By: Jeffrey Klein, Political Buzz Examiner
Examiner.com

While watching President Obama’s lengthy State of the Union address last night, rich in irony and “Gumby-like” stretching of facts, I was struck by one of his statements near the end, whose “direction” gave me an insight as to the mechanics of his “concept of reality.”

Periphrastically, his statement was, “…Once you business people find out how you can bring more [offshored] jobs back to America, you let me know–[then] the government will do everything in its power to help you accomplish it.”

A classic case of the ‘cart before the horse,’…absolutely backwards–like defying gravity.

This is probably what caused the same gut feeling that Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) was trying to communicate yesterday, when asked about his professional relationship with Barack Obama, wherein he replied … “It’s as though we come from two different planets and speak two different languages…I feel like I’m dealing with someone who has never negotiated anything in his life.”

Although the odds are long, as I operate under the handicap of not having spent my professional life in academia or politics, but rather the private sector, I will take a stab at explaining how someone, who was elected President of the United States, could view fundamental relationships–totally backwards, with confidence.

It lies in a person having no knowledge or experience other than that of the government operating structure, which results in “backwards” thinking.

First, there is no marketing or sales department where they work–therefore, the risk that “sales” will not bring in enough cash during their pay period is a “foreign concept”–only at Treasury are their people who are concerned about cash flow, but, even then they have “unlimited” borrowing power, with the “full faith and credit of the U.S.A.” backing them up.

Second, the “First” item is driven from the fact that the services provided by the government are “paid for” by statutorily mandated taxes and fees, whose amounts are bureaucratically established, and “confiscated” from it citizens, whether they use them or not.

Third, the “Second” item is driven from the fact that there is no competition, because the government is the only monopoly allowed by law in the U.S.–because, by definition, everyone knows that competition leads to better goods and services, delivered at the lowest price.

Fourth, the “Third” item results in a government wide lack of integrity for having top-to-bottom, horizontal and vertical performance measurement, to maximize benefits at the minimum cost, with people held accountable to implement and manage them.

Fifth, the “Fourth” item is caused by the fact that the upper management of the country is populated by elected officials, a majority of which are lawyers, who for the most part are not trained and experienced in running any classic business organization at an enterprise level.

Moreover, decisions are not made autocratically, but yet democratically, according to all of the member’s political leanings and needs, because they are political creatures whose primary motivation has been “reelection,” they become experts.

Further, there is no “bonus” for coming in under budget–because elected lawmakers have nothing to lose, and even gain more power and prestige, the larger their part of the government grows, without having any real “skin” in the game.

Finally, the “Fifth” item exists because instead of having “shareholders,” who have evaluated risk and bought “stock” with their own money, to receive a single vote for each share–here, each and every eligible citizen is “given” the right to vote for these legislators, even though 47 percent do not pay any federal income tax, with 48 percent who actually receive monetary benefits from the government, funded by the other half of the people and corporations who do pay taxes.

Just like the lack of “fairness” associated with the famous [original] Tea Party slogan, upon which our country was founded … “No taxation without representation,” the situation where half of the population receives benefits funded by the other half, yet retain an absolutely equal voting right, is the core of the problem.

This view of reality strikes me as being smart as a “hunter” holding his rife “backwards” and staring into the barrel–expecting the bounty to come directly through it to him.

Imagine how it would work out for the hunter–after he sighted his pray?

That’s the Barack Obama method, and why he has been such a cataclysmic failure.

Copyright (c) 2012 by Jeffrey Klein