My wife and IFiled under: Democratic, Politics, Republican | Tags: Budget, Spending, State of the Union, Taxes, Tea Party
Listening to the SOTU last night I heard a lot of things thrown out that were a bit hard to swallow, things like “We have doubled the miles our cars can go on a gallon of gas” that is simply untrue. They, the Federal Government has issued a new cafe standard that says cars will have to get 50+ miles on a gallon by 2025. I have to admit I wonder if our auto industry will be able to hit that goal. Perhaps by making cars lighter and smaller they might, but, I don’t want to drive a roller skate, I want a steel box that will save my life when I hit a deer, or when someone hits my car.
If you want to do some fact checking you might want to try Fact Check Org. That will give you a pretty good picture of what really is happening as opposed to the Politi Speak that we heard last night, and will continue to hear during the next several weeks as the Obama Election Campaign ramps up again.
Marco Rubio gave the Republican rebuttal and it too had some hyperbole in it, which you can also check out at the website. Then there was Rand Paul who gave the Tea Party Rebuttal, oh, you didn’t know about that? I watched it today at the Washington Post website. It’s about 13 minutes long but I really enjoyed what he had to say. He went after the political circus on both sides of the aisle in Washington. It’s true that both sides need to stop the rhetoric, read the Constitution and act like grown ups instead of kids on the playground. He said that he would be introducing a proposal to balance the budget in 5 – 6 years, using a flat 17% tax on income and cutting spending, starting with foreign aid to nations that burn our flag and say “death to America.” Our nation faces some serious challenges over the next few years, and if we don’t get our fiscal house in order, well, we are on the way to becoming a second-rate country.
You can check out all of these, the SOTU itself plus the 2 responses for yourself. Just Google it and you will see lots of hits, from Chris Matthews making inane statements to the actual footage. Then make your own comments, tell us what you think about the SOTU, is it really just hot air, or do you think things will change for the better?
Filed under: Politics | Tags: Budget, Constitutional Requirements, Election, Politicians, politics
I read this story today: It is all about how the Democratic Party is going to spend millions to turn Texas into a Blue State. OK, they are going to do what they can to change the State of Texas, I think they may just make people angry, but, I could be wrong. The important things in our nation are not important to too many people, and so we have people concentrated on winning the next election instead of trying to get the House and Senate to begin actually doing what the Constitution says they are supposed to do. The House needs to pass a budget, the Senate needs to then discuss that budget, and make amendments to it and pass their version, sending it back to the House. Instead, the Senate is publishing their own budget, not looking at and discussing the one which is put forth by the House. The Constitution says that money bills are supposed to originate in the House, then go to the Senate. If they can’t agree then they are supposed to talk to one another and compromise. Instead there has been NO BUDGET in four years, because the Senate won’t even talk about what the House has passed.
Instead our politicians want to try to get advantage over each other, they begin to work toward re-election right after the election they just won. Politics are a Mess no matter who is in office, they all seem to be concerned with themselves and the people need to be hoodwinked into voting for them. More and more we find our rights, God-given rights, being abridged by these people not because they are trying to make things better, but because they think they will have a better chance to be re-elected.
What do you think? Are you tired of the political games or do you think it is just fine??
Leave a comment, join in the discussion.
Filed under: Happening Now, Politics | Tags: Baseline, Budget, Constitution, Democrats, Economics, Fiscal Cliff, Government, lies, Republicans
I was reading today about the Fiscal Cliff discussions and I realized that this whole thing is a lie. Now lets look at all this nonsense that keeps coming out. The President says he wants to work with the Republicans to make sure the country will not go over the cliff, the Speaker of the House says he has offered increased revenue from the “rich” but wants reductions in spending to go along with this before he will agree to it. The Majority leader in the Senate, who will not even consider any bills passed by Republicans in the House, says, no income, no changes to entitlements, and give us the increased taxes and next year we will talk about reducing spending.
Doesn’t sound like there is much room for compromise between the factions. Of course even if they came out today and said that they had an agreement, an agreement that would reduce spending by 1.5 trillion dollars, it would not be true. It wouldn’t be true because of the way the Federal Gov’t figures out its budgets. They start with a baseline, say 20 billion for Department X, then they add 10% to that for inflation then they cut spending by 5% so they actually raise spending by 5% over last year. They never cut spending, they just cut how much it will increase.
Of course they say it will be cut by 1.5 trillion dollars, but the truth is that is over a 10 year period. It is also not possible for them to force future Representatives, Senators and Presidents to stop spending or even to cut their budget by 5%, this Congress doesn’t have that authority, therefore the 10 year figure is a lie. Also if we assume that the 10 year figure is true, we have to understand that there are a number of assumptions in that calculation. For one thing the assumption is that nothing will happen to change the baseline figures, they don’t build in inflation, nor do they have a crystal ball that would show them the next recession that might come along, so the figures get skewed by greater or lesser amounts over the course of the 10 year period.
They also don’t have the ability to build in changes in the marketplace, such as the EPA deciding that air pollution is a problem in one or another industry so they pass aq regulation that says they have to cut back emissions by 25%. Well that means an increase in the costs that the industry has to absorb, that gets passed on to the consumer, the problem though is that some of the smaller businesses in that industry, cannot make a profit and go under, that cuts the tax base that is a part of the assumption for the 10 year figure.
Basic Economics should have taught them a lesson or two over the years. Lets face it, if we figured our household budget the way the Federal Gov’t figures theirs, we would be bankrupt real quick. So when you hear all the talk, about this one or that one being responsible for sending us over the cliff, remember that both the Republicans and the Democrats are responsible, because they all spend more than they take in. They all use the same baseline plus 10% figures, and they all listen to the CBO tell them that everything will be fine over the next 10 years – MALARKY, it will not be fine, it will get us bigger and bigger deficits, until eventually we will not be able to finance our deficit spending and will have to declare bankruptcy. Talk about too big to fail!! With the Government we have now, a government that ignores the Constitution, spends like they never have to worry because the rich can pay the bills, sets standards that cannot be met because the science doesn’t exist, and basically promises the moon and can’t deliver even one job. we will be facing massive debt for the forseeable future.
We really need to begin to bring people into the government who are willing to say NO, to more spending, who are willing to actually work within the confines of the Constitution. We also need states to step up and begin to work within the confines of that Constitution, the 10th Amendment reads: “Amendment 10 – Powers of the States and People. Ratified 12/15/1791.
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.”
We can stop this, but we have to be willing to stand up and bring the power back to where it belongs with WE THE PEOPLE. So, are you willing to make things change? Are you willing to suffer the consequences if we don’t? What do you think about all this?
One year ago, President Obama gave the order to send SpOps into a compound in Pakistan to kill or capture Osama Bin Laden. He was killed in the raid. At the time I was more than willing to say, great call Mr. President, but now, a year later, Mr. Obama is trying to say that he did it and his opponent would not have pulled the trigger.
Mr. Romney has stated that even Jimmy Carter would have done the same thing, that given the information at hand, any one in the oval office, except maybe Joe Biden would have sent in the troops. I agree with Mitt Romney, it is a shame that Mr. Obama is using this decision that he made as POTUS, to try to make political hay against his opponent. It was a good decision and the dedicated men and women who got the information, and the troops that executed the plan made it happen. They all deserve the credit for this operation.
I have to wonder, why Mr. Obama doesn’t just run on his record. He has saddled the country with 5 trillion in debt in just 3 years, a record accomplishment. His Health Care Reform (Obamacare) is set to take over 1/3 of the economy in 2013, and of course the new taxes that are coming up in Janurary of 2013 will help to drive us back into recession, if not a mild depression. But of course the Democratic Senate won’t even discuss all the bills passed in the house to try to stimulate the economy, because it might embarrass Mr. Reid and Mr. Obama. All that has come of that is hate speech aimed at Paul Ryan, instead of discussion of the passed in the House of Representatives but not even allowed to be talked about in the Senate. It is interesting, the Senate could and should be working on a budget, something they have not been willing to do in 3 years, but they won’t even look at the budget passed in the house. One last year and one this year. They could amend the budget more to their liking and pass it, it would go to conference committee and get adjusted by both sides and we might actually have a real budget once again. But NO Harry Reid won’t even bring it to committee much less the floor of the Senate.
So, what do you think about all this? Is it time to replace the leadership in the Senate? Perhaps on both sides of the aisle, since Mitch McConnell has not been particularly effective either. I’d really like to know what you think dear reader.
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