is designed to insure that hospitals’ make the “right call” and provide the correct treatment the first time an individual visits their provider. If not, the Hospital is footing the bill, should that individual present the same systems, and visit that provider within (30) thirty days. All things being equal, should human error occur, the provider may make the decision to push an appointment up – or offer a new diagnosis. As private hospitals are owned by corporations which have an obligation to make a profit in order to continue operations, an alternative is to reduce their overhead, (they are also subject to the employers additional costs to implement this act.) is to lay off staff, and/or to reduce hours.)

The above are relatively new articles, however, if one goes back a bit further into 2012, as the costs to employers under the law became more defined (Nancy Pelosi “Sign the Bill now, find out what’s in it later” approach come home to roost), the writing was on the wall and the front page:

For example: October 14, 2012 ”YET ANOTHER CEO ASKS EMPLOYEES TO VOTE ROMNEY FOR SAKE OF THE COMPANY (AND THEIR JOBS)” (The Blaze). Although the article points to the Blaze, a blog, cites MSNBC as the source for the individual companies who were, in desperation, trying to drum up votes for Mitt Romney out of fear of the costs of “Obama Care” to both the employer and employee.

August, 2012 "California Obamacare: LA County Prepares For Massive Health Care Restructuring" (Huffington Post)

The list of companies that have laid off since it was clear the mandate would go forward with the re-election of the President can be found on blogs such as ”Share This Massive List of Post Election Firing and Layoffs…”(The Economic Collapse Blog)

Using “low Information voters” – a term that is in itself, insulting, but for lack of another term and politically correct, is a new tactic by politicians - Those who are deemed “low information voters” are those that either do not avail themselves news on a local or weekly basis, if at all, or limit themselves to their local and national broadcast news. Therefore, they are somewhat easily “fooled” into thinking or voting a certain way, or for that matter, may fail to take shelter in light of a coming storm!

Understanding that the ”news” may be boring, and more to the point, that finding news sources and information by multiple outlets, may be too time consuming and/or challenging for the average voter (which is truly the term that should be used). Of course, news may be depressing, or incomprehensible, (given the state of our education system in the U.S.) – or shunned due to one political bent or the other (i.e. Fox on the left, MSNBC on the right) This type of news consumer is more prone to believe their separation of employment was caused by a vindictive employer knowing how they voted. On the face of it, ridiculous, however, in truth, they may simply not know better. If one is honest, especially those commenting on the Dispatch Article (Paragraph 1), they might know a family member, or several, friends and coworkers, who are not particularly keen on reading, listening or watching news in depth. The current state of affairs offers more teaching moments than not, when one considers that to be well-informed and educated on a subject gives on more power to make an informed decision.

Detroit – Running out of Money – The Corruption, the Waste and the Rocky Road Forward.

The City of Detroit, not unlike cities across the country, taking on increasing debt, has reached its limit. According to the New York Times , the City of Detroit has been found to be fiscally unsustainable, and yet, somehow suggests that the City, with a majority African American Population and run by Democrats for Decades, is somehow a race issue, as the State as a whole has a “ population is nearly 80 percent white and Republicans, including Mr. Snyder, control the capital.”. (NY Times). That said, The City’s finances, reviewed by a State panel, and found to be dismal, to the point where the Govenor may appoint a City Manager – appears to have a rather long history of financial struggles – mostly based on corruption, incompetence and the cost of running a City, all under the supervision of those same Democrats that the NYTimes suggests are somehow victims.

Put aside the race baiting and the partisanship and one finds this City’s problems are a fiscal issue, one where , regardless of what has taken place in the past, attempting to fix the problem is the only way out, even if that means a State Manager is necessary (See City of Springfield, MA under the guidance of the Commonwealth). When Cities spend too much on City employee pensions and salaries, (those that are above the medium for private and public sector works in a given state), that is a starting point, but not the entire problem, there is the unchecked and rampant fraud committed by the City employees and elected officials, there is the exodus of city residents, where fewer tax-paying residents are able to support the aforementioned and eventfully, something has to give.

A timeline of Detroit’s decent into ruin by Reuters: suggests the problems began in 1973 under a long-term Coleman Young, who ran the city until 1993 (some late highlights from Reuters follow: read the entire article here at reuters.com:

In September 2008, Kilpatrick left office after pleading guilty to obstruction of justice charges, and City Council President Kenneth Cockrel became interim mayor.

The U.S. Census reported in March 2011 that Detroit's population fell in 2010 to 713,777 - a 100-year low and a 25 percent decline from 2000. The drop threatened key tax revenue sources that were tied to a population of at least 750,000.

Michigan Governor Rick Snyder in June 2011 signed legislation allowing Detroit to continue collecting income and utility taxes. Bing warned in November 2011 that Detroit faced a projected cash shortfall of about $150 million by the end of March 2012.

In March 2012, about half of Detroit's unions accepted pay cuts and other concessions to save the city $68 million annually. The Michigan Court of Appeals allowed the review team to continue working on a potential consent agreement with the city. An interim bond issue to raise $80 million for Detroit's near-empty coffers was sold.

In June 2012, Detroit's top lawyer asked a state court to void the consent agreement on the basis that the state owed the city money. The lawsuit postponed plans for a bond sale to replace the March interim borrowing and raise a total of $137 million for Detroit. Bing, meanwhile, warned the city could soon run out of cash, putting a debt service payment on $1.5 billion of pension debt in peril. As a result, Detroit's credit ratings were cut further into junk.

In July, Bing imposed 10 percent pay cuts on workers.

Michigan voters on Nov. 6 repealed the state's emergency manager law.

The governor on Dec. 27 signed a new emergency manager law to take the place of the law repealed by voters in November. The new law, which takes effect in late March, gives fiscally struggling cities and school district options for dealing with their problems.

An audit released on Jan. 3 showed Detroit's cumulative deficit jumped to $326.6 million at the end of fiscal 2012 on June 30, from $196.6 million in fiscal 2011.

Bing announced on Jan. 25 that the approval of more goals by the city council would allow Michigan to send $20 million of the bond proceeds to the city.

As the formal review of Detroit continued, Snyder revealed on Feb. 11 he had a "short list" of candidates to fill the job of Detroit's emergency financial manager if he decides the city needs one.(Reuters)

Therefore what took place in Detroit began with one city administration followed by others, who kept pushing the increasing public employee debt “can” down the road, The City lost 25 percent of its population over a 10 year period, which eroded the already stressed tax base, and by not dealing with the problem at any time between the 1980’s to 2012 – the current Mayor, Bing, is trying to stop the bleeding with band-aids – but, that began in 2012 with a City Union agreement. The state’s voters passed a bill that took the States ability to help failing cities away, the State’s Govenor signed a new law reversing that bill, in order to step in and save Detroit, but it’s Detroit’s call.

Looking at Detroit’s Demographics is an eye opener: Based on 2009 census data the population of Detroit was 711,700, noting a loss of 25% over the prior census, medium income in Detroit was $18,614, with a medium rent of $749., (City Data),

Compared to a similar metropolitan area in terms of population in the Midwest, with a population of 807,584, the Medium Household income was at$40,278 and the medium rent at $715. (City Data).

That suggests a majority of those living in Detroit were in poverty, with a high rental costs, and those that could, left the City and possibly the State.

Now what?

A former Chief of Communications from the City of Detroit suggests the only option for the City is a managed bankruptcy. Commenting on the report released Karen Dumas, suggests Detroit’s woes, began a decade ago (contrary to Reuters findings), and follows with a short laundry list of issues that should have been corrected:

The city's long-term liabilities surpassed $14 billion, what it cost American taxpayers to bail out the entire auto industry.

The city charter is structured in a way that shackles the city and keeps it from making changes needed to survive.

And the city broke the law -- a lot -- by not amending its budget to prevent deficit spending. It kept paying for things that it could not afford. For instance, it paid last year for 285 employees at 36th District Court. The court has 350 employees, not counting judges. And the court owes the city $199 million.

The city did not balance its checkbook every month, just once a year.

The city sometimes recorded expenses in the wrong place, wrong account or the wrong year.

Some information about city workers did not match information in the personnel files.

When the city paid some insurance claims, they kept a record of the payments, but not of the claims that forced them to make the payment.

The city had no process for anonymous reporting of ethical or fraud violations.

The city used restricted funds to pay for things those funds could not pay for. That's why they're called restricted funds. As a matter of fact, some funds shared the same bank accounts.

The city sometimes determined weekly paychecks without computers and without having the amounts verified by managers. So some paychecks, perhaps many paychecks, were wrong.

And the city kept breaking the rules and operating like it was the 1950s until it accumulated $13 billion in bond debts and a $326-million deficit.

(Detroit Free Press)

On Pensions and the City Management:

From the Detroit Free Press: 2010: “Risky bets cost Detroit pension funds $480 million”, reviews the mess pension fund managers made out of Detroit’s City Pension fund. Detroit’s Mayor Bing, responded to the Free Press: Asked about the losses, Mayor Dave Bing said in a statement: "The current obligations of the city's two pension systems are unsustainable."

He did not elaborate.

On City Pensions:

From the New York Times: an article entitled “Public Pensions, Once Off Limits, Face Budget Cuts” reviews the City of Detroit as well as other cities nationwide as to Union pensions. On Detroit specifically:

The struggles of Detroit, of course, are extreme. The report by the arbitrator, Thomas W. Brookover, noted that although the city’s unemployment rate was officially 28 percent, there was evidence that less than 37 percent of the city’s residents were actually working. The population had crashed. Property tax revenues were dwindling. Detroit had drained its rainy day fund, reduced overtime, offered property-tax amnesty, sold public assets, borrowed money, allowed casinos to set up shop — and still its deficits kept growing.

The average pension for retired police officers in Detroit is not especially rich: it is $28,501 a year. But with more than twice as many retirees as active workers, Mr. Brookover wrote, the costs of paying for the pensions “threaten both the city’s fiscal viability, as well as its wherewithal to provide public safety for its citizens.”

Detroit’s efforts to cover those costs through aggressive investing have not helped. In a 2010 report, an auditor warned that $103 million of alternative investments were unaccounted for. The city’s bets have included Tradewinds Airlines, which went bankrupt for the third time in 2008, and a luxury hotel in Detroit. The Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating.

The city initially sought to freeze its pension fund immediately, which is almost unheard of in the public sector. The arbitrator rejected that proposal, but agreed that the city could reduce the rate at which lieutenants and sergeants earn pension benefits from 2.5 percent of their salary per year to 2.1 percent. Although rare, the reduction is not particularly large, given the magnitude of Detroit’s problems. The arbitrator did not try to find a solution to the fund’s imbalance. (Read balance of article here

(New York Times)

What happened in Detroit is obvious, a long standing and unchecked, systematic destruction of a once great city, by those in charge for decades at the City level. From corruption to incompetence, to downright criminal activity, the City has found itself on a precipice. As it is obvious why this occurred, fixing the problem is also obvious, not only for Detroit but for any municipality or town across the nation. If elected management is in any way, shape or form, incompetent or corrupt, there should be a mechanism in place to remove said individuals though a City recall, Union contracts should be reviewed and adjusted to the public sector in each individual municipality. Above all, the taxpayer to City obligations should be considered for all budget projections, and those findings should determine city wages, and services. Federal intervention is not an option, as the National debt and budget reads like Detroit’s. (Which makes one wonder, why, the President on budget cuts, is suggesting that firefighters, teachers, etc. will be laid off or fired, when the City hires, and fires, these employees, based on what the City has in its coffers, rather than the Federal Government? What has possibly worsened the situation (most likely), was the stimulus and job bills during the administration that was given to Cities and Municipalities to increase their employees, and create jobs. The problem arose when the funds ran out, and the City, now straddled with unemployment compensation, ran into deeper debt as a result of the Federal Aid.) It is unfair to those teachers, firefighters and police officers and all working for the City of Detroit, who have retired from any City System, to have to live in fear of a City going into bankruptcy, and the result, a loss of all benefits. It is now a human rights issue as well. If now is not the time to bring fiscal sanity to the table, across the country, when?