Back to Basics

I’ve got to hand it to the White House — they really know how to sell an April Fools joke:

And when the administration that has perpetuated an insurmountable debt and whose own budget is over two months late wants to give you financial advice, you should… slowly turn and walk away:

(CNSNews.com) – President Barack Obama, who has increased the national debt by $53,377 per household, has proclaimed April “National Financial Capability Month,” during which his administration will do things such as teach young people “how to budget responsibly.”

“I call upon all Americans to observe this month with programs and activities to improve their understanding of financial principles and practices,” Obama said in an official proclamation released Friday.

“My Administration is dedicated to helping people make sound decisions in the marketplace,” he said.

“Together, we can prepare young people to tackle financial challenges–from learning how to budget responsibly to saving for college, starting a business, or opening a retirement account,” he said.

The “National Financial Capability Month” proclamation can be read on the White House website. That’s even funnier than Charlie Rangel offering tax preparation advice.

Let’s kick off the Obama administration’s push to help Americans become “financially capable” with lesson #1 from Joe Biden:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHFEcyUNBjg

The term “pre dawn” should only be used to describe two things: Raids and Tony Orlando’s early years. When “pre dawn” is used in reference to the time of day Congress acted, especially heading into a weekend, it probably means potential bad news for the rest of us. That said, at about 5 o’clock this morning — pre dawn — the Senate passed its first budget in four years. Maybe the “no budget no pay” bill did the trick, or maybe Dems decided it’s well past time to raise taxes again. The voting was first and foremost affected by positioning for 2014:

The Senate early Saturday passed its first budget in four years by a vote of 50 to 49.

The close vote was a big victory for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Senate Budget Chairwoman Patty Murray (D-Wash.), who had to overcome large differences within their caucus to push the resolution through.

Centrist Sens. Kay Hagan (D-N.C.), Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.), Mark Pryor (D-Ark.), Mark Begich (D-Alaska), Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) and Max Baucus (D-Mont.) were all non-committal up until the end.

Baucus, Begich, Hagan and Pryor joined the entire GOP caucus in voting against the budget resolution. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) missed the vote.

All the Democratic senators who voted “no” are up for reelection in 2014 in states that voted for GOP nominee Mitt Romney.

No Republicans voted for the Dem budget. An amendment in favor of constructing the Keystone Pipeline was approved by 62 senators, including 17 Democrats.

Republicans were quick to respond to the budget proposal passage:

In a statement released at 5 a.m. today, Senator Jeff Sessions, the top Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, blasts the budget the Senate passed very early this morning. Sessions’s main concern is that the budget “has zero real deficit reduction” and “never balances.”

“The content of the plan the majority has now approved demonstrates why they were unwilling to reveal it for so long: their proposal, once accurately understood, cannot be publicly defended,” says Sessions.

Which leads us back to “pre dawn.”

The Murray budget that passed was the usual Democrat definition of “balanced”: $1 trillion dollars in tax increases now combined with “cuts” (read: “miniscule decrease in the rate of spending increase”) set to kick in when the sun becomes a red giant and consumes the earth before cooling into a white dwarf — granted that’s an “earliest case” scenario for actual budget cuts ever taking effect.

The budget the Senate just passed sets a quadrennial snail’s pace precedent that shouldn’t be too difficult for Harry Reid’s successors to live up to — that is if he does indeed have successors. Reid might just stick around many more years until forced to retire (see the “red giant” event in the preceding paragraph).

What happens to the budget now? Chances are House Republicans will ask to borrow Joe Biden’s shotgun as soon as it arrives:

It now goes to the House, where it is expected to be shot down. Senators recently voted down a budget proposal passed by the Republican-controlled house.
[...]
Authored by Budget Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray, D-Washington, the proposal increases government spending — including repealing the automatic spending cuts required by sequestration — and raises taxes on the wealthy.

On Tuesday, March 5, Senate Republican Leader, Mitch McConnell, offered some remarks on the Senate floor that were largely, if not completely, ignored by the mainstream media. They were a stark warning about a dysfunctional government led by a President who is already in full campaign mode for the 2014 midterm elections.

“Back in November,” said McConnell, “the American people sent a divided government to Washington. I know this is not the outcome President Obama had hoped for. I know he wanted complete control of Washington, just like he had the first two years of his presidency.”

Citing the President’s goal of a Democrat controlled House, in addition to the Senate in 2014, McConnell cited the rebooting of his political organization, the provoking of “manufactured crisis with Congress, engineering show votes in the Senate, and traveling around the country to campaign relentlessly against his opponents.” That’s a nice way of saying that the President and the Democrat Party have embarked on the deliberate demonization of Republicans.

McConnell cited the implementation of the Sequester as opposed to any response to the nation’s financial crisis, noting that Republicans and all Americans “find ourselves in a situation where more than 1,400 days have passed since Senate Democrats have passed a budget” and the fact that “House Republicans have passed budgets that seriously address the transcendent challenge of our time, putting runaway Washington spending and debt on a sustainable path so we can create jobs and grow the economy.”

Families have to have a budget, but as far as the Obama administration is concerned, the nation does not. McConnell pointed out that “The President has been late submitting his own budget outline nearly every single year. He’s already missed this year’s deadline by more than a month.”

“The budget blueprint he sent us last year,” said McConnell, “”was so roundly ridiculed for its fiscal gimmickry and its massive tax hikes that, when it come to a vote in the Senate, his own party joined Republicans in voting it down 99 to O.”

“The President has to figure out how to govern with the situation he’s got, not the one he wishes had. That’s what being President is all about.”

McConnell went on to urge the President and the Senate to join in “actually solving problems” by legislating the way “we’re supposed to around here, with transparency, with public input, and with sufficient time to develop sound policy.”

“I know Washington Democrats’ most important priority right now is getting Nancy Pelosi her old job back in 2014. But that’s not what Americans want—and that’s why Washington has become so dysfunctional.”

McConnell speaks with the authority of his position in the Senate, but he also speaks in a low-key, often bland way, about the serious problems facing the nation. In the House his counterpart, John Boehner, the Speaker, has reached a point of such frustration that he speaks publicly in short angry bursts. Neither command either the media’s nor the public’s attention.

“The public,” said McConnell, expects the Congress and the White House “to address the most serious challenges facing our country. The public is tired of the manufactured crisis, the poll-tested gimmicks, and the endless campaigning—they expect and deserve better.”

I would not swap jobs with McConnell.

Inquiring minds ask this regarding President Obama’s OMB nomination: “To direct what?”

From the Wall Street Journal:

President Barack Obama on Monday announced he is nominating Clinton administration veteran Sylvia Mathews Burwell to be his budget chief.

Ms. Burwell is a veteran of budget battles, having worked in top posts inside the Clinton administration’s White House, budget office and Treasury Department. She is being nominated to become director of the Office of Management and Budget, a key policy-making slot that has broad influence on tax and spending proposals.

Now all the budget director needs is a budget to direct.

The administration’s budget director will work closely with Michael Moore’s dietician to determine who has the most futile and disregarded job in the country.

Burwell should fit right in. She’s got plenty of experience giving away money:

Since 2001, Burwell has worked in philanthropy, helping to give away billions of dollars to deserving endeavors for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in Seattle, first as executive vice president from 2001-2002; as chief operating officer from 2002-2006; then as president of the Global Development program until the end of 2011.

Billions? Chump change! I’m sure with the proper incentives they can get her to step it up a notch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kX15_T30FE

by Burt Prelutsky

The macro problems with most movies today is that they are way too long, the acting isn’t very good, the scripts are worse, and the target audience seems to be teenage boys.

The micro problems are, one, that directors seem to think they are being artful when they under-light scenes when all they’re doing is turning movies into radio shows, and, two, that far too many movies don’t believe in opening credits. It makes a certain amount of sense when TV shows open on action because they want to grab the viewer before he has a chance to start channel surfing. But with movies, the sucker has already paid for his ticket, and is not about to switch over to The Bachelor or some dumb talk show featuring Katie Couric or Joy Behar.

Speaking of TV, I’m surprised that nobody has followed in the footsteps of the legendary Art Linkletter and come up with a modern day version of Kids Say the Darndest Things. Just the other day, I heard a segment on some weekend radio program where they reported on some little kids replying to questions about the tooth fairy. One four-year-old was asked what he thought the tooth fairy did with all those teeth it collected. After thinking about it, the child guessed it built a house. When he was then asked why anyone would build a house out of teeth, he said, “Because people don’t have teeth made out of bricks.”

That is so much wiser, funnier and more logical, than anything that Bill Maher, Barbara Walters or Chris Matthews, has ever said, it’s obvious that the wrong people have TV talk shows.

When the Republicans said that if the Senate doesn’t come up with a budget — as it is legally obliged to do, but hasn’t done in four years — senators should stop being paid until they shape up, I had to laugh. For one thing, every senator is rich. The idea that if they don’t get a check every two weeks, they’ll have trouble paying their mortgage or putting food on the table, is ridiculous. Frankly, I’m not even terribly alarmed about Washington politicians accepting pay-offs. I figure there’s as much money on one side as the other. If a member of Congress doesn’t choose to take a bribe — I mean a campaign contribution — from, say, the Sierra Club, he can always go, hat in hand, to some major developer or even to some sane human being who is more concerned with people than with insects.

In short, I tend to worry more about power-grabbers posing as public servants than with money-grubbers.

In the ongoing debate over guns in which the mushy-headed liberals insist that the Second Amendment has outlived its shelf life, and that we should all put our childlike faith in the police to protect us, it should be noted that quite recently, the Superintendent of the Chicago Police Department bragged that his officers respond to 70% of all 911 calls. He said that in most cities, the average is in the 30-50% range.

What’s more, he admitted that he had been burgled at least three or four times. What I found remarkable about that statement is that he had apparently lost count.

It is high time that “We the People” tell our politicians to quit playing games with our lives. The fact that the House Majority Leader committed to a 10-year balanced budget is a media stunt. The likelihood is that the political leadership will change in this period, maybe significantly, bringing along new people with their own agenda – and a new set of special interest friends with their hands out for perks and privileges.

So how does Boehner say that the GOP’s upcoming budget will balance the federal books in a decade when all of the government’s projections have been wildly off-the-mark and cannot be trusted? Where ever piece of legislation is dishonestly scored by an honest accounting group – an accounting group that is constrained by the assumptions provided by lawmakers?

Boehner Commits to 10-Year Balanced Budget

Speaker John Boehner told House Republicans this afternoon that the GOP’s upcoming budget will balance the federal books in a decade.

Due to the Democrats’ control of the White House and Senate, the possibility of that promise becoming law is remote. But the speaker’s vocal support for the idea reportedly drew cheers within the House Republican conference.

<Source: Boehner Commits to 10-Year Balanced Budget – By Robert Costa – The Corner – National Review Online>

Bottom line …

It appears that the Republican are as grossly dishonest as the Democrats when it comes to budgetary excesses. Yes, there are differences in priorities, social policies and the group of cronies with their hands out, but that’s all; as both parties continue to plunder the national treasury.

– steve

In December of 1914 in the first bitter winter of a long bitter war the solders of the German Empire and the soldiers of the British Empire defied the orders of their officers. They abandoned their hastily dug entrenchments that would soon grow into an elaborate maze of trenches stretching from Switzerland to the English Channel to meet each other in no man’s land. They sang hymns and exchanged gifts in a spontaneous outpouring of the feelings of peace, fellowship, and forgiveness which were then the staples of a Christ centered Christmas season.

If you drench yourself in the torrent of Christmas movies that bombard us from Thanksgiving till December 25th you see that the spirit of Christmas in emotional America isn’t about the Christ child who came into a lost world to die as a payment for sin and to rise again to bring new life in harmony with God. It is instead about the sentimental ideal of love and the boy gets the girl or is it the girl gets the boy? Who knows sometimes they throw in a curve that really builds the suspense. There are movies about Santa Clause, his sons, his daughters; his elves and wingless angels all of whom help people learn the true meaning of Christmas which is never about Christ and always about family and friends and being nice people.

In commercial America Christmas is about Black Friday and discounts so deep they remind me of the street vendor in Mexico who follows you shouting “I’ll give you 110% off if you buy two!” The Chia Pets come out along with snuggies, pet rocks, and every other doodad imaginable to buy for people who already have too much.

The mountains of presents which obscenely bury Christmas trees in so many American homes are ripped apart by sugar-high children. Children who get into a frenzy of getting so intense they never have time to appreciate what they get. All they want is to get something else. The beautiful wrapping paper, the miles of ribbon, and the forests of bows are stuffed unceremoniously into big green garbage bags on their way to landfills.

So this is Christmas, and what have we done? Another year over, and a new one just begun.
In the still sweet morning of December 26 people start preparing for the next blast of holiday cheer, Happy New Year!!!

What will 2013 bring?

Whether we plunge over the so-called fiscal cliff or not it will bring us a New America. An America cast in the image of our newly re-elected Community-Organizer-in-Chief. This representative of the Saul Alinsky wing of the Progressive movement, this made man from the Chicago political Outfit has won a second term. Whether it was through the voter fraud no one seems willing to mention or through the actual votes of those who bought into the Uncle Sugar myth and vote for Santa Clause, the man from Hawaii who says he’s from Chicago and who won’t tell us much of anything else, is poised to create the Age of Obama, or America in his own image.

It appears that Tim “Turbo Tax” Geithner is increasing the media pressure on the American public to accept any deal proposed by the corrupt Obama Administration …

One, all of the politicians, republicans and democrats alike knew the numbers and the deadline and both parties decided to run out the clock to force the American public to accept the fiction that there is an emergency and that they will need to accept higher taxes.

Two, the Senate democrats, especially Senate Majority Harry Reid, are guilty of perjury – the original meaning of the word denoting a violation of their oath – because they have violated the Constitution of the United States and have failed to produce a Constitutionally-mandated budget for at least three years. This should be an impeachable offence. Even though there is no penalty specified in the Constitution, it is a violation of your oath of office to fail to preserve, defend and uphold the Constitution.

Three, we are dealing with a budget – not actual numbers – filled with gimmicks, loopholes and massive unnecessary spending. These numbers are guidelines and do not reflect actual spending. Because the budget is crafted by corrupt individuals using a corrupt methodology – it is a study in corruption. This is where “cuts” reflect – well, not cuts – but decreases in the rate of spending. This is where everybody gets a chunk of change and the opportunity to fight for more. There is not real cost savings or cutting in any government budget.

Now we find “Turbo Tax” Geithner ratcheting up (or should I say rat-shitting up) the debt limit to increase the perceived pressure and to threaten to shut down government …

December 26, 2012

The Honorable Harry Reid
Majority Leader
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Mr. Leader:

I am writing to inform you that the statutory debt limit will be reached on December 31, 2012, and to notify you that the Treasury Department will shortly begin taking certain extraordinary measures authorized by law to temporarily postpone the date that the United States would otherwise default on its legal obligations.

These extraordinary measures, which are explained in detail in an appendix​ to this letter, can create approximately $200 billion in headroom under the debt limit. Under normal circumstances, that amount of headroom would last approximately two months. However, given the significant uncertainty that now exists with regard to unresolved tax and spending policies for 2013, it is not possible to predict the effective duration of these measures. At this time, the extent to which the upcoming tax filing season will be delayed as a result of these unresolved policy questions is also uncertain. If left unresolved, the expiring tax provisions and automatic spending cuts, as well as the attendant delays in filing of tax returns, would have the effect of adding some additional time to the duration of the extraordinary measures. Treasury will provide more guidance regarding the expected duration of these measures when the policy outlook becomes clearer.

Sincerely,

Timothy F. Geithner

<Source: U.S.

Everybody wants an “A” but nobody wants to study. Everybody wants to be rich but nobody wants to save. Everybody wants to lose weight but nobody wants to exercise. Everybody wants to go to heaven but nobody wants to die. No matter how you say it, the desire for something without the willingness to do the hard things required to achieve it, will always lead to disappointment. This is the cadence of the conundrum, the drumbeat of the do-nothing dreamer, the national anthem of the nihilist; the perennial I want but I will not work formula for failure.

The signature phrase for the conservatives of this generation of Americans should be, “We all want a sound economy but we aren’t willing to endure the life-style changes it would take to get there.”

Case in point: the coming Fiscal Cliff, the looming disaster of sequestration that every talking head on every network blathers about endlessly, “It will happen” “It won’t happen.” Pick a side and it will be argued back and forth hour after hour, “The President won’t let it happen, “The President wants it to happen.” Over and over we are barraged by the same few people who constitute the pundocracy of America debate what will happen. There is only one thing they are all agreed upon. If we go over this cliff, created by a vote of Congress and a signature by the President it will be terrible for our country. Why stop there? It will be terrible for the entire world.

Just think, if we Americans raise our taxes and reign in our drunken sailor spending binge it will be a disaster for us and for everyone who draws breath on this planet. Not to worry we, the poor unwashed in fly-over country, don’t have to scratch our pumpkin heads and wonder why it would be a disaster if our country took the steps necessary to save our economy the network appointed chatter chiefs are quick to tell us.

One side says raising taxes on anyone in a weak economy may push us over into a recession. This of course comes from the people who evidently don’t buy their own bread, pump their own gas, or know any of the millions who are now permanently out of work, in other words personally prosperous people who believe the Great Recession actually ended. The other side says raising taxes on anyone they don’t consider rich would be a disaster.

Both sides agree that at least half of the spending cuts would be a disaster. One side points at defense spending as a surrender of national security. While the other side points at cuts in entitlements as throwing grandma off the cliff.

The answers they propose are as predictable as a Hallmark Christmas movie. The Progressive Democrats say raise the taxes on the evil rich and cut spending to the defense department. The Progressive Republicans say raise revenues by closing loop holes and cut spending on entitlements. The problem with this is that just like Representative Paul Ryan’s draconian budget it still never gets us to a balanced budget let alone paying down the principle on the National Debt.

Things are not as bad as they could be; however, they certainly aren’t as good as they should be.

Recession? What Recession? According to the government and their media arm in the Corporations Once Known as the Mainstream Media the Great Recession ended in June of 2009. Ask anyone in line at a Wal-Mart or any other store and you will probably get a different answer.

As one of my relatives, representative of most people who get their opinions from David Letterman and the social osmosis of personal prosperity, everything is turning around, everything is doing great, everything’s coming up roses, and happy days are here again!

Or as Mr. Obama phrases it, “I think America is poised to take off.” He also filled in the blanks about what he will need to make that happen, “So what I’m going to need, what the country needs, what the business community needs, in order to get to where we need to be, is an acknowledgment that folks like me can afford to pay a little bit higher rate.” That’s right, more taxes today combined with a promise of cuts in the future. How could that ever go wrong, like it did in 1986 or 1991.

Come on Charlie Brown you can kick the football this year.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner declared that the Obama administration is ready to take us over the fiscal cliff they themselves devised if Republicans aren’t willing to raise rates, close loop holes, generate revenue, or whatever else they want to call income redistribution. Some like my relative who quotes ABCNBCCBS as a personal opinion say confidently this will be worked out. The President won’t allow it. He even said during the debates it wouldn’t happen. Yet, his chief financial officer is threatening it. But not to worry, besides giving speeches and applying political pressure our glorious leader is seeking the best advice he can get from experts far and wide.

Always looking to the best and brightest President Obama is consulting with those completely objective news anchors at MSNBC or as it is also known, the Propaganda Ministry, about tax rates. At least he’s seeking outside advice from a wide array of average American citizens like Al Sharpton and Rachel Maddow. We can be sure that they will bravely speak truth to power as in Tax the rich! Make them pay their fair share!! Power to the people!!! And From each according to their ability to each according to their need!!!!

As America morphs around us into something we cannot recognize it isn’t just the prospect of a shabby economic future from here to eternity as Mr. Obama continues to organize our beloved nation into his vision of a Progressive America. On the personal liberty front we are being regimented into the only type of society that is compatible with totalitarianism: a nation of sheep.

According to an NSA whistleblower who resigned because he did not want to be party to extra-constitutional activity reports that nearly every American citizen is under virtual observation by their government. This whistleblower is no anonymous deep throat hiding in a parking garage.