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Let’s start with our National Debt – $16.4 Trillion dollars. The new 2013 Congress says we need cuts to Entitlement Programs. The new 2013 Congress says that the National Debt in on the table in any negotiations regarding the funding of current or new government programs. The new 2013 Congress says we have to change Tax Laws for the little people, Take Away CPI – Cost Price Indexing for Social Security, Medicare, Military Wages, Retirements and Medical Payments – just for starters.
How did you get here again? Well, let’s start with the two wars: Iraq and Afghanistan: $3.2 to $4 Trillion dollars in round numbers:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_cost_of_the_Iraq_War
Next let’s take the costs with Fiscal Bailouts of Banks: TARP and the Bush/Obama Fiscal Stimulus Packages: $4.5 ri $6.8 Trillon dollars in round numbers:
Nest let’s take the cost of Private Industry Bailouts for companies such as GM? $80 to $100 Billion depending on who you ask!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/13/us-auto-bailout-treasury_n_1773811.html
Now let’s take the cost of the new National Healthcare: Obama Care: $1.1 Trillion over 10 years!
http://obamacarefacts.com/costof-obamacare.php
Now let’s take the amounts for the Annual Cost of Military and Federal Government Retirements: About $80 to $100 Billion a year – to include family members.
Now let’s take the Annual Cost of State Pensions for Bureaucrats, Teachers, FireFighters, Police and other State or local officials: Unreal!
http://www.apatheticvoter.com/PensionRip-Offs.htm
Now let’s talk about the Annual Deficit for 2012-2013….. Fiscal Cliff….remember that? Around $900 Billion dollars!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_fiscal_cliff
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_United_States_federal_budget
OK – How much of these things do the Republicans want to cut to reduce the National Debt?
OK- How much of these things do the Republicans want to cut to reduce the Annual US Budget Deficit?:
OK – How much of these things in regard to Social Security and Medicare could be reduced by “Means Testing”, so that a cap is put on those with high retirement incomes?
Why do we even have a Republican Party? Is their job – to just to say NO to everything that comes up? Take away the tiny upticks for the underclass? What?
OK – How much was the National Debt when President George W. Bush tookover as President in 2001 again? About $11 Trillion dollars.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-4872310-503544.html
There is lots to do in Washington D.C. and lots of things to fix: We need a Farm Bill, We need a Medicare and Big Pharma Price Control Bill, We need a new Military Budget for 2013-14, We need an Immigration Law, We need Simpson-Bowles Bank Regulation, We need strict Federal oversight of State, County and Local Pension and Retirement Plans. We need to institute Legislation which encourages companies to stay in the United States and create jobs here which our own citizens take/apply for – not those with HI-B Visas. We need serious penalities for bankers that defraud the public. We need a Congress that gives a hoot about the people – not only their own fat checkbooks for the next campaign for office. We even need food labeling, GMO Regulations and Import Standards for all our food products! We need high tech solutions for our energy needs and cars that can get the same 75 to 90 Miles Per Gallon that are being produced by the Europeans – right now! Can’t our Congress do something? Anything?
President Obama needs help and the Republicans better get off their duffs and start helping rather than bitching!
Pretty soon you are talking real money!
They are saying that president Obama can order the mint to start making trillion dollars coins.
With a hand full of pocket change (trillion dollar coins) the president can pay off the debt and start afresh.
They may even show this 9th the new coin at Nixon’s library on his birthday free day.
Of course the coin has the 37th president on one side and the reverse his famous quote, “I am not a crook”
No, it wouldn’t “pay off the debt.” It would finance the debt. We’re supposed to have a fiat currency; there’s not supposed to be a debt ceiling at all. Platinum coins — and I’d cut the crap and make one worth a quintillion, which isn’t inflationary until and unless that money actually going into circulation through Congressional appropriations — simply convert us fully into a fiat currency.
This would not be necessary if the Congressional Republicans were willing to act as responsibly as both parties have done in the past when it comes to increasing the debt limit to cover previously authorized spending. But — they aren’t.
*Amazing that the Media (CNN, MSNBC & FOX plua the three Major Networks) keep that same refrain going: Reduce Entitlements or Revenue Enhancements……please!
Someone needs to tell them ALL: “SHUTUP DUPES”.
Big Oil Companies do not receive “welfare.” Oil companies simply get tax deductions like every other business.
Only in the insane world of the Progressive mind could being allowed to keep more of your earnings – even if you are an oil company – be called a subsidy.
What these tax deductions do is encourage things like equipment, machinery and vehicles to be replaced faster than it might otherwise be done. When these items are fully depreciated, businesses are incentivised to to replace them rather than hold onto them for a few more years through tax deductions.
So what Obama wants to do is target the oil industry for higher taxes and fewer deductions, not eliminate of subsidies, because none exist.
And we all know the result. Lower profits due to taxes will be replaced at the pumps in higher prices.
And worse, oil companies will slow down purchases of machinery, tools, vehicles and other items. Which will make a pretty large impact on the rest of the economy – in a negative way.
The fact is, the more money oil companies make, the more money they pay in taxes.
*Oooh my….another would be Hedge Fund Manager in training…….You and Jeff Skillings….wanting to “marketize” broadband, electricity, food, water, air, natural gas and anything known to mankind which could be considered a necessary staple of life. Your total disregard for human life……is impressive. Maybe Assad can use you as a “Finanacial Consultant”.
Just in case you might have forgotten: in all this “Jive, Hip Hop, Reality World we all inhabit: The Federal Trade Commission, the Public Utilities Commission and of course our very own Securities and Exchange Commission….used to have laws that protected the public…..from Predatory Pricing and Trading of Commodities.
In the words of Sonny Corelone: “There’s a lot of money in that white powder Pop!”
Anything you consider not to be “a Market Target”? Nevermind….we don’t want to get too sick this early on NFL Play-Off Saturday.
“Maybe Assad can use you as a “Finanacial Consultant””
You two Winship assholes are fucking out of your minds – don’t bother me you dipshits.
Good article, and thanks for the citation links. In the rhetorical questions raised above, is it not also fair to ask ” How much do DEMOCRATS want to cut from these programs”? , if only as a basis for comparison, if not for a rhetorical response? Didn’t all those expenditures have to be passed with bi-partisan support? Links to THAT pair of questions (R + D) might be extremely informative, if they exist!
*Good points all. Yeah…both parties tend “to pander when it benefits them most”…..so one day it is Spy vs. Spy and the next day it Is “Good Cop – Bad Cop”. The current Gerrymandering Districts are keeping some bad ones hanging around when their “old tired script” has been dogeared and with worn down heels for certain.
It seems to be that we are now all having to become not only our own doctors, lawyers and business consultants….but our own politicians as well. With the Great Pumpkin Google at our disposal…we are sometimes more informed than those that are elected to represent us.
Perhaps, it simply comes down to this: (1) Should Social Security Recipients get a Cost of Living Adjustment every year? (2) Should someone that has a retirement income of $70,000 dollars a year or more get SSN benefits? (3) Should someone that gets $70,000 a year or more in Retirement get Medicare Benefits too? Should all so-called Entitlement Programs be required to be “Means Tested”?
Take money out of a rich guys pocket and you could hear the scream for miles.
Republicans or Democrats that want to cut “Entitlement Programs”….”Go ahead…make a rich guy’s day!”