03.10.10
The largest monthly deficit in U.S. history
That’s what the freedom-hating, America-destroying overlords ran up in February.
03.06.10
TCM thinks his plan is unfolding wonderfully
The plan to bring the United States of America to its knees, that is. The CBO weighs in on the deficit. Bigger than TCM’s projection last month. Which is fine with him. It hastens the day when we all crawl to the federal government in desperation to get our basic needs met.
Right out of Cloward and Piven and Saul Alinsky.
Remember, SEIU’s Andy Stern sits on this silly-ass deficit-reduction panel.
03.02.10
Jim Bunning’s objection isn’t holding up a vote
Erick Erickson at Red State points out that a 51-vote majority is all that would be needed for the jobless-benefits-extension bill to pass, and that Harry Reid could call a vote to see if he has it right this second.
Senator Bunning’s position is based on the question, why isn’t unspent stimulus money used for this?
Jim Bunning, American hero
For the simple act of pointing out that we do not have the money for a new package of jobless benefits, insurance subsidies and highway projects, the Kentucky senator is being made out to be some kind of wacko by the MSM and a heartless ogre by the Freedom-Haters.
This gets to the core of the decline in society’s overall maturity level that we discuss frequently here at BN. We have before us a simple fact. The money is not there. Still, the regime whines “But I want it!” like a three-year-old at the supermarket. Hell, yes, they want it. It’s their key to appearing compassionate to a desperate and near-desperate swath of the populace. (So maybe the more apt analogy would be to a teenager willing to max out her parents’ credit card to get a brand of jeans that will gain her acceptance into the cool crowd.)
None of which changes the fact that the money is not there.
03.01.10
The numbers will add up, either by choice or circumstance
The governor of my state, Mitch Daniels, about whom I had a post a few back, has a great column in today’s WSJ about medical savings accounts for Indiana state employees and how it’s been win-win for all parties involved.
The core of his argument is that behavior – and motivation for it – is the key factor in not only health care, but government’s fiscal health as well. If the cost of something is your direct responsibility, you will be motivated to keep an eye on the numbers.
There are other columns out today, notably those of Irwin Steltzer and Robert Samuelson (HT for all of these: Real Clear Politics) that deal with this larger issue of fiscal responsibility. Samuelson is quite blunt, saying today’s so-called governmental leaders are living in la-la- land. He takes the right as well as the left to task for failing to provide grown-up solutions to what they claim the problem is.
That’s where my own set of views comes in, and it gets us back to Gov. Daniels’s point about behavior and incentives.
We’re going to have to touch some third rails in this country. We’re just going to have to. The New Deal and Great society entitlements – most notable Social Security and Medicare – are the fastest-growing items in our federal budget, and they’re going broke fast. We absolutely cannot continue to dish out those programs’ benefits in the manner that previous generations enjoyed.
I try really heard to be a serious thinker on matters of public policy and stay away from obvious crank proposals for anything. I get quite tired of callers to talk shows who make these sweeping “why, we just otta do away with this” or “make everybody do that” pronouncements without considering the actual details of the process by which it would be possible to do that. So it is with the fortification of forethought that I say that we could dismantle some entire departments and agencies of the federal government in addition to drastically altering the nature of Social Security and Medicare. Education could go this afternoon. We’d be a better society for it. Ditto Housing and Urban Development. The EPA. Diversity officers in any department or agency that has one.
My wife and I have made periodic stabs at Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University course. The steam always seems to go out of our efforts when we get to his lesson on putting a strict household budget in writing. He says that you must account for every dollar that will come in during a given month before the month begins. Where it gets squirmy is when hs says, “This will bring your stuff up. It will make you look at certain aspects of your marriage and your life.” We know he’s right, but it’s about at that point that various other time commitments encroach upon the agreed-upon times to sit down with the pen, paper and calculator. You know, like getting nails done, or heading to the gym.
Still it would be the best way to get and keep a handle on household finances. Once one is through the squirmy stuff, one sees that it’s really about declaring mastery over one’s own life.
This is what our federal government will ultimately have to do. It becomes a necessity when the creditors start calling during dinner hour (which is not going on in our household, which may be why we’re not fully motivated to buckle down and put numbers on paper), which is where our country is.
There is really only one way for an individual or household to get financial traction: control the income and outgo numbers, and create more wealth. Since government can’t create more wealth, it must control its numbers and free its citizens to create wealth.
Really controlling the numbers is going to bring various factions’ stuff up. The alternative is living in la-la land, but there arrives a point where your green card for that realm expires.
02.28.10
The clear intent is to make government everyone’s source of everything
This sounds like something John Podesta and Andy Stern would cook up.
02.23.10
You may have to read this a couple of times to get over your incredulity
And swallow your coffee first so it doesn’t splatter all over your keyboard.
TCM wants Andy Stern to sit on this deficit reduction panel.
02.20.10
Embarrassingly pathetic
Because he is so desperate to be seen as exerting leadership even while he colludes with Congress to continue suffocating the nation with an unprecedented deficit, TCM has formed a commission of former legislators to come up with a plan to cut spending and shore up the government’s fiscal health. As I say, he’s clearly desperate. He knows that the American people will see this as the height of immaturity and helplessness (comparisons to a drunk hiring someone to keep him on the wagon are already cropping up), yet he must be seen as taking some concrete action. It also gives him and the FHer “leadership” in Congress an excuse to say, “An impartial third party has confirmed that we need to raise taxes!”
Fighting this stuff is daunting work, but I want the record to show that not all Americans living though this insane time went meekly along with this garbage. I intend to be among the ones that the history books depict as remembering what freedom, common sense and dignity were all about.
02.18.10
It tends to be the norm for any government
Veronique deRugy at Reason looks at the likelihood that any government program – in the United States or anywhere else – will have its cost projections trend upward. Look at the figures for Medicare, for instance.
02.17.10
Utter madness
As you know, the federal government doesn’t actually have any money. It’s operating in a deficit situation that . . . well, you’ve seen the graphs.
But it’s going to grant a half million dollars to a gay and lesbian seniors community in Chicago.
01.26.10
Out of control
The federal deficit has reached $1.35 trillion.
Many a commentator has pointed out that a household or business with that kind of debt load, especially juxtaposed against current assets or anticipated income, would be subjected to a sheriff’s auction.
Dave Ramsey, among others, has made a career out of helping households that get into this kind of crisis find their way back to fiscal sanity and peace of mind. First, you stop all borrowing. Two things you do to ensure this are cut up your credit cards and find someone to hold you accountable. Then you put yourself on a thorough budget, one that gives every dollar coming in a name. Depending on the debt level, this may entail a draconian lifestyle for a while. You knock down your debts in order of their magnitude, and plan to start saving as soon as possible.
I’ve been thinking lately about why it’s necessary for people to have a Dave Ramsey, with his Financial Peace course, where you get a kit of materials and online lessons and follow a system replete with its own terminology. Why are common sense and maturity in such short supply that there’s a huge need for such a product?
The same question can be asked about our federal government, now that TCM is proposing a deficit-reduction panel outside of the regular Congressional committees that deal with this, and why there’s also a bipartisan group of ex-legislators offering to get involved.
In the case of individuals, a major factor is the zeal of credit-card companies to shove juicy-sounding introductory offers at consumers. One’s head starts swimming with notions of cheating the laws of probability.
In the case of government, these pork fiends automatically and in an utterly cavalier fashion turn their thoughts to taxing us, the creators of society’s wealth.
For reasons both along the lines of the parallels to the individual’s credit cards, and also because it’s immoral for the government to take more from us than is needed for its Constitutional functions, we must insist, with roars and screams, that it take not one more farthing from our money. There will be people who express all kinds of alarm about the current juncture who will, after having gotten our attention, insists that tax increases must be part of any solution.
Right now, the money is in our wallets and bank accounts. We must tell them no. Even if they draw their guns, we must tell them no.
01.21.10
Behavior that would have ruined any family or business even before this
Freedom-Haters are insane. And infantile. If the budget-minder in a household were caught doing this, someone else with a modicum of adulthood would grab the check book and calculator and lock them up in an offsite location.
The Senate is looking at increasing the debt ceiling – yet again – by $1.9 trillion.
12.22.09
Some numbers that give us quite a snapshot
Rasmussen reports that 46 percent of Americans strongly disapprove of the job the Aquarian Totalitarian is doing. That makes for a presidential tracking poll number of -21.
A new Quinnipiac poll shows 56 percent disapproving of his handling of health care in general. 53 percent oppose the bill in its current form.
The economy only grew at 2.2 percent in the third quarter, way below expectations.
The Freedom-Haters don’t care, just like Ahmadinejad and the mullahs don’t care. Just like Hugo Chavez doesn’t care. Just like Kim Jong-il doesn’t care.
We will win, though, because a just God presides over this universe.
09.30.09
It’s time to live in the present
One still finds lefties obsessed with W’s role in the economic downturn and government deficit. I would refer them to this graph. The bars go way under the baseline, far more deeply than any dipping below under W, with no end in sight, from the time of the TCM regime coming to power.
04.11.09
The UN – one of the world’s most dangerous and hateful organizations
Ahmadinejad is set to attend Durban II.
04.05.09
Patty-cake by proxy
The British Foreign Ministry is going to talk to Hezbollah. After getting over its “initial alarm,” the TCM administration is interested to see how such talks go.
Iran is licking its chops, and Lebanon and especially Israel feel the chill of a world without friends.
04.04.09
Our national character can’t be assumed
Powerful Bookworm Room post on whether the American spirit is still sufficiently resilient and devoted to freedom to withstand not only statist takeover by the FHer regime, but the insidious dhimmitude we too often respond to with a shrug of the shoulders.
04.01.09
What you get for patty-cake gestures toward your enemies
The Afghan Taliban calls the US offer of reconciliation a “lunatic idea.”
This comes, mind you, on the heels of the threat from Baitulah Mehsud, the leader of the Pakistani Taliban, to mount an attack on Washington that will “amaze the world.”
