Glad That Speechifying Thingy Is Done

There are some details that have been released related to Obama's chicken in every pot campaign speech that he delivered last night. Quite honestly I could have cared less, but you couldn't escape it and then they went and pre-empted TMZ in my area so for that reason I give it two thumbs down.

Reading a related document released by the White House after the speech that attempts to detail the stupendous jobs bill that was 32 months in the making, and that wound up flopping like so many over hyped Hollywood productions do, I found a lot of pixie dust will be needed as a final ingredient to make these notes that appear to be jotted down while daydreaming during a defense briefing become reality. It did contain some tax relief proposals in the form of reduced payroll taxes for both employers and employees. As far as actually doing anything to spur jobs, it just further reinforced the what we all knew. He doesn't have a clue.

Teachers, schools, bridges, roads, and wi fi for all. $35B for teacher hiring. $30B building/repairing schools. $50B surface transportation. $10B to create an infrastructure bank. $15B to rehab vacant property.

In other words America, the SCOAMF feels that the only job most of us are qualified to do are in the construction field. Hire a vet who has spent a few years sweltering under the summer sun in Afghanistan lugging around 100 lbs of gear while dodging IED's to fill pot holes. Yeah I'm sure a lot of them will just jump at that chance. Sure they'll do it if nothing else exists but in his warped mind he thinks this is some sort of move up. Got an accounting degree? No potholes for you, no sir. We are going to put right to work on putting a roof on a school. Good news for you computer geeks too. Understanding how you are used to earning a living by exercising your brain we are going to give your brain a rest. Understanding that you have a valuable set of skills I am sure they can find bulldozer or other piece of heavy equipment for you operate.

One of the cuter items was the $10B to create his so called infrastructure bank. I mean who doesn't want that after what a success Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac turned out to be. Creation of this bank will certainly guarantee that the next time a Democrat is elected and the economy does a nose dive it will truly kill the country. And speaking of Fannie and Freddie he wants Americans to refinance their homes which will be once again backed up by the still struggling agencies who won't share their books with us and are still getting shots of taxpayers dollars every three or four months to prevent their collapse.

Yeah this whole thing is pie in the sky and none of it will come to fruition probably because that super duper budget commission he put together a while back has to score the whole damn thing and figure out where to get the money from so that it can live up PrezBo's claim that it is paid for. Of course they won't be able to use the creative accounting tricks using Obama's socialist calculator and while the committee is bipartisan all we will hear is that the evil Republicans blocked it.

Everybody else glad football is back to take our minds off of the SCOAMF for a little while?

Oh yeah about that wifi crap. We are having a good laugh around here about that. I'll try to make this quick. Dawsonville, Ga is a rural area north of Atlanta. It is a hot bed of NASCAR activity. Joe Biden came to town a while back, you know to visit those rednecks. Facts about Dawsonville that Obama/Biden never knew. Average income slightly higher then the rest of Georgia. Community is served by 6 wireless carriers already. Number of millionaires in the area a lot higher then most of the rest of the state. Hey NASCAR and the associated industries such as engine building, parts, and other things pays well. Anyway upon meeting with the peasants Biden gifted them with something like $25B for wifi which sort of puzzled the mayor since he had nowhere to spend the money. As far as I know that money is probably still sitting around since it has to be used for wifi stuff, the admin is still talking about how they are helping out the poor dumb rednecks in rural America, and meanwhile nobody around here doubts why our country is in such dire economic straits since none of the bozos in Washington have a clue.

America Already Reaches New Debt Ceiling

Well, that didn't take long. In the space of less then 48 hours after passing the debt ceiling increase the United States is already back at the limit.

U.S. debt shot up $239 billion on Tuesday — the largest one-day bump in history — as the government flexed the new borrowing room it earned in this week’s debt-limit increase deal.

The debt subject to the statutory limit shot way past the old cap of $14.294 trillion to hit $14.532 trillion on Tuesday, according to the latest the Treasury Department figures, which are released on the next business day.

That increase puts the government already remarkably close to the new debt limit of $14.694, which means one day’s new borrowing ate up 60 percent of the $400 billion in space Congress granted the president this week.

This round of borrowing now puts us at 100% of GDP in debt. That means that the entire output of Americans now goes just to the debt.

The more you give the more they take. Hell, it looks like the first order of business when Congress comes off its' little vacation will be to go back into talks to raise the debt ceiling. It is almost as if this administration is determined to spend this country into oblivion. A question I have heard several times is if you were trying to deliberately destroy this economy, name me one thing you would have done different?

The EPA has been taking advantage of all the attention on Congress to push ahead with one edict after another that will have the effect of crippling energy production in this country even further. Slublog, one of Ace's crack hobo hunters, has a piece up about how soon that heart healthy cereal known as Cheerios will probably be inducing heart attacks when you see the price cause of new regulations.

More borrowing, more spending, more rules and regulations all aimed at further reducing further the productivity in America and handicapping not only energy production but instilling even more instability into business community.

I originally thought that we could survive four years of Obama, using Jimmy Carter as a model, but I no longer have even that glimmer of optimism. Folks, quite frankly I could care less who the next president is at this point, hell pick a random name out the Dubuque, Iowa phonebook. They certainly could not do anything more destructive then this administration has done.

A Sneak Peek Into Those Closed Door Budget Negotiations

Any questions?

Well, This Is Going To Piss Off The "Greatest Generation" Crowd

Well the Democrats have a plan on what they want to do to address the budget mess in Washington. Unfortunately, it is forcing the supposed "Greatest Generation" to make a choice.

They can either continue to enjoy their monthly government checks, which came about because of reforms enacted by FDR and later Democrats in the form of their Social Security checks and Medicare, or they can squander away all of their sacrifice in WWII by relegating the United States to a third world status as far as military might is concerned, thereby quite possibly enabling yet another world war. You see, in the history of mankind the one constant has always been the presence of a super power, and without that presence we devolve into chaos. For reference see: Decline of Roman Empire and the Dark Ages.

The blueprint would take nearly $900 billion from the Pentagon over the next decade — the same amount recommended by Obama’s fiscal commission. It would slice more than $350 billion from domestic programs. And it would produce interest savings of nearly $600 billion attributable to reduced borrowing.

Only about $80 billion would be cut from Medicare, Medicaid and other federal health programs, and nothing from Social Security. But even without touching those programs, the plan would stabilize borrowing by 2014 and begin pushing the national debt down as a share of the economy.

That is the Democrats' big plan. Cut the defense budget ten times more then Medicare. Of course, once the defense department is gone the rest of us won't have to worry about Medicare because I am sure whichever benevolent dictator takes over will take care of us just fine.

You see, for me that is exactly what the matter boils down to. Which path is it that our senior citizens are willing to take America down. Continue to enjoy the government largess, regardless of how short-lived it may be, or once again have to make a sacrifice, which, in reality, in all of the plans proposed by Republicans is really no sacrifice at all. Seniors are being scared by the liberals painting pictures of them eating cat food and being wheeled off cliffs because of Republican budget plans, when in fact they all state that no changes will occur for those currently receiving benefits. In other words, it is my generation which will have to make the sacrifice, which to me wouldn't have been much of a sacrifice if the damn Dems hadn't opposed every reform effort directed at Social Security that would have allowed for some private, personal investment options rather then the crappy return the government gives for the deduction from my paycheck.

So what is it, seniors? Do you sit by on your little Rascal and watch a country that your generation fought and died for and sacrificed so much for in the 40's become merely a puppet on the world stage, or will you shut the hell up and quit being cowed into a corner by the boogeymen created by the liberals? Right now your legacy is one of bringing freedom to the world, but how much longer before you become vilified and cited as the cause of causing a once great nation to descend into the dustbin of history well before its time?

Don't get me wrong, I have the utmost respect for the WWII generation, and it is time for you to enjoy your benefits, but please, PLEASE, step out of the way and let my generation address the problems and develop solutions which will work for us just as you devised solutions for your generation. Time marches on, and the only constant is change. All I am asking is look at the details, and when the plan says no changes for you, shut up! We should not have to sacrifice the security of this nation just to ensure the continuation of programs for your generation. If it were up to me I would already be sunsetting Medicare completely. I would keep it in place for seniors or those, say, 50 years old and up. For those younger, it is time to come up with a completely new method and I don't mean one reliant on the government, either. As far as Social Security, same thing. If somebody wants to stay invested in the Ponzi scheme, fine, let them, but as for me, I would like to take my chances with some private investment choices that will provide a far greater return on my investment and wouldn't be tied to the stability of the government, used as a weapon by elected politicians every election cycle. I have heard the damn issue brought up every time there is a national election since I am old enough to remember, and nothing has ever been done.

Well, seniors, the ball is in your court. With any luck, your benefits won't run out before the country dissolves if you support the Democrat plan.

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) Discusses Balanced Budget Amendment with Mark Levin

Unlike that perennial Democrat favorite 'PAYGO' - a budget "constraint" that basically just means we pay as politicians go on bacchanalian spending binges - the balanced budget amendment that Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) are proposing actually has teeth.

Of course, even a balanced budget amendment won't prevent every halfwit who manages to win a seat in Congress from trying to spend money that hasn't even been minted yet - but it should stop enough of them to put America back on a path to fiscal solvency.



Cross-posted.

Here Are Your Senate Porkers

Jaime Dupree, who is well respected around these parts for his reporting on the goings on in DC, has combed through that omnibus Christmas list that the Congress is trying to pass. You know, that last minute document drop consisting of almost 2000 pages of taxpayer waste. Neither party is without blame; in fact the top porker is Thad Cochran (R-MS), with 230 earmarks in the bill.

It's no longer a point of those folks in Washington not getting it, it has reached the point that they are just giving us the big middle finger and telling us they don't care. There are a lot of ways this thing can work out--the most obvious, of course, is to scrap the whole thing, but the reality is nobody in Washington is willing to stop the federal government, which would mean no money for our soldiers, among everything else. This isn't just a bill filled with earmarks, like the last dozen, this one actually is the budget for next year, so not approving it would affect everything the federal government has a hand in, from Amtrak to Medicare to national parks.

The biggest thing these congress critters fear, however, is that if they don't approve this monstrosity, and the beast doesn't get its money and then nobody notices. There is no way they can let the Americans see for even a short time that they can live without all of that federal largess that they insist is so necessary.

Anyway, here is your list and visit the link for a more in depth breakdown from Jamie, who also makes cameos on the Neal Boortz radio show daily, normally around 11:30 EST.

Cochran (R-MS) 230
Wicker (R-MS) 199
Murray (D-WA) 172
Harkin (D-IA) 152
Reid (D-NV) 129
Menendez (D-NJ) 123
Feinstein (D-CA) 121
Lautenberg (D-NJ) 120
Lincoln (D-AR) 114
Inouye (D-HI) 113
Schumer (D-NY) 106
Johnson (D-SD) 105
Landrieu (D-LA) 104
Specter (D-PA) 103
Pryor (D-AR) 96
Levin (D-MI) 93
Stabenow (D-MI) 91
Boxer (D-CA) 90
Brown (D-OH) 87
Grassley (R-IA) 86
Bingaman (D-NM) 86
Durbin (D-IL) 86
Akaka (D-HI) 83
Wyden (D-OR) 83
Cardin (D-MD) 79
Merkley (D-OR) 79
Gillibrand (D-NY) 79
Bond (R-MO) 78
Bennett (R-UT) 76
Casey (D-PA) 76
Udall (D-NM) 73
Reed (D-RI) 70
Kerry (D-MA) 69
Cantwell (D-WA) 69
Hagan (D-NC) 69
Voinovich (R-OH) 68
Klobuchar (D-MN) 68
Rockefeller (D-WV) 67
Dodd (D-CT) 66
Mikulski (D-MD) 65
Tester (D-MT) 65
Lieberman (ID-CT) 64
Hutchison (R-TX) 63
Burr (R-NC) 63
Baucus (D-MT) 62
Dorgan (D-ND) 60
Warner (D-VA) 60
Webb (D-VA) 58
Franken (D-MN) 58
Collins (R-ME) 57
Leahy (D-VT) 56
Murkowski (R-AK) 55
Whitehouse (D-RI) 55
Kohl (D-WI) 54
Conrad (D-ND) 52
Vitter (R-LA) 48
Cornyn (R-TX) 45
Snowe (R-ME) 44
Nelson (D-FL) 43
Chambliss (R-GA) 42
Crapo (R-ID) 41
Risch (R-ID) 41
Bennet (D-CO) 40
Brownback (R-KS) 39
Carper (D-DE) 39
Begich (D-AK) 37
McConnell (R-KY) 35
Roberts (R-KS) 35
Sanders (I-VT) 33
Shelby (R-AL) 32
Inhofe (R-OK) 32
Shaheen (D-NH) 32
Alexander (R-TN) 30
Udall (D-CO) 30
Lugar (R-IN) 29
Graham (R-SC) 27
Thune (R-SD) 26
Isakson (R-GA) 24
Nelson (D-NE) 23
Sessions (R-AL) 21
Bunning (R-KY) 21
Ensign (R-NV) 20
Gregg (R-NH) 13
Barrasso (R-WY) 4
Enzi (R-WY) 3
Hatch (R-UT) 1
Bayh (D-IN) 1
Corker (R-TN) 1
Brown (R-MA) 1
McCain (R-AZ) 0
Feingold (D-WI) 0
Kyl (R-AZ) 0
DeMint (R-SC) 0
Coburn (R-OK) 0
McCaskill (D-MO) 0
Johanns (R-NE) 0
LeMieux (R-FL) 0
Manchin (D-WV) 0
Coons (D-DE) 0
Kirk (R-IL) 0

Furloughs For Everyone But Foreign Workers

What a country!

Georgia, like so many other states, is struggling to make ends meet budget wise and earlier this year the governor mandated that all state workers take six days of unpaid vacation, a furlough, to help the state meet it's budget. Well now we find out that applies to everybody but a select group of people, those in the country on the H-1B visas, not to be confused with the H1N1 flu.

The [university]system would have to spend about $320 on each application for each affected employee to seek the waiver for six furlough days, Millsaps said. The system didn’t know how long it would take to get a response or if each request would be granted, he said.

The same folks who want to take over healthcare run this program with such efficiency that the university system in Georgia doesn't want to go through the expense of applying for waivers that may or may not be granted. I wonder how long it would take your doctor to get a response back?

According to U.S. Department of Labor rules, an employee with the visa who is furloughed still must be paid by the employer, who can seek a waiver.

Somebody tell me again what the advantages are to being a citizen?