Tag Archives: Economy

Economy, Politics

Budget Buster

Did you vote for a trillion-dollar budget deficit, while the national debt is over 21 trillion now?  Did you expect that your tax dollars would be given to abortion provider Planned Parenthood again?

There’s no cutting back of anything in this sorry excuse for a budget. This has a 10 percent INCREASE in size in every department. It looks like to get a 10% increase in military budget, Trump had to expand it to the whole government. There’s little there that represents fiscal sense, let alone fiscal conservatism. Dems get what they want, including a bailout to insurance companies for the failure of Obamacare to work. And, barring military readiness, R’s don’t.

If that’s how it’s going to be this year, it better not be the same story next year. The size and direction that the national debt is going, is just as much a “national security” factor as anything else that can affect the nation!

And for that real “deer in the headlights” look, ask your representative the effects to the national debt as interest rates rise back to “normal” market pressures, as opposed to FED’s manipulation.

Links: Lawmakers quibble over details of $1.3T US spending bill  |  Planned Parenthood’s Taxpayer Funding Safe Under Spending Deal  |  Interest and Debt

Economy, Immigration, Politics

SF Bay Area Mass Exodus

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People are leaving California at a record rate. By all accounts, the high cost of living tops the list. High taxes, fees, and housing cost have become too much for poor and middle class to handle anywhere near the major cities.

For example, the demand for U-Haul trucks leaving is greater than arriving. In San Francisco, it is $3000 for a 1-way to Dallas. And $1000 for a 1-way from Dallas to San Francisco.

Less talked about is the position California has taken on illegal immigration. San Francisco is a Sanctuary City. California has declared itself a Sanctuary State. Drawing the attention of the Dept. of Justice and AG Jeff Sessions filing suit against State officials.

Aside from the high cost of living, safety becomes an issue particular to sanctuary cities. Safety of the citizens that is. More and more people have had enough of it, and leaving.

The homelessness in San Francisco is so bad, there is an online map that shows people where the human waste is. Places a tourist might want to avoid. The admin says the map is to call attention to the homeless problem. He sure did, but not in the way he intended.

To where are Californians fleeing? Most are going to right to work states with no income tax. Texas. Florida.

Link: San Francisco Bay Area Experiences Mass Exodus Of Residents  |  California has worst ‘quality of life’ in US, study says

Economy, Immigration, Iran, Media, Middle East, Obamacare, Politics, Race Relations

Tale Of Two Presidents

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The more President Trump accomplishes for the country, the more irrational his detractors, the media, and the Washington establishment become.

The garbage thrown at Trump started before his inauguration. From Russian collusion alleged in a phony document that was used as intelligence, used to spy on his campaign and his administration. To obstruction of justice over same. To now, he’s crazy and should be removed from office.

Lets see who’s crazy.

Iran: One president breaks laws to get billions of dollars flown illegally, pallets of cash into the hands of the people who run the largest state sponsor of terrorism in the world, Iran, and they export it. And this president does everything he can to get them hundreds of millions of dollars in cash. This same country to whom we gave this cash is committed to creating a nuclear arsenal delivered by ICBMs, all of which are known to be under development because this president enabled them to move forward on their research.

The other president is working to stop all of this. The other president is working to unwind this insane deal and do what he can to prevent this state sponsor of terrorism from getting nuclear weapons. Now, who’s the smart one and who’s the dumb one?

Health Care: One president went out there and literally seized one-sixth of the U.S. economy and lied to the American people in doing it. He promised the American people if we would just entrust our health care to him, somebody who doesn’t know anything about it beyond being a theoretician in the academic lounge. Somebody who’s never run a hospital, who’s never talked to anybody who’s run a hospital, who’s never had the slightest interest in running a hospital took over one-sixth of the U.S. economy along with the rest of his party, lied to the American people to do it, claiming that if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor, and if you like your insurance plan, you can keep that.

The other president is doing everything he can to unwind that and deregulate as much of the Obama health care takeover as he can. Who’s the smart one, who’s the dumb one?

ISIS: A brutally inhumane, militaristic gang which one president said, “We’re doing everything we can. There’s not much we can do. Get used to it. They’re here.” Destabilizing the Middle East, destabilizing a victory in Iraq, leading to terror attacks around the world.

The other president has systematically wiped out this organization in under a year. Surrendering in Iraq. Who is the smart one and who’s the stupid one? Who’s the dangerous one and with whom are we in safer hands?

The Swamp: One president spies on his political opponents. One president knowingly takes opposition research from the presidential candidate of his party, knowingly allows it to be used as legitimate intelligence, when it’s lies and made-up BS, allows his Justice Department to get a FISA warrant to surveil and spy on the presidential candidate of the opposite party. The other president, in the midst of an entire effort by all of Washington to destroy him with this phony dossier, exposes this.

Who is it that’s unraveling? Was it the Obama team? Was it the Hillary team? Was it the Democrat Party? Is it the Washington establishment unraveling, or is it Donald Trump perhaps getting rid of the filth and the dirt and giving this country a working chance again?

The Economy: One president micromanages the economy into the ground and tells the American people that our better days are behind us. And, “you didn’t build that.” Government did. He says the great days of America’s past were not really legitimate. They were built on phony policies, trickle-down economics from the Reagan administration. The United States is not exceptional or deserving of superpower status. We now must manage the decline. And I, Barack Hussein Obama, am the smartest guy in the world to manage the decline of the United States and its economy.

His replacement liberates the economy, to the point in under a year it is growing at twice the rate it ever grew under Barack Obama. The reason is not just his taking the regulation shackles off of business and industries, introducing tax laws that allow us to compete in the world economy, but on curbing illegal immigration. And the beneficiaries of that where jobs are concerned are the poor, of all races. The less illegals taking American jobs means jobs available for our own citizens. Which is clear by the fact that unemployment for Blacks and Hispanics are at all time lows. And yet we’re told Obama is brilliant, he’s so smart, we can’t even stay in the same room with him. Donald Trump is silly. He’s insane. He’s obsessed. His unfit. We need psychiatrists examining him. We need the 25th Amendment.

Who’s the nutcase, who’s the dangerous one, and who is, in under a year, unraveling all of the mistakes borne of the either poor ideology or just blatant stupidity of the previous administration?  Or both?

h/t: Rush Limbaugh

 

Economy, Fair Tax, Politics, Race Relations

Gaetz, End NFL’s Tax Exemption

Do you think it’s time to extricate taxpayers from the NFL’s tax exempt status?

From my congressman, Matt Gaetz​.

This is corporate welfare run amok, and a gross misuse of American citizens’ tax money—something the government must treat with respect.

Know why tax reform, real tax reform like the FairTax is a loooong shot? It’s a long shot because it removes the means for corporate welfare from the pinheads in Washington. Too many pols there have lobbyists up their arse and campaign contributions in their pocket.

Absent the ‘tax hammer’ the current IRS code provides, politicians would simply be left with managing affairs in their districts and spending priorities instead of trying to figure out how to be a millionaire on a public salary.

Gaetz’s bill does not introduce the FairTax, but it is a good start to ending corporate welfare that the current codes provides. The NFL brought this fight on. And Matt Gaetz has the proper response.

Link: My Bill Would Stop Tax Dollars From Subsidizing the NFL

Economy, Politics, Venezuela

Discredited Ideologies

Since I don’t know when, when leaders of the political parties (Presidents included) talk about what’s great about America, Freedom and Liberty would be, naturally, the answer.

What has been omitted, until Sept 19, 2017, is Capitalism. And it wasn’t even mentioned. In a compassionate way, President Trump told the United Nations how socialist regimes don’t work for anyone.

The problem in Venezuela is not that socialism has been poorly implemented, but that socialism has been faithfully implemented. From the Soviet Union to Cuba to Venezuela, wherever true socialism or communism has been adopted, it has delivered anguish and devastation and failure. Those who preach the tenets of these discredited ideologies only contribute to the continued suffering of the people who live under these cruel systems.

– President Trump 9/19/17

Thank President Trump for completing the picture. Freedom, Liberty, and Capitalism.  That’s nothing new, but now the type of our economy is no longer the elephant in the room.

Economy, Politics

Ceiling? What Ceiling?

Raise the debt ceiling? HELL NO! Get ready for it because you know it’s coming when the pols get back to Washington.

For all the Obama administration, there never was a budget proposed and passed by congress. There were only CR’s, continuing resolutions. That was Obama’s flying-by-the-seat-of-his-pants style of budgeting.  Funding his agenda without having to show what it was for or how much it would cost. That, and year after year of raising the debt ceiling is how he managed to double the national debt to over 20 trillion dollars during his eight years in office.

Not proposing and passing a budget, waiting until just days before they run out of borrowed money from the last CR, Congress will raise the debt ceiling and pass another CR. This has become routine for last 8 years.

It’s about time for 3 things to happen.

1) No more baseline budgeting with automatic increases in spending every year, regardless of need or justification.

Every budgeted dollar must be justified. “Because we had that much last year” is not a justification for getting it again this year.

2) No more raising or exceeding the “ceiling.”

If you can’t fit in the room, chop your head off. Congress has raised the ceiling already, several times. Tell your representatives to work with it. Make the hard choices you were sent to Washington to make.

3) Put up a budget either piecemeal, or in its entirety.

Americans deserve the transparency they’ve been promised.

OK 4) When the Democrats squeal, which they will, make it known that they are the ones “shutting down” the government. (Which never really gets shut down. I wish.)

The only way to make America great again is to make the government fit within the Constitution, again.

Economy, Obamacare, Politics

What Common Ground?

Every time I hear politicians from both parties talk about the need to come together and find common ground, I’m reminded of this old Roseanne Barr line; “Ya know what burns my ass? A flame about this high.”

It happens so often that I’m having my doubts whether the politicians in Washington are going to snap out of the political coma they are in. Those politicians who for decades think that money grows on trees. There seems to be only a handful left, Trump being one of them, willing to face the reality of just how deep a hole they have put this country. And it’s not like there’s anything new to expect from spending more than you can afford. Look at any country in socialist Europe, or Venezuela, to see the state of the Welfare State.

What are we getting from Democrats? The same old song, Republicans want to “take” health insurance away from 22 million people. That farce is explained HERE. Republicans want to take away everything we want to give you.

Finding common ground with this bunch is impossible. Like finding common ground with Hamas. They want to kill Jews. Jews don’t want to be killed. Where’s the common ground?  Liberals and Progressives want to tax and spend their way to bankrupt the country by committing inter-generational theft, thereby exacerbating an already catastrophic financial meltdown. They want to ignore the current $20 Trillion debt, and over $200 Trillion in unfunded mandates, and make both worse by running on “free” stuff.  Who doesn’t like free stuff? Where’s the common ground?

What we need is more adults in Washington that have the will, and the guts to tackle the problem. Chart a course for a new America. One that pays its way and doesn’t steal from future generations, and reviving the economic engine and job creation that the country is capable of.

But first, we must win the argument that a responsible government is what we need. Democrats want an irresponsible government, that’s how they get re-elected. Republicans want to fix the problem, that makes them evil. Where’s the common ground?

 

China, Economy, Energy, Europe, Politics

Climate Schlimate, Paris Accord

Pulling out of the Paris Accord is best for America. The anti-capitalist anti-American community are pushing the narrative that man-made global warming is going to kill the planet, and that the United States is responsible, and should set the example by agreeing to it.

The [agreement] promises to damage the economy while surrendering American sovereignty over climate policy to yet another international, largely anti-American enterprise. Our climate policy — which incorporates health and economic policy — would be mandated by the terms of this agreement. It is a hard-and-fast agreement that targets the United States as the primary culprit and requires the United States to carry the primary burden in fixing what isn’t broken, in stopping what isn’t happening: Man-made climate change.

We are setting the example already, and don’t need to shift trillions of taxpayer dollars from our side of the planet to the other. Get back to me when the rest of the world, including China and India, can run their industrialized economies as efficiently and environmentally friendly as we do. Then tell me what the global temperature should be, and how to keep it from changing.

Economy, Media, Obamacare, Politics, Whiners

Democrats Squealing

The Democrats’ pushback to Trump’s budget proposal is nothing short of irresponsible and insane. They claim that the budget will actually kill people. They’ve been saying that since 1995. And since 1995, the budgets, and government itself, have done nothing but grow.

So you can see why the hysteria over a budget that comes to balance in 10 years. Something the Obama administration not only did not do, but stated that achieving a balanced budget was not even on their radar. Their plan was to grow government and expand government involvement in our lives way beyond the boundaries of the Constitution. The crown jewel to that end being Obamacare, eventually leading to single-payer.

When you compare where we were in 2007 to where we are in 2016, you can understand why Democrats are apoplectic and hysterical. Having done their best (with full cooperation from Republicans) to grow government, the notion of fiscal responsibility now comes as a shock1 they just can not accept.  After all, they’re not paying the bill. Our grandchildren and great-grandchildren will if something is not done now to stop it.

How have budgets grown since 2007?

Spending:  2007, $2.8 T 2016, $4 T +43%
Borrowing: 2007, $5.2 T 2016, $5.8 T +12%
National Debt: 2007, $8.95 T 2016, $19.54 T +118%

Not only has the spending and borrowing grown, but since Obama started spending in 2008, his administration managed to more than double the national debt.

This is how Obama said his budgets would grow the GDP.
2013, 6%
2014, 5.6%
2015, 5.8%

Today, Trump’s budget is projecting 3% growth in GDP, and the NYT characterizes this as “improbable economic growth.” How quickly they forget. 3%,  improbable. 6%, no problem. No, they didn’t forget. That’s just the bias of Fake News supporting their man.

Time to come back to reality. Obama’s budgets were scored by the CBO for GDP growth from 3.6% to 3.1%. But never came close, coming in around 1.5% growth in GDP.

Speaking of reality, look what the CBO has to say about unfunded mandates that already consume 56% of all federal spending. That’s up from 43% in 2006.

There is no evidence to suggest that the growth of health care costs, which have risen faster than GDP over the past four decades, is likely to slow significantly in the future. As a result, spending for Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid will exert pressures on the budget that economic growth alone is unlikely to alleviate.

Just keep in mind that in 2007, people were not dying in the streets. What we are hearing now is the squealing that Jodi Ernst was talking about when describing her experience growing up on the farm.

1Just as much of a shock as Hillary losing.

Link: TRUMP’S BUDGET ASSUMES REASONABLE GDP GROWTH, LIBERALS GO BALLISTIC  |  Government Debt Chart  |  THE BUDGET AND ECONOMIC OUTLOOK: FISCAL YEARS 2007 TO 2016 

Economy, Energy, Middle East, Politics, Saudi Arabia

OPEC’s World Changing

Ever since the long gas lines of the 70’s and the invention of the Department of Energy under Jimmy Carter (which proved to be an exercise in futility), Americans have been held hostage to OPEC in the prices they pay for fuel.

Two headlines tell a story . . .

Finally, having the will to use the energy potential we have,  the United States can shift from being an energy buyer to an energy producer-seller. And OPEC doesn’t like the new competition.

Thanks to the Trump administration’s opening up of our own energy resources with the goal of energy independence, the global energy market has changed.

Nothing against OPEC, but it is they who have to adjust to market pressures. As for the United States? It’s America first.