Weekly Review
August 6, 2016

August 2:

An Unhappy USPS Birthday: As we close the books on another July with another Independence Day celebrated, I wanted to highlight another July birthday...the United States Postal Service’s (USPS).

Forty-six years ago, the U.S. Post Office Department became an agency independent of the federal government and has subsequently evolved into a $5 billion per year deficit-running agency.

Let me say that again...its yearly shortfall is five billion dollars! Read more.


August 3:

The House Votes on the TALENT Act: A few weeks ago, the House voted on H.R. 5658, the TALENT Act, which would make the Presidential Innovation Fellows program permanent. This program was created by President Obama to hire private sector employees on a temporary basis and place them in government agencies in the hopes that they would contribute to technological innovation. I was one of only 8 members of the House, all of whom were Republicans, to vote against the bill. It passed by a vote of 409 to 8. I voted against it because I have real concerns over the projects the program pursues, the program’s process, and the general ineffectiveness of government-run innovation programs. Let me explain.
 
                          


August 4:

Secret Cash Payments to Iran: People’s frustrations with Washington seem to be growing by the minute, and the latest news about the White House and Iran seems to only add fuel to the fire. According to an article in yestersay's Wall Street Journal, the Obama administration secretly sent $400 million in foreign currency in an unmarked cargo plane to Iran on the same January day that four American hostages were released in Tehran.

Are you kidding me?

There is a long-standing American policy not to reward terrorists or kidnappers with payments…and if this isn’t breaching that, I don’t know what does. While the release of four Americans is certainly something to celebrate, rewarding this behavior acts as an incentive to continue it. Indeed, two Iranian Americans have been arrested since January - not to mention several others from different countries...continue reading.


August 5:

Startup Day Across America: Did you know that last year, startups that were less than a year old created 1.7 million jobs? In fact, over the last 20 years, small businesses have been responsible for nearly 100% of net job growth in our country. Celebrating these numbers and the wealth and job creation behind them, yesterday was Startup Day Across America - which is simply a nationwide effort to generate support for startups and to raise awareness of entrepreneurial activity and job creation across the country.

I had the pleasure of stopping by two startups right here at home - Teamphoria and InfiniteTakes. Teamphoria is an employee engagement software, and InfiniteTakes developed Stre.am, which is a live video mobile streaming application. What these two companies and their teams are doing is part of what has made Charleston one of the top ten fastest growing cities for software and technology.

The role startups and small business in general play in our economy is key, and in that regard, 97.9% of US businesses have less than 20 employees. The exciting thing about tech startups today is that you never know what the future holds...it was just 5 years ago that Uber was an idea, and today they’re valued more than General Motors. Something certainly to think of when we think about tech and Charleston.

So, a simple thank you to the Teamphoria and InfiniteTakes teams for showing me around yesterday!

                 
                           Flying Drones with the Teamphoria and InfiniteTakes teams