Monday Open Thread: Budget Edition
by PubliusToday, President Obama releases his proposed federal budget for the next fiscal year. The great budget battle will now begin.
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73 Comments
Whatever it is he wants to spend…………………….we don't have it!
The taxpayers wallets are useless, and empty……………not much unlike the thoughts coming out of his head.
Good thing all spending bills start in the House of Representatives.
By Law Democrats are not allowed to appropriate one dime….. not one thin dime, thanks to the TEA Party.
This battle is over before it begins or Republicans are out of a job in less than 2 years.
Happy Birthday to Oregon (33rd state 1859) and Arizona (48th state 1912).
Why do I feel that any cuts by the admin will be more smoke and mirrors than real savings. From watching over the last four years, no one on the dim side or for that matter the repubs understands that a cut means less spending and that less spending means their sugar daddies, special interest groups, will be angry if certain rice bowls are downsized. It's going to get ugly.
Sounds already as if BO will need the debt ceiling raised to accommodate his spending cuts. Just saying.
Regardless more dims need go to the unemployment rolls in 2012. That would mean 30 less progs in the house and 22 less in the senate.
Soros, the Youth, High Tech and the Fundamental Change that is Revolution:
http://newzeal.blogspot.com/2011/02/soros-youth-h...
"international coup"?
ObaMao is releasing his budget on Valentine's Day?
Must be a whole bunch of "sweetheart deals" in in for all his lovers… Soros, Unions, Proglodytes, Mooslims, Etc…
Old jug ears is playing with fire. The American people will tolerate alot but, economic destuction will bring about a wrath upon the left that will be historic.
Less spending in Washington means we were going to spend $50B more, but now were only going to spend $25B, so we cut $25B!
Oh, and Ronald Reagan is the greatest!!!!!!!
I'll say it again – the second this Obama budget is released – do what Tip O'Neill used to do Ronald Reagan – declare WHATEVER he proposes as DOA – "Dead On Arrival."
The Demoncraps would call Reagan's budgets DOA for not SPENDING ENOUGH – so turn about is "fair play" – Obambi's is DOA for spending TOO MUCH.
Lastly I've riden trains ALL OVER Europe – the United States DOES NOT a shiny new $53 BILLION (ha, like that's "accurate!") TRAIN SET to play with – EUROPE is TINY relative to Europe – we have AIRLINES.
Borrowing from Samuel Clemens: Obama's figures lie, and the liar figures.
And the poser will expect an A+ for his laser like focus on the budget. It doesn't matter that it is 6 MONTHS OVERDUE.
Keep going til they're all gone……
Well, ……I can dream
Obama is on the 2012 election campaign. Everything he is saying and doing right now, including trying to emulate Reagan and now attempting to be fiscally responsible is an effort to win the 2012 election.
Ah, yes…..
Getting ready for the O'Gipper to call every spending cut, a miracle budget cut.
As in:
"But Honey, we only overspent our monthly income by $400.00 this month. I'm sure the banks will understand if we push all 15 credit cards off til next year."
EUROPE is TINY relative to Europe – we have AIRLINES…… damn straight! Pass the blunt.
awwww…..
But, O'Gipper likes his new Lionel. Can't he have it please, please, please, pretty please?
They are already spreading the fallacy that the "Bush Tax Cuts" (i.e. Bush's Fault©®™) are "causing" the deficit to be "huge".
It's going to be a blitzkrieg all week on that timber – NOTHING is BoBo's or the Dem's fault.
Are you cutting anything if you cut some spending on defense and Pell grants for education, then spent it on building a railroad the no one will use?
Republicans…prepare to engage…away the boarding party!
(Seriously…DO YOUR DAMN JOBS, PEOPLE!!!)
dammit. Now I can't fix it either. Thanks!
Cut, cut, cut, and when in doubt cut more.
Be certain these Washington weasels all want to get their grimy hands on $3.7Trillion of borrowed money. It’s time to burn your representatives inboxes, phones, letters, FAXs, tell’em “NO!”
knew what you meant from the get go.
The other thing that is worth mentioning is,…….
the scenery on train rides throughout all of Europe,……
are a tad more interesting than a train ride through Ill, Ind, Ohio, Neb, Iowa, etc.
There is a budget? Congress and the POTUS do not act like there is a budget. Don't you use a budget to figure out how much money you have, then you plan your spending accordingly?
What Congress and the POTUS have is a list of runaway spending and that is not a budget.
When you have such a bloated budget,……
cutting is no big deal,……..
What is going to be a big deal will be,…..
how the MSM will swoon over Obama's,……
"budget cuts"
Just saw Jack Lew of OMB on Fox & Friends, convoluted doesn’t even begin to describe that special brand of Washington hilarity. These jerks submit a $3.7 Trillion budget $1.7 Trillion dollar deficit in one year but have the balls to claim a savings over 10 years of $1.1 Trillion…hmmm, I think the “Voodoo Economics” that GHW Bush spoke of (debate with Reagan 1980) so many years ago has arrived.
He also said something that if you stated this in the private sector, your ass would be in a sling, too paraphrase, “we save $65 Billion in Medicare, so we can spend 65 Billion in Medicare.” Hmmm…glory be! …it’s a miracle. Or could it be the allusive, “waste, fraud, and abuse,” or is it Barrycare? Our guys had better attack this monstrosity, and now!
Call your Representatives, today!
This "budget battle" is like watching a 300 lb man go into a movie theater concession stand, order a giant buttered popcorn, a big box of candy, an order of nachos… and a diet soda.
Neither side is serious about the real issues. Neither side really wants to tackle the core problems: bloated entitlement programs, subsidies for both rich and poor, and a failing global military empire.
This is just a song-and-dance routine to distract the peasants.
Open thread? Okay… Totally "off topic"
A friend of mine asked me yesterday if I could only use one word to best describe the purpose of the founding of our great nation – what would it be?
Your answers and reasons would be greatly appreciated if you have a few moments…
Oh, and good morning…
End welfare to foreign countries that have attacked us and sold our secrets to the USSR like Israel has.
Who understands the budget? It's like looking at a strand of a spider web through a microscope with no way to back up and see the whole thing?
People on other boards are trotting out the idea that if you don't PAY taxes, ie, entitlement folks, you shouldn't be allowed to vote at all….the premise being they'll keep voting to keep the free money flowing in. Others want to raise the voting age to 21.
Defunding Planned Parenthood et al are no brainers, but what about fed agencies that get yearly raises? How are they spending the money they already get? Do they employee thousands, require multiple offices….what are the COSTS of the EPA? Why do they need more money every year? Why does the IRS need more money….they don't even do their job now. Computers do it for the most part. How can ANYONE make INFORMED decisions and choices about the budget or for that matter know whether EITHER party is being fiscally responsible?
Maybe it's cause I've only had one cup of coffee but every article on every site I've read today just sounds like gibberish…..throwing the word TRILLIONS around like it actually MEANS something, and leaving us mere mortals at the mercy of politicians who tell us "This is a good or bad thing"
LIKE WE WOULD KNOW!
Ouch! Chuck zinged ya hard…
Ralph is right – we knew what ya meant…
Besides, if we "needed" it, some capitalist or investment group would have built it already – after bribing the proper number of politicians for "permission" Now? They are bribing them 'cause they can build it, but not enough people really want it (demand-wise). There's votes in them thar rails…
Crony Capitalism = Phony Capitalism
This is one time you’ve swerved into something we agree on.
Mornin' to ya Pr GF,
I'd say that word you're looking for is FREEDOM.
Have a good one ; )
o&o CS…
.
When you look at the spending during the Reagan years and,………
the spending so far under this "president",……
your point is well taken.
However, it matters less when you do all that spending,………
when you are making more money (from tax revenues).
Interesting how the tone has changed in a week.
Liberty.
I'm going to start investing in wheelbarrow manufacturers.
People will need them soon to take their money to the grocery store.
If any of you listen to CSPAN, this morning you might have heard someone from my neck of the woods, Hanover MD, call in to the open line show and make a truely astounding statement, which, if it hadn't be expressed so poorly, I would have taken for parody. This "learned" individual's solution to the problem of the deficit was not to raise taxes or cut spending. His genius led him a two-fold approach that speaks volumes about the state of economic thinking in modern America:
1) Prevent foreigners from buying our debt (by which I suppose he meant investing in government securities.)
2) Since the government can just print money, it should do so. On this point he was utterly sincere.
I submit to you that if there is even one person of voting age that is this ignorant, we would seem to be f_cked.
On occasion, even a blind hog will find an acorn.
In the two weeks or so you have been here, this is the most intelligent thing you have said. I always believe there was a glimmer of hope for you. For a Polish fellow, and a white guy, you really are well written and quite articulate.
There could be potential for you.
Remember, it's all in the presentation…………
Freedom.
"On occasion, even a blind hog will find an acorn."
Good overall description of the Breitbart commenter base.
Its' always find it interesting to read socalled Conservatives act like hawks on the budget now. Where were they when the Republicans controlled the WH, Congress and Senate and spending was growing faster than now or it ever has? Of course there was the reversal of "pay as you go" under their watch. Then there are the unpaid for tax cuts, as well as expanding entitlements without any thought as to how they would fit within futre budgets, things like extending medicaid to 30 million citizens. Continue though, like I say interesting. Hey can anyone of you Tea Party type Conservatives name the last Republican WH, Congress and Senate that ran a balanced budget. ( Hint; no one who has seen this is still alive). Clinton is the most recent POTUS to run balanced budgets.
Your condescending arrogance leaves much to be desired.
I'll bet you didn't have many friends as a child.
I'd further bet, you were the one they were always giving a "swirly" too, as well as a turbo wedgie. That would explain your demeanor as an adult. Trauma.
"Your condescending arrogance leaves much to be desired."
Really? I thought I was pretty good at being condescendingly arrogant.
I shall redouble my efforts forthwith!
You do not understand that Republicans and Conservatives are not the same thing.
Do you remember when you were a child, and the kids teased you in school to the point that you cried? You came home and your Mom and Dad told you "Charlie, they are not laughing AT you, they are laughing WITH you"?
Well, I hate to tell you this. But your folks lied.
People here aren't laughing with you.
WE are laughing AT you.
“If you can’t budget, you can’t govern.”
SAN JOSE, Calif. — The latest information about the salaries and benefits of each San Jose city employee was posted online Friday in an effort to maintain transparency in the city's government.
The compensation information, which can be accessed at …, is from 2010, the latest year available, according to city officials.
Former police Chief Robert Davis had the highest total compensation – more than $534,000 in salary and benefits – for the year, according to the report.
City Manager Debra Figone – who made more than $276,000 in 2010 – said the release of the information is an example of San Jose's commitment to an open and transparent government.
"Residents want to know where their tax dollars are going," Figone said in a statement. "Posting this information online proactively is part of the city of San Jose's commitment to making information available so the public can easily access it at their convenience."
Mayor Chuck Reed said that sick leave payouts cost the city $14 million dollars last year and said retirement benefits were also too generous.
"We're draining money from services, so we're cutting services to pay these high benefits and wages," Reed said. "I understand people are working hard, but we can't afford to pay money at this rate."
San Jose has about 5,900 full-time employees in 19 city departments.
Thanks for the link! WE THE PEOPLE know that evil is behind these revolutions! It is truly disgusting that our own politicians have sold us out for power and $$$$!
You will notice that all those receiving the most grevious of overly high pay and benefits are "exempt staff". Which is to say they are management and NOT part of a union or collective contract agreement.
I find it interesting that you think I should care about whether or not you are laughing at me.
You greatly overvalue your own importance.
What does that have to do with anything?
Do you believe someone in the public sector needs to make this much money, more than 1/2 million in a single year?
This is theft of the publics wealth, nothing less.
The great fight is now, because the Democrats did not have the guts to fight it to begin with. Not even Nancy the P wanted to be involved that's why the extension was planned.
nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah.
You started out this thread with a really decent common sense comment.
I was ready to thumb you down, but I just couldn't since you said what I was thinking. I wish you made more comments like that, content over rhetoric.
You had an idea and explained it so it made sense. Good luck on doing that more often.
That trip to New York for a play with Michelle was something he thought was a great value.
That's the problem with having a marxist president of muslim heritage. His values just have no connection to ours.
You make a good point. I had to think about that for a moment.
It has interesting implications. The Unions claim they are needed to negotiate decent pay, and here the exempt employees are doing better than the union employees. Perhaps they need to toss the union?
Once again it's demonstrated that people will do better when they have something personally on the line. When results pay more, the best rise to the top and get more money. Isn't that a good thing?
I still think they're all a bit pricey for a locality suffering from a recession. But… that said. You did make a nice point.
He's trying for the sake of his web site, I think, you know the Capitalist in him.
You are not being entirely accurate.
RINO's did spend too much and they also got fired for it. But, back to the way you explain spending levels.
http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2010/06/...
Certainly you notice the spending with Obama in office? And Paygo is simply a trigger for higher taxes. It's not a trigger for spending caps. No thanks, our problem isn't taxes too low, but spending being too high
Exactly!
You're right, the Republicans/Neo-cons bought into the statism of the left. And for that they are doing penance. But they are moving rhetorically in a direction consistent with their historical goals: limited government, fiscal discipline and respect for the Constitution. I won't be fooled and I suspect that the Tea Party movement will be reenergized by a failure by the current crop of congresscritters to restore America to its founding principles of individual liberty and limited government.
The Democrats on the other hand, are remaining faithfull to the previous 100 years of their populist form of statism. I guess there's something to be said for consistancy.
Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!
Geez, now you have done it. There is no way I can thumb down a decent analogy.
Perhaps we need a new reality TV show like the "What Will You Cut" (Biggest Loser style) and make fun of the politicians that cheat or don't cut the budget.
How about it?
I prefer individual spending bills instead of this Omnibus male bovine excrement. Break down the budget, first by Agency then by departments of said agency. Determine if agency and its department's work is Constitutional and budget accordingly. Send the agency budgets, one by one, through the system. This helps in several ways and does not allow the whiners to claim they voted for one thing while funding another.
A little graph always helps to expose relative magnitudes: http://www.theblaze.com/stories/shock-graphics-sh...
Does that include Japan, France, Germany, Spain, England etc., etc., or just Israel?
When it hurts bad enough…
This is a little off topic, but a liberal friend has challenged me to name conservative candidates and representatives who are both fiscally conservative and for smaller government and who are for ending the drug war and do not oppose gay unions. Anybody out there?
Happy B-day Arizona…as for Oregon, no thanks they're too liberal too many lefties its scary. But we should watch them…who knows what new unconstitutional law they'll pass next.
Justice.
JUSTICE
1 a : the maintenance or administration of what is just especially by the impartial adjustment of conflicting claims or the assignment of merited rewards or punishments b : judge c : the administration of law; especially : the establishment or determination of rights according to the rules of law or equity
2 a : the quality of being just, impartial, or fair b (1) : the principle or ideal of just dealing or right action (2) : conformity to this principle or ideal : righteousness c : the quality of conforming to law
3: conformity to truth, fact, or reason : correctness
It was sort of a trick question. We all immediately think of freedom or liberty or rights, but it is all for naught if we do not live in a just system.
Kudos to you for coming up with that.
When an ocean liner is sinking, you don't bail it out with an eyedropper.
Wow, thanks for the down-votes. A guy can't ask for help proving to a friend that the more libertarian elements are finally taking hold in the conservative movement?
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