Paul Ryan's Proposed Budget Cuts...

Via reader LindaD, here's a somewhat itemized list of the cuts proposed by Paul Ryan if Romney wins the election.

PAUL RYAN'S PROPOSED BUDGET CUTS A List the Republican Budget will cut Notice S.S. and the military are NOT on this list. These are all the programs that the new Republican House has proposed cutting. Read to the end. * Corporation for Public Broadcasting Subsidy -- $445 million annual savings. * Save America ’s Treasures Program -- $25 million annual savings. * International Fund for Ireland -- $17 million annual savings. * Legal Services Corporation -- $420 million annual savings. * National Endowment for the Arts -- $167.5 million annual savings. * National Endowment for the Humanities -- $167.5 million annual savings. * Hope VI Program -- $250 million annual savings. * Amtrak Subsidies -- $1.565 billion annual savings. * Eliminate duplicating education programs -- H.R. 2274 (in last Congress), authored by Rep. McKeon, eliminates 68 programs at a savings of $1.3 billion annually. * U.S. Trade Development Agency -- $55 million annual savings. * Woodrow Wilson Center Subsidy -- $20 million annual savings. * Cut in half funding for congressional printing and binding -- $47 million annual savings. * John C. Stennis Center Subsidy -- $430,000 annual savings. * Community Development Fund -- $4.5 billion annual savings. * Heritage Area Grants and Statutory Aid -- $24 million annual savings. * Cut Federal Travel Budget in Half -- $7.5 billion annual savings * Trim Federal Vehicle Budget by 20% -- $600 million annual savings. * Essential Air Service -- $150 million annual savings. * Technology Innovation Program -- $70 million annual savings. * Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) Program -- $125 million annual savings.. * Department of Energy Grants to States for Weatherization -- $530 million annual savings. * Beach Replenishment -- $95 million annual savings. * New Starts Transit -- $2 billion annual savings. · Exchange Programs for Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, and Their Historical Trading Partners in Massachusetts -- $9 million annual savings * Intercity and High Speed Rail Grants -- $2.5 billion annual savings. * Title X Family Planning -- $318 million annual savings. * Appalachian Regional Commission -- $76 million annual savings. * Economic Development Administration -- $293 million annual savings. * Programs under the National and Community Services Act -- $1.15 billion annual savings. * Applied Research at Department of Energy -- $1.27 billion annual savings. * Freedom CAR and Fuel Partnership -- $200 million annual savings.. * Energy Star Program -- $52 million annual savings. * Economic Assistance to Egypt -- $250 million annually. * U.S. Agency for International Development -- $1.39 billion annual savings. * General Assistance to District of Columbia -- $210 million annual savings. * Subsidy for Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority -- $150 million annual savings. * Presidential Campaign Fund -- $775 million savings over ten years. * No funding for federal office space acquisition -- $864 million annual savings. * End prohibitions on competitive sourcing of government services. * Repeal the Davis-Bacon Act -- More than $1 billion annually. * IRS Direct Deposit: Require IRS to deposit fees for some services it offers (such as processing payment plans for taxpayers) into the Treasury, instead of allowing to remain as part of its budget-- $1.8 billion savings over ten years. * Require collection of unpaid taxes by federal employees -- $1 billion total savings. WHAT THE HELL IS THIS ABOUT – a billion dollars for a no-brainer? * Prohibit taxpayer funded union activities by federal employees -- $1.2 billion savings over ten years. * Sell excess federal properties the government does not make use of -- $15 billion total savings. * Eliminate death gratuity for Members of Congress. WHAT??? * Eliminate Mohair Subsidies -- $1 million annual savings. * Eliminate taxpayer subsidies to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change -- $12.5 million annual savings WELL ISN'T THAT SPECIAL * Eliminate Market Access Program -- $200 million annual savings. * USDA Sugar Program -- $14 million annual savings. * Subsidy to Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) -- $93 million annual savings. * Eliminate the National Organic Certification Cost-Share Program -- $56.2 million annual savings. * Eliminate fund for Obamacare administrative costs -- $900 million savings. * Ready to Learn TV Program -- $27 million savings. * HUD Ph.D. Program. * Deficit Reduction Check-Off Act. * TOTAL SAVINGS: $2.5 Trillion over Ten Years   Oddly enough, I think most of this stuff is just a starting point.  Eliminate the Depts of Education, Energy, HHS, HUD, Homeland Security as well as various offices, agencies such as the EPA (can be consolidated into a much smaller more efficient entity).  Eliminate the duplicate offices that still exist. Replace those departments with block grants to the various states.  Furthermore, eliminate the strangling regulations that those departments, agencies and offices on the economy

Proving Media Bias

Tim Groseclose of Prager University has developed a formula to statistically, how mainstream media outlets are biased.  Here's the video.




Furthermore, he has a test that will give you your "Political Quotient", or where you stand on a scale of 1-100, 0 being far right conservative, most America's stand right in the centre at 50...where do you stand?   I'm fairly moderate, politically, since I'm far more libertarian than conservative but my PQ in this test is far right conservative,

Here’s my PQ: 0.6
Politicians with similar PQs are:
Michele Bachmann (R-Minn, 2007-09) PQ=-4.1
James DeMint (R-S.C. 1999-2009) PQ=5.1
This is because fiscally, I would like to see the size and scope of the federal government rolled back by a 50-70%.  Reduce the federal departments to Defense, Treasurey, Commerce, Justice and Transportation (because of the NTSB, and a couple of other effective agencies).  Terminate all those sucking off Uncle Sam's hind tit, and forcing them out into the work force...to do something productive.  Essentiall, I firmly believe most of the functions that the federal goverment has usurped, more properly, belong to the responsibility of the various states.

This stems from the wording of the 10th Amendment of the US Constitution:

Amendment X

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

That's pretty straight forward wording.  If it's not specifically permitted to the federal government by the Constitution, those powers are reserved to the states and the people...That's my main opposition to National Health Care...if a state (like Massachusetts) desires to build a state health care system, they have every right to do so, and they can require their citizens to participate in that system...much like buying auto insurance if you own a car. 

But, I strenuously object to the federal government usurping that power to itself...as current law stands, under legal precedent, the federal government require everyon to purchase a GM car...that's a fair reading of the US Supreme Court's recent ruling on ObamaCare being legal under the "commerce clause" of the Bill of Rights...

Think about that for a moment...but I digress.  This is about media bias.  You can't read a newspaper, or watch TV news without being bombarded by the bias of JournoList members. POLITICO.com is unashamedly a propaganda arm of the Obama administration...with the NY Times/LA Times and WaPo not far away...

Via The BlogFather...

Washington's Parasitic Economy

Andrew Ferguson is interviewed by Reason TV...on the parasitic Washington, DC economy.




UPDATE:  As someone who lives in the Baltimore-Washington Metroplex, you see every day the effects of the influx of government bureaucrats.  None of them actually contribute a damn thing to the economy...and infact sucking at Uncle Sam's hind tit as they do, they are draining money that could be better off spend by the people who pay taxes. 

It's time to do across the board, 30% reductions in, not just spending, but firing 30% of the people who work for government...ALL branches of government.  Better yet, reduce the size of those working for Congress  by 50%...

Then, simplify the tax code to something along the lines of a flat income tax (20% for everyone above the poverty line).  It's not "fair" that someone who busts their ass and earns $1 million dollars a year, yet has to pay 50% of those earning to shore up a corrupt bureaucratic system that the country can't afford any more.

We won't see any of this happen until the government hits the bankruptcy skids, much like the Greek government is on the brink of.  No politician currently eating at the DC trough has the courage to do anything like the draconian measures that will be necessary to save our Republic...more's the pity.

via Newsalert

A Modern Fable

Via Linda,

Once upon a time

the government had a vast scrap yard in the middle of a desert.   Congress said, "Someone may steal from it at night."  So they created a night watchman position and hired a person for the job.

Then Congress said, "How does the watchman do his job without instruction?"  So they created a planning department and hired two people, one person to write the instructions, and one person to do time studies.

Then Congress said, "How will we know the night watchman is doing the tasks correctly?"  So they created a Quality Control department and hired two people. One was to do the studies and one was to write the reports.

Then Congress said, "How are these people going to get paid?"  So they created two positions: a time keeper and a payroll officer then hired two people.

Then Congress said, "Who will be accountable for all of these people?" So they created an administrative section and hired three people, an Administrative Officer, Assistant Administrative Officer, and a Legal Secretary.

Then Congress said, "We have had this command in operation for one Year and we are $918,000 over budget, we must cut back."  So they laid-off the night watchman.

NOW slowly, let it sink in.

Quietly, we go like sheep to slaughter.

Does anybody remember the reason given for the establishment of the DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY..... during the Carter Administration?
Anybody?

Anything?

No?

Didn't think so!

Bottom line is, we've spent several hundred billion dollars in support of an agency....the reason for which not one person who reads this can remember!

Ready??

It was very simple... and at the time, everybody thought it very appropriate.

The Department of Energy was instituted on 8/04/1977,
TO LESSEN OUR DEPENDENCE ON FOREIGN OIL.

Hey, pretty efficient, huh???

AND NOW IT'S 2011 -- 34 YEARS LATER -- AND THE BUDGET FOR THIS "NECESSARY" DEPARTMENT IS AT $24.2 BILLION A YEAR. IT HAS 16,000 FEDERAL EMPLOYEES AND APPROXIMATELY 100,000 CONTRACT EMPLOYEES; AND LOOK AT THE JOB IT HAS DONE! (THIS IS WHERE YOU SLAP YOUR FOREHEAD AND SAY, "WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?
33 years ago 30% of our oil consumption was foreign imports. Today 70% of our oil consumption is foreign imports.

Ah, yes -- good old Federal bureaucracy.
NOW, WE HAVE TURNED OVER THE BANKING SYSTEM, HEALTH CARE, AND THE AUTO INDUSTRY TO THE SAME GOVERNMENT?

Hello!! Anybody Home?

Another (Secret) Bailout To Banks

If you're not angry enough  at the Fed and the Federal Government watch this video:

The Numbers They Are Aweful!

From Steven Green of VodkaPundit, via Instapundit...these numbers speak for themselves.  I don't often reproduce entire blog posts, but these...speak for themselves...

“The numbers, they are awful.”

9.2% — unemployment rate for June.
0.1% — increase since May.
16.2% — underemployment rate for June.
0.4% — increase since May.
8% — conventional wisdom for the maximum allowable unemployment rate to win reelection.
15 — remaining BLS reporting months before Election Day.
255,000 — net jobs that must be created each and every month to reach 8%.
18,000 — net jobs created last month.
44,000 — downward revision to April and May job creation.
3,825,000 — total net jobs needed before Election Day.
2,100,000 — jobs created in the last fifteen months.
11.2% — unemployment rate if the labor participation rate was as high as it was in January, 2009.
290,000 — best monthly net jobs gain during Obama administration.
231,000 — real best gain, minus temporary Census hiring.
14 — months since best monthly gain.
1% — decrease in DJIA in the opening minute of trading, day that jobs figures released.
$1,200,000,000,000 — cost of ARRA “stimulus,” with interest.
1,900,000 — net jobs lost since ARRA was signed.
2 — quantitative easing programs since 2008.
~$2,000,000,000,000 — total of first QE program during Great Recession.
$600,000,000,000 — total of second QE program, just ended.
40% — increase in federal debt since January, 2009.
30% — increase in annual federal spending since January, 2009.
20% — decrease in federal revenues since January, 2009.
12% — decline in value of US dollar since January, 2009.
37% — increase in number of Americans on food stamps since January, 2009.
62% — increase in Misery index since January, 2009.
800 — days since the Senate passed a budget.
1.9% — last quarterly GDP increase.
2.5% — consensus projection for last quarterly GPD increase.
2.7% — official White House projection.
3.0% or better — GDP growth needed to dent unemployment.
3.6% — official White House GDP growth projection for 2012.
2.7% — IMF GDP growth projection for 2012.
30% — federal debt held by public as percentage of GDP, 2005.
60% — federal debt held by public as percentage of GDP, 2010.
180% — federal debt held by public as percentage of GDP, CBO estimate, 2035.

0% — odds of current path being sustainable.

Then toss in this graphic that shows that the recovery from the current recession is the slowest-worst in modern times:

and then this:

...and then think about our "elite political leaders" in Washington argueing whether or not to raise the debt ceiling!  They are quibbling over fake "spending cuts" (which aren't really cuts at all as has been demonstrated in the past few months) that at best cut fractions of a percentage point, while our economy struggles along, it's time to dump the leadership in the GOP, and start fresh.  They don't have the courage to do what needs to be done.

"Put Me In Charge" (of government handouts...)

This was in the Waco Tribune Herald, Waco , TX Nov 18, 2010

Put me in charge . . .

Put me in charge of food stamps. I'd get rid of Lone Star cards; no cash for Ding Dongs or Ho Ho's, just money for 50-pound bags of rice and beans, blocks of cheese and all the powdered milk you can haul away. If you want steak and frozen pizza, then get a job.

Put me in charge of Medicaid. The first thing I'd do is to get women  Norplant birth control implants or tubal ligations. Then, we'll test recipients for drugs, alcohol, and nicotine and document all tattoos and piercings. If you want to reproduce or use drugs, alcohol, smoke or get tats and piercings, then get a job.

Put me in charge of government housing. Ever live in a military barracks? You will maintain our property in a clean and good state of repair. Your "home" will be subject to inspections anytime and possessions will be inventoried. If you want a plasma TV or Xbox 360, then get a job and your own place.

In addition, you will either present a check stub from a job each week or you will report to a "government" job. It may be cleaning the roadways of trash, painting and repairing public housing, whatever we find for you. We will sell your 22 inch rims and low profile tires and your blasting stereo and speakers and put that money toward the common good..

Before you write that I've violated someone's rights, realize that all of the above is voluntary. If you want our money, accept our rules.. Before you say that this would be "demeaning" and ruin their "self esteem," consider that it wasn't that long ago that taking someone else's money for doing absolutely nothing was demeaning and lowered self esteem.
If we are expected to pay for other people's mistakes we should at least attempt to make them learn from their bad choices. The current system rewards them for continuing to make bad choices.

AND While you are on Govt subsistence, you no longer can VOTE! Yes that is correct. For you to vote would be a conflict of interest. You will voluntarily remove yourself from voting while you are receiving a Govt welfare check. If you want to vote, then get a job.

10 Ways to Reduce Government Spending

 Here are 10 suggestions to reduce the deficit produce a balanced budget.

1. Eliminate all ethanol subsidies (and ALL farm subsidies).
2. Eliminate all windmill subsidies.
3. Cut EPA’s budget 50%.
4. Eliminate the FCC.
5. Eliminate the NEA.
6. Eliminate public broadcasting money.
7. Eliminate the Dept  of Education.
8. Across the board 20% cut in funding.
9.  
10.  

I'm leaving spots 9 and 10 open for your suggestions.  Here are a couple of more.

But the best suggestion of all is that if (when) Congress fails to pass a balanced budget by the first day of the federal fiscal year, hold a special election 90 days later to replace all 535 of the worthless sonsabitches.  Another would be to end the full-time, year-round Congress.   Because they're there all year, they waste endless amounts of money.

US Funds Used To Renovate Mosques

American tax dollars are being used to renovate mosques in the Middle East.  We have had record deficits for the past 4 years thanks to the Democratic party, yet we're spending a billion dollars renovating mosques...doesn't this seem like an utter waste of money?  Follow the link to WSBTV's site for the video report.  Congress doesn't just need to cut spending, it must seriously reevaluate just what we're spending money on.

If you don't think that we can't have an across the board cut of at least 10% in spending, then this country is in serious trouble.  Our government is wasting billions of dollars on programs that not only don't do what they are supposed to do, but just merely cutting spending across the board would bring some sanity to the budgetary process.  Ending earmarks  is just a drop in the bucket of wasteful spending...

Government Waste: American Bureaucracy Style

Here's  a partial list compiled by  David Steinberg,  of all the government agencies that are cited by the GAO as haveing overlapping and wastefull responsibilities:

The Biggest Government


In a century, Big Government transformed an essential and minimalized service, the Federal Highway Administration, into the Department of Where the F*** Do You Think You’re Going, and the above fog machine is just the genetics of one department. I noted earlier that the GAO had “found” massive amounts of redundancy; it was a poor word. The GAO simply took the time to report on the disgust. Any rational man could look at the following, which is nothing more than a collection of current federal agencies, and understand the waste is of a scale difficult to comprehend and inspiring of our worst tendencies to rage.

This is your Big Government, perhaps the biggest Big Government there ever could be. The problem is not one or several agencies, but the whole damned thing: believe it, it is true — this is the actual structure of the United States. See if you can spot the redundancies:

· Advisory Council on Historic Preservation· American Battle Monuments Commission · Architect of the Capitol · Botanic Garden · Capitol Visitor Center · Constitution Center · National Capital Planning Commission · National Cemetery Administration (Veterans Affairs Department) · Smithsonian Institution · White House Commission on the National Moment of Remembrance

· Archives (National Archives and Records Administration) · Administrative Committee of the Federal Register · Library of Congress

· Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) · Administration for Native Americans · National Indian Gaming Commission

· Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (Justice) · Bureau of Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade (Treasury) · Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) · National Drug Intelligence Center · Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP)
· Bureau of Justice Statistics · Bureau of Labor Statistics · Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Congressional Research Service · Federal Interagency Council on Statistical Policy · National Agricultural Statistics Service

· Agricultural Marketing Service · Agriculture Department (USDA) · Marketing and Regulatory Programs (Agriculture Department) · Research, Education and Economics (Agriculture Department) · Risk Management Agency (Agriculture Department)
· Agency for International Development · African Development Foundation · Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (Helsinki Commission)
· Federal Highway Administration · Department of Transportation (DOT) · Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration · Federal Transit Administration · Maritime Administration · National Highway Traffic Safety Administration · National Transportation Safety Board · Research and Innovative Technology Administration (Transportation Department) · Surface Transportation Board · Transportation Security Administration
· Environmental Management (Energy Department) · Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) · Natural Resources Conservation Service
· Farm Credit Administration · Farm Service Agency · Land Management, Bureau of
· Export Administration (now the Bureau of Industry and Security) · Export-Import Bank of the United States

Below, how Big Government handles money:
· Commerce Department · Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States · Commodity Futures Trading Commission · Comptroller of the Currency Office · Council of Economic Advisers · Department of the Treasury · Disability Employment Policy Office · Economic Adjustment Office · Economic Analysis, Bureau of · Economic Development Administration · Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) · Economic Research Service · Economics & Statistics Administration · Engraving and Printing, Bureau of · Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity · Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board · Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council · Federal Financing Bank · Federal Reserve System · Financial Management Service (Treasury Department) · Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission · Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, National Commission · Government Printing Office (GPO) · Government National Mortgage Association · Mint (Treasury Department) · National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform · National Credit Union Administration · National Economic Council · Office of Management and Budget (OMB) · Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) · Small Business Administration (SBA) · Taxpayer Advocacy Panel · U.S. International Trade Commission · U.S. Trade and Development Agency · U.S. Trade Representative

And “health”:
· Administration on Aging (AoA) · Administration on Developmental Disabilities · Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) · Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry · Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Interagency Coordinating Committee · Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion · Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) · Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board · Civilian Radioactive Waste Management · Committee for Purchase from People Who Are Blind or Severely Disabled · Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) · Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) · Health Resources and Services Administration · Indian Health Service · National AIDS Policy Office · National Council on Disability · National Institutes of Health (NIH) · Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) · Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission · Rehabilitation Services Administration (Education Department) · Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences

And “Education”:
· Education Department (ED) · Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (OESE) · Federal Interagency Committee on Education · National Institute for Literacy · National Science Foundation

And energy:
· Energy Department (DOE) · Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy · Energy Information Administration · Federal Energy Regulatory Commission · Fossil Energy · National Laboratories (Energy Department) · Power Administrations · Science Office (Energy Department) · Nuclear Energy, Science and Technology · Nuclear Regulatory Commission · Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board

And your food:
· Food and Drug Administration (FDA) · Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services · Food Safety and Inspection Service · Food and Nutrition Service · Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration · National Institute of Food and Agriculture

And your retirement:
· National Bipartisan Commission on the Future of Medicare · Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration (now the Employee Benefits Security Administration) · Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation · Railroad Retirement Board · Social Security Administration (SSA) · Social Security Advisory Board

And “science”:

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) · National Ocean Service · National Weather Service (NOAA) · National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) · Office of Science and Technology Policy · Office of Scientific and Technical Information

And the border:

 Office of Refugee Resettlement · U.S. Border Patrol (now Customs and Border Protection) · U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services · U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement · Executive Office for Immigration Review

And this … this is how Big Government attempts to make everything better:

 Arctic Research Commission · Appalachian Regional Commission · Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board (Access Board) · Chief Acquisition Officers Council · Chief Financial Officers Council · Chief Human Capital Officers Council · Chief Information Officers Council · Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee · Commission of Fine Arts · Commission on International Religious Freedom · Committee for the Implementation of Textile Agreements · Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) · Community Planning and Development · Corporation for National and Community Service · Coordinating Council on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention · Council on Environmental Quality · Delaware River Basin Commission · Denali Commission · Domestic Policy Council · Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy · Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) · English Language Acquisition Office · Federal Citizen Information Center (FCIC) · Federal Consulting Group · Federal Executive Boards · Federal Geographic Data Committee · Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight · Federal Housing Finance Board · Federal Interagency Committee for the Management of Noxious and Exotic Weeds · Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer · Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service · Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board · Foreign Agricultural Service · General Services Administration (GSA) · Indian Arts and Crafts Board · Illinois and Michigan Canal National Heritage Corridor Commission · Innovation and Improvement Office · Institute of Peace · Interagency Alternative Dispute Resolution Working Group · Inter-American Foundation · Interagency Council on Homelessness · Japan-United States Friendship Commission · Joint Board for the Enrollment of Actuaries · Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies · Joint Fire Science Program · Legal Services Corporation · Marine Mammal Commission · Merit Systems Protection Board · Millennium Challenge Corporation · Minority Business Development Agency · Mississippi River Commission · Morris K. Udall Foundation: Scholarship and Excellence in National Environmental Policy · Multifamily Housing Office · National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency · National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) · National Mediation Board · National Technical Information Service · National Telecommunications and Information Administration · Northwest Power Planning Council · Office of Compliance · Office of Government Ethics · Office of Personnel Management · Office of Thrift Supervision · Open World Leadership Center · Overseas Private Investment Corporation · Peace Corps · Presidio Trust · Regulatory Information Service Center · Rural Business and Cooperative Programs · Rural Development · Rural Housing Service · Rural Utilities Service · Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation · Southeastern Power Administration · Southwestern Power Administration · Stennis Center for Public Service · State Justice Institute · Surface Mining, Reclamation and Enforcement · Susquehanna River Basin Commission · TRICARE Management · Trustee Program (Justice Department) · Western Area Power Administration · White House Commission on Presidential Scholars · Women’s Bureau (Labor Department)

This is what conservatives mean by Big Government...it's past time to trim ALL of the programs, offices, etc...and turn the dead weight manning them back to the private sector.

Obama Panel To Probe Stimulus Waste @ Arizona Ritz-Charlton...You Just Can't Make This Stuff UP!

Here's an email I just sent to the

Recovery Independent Advisory Panel, a sub-committee of the larger Recovery Accountability and Transparency board (sometimes known as the RAT board). The stimulus bill set up the Recovery Independent Advisory Panel, or RIAP, to make recommendations to identify and prevent waste of the bill's $814 billion in stimulus spending.

I found a link on Instapundit that leads to a story in the Washington Examiner

Dear Sir, I'm writing in response to the upcoming meeting in Arizona on, "The purpose of the November 22, 2010 meeting is to allow the RIAP to have an open dialogue, with input from the public, on issues relating to fraud, waste, and abuse of Recovery Act funds," says a notice in the Federal Register.

Sooo...this board is meeting to discuss how the "stimulus package" is being wasted...you really can't make this stuff up. How in the world can you justify, in the midst of a huge recession, meeting in an exclusive $1000 per night resort? Honestly...

A reader emails: “Would send a damn fine message if a few hundred people joined these clowns for ‘Tea at the Ritz’.” Heh. That's from http://pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/109722/

Instapundit.com is hosted by Glenn Reynolds and it's a site that gets several million hits a month...and he's going to spend the next several weeks talking about it...so am I...and I get a couple hundred hits per week. On the other hand, I do know some someone from both the DNC and RNC are hitting my web site as is someone in the office of the Speaker of the House (that would be Nancy Pelosi's office until this coming January).

Now, how do you justify spending several hundred thousand dollars of my hard earned tax money on this meeting? Especially a meeting that is for "participants in the meeting will discuss various techniques to detect and prevent fraud, waste, and abuse, as well as larger issues of transparency and public awareness." Just how do you cretinous, brain-dead bureaucrats in our government justify this? Isn't there a nice federal office building in Arizona...that doesn't have to be rented for tens of thousands of tax dollars? Or wouldn't that be fair to those on the board, having to sit in hard government chairs instead of the plush, soft chairs of the Ritz-Charlton? I'm about to lose my apartment because I can't find a full time job and you people are wasting money like this?

Have you no shame? You wonder why the Democratic Party got pasted so badly this past election, this is why. You waste money like there's no tomorrow...but tomorrow does come...and January is coming very soon.

Sincerely,

Richard A. Vail
Pikesville, MD 21208
http://thevailspot.blogspot.com/

The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.--Thomas Jefferson

Just for fun, I sent courtesy copies to various state and federal legislators, including my Congressman, State Delegates and Senator, and of course those paragons of fiscal virture, Barbara Mikulski and Ben Cardin, my wonderful US Senators.
Here's the email address if you feel inclined to write with your comments on this wonderful meeting

panel@ratb.gov

Here's a link to the Federal Register for the announcement of the meeting.  How could I forgo a link to the hotel website for a great description of how these bureaucrats will be basking in luxury at our expense.

Here's a link to the room calculator for a suite it's $359.00 per night...until the 25th when rates go up to $605 per night. 

Most Expensive Public School In History

Here's a report on the most expensive public school in history.  It's in Los Angeles, and cost $578,000.000.00, yep 578 million dollars.

Sen Michael Bennet D-CO Admits Stimilus Package A Failure

Senator Michael Bennet, D-CO, said in a town meeting last Saturday, 21 August, 2010, that the trillions the Obama administration has spent has been wasted. 

We have managed to acquire $13 trillion of debt on our balance sheet” and, “in my view we have nothing to show for it.” Speaking of the debt, he said our debt almost equals the economy. Regarding the current job situation, Bennet said the situation has been dire for over a decade saying, “We have created no net new jobs in the United States since 1998” which were the last two years of the Clinton administration. Pointing to a slide showing budget expenditures, he said that currently 65 percent of the budget was for social security, Medicaid and Medicare expenditures and that we could not grow our way out of debt.

Those remarks were made in one of the few town hall meetings held by Democrats this summer.  This meeting was held in Greeley, Colorado, and reported by the local paper, the Greeley Gazette.  My own Senators (Mikulski & Cardin, both D) and Congressman (Sarbanes, D-MD2) have failed to hold any either.  It's time to make these spendthrift legislators accountable for their actions.  They have spent $3,000,000,000,000.00 in the past year in stimulus packages and bailouts.  Nothing has come out of this but more debt.  Mr. Obama, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi are proposing to spend ever more money in an attempt to rape the country to pay off ever more of their rapacious union supporters (SEIU-government employees in particular have faired far better than the average worker in this country).

Real Or Fake? Which Spending Project is Real?

What Ailes the Country?

The root economic collapse are not simple. They stem from several sources, but primarily within Congress and a few Senators and Congressmen who insisted 12-14 years ago that owning a home was a "right" and must be extended to the broadest possible base. Another root cause is...again Congress, only this time, their ability to spend money without having to make commensurate cuts elsewhere in the budget. A third root cause of our economic woes is related to and a subsidiary dividend of the first two issues: Credit, or rather the lack thereof.

A number of years ago, Congressman Barney Frank, (D-MA4) along with Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Christopher Dodd (D-CT) decided that home ownership was a right that must be extended to everyone in the United States...regardless of their ability to pay the resulting mortgage. They insisted that Fanny May and Freddie Mac, the publicly owned/financed mortgage guarantee corporations must begin issuing subprime home loans. Wikipedia defines subprime loans as follows:

"Subprime lendings evolved with the realization of a demand in the marketplace for loans to high-risk borrowers with imperfect credit.[2] The first subprime was initiated in 1993. Many companies entered the market when the prime interest rate was low, and real interest became negative allowing modest subprime rates to flourish; negative interest rates are hand-outs, such that the more you borrow the more you earn.[citation needed] Others entered with the relaxation of usury laws.[2] Traditional lenders were more cautious and historically turned away potential borrowers with impaired or limited credit histories.[2] Statistically, approximately 25% of the population of the United States falls into this category.[citation needed] In 1998, the Federal Trade Commission estimated that 10% of new-car financing in the US was provided by subprime loans, and that $125 billion of $859 billion total mortgage dollars were subprime.[2]

"In the third quarter of 2007, subprime ARMs only represented 6.8% of the mortgages outstanding in the US, yet they represented 43.0% of the foreclosures started. Subprime fixed mortgages represented 6.3% of outstanding loans and 12.0% of the foreclosures started in the same period.[3]"

Thus in a nutshell, subprime loans are those that are granted to people with poor credit, who have in the past shown that they are irresponsible and defaulted on loans in the past. An additional criteria of subprime home loans was that they were often granted with little or no money as down payment and the loans often exceeded 125% of the value of the home...thus more money was given than the borrower's ability to pay back and was greater than the value of the property in question. Thus the borrower has little or no incentive to remain in the property if the ensuing housing bubble bursts...

When the credit crisis of 2007-8 began to perk up into the greater economy, it stemmed from increasing foreclosure rates of those very borrowers who should never have been granted loans in the first place. Then, as credit began to dry up, it effected all other sectors of the economy but most significantly, automotive sales and construction, as those industries are based heavily on the availability of credit lines, first in auto loans, and secondarily in construction firms being able to borrow the funds necessary to construct homes, commercial property, etc. Without easily available credit, those two industries are bound to fail in a rapid manner...and fail they did.

Enter Congress...Congress in it's infinite stupidity, led by Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, and the Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid, jumped into the fray with the Toxic Asset Relief Program (TARP) which was supposed to buy up foreclosed properties and keep various "too big to fail" banking/lending houses on Wall Street solvent. Not coincidentally, AIG, was the most seriously endangered...it also happened to be the administrator of Congressional retirement funds...

These companies were deemed to important to be allowed to fail through normal marketary forces, i.e. they followed bad business plans and were rewarded for their stupidity, while small houses who followed economically vaible plans were punished by being forced to pay higher taxes and fees to partially fund the $750,000,000,000.00 plan (which has now ballooned beyond a trillion dollars). Unfortunately, most of these funds have been dispensed by the administration in a manner other than that which was mandated by Congress. Secretary of the Treasury, Timothy Geithner has used these funds to a slush fund in order to bailout GM and Chrysler to the tune of almost $100,000,000,000.00 so far.

Following the election, a victorious Barack Obama, with his enablers, Messer's Reid and Pelosi, settled upon a plan to spend another trillion dollars as a "stimulus package" to jump start the economy. Mr. Obama, in failing to show any leadership at all, delegated the formulation of the "package" to Congress...who larded it with pork typical of an emergency spending bill. It has been shown, that spending in Democratic districts has been more than 2-1 that of GOP held seats regardless of actual need in those districts.

However, in a recent study by Lauren Cohen, Joshua Coval and Christopher Malloy of the Harvard University Business School in their study, 'Do Powerful Politicians Cause Corporate Downsizing?' they discovered, much to their surprise, that massive government spending in Congressional districts (a convenient size for the purposes of their study) had the effect of eliminating jobs and a reduction in research expenditures in the private sector. In other words, they concluded that the stimulus package wouldn't stimulate the economy, it would have the direct and negative effect that it has had. Thus, unemployment has remained at 25 year highs...with a U6 rate of 17-20%. which is well above the U3 rate of 9.9%.

Once more enters Congress, which has passed in the past two years, record sized government budgets that will double the national debt within five years. Additionally, each year's projected deficit has exceeded $1,300,000,000,000.00 for last year, and 1,600,000,000,000.00 for this year, though that figure is been altered upward several times over the past few months as revenue received by the IRS has continued to slide.

There are several options available to alleviate our current economic woes. Unfortunately, this administration and Congressional leadership is deeply wedded to a flawed Keynsian economic model and won't implement any of these ideas. First off, a steep reduction in business taxes would release the private sector from an onerous burden and enable it to reinvest funds in expansion. Secondly, reducing or eliminating the Capital Gaines Tax would encourage further investment in the private sector. In the past, reducing taxes has been followed almost immediately by rapid expansion of the economy. The Reagan tax cuts of the 1980's led to the longest period of economic growth in our nation's history. Unfortunately, Congress as it is presently constituted will not implement either of these proposals, despite the fact that reducing taxes encourages economic growth, which leads to higher tax revenues.

Lastly, if Congress in a fit of sanity that's not envisioned in the near future, would not pass spending bills that increase spending without commensurate decreases' in other areas. This won't happen as our political class refuses to make the difficult decisions needed to eliminate deficit spending prefering to "kick the can down the road," and avoid having to make any hard decisions now.

Eliminating those governmental departments that are unnecessary or have become "jobs" programs, such as the Dept of Education, Health and Human Services, Commerce, as well as Energy. None of these departments are really necessary and don't actually perform well or efficiently in the sectors that they are purported to regulate. By eliminating them, nearly 25% of the overall budget would be eliminated and that unnecessary spending could be saved with an overall savings of nearly $1,000,000,000,000.00 per year. Yet, none of this will occur as Congress and this Administration want to have their cake and eat it too...

However, neither party has shown the political fortitude needed to tackle this growing list of economic problems.  Both seem to be enamoured of government expansion.  It's merely a matter of the rate of expansion that is the root issue.  In 2002-2006, the GOP expanded the scope of government to an unprecendented degree...but then, the Democratic Party took control of the reigns of government, in 2006, an began to pass budgets that exceed even those.  Once a Democrat took over the White House, the scope of government expansion sky rocketed.

Last year, compensation of government employees exceeded that of the private sector.  Addtionally, the numbers of people who no longer produce actual goods or services exceeded those in the productive private sector.  This sort of growth cannot be sustained.  In a business, if the administrative side begins to out number that of the productivity based side the business fails (i.e. GM, is an excellent example of this).  Government has now achieved that magic number.  What happens when governments reach this point?  Look at Greece, Spain and Portugal.  These three countries are bankrupt and can no longer afford the level of governmental spending that they have been following for several decades.  Greece's GDP is now exceeded by it's level of debt and is on the verge of defaulting on it's debt payments.   Our own government is predicted to reach this point in 2020...if not sooner.

The time has come for us as a nation to make those hard choices that are necessary in order to remain the ecnomic powerhouse that we have been for the past 160 years.  We have allowed our political class to spend money like drunken sailors without regard to the consequences to the future.  Social Security, which should have been able to sustain itself for another 50 years, has been through accounting tricks, systematically looted by Congress, both Democrat and Republican controlled, for more than 60 years, virtually since it's inception.  Medicare/Medicade, which were supposed to be capped at $40,000,000,000.00 spending now waste at least that much yearly.  We have allowed ourselves to be duped by politicians into believing that we can continue to spend money we don't have.

The time has come for us, as a nation to clean house and regain some measure of fiscal sanity.  In November, we must remove from office, thos incumbents who have shown that they are unable to look towards the future of our nation, and only look towards enriching themselves at the public trough.  Remember November!

EPA Video Contest

The EPA is holding a contest to which you can send a video celebrating the greatness of regulation.

Almost every aspect of our lives is touched by federal regulations...Even before you leave the house in the morning, government regulations help set the price of the coffee you drink, the voltage of electricity in your alarm clock, and the types of programming allowed on the morning news.

..and the reward is $2,500.00...in taxpayer money...Only in America can you enter a contest and win tax money back from the government...


Here are Reason.tv's entries:






How much money has been wasted on this act of stupidity?  How often does stupid shit like this happen in our government?  Moreover, this is why our government is going bankrupt!  And the Democrats want MORE government...and the inherent waste that's invovled.  Not me, no thanks.  Fire the adminsitrators who approved this, fire the idiots who came up with the idea and eliminate the bureaucratic department who's fault this is...that's the way to save money.

H/T Instapundit

UPDATE:  The Heritage Foundation has one as well...