Tag: Federal Spending

We Are In Debt Now!–Part Deux

The thing to remember is that politicians seldom do as they say…..I have been harping on this point for years and few listen…..it is always about the election never the action with these political types……the last election was all about the size of government and the federal spending frenzy that the Dems are accused of having started…..all that is a steaming pile of chicken crap (to use a term uttered by the GOP statesman, John  Boehner)….

Come on people…politicians have always been liars and thieves…look at the hero of the small government Right, Thomas Jefferson….he had written much about the limited size of government and the ails it would beget if it got too big….but yet once he was elected president…he over saw an increase in the size of the government with the Louisiana Purchase which was to be governed by an extensive system of military governors and their administrations……yes it did increase the size of the country, but it also increased the size of government and government spending…..so if the lies have been uttered since the early 1800’s what makes you think that they will be truthful 200 years later?

There are those amongst us that do not feel that the deficit is the huge problem that the Right wants it to be……read what James Galbraith has to say about the deficit….

The starting point of the deficit contrarians’ argument is that the deficit was caused not by over-spending and under-taxation, as the current debate would have it, but by the collapse in tax revenues that resulted from the 2008 financial crisis and the subsequent economic slump.

In prepared testimony before the presidential debt commission this summer, James Galbraith, a professor at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas, argued that this means the only way to reduce the deficit is to reduce unemployment, not to cut spending or raise taxes. Galbraith (pictured above) argued that the only way to reduce unemployment without adding to the deficit through more government spending is to get banks lending again, by fixing the root problems in the financial sector that caused the financial crisis in the first place.

Galbraith — a former director of Congress’s Joint Economic Committee, and the son of the renowned liberal economist John Kenneth Galbraith — went on to address the idea that cutting Social Security benefits can help close the deficit. That’s been a mainstay of the debate, and it’s a notion that the commission’s co-chairs appear to subscribe to, judging from their recent proposal, which recommends significant cuts to the program. But Social Security, Galbraith noted, isn’t  a spending program at all. It simply transfers wealth from today’s taxpayers to low-income elderly people in the future. “One can favor or oppose [cutting benefits] on its own merits as social policy,” Galbraith said. “But one cannot argue that it would save real resources that are otherwise being ‘consumed’ by the government sector.”

Next, Galbraith took on the argument that deficits will produce higher long-term interest rates, making it prohibitively expensive for the government to borrow in the future.  That’s not true, he countered, because the government doesn’t spend in the same way that private individuals or companies do. “So long as U.S. banks are required to accept U.S. government checks — which is to say so long as the Republic exists — then the government can and does spend without borrowing, if it chooses to do so,” he declared.

All in all, Galbraith said, the current mania for deficit reduction is disastrously misplaced. “The right economic objectives are to meet real problems, not those conjured from thin air by economists,” he concluded. “Bringing about a rapid end to unemployment, caring properly for an aging population, cleaning up the Gulf of Mexico, coping with our energy insecurity and with climate change are all far more important objectives than reducing a projection of future budget deficits.”

This is all smoke and mirrors….and remember nothing being said about future deficits is written in stone….they are ALL projections….they are NOT gospel…and to try and sell them as such is just another trick of the political parasites…..

About the only thing that these people are serious about is to make the Middle Class pay for the crimes and misjudgments of the upper class….and you still do NOT believe there is a class war?  (tune in tomorrow for the post on that very subject)

Wassup With The Deficit?

The Deficit?   Yes we need to keep talking on this issue….it is too important to ignore and revert back to watching Dancing With The Stars……

The Deficit?  You know that monetary problem that every politician has an opinion about?  It is too high….or it is going to effect your children (and if you think your children are of any concern to politicians, then you are dumber than I originally thought)……or that it will subdue any and all economic prosperity…..on and on…and the song stays the same…..need to do something but NOBODY has a workable plan…..

Let us take a bit of time and look at the deficit through glasses that let us see into reality…..First of all Political wire has a very good piece on the deficit……

President Obama and many lawmakers say they will work to cut the federal deficit, but a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News survey underscores the challenges they may face in taking specific steps that could help reduce the red ink.

Key findings: 57% said they were uncomfortable with gradually raising the Social Security retirement age to 69 over the next 60 years, 70% were uncomfortable with making cuts to Medicare, Social Security and defense in order to reduce the deficit, 60% said they were uncomfortable with increasing tax revenue through measures such as raising the gasoline tax, limiting tax deductions on many home mortgages and altering corporate taxation.

Said pollster Peter Hart: “Everybody wants to cut the deficit and cut the spending. But at the end of the day, everybody wants a choice that doesn’t affect their well-being.”

But as I have said …not everyone sees the deficit in the same light…..Yahoo news blog, The Lookout has a pretty good look at the deficit….

Ever since concerns over the deficit took center-stage in Washington earlier this year, several prominent economists — all progressives — have been pushing back, claiming not simply that proposed spending cuts are too deep, or that the rich should be asked to sacrifice more. Rather, they’ve challenged the entire premise of the debate: that a budget shortfall caused by over-spending and under-taxation stands to put an undue burden on future generations, and that cuts to government programs, including Social Security, can help fix the problem. That view, they say, is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of what’s driving the deficit and how government spending works. In fact, they argue, as one recently put it, that “the current deficit is a positive.

“The starting point of the deficit contrarians’ argument is that the deficit was caused not by over-spending and under-taxation, as the current debate would have it, but by the collapse in tax revenues that resulted from the 2008 financial crisis and the subsequent economic slump.

I guess I would be a deficit contrarian….I do not see where tweaking SS or earmarks or any of the proposals flying around Washington will do anything to make it better……things will get better when business returns to making things and selling things…..buying up other companies is not going to help the deficit….the stockholders maybe…but that has little to do with the deficit…..now does it?

From Rep. Ryan: Cancel Remaining “Stimulus” Funds

Inkwell Institute

Federal Budget Deficit Reduction:

Paper #2

In continuing with the series on fighting the Federal deficit according to the office of Wisconsin’s Rep. Paul Ryan….next this all seems to be the same song different Congress from the GOP……This installment is entitled:

Cancel Remaining “Stimulus” Funds

The cancellation of the program would save $273 billion over 10 years.  The savings would be directed to the reduction of the Federal budget.

I will agree with Rep. Ryan, which I seldom do, that the stimulus money should be rescinded from its current proposals…I do disagree with Ryan in that it should be used to stimulate demand….instead of the programs it is trying to fund now…

With demand created…jobs will be created….production will increase…..and revenue will be increased……I know how to create demand?  One way could be refunds to people who make less than the official poverty level….they will spend any extra income they have …..this is not perfect but it will create a demand and could kick start a sluggish jobs market and create a bit of a recovery from below……the recovery from above that Ryan and his cohorts helped to create has done NOTHING to improve the lives of the American people…all it has done is save some massive corporations from taking a dirt nap.

I may agree with Ryan, at least somewhat, but the stim money would be spent on infrastructure and if it is canceled then the states will have to make up the cash shortfall and the way these self-indulgent people are acting….the only way to make it up is by slashing all funds for services.  Ryan’s idea sounds pretty good but in the long run may help bankrupt more states than California.

Taxes Owed?

Daily Agitator

I recently heard a Repub Senator, Judd Gregg, mention that we should collect all the taxes that are owed to help solve part of the deficit problem…..now I had to have a good chuckle at this….

First, there are lawyers waiting in line to see that YOU do NOT pay all your taxes…just watch the tube….you will see at least 4 different firms that are clamoring for your business…..second, what a crock of crap!  Do you think that any wealthy person or corporation is going to pay their fair share of the taxes?  If you do think you need to return to the ICU for a Thorazine shot…..

Here is an idea!  The GOP is pushing for tort reform as part of any health reform…as a matter of fact it is in their top 5 reasons we need reform…then why not go the next step and demand tax reform?  Why not make it damn near impossible to NOT pay your taxes?  And that includes our lovely batch of Reps in Washington, who always have a better idea but somehow never involves them…..

A couple good ideas….but…..we will NOT see these anytime soon…..why?…..corporate cash for politicians program….so they only things you will see as a way to help the deficit is entitlements…….seniors will be forced to work until they are 80…..Medicare will be made harder to get……and social security will be attacked to the point that they try to eliminate it in favor of some lame ass savings account…..there are the answers they have to the deficit…..and you elected these guys…..how is that working out for you?

Politicians keep saying that they have to make “hard choices”….laughable at best….why?  They make the decisions that are most politically advantageous for them there are no “hard choices” to be made…only actions that NEVER help the people …..actions that will help in winning their next election.

Can you feel the love?

“Shared Sacrifices”?

Daily Agitator

Federal Deficit Series

I have had about enough of the bullsh*t!  As we all know the deficit is choking our nation to death….and the Dems and Repubs will meet in some half-assed way to find an answer to solving the problem….you can bet your butt that it will mean the people will pay through the nose, while Washington continues its runaway spending….

Well Obama has a plan:

The National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility held its inaugural hearing on Tuesday, launching the process through which the Obama administration plans to introduce drastic attacks on social spending and living standards to make the working class pay for the crisis of American capitalism.

The commission, consisting of 10 Democrats and 8 Republicans, is charged with discussing ways of slashing trillions of dollars from future federal budget deficits and making recommendations to the White House and Congress six months from now.

Now we have yet another commission to find answers to the problem of an ever expanding deficit……the bi-partisan commission will look at ALL avenues for savings, at least that is what they would have us believe but the real truth lies in what they do not say…..

Obama sounded the theme of “equal sacrifice” in his own remarks to the commission, in which he blamed the crisis, in the final analysis, on the American people, citing “the reality familiar to every single American—it’s a lot easier to spend a dollar than to save one. That’s what, at root, led to these exploding deficits. And that is what will lead to a day of reckoning.”  (thanx to wsws.org for the excerpts)

“Everything on the table” is another Washington code phrase, meaning that cuts in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, the major entitlement programs, will be among the measures to be considered and proposed.

That basically means ….YOU will pay for the bailout of the country….YOU will be asked to sacrifice while your do-nothing reps sit on their butts and collect their salaries…..

Hoyer was compelled to admit in his Wall Street Journal column that the rapid increase in the US national debt is the product of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (launched by Bush and continued by Obama), the bailout of Wall Street (begun by Bush and continued by Obama), and the ongoing recession (which began under Bush and continues under Obama). In other words, corporate America, not the working people, is responsible for this crisis.

That aside……YOU will still pay the bill……with taxes and loss of benefits……..It will be “shared sacrifices” but it will be shared by the working people of the country while the game remains the same in Washington…..keep supporting wars of intervention, keep supporting corporate communism, keep quiet and watch YOUR family go hungry……I hope you can live with yourself……

The President Cannot Win

First, the GOP was all over Obama for his stim plan, calling it a tax and spend proposal.  They also were all over his budget, which by the way was not totally his, saying that we , as a country, were bankrupting our children’s future.

The GOP had little to no effect on the national conversation and now they will bitch about the budget cuts that the president has told his cabinet they must come up with in 90 days.

Sorry to my conservative friends, but you guys need to get your stuff together….pick a position and stick with it…the American people are listening less and less to whatever it is you guys are trying to say.

The first one I heard after the announcement of the cuts was one Glen Beck of FOX News.

One hundred million dollars is a joke — a joke that gets even less funny when you consider that we’re spending more than $100 million every 2 hours in interest on our debt alone!

It’s also reportedly going to take President Obama’s Cabinet 90 days to make these deep, painful cuts — something that would take you and I about 10 seconds to do. Cutting programs that even the government admits aren’t working like: $83 million for educating migrant workers; $169 million for “air quality grants” or $900 million dollars on Amtrak.

Beck said on his FOX News show and he was talking about the order that the Pres. gave to his cabinet members to cut their budgets wherever they could.

Framed by members of his Cabinet, the president himself acknowledged that the goal amounts to a drop in the bucket. “It is, and that’s what I just said,” he told reporters. “None of these things alone are going to make a difference. But cumulatively they make an extraordinary difference because they start setting a tone. And so what we are going to do is, line by line, page by page, $100 million there, $100 million here, pretty soon, even in Washington, it adds up to real money.”

Is it just me or is the Right looking ever more pathetic and rudderless?  I think the American people are more and more finding the conservatives just comical and less effective…it is a dying party and the members are doing little to save it.  JUst once maybe they should have a “real” plan before they go about their mindless attacks and then their “NOs” might have some validity.

Yet Another Republican Moron Speaks

Is it possible that the US could be down to only 49 states soon?

Gov. Rick Perry of Texas while speaking at one of those Tea party thingys said:


“I believe that our federal government has become oppressive in its size, its intrusion into the lives of our citizens, and its interference with the affairs of our state,” Gov. Perry said. “That is why I am here today to express my unwavering support for efforts all across our country to reaffirm the states’ rights affirmed by the Tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. I believe that returning to the letter and spirit of the U.S. Constitution and its essential 10th Amendment will free our state from undue regulations, and ultimately strengthen our Union.”

And then he went on:

“Texas is a unique place. When we came into the union in 1845, one of the issues was that we would be able to leave if we decided to do that,” Perry said. “My hope is that America and Washington in particular pays attention. We’ve got a great union. There’s absolutely no reason to dissolve it. But if Washington continues to thumb their nose at the American people, who knows what may come of that.”

I thought about his Texican bravado and came up with this:

If they want to leave the Union then let them go….I say bye bye…..let the sanctimonious a/holes fend for themselves with border issues, hurricanes, just to mention a few and we will see just how fast they come crying back wanting help with their situations.  By the time thew drug gangs get finished with them they will be part of Mexico again….go ahead dipsticks, leave!

But Social Security Will Be Bankrupt

Have you heard this piece of manure coming from the conservatives?  Especially when they talk about the ways to save the program, namely privatization.  Let us look at a little truth here:

Social Security will officially be bankrupt in 2042. By 2017 a majority of the “baby boomers” will be receiving social security benefits and due to the population and labor force growth slowing down the Social Security Administration will be paying out more than they are receiving in through taxes and other means. Currently there is a 16-member commission to strengthen social security.

Then, the above by no means something is bankrupt. It simply means that the amount of money coming in will be less than that going out. This happens all the time in many businesses in many different economies and industries. Over collections in current, or future years, or years past 2042, can make up for this, as well as many other things (like other government support, program changes, a war or such lowering the number of beneficiaries, etc., etc., etc.).

The trust fund now has about $1.7 trillion and is expected to hit a peak of about $3.7 trillion in 2020; it should have enough money to handle Social Security obligations until at least 2042, according to the Social Security trustees, or even 2052, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Some economists even think the money might hold out indefinitely.

It would even be highly questionable IF a part of the US (or any government using the full force and faith of it’s powers – which include printing the money in the money supply), could go bankrupt and not pay it’s bills.

Just the facts……and the program would be able to pay 3/4 benefits through 2082.  Gee, you think that the decline in tax revenues has anything to do with the situation?

The problem is that as the government has been taking in wads of cash from the Social Security trustees who buy its bonds, it has turned right around and spent the money as part of the federal budget.  There is the REAL problem..your government has been LOOTING the fund….so stop blaming the Boomers for retiring!

Is there anyone stupid enough to think that if you eliminate revenue that you can continue to fund needed programs?  So why do the Repubs continue to push privatization?  It is a matter of ideology, not economics. It falls within the conservative fervor for free markets. It’s what the Bush-ites labeled to  “build an ownership society.”

And if they had gotten their way, there would be a lot more people homeless and broke because of the economic situation and their lame ass ideology.

So You Want To Cut The Budget?

To begin with eliminate redundancy!

Sounds like a pretty good idea to me…but instead of cutting entitlements why not do something amazing and logical?  What is the budget for the DEA?  I believe I saw somewhere that in was $2 billion + for 2008.

Back in 1972, famed economist Milton Friedman said:

I believe that we have no right to […] prevent a fellow man from […] taking drugs [but] I readily grant that the ethical issue is difficult and that men of goodwill may well disagree. Fortunately, we need not resolve the ethical issue to agree on policy. Prohibition is an attempted cure that makes matters worse-for both the addict and the rest of us. Hence, even if you regard present policy toward drugs as ethically justified, considerations of expediency make that policy most unwise.

Friedman also wrote:

Legalizing drugs might increase the number of addicts, but it is not clear that it would. Forbidden fruit is attractive, particularly to the young. More important, many drug addicts are deliberately made by pushers, who give likely prospects their first few doses free. It pays the pusher to do so because, once hooked, the addict is a captive customer. If drugs were legally available, any possible profit from such inhumane activity would disappear, since the addict could buy from the cheapest source.Whatever happens to the number of addicts, the individual addict would clearly be far better off if drugs were legal. Today, drugs are box incredibly expensive and highly uncertain in quality. Addicts are driven to associate with criminals to get the drugs, become criminals themselves to finance the habit, and risk constant danger of death and disease.

I realize that the very idea of legalization of drugs will send shivers up some people’s spine, but let us look at reality for a moment.  The most recent problem…Mexico and the drug cartels….if these drugs were legal there would be no fighting and killing ovcer territories and markets.   Violence there would be at a minimum.  Local farmers would be making a decent living.

There is a real duplication of missions between ATF, FBI, DEA, INS, ICE and about twenty other acronyms.  Funds are being wasted in this duplication….funds would be freed up for other programs that are seriously lacking at this time.

The truth that most Americans do not want to face is that if a person wants to fry their brains, then they will do it whether the stuff is legal or not.  After 20 or 30 years of a “War On Drugs” just what has it accomplished?  The wasting of billion upon billions of dollars and the end is NO where in sight.

Here is novel idea……eliminate the DEA…legalize all drugs…..and viola you have created a NEW source of income for the government…not only do you save the DEA funds, but you get new funds.  The government has NO problem letting people kill themselves with booze……then what is the difference?

Only an idiot or a thief would keep flushing money down a clogged toilet.

The Repubs New Budget

It was unveiled on 1 April, that should tell the reader all they need to know about the document.  The lead talker was Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin and he summarized the Obama budget as:

“Rather than getting spending under control, it sends spending out of control. Rather than keeping taxes low to create jobs, it chases ever higher spending with ever higher taxes and results in ever higher debt; not just a modest increase in our national debt, but an unprecedented, unsustainable increase in red ink,” he said. “The president’s budget is little more than a thinly veiled attempt by Washington to spend its way into prosperity, tax its way into tax relief, and borrow its way into debt reduction. This simply cannot work.”

A lot of words that could have been boiled down to their talking points of…..”spends too much, taxes too much and borrows too much.”  This alternative budget is NOTHING new!  Tax cuts….spending freezes….yada..yada….etc…..  I would like to ask, what took them so long to come up with the same mantras that they have been dragging around for decades?

The GOP is NOT helping…they are hindering any recovery we may have in the short run .  They know they do NOT have the votes to do anything they want so their basic plan is to just say…NO!

Now there is a plan that small minded conservs can get behind…you know people like Glen Beck and other such wannabes……We need concrete plans that will help this economy and in the long run bring the middle class back from the abyss…nothing the Repubs have done or said offers that help.