As our kids move through high school and beyond, it's important that they learn how to handle money and credit, especially credit.  I think the best time to handle this is when our kids are in high school when they are still in our households and we can help educate them on things.  If we wait for them to experience credit when they reach college, they might make poor use of credit and get themselves into debt quickly without our helping them.  We gave each of our kids a credit card when they started driving as we always paid for the gas so we wanted to make it easy for them to fill up.  We also said they could use it for items they wanted but with a very clear understanding that anything that they put on the credit card like that was to be paid for when the bill arrived.  The card also gets a cash reward once a year and doesn't have an annual fee.  For the most part our kids did ok, but our son purchased quite a few items one month and was surprised when I presented him with the bill.  It took most of his available cash to get rid of that month's purchases and was a wakeup call.  I wish that I had someone educate me about credit when I was his age as I used credit too much and ended up paying a lot of interest on items that in retrospect were not worth it.

           Small lessons like this with specific boundaries help our kids in many ways. They will will learn about and use credit whether you want them to or not. I think it's much better for us to help them through this very important experience.  Thanks.

          We need to have a national requirement for all young people to serve our country two years with no exceptions.  It could be in the military or community service.  The pressure on our young people in the military right now is unprecedented.   They are doing 3 and 4 tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.  This is also the first time in history we have used our reserves to this extent.  It is worse than Vietnam.  We have lost over 4,000 of our young people and over 30,000 seriously wounded.   I realize that it is a volunteer force but no one should have to be deployed this often unless all of us are doing our part.  The cost of the Iraq war which is over $700 billion is huge drag on our economy and is the major reason we haven’t made much progress in Afghanistan.  If we’re so united, why aren’t we willing to tax ourselves to pay for the war and taking care of our veterans.  Thank you.

           Went to Senator Feingold's listening session the other day and I wasn't surprised by the turnout but I was surprised at how rude many of the people were, most of them retired.   They would ask Senator Feingold a question and when he tried to answer, people were constantly interupting him by shouting so he really never was given the opportunity to respond to most of the questions. There is no excuse to behave this way towards a republican or democrat, period.   Grow up people!

           It's interesting the difference between this health care debate and the lack of one when the prescription drug plan was passed in 2003.  There were many rules bent, arms twisted and influence of companies that time too.  What party was in the majority?  I guess it must be ok to cover the old peoples drugs, but not ok to cover the uninsured in this country.  It must be ok to spend $400 billion over 10 years for that but not ok to make sure that everyone can at least count on having health care. Oh, they can just go the emergency room.   

           There are other arguments like the government can't do anything right.  If that's the case, why don't all those old people give up their medicare.  Why don't they lead the way.   I'll bet that won't happen.  The VA system has never been allocated enough money to take care of our veterans properly but they are the one of the only hospital systems in this country to have completely electrionic medical records.  Why doesn't Aurora, Pro Health and all the other private hospital systems have this ability.  It sure can't be because they're not charging us enough. They sure are building plenty of capacity with all of those new buildings going up everywhere.  Pretty soon, we'll have a clinic and a drugstore on every corner. Remember that our medical costs are some of the highest in the country.  Just wait until we get the bill for all the health care costs related to the war in Iraq.  Over 30,000 wounded, many with servere trauma, head injuries, missing limbs, and the like.  Lots of people talk a lot a about respecting our veterans but no one has a clue of the total cost for the next 30-40 years and no one is willing to budget for it or pay for it.

           The current health care bill shouting match is a sad day as the democrats are not listening and compromising as much as they should and the republicans are digging their heals in.  I think most of us could agree that insurance companies should not be able to deny coverage to anyone, we need tort reform,  we need to be able to negiotiate better drug prices for medicare( this is currently prohibited but the VA can do this),  remove the anti-trust exemption that the health insurance companies enjoy, and that the lifetime cap on health care should be raised.  I believe that our health care system whichever way it goes is unsustainable until we all have a serious discussion and compromise to bring costs under control.  Thanks.

           Over the holidays, I got to see my nephews and nieces who are all growing up fast with some in grade school and some in high school.   Who would know.  I just got a phone call that one of my nephews was seriously injured in a auto accident and he wasn't wearing his seat belt.  He hit the windshield and he wasn't  at fault but the windshield didn't care.  It brought back a brief flashback when I was about 19 and was involved in auto accident. I was wearing my lapbelt as that was all we had back then and my friend hit the windshield because he wasn't wearing his seatbelt.   Luckily, he wasn't seriously injured. I have always been a strong believer in using seat belts and even more so over the years.  There is nothing easier to use than a seat belt to bring your young drivers home safely.   Nothing that is other than putting the cell phone away when driving and paying attentiion.  That is another serious threat to other peoples safety. Thanks.

           Once again we are at the wonderful yet pressure filled time of the year.  The Christmas Clearing Council of Waukesha County is celebrating 60 years of service yet this is one of their toughest years.  They have provided gifts and toys to children at Christmas and brought smiles to those young faces for a long time.  This year, sponsorship of children is down 30%.  Please consider sponsoring a child.  They ask that you spend $60 per child.  Please consider this wonderful opportunity to help some less fortunate children to have a nice Chrismas.  Their web site is http://www.christmasclearingcouncil.org/  and the phone number is (262) 549-6635.  Any help you can provide is very appreciated.  Thank you.

                Why do we continue to subsidize the real estate and mortgage industries?  Here we are a year after they helped to cause the biggest financial meltdowns in our lifetime and the federal government is providing tax credits of $8,000 to new home buyers and $6,500 to previous home buyers.  Interest rates are at an all time low and housing prices have fallen, yet we need to do this?  My lowest mortgage was 8%.  You can get one for under 5% now.  These low interest rates are also hurting the value of the dollar as it declines relative to other currencies which we should be very worried about.  We don’t need the McMansions and never did . We should not be putting  this much emphasis on one asset class when we are investing although I'm sure real estate agents have another very biased opinion.  How many real estate agents have said you can put 25-30% of gross income towards a mortgage.  That's a totally ridiculous number if you ever plan doing much else.  

              No other investment has the tax favored status of real estate.  You get to deduct the interest on a mortgage, property taxes, interest on  a home equity loan (yea, let’s spend all of our money now loan), and the home sale exclusions on the profits of your home.  Now all of us are paying for  the reckless promotion of real estate and these types of policies will just continue that trend.  The fiscally prudent people who live well within their means are and will continue paying for this mess for a long time.  Thank you.

      After hearing that the school district is considering 4 year old kindergarten, I feel compelled to respond.  I have tremendous respect for Dr. Schroeder but must disagree with him on this issue.  We visited this issue a year or two ago, reviewed the studies and got a lot of community input, pro and con on the issue.  It was voted down 7-0 if my memory serves me correctly.  I in fact attended the final meeting by phone from MIT where my daughter was completing her degree after only 3 1/2 years.  Why is that related?  When our daughter was at Tess Corners, we considered moving her up a year, skipping a grade.  After the discussions with the School District personnel who were all very helpful, we decided against it.  Looking back at that decision, it just reinforces that we made the right decision for the following reasons.  Our daughter still excelled in school but also was able to gain leadership responsibility in student council that I doubt she would have been offered if she had been moved up. We probably should have pushed to have her moved up a year in math and / or science but that could have happened anyway.  She was able to take 7 AP courses  which I've always felt are important for kids to take.  We want our kids to get into a structured environment way too soon or maybe we want daycare for free.  They are only 4 year olds. Unstructured play is just as important as structured school play.   I just don't buy the long term benefits of this program.

        The incentive from the state is wrong on this issue.  They pay way too much for school districts to implement this which makes it very attractive finacially.  Instead of four year old kindergarten, we need to challenge kids a lot more and keep them interested in math and science especially in middle school where we tend to lose them.  Thanks.

         As I was listening to all of the yelling going on during the recess for Congress, I was thinking it doesn't matter what either side thinks.  It's too bad we can't actually talk about issues instead of yelling at each other because we would learn a lot more.  One thing is clear whether we want to believe it or not.  Our health care costs are much higher than any other other country in the world by any comparison you want to make.  They are unsustainable just like the increases in home values that brought about the recent financial collapse.  Back in 2003 there was an article in the New England Journal of Medicine that our per capita administrative costs of health care were 3 times those of Canada.    www.consumeraffairs.com/news03/health_costs.html

Just this month Forbes had an article comparing our health care with Germany.  Our per capita costs were twice as high as Germany even though they have 1 in 5 people over 65 versus our 1 in 8 being over 65.  Doctors don't earn as much as in the U. S. and we have twice as many of those expensive CT machines and three times as many MR machines as Germany.

www.forbes.com/forbes/2009/0921/health-obama-germany-health-care-model-that-works_2.html

            What about the hospital moritorium that was in effect until Tommy Thompson left office?.  Do you think that all that new hospital construction really made us healthier and helped to control costs.  We need to start having serious discussions about how we are address this issue.  Thank you.

             Just like many of you, I've seen my investments drop significantly in the last year.  One sign of good news that I'm happy to see is that some of that TARP money is being repaid.  The return is very good.  Goldman Sachs repaid the $10 billion in TARP money which they were forced to take during the crisis late last year.  They paid $318 million in dividends and an additional $1.1 billion to buy back the warrants the government received when the government invested in them last year.  That's an annualized yield of 23%.   I'm still not happy with what has happened on wall street but I'm very happy to get that kind of return. I'm also disgusted with the real estate and mortgage industries in as much as wall street because of their role in creating this financial crisis.  Who was the last real estate person who actually told you you could possibly lose money in real estate?  There still are issues with how people on wall street are compensated but I'm  more than willing to accept  a 23% return.  I know it's easy to just complain on a specific topic causing all the problems and then conveniently forget when things start to turn around.  If you don't like what is happening, in government, put up or shut up.  Run for office and then we can all judge how well you make decisions when you can't conveniently forget the facts. It's so easy to second guess people in government  from the comforrt of your living room. Thank you.
 

             Listening to the health care discussion generated by having optional end of life discussions with your doctor is rather interesting.  The distortions are almost as bad as those made before we invaded Iraq. It also brings to mind the Terri Schiavo case where a family had to endure even politicians getting involved in her case. We hear republicans talking about how they don't want government to get involved in health care matters, yet they had no problem getting Congress and the President involved in this very personal and private  issue.  I find that rather ironic and sad.

            We all need to discuss and document with our families what our end of life wishes are while we can still have an informed, well thought out discussion.  This should happen the earlier the better in our lives, preferably in our 30's or 40's.  We don't know when an accident or something else tragic might occur.  We all should have a living will and  health care power of attorney giving someone who you are comfortable will carry out your wishes the power to make those decisions.  It is a very personal and private matter that should be between the family and their doctor.  This isn't about some government agency.   Thank you.

        The Bradley Center is only 20 years old yet is getting $5 million dollars in state money for renovations. I guess that money will be put to better use for multi-million dollar athletes than providing renovations for the facilities that educate our children in our state.  Yes, budgets are about making decisions and the worst thing we could possibly do is provide a facility that was given to the city of milwaukee with money for renovations. They have no mortgage and they can't even pay for their own renovations. Maybe some of those professional athletes that play in the that facility could provide some of the funds.  From the source I found, the total salaries for the 15 players on the Bucks for the 2009/10 season is over $60 million which is only a $4 million average.  I guess the players just can't afford it.  We're in the worst recession in 30 years and we're spending money on professional sports instead of our future professional engineers.  We wonder why we can't compete.  I don't wonder.  It's obvious.  Thanks.

                Once again as I was talking to school district employees, I was amazed by some of the things that our young people are doing.  Now this is not a negative thing.  Our kids are taking more AP (advanced placement) courses in high school than ever.  What they aren’t doing is always taking the AP test.  AP courses are tougher courses across most subjects like math, biology, chemistry, history, English, etc that kids can take in high school after they shown that they can achieve at a higher level.  In May, after the majority of the coursework is done, there is a week in which all kids across the country take the exact same test for the particular subject they took.

                What is disappointing is that after taking these rigorous courses some kids aren’t taking the AP test.  They take this tough course for a semester or a whole year and don’t take the AP test which can help them get though college sooner and save money.  How is that?  If you take the test and get a 3, 4, or 5 on the test on a scale of 1-5, you can get credit at most colleges  that will shorten the number of credits you will need to take in college.  The test does cost money but the offset of college cost is probably at least $3-4 saved for each dollar spent on the test.  It also looks very good on the high school transcript.

                In the case of my own kids, our daughter who went to MIT only got credit for electives for two courses even though she took 7 AP courses but that was definitely worth it because she probably never would have gotten into the school without them.  She ended up graduating in 3 ½ years.  Our son who goes to the University of Washington in Seattle which is a public school, got almost a quarters worth of credits for the 6 AP courses he took and then took the test.  He’s anticipating graduating in 3 years and a quarter.  There are 3 quarters in the normal September to June school year with a summer quarter from June through August.

                The other great benefit is the test taking experience that the kids get from taking the final test of a tough course.  After taking some of the toughest courses in high school, the kids should want to take the test. 

                Our young people should be very proud of their achievements. 

            I would normally be the last one to defend consumers with too much credit card debt but this is one time that the credit card companies have gone too far.  The bill that just passed Congress will put restrictions on how, when, and how much credit card companies can increase interest rates and fees.  Back when I was in my 20’s and 30’s  I had way too much credit card debt and was only able to make minimum payments all but one card where I paid as much as I could.  I wonder how much longer it would have taken to get out of debt if the credit card companies had the ability to raise the interest rates on my outstanding debt just because I was carrying more debt than they thought was appropriate even though I never missed a payment. I eventually got them all paid off and have always paid in full since then. The credit card companies have said that the current changes from Congress will increase fees and costs for everyone.  Well they must have gotten advance word on it because I got a notice from my friendly credit card company that my interest rate is going up over a month before this bill was passed.  I don’t have any outstanding debts.  No none!  No mortgage, no car payments, no month to month bills of any kind.  I guess I was carrying too much debt or something like that.

            My suggestion to the banks would be to never extend credit to some of the dirtballs that they’ve extended credit to in the past that they never should have.  That is how we got into this subprime mortgage mess too, how they now have current credit card debts they have to write off and they’re trying to stick us with.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with tightening of credit,  getting rid of people who shouldn’t be extended credit.  It would do the country a lot of good over the long term to have stricter lending.  It would save us all a lot more money than extending credit to people who don’t deserve it. 

            Parents don’t take enough responsibility in teaching their children how to handle credit.  We gave our kids each a credit card to use once they started to drive.  Of course the credit card did not have an annual fee and it provided a cash reward.  Some items charged were understood that we would pay for but anything else was paid for by our kids.  There were some interesting lessons learned while discussing a couple charge statements when those other items needed to be paid for. Those types of lessons are not soon forgotten.

            By the way, what is the current cost of the bailouts?  Banks, please spare me.  People who pay their bills on time always pay for the ones who don’t. 

                Governor Doyle’s budget should expect more sacrifice from all state workers to resolve our budget deficit.  We should ask all of our state workers to take a pay freeze for 2 years and if necessary we should lay people off. I’ve supported our teachers and staff for many years as a school board member and would not suggest this type of action unless I really felt we needed it.  I’ve even had to take a 10 % pay cut as a computer analyst which is very unusual in our industry.  While I realize that many teachers use some of their own money for their classrooms, this is a very trying time in our state.  I also realize that the pay freezes would need to be negotiated but it is time for everyone in government at every level to participate and share in the recovery of our state.  We should also reduce the pensions for any future state employees so as to reduce long term liabilities like the one Tommy Thompson gave us just before he left office.  He increased state pensions to the tune of $5 billion and the bill was passed in just three days.  Doyle's idea to remove the QEO that covers the wages and benefits of teachers is the worst idea I've heard in years. Schools need to be able to focus their energy on educating our children, not on spending excessive time negotiating with unions.  Finally mandating increases on the the minimum insurance limits on car insurance is a terrible idea.  At the very least it should be discussed separate from the budget bill.

                On the republican side, they can’t just say no new taxes since the state mandates increases in spending each year especially for school districts. In the Muskego-Norway school district alone, the state mandate for the 3.8% increase in wages and benefits amounts to around $1 million each year.  They need to be willing to say what they are going to cut.  As of this point they have not done anything but said NO new taxes.  Why? In fact, Senator Lazich just today said that releasing prisoners early is not a good option.  Then she should be willing to fund it or offer up another idea.  I will be waiting for her response.  Have you ever seen a specific list of items they are will to not increase or cut?  I haven't.

                Thank you.

                 It was interesting to watch the Tea parties around the country.  I don’t have a problem with it other than most of the message was just that government is spending too much without ever saying what they might cut.  The top five federal programs in for fiscal year 2007 were Health (medicare and Medicaid) 23% at $627 billion, social security 21.5% 586 billion, defense 20.5% $560 billion, Income security $13.4 % $367 billion, and interest on debt 8.7% $238 billion.  That is over 85% of the federal budget.  We need to make changes to most of these programs to address our serious deficits.  I think we should raise the retirement age for social security, increase payroll taxes for it (just like President Reagan did), and stop providing a cost of living increase.  Just the cost of living increase alone added $35 billion to the annual cost of social security in 2009. We need to do make these changes and others now. 

                We’ve talked a lot recently about bank bailouts which many of them really aren’t as the TARP money is to be repaid with interest and some large banks are getting ready to do it soon.  What about the bailouts we’ve provided to the defense contractors?  The top 95 weapons programs for the Pentagon are almost $300 billion over budget.  The only thing I’m shocked and awed about is that we’re still spending a ton of money on weapons for a cold war that aren’t  very effective in the type of war we are currently in and will be for the foreseeable future.   We didn’t even have enough armor against road side bombs on our vehicles in the first several years of the Iraq war. 

                What about the bailouts we’ve provided to sports teams across the country for the new stadiums and arenas financed by the public including over $600 million for Miller park and now $5 million of state money for improvements to the Bradley Center that was donated by the Pettits and  opened in 1988 and isn't even a state facility.  It supposedly has significant maintenance issues because it’s 21 years old.  Maybe those same people who support this type bailout should visit some or the schools in the less affluent parts of the state and ask them if their 50, 60, or 80 year old buildings have any needs.  I know it’s not just as much fun to pay for improvements to a school where the future leaders  and workers of our country are being educated  as it is to go a game to watch overpaid athletes from expensive seats.  Thank you.

                The discussion of bonuses needs to come to an end now so we can move on to the important tasks of unwinding the bad financial decisions at AIG and repairing our economy.  Remember, we own 80% of AIG so we’re destroying even more of the value of our ownership with our un-ending criticism.  While there are many reasons to get upset over bonuses at AIG, we need to move beyond that as fast as possible to work on freeing up our credit markets and getting our economy going.  Knee-jerk reactions are rarely good decisions and now Congress has decided to recover bonuses even at other firms that have taken TARP money some of who never really needed or wanted it.  Not only will this drive good people from some of the other firms but it will slow the recovery of our financial system which affects all of us.   We have a very difficult time in looking at the long term in this country and seem to be willing to cut off our nose to spite our face and this is one of those critical times. Get mad but get over it quickly because we are losing credibility with many other countries in the world.  We should all be very concerned when China and Russia start to question the safety of the dollar because if the world loses confidence in the dollar’s value, we will lose even more on a long term basis.  Thank you.

                Once again we have a controversy concerning a coach at the Muskego-Norway high school.  Having spent 12 years on the school board, I suspect the circumstances surrounding this conflict are similar as they have been in the past.   There hasn’t been any wrongdoing or inappropriate behavior by the coach.  If there was, this is an easy decision to remove a coach.  I think this is a group of parents who want to control what and how the coach does things.  That could be you’re not playing my child enough, I don’t like the strategies you’re using to play the team or you’re not motivating the players.  This happened back when I was on the Board with our soccer coach who was removed by the School Board.  The parents just were not happy until the coach was removed.  This coach then went on to be a very successful coach at the college level and still coaches to this day.
                This kind of behavior by parents starts much earlier than high school though.  It shows up at soccer games or whatever sport you pick when the kids are in middle school or even earlier.  The intensity of criticism by some of these parents is disgusting.  The intensity with which they criticize unpaid coaches, young referees, and even parents doing the sideline flagging is unacceptable.  More than once while I was parent asked to do the sideline flagging for a soccer game,  I was criticized on the direction I had picked to inbound the ball.  I turned to the parent and said “here, you do it, since I obviously don’t know how to do”.  They immediately declined to accept the responsibility to control what they had seen as wrong.  How many of our young referees and unpaid coaches  quit because of parents like this?  Why is such poor sportsmanship acceptable. It’s because we let it happen as other parents who aren’t anywhere as intense as the aggressive parent, yet are not willing to say no them. Just go to a basketball or football game and listen to the comments of some of the parents.
                At the high school level, it’s even worse because some these parents think their kids scholarship chances are being impacted by the actions of a coach.  Few of our high school athletes have ever received Division I college scholarships and then they’re going to a college that might not fit their academic interests.
                Sports are a great thing that you should enjoy, work hard at, be competitive at, be a good sport at and realize that for over 99% of us will never pay the bills.  Academics are what will bring home the bacon. Mom and Dad won’t be there when you get a bad manager at your job that you just don’t like or will they? If you truly love the sport, suck it up, adapt, play hard, and show what you’re made of.
                If these current parents have such a valid argument, they should be willing to present it to the public.  My guess is that it will never happen. Thank you.

             It’s amazing to me how fast republicans are trying to become fiscal conservatives after having spent recklessly for years.  The republicans won the presidency and congress in 2000 and started a spending spree unprecedented in modern times.  President Bush and the republicans added over 4 Trillion to the national debt and now we have republicans who are concerned about giving our children more debt. George Bush never used his veto pen once from 2000- 2006 when republicans were in control of the house and senate.  They added a prescription drug plan that was to cost $400 billion over 10 years became $600 billion over 10 years or $2.4 trillion over 40 years and they never paid for it.  Not only that, but the number of earmarks exploded under President Bush and the republican congress, 2000- 2006.  In 1999 there were less than 3,000 earmarks but it exploded to almost 14,000 in 2005 under President Bush and the republicans.  Please go to Senator DeMint's web site for a nice chart on earmarks.  At the state level we had spend it all Tommy, $600 million for a stadium we didn’t need passed in the middle of the night. Then just before he left office a $5 billion pension bill passed in three days with not actuarial study done that we will be paying for decades to come.

Now when we have the worst yearly job loss since world war two, we have a huge number of foreclosures, and 401ks being hammered, the republicans are trying to portray themselves as fiscal conservatives.  If they were like Senator DeMint from South Carolina, I could believe it but they’re not.  We need a stimulus package and I’m sure it won’t be perfect but we need to try it.  When I see many governors from both parties asking for a package, it says a lot.  Remember Obama has only been in office for not even a month and President Bush pretty much got his way for the 1^st six years of his administration.  We have lost a lot of credibility around the world due to this financial crisis and the war in Iraq.  It’s time to move in a different direction. Thanks.

       Having visited Salt Lake City, Utah again recently, other than being a very conservative state it is interesting  that mass transit is very alive and well in Salt Lake City.  They actually have light rail that runs the valley and the buses feed off of the rail.  It’s fast, clean, runs often, is convenient and is well used.  I’ve listened to Scott Walker talk about how he would like to have another lane on I-94 from Milwaukee to Chicago but is against talking about mass transit options.  When I’ve been on that stretch of I-94 traffic has never been backed up much less slowed down.  If any section of I-94 needs an additional lane, it’s between Milwaukee and Madison.  There are many more backups on that stretch than the other one.  For someone who is so against any type of tax increase, how does he think we will fund such a huge road project.  He doesn’t seem to want to even discuss the issue of light rail or mass transit.  We need to get a discussion going of how some type of system could be implemented, with the costs, and pros and cons of each option whether he wants to be involved or not.  Every major city needs a good mass transit system.  We need to also talk about the long term cost of all of the road building in our state.  The long term maintenance costs are always overlooked when people talk about roads.  I feel we should building very few new miles of roads but spending significant money on maintaining what we have.  We should also consider whether tolls are an option for funding some of our road construction costs.  Thank you.
 

           It’s time for Wisconsin to enact a statewide smoke-free restaurant law.  After visiting Utah again recently and enjoying smoke free dinners it’s amazing we are still haven’t even come close to getting it passed in Wisconsin.  There are approximately 20% of the adults who still smoke yet are allowed to affect the health of the rest of us with their smoke.  I hope that the legislature finally gets going on implementing a smoking ban so that we can enjoy our restaurant dinners smoke free.  Do the 20% of people who smoke have rights?  You bet, but so do the 80% who don’t.  People will continue to go to restaurants after it is enacted.  In fact, many would probably consider going out more.  Thank you.