I have been warning my cattle industry clients FOR YEARS to get out of debt as quickly as possible, and not just for the obvious business reasons. I have been telling them that the government WILL NOT HONOR any contracts or terms on mortgages or notes when the system collapses and the banks are all nationalized. Your 20-year note at 5%? Yeah, the government will change that once your bank has been eliminated. Still there are scads of people who simply cannot comprehend a lawless environment wherein there is no rule of law, and thus no recourse of any kind.
Well, maybe you will believe me now, because the European Central Bank has just arbitrarily changed the terms of all of its Greek bonds with zero engagement with the market or any judicial review. They just changed the terms of their Greek bonds with the wave of their hand. In doing this, they have utterly SCREWED everyone else holding Greek paper, essentially making all other Greek bonds worthless with zero salvage value.
He just doesn’t get it. I guess this shit is par for the course with SCOAMF. The only way this shit is going to change is if we get rid of his ass in 2012 and get rid of the Democrats in both Chambers of Congress. I would include the RINOs in cleaning out Congress. Government needs to shrink, not get bigger. It’s already too big for our own good.
President Obama’s fiscal 2013 budget proposal touts the administration’s recent long-shot mortgage refinancing proposal and says the White House’s increased emphasis on the housing crisis will lead to larger taxpayer losses from a 2008 emergency bailout fund.
The budget, as expected includes a call for broadening the availability of refinancing options for borrowers who are current on their mortgages but owe more than their homes are worth. The administration said it plans to finish doling out unspent funds for housing assistance, which is likely to increase the costs of the emergency financial bailout by $20 billion — something that is likely to generate criticism from Republicans for increasing taxpayer costs.
President Obama is offering his spending blueprint for the next decade — an election-year document that seeks to achieve $4 trillion in deficit reduction through cuts in government spending, higher taxes and inclusion of last year’s debt-ceiling deal for deficit reduction.
At the same time, Obama will ask for substantial spending increases on infrastructure and job training, but will offer few reforms to entitlement programs, which take up 40 percent of the annual federal budget.
Republicans, who are vowing to oppose Obama’s tax increases, have planned several events Monday to counter the president’s release. On Sunday House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan said the president’s proposal is full of gimmicks and does little to reduce the deficit or curb the rapid growth of benefit programs like Medicare.
OBAMA BUDGET: ends Bush tax cuts for top earners, limits their deductions & exemptions, brings back top 39.6% rate
Bottom line…this is all theater since Obama’s budget is Dead on Arrival. Democrats in the Senate don’t want to touch it but Mitch McConnell is trying to bring it up for a vote.
This video fromCAGW says it all when it comes to the tax and spend culture we are currently living through. It will only get worse if we don’t stop the madness now.
Yeah, let’s keep taking from the makers and give to the moochers. That’s a great plan for prosperity! NOT!
We, as a nation, cannot continue to let this happen. Unfortunately, there are fewer and fewer producers and more and more moochers. It may already be too late to right this sinking ship.
“Fifty thousand for what you didn’t plant, for what didn’t grow. That’s modern farming — reap what you don’t sow.”That’s a line from a song about farm subsidies, “Farming The Government,” by the Nebraska Guitar Militia.
But these days it applies to more and more of the U.S. economy, as Charles Sykes points out in his new book, A Nation Of Moochers: America’s Addiction To Getting Something For Nothing.The problem, Sykes points out, is that you can’t run an economy like that. If you tried to hold a series of potluck dinners where a majority brought nothing to the table, but felt entitled to eat their fill, it would probably work out badly. Yet that’s essentially what we’re doing.
In today’s America, government benefits flow to large numbers of people who are encouraged to vote for politicians who’ll keep them coming. The benefits are paid for by other people who, being less numerous, can’t muster enough votes to put this to a stop.
Over time, this causes the economy to do worse, pushing more people into the moocher class and further strengthening the politicians whose position depends on robbing Peter to pay Paul. Because, as they say, if you rob Peter to pay Paul, you can be pretty sure of getting Paul’s vote.
But the damage goes deeper. Sykes writes, “In contemporary America, we now have two parallel cultures: An anachronistic culture of independence and responsibility, and the emerging moocher culture.
This high-speed rail boondoggle is all about politics and wasting money that we don’t have. If this crap isn’t stopped in its tracks (pun) then we are truly boned, and so are the grandchildren of today’s children.
California has a huge state debt and Washington has a huge national debt. But that does not discourage either Governor Jerry Brown or President Barack Obama from wanting to launch a very costly high-speed rail system.
Most of us might be a little skittish about spending money if we were teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. But the beauty of politics is that it is all other people’s money, including among those other people generations yet unborn.
The high-speed rail system proposed for California has been envisioned as a model for similar systems elsewhere in the United States. A recent story in the San Francisco Chronicle used the high-speed rail system in Spain as an analogy for California.
Spain is about the same size as California, and has a similar population density — and population density is the key to the economic viability of mass transportation, from subways to high-speed rail.
This should open your eyes a bit. If you’re not paying attention that is, or you’re a liberal moron, or a RINO.Yes, I’m talking to you idiots in the OWS crowd and their supporters just in case you missed the inference.
When the story of the Department of Energy’s green loan program is written someday, the entire book will be contained in chapter 11:
After months of financial turmoil, an Energy Department-backed lithium ion battery company has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
The company, Ener1, received a $118 million grant from DOE in 2010 as part of the president’s stimulus package. The money, which went to Ener1 subsidiary EnerDel, aimed to promote renewable energy storage battery technology for electrical grid use.
But despite generous federal support for the company, Ener1 was racked by problems last year. In October, NASDAQ delisted the company due to non-compliance with Securities and Exchange Commission filing requirements. A month later, the company’s president, chief executive, and top financial officer were fired.
On Thursday, Ener1 announced it will initiate a pre-packaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy plan as part of an agreement to restructure the company’s debt obligations.
The problem? Something the government often fails to take into account when spending tons of other people’s money because they think it can be artificially created later on: Product demand
Unions are killing the economy. One city at a time. I’m talking public sector unions. The other unions contribute to the high price of goods and services that you see every day, I’ll pick at that bone some other time.
But when it comes to public sector employee unions, that money comes out of the pockets of the tax payers.
What do unions want? More of our money in pension benefits and lifetime employment regardless of performance. The city, or state can’t afford it? Too bad! Raise taxes on everyone else to pay for it.
With the realities of the economic situation in America, most people are waking up to the fact the PSUs are more of a problem than most thought, and that they drain the coffers of whatever municipality they are in, with little regard to the consequences of their actions.
Is it possible that the real divide in the United States today is between unions and… everybody else? Consider the issues making headlines: education reform, busted state budgets, the battle to recall Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, free trade agreements, Occupy Wall Street, the fight to make Indiana a right-to-work state. What these stories have in common is the waning influence of organized labor and the all-out battle by union leaders to hold on.
Take the Obama Administration’s Race to the Top initiative. Education Secretary Duncan recently warned that several states, including New York, might not receive monies earlier awarded through that program because they have not followed through on required reforms. The stumbling block? Teacher evaluations. In New York, the opposition to proposed reforms by unions – unions that constantly complain about inadequate funding — could cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars.
Back in December, the House passed a bill that would offset a one-year extension of the payroll-tax cut with, among other things, a reform of the federal pension system. With only a few weeks left until the payroll-tax cut extension expires, the issue is back on the table.
As I have said before, ideally the cut should be offset with a reduction in Social Security benefits. However, a structural reform of the federal pensions is also an option. In particular, a reform option that would get rid once and for all of the defined-benefit plans would be a great improvement.
The vast majority of full-time civilian federal workers receive roughly half of their retirement compensation through their defined-benefit pension plans (the rest comes from Social Security). The defined-benefit plans promise workers a guaranteed stream of income through retirement, based on earnings and time served, not actual savings toward retirement. As employers in the private sector already know from high-profile defaults such as LTV Steel’s, the promise of guaranteed income based only on earnings and time served is a recipe for fiscal disaster. While nearly 100 percent of full-time civilian federal employees receive some form of defined-benefit pension, only 22 percent of pensioned workers in the private sector are afforded this benefit.
ON TUESDAY, President Obama’s Jobs Council reminded the nation that it is still hooked on fossil fuels, and will be for a long time. “Continuing to deliver inexpensive and reliable energy,” the council reported, “is going to require the United States to optimize all of its natural resources and construct pathways pipelines, transmission and distribution to deliver electricity and fuel.
”It added that regulatory “and permitting obstacles that could threaten the development of some energy projects, negatively impact jobs and weaken our energy infrastructure need to be addressed.”
Mr. Obama’s Jobs Council could start by calling out . . . the Obama administration.
The Obama Administration rejected the controversial Keystone XL pipeline project on Wednesday, scuttling a key energy initiative that would have created an influx of badly-needed U.S. jobs, but one that has also riled environmentalists.
The news, which was first reported by FOX News Channel, sparked a fierce response from Republicans and proponents of the project.
The White House, which faced a February 21 deadline to make a final decision on the project, blamed Republicans for forcing its hand.
President Obama announced Wednesday that he will deny a permit for the Keystone XL pipeline, blaming Republicans for imposing a “rushed and arbitrary deadline” which he said did not give officials enough time.
GOP lawmakers immediately excoriated the president for the decision. House Speaker John Boehner said Obama is “selling out American jobs for politics,” and said Republicans in Congress would continue to push for the pipeline.
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