Tag: Taxpayers

Closing Thought–29Sep17

Come Fly With Me!

It appears that there is  problem in DC…..Sec of HHS, Price, has been caught with his fingers in the cookie jar.

Ever noticed that when the GOP is NOT in power they are staunch opponents of any wasteful spending….and then they take the power lead and they piss money away like there is no tomorrow.

The GOPers start looking for ways to get “free” stuff for themselves and their families….well that is what happened with Price…..seems he does not like the inconvenience of flying coach….

Price has booked a plethora of private flights to take him around to do his worse as the Sec of HHS…..to the tune of about $1 million in costs.

He has been chastised and has agreed to reimburse the government….

Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price is apologizing for taking costly charter flights on the taxpayer’s dime and says he is cooperating with investigations into his travel. Price says he’ll reimburse the government by writing a check Thursday to reimburse Treasury, and he’s pledging not to take any more charters, the AP reports. He says he wasn’t “sensitive enough” to the concerns the charters would create about the use of taxpayer dollars.

His statement comes after White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said President Donald Trump was not thrilled with Price’s flights. Trump had publicly declared his displeasure a day earlier. Trump left open the possibility that Price would be fired, but Price said Thursday he thinks he still has the president’s confidence. The brouhaha started with a Politico investigation into the flights.

He will write a check for $52,000…….he spent a million and he only owes $52,000….not bad like a plea agreement with a bank robber that stole a million but only has to pay $52,000 in restitution.

Apparently Price cannot use commercial flights for it may expose him to a lethal dose of “human cooties’….he cannot be bothered with doing the right thing….he is just echoing those thoughts of his master.

Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price is apologizing for taking costly charter flights on the taxpayer’s dime and says he is cooperating with investigations into his travel. Price says he’ll reimburse the government by writing a check Thursday to reimburse Treasury, and he’s pledging not to take any more charters, the AP reports. He says he wasn’t “sensitive enough” to the concerns the charters would create about the use of taxpayer dollars.

His statement comes after White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said President Donald Trump was not thrilled with Price’s flights. Trump had publicly declared his displeasure a day earlier. Trump left open the possibility that Price would be fired, but Price said Thursday he thinks he still has the president’s confidence. The brouhaha started with a Politico investigation into the flights.

is master…..

Why does this thief not have to pay the entire price tag?  The flights were for his benefit….he owes the entire bill!

Time to get my ass ready for the weekend…..hope everyone had a good week and that they will please get some relaxation in for the next couple of days.

Peace Out My Friends!

What Do We Get For Our Money?

I am unashamed antiwar supporter…..I have witnessed first hand the obscenities of war and the waste of money that could be used for good.

I keep writing about the barbarity of war and few seem to care……so maybe I should try a different tack……

I recently wrote a post about the fact that the US can no longer afford a war……

Source: The US Can No Longer Afford War! – In Saner Thought

The voter is always looking for a way to lessen the burden on themselves thru taxation policies……maybe a better way to bring attention to the war profit is to tell where the tax dollars go to support war……

You wouldn’t know it, based on the endless cries for more money coming from the military, politicians, and the president, but these are the best of times for the Pentagon.  Spending on the Department of Defense alone is already well in excess of half a trillion dollars a year and counting.  Adjusted for inflation, that means it’s higher than at the height of President Ronald Reagan’s massive buildup of the 1980s and is now nearing the post-World War II funding peak.  And yet that’s barely half the story.  There are hundreds of billions of dollars in “defense” spending that aren’t even counted in the Pentagon budget.

Under the circumstances, laying all this out in grisly detail — and believe me, when you dive into the figures, they couldn’t be grislier — is the only way to offer a better sense of the true costs of our wars past, present, and future, and of the funding that is the lifeblood of the national security state.  When you do that, you end up with no less than 10 categories of national security spending (only one of which is the Pentagon budget).  So steel yourself for a tour of our nation’s trillion-dollar-plus “national security” budget. Given the Pentagon’s penchant for wasting money and our government’s record of engaging in dangerously misguided wars without end, it’s clear that a large portion of this massive investment of taxpayer dollars isn’t making anyone any safer.

Source: Top Ten Ways your Taxes pay for Endless War | Informed Comment

It really is NOT rocket science……

There you have it…..you want your tax dollars to go further to improve the country then make war less profitable…..and then you can see your tax dollars at work….for good.

F-35, The Flying Turd

I have been a staunch supporter of the A-10 Warthog that is due to be retired for a flying lump of manure, the F-35……I have written several posts in defense of the A-10…..(a little reminder)…..

When I heard the the US military was thinking about replacing the A-10 Warthog with the ultra-modern F-35 I went into full ranting mode….I have been defending the honor of the Warthog…..but in case you missed some of the post I have written….a little reminder……

Source: A-10 VS F-35 – In Saner Thought

(that post contains several other posts on the A-10 controversy)

I have stated many times what a waste of taxpayer money this “brick” is and yet the defense department keeps throwing taxpayer cash at it……

The Pentagon will need as much as $530 million extra to finish the development phase for Lockheed Martin Corp.’s F-35, the most expensive U.S. weapons system ever, defense officials said.

……..

The call for more money comes as the Pentagon’s chief weapons tester has issued a fresh warning that the aircraft, projected to cost $379 billion for a fleet of 2,443 U.S. planes, is far from showing it has full combat capability.

Source: The Lockheed F-35 Needs Another Half Billion Dollars – Bloomberg

A project that should have cost $379 billion now needs yet another infusion of taxpayer cash to the tune of $530 billion……that brings the total of a trillion (trillion with a “T”) for a piece of crap!

How much  more money will this debacle cost the American taxpayer….,that waste of money is needed elsewhere……rime for the DoD to admit that this is a failure and spend the money on more realistic programs.

Put this turd in the crapper where it belongs…the A-10 is the best plane for the defense of our troops…..period!

When will the taxpayer begin to regret that their money is being pissed away on programs that about as useful as rotten turnip?

Dude, Where Did The Money Go?

How many times have you heard a nose picking, ass scratcher go on and on about those freeloaders (the poor) that are wasting government money?  Or that have string opinions about wasting money on unpopular programs like school lunches or pollution control or other such programs?

But does any of that add up to $8.5 trillion (that is trillion with a “T”)?

$8.5 trillion is the amount of cash that the Defense Department has somehow misplaced……(wink wink)

WTF?

When government is completely dysfunctional and seems not to serve the people’s interests, we have to wonder where our tax dollars are going. Thanks to a Reuters investigation by Scot Paltrow, we have an answer—or, rather, a non-answer. Apparently, the Pentagon has made use of $8.5 trillion of our tax money handed over by Congress since 1996—but don’t ask what was done with the money. The Department of Defense doesn’t have a clue.

Audits of all federal agencies were mandated by law beginning in 1996, but the Pentagon is unique in never having complied. In almost 20 years, the Pentagon has never accounted for trillions it spent, in part because “plugging”—fudging the numbers—is standard operating procedure.

And they worried about the price of a school lunch…..typical ignorant toads.
Think about this….if we add the money that is missing with the amount we have wasted on our wars of adventurism then we would not have a budget deficit…..see how easy economics is once you remove your head from your ass?

Where Do All My Taxes Go?

This country is always having a debate about taxes….do we need more….or maybe it should be less…..In reality if people would pay attention to where their taxes go I think the conversation would change considerably….

If you are one of the lucky few that makes $50,000 a year your taxes can be broken down thusly…

 

You tell me…is the taxpayer’s money well spent?

Israel: Is It Agression Or Self-Defense?

Opinion from the desk of the Editor:

Yep, when you are not beat about the head by reports from Ukraine then there are the numerous reports coming out of Gaza and Israel latest offense to chop off the head of Hamas…..first of all both of these areas are a massive PR campaign by the media.  I am not saying that either one is not a major story but the MSM has turned it into a PR campaign against Russia and the Palestinians.

As long as they can keep public opinion on the side that they push the better chances of a complete success without much push back from an uninformed public.

With that said…..do Americans realize that they are funding the war on Gaza and are indirectly responsible for the deaths and injuries?  That is right, sports fans….your tax dollars are killing and maiming!

Doubt what I say?

The US gives about $3 billion in aid to Israel a year and most of it is in the form of military ordinance…….and aid comes from the taxes that you and I pay to the government as part of our contract with the nation.  So you may not like to hear it but you and I are subsidizing the wholesale death and destruction of Gaza.

There is a way around this obscenity……it may be illegal what Israel is doing with the money we give them…….in an article written by Yousef Butt……….

The US Arms Export Control Act dictates the conditions under which foreign countries may use US military hardware or services. These include “internal security” or “legitimate self defense.” But the law specifically prohibits actions that “increase the possibility of an outbreak or escalation of conflict.” By killing mostly civilians in a disproportionately heavy-handed response and thereby sowing the seeds of yet more terrorism, Israel has undeniably escalated the conflict. In fact, Prime Minister Netanyahu has openly stated that he intends to escalate the conflict.

Bibi did say that the operation was moving from “Iron Dome to Iron Fist”……..that sounds like an escalation to me….but then I am not one that thinks everything Israel does is good or beneficial.

It is time for the US to make ALL recipients of our goodwill foreign aid to play by the same rules or cease the payments all together.  And it is time the Israel to be held accountable for the destruction that they impose on others in the name of security…….if you believe what the Old Testament says then Israel thinks it has the right to totally destroy a people in the name of “GOD”.

Think about it…..weaning Israel off American taxpayer money could eventually force them to look for a real way to a lasting peace…..and it could also benefit the US by lessening the anti-US sentiment and dropping the number of terrorists wanting to attack the US…….of course there is no guarantees but our undying support for Israel has made more enemies than friends.  Just a thought.

Time to stop treating Israel like the victim of the past….they have moved beyond victim and into the foot steps of oppressors.

 

Did You Get Your Money’s Worth?

WE always bitch about the work that Congress does or in most cases does NOT do…..I have often wondered if we had gotten our money’s worth….my guess is NO…NO where near our money’s worth…..and thanx to Bankrupting America we have some figures on this subject…….

Last week taxpayers spent roughly $100 million on Congress.

Salaries of Members of Congress and their allowances/week:

Speaker of the House: $223,500/52 = $4,299

House and Senate Majority and Minority Leaders: ($193,400/52) x 4 = $14,877

Other Representatives and Senators: ($174,000/52) x 530 = $1,773,462

Average weekly budget for all House offices: ($1,446,009/52) x 435 = $2,096,421

Average weekly budget for all Senate offices: ($3,409,093/52) x 100 = $6,555,958

Non-salary money allocated for Congress: $4.656 billion/52 = $89,538,462

What you got

As noted above, the House the House was not in session. The chamber will be back this week. To recap, so far this year, the chamber has voted to approve only two bills that would cut spending:

H.R. 3835, To extend the pay limitation for Members of Congress and Federal employees. SAVINGS: Unknown

H.R. 1173, Fiscal Responsibility and Retirement Security Act. SAVINGS: $9 million over five years

During debate on the transportation bill, the Senate voted 40 to 58 against an amendment offered by Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) to lower the FY13 discretionary budget authority cap by $11 million in order to offset the general fund transfers to the Highway Trust Fund. The chamber also rejected 26-72 an amendment offered by Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) to get rid of certain energy tax subsidies in exchange for a decrease in the corporate income tax rate.

And that was last week and if they are still on schedule set up in 2010 they are off a week which means that we pay them to go home a play golf and schmooze with their owners, the high stake donors…..

No Taxation Without Representation

College of Political Knowledge

Subject:  American Government

Do you remember from American history class the slogan or the rallying cry or the war chat or……”No Taxation Without Representation”?  What does it really mean?

A situation in which a government imposes taxes on a particular group of its citizens, despite the citizens not consenting or having an actual representative deliver their views when the taxation decision was made. This situation was one of the triggering events that spurred the original thirteen American colonies to revolt against the British Empire.

In the 1750 and 1760’s it was a cry against the British Empire by the American colonists….in essence the colones were pissed that they had to pay taxes to the realm and had NO representation in Parliament……that they were denied their rights under English law….well it pretty much lead to the American Revolution….and we all know how that ended……even is used today…most notably by the Tea Party when they were protesting taxes that they did not want to see raised…..even though those taxes were NEVER intended to go up……..

We could make the same argument today…places like Puerto Rico, Guam and others are basically colonies of the US, but we had rather call them “territories”….they pay taxes and have NO representation in Congress….oh, they have observers but NO power to vote for laws and such…..that is disgusting in itself (that may well be another post….later)

But I want to talk about another miscarriage of justice, if you will……Washington D.C…..the capital of the US….the people living within the confines of the Federal district…..do NOT have representation in the Congress…..oh, they also have an observer but they have NO right to vote on legislation even when it applies the them directly……

The US Constitution grants congressional voting representation to the states, which the District is not. The District is a federal territory ultimately under the complete authority of Congress. The lack of voting representation in Congress for residents of the U.S. capital has been an issue since the foundation of the federal district. Numerous proposals have been introduced to change this situation including legislation and constitutional amendments to grant D.C. residents voting representation, returning the district to the state of Maryland, and making the District of Columbia into a new state. All proposals have been met with political or constitutional challenges; therefore, there has been no change in the District’s representation in the Congress.

Basically, it is that American citizens, who pay their taxes that support the state, have NO representation, voting representation, in the legislative body of the country……so it is easy……give them representation or let them be tax exempt…..an easy solution, well, two solutions…..there should be NO American citizen without voting representation in Congress…these citizens do not have the same rights as you do….and that is a travesty!

Another Nail In The Coffin Of Democracy?

From the VOMITORIUM

Last year the Supreme Court opened up the way for the control of elections by corporations and special interests……they rules that it was fine for corporations to donate almost endless amount of funds to campaigns…..the Congress is already in the back pocket of special interests….and yet there is even more effort to keep the people from having a say in the electoral process……

This from the AP…….

Eager to cut spending, the Republican-controlled House voted to end multimillion-dollar federal subsidies for presidential candidates and national political conventions on Wednesday, the first of what party leaders promised will be weekly, bite-sized bills to attack record deficits.”Eliminating this program would save taxpayers $617 million over ten years, and would require candidates and political parties to rely on private contributions rather than tax dollars,” said Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., “In times when government has no choice but to do more with less, voting to end the Presidential Election Campaign Fund should be a no brainer.”

Under the law, presidential candidates qualify for matching funds from the government once they have met certain requirements during the primary elections. In accepting the subsidies, the White House hopefuls also must agree to certain restrictions.

Presidential nominees are eligible for funds after the party political conventions as long as they do no fund raising on their own during the general election campaign. Additionally, the conventions themselves are financed through the presidential fund.

Looks like another way that the GOP is trying to take the people out of the equation of the selection of who will become president……if this is enacted only the special interests will have the power to make a president….if they succeed then we can say hello to a “Corporatocracy” (thanx to Quin for the term…I knew I could eventually use it in a post….go to blogroll and visit Quin’s site, Quintessential Havoc….)

Is this really what the people want?  Do they really want to be marginalized like this?

Slowly the people will play a lesser role in the election of our politicians…..it will be up to the special interests to decide who will lead us….and the way the GOP is going…how long will it be before that is NO longer our part in the process?

The Final Tally Or …You Owe…You Owe

Soon the Prez will sign the new tax cuts bill into law and there were a few tweaks….but what is the final tally of the bill?

Well, thanx to BusinessWeek we have them for you to see……and judge for yourself…..

The package extends:

–Lower rates for taxpayers at every income level. The top rate, on taxable income above $379,150, would stay at 35 percent, instead of increasing to 39.6 percent. The bottom rate, on taxable income below $8,500 for individuals and $17,000 for married couples, would stay at 10 percent, instead of increasing to 15 percent. Cost: $186.8 billion.

–More generous itemized deductions for high-income households. Cost: $20.7 billion.

–A more generous $1,000 child tax credit. Cost: $71.7 billion.

–Marriage penalty relief, increasing the standard deduction for married couples. Cost: $18 billion.

–A more generous Earned Income Tax Credit for low-income families. Cost: $15.7 billion.

–A series of tax breaks for students and their families, including interest deduction for student loans and an exemption for employer-provided educational assistance. Cost: $3.3 billion.

–A deduction for tuition and related expenses for higher education, for 2010 and 2011. Cost: $1.2 billion.

–A tax credit of up to $2,500 for students’ higher education expenses. Cost: $17.6 billion.

–The top capital gains tax rate of 15 percent. Cost: $25.9 billion.

–The top tax rate on dividends of 15 percent. Cost: $27.3 billion.

–Through 2011, enhanced jobless benefits for people who have been unemployed for long stretches. Cost: $56.5 billion.

–A series of incentives for selling, using and producing alternative fuels, including ethanol. Many of the provisions expired at the end of 2009. They would be extended through 2011. Cost: $11.3 billion.

–A $250 deduction for out-of-pocket classroom expenses by teachers, for 2010 and 2011. Cost: $390 million.

–A federal income tax deduction for state and local sales taxes, taken mostly by people who live in the nine states without state income taxes, for 2010 and 2011. Cost: $5.5 billion.

–The ability of older Americans to withdraw up to $100,000 a year from Individual Retirement Accounts, tax-free, to donate to certain public charities, for 2010 and 2011. Cost: $979 million.

–A business tax credit for research and experimentation expenses, for 2010 and 2011. Cost: $13.3 billion.

–Tax breaks for capital improvements to restaurants and other retail buildings, for 2010 and 2011. Cost: $3.6 billion.

–A tax break for active investors in foreign-based banking, securities and insurance firms, for 2010 and 2011. Cost: $9.2 billion.

–Increased depreciation and expensing for capital investments by businesses. Cost: $21.8 billion.

The package also:

–Spares more than 20 million middle-income households from tax increases averaging $3,900 from the Alternative Minimum Tax in 2010 and 2011. Cost: $136.7 billion.

–Imposes a lower estate tax for the next two years, allowing couples to pass estates as large as $10 million to heirs tax-free. The balance would be taxed at 35 percent. Cost: $68.1 billion.

–Provides a one-year Social Security tax cut for all wage earners, from 6.2 percent to 4.2 percent. Cost: $112 billion.

There she be!  And NOT one penny of it paid for….just add another trillion to the deficit….take it out of petty cash…..NO one will notice…..what happened to those guys and gals that were so concerned about the cost of all the programs….and why was this pushed through without hearings or a CBO score?

It will be fun to see who uses this as a political tool…..