I don’t think anyone will be unhappy when 2009 is over.  2009 was a year of high unemployment, insane government spending and a time when the average American has been robbed of many freedoms.  Unfortunately, not much economic improvement will occur during 2010, but one specific day in 2010 will pave the way for a bright and prosperous 2011 and beyond.  That day, the most important day of 2010, is election day!

On November 2, 2010 the American people will end the political careers of many members of the House of Representatives, along with several US Senators.  The message will be clear; the citizens of the United States are not going to relinquish their constitutional freedoms to the United Nations or Climate Scientists who conspire in Copenhagen.  The people of this nation haven’t bought into the idea that bigger government is the answer to our problems; quite the contrary.  Millions and millions of independent voters who mistakenly bought into “hope and change” the last time around are personally ASHAMED that they were so badly duped.  They’re going to get it right this time.

The election results in November 2010 will free America from the “crisis creators” in Washington that spend their weekends meeting in back rooms to run banks, automobile companies, and God knows what else.  Fears of excessive regulation, jumbled healthcare reform, and uncertain tax and energy policies will vanish, as Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid will be rendered powerless by the voters.

In the flash of one election, most of the economic uncertainty that has kept consumers and business owners on the sidelines will vanish.  After November 2, 2010, business owners and investors will again be free to channel their creative energies for job creation, business growth and prosperity.

Have as good of a 2010 as you can.  Blessings to you and your family.  But the reality of this new year is that you’ve got to rally your friends and neighbors to throw out the tyrants in November.  The socialist policies of the silly democratic congress and the Obama administration have to be abruptly ended and reversed in 2010.  That is JOB ONE for 2010, as we take our freedoms and our country back!  2011 will be a great year!

Don Salyards
Winona, Minnesota

Kings have ruled their countries and kingdoms for centuries.  We’ve forgotten most of their names.  A generation ago Elvis Presley, the King of Rock, passed away.  This year Michael Jackson, the King of Pop, died.   But there is only one King of Kings, and we remember him on Friday.  Merry Christmas to you and your family!  Those of you who count yourselves as Christians; as you open presents and have Christmas dinner, don’t forget to spend a few minutes remembering Jesus Christ.

Santa Claus didn’t bring us any good news from Congress this week.  The Grinches in the US Senate had a chance to save Americans a lot of money on prescription drugs, which would hve gone a long way to keep health care costs down.  This week Senator Byron Dorgan, a democrat from North Dakota, proposed a plan to allow American pharmacies and drug wholesalers to import federally approved drugs from Canada, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Japan.  Allowing competition would have substantially reduced the price of many drugs, and the price reductions would have occurred almost instantly.  It is estimated that the passage of the Dorgan plan would have saved American consumers over $80 billion in the next ten years.  The plan failed in the US Senate on Tuesday, December 15, 2009 by a vote of 51-48.  That’s right, 51 votes for and 48 votes against, but 60 votes were needed for passage under a “special rule”.

Even though Dorgan’s amendment had strong safeguards, allowing imports only of FDA-approved drugs from FDA-approved foreign plants, the US pharmaceutical industry argued that imported drugs are unsafe.  This “consumer safety” argument is a complete sham.  The Europeans know how to make safe drugs, as do the Canadians, the Australians, and the Indians, for that matter.  As long as the patent and property rights of manufacturers are honored, patients should be able to purchase generic drugs from anywhere in the world.

Let me give you one personal example of a drug price disparity.  A U.S. pharmacy once quoted me $136 for 8 quinine pills to prevent malaria prior to making a trip to India.  Knowing how unreasonable that price was, I went to Bombay and picked up the same 8 pills (foil sealed, from a US manufacturer with a plant in India) for 86 cents!  Not 86 cents per pill….86 cents for all 8 pills!  Let’s see, that’s a savings of $135.14 on a drug priced at $136 in my local pharmacy!  While the quinine example is extreme, there are tremendous cost savings for available to US consumers by allowing the import of drugs from abroad.

President Obama, who campaigned to support the import of less expensive drugs, has now backed off because he needs the support of the pharmaceutical industry to get his watered-down health care reform accomplished.  If a health care “reform” bill does pass the house and senate, we can be sure it won’t contain any tort reform or gouge the pharmaceutical companies, the insurance companies, or the Physicians Union (otherwise known as the American Medical Association).  A brick layer knows that buying drugs more cheaply will reduce costs.  Too bad they don’t teach common sense in the law schools that prepare most of our politicians.

Last week I blogged about a young lady that dropped out of Pagosa Spings high school seventeen years ago, only to be “rescued” by her business teacher, Doug Bowen.  On Friday morning Jessica Curry graduated from Winona State University.  She was accompanied by her daughter, her mother, her fiancée and his two children.  It was a joyous occasion.  There was a lot of publicity generated around Jessica’s story, with articles appearing in the Winona Daily News and The Pagosa Daily Post.  The Pagosa Springs Sun will soon publish an article about Doug Bowen, who has a long history of helping young people.

Stories like Jessica’s happen frequently, but the news media doesn’t pay much attention to them.  There are Doug Bowen’s all over the world, thank goodness.  One of them is a tall, muscular man named Kenneth Wise, the 42 year-old son of two Chicago public school teachers.  Kenneth owns and runs an apartment building on Chicago’s south side.  While Kenneth is not a school teacher like Doug Bowen, he has taken a special interest in the well-being of the kids in his tough neighborhood, trying to keep them out of gangs and out of trouble.

This morning Kenneth is in critical condition in a Chicago hospital.  His eleven-year-old son, Ashton, was shot in the head and killed Friday evening when someone approached their parked car and opened fire.  Authorities believe that the shooting was a case of mistaken identity.  “You have a young boy and his father, no affiliation with gangs whatsoever,” said a Chicago Police Superintendent.

Fortunately, Ken Wise will survive is injuries, but his soul will never completely heal.  There is a better solution for poor kids in lousy urban neighborhoods.  It is high time that Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Mayor Daley and other past and present “community organizers” stop parading in street rallies decrying gangs and “gun crimes.”  It is time that these elitist “activists” do what they know they should have done a long time ago; establish an educational voucher system.  It is time to say NO to the members of Chicago’s teacher’s union, who put their own children in private schools while drawing nice salaries in poor-performing public schools.  With the competition that educational vouchers would provide, we’ll get more Doug Bowen’s in the classrooms and more Ken Wise’s on the streets.  While a responsive, cost-efficient, accountable K-12 education system isn’t the entire answer to crime, gangs, and violence, it is a large piece of the puzzle.

Once in a while I run smack dab into a story that I just can’t seem to shake from my mind.  At Winona State University we finished our fall 2009 classes last Friday.  In our last labor economics class of the semester we were briefly discussing the effect that a solid role model can have on young people who come from a tough background.  After class one of my students, now in her mid-thirties, shared her experience with me.

Seventeen years ago she was a high school senior in Pagosa Springs, Colorado.  Pagosa Springs was the fourth high-school she had attended.  She was living on her own, working part time in a Laundromat and sleeping on couches in the homes of friends.  She finally found a small place to rent for a few months, but her part-time job left her continually short of cash.  Unable to come up with the $300 rent she needed, she finally decided to drop out of high school and take a dead end job.

Within a week after she dropped out, she got a knock at her door.  It was one of her teachers at the high school.  He asked her why she hadn’t been to school.  She told him of her financial difficulties.  He gave her $300 to make the rent.  She came back to school.  Today she remembers how he kept an eye on her, tutoring her and making sure that she kept on task to graduate from high school.

My student, who will realize her dream and receive her college degree next week, remembered the “crappy old rusty car” that her teacher drove.  “They weren’t paying him anything” she said.  “That $300 must have been a huge sacrifice for him.”  Then she said, “I never really understood why he helped me.”  I told her that there could be only one reason.  He cared for her.  He didn’t want to see her fall between the cracks.  He was a man who sacrificed for his students simply because it was the right thing to do; he needed no other reason.

I just received an email from my student.  She got on the internet and tracked down that high school business teacher who knocked on her door 17 years ago.  His name is Doug Bowen.  He still lives and works in Pagosa Springs, Colorado.  He is the Director of the Archuleta County Alternative High School.  Doug’s still there, still at it, still helping the kids who most need a leg up.

I hope you read this blog, Doug.  When the students graduate from Winona State University next week, I’ll have the pleasure of witnessing the final lap of a journey that wouldn’t have taken place if you hadn’t been there for her.  Know that you really made a difference.  Know that she is enthusiastic, caring, and a good mother to her daughter.  Know that the return on investment from your $300 has never been equaled in the world of finance or economics.  Thanks, Doug.