Tag: Federal Spending

But We Have A Spending Bill

Yes we do! The prez has signed it into law.  It is a 6000 page piece of toilet paper…..yes our government will be funded until September of 2015….that is good news, right?  Yes but what will it cost the country and its people for all this bi-partisanship?

I am so glad you asked!

The NT Times spent some time to pull out the BS that we are suppose to be thankful for…….since the bill was a 6000 page yawn they saved my a bunch of time….thank you….thank you……

DODD-FRANK Relaxes restrictions on big banks’ trading of certain risky financial instruments known as swaps. Restrictions were imposed by the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial law.

CAMPAIGN FINANCE Greatly increases federal limits on individual contributions to national political parties and their congressional campaign committees.

PENSIONS Allows trustees of certain multi-employer pension plans to cut retirees’ benefits, keeping the plans solvent without a government bailout.

E.P.A. Cuts funds for the Environmental Protection Agency; prohibits the agency from regulating the lead content of ammunition or fishing tackle.

HEALTH Provides $5.4 billion to fight Ebola in the United States and abroad. Leaves the Affordable Care Act largely intact; limits certain subsidy payments to health insurance companies.

Those are the parts that will do the most damage…..and it will pass……because Obama is in bed with the GOP……

Hey Big Spender

Last week the new spending bill was offered up….and it would fund the government through September 2015…..that means that we would not have all the theatrics over this spending for at least 10 months….or that the hint of a government shut down would be just a thought………good news, right?

The bill is huge, as all bills are, and I bet that few of us will take the time to see what is in the bill……instead we will listen to those that make a living being a liar…..the media.

In the MSM reporting they were pushing the bi-partisanship or the fact that it is a lengthy bill, something we have not had in a coon’s age……..but I ask did you spend the time to see what is in the bill?  Of course you didn’t…….the Cosby scandal is far more important or the Taylor swift has made another cover…….

I try to be helpful so here is the main issues in the bill…..as reported by the AP……….

SPENDING

?Overall spending. $1.013 trillion for core agency budgets for day-to-day operations, with $521 billion for defense and $492 billion for non-defense. That represents about one-third of the federal budget and is essentially a freeze at current levels. Another $64 billion is provided for overseas military operations.

?Defense. Provides a base budget of $490 billion to the Pentagon, a $3.3 billion increase. Maintaining 1.3 million active-duty troops and 820,800 reserves would cost $128 billion. Another $162 billion is provided for operations and maintenance; procurement of new weapons systems, including 38 new F-35 fighters, totals $92 billion.

?Overseas military operations. Provides $73.7 billion for overseas military operations and diplomatic efforts by the State Department to combat terrorism, including $3.4 billion to continue the air campaign against Islamic State militants and $1.6 billion to train the Iraqi military. Provides $4.1 billion to train and equip Afghanistan’s military.

?Homeland Security. Keeps the Department of Homeland Security funded at current levels through Feb. 27. Its budget will be revisited next year when Republicans are hoping to roll back President Barack Obama’s recent moves on immigration.

?Ebola. Provides $5.4 billion of President Barack Obama’s $6.2 billion request to fight Ebola at home and abroad; $2.5 billion of the total would help African countries fight the disease, while $2.7 billion would go to the Department of Health and Human Services, including $1.2 billion for Center for Disease Control and Prevention efforts to stop Ebola in West Africa and strengthen public health systems in at-risk countries.

?Foreign aid. Provides $49 billion for foreign aid programs, an almost $3 billion increase. Some $6 billion would help fight HIV/AIDS overseas, while $7.2 billion would be for economic and development programs. Israel would receive $3.1 billion in military aid; Egypt would receive $1.3 billion in military aid and $150 million in economic assistance. The Millenium Challenge Corporation, which directs aid to countries demonstrating economic and social progress, would receive $900 million.

?Environmental Protection Agency. Cuts the EPA budget by $60 million to $8.1 billion, or 21 percent below peak levels in 2010.

?Internal Revenue Service. Cuts the IRS by $346 million to $10.9 billion. Blocks the agency from targeting tea party organizations and other advocacy groups seeking tax-exempt status based on their ideology.

?Transportation. Provides $71 billion for transportation programs, including $40 billion in highway funding for states. Aid to Amtrak would be maintained at $1.4 billion.

?Housing. Provides $26 billion for Section 8 and other public housing programs for the poor. Add $10 billion for other housing programs, including help for the elderly and disabled.

?Crime-fighting. Provides $8.4 billion for the FBI, a slight increase; $2.4 billion for the Drug Enforcement Administration; $1.2 billion for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms; and $2.3 billion for various grants to state and local law enforcement.

?NASA. The space program would receive $18 billion, a $364 million increase. Of that, $4.4 billion is provided for the new Orion space-launch system, which last week had its first test launch.

?Food Aid. Provides $82 billion for food stamps as required by law; allots another $6.6 billion for a program that provides food aid to pregnant and nursing mothers and their young children. Another $21 billion goes to mandatory funding for the school lunch program and child nutrition programs.

?Capitol Dome. Provides $21 million to continue a project restoring the iconic cast-iron Capitol Dome, which is beset by crack and leaks.

POLICY ‘RIDERS’:

?Likely to be amended to include legislation aimed at shoring up underfunded multiemployer pension plans, including a controversial provision that permits them to cut the benefits of current and future retirees to shore up severely distressed plans.

?Eases regulations under the 2010 Dodd-Frank overhaul of financial regulations that require banks to set up separately capitalized affiliates ? ineligible for federal benefits such as deposit insurance ? to deal in more exotic and riskier forms of complex financial instruments called swaps. Regulators could still “push-out” risky swaps based on asset-backed securities.

?Blocks new Transportation Department regulations that require truckers to get two nights of sleep before re-starting the clock on their workweek. One effect of the rule was to shorten the maximum length a trucker’s workweek from 82 hours to 70 hours.

?Relaxes rules slated to go into effect in 2017 that require more whole grains in school foods. Put off rules to lower sodium in school meals that were supposed to go into effect in 2017.

? Prohibits the use of federal or local funds from implementing a referendum legalizing recreational marijuana use in Washington, D.C

?Blocks the Fish and Wildlife Service from placing the Sage Grouse on the Endangered Species list, which Republicans claim will have economic benefits for Western states.

?Blocks the Justice Department from raiding medical marijuana dispensaries in states where they are permitted.

? Prohibits the use of funds for a “National Roadside Survey” by the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration.

? Bars funding for renovation of the United Nations Headquarters in New York, a new London embassy and debt relief for foreign countries.

? Withholds money from the UN population fund, dollar for dollar, if it operates a program in China.

? Prohibits the transfer or release of detainees held at the prison at Guantanamo, also bans construction of facilities to hold detainees within the U.S.

? Prohibits funding for the administration “light bulb standard,” which prevents the manufacture or sale of incandescent bulbs.

? Bars funding for the White House to order the IRS to determine the tax-exempt status of an organization.

? Prohibits the use of funds for painting portraits.

? Prohibits the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating lead in ammunition or fishing tackle.

The AP did an excellent job in this summary………

The MSM will focus on the provision that emphasizes their ideology…….this may be the only place that will give you ALL the major provisions for you to make a rational decision on this bill……Hopefully it will be of some small degree of help………

Please read it over and let me know what parts YOU think are important and what parts are a waste of time and even which of the provisions is a typical DC waste of time……

I will give you my thoughts on the parts that I find offensive in the next post…….

Turn The Page!

Money Well Spent (Yet Again And Again)

Yep!  More disgusting waste of the American taxpayer dollar……most Americans have their programs that they want to see cut for whatever misguided reason….but most never think about the waste of money through our so called foreign aid…..

The US and its allies are winding down their mission in Afghanistan and there will be a continuation (of course there will be) of massive foreign aid to help the country come to grips with situations on its own…….

In a piece written by Jason Ditz for Antiwar.com…………

A new Senate Foreign Relations Committee report lays out their “roadmap” for continuing to pour billions of dollars in aid into Afghanistan annually

The plan, which Senate Dems say was timed for release after President Karzai’s term in office ended and the troop deal extended, and will keep the $5-$8 billion average outflow of US “aid” into Afghanistan more or less intact.

With the vast majority of that aid being flat out squandered on things Afghans didn’t need or want, the committee’s plan seeks to make the future aid “condition-based” with some vague sustainability requirements.

Details of all the conditions are not yet clear, but indications are that they will mostly been centered on the administration signing off on the Afghan government dubious human rights record, something they’ve been only too willing to do in the past, and will undoubtedly do in the future to keep the gravy train flowing.

I understand the “need” to help Afghanistan….but my bigger question is how many American defense contractors will be feeding at the teat?

I mean we gave the country a TV station for live sports coverage without an audience……we are scrapping equipment worth billions for 60 cents a ton……just who will benefit the most from the foreign aid….Afghanistan or the Military-Industrial Complex?

If you have the answers then by all means…share with the rest of us.

Always Money Well Spent

There is a constant supply of news on just how badly the US spends its cash……there was the story of all those Nazis that are still drawing Social Security…..and then we had the story of many many government employees that were paid to stay at home for years in some cases…..and there is always a story about a $160 hammer and a $200 toilet seat…..but the Us spends money on programs that are designed to control oir stop some practices….like the opium production in Afghanistan……..

The latest report on the policy of controlling the production of poppies is not all that great…….

Opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan is at record levels, according to a new report from the Office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction. That’s despite more than a decade of American efforts to knock out the Afghan drug trade—at a cost of roughly $7.6 billion.

SIGAR’s data, which comes from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), shows that Afghan opium cultivation nearly tripled between 1994 and 2013. More than 780 tons of heroin or morphine could be produced with the current crop, whose total value is estimated at nearly $3 billion, up from $2 billion in 2012.

In his report, John F. Sopko, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, informs Secretary of State John Kerry, Attorney General Eric Holder, and USAID administrator Rajiv Shah that the levels of opium poppy production don’t exactly square with all the time, money, and effort that have gone into eradicating crop. “The recent record-high level of poppy cultivation calls into question the long-term effectiveness and sustainability of [prior US government and coalition] efforts,” Sopko writes. “Given the severity of the opium problem and its potential to undermine U.S. objectives in Afghanistan, I strongly suggest that your departments consider the trends in opium cultivation and the effectiveness of past counternarcotics efforts when planning future initiatives.”

It is just amazing how our Congress has NO problem asking for cuts that would effect the poor but they seems to not care that more money is being pissed away in this worthless effort

Does anyone else think that our priorities should be making this country strong and a good place to live?  Somebody needs to walk into Congress and start shaking trees…..and shake hard enough to dislodge all the rotten fruit.

Thoughts?

 

Why don’t Americans realize the deficit is falling? – The Week

Of course the usual talking points will be in full bloom this year…after all in is an election year….and of course the opposition will keep harping on the deficit and how out of control it is and how if they are elected all will somehow to alright….

But did you know……of course you didn’t because it is not something that they want you to know…kinda craps on their BS……

Why don’t Americans realize the deficit is falling? – The Week.

But It’s Different

A killer tornado slashed through Moore, Oklahoma on 20 May…….if destroyed a lot of the same stuff that the tornado of 03 May 1999 trashed…….time for the country to step up and do that right thing for the victims….or should we play the same game that Congress played with the victims of Sandy?

If you recall the Repubs in Congress played a sickening game with the lives of people in New York and New Jersey……they held up disaster relief funds while playing politics……a thoroughly disgusting spectacle of partisan bullshit…….will that happen again?  Hell NO!  why?  It is different because it is the home state of the biggest douche in Congress, Inhofe…….the same person that demanded that the funds for Sandy be tied to some sort of crap legislation of partisan origins……

Inhofe railed against the relief funds……

Inhofe said the Sandy Relief bill “was supposed to be in New Jersey,” but “they were getting things … in the Virgin Islands, fixing roads there, and putting roofs on houses in Washington, D.C.” Both Inhofe and Coburn voted to slash aid to victims of Hurricane Sandy, with Inhofe saying he considered the full proposed aid amount to be a “slush fund.”

While Northeastern states like New Jersey and New York suffered some of the worst damage from Hurricane Sandy, the storm affected 24 U.S. states in total during October of 2012. Sandy carved a destructive path from the Caribbean Sea to the Great Lakes, where it produced 25-foot waves in Lake Huron.

The Atlantic walks us through more of the supposed “pork” in the bill that conservatives were complaining about:

  • $150 million for fisheries in Alaska damaged by the 2011 Japanese tsunami,which littered debris on Alaska’s shoreline
  • $41 million to repair military bases damaged by Hurricane Sandy (including ,controversially, Guantanamo Bay)
  • $13 billion for future flood preparations (that is, money that will not be spent on victims of Sandy but on preventing future, Sandy-scale disasters from occurring)

So those are all disaster relief, and disaster-related.  One, the Alaskan one, is for a past disaster that wasn’t addressed, and should have been.  So that’s not pork.  The National Review has more of the GOP argument against the bill, but to call any of what they write about “pork” is simply bs.

Inhofe has said the the tornado damage is totally different from the Sandy damage…….yes, it was…..Sandy effected blue states and the tornado effected people who vote in Oklahoma…..

I can respect Oklahoma’s Coburn who was against Sandy legislation and has said about the tornado damage….

Oklahoma’s other stingy Republican Senator, Tom Coburn, is also in a bit of a pickle over tornado relief.  Coburn has already said that any tornado relief bill must include cuts in the rest of the budget to pay for it, or he won’t support it.

Coburn may be stingy but at least he is NOT a screaming hypocrite like Inhofe……

This is all so typical of the hypocrites in Congress………those twats are a bad sitcom…..a joke around the world…..and it only gets worse year after year…….

I am waiting for my conserv readers to comment…….I want to hear the defense they will have for this douche…..I regret that I may be waiting and waiting……..it will most likely be a response written by Drudge or the like…..

Thoughts?

It’s A Bird…It’s A Plane…..It’s Super Committee!

It is the day after Labor Day and the Congress should be making their way back to work….or at least to Washington……and when they return it will be the super committee that will get most of the media attention……..and very little will be said about those donors that will be pulling strings……..

Each party named 6 people to work on the Super Committee that will be working on the spending cuts thingy that consumed Washington for 6 weeks prior to their abandoning their posts and going home to sleep with their donors…..but the big question is…..will this committee be successful at finding a partisan answer to all the crap about spending?  My guess is…….NO!

Let me explain my reasoning…….from an article in Raw Story…..

The bipartisan “super committee” created by the debt ceiling deal is comprised of lawmakers who have received big bucks from special interest groups, according to a report by MapLight.The committee is tasked with finding at least $1.2 trillion in deficit cuts over ten years.

In total, the twelve members appointed to the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction got nearly $64.5 million from special interests groups over the past decade, with legal firms donating about $31.5 million and Wall Street firms donating about $11.2 million.

Of that $11.2 million, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase donated approximately $2 million combined.

The members appointed to the committee are Sens. Pat Toomey (R-PA), Jon Kyl (R-AZ), Rob Portman (R-OH), Patty Murray (D-WA), John Kerry (D-MA), and Max Baucus (D-MT) and Reps. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX), Fred Upton (R-MI), Dave Camp (R-MI), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Xavier Becerra (D-CA), and Jim Clyburn (D-SC).

Read Full Article Here…

Remember that irritating term, “kicking the can down the road”?  Well, sports fans, this committee is that can on that road……This is always the answer in Washington….A Committee!  Nothing will be done because they can drag their feet and the trigger with no compromise will do what the conservs want done….so there is NO incentive for this attempt to succeed.  Just another Washington waste of time and resources!

While You Were Sleeping

The little dicks in Washington ruined my couple of days of Zen…..and the best they could do is the deal we have now……….

The Grand Deal has been done!  (Coming to Reality TV near you)…….

“Now, is this the deal I would have preferred? No,” Obama said. “But this compromise does make a serious down payment on the deficit reduction we need, and gives each party a strong incentive to get a balanced plan done before the end of the year.”

The still-unreleased legislation would slice more than $2 trillion from federal spending over a decade and permit the nation’s $14.3 trillion borrowing cap to rise by up to $2.4 trillion, enough to keep the government afloat through the 2012 elections — a key objective for Obama, whose poll numbers have sagged as the summertime crisis dragged on.

Both parties in Washington have joined hands and come up with a deal that will save America from itself……funny how that worked, huh?  And just in time for the Asian markets to open….go figure!  It took months upon months to come up with this deal……and the rest of the deal needs to be worked out……..and this is the best they could do…….they caved!

It sounds like a deal that was offered up back in April (I believe)……..basically it is the cut, cap and balance that I wrote about for the last couple of days…..and guess what?  They will have a committee to study what and where to cut in the future……(what a blowjob)………that is what they do….they have committees to study things and while they study the middle class disappears……and the super committee for the study has already been done!  It is called the Simpson-Bowles.  Why do we need another one?

What do you want me to say?  This whole deal making process is a fraud….that is right….I said FRAUD!

…..the debate surrounding the debt ceiling, spending cuts and the like is nothing more than smoke and mirrors.  There is no real debate going on as it is just staged theatre between two factions of a one party system.  There is zero difference between both the Republican and Democrat parties as for decades they have continued supporting this phony monetary system that has bankrupted the nation and made the American people debt slaves.  As a sovereign entity the United States Treasury could simply issue its own currency free from the burden of debt or interest payments and use that to pay off its debts.  Abraham Lincoln did this by financing the Civil War through the issuance of Greenbacks.  To reiterate, a sovereign entity does not need to borrow from the Federal Reserve or any other lending institution when it can issue its own currency.  The fact that not one politican or one media pundit has brought up this fact shows that nobody is interested in truly resolving this crisis and are only interested in continuing the status quo.

This was a manufactured crisis…..and it takes a sick mind to do so…..and slip it to the middle class….yet again!

Remember priorities have been protected!   And YOU are NOT one of those priorities!

Addendum:  On word of the deal stocks jumped and gold fell……see priorities protected!  That is what this charade was all about the whole time……happy now?

Debt Ceiling–It’s All A Game

From the VOMITORIUM

Let us be honest……Actually…..ALL politics is a game….a game of spin, of stats, of people……we just finished one game….that being the deadline game of the 2011 budget…..both sides pushed that issue to the limits and then miraculously a deal was struck…and then both sides could claim victory and the peasants back home….danced…..

That was round one and now we will move on to round two…..and that would be the raising of the debt limit….the spin machine has been working overtime and the media has been doing the tango with the politicians to keep it in the news (always look for what they are trying to suppress…it is called a misdirection)…..any way we will be bombarded continuously with this news story…..but go to the local town square and ask people what they think about the national debt….you will be surprised how many do not CARE….most want to see the economy grow and to find a descent job…..but the major story will be the catnip for the media…..the debate on whether to raise the debt ceiling or not……

I know that many of my conservs friends think that I am a bit too sarcastic or pessimistic….but if it is NOT a game then what the Hell would you call it?

From Politico……

Republicans are growing increasingly concerned about the impact a bruising fight over raising the nation’s $14.29 trillion debt ceiling could have on U.S. financial markets.House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has had conversations with top Wall Street executives, asking how close Congress could push to the debt limit deadline without sending interests rates soaring and causing stock prices to go lower, people familiar with the matter.

Republicans and even some fiscally conservative Democrats want to use the debt limit fight as leverage to wring more significant spending cuts out of the White House. Politicians of all stripes are worried about how independents will react to a vote — or multiple stop-gap votes — to raise the debt ceiling. Many executives on Wall Street believe Washington is playing an enormously dangerous game with what is typically a non-controversial vote.

A game is a game….and this debate on the Debt ceiling is a massive game and in the long run the Middle Class will get bit in the ass by the players…..keep playing this game…..holding the US credit rating hostage and you help create another economic meltdown……To the voter….you voted for these cowards….how is that working out for you?

Now The Jobs Will Come Rolling In

Flash!  The House of Representatives have taken a step to help the country create a massive amount of jobs……finally the House is doing what it is paid to do…..(In case you are confused….all that is sarcasm)

Posted on Newser website……

The House has voted to end federal funding to National Public Radio, though the chances of it getting through the Senate are slim. Republican supporters say it makes good fiscal sense, but Democratic opponents call it an ideological attack that would deprive local stations of access to programs such as Car Talk and All Things Considered. The bill, which passed 228-192 along mostly partisan lines, would bar federal funding of NPR and prohibit local public stations from using federal money to pay NPR dues and buy its programs. “It is time for American citizens to stop funding an organization that can stand on its own feet,” said Colorado Republican Doug Lamborn. He said it was not a question of content—which many conservatives say has a liberal slant—but whether taxpayer dollars should go to nonessential services. “As a country we no longer have this luxury.” Democrat Ed Markey countered that the bill would “snuff out stations from coast to coast, many in rural areas where the public radio station is the primary source of news and information.”

I know I am so much more confident about the economy and job creation with this action by our Reps in Washington….(once again…SARCASM!)

I know that I feel much more confident in the work of our Reps…..(yes…sarcasm)

Do these people not realize that this waste of time does nothing to improve their popularity rating….which is at 26%…..this whole spending cut thing and the whole Congress is nothing more than a huge joke….(and that is NOT sarcasm…..but rather a statement of fact)