Maggie's Farm

Some of those opposed to Arizona’s new illegal immigrant enforcement law, which by the way is consistent with federal law that those not citizens must carry proof of legal entry, want the MLB All-Star Game to be moved from Phoenix.

Commissioner of major league baseball, Bud Selig, is in a difficult position.  As is Arizona’s population, about 30% of MLB players are Hispanic.

If any player wants to express an opinion, that’s their right.  If Selig wants to express an opinion, however, that is his right but not his job.

Any player from another country who wants to play in another country should try that, but otherwise is bound to play where they are told.  Bud Selig, as well, should find another job if he is not up to avoiding the politicization of baseball.

Even this sports analyst, opposed to Arizona’s law, says:

Selig’s job, as the commissioner of baseball, is to help protect his players. When a player signs with an organization, he has a legitimate reason to be in this country. That doesn’t take away the reality that he may be forced to carry proof in his pocket.

I’m afraid Selig’s only potential response to that is, “Sorry, fellas, it’s the world we live in.”

And, this is the United States of America, with legitimate borders and laws.  If Selig wants to open the gates at all baseball games to unrestricted free entry, that would do more for the sport.

Bud Selig’s phone number is (212) 931-7800.

Relaxation

And other stretches to limber up for a busy day:

The June issue of Chief Executive magazine confirms that while my residence in California has wonderful climate and well-educated people, otherwise I live in a state ranked by 651 chief executives across the country as the worst state to do business.

How is it that the nation’s most populous state at 37 million, one that is the world’s eighth-largest economy and the country’s richest and most diverse agricultural producer, a state that had the fastest growth rate in the 1950s and 1960s during the tenures of Democratic Governor Pat Brown and Republican Governors Earl Warren and Ronald Reagan, should become the Venezuela of North America?

Californians pay among the highest income and sales taxes in the nation, the former exceeding 10 percent in the top brackets. Unemployment statewide is over 12.2 percent, higher than the national average. State politics seems consumed with how to divide a shrinking pie rather than how to expand it. Against national trend, union density is climbing from 16.1 percent of workers in 1998 to 17.8 percent in 2002. Organized labor has more political influence in California than in most other states. In addition, unfunded pension and health care liabilities for state workers top $500 billion and the annual pension contribution has climbed from $320 million to $7.3 billion in less than a decade. When state employees reach critical mass, they tend to become a permanent lobby for continual growth in government.

No surprise, the other states at the bottom of the barrel for governments deemed unfriendly to business: New York, Michigan, New Jersey, Massachusetts.  The states whose business friendliness has declined most in the past five years: Illinois, Ohio, Minnesota, Wisconsin, New Jersey. The states most friendly toward business: Texas, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Nevada.

With 2010 census reassignment of Congressional seats coming up, there are consequences:

Little wonder then that while Texas gained over 848,000 net new residents in the last 10 years, according to the Census  Bureau, California lost 1.5 million. New York State’s net loss exceeded 1.6 million - the highest of any state. High-tax, big- government New Jersey ranked fourth, with a net loss of almost 460,000, enough to drop it from 10th to 11th place in population.

Good.

But not so good for taxpayers in the states unfriendly to business.

The political elites in the states that dismiss out-migration trends overlook the radical demographic adjustment underway. As higher-income earners leave, they are more often replaced by those with lower incomes and lower skills, many needing public assistance. Gone too are the entrepreneurs and risk-takers, off seeking regions where their job creating abilities are rewarded.

Another more daunting reality is in store. The so-called de-leveraging of America hasn’t reached government. U.S. cities and states have issued over $2 trillion in new debt since 2008, with another $1 trillion scheduled this year. The problem is that state revenues in real terms may not reach 2008 levels until late in 2012, according to John Thomasian of the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices. As he emphasizes in his paper, “The Big Reset: State Government  after the Great Recession,” states will have to rethink and redesign government in terms of what is essential and what can be made more efficient if their citizens are to have much of a future.

Investors Business Daily adds:

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, astute and able as he is in tempering the more extreme elements within the Obama administration, may still be enabling while trying to  slow the rot in our hull.

Yesterday, Gates, as the Wall Street Journal reports, “Shoots Across Navy’s Bow” in a budget speech. Gates, also, aimed fire at the Marine Corps amphibious assault vehicles. 

Gates points are well made: both our Navy and Marine Corps must rely less upon traditional large ships and subs, and landing craft, respectively, to meet the capabilities and challenges from missiles and killer subs. Gates points out that the US Navy has more sea and air assets than the rest of the world combined, but is somewhat vulnerable to dangers from swarming speedboats, for example. The Navy and Marine Corps should, instead, gear more toward agility and effectiveness in countering and overwhelming the threats from or within smaller nations.

Gates is correct.

However, the premise is, while realistic, shortsighted.  The premise is that in a time of tight budgets, our defense cannot afford the same, not to mention larger, levels of defense spending, especially when current and proposed arms are so expensive.

US defense spending, in sum or by comparison to the rest of the world, is larger than all others combined.  Yet, it is also at the lowest point as a portion of GDP, excluding 1999-2000, since the end of the Cold War.

Meanwhile, it is other federal expenditures, mostly of the welfare and entitlement varieties, that has exploded.

Meanwhile, other nations, like Britain, cut their defense spending, while others, like China, greatly increase theirs.

There is obviously high need for other nations allied with the US, or of complementary interests, to increase their spending and coordination, and to stop free-riding upon the US.  Still, there is no other nation than the US with reach and will to keep the sea lanes open and nations in the lee of expansionist powers, like China and Iran, from being swept aboard their crafts.  And, other nations are more likely to follow the US lead in whether they increase or decrease their own contributions to global defense objectives.

Gates is on target that a failure to reform and modernize US arms priorities may result in future defeats as well as waste.