Raise the Limit so we can Spend Less!
May 5, 2011 Political
The incredible political posturing continues at full-speed in the US Congress. Well, of course it does, that’s what they do. Keep that in mind when any elected politician talks — he’s a politician, and he’s not going to speak the truth. And that statement in itself is a sorry statement on the government of this country. But that is what it is, and I can do little more than point out the lies.
For example, what’s with the new trend of Republicans to demand decreases in spending in return for a higher debt limit? How does that make sense to anyone but a politician? If you’re going to spend LESS, then why do you need a higher borrowing limit? What are you going to do with that extra money you borrow, if you’re not SPENDING it?
Of course, here’s the dirty little “secret” that not one member of Congress wants you to know: the current, sitting members of Congress, the people there RIGHT NOW are 100% responsible for every single dollar spent. That’s without any exceptions. This current Congress will vote on a budget, and they get to decide what’s in that budget — NO ONE else.
So if they wanted the federal budget to be one dollar, THEY HAVE THE POWER TO DO THAT. If they want to budget to be 14 trillion dollars, they will do that.
Do not listen to any Congressman who puts the blame on anyone else for a single dollar in the budget. If the budget passed is 14.3 trillion dollars, it is ONLY because this Congress wants it to be so.
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Tags: debt limit, insanity, taxes
Insanity Thy Name Is Stimulus
Sep 6, 2010 Political
One definition of insanity is continuing to do the same thing while expecting a different result. If this definition is accurate then Barack Obama is insane. He and his Democrats have spent nearly a trillion dollars on a so called stimulus package that was touted as the thing we needed to save the economy and create jobs. We are more than 18 months into it and the unemployment rate is rising while the economy continues to teeter on complete collapse.
Obama spent money we did not have with lots of promises that it would work. He and his sock puppets continue to tell us that we are going in the right direction and that things are working despite all evidence to the contrary. The so called Summer of Recovery and been a Summer of Stagnation and the fall looks to be even worse.
So what does Obama want to do? Why spend MORE money on stimulating the economy. Obama wants 50 BILLION more dollars to stimulate the economy even though the 787 BILLION dollars dedicated to this effort has failed.
Vowing to find new ways to stimulate the sputtering economy, President Barack Obama will call for long-term investments in the nation’s roads, railways and runways that would cost at least $50 billion.
The infrastructure investments are one part of a package of targeted proposals the White House is expected to announce in hopes of jump-starting the economy ahead of the November election. Obama will outline the infrastructure proposal Monday at a Labor Day event in Milwaukee.
The original Stimulus was supposed to provide for these things. The “shovel ready” projects were supposed to be in the infrastructure and provide all the Obama union supporters with jobs right out of the starting gate. Instead, the money has gone to pay off other special interests and has provided no stimulus just as many of us had predicted.
We do not need more stimulus. Throwing more money we do not have at a problem that the original money did not fix is insane.
Obama is trying to use money we do not have and that will have to be repaid by taxpayers to win the midterm election. He wants to throw this money at the problem in hopes that things will get better in time to turn the election around. This simply will not happen and it shows how naive and inexperienced he really is. He does not understand the economy and he has no idea of the actual mood of the electorate.
If this were a wonderful idea it might pass because Obama’s Democrats still control Congress. However, many of his Democrats are fighting for their political lives because they marched lock step with Obama on his agenda. These Democrats chose party over principle and over constituents who did not want the Stimulus (or Health Care and Financial Reform) and now those very Democrats are avoiding these items like the plague because they do not want to be associated with the Obama agenda. They know it will mean the end of their time in Congress.
With that in mind, it is not likely they will vote to spend more money in a fashion that is opposed by the electorate.
Of course if they are reelected they will do it. They might also try in a lame duck session of Congress but we should be able to stop that.
In any event, Obama is insane if he thinks more of the same will produce different results.
A prediction; It will not take long before a progressive comments touting how wonderful the Stimulus has been and that it has been successful. Anyone making that claim is as brain damaged as Joe Biden.
Cave Canem!
Never surrender, never submit.
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Turtles Are Not This Smart*
Jun 17, 2009 Political
* But they are at least as smart as the dumb people who thought up this boondoggle. This is indicative of the mindset of people who really do not know the value of a dollar, combined with the total ignorance of how turtles think and act, among other things. This is just one of the more ridiculous things that our money is being spent on. Look, I would have no problem with this project if I thought that turtles would actually use and benefit from this underpass built with several million of our dollars- of course, that would be an awful lot of turtles to make this project cost- effective.
The 13-foot tunnel near Tallahassee, Fla., runs under Highway 27 — a busy road that has the highest road-kill rate for turtles in the world, according to state officials.
Josh Boan, the Florida Transportation Department’s natural resources manager, said a large number of turtles and other wildlife are killed in the area. In addition to protecting wildlife, he said the project is needed for safety: turtles hit by vehicles can become flying projectiles.
foxnews.com
This is an example of government gone wild with regards to budgets. If turtles would or could use this, perhaps could almost wrap my mind around this, as I have spent countless amounts of time picking turtles off of roads where they are trying to get to the other side for whatever reason.
But the sad fact is that turtles are not reasoning creatures- they do not see this tunnel and think, “Cool, a better way to cross”, simply because they do not think on a cogent level. They are primatives in their thoughts, reacting to danger and comfort pretty much exclusively.
In studies, the turtle was shown to not even notice cars, since the speed of these cars were above the perception of these creatures. Nor have they ever been shown to have any logical thought processes- they are strictly instinctual creatures, so they will not travel to a tunnel to cross the road, because they are incapable of the thought it would take to make that connection. Therefore, all creatures who did employ this tunnel would truly do so by accident.
Don’t you think there could be better uses for what little money we really have, than to satisfy some delusional politician’s ecological feel- good nonsense at this time? I grew up catching snakes and turtles- I know how they think, and I am sympathetic to their plight, but this is so wrong- headed as to defy common sense on several levels. Turtles will cross the road whereever they come to the road, and that is a sad fact.< So say goodbye to 3.4 million dollars of your money, used on something that will not help that which it is intended to do- but that is the story of America's government when it comes to spending our money- they just have to spend it, or they will have some kind of budgetary aneurysm, and they just have to spend it on worthless stuff that sounds great, but does nothing.
Can’t we just, for once, actually spend money wisely? Does the President and Congress have to act like drunken lottery winners, spending money just because they can?
This is money we can not spare, not even for turtles.
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Tags: government waste, insanity, stupidity, turtles
Democrats Downplay What They Once Assured Us
Dec 22, 2008 Political
In the run up to the 2006 midterm elections the Democrats told us they had the solutions to the problems facing America. Vote for them, they said, because they can lower gas prices and fix the ailing economy (that wasn’t exactly ailing at the time). They were unable to accomplish this and they needed more power to right the ship of state. In 2008 they won even more seats and America elected a man whose citizenship is in question, all on the promise of hope and change.
Well, gas prices are the lowest they have been in years but they had to cause a complete financial meltdown to accomplish that little task. The Democrats set the table for the financial meltdown when people like Barney Frank, Christopher Dodd, and Barack Obama were on the payroll of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Despite at least 17 warnings by the Bush administration, these people continued to insist that all was well. It was, if you were one of their friends making millions of dollars working for Fannie and Freddie.
Now though, the Democrats actually won and they will have to make good on the promises that they can fix it all. They will have to live up to promises that they can fix the economy and get people back to work. But, in true Democratic fashion, they are now lowering the bar. Once self assured in their ability to repair what is broken, the Democrats are now saying that things will take a long time to mend and that the 800 BILLION dollar stimulus package they are working on might not exactly do much.
Well who would have known? The first stimulus did not work. The bailout did not work and there is no indication that throwing more money, money we don’t have I might add, at the problem will actually fix it. The Democrats realize that they fooled millions of people into voting for them and those people will expect results. The same Democrats who wanted something done NOW are saying it might take a while.
I never had any doubt it would take a while and I also knew that stimulus packages and bailouts would not solve any problems. The end result of all the spending is that we don’t know where the money went, how much was actually spent (and what the final tally will be), or where we will find the resources to pay it back.
During the Great Depression the government threw money around and tried creating jobs. This, among other things, prolonged the depression and made things much worse.
The free market system will work out problems but it has to be a free market. We cannot have the government making rules that run contrary to the principle of a free market. We cannot allow people who do not have the means to buy a home to actually buy one. We cannot make credit rules so lax that college kids can apply for credit cards and be approved even though they are saddled with debt and have little or no income. George Bush said he is abandoning free market principles in order to save the economy but abandoning those principles is what got us in this mess in the first place.
Democrats in Washington are still subscribing to the idea that they can intervene in a free market and make things right but they are also realizing that this tact is having little effect. Thus, they are pulling back from those things they once assured us rather than admit they knew not what they were talking about in the first place.
Someone once said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.
It would appear that the Democrats are insane.
Source:
Wall Street Journal
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Tags: bailout, Democrats, expectation, insanity, stimulus package