Tag: Fiscal Spending

Does Manchin Play Ball?

For a couple of years Manchin has been a thorn in the Dems butt…..he works for big coal and seldom will vote for anything that will hurt his masters pocketbook……

But times change (interesting thought but not change at all)……Manchin is playing ball with Dems on a bill……an expansive bill that covers drug prices, tax loopholes, etc…..

Sen. Joe Manchin reached agreement with Senate Democratic leaders to support President Biden’s domestic spending plan, legislation addressing health care costs, climate change, and other priorities. The deal reverses Manchin’s position of two weeks ago, when he said he couldn’t commit to the bill before economic data is released next month, the New York Times reports. His statement Wednesday didn’t specify which provisions he backs and which he doesn’t, but it indicated general support for the climate and energy programs, as well as some tax proposals. Until now, Manchin has been the holdup on Democrats getting the president’s economic package through Congress.

Manchin had cited inflation as the main reason he was holding up the plan. Saying “Build Back Better is dead,” Manchin recast the legislation as the Inflation Reduction Act, contrasting it with last year’s spending plan. This bill will “cut the inflation taxes Americans are paying, lower the cost of health insurance and prescription drugs, and ensure our country invests in the energy security and climate change solutions we need to remain a global superpower,” he said. Manchin also agreed to measures to reduce health care costs, including allowing Medicare to negotiate the price of certain prescription drugs for seniors. Corporations and the very wealthiest would see tax loopholes closed, per the Hill.

Some Democrats feared the unpleasant intraparty fighting on the legislation, which has been going on for months, would damage their chances in the November midterm elections, per the Washington Post. Now that the West Virginia Democrat and Majority Leader Chuck Schumer have settled, Democrats could get the bill moving as early as next week. Biden added his endorsement of the agreement on the $670 billion package in a statement Wednesday. “This is the action the American people have been waiting for,” the president said.

Will Manchin stay true to his word?

Then there is the other Dem that is a thorn in the ass, Sinema……

Will she play ball or will she continue to be a stumbling block for progress?

Joe Manchin stunned DC Wednesday by announcing that he had reversed himself and would back Democrats’ sweeping spending plan after all. The surprise deal the West Virginia senator struck with Sen. Chuck Schumer has provided Democrats with their “best news” in weeks, notes Politico, because it means the party should be able to push through President Biden’s agenda on climate change and health care. “Should” is the operative word there, however. Because as Axios points out, it’s still unclear whether Arizona Sen. Krysten Sinema—who with Manchin has bucked her party on tax issues previously—will go along. Democrats cannot afford even one defection because all Republicans oppose the plan.

We do not have a comment, as she will need to review the text,” a Sinema spokesperson says. On Thursday, Manchin confirmed to CNN that she was not part of the deal he struck with Schumer. “I have not spoken to her about this. … I would hope that she would be receptive,” he said, per a tweet from CNN’s Manu Raju. The Wall Street Journal reports that Sinema did not attend a party caucus meeting on Thursday led by Schumer. One potential sticking point: Manchin agreed to close a tax loophole known as “carried interest,” which concerns how investments are taxed, but Sinema has long opposed such a move, per Hot Air. In general, she has resisted any moves that would result in higher taxes.

Assuming Democrats can get Sinema on board and pass the legislation, it would represent a “massive victory” for them, per Axios. At the New York Times, David Leonhardt writes that the resulting climate legislation in particular would “probably have more lasting importance than anything else President Biden signs in his first two years in office.” The Republican view on all this? The deal’s 15% corporate minimum tax and increased spending are “reckless” in the current economic climate, says Sen. John Barrasso, per Reuters. And Sen. Joni Ernst called for more production of domestic oil and natural gas as a way to lower gasoline prices, rather than adding new tax incentives for electric vehicles, as Biden’s climate plan does.

I have no confidence in the word of these two political stooges….they front for business and will only do what they are told.

How is your faith?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Is It Money Well Spent?

Let’s just step back and take a look at just what the War on Terror has cost this country.

The War on Terror has been a money pit since 9/11.

So just how much money has been spent in the years after 9/11 attacks?

A damn good question, right?

Well hang on to your jock strap……

In the 20 years since the September 11 attacks, the United States government has spent more than $21 trillion at home and overseas on militaristic policies that led to the creation of a vast surveillance apparatus, worsened mass incarceration, intensified the war on immigrant communities, and caused incalculable human suffering in Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, Libya, Somalia, and elsewhere.

According to State of Insecurity: The Cost of Militarization Since 9/11 (pdf), a report released Wednesday by the National Priorities Project, the U.S. government’s so-called “War on Terror” has “remade the U.S. into a more militarized actor both around the world and at home” by pouring vast resources into the Pentagon, federal law enforcement, and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), an agency established in response to the September 11 attacks.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/09/01/911-us-has-spent-21-trillion-militarism-home-and-abroad

Can you imagine what $21 trillion could have done to help the people of this country?

Beyond that let’s look at the war in Afghanistan since 9/11……

the Cost of War Project at Brown University estimates that the war in Afghanistan cost U.S. taxpayers $2.3 trillion to date and resulted in the deaths of 2,324 U.S. military personnel, 4,007 U.S. contractors and 46,319 Afghan civilians — but those costs weren’t shared by everyone.

While the American people financed the war with their tax dollars, and in some cases their lives, the top five Pentagon contractors enjoyed a boom in growth in federal contracts over the course of the war in Afghanistan. Stephen Semler, co-founder of the Security Policy Reform Institute, found that Congress gave $2.02 trillion to the top five weapons companies — Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, Boeing and Northrop Grumman — between 2001 and 2021.

And between 2002 and 2020, federal funding for those five weapons companies grew by 188 percent. 

Top defense firms spend $1B on lobbying during Afghan war, see $2T return

Not a bad return on investment, huh?

The federal deficit runs about $3.3 trillion…..and fiscal conservatives (the hypocritical wing of our government) scream about the deficit and yet continue to fund a failed war on terror.

Just like the War on Drugs the War on Terror is a money pit and corporations profit from the misery the loss of funds for programs that aid the people of this country.

I realize that no one cares about this….it is far more important to focus on wedge issues instead on the pissing away of taxpayer funds.

When will we ever learn?

Turn The Page!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Let’s Beat The Dead Horse!

Okay I know that the parade debacle is pretty much over….we have shootings and a budget debate and other stuff to entertain our brain….but I just cannot let the whole moronic idea of a military parade to massage the ego of this poser president.

If the parade were to celebrate something other the ego of some idiot that loves being slapped on the back then I might be in favor of it.

We already have parades on Memorial Day, 4th of July and Veterans Day why do we need another?

The American Conservative asked the important question….what would we be celebrating?

Remember when military parades actually celebrated victories? Those were the days, or, better yet, the day—June 8, 1991 actually. A few months after the U.S. military’s 100-hour lightning ground war ejected Saddam Hussein’s forces from Kuwait, some 8,800 soldiers marched down Constitution Avenue in Washington, D.C. President George H.W. Bush and General Norman Schwarzkopf presided. The White House called it the National Victory Celebration.

The world seemed simpler then. Sure, some openly questioned Bush’s motives (no blood for oil!), the Senate authorization vote was uncomfortably close, and matters got messy when the Kurds and Shia rose up in postwar Iraq. Still, America had won a “victory” of sorts. At the cost of fewer than 200 dead (experts had predicted thousands), a highly professional U.S. Army and its coalition allies had liberated Kuwait and devastated the Iraqi military. Its objectives clearly set and now achieved, the army mostly returned home. Bush wisely ignored hawkish calls to seize and occupy Baghdad. Saddam, after all, was “in his box” and could be contained. It was time for the parades.

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/parade-of-defeat-trump-prefers-spectacle-over-strategy/

This dead horse regained a bit of life when the figures of such a parade came out of the OBM……..

The White House budget director said Wednesday that a military parade envisioned by President Trump won’t come cheap: It could cost between $10 million and $30 million, although that money isn’t included in the administration’s new budget request. Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney told the House Budget Committee that estimates are “very preliminary,” reports the AP. “I’ve various different cost estimates from between I think $10 million and $30 million, depending on the size of the parade, the scope of it, the length of it,” Mulvaney said. “We’ve not accounted for it in this year’s budget simply because it’s come up at the last minute.”

Officials such as Defense Secretary Jim Mattis have confirmed that Trump has pushed for a large-scale parade to trumpet the US military, but Mulvaney said the administration hasn’t decided to go forward with it. “We’ll continue to work with you folks if we decide to push forward,” Mulvaney told the lawmakers. Mulvaney said the administration would have to seek an appropriation from Congress or redirect existing funds to finance the parade. Trump’s new budget requested $686 billion for the Pentagon’s budget next year.

Maybe this will put the idea of a parade to massage an ego can now be put down forever……or until we have something to celebrate other than the election of a reality star as president.

Why We Must Reset the Fiscal Debate: 15 Charts | Center for American Progress

A Week is all that is left for the snails running this country….will they find a deal in the 11th hour or will the pricks allow the government to shut down?

Congress has NOTHING to use if government shuts down….they still get paid while most over government employees do not….this is why I despise these worthless bastards!

Why We Must Reset the Fiscal Debate: 15 Charts | Center for American Progress.

Let’s Fake A Deal (Thanx TRMS)

The only difference between the game show and the political show are the costumes the participants wear……..it’s all a game and a pathetic one at that…..

By now the whole damn world knows of the fiscal cliff….or is it fiscal slope……maybe it is a fiscal curb…….anyway the media is working overtime to turn this into a complete month long opportunity to drive the conversation…..

All this is just a fake deal…….nothing about it is worth reporting……that is unless you think that this is a big deal……and if you do…… you need to remove your head from your ass……

First the Dems and the prez offer up their proposal…….

Let’s back up and examine Mr. Obama’s offer. As expected, it calls for $1.6 trillion in tax increases over 10 years. The president has long said that’s his dollar goal for new revenue and that raising rates on the top 2 percent of taxpayers is the only way to raise enough cash to get there.

But the proposal also calls for $50 billion in immediate stimulus spending.

Obama’s proposals were nothing…..not even a serious offer…..but I guess they had to start somewhere…….but this is not to my liking……

Oh yeah, the GOP has offered up their counter proposal……

The proposal from House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and other Republicans comes in response to Obama’s offer last week to hike taxes by $1.6 trillion over the coming decade but largely exempt Medicare and Social Security from budget cuts.

The GOP plan also proposes to raise $800 billion in higher tax revenue over the decade but it would keep the Bush-era tax cuts.

You may like one proposal over the other….but neither explains in plain English how they will achieve their ends……we must take their word for it……and of course, their word is good only if it is not from the other guy…….pathetic.

Now all those on the Right are telling the country that this is the most reasonable of proposals……..funny how this same proposal was a piece of crap when it was first offered back early in 2012…..it was not a serious offer then but now….well we all know how they play this lame ass game……wait for the 11th hour to promote urgency and make a deal to appear to have saved the country from disaster…..

All the optimism the day after Mitt got his ass handed to him in the election is gone…….of course there NEVER was any way of compromise….it was all the same game…..smoke and mirrors….

But at least I did not expect any cooperation…….none of these ass clowns or the media that speaks for them wants anything good to happen in the country…..it makes better copy and more lively debate to screw over the country…….