Hot Coffee Talk

By Jason P Favrod

The Saturday afternoon "Coffee Talk," with Mazie Hirono in Haleiwa Town brought together a surprisingly small group of citizens from Oahu's portion of the state's 2nd congressional district. In attendance were about 15 - 20 residents who came from as far west as Kapolei, and from the other side of the island, myself from Hauula. Among the group were members of the North Shore neighborhood board, real estate agents, Olelo (the community media service) was there, and a couple of native Hawaiians and Kamehameha school grads. Predominately people were there to voice their concerns and listen to what the congresswoman had to say about them.

The meeting began with Mrs. Hirono telling a brief summery of her life story. A sort of an, "I'm one of you, so I know what it's like" speeches. While it had the possibility of being a touching tale, it was quite irrelevant considering the concerns of the assembly. But of course, with this clear ploy to establish a superficial connection with voters, this talk story session was clearly early campaigning for the congresswoman's bid for the soon to be vacant U.S. Senate seat of Daniel Akaka. In her story she made appeals that, "we are all in the same boat," and "I want to be the voice of the people of Hawaii." Yet I question these statements.

The congresswoman is a millionaire. I don't know many millionaires. Most of the people I work with are happy to pay their bills and provide for themselves and their families. Saving is something most people want to do, but is out of reach, leaving many struggling from paycheck to pay check. Hirono's net worth is estimated between $1.3 and $3.3 million, and we provide her with $174,000 per year to preform her congressional duties, in addition to over an $44,000 pension she secured working for the state of Hawaii. She is eligible for health insurance coverage by the The Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) Program, and retirement benefits the from Federal Employees' Retirement System (FERS). She is certainly not in my boat.

As for her claimed desire to be a true representative of the the people, "The voice of the people of Hawaii," I questioned the congresswoman on this. "You say you want to be the voice of the people, but you almost always vote with your party." My intent was more to point out the hypocrisy of her statement (Hirono votes with the Democratic part 95% of the time, much the remaining votes she misses or abstains from), and to show attendees that Hirono is another career politician who does what is best for herself. Her rebuttal was that she believes that the democratic party does represent the voice of Hawaii. I challenged her to consult with the people before she votes, because I surmise that the people of Hawaii are much more dynamic than a single minded political party.

As the meeting progressed this diversity in view point became apparent. The first issue addresses was the economy, and more specifically getting people help with mortgages. Hirono's response, create more jobs. A question came from the crowd, "how, how is the government going to create jobs?" I felt this was a valid question. The woman who asked, reasoned the only way the government could create jobs was by hiring people, which she - as I'm sure would many other Americans - felt that was not a healthy course of action. The representatives rebuttal was she would have the government invest in the country, for example infrastructure repairs and improvements, also she stated she would like to see business and government work together to create an environment that encourages economic growth.

While that sounds good, but where would the money come from for such investments. This issue was left unaddressed, but of course, the only way the US government can afford this spending is by borrowing. According to the presidents budget for fiscal year 2012 (October 2011–September 2012), the income from taxes will be approx 2.6 trillion dollars. Once we pay for Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, there is not much revenue left to work with. USDA Food and Nutrition Program (SNAP/Food Stamps) take a big chunk too. With one in eight Americans (one in four children) dependent on the program for their nourishment, and 48 percent of Americans considered to be "low income" or are living in poverty, it could be disastrous to cut the program. Add to this spending the mandatory allocations for the Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration and the interest payment on the recently, and always, increased national debt, and the country has exhausted its tax revenue, leaving a projected $1.1 trillion needed in order to satisfy the remainder of the nation's budget expenditures.

What Hirono failed to mention is that the government will borrow the $1.1 trillion just to keep the government running, adding to the already astronomical national debt which is currently stated to be $15 trillion. Add the interest to that figure and the total federal debt is over $18 trillion. The congresswoman didn't mention that increasing government spending by investing in infrastructure - which is old and failing - would drastically increase the debt. Every American citizen is responsible for that debt and will pay for it through taxation. Interest payments alone for fy 2012 is scheduled to be $474 billion which comes out to roughly $1,500 per citizen - including men, women, children, and new born babies. Do we see now what they mean when they say too big to fail?