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President Biden gave his first speech from the Oval Office on June 2nd in which he celebrated the debt deal as “we averted an economic crisis and an economic collapse as nothing would have been more catastrophic than defaulting on the country’s debt.” Sadly, this was all misinformation.
Holy Scripture says, “There is a time to be silent and a time to speak” (Ecclesiastes 3:7). Now is the time to speak!!
Following Biden’s Inauguration, the headline was “The Biden Team Wants to Transform the Economy.” Two years later a recent Wall Street Journal survey said the Biden Administration’s economic policies are driving the country into a recession in 2023 as their central planners have engineered an inflation surge by distorting supply and demand. Translation: rather than adopting policies to juice supply, the Administration juiced demand with stimulus payments—then realizing their mistake, rushed to kill demand (aka the economy) by increasing interest rates—while still ignoring supply. Larry Summers, head of the Council of Economic Advisors under President Obama, called this the least responsible economic policy in 40 years.
Biden submitted his 10-year budget in March which proposes to add $17 trillion more debt (to a total of $48.6 trillion) by running an average annual deficit of $1.7 trillion. However, the Committee for Responsible Federal Budgets has shown this year’s deficit is on track at $2.1 trillion, which is 8.1% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The historical deficit average is 2.5% of GDP; in 2019 before Covid it was 5.1%. At this rate our National Debt will be $53 trillion by 2033, and this doesn’t even include the $70 trillion of unfunded liabilities for social security/Medicare that the government doesn’t record on our books (more misinformation).
We have a spending problem as nominal spending for this year has increased 11% to $6.6 trillion. Yet the media and our political leaders hail the debt deal as the solution to our problems. This is total insanity—how does borrowing more money solve our debt problems? We are spending ourselves into bankruptcy, and our foreign creditors know it as the “De-Dollarization” of the global economy is now happening at a stunning pace.
By 2033 Social Security and Medicare will be bankrupt, the U.S. will have lost is Global Reserve Currency status, stagflation will be ingrained into the economy, and someone will have to start repaying the debt. It won’t be the poor and the illegal immigrants as they will continue to receive their handouts in return for 51% of the votes. It won’t be the rich and their cronies in Washington who will use inflation to their advantage. That leaves only the Middle Class whose wages will not keep up with inflation.

Steve Gardes is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and Certified Valuation Analyst (CVA) with over 40 years of public accounting experience.

My family and I are currently on an extended vacation to Paris and Provence in central France. Relations with our country never have seemed better. Our welcome was quite warm everywhere we traveled. President Biden has developed a close and warm relationship with current French President Emmanuel Macron. And that’s good news for Louisiana.
It wasn’t too long ago when relations between the two countries were a bit frosty. I recollect back at the congressional cafeteria in the nation’s capitol when they changed the menu from French fries to freedom fries. That really showed them! And for the record, I don’t remember reading of any politician advocating the abolishment of French kissing!
I also remember a 1995 episode of The Simpsons, where Willie the groundskeeper is directed to become a French teacher at the local elementary school. “The French?” he hollers, “They’re nothin’ but a bunch of cheese-eating surrender monkeys.”
But that was then. Although we’ve had conflicts and disagreements with the French, if you take a history lesson in Franco-American relations, you will see that when it’s crunch time, we can generally count on them. France has come out strongly in support of America’s tenuous situation in the Middle East, and the U.S. seems eager to let bygones be bygones.
Without the support of the French, America could well have lost the Revolutionary War. Founding Father Thomas Jefferson contemplated joint democratic values while serving as US Ambassador to France living in Paris. Many regard Alexis de Tocqueville’s “Democracy in America” as the best book written on the unique and exceptional American new form of government, that was later adopted by the French.
Many of us were close to speaking French as our native language. Napoleon’s agreement with Thomas Jefferson and Robert Livingston allowed for the creation of 15 new states, doubling the size of the United States. To give thanks to the French dictator, my home state of Louisiana agreed to hide him at what is now called The Napoleon House in the center of the New Orleans French Quarter. Unfortunately, before he could get to the Crescent City, he was captured, sentenced to exile, and ultimately died on the Isle of St. Helena in the Atlantic Ocean.
There is a little Yankee bad taste from Napoleon’s involvement in the Civil War. France was avowed to be neutral, but it was common knowledge that Napoleon III was pulling for the South. Oh well!
And don’t come down here in South Louisiana and make any derogatory comments about France. Thanks to die hard Frenchmen, who immigrated first to Canada, and then migrated down the Mississippi as Acadians, the French tradition, language, culture and joie de vie is alive and well, and growing throughout Cajun country. In Abbeville, a small community just south of Lafayette, many of the signs outside retail stores are written in French. Several radio stations play only Cajun music with a daily rendition of the Cajun national anthem Jolie Blond, often played by my old friend, fiddler Doug Kershaw.
In choosing a destination for this summer, we picked Paris along with Provence and a ramble through southern France for the food, the ambience, the architecture, the Shakespeare Bookstore, and a walk along the Seine. And the pretty girls!! Ah, to be 22 again back in 1963, when I spent months in Paris experiencing the special ambiance that is rarely found elsewhere. If you want to relive that Franco jolie vie, take a friend or loved one to see Woody Allen’s “Midnight in Paris.”
Certainly the French have their own national interests at heart. But they have also made it clear that what America says matters. Over time, there are historical allies and there are strong allies. Right now, France and the U.S. can claim to have both in one another — a solid past, and a present relationship that would seem to be in the best interest of both countries.
We in Louisiana are certainly glad of it. So pass the French bread. And for breakfast tomorrow, let’s have French toast and French roast coffee with French chicory, Louisiana style. And please, don’t shy away from an occasional French kiss.

Peace and Justice
Jim Brown

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the nation and on websites worldwide. You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at http://www.jimbrownusa.com. You can also listen to his regular podcast at www.datelinelouisiana.com.

Tommy Byler will continue to be the superintendent of Vermilion Parish public schools for another four years.
The Vermilion Parish School Board approved a four-year contract, and Byler signed it on Friday.
Byler has been the superintendent for the last three years. His first contract was a three-year deal that paid him $141,000 yearly.
His new contract gives him a 2.5 percent pay raise. In other words, he will now be paid $145,300 a year or a $3,525 pay increase.
Byler also receives $750 monthly to cover vehicle maintenance, gas, cell phone costs, and residential internet instead of receiving a district-owned vehicle or cell phone. The $750 a month is part of his $145,300 yearly salary.
Byler must maintain minimum automobile liability coverage of $250,000/$500,000 with the school board listed as an insured party, a new requirement for the board.
His pay will rank him No. 10 out of 11 superintendent’s in Acadiana.
Statewide, it will rank him No. 43 out of 67 school districts, despite Vermilion being the 19th largest district in the state.
The highest-paid superintendent in the parish is the East Baton Rouge Parish superintendent, who makes $290,000 a year.
Acadia Parish Superintendent earns $172,000 a year.
St. Landry’s superintendent earns $154,000 a year.
Evangeline Parish’s superintendent makes $129,500 a year.

DELCAMBRE — Skyrocketing insurance premiums are not only hitting Louisiana homeowners hard but also local governments hard.
Delcambre’s elected town representatives struggled with that new reality at Monday’s meeting of the town Board of Aldermen, who sought a way to cut back on the money they’re paying to insure town-owned structures.
Mayor Pam Blakely said at Monday’s meeting that she thought the insurance rates would double from the previous year, only to be shocked when the lowest coverage they could find was three times as much as in 2022, going from around $30,000 to about $90,000.
“This is crazy,” Blakely said. “We can’t pay this.”
John Caro of Brown and Brown Insurance said Delcambre is not alone in facing much higher insurance costs. Other municipalities and parishes he finds coverage for are facing similar, or even greater, difficulties, he said.
“Last year, when we took over your general liability insurance and property and all that, we probably saved the city about 10-15 thousand dollars.
“Property insurance in the entire state of Louisiana right now is ridiculous. This year we renewed our general liability insurance, and our general liability insurance stayed flat. Our property insurance is where we saw the biggest rate increase.”
Caro said he had told Blakely that he expected the rate to double, based on what he saw with other municipalities he provides coverage for in Louisiana. His specialty for his 30 years in the insurance business is municipal governments and school boards, from Natchitoches to Lake Charles and around the state.
“What I can tell you is, right now, in Louisiana, outside of New Orleans, Vermilion and Cameron parishes are next to impossible to get property insurance in right now,” he said. “Calcasieu is a close third.”
It’s been a huge challenge finding insurance companies willing to write property policies in South Louisiana, he said.
Kaplan, Abbeville, and Gueydan are in the same boat, Caro said.
“Vermilion Parish is getting slaughtered,” he said of the increased insurance costs.
Alderman Tipper Esponge asked Caro if he had seen rates tripling everywhere. Caro said was going to speak with the Winn Parish School Board, the city of Winnfield and the village of Hodge, and each of their rates tripled. The St. Martin Parish government’s rate rose at an even higher clip, from $250,000 to $810,000.
Since 2020, Louisiana has been hit with 10 named storms, he said, each of which generated over $1 billion in lawsuits, totaling about $50 billion. In the entire United States, outside of Louisiana, there’s been $55 billion in lawsuits in that same three-year period.”
Caro said he went to 18 insurance carriers looking for quotes for the town, and the $90,000 quote was the best rate. Blakely said that some of the buildings being covered, like an old public works barn that will be torn down, are covered for values well above what it would cost to replace them.
“I understand what you can replace it with, but what it’s built out of right now is what you’re insuring, and that’s what the insurance companies require you to insure it for,” he said. “The insurance companies require you, based on the square footage and what your building’s made out of, they require you to insure it for so many dollars a square foot. Otherwise they won’t insure you at all.”
All the offers for quotes were for more than $100,000, and all wanted the town to increase the values of what buildings are covered for by at least twice what was insured last year, Caro said.
The carrier offering coverage for $90,000 are not requiring those values to increase, he said.
With that increased insurance premiums staring them in the face, the board looked for ways to reduce the costs, settling on dropping some items from coverage, like the town’s emergency building, located behind City Hall, which is built to survive a Category 5 hurricane, and the water tower, which the town’s general liability insurance would cover if it were to fall.
“We’ve got to do something,” Blakely said. “We can’t pay $90,000. We couldn’t afford $30,000.”
Caro was asked if there were any legal implications for the town if it is underinsured. Some towns don’t even have general liability coverage.
“It’s what you can afford,” he said. “Like I tell every buyer, if you can’t afford it and you want to drop it, by all means, do what’s right for the city. Do what you think is right for the city. Otherwise, you’re going to start dipping into your rainy day funds, and with the way property (insurance) is going in Louisiana, it’s going to start going up every year, and every year you’re going to be dipping into your rainy day fund. Eventually, your rainy day fund is going to be gone.”
So the board went through which properties to drop from coverage to reduce the premiums. Esponge estimated the town saved between $30,000 and $40,000 after the changes.