Some Open Questions for the Parties & Candidates, Birthers: Ignorant or Just Dumb?

I spend a lot of time on this site looking at the statistics, numbers, forecasts and projections that show how our election cycle is shaping up. I thought I'd take a break from that today to put the election and its issues in context. The questions below are largely not being addressed by either party, but they are critical questions if we are going to confront the real challenges that our country faces. Take note when you vote this November as to if and how the candidates answer these questions:

(1) Presently, federal taxes run at about 15% of GDP. Spending this year on the military, social security, medicare and unemployment benefits will total about 21% of GDP. Do you favor dramatic tax increases or dramatic spending cuts in one of those categories to balance the budget? What specifically?

(2) Presently, almost half of Americans pay no federal income tax. Do you think that is a good thing or a bad thing? What, if anything, would you change?

(3) Starting in 2015, Social Security will permanently pay out more in benefits than it takes in in taxes. The majority of current Social Security recipients will receive far more in benefits than they ever paid in in taxes. What combination of tax increases, benefit reductions and changes in retirement age do you favor to make social security solvent again?

(4) We presently spend about 4.5% of our GDP on the military. China spends 2%. The rest of the developed world spends under 3%. Our GDP is the largest in the world. Do you think our current level of defense expenditure is appropriate?

(5) Unemployment for those without a college degree is currently running over triple that of the rate of college graduates. In our inner cities, less than half of students graduate High School, yet alone attend College. What would you do to address this issue?

(6) In the United States, we currently pay almost three times the amount the rest of the developed world does, on average, for the exact same prescription drugs. Are you okay with this? If not, what would you do about it?

Are your candidates answering these clearly? Don't you think they owe it to us to provide clear answers to these tough questions to earn our vote?

A Third of Our Country Is Stupid or Ignorant
Americans love our conspiracy theories, whether they are from the left or from the right. For over a generation, theories have abounded surrounding the Kennedy assassination. The far fringe of the left was obsessed after September 11th with theories about the governments participation. Conspiracy theories from the right abounded after the awful killings in Waco and Ruby Ridge.

Conspiracy theories are not always wrong. The Watergate scandal, the Iran-Contra affair and many others demonstrate that sometimes conspiracy theorists have the facts on their side. I have no problem with people who have doubts in their government or those who ask the scary or sometimes crazy questions.

But to have any legitimacy, a conspiracy theory has to have at least some factual plausibility. When it does not, it is merely a crazy ranting from wing nuts of one political persuasion or another.

Which brings us to the so called "Birther" movement, those who do not believe that President Barack Obama is truly a native-born US citizen and is therefore not a legitimate President. Questions about the President's citizenship status first emerged doing the 2008 campaign and persist to this day. A recent survey showed that 35% of Americans have doubt about Obama's citizenship legitimacy. Those 35% are either ignorant or stupid.

Let's examine the facts and ask the question about what you would have to believe to buy into the Birther theory.

(1) On August 13th, 1961 in the Honululu Advertiser and on August 14th, 1961 in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, a birth announcement ran stating that "Mr. and Mrs. Barack H. Obama, 6085 Kalanianaole Highway, son, August 4th". Copies of both papers are readily available on microfiche.

In order to be a birther, you must believe either:
a. That Obama's parents, knowing that a mixed race child born in 1961 would someday run for President, deliberately inserted a false announcement in Honolulu's two major papers in the two weeks after his birth (by the way, both papers state that received birth announcements from the Department of Health, not the parents).
or
b. That the Obama campaign was so powerful that it managed to falsify microfiche copies of the old papers in every library in the country without anyone noticing.

(2) In 2008, Dr. Chiyome Funiko, director of the Department of Health stated "I, along with the registrar of Vital Statics, have personally seen and verified that the Hawaii State Department of Health has Sen. Obama's original birth certificate on record in accordance with state policies and procedures." Republican Governor Linda Lingle confirmed that the record existed and had been handled properly.

In order to be a birther, you must believe that:
a. The director of the Hawaii Department of Health, the registrar of vital statics and a Republican Governor who campaigned heavily for Senator John McCain all conspired to provide a false birth record for then-candidate Obama.

(3) The "native born" clause of the constitution doesn't necessarily require that an individual be born in the United States anyway. Here is a little known fact...Senator John McCain was born in a military hospital in Panama. He was deemed eligible for the Presidency by several lower court rulings, as he was born to American citizens and was legally a citizen from birth. There is no dispute that Barack Obama's mother was an American citizen.

To be a birther, you must believe that:
a. Not only was the President born outside the United States, but that he was somehow ineligible for citizenship at birth. To date no theory has ever been offered as to why this would be the case.

So, let's summarize. To be a birther you must believe that the Barack Obama's parents conspired with the Department of Health in 1961 to falsely insert birth announcements, knowing in 1961 that their mixed-race child would someday run for President, in order to commit fraud to claim that he was born in the US, a fact that probably wouldn't have been relevant to his capability to run for President anyway. 47 years later, a Republican Governor conspired with the two state departments in Hawaii to further this fraud. Finally, you must believe that the President was somehow ineligible for citizenship if he was born abroad, a theory substantiated by no facts.

Is there anybody out there who things the 35% know something I don't? Let me know. For now, I'll just keep calling them idiots.