Congress does not know how to manage money. That is a plain simple fact of life that simply cannot be rationalized away no matter how hard one tries (and Congress critters try). They have shown it time and again by spending more than we pay in taxes and then raising taxes to cover their inability to manage money. They continue to raise taxes and spend more until someone comes along and manages to get taxes lowered.

Then revenues increase and what happens? The Congress spends even MORE!

Social Security is another example of their inability to manage money. They extorted money from our paychecks because we are too stupid to save for our own futures. Then they supposedly put that money away to actually pay us when we retire. The problem is, Congress saw trillions of dollars sitting there gathering dust while waiting to be paid to retirees and decided to add it to the general fund and, you guessed it, spend it. The so called Social Security trust fund holds nothing more than nearly three trillion dollars in IOUs that are worthless.

Sure, they are backed by the full faith and credit of the US Government but there is little faith in our government because we borrow 40% of every dollar we spend.

We now have another example of the inability of Congress to manage money. Congress has raided the money that is supposed to pay for Obamacare. Millions of dollars have been taken from the Obamacare funds in order to pay other bills or to spend on one pet project or another.

I think Obamacare will be ruled unconstitutional but if it is not what happens when it comes time to pay for it? What happens to this magical law that is supposed to pay for itself? What happens to that cost curve?

Congress will claim there is not enough money and that taxes need to be raised or services cut or both.

All because Congress cannot properly manage money.

We need radical change in DC and we can start by replacing all those members of Congress who have been there more than one term.

Source:
Washington Times

Cave canem!
Never surrender, never submit.

Well, it looks like the boneheads in Congress have struck another “historic” deal. Ever notice how these people create problems and then fight over them only to come to a last minute compromise that screws the US taxpayer and then step out to describe the deal as historic? They do this every time so what is so historic about it?

The United States is heading for a catastrophe and Congress is driving us there in a super sonic jet. We have an unsustainable debt issue that has not been addressed in the details reported about this deal. Sure, there are 2.4 trillion dollars worth of cuts over ten years but we will rack up a hell of a lot more debt than that over the same time period if we do not end the reckless spending. The United States of America has a spending problem, not an income problem (though our income is down right now because of Obama’s nearly 10% unemployment rate). We spend far too much because politicians promise money to people who are not entitled to it. They continue to come up with one program after another to provide “benefits” that people, responsible people, should take care of themselves.

Responsible people should be in charge of their own retirement. Responsible people take care of their own health care insurance or pay the bills when they need medical services. Responsible people take any job offered (and look endlessly for one) no matter what it pays because it is the right thing to do. Responsible people know how to take care of themselves and do not sit around with their hands out.

I am not talking about temporary safety nets for people who fall on hard times. I am talking about the people who live off the government. There are people who are perfectly capable of working yet they squirt out kids and sit around collecting welfare. There is one person who has won the lottery and still collects welfare and he does not feel bad about it one single bit.

And this government is only too happy to promise more and more people these things in order to keep getting reelected. Deal or no deal the US would not have defaulted. The August 2^nd date was an arbitrary date selected by Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner who added to our budget problems by not paying his taxes. The tax cheat at the Treasury selected the date out of thin air (which is where he gets the money he prints) and he did it to coincide with the August recess Congress takes so that they would be compelled to get something, anything done.

In the end the American public will get screwed as we add more debt to an unsustainable debt load.

They claim the debt deal is a historic event. It would have been historic if they had actually helped the situation. Causing more problems is what Congress does best so nothing historic there.

You want to do something historic? Try passing a balanced budget amendment and send it to the states to decide the issue. You want to do something historic try passing a term limits law for members of Congress so they can’t continue to give away money we don’t have in order to get reelected.

Now that would be historic.

The United States has a 14 TRILLION dollar debt load and that load will be raised as they borrow more money to pay the bills. We have an unfunded liability of 114 TRILLION dollars.

Those numbers are hard to comprehend so here is a demonstration of our debt in graphic display. This should send chills down your spine and it should certainly put it in perspective.

And please, don’t tell the morons in DC what comes after a TRILLION…

Cave Canem!
Never surrender, never submit.

Barack Obama told us that John McCain wanted to take an ax to the budget and that he, Barack the Magnificent, would take a scalpel and he would go line by line in the federal budget to make cuts. Two and a half years into his first (and hopefully only) term and Obama has failed to do much cutting.

The first thing he did was raise things about 25% and then pretend that he was making cuts by backing off that number making it appear as if he cut when he was well ahead of what was taking place when he took office. In his time in office the deficit each year has been in the trillions of dollars and there is no end in sight as Democrats work hard to spend more and more to satisfy their need to continue to spend.

Democrats gain constituencies by promising free stuff which is only free to the people getting it. The rest of us must pay the bills for the free stuff Democrats give away. The Stimulus was nothing more than a nearly trillion dollar slush fund to pay off Democrat constituencies. We are in bad shape and things are continuing to decline as the so called experts act surprised at the news each month that is always “unexpected”. Perhaps if the economic news continues to be unexpected and the experts can’t understand what is going on then it is time to find real experts who know what they are doing.

Obama is telling us now that cutting is not going to solve our problems and this is his way of saying that we need to raise revenue. Raising revenue is Democrat speak for raising taxes.

Half of the workers in this country pay more than enough in taxes. The other half pays little of no taxes to the federal government and many pay no taxes and get money from the government. This is total redistribution of wealth and it is what Obama thinks is just and fair.

How about we have a fair tax code that requires ALL workers to pay a portion of their income in taxes. Close the loopholes and make everyone who earns wages pay taxes. We will increase revenue and then the people who benefit the most from Democrat wealth redistribution plans will see that things are not free.

However, the most important thing we can do is cut the spending at the federal level. Obama promised to go line by line but all he has done is expand government. Cutting is the way to go and we need an ax not a scalpel.

The only revenue problem we have is that half the workers do not pay any of the revenue. The real problem we have is a spending problem and that is where we need real change we can believe in.

Related:
We can’t just cut way to prosperity
We damn sure cannot spend our way to prosperity…

Cave Canem!
Never surrender, never submit.

House Minority Whip (and moron from Maryland) Steny Hoyer said that we might not get the budget balanced for twenty years because we have dug ourselves a deep hole. The article quotes Hoyer as saying we went from a 5.6 trillion dollar surplus into a 5 trillion dollar hole. The article inserted the appropriate word after surplus, “projected”.

The alleged budget surplus never existed. It was a projection based on a number of gimmicks and based upon Congress doing certain things and taking certain actions, none of which they did. Even in the years where it is claimed that we had a budget surplus we had billions in debt so we were not out of any hole. To be clear, there was no Bill Clinton budget surplus but if you want to believe there was a surplus please be sure to credit it to the Republican Congress because they were in the majority.

Regardless, Hoyer has never met a spending bill that he did not like (or a tax he did not hike). He has been in office for a very long time and he has voted for all the spending that contributed to the problems we have but he is just now realizing that a problem exists.

It is amazing how Democrats become budget hawks when they are not in power but spend and spend and spend when they are in control. In any event, we can balance the budget in fewer than twenty years (or even ten) if the people in Congress will sit down and CUT the unnecessary spending and the waste. They also need to reform Social Security and Medicare which, along with unemployment insurance account for 35% of what we spend.

Younger people need to be allowed to invest their own money and gradually stop paying into Social Security and people who are closer to retirement need to be able to choose to either stay in it or get their money back and invest on their own (or some combination of these). Social Security needs to eventually go away and be replaced by a system where people have their money go to accounts that belong to them, cannot EVER be touched by government and can be passed on to their heirs when they die.

There are plenty of cuts that can be made and plenty of programs (many of which exist in multiples) that can be downsized, combined or eliminated to get our fiscal house in order.

If Hoyer is concerned about the hole that Congress (and that means people of all parties) have dug then he needs to get on board with the Republicans and push for the cuts so that we can get back to sanity.

We cannot spend our way to prosperity. If spending made us solvent we would be having high times because government has done nothing but spend.

The people in Hoyer’s District should have elected Charles Lollar. They were too busy suckling at the teat…

Cave Canem!
Never surrender, never submit.

Nancy Pelosi took the reigns pledging that there would be no deficit spending and that they would employ the pay as you go philosophy of governing. After her tenure as Speaker the 111^th Congress has accumulated more debt that the first 100 Congresses combined adding $10,429.64 for each person counted in the 2010 census.

The years the Democrats were in charge were the four most expensive in our history as they set records for deficit spending.

The Democrats like to talk about how George Bush wasted a surplus (a surplus never existed as the US still had debt for the period the claim is made) and they like to discuss how he spent us into debt.

It looks like all the blowhards who were screaming about deficit spending are the worst offenders of all.

It is sad that we, our children and our children’s children have been saddled with this additional debt through generational theft by Congress but what is really sad is that half of the country will never have to pay any of the debt off.

The top 50% will be paying the bill for a long, long time.

Cave Canem!
Never surrender, never submit.

The 1900 page Omnibus bill that would fund government for another year has been pulled by Senate Leader Harry Reid. The bill contained over 6000 earmarks (from members of both parties) and the total cost of the bill was 1.3 TRILLION DOLLARS. Reid pulled the bill after several Republicans (in name only) who had earlier supported it, withdrew their support. This is a blow to the Democrats who had hoped to go out with a bang.

This bill has been in the works for nearly half a year. The Congress is supposed to pass a budget and it did not so we are down to the last minute of the game and they are still playing around.

Reid put together a bill that included Republican earmarks requested before the election and added them to the bill. Some Republicans who did not get the message from the last election were working behind the scenes to get the things passed but were silent about them publicly. As the details unfolded some of the Republicans began to get uncomfortable in supporting the HUGE spending bill. Some Democrats in the Senate who will be up for reelection in two years are feeling the same heat.

Anyway, Harry Reid pulled the bill because he knows that he will have a hard time getting support. He is working on a short term extension of government funding to take us into the new year and then the new Congress will work on it. This does not mean that Democrats (and some Republicans) will not be working to lard up anything that makes its way through so they can take home the bacon this Christmas.

We need to be on the lookout and prepared to call them out.

This, so far, is a win. We cannot afford the 1.3 TRILLION DOLLARS the bill spends and we cannot afford to let the people who were voted out of office decide how things will be run when they are gone.

And liberals, if Reid and the Democrats had done this when they were supposed to we would not be discussing it now. This is part of that crisis management that the Dems are known for. Never let one go to waste you know. So they take it to the wire and figure they will hold the country hostage. Surely the Republicans will have to budge when backs are against the wall.

It did not work out like that this time.

And it can only get better in the new Congress…

Cave Canem!
Never surrender, never submit.

Okay, so the “biggest election in your lifetime” is over (once again). I know, it was massive, it was huge, blah, blah, blah. Now it’s back to business as usual. No, really. Did you really think this was going to change anything?

Will this change health care? Nope. The Democrats still control the Senate. It is Obama’s signature legislation. He will veto any attempts to remove it, and that’s a done deal. Sure, Judges can still rule on it, but the election didn’t change that.

Do you think spending will change? Not likely. After all, we’re spending $200 million a day so the president can go on vacation. House Republicans, where spending is supposed to start, will have a choice: stand on principle, reduce spending massively, and have the Senate disagree. If the House Republicans stand firm, the government will shut down. I believe they won’t allow that to happen. Instead, the House Republicans will whine and complain, but in the end they will take their second option: pass a spending bill that increases spending across the board, “to keep government running.” Then they will claim they need you to vote for them in 2014 so they can do better. Net result? More spending. Lots more.

Do you think the economy will change? HA! Keep in mind, right now the government actually believes prices are too low. No, I’m serious. The fed is about to buy bonds. This is at the same time the treasury is borrowing more money. And the only reason you buy bonds is to increase inflation. I’m completely serious. The fed WANTS TO INCREASE PRICES. Only one guy in the Senate seems to get it. Prices are increasing massively. We are in a downward spiral, artificially supported by massive, record government spending. It will get worse before it gets better.

So, what signs would there be that I’m completely wrong?

Watch how the Republicans in the Senate treat people like Rand Paul and Lisa Murkowski. Rand Paul ran as an outsider. If he is turned and starts supporting earmarks and like, there will be more of the same. Lisa Murkowski won on an independent ticket without the support of Republicans in her state. A principled Republican Party would let her start over, and let her ask for things. A Republican Party that’s doing business as usual will let her retain all her power and seniority.

Watch the House — this is supposedly a great “mandate for change.” But who will be running the house? Boehner? He’s been there 20 years. If he’s in charge, how will anything change? Sure, he says he’s for “smaller government,” but we’ll see, won’t we? A true, radical change, would be to elect one of these new people as House Speaker. Now THAT would be historic.

Watch North Carolina, and especially Wisconsin. North Carolina has a Republican legislature for the first time since the 1800s, even if it’s with a far-left governor. Wisconsin went from Democrat control to Republican legislature and governor. If there is actual change, these states will just completely slash spending by over 50%. They will throw out massive amounts of regulation. I mean radical actions that will bring out the press in record numbers (with criticism). If it’s business as usual, watch for tiny amounts of spending cuts (which will be portrayed as killing children).

Now I do hope I’m wrong. But I’m guessing I’m not. In fact, I’ll go out on a limb now and make some predictions for 2014 (yes, already, why not?).

The economy will continue to suck. Government spending will increase, the debt will increase, the dollar will continue to fall making things more expensive. Government will deny that things are more expensive and will trumpet that the recovery is awesome. More people will be on food stamps and government will spend more. This will be reported as success. The Bush tax cuts will expire, giving the government even more money to spend.

There will be a showdown in the House and Republicans will blink. The campaign in 2014 will be:
Republicans: Oh, we were so close. We almost did it this time. Send us back with a Republican president and we’ll really do good THIS time.
Democrats: Wow, that was too close! Those Republicans almost killed all the old people and children. And look how bad the economy is now with Republicans in power! You really need us Democrats back now.

Obama will run again. He will get 102% of the black vote and 105% of the Democrat vote. Republicans will again pick some moderate wishy-washy guy (like McCain or Romney). A third-party will make a strong showing (Paul, Keyes, someone else?) so that Obama wins again. The press will evoke enough fear and enough people will have so little money, Democrats will show up to vote in droves. People will be told that if you don’t vote Obama again, you’re racist and slavery will be back in place the day after the election. Republicans and Tea Party people won’t show up in large numbers because they’re annoyed that 2012 elections gave them zero results. All 3 branches go back Democrat. Obama, in his last term, with the help of House Democrats will run the country into the ground and by 2016 the US dollar will be worthless and the government will declare bankruptcy for protection from Chinese-owned debt. Most people won’t notice, because they’re trying to make sure little Johnny isn’t late for soccer practice.

I hope I’m shown completely wrong.

But enough with the realism, how about a nice, rosy picture? Here’s what I’d love to see happen:

House Republicans grow a spine. On the first day in office, they make the so-called “Bush” tax cuts permanent. Next, they pass a rule that says that if the government “shuts down,” all spending levels continue at 50% of their current levels and there is no funding for Congress. They write a budget that actually reduces spending massively — not just reductions in increases. In the meantime, they start getting rid of moronic government regulations, starting by tossing out the EPA, the dept of Education, ATF, and the dept of Energy. They stand on the budget and refuse to give in when the Senate refuses to pass it. Obama, the Senate, and the media all start screaming about how evil the House Republicans are — and the House adjourns and they go home, leaving government running at half-speed.

Obama issues executive orders to spend money, but no one listens to him. Government workers, who now have only half-jobs, actually start looking for training and start trying to get jobs where they have to be productive. Due to the government reductions and reductions in regulations, businesses can actually start producing again and can hire the former government workers as burger flippers, as the former burger flippers, now that they have shown they can work, move up.

In 2014, Obama doesn’t run for re-election. He claims it’s because of his health or something, people don’t really notice or care. Ron Paul somehow secures the Republican nomination for president. Hillary runs on the Democrat ticket, but only wins NY, VT, FL, CA, WA, and OR. Republicans win the House (losing a few seats) and get 50 seats in the Senate. Paul then sets about setting up a government based on the US Constitution.

Hey, I can dream of a better world, right?

The Democrats have been spending like there is no tomorrow and they, along with Barack Obama, are getting us close to the point where our debt will surpass our GDP. This did not bother them as they were forcing things down our throats because they mistakenly believed they had a mandate to do the things they wanted. When they saw the resistance from the American people they still went balls to the walls and forced their agenda on us anyway.

But now that November is approaching and the polls show they could lose a lot of seats (some say they will lose both chambers of Congress), they are curtailing their prolific spending. The Democrats, with tacit approval from Obama, have shelved agenda items that will add huge amounts to the debt. They are even neglecting their duty to have a budget because they are worried about how voting on a big budget will harm them in November.

They did not listen to us before but they are listening now because their jobs are on the line. If they get voted back into office they will go right back to their out of control spending. In fact, if they win they will spend even more because they will believe that they were given a mandate for their past spending.

We need to vote this scum out of office and replace them with people, Republican or Democrat, who will show some fiscal sanity. We need people who will put the brakes on the radical Obama agenda.

Progressives are also on the attack but they are upset because they want even more spending. They are mad that Obama and his Democrats have not spent even more money to give the base, the non producers in society, more of what the hard workers earn. Progressives want more seats in Congress so they can push for more and more redistribution of wealth.

These cretins are jealous of those who have achieved something in life and want to take it away. They want Obama and his jack boots to redistribute OUR money.

It is time to end this insanity and put an end to liberals, the progressive movement, and the radical Obama agenda.

We can do that by throwing all these bums out in November.

About 146 days left and I can see November from my home.

The ghetto Obama.

Never surrender, never submit.

Barack Obama ticked off the people of Las Vegas for a second time when he said that people could not just go to Vegas and blow a bunch of money. Of course, the money is yours (though he might see it differently) and what you do with it is your business. But, if you are blowing your money in Vegas or anywhere else you should not be looking for a government handout. Obama’s latest economic advice is:

“When times are tough, you tighten your belts.”

“You don’t go buying a boat when you can barely pay your mortgage….”

“You don’t blow a bunch of cash on Vegas when you’re trying to save for college.” Charlie Foxtrot

I do not disagree with any of that but if you decide not to tighten your belt, to buy a boat or to blow your money in Vegas it is your business. Just don’t ask the taxpayer to pay for your lack of fiscal prudence.

The hilarity of all this is that Obama, while admonishing people and extolling the virtues of fiscal responsibility, submitted a budget that increases spending by 36% and runs a huge deficit.

Obama doubled the deficit in his first year (Dick Morris explains how it is not all Bush’s fault) and will increase the deficit by even more with his out of control spending.

In other words Mr. Obama, you can’t spend money you don’t have if you really want to decrease the deficit.

It is amazing that Obama had the nerve to dispense economic advice while doing the opposite of what he preached.

My wife and I have a balanced household budget. We spend less than we make and put the rest into savings and retirement. This was not always the case as I can remember the days when I made $600 a month as a private in the Army while trying to support my family. There were plenty of months where we had three days of food and five days until payday.

We did without and were prudent with our money and now we are in positions where we earn enough to pay our bills and save. We did this by doing without. We lived (and continue to live) within our means.

Barack Obama should try running his budget the way we run ours and the government would be better off. Do without the things that are not necessary. Cut programs (particularly redundant ones) and spend less.

But then again it is always easier to spend when it is someone else’s money.

As long as we taxpayers allow those in government to extort money from us they will continue to spend like there is no tomorrow.

And if they keep it up there will be no tomorrow.

Others:
Did We Just Get Lectured on Fiscal Responsibility By the Guy With the $1.6 Trillion Budget Deficit? [Hot Air]

The nearly 1 trillion dollar stimulus package that had to be passed immediately back when Obama took office was supposed to fix the economy and create jobs. Obama told us that unemployment would go way up without the stimulus but would top out at under 9% with it. We have an unemployment rate of 10% and this is an indication that either the stimulus did not work, they lied to us, or they did not know what they were talking about. I think it is a little of each.

Only about 20% of the stimulus money has been spent. It was supposed to be spent on “shovel ready” projects that would create jobs but no jobs are being created and it is obvious that the stimulus did not work. So what do you think Democrats do when their massive spending does not work? Why, they spend more. The Democrats in the House passed a 155 billion dollar jobs bill designed to go toward “shovel ready” projects and create jobs.

Forgive me, but wasn’t the first stimulus supposed to create jobs and be for “shovel ready” projects? If it did not work, why spend more money for the same thing? Since only 20% of the original stimulus has been spent, why commit more money? Shouldn’t they spend all the original stimulus before committing more money?

This is a sign that the first stimulus was a failure. It is an admission from Democrats that the massive spending did not help. Instead of being smart and realizing that more of the same was bad, they spent anyway.

The bill was touted as a job creator but it is political ploy. The Democrats are trying to show that they are on top of things by throwing more money at the problem. They are foolishly demonstrating that they have no concept of fiscal responsibility (which is their pattern) and they are doing so at their own peril.

Do they actually think Americans are so stupid we will not be able to see they are throwing good money after bad and that they are doing more of what has proven to be ineffective? Can’t they see the stupidity of committing more money to this when 80% of the original money has NOT been spent?

This is absolute stupidity and will end up costing them in the long run.

It will end up costing all of us in the long run…

Source:
al-Reuters