October 13, 2015
Tuesday AM

If a business voluntarily de-funds itself by giving away all of its products for free or for much less than their cost, no one is going to be surprised when the business crashes, nor is anyone likely to have sympathy for the bonehead who did this to himself. Certainly no one is obligated to re-fund him because he was stupid enough to de-fund himself. So why should anyone in the private sector be expected to re-fund the government when that government decides of its own volition to de-fund itself?

That is precisely what the state government did in the spring of 2014 when it force-fed via millions of dollars in oil company propaganda funds, augmented by state funding and support, a public vote on a tax ‘giveaway’ program benefitting the oil companies to the extent they do not pay a dime in tax until the price of oil is $113 a barrel. This was all done because a bunch of corrupt Anchorage pigs were trying to buy off the oil companies to start off-shore drilling, and this was their dirty deal to get that done. There is no off-shore drilling; that project in its entirety has been canceled.

Back in ancient times, before the era of governance and the incredibly corrupt and stupid reign of the evil dwarf, the Alaska state government paid for itself via oil taxes. Then they sold all you on the notion that the oil companies paying no tax at all was a good idea. Cloaked in partisan politics, you bit into the poison pill and here you are. You allowed a bunch of oil company propaganda to sell you the notion that their paying no taxes at all was somehow going to benefit you. Now you have a state government that will expend all its reserve accounts in about two years; they want you somehow to make up the difference; and unless you all pull your heads out commencing in about two years you will all be witness to the beginning of an out-migration of 20% to 60% of the Alaska population.

The folks on our Ketchikan Borough Assembly actually have the gall to sell their own constituency down the river (without permission I might add) by calling for significant allocations from everybody’s Permanent Fund Dividend to pay for this vast cesspool of corruption and incompetence. The Permanent Fund Dividend program was conceived in the first place to keep at least some of the oil tax money out of the grubby, filthy hands of the politicians. They are, of course, already there contemplating how to cut up that $55 billion piece of pie. It is more important to the political class to cover their own worthless asses, to make sure their paychecks remain fat, to make sure their retirement accounts get fatter, to make sure their medical insurance programs are the very best available, rather than any degree of competence whatsoever.

Restore the old oil tax formulas now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Most of the state’s deficit problems will be resolved as quickly.

(At a later date, but perhaps soon, you all should start asking yourselves the question that has been stuck in your face several times over the past year, the big, big question…………………….! Why is the Norwegian version of the Permanent Fund $1 TRILLION, but the Alaska version only $55 BILLION on essentially equivalent production over equivalent time with Alaska oil being produced for about half the price of Norwegian oil? Our state politicians have sold out the future of Alaska and future generations of Alaskans to the tune of more than $1 trillion.)

So to the fluffheads on the Borough Assembly, you guys screwed up, and/or the guys above you screwed up, and now you don’t have any money. Do not ask us for money because you totally screwed the pooch. Fix the screw-up.

Somehow all of you operate on the premise that going back to ancient times, i.e. before the spring of 2014, is just completely off the table. The oil companies own all of you, so bleat in their direction.

You damned pigs leave the Permanent Fund Dividend alone. Isn’t that really what many of you intended to accomplish, the dismantling of the state government by de-funding it. That government which governs least governs the best, right? So if you don’t have any money, you can’t govern at all. Isn’t that what a lot of you really thought you wanted? The consequences of stupidity are rather high. When all those government workers get laid off, they won’t have any money to buy anything from the private sector. Too bad. That’s what you wanted.

Don’t try to wheedle out of the dirty deal you created yourselves by trying to wheedle another dirty deal.

You failed miserably to competently use the money you were given, so why should you be given more? You voluntarily shut off your primary sources of revenue without any apparent forethought whatsoever, so why should you expect new sources of revenue to just magically appear? All of the sources of revenue you propose to tap will only cover 10% to 15% of the financial hole you morons have created, so seriously, go to hell, and on the way see if you can find that source of revenue you so lackadaisically forfeited. Do not even think about impoverishing others to compensate for your own failures, your own incompetence, and your own impoverishment.

Leave the Permanent Fund Dividend alone; leave the Permanent Fund alone; but you can’t really, can you?

All the money you take by whatever means from the people will not cover this self-created financial debacle. All any of that will accomplish is moving forward the date of the “Great Alaska Economic Crash” by weakening or impoverishing the private sector which at that juncture will be dealing with the fundamental reality of diminished sales because of diminished population.

You just add fuel to the fire and accelerate the conflagration you have already created. Very dumb.

David G. Hanger
Ketchikan, Alaska

Received October 10, 2015 - Published October 13, 2015

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