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Comment by John Harvel on January 24, 2011 at 5:54am

Try to watch the video that I posted at the bottom all the way through. I know it's long but it ties a whole lot of information together.

Comment by John Harvel on January 24, 2011 at 3:09am

Ok everyone, I hope I haven't lost too many of you in this discussion. Let me tie the whole thing together. What happened to my country?? Has become a pretty wide ranging discussion. From federal highways, health care, stolen cokes, Marxist Utopia etc.

 

Billie asked me to do a report to present to the tea party. So let me use this discussion to try this out on this diverse group, so as to see if it's me that is the one that is mentally ill.

 

This is the most deceiving topic that governments, politicians, and the news media have conveyed to the public about governmental financial matters. In realty, a government can simultaneously have a budget shortfall and a financial surplus of the taxpayers' money.

A budget is an estimate of the amount of money to be received and the amounts to be spent for various purposes in a given time. It is a planning and monitoring document. It matches revenues (income) and expenditures (expenses) for a given period of time which is usually one year for most governments. It does NOT demonstrate the financial condition of a government.

You continually hear the phrase "budget shortfall" or "budget deficit." What this means is that projected (planned) expenditures will probably exceed projected (planned) revenues. When this happens, governments immediately want to raise taxes and/or reduce services regardless of the financial condition of the government. It works every time.

If you decide to invest in a company's stock and you go to a stock broker and ask about the company's financial condition, does the broker give you a copy of the company's budget? NO! He/she will give you a copy of the company's annual financial report which shows the financial condition of the company. The CAFR is the government's annual financial report.

School districts, cities, counties, and States all prepare a CAFR.

If you want to know the financial condition of your government(s), do not look in the budget. Get the CAFR. The budget and CAFR are prepared at different times and this can cause a problem unless there is a system in place to prepare these documents in a particular order.

I went to the web and looked at the CAFR for Jacksonville Beach. It stated that they choose not to use what one would consider standard accounting practice. Most government entities don't. There are many different funds listed with banks, fund managers etc. It is painfully obvious that I'm not going to understand much of it except for the fact that these funds are traded in the private sector. Their numbers are pretty nice, I wouldn't mind having this portfolio and my broker would be pretty happy too.

There are funds like these in the CAFR's of all entities that I've listed above. Combined the numbers become astronomical. These funds are traded like any portfolio, foreign and domestically. They roll over profits into profits. Enter derivatives into the language of comptrollers and suddenly we're discussing police and fire pension plans shortfalls when they still have surpluses across the board. We're talking about projected shortfalls and panic sets in. Then the debate starts on how to correct the problem based on fear mongering.

Click here: Jacksonville Pension Director Says He Can Earn 8% ROI A...

 

That's not what I want to discuss. That is usually where the discussion ends. Let's extend this conversation beyond budgets, elected officials and the accountants. They are all working under a set of rules that when needed can be changed. Fund surpluses can be explained away by unforeseen future needs or emergencies. You know, rainy days. 

 

Let's talk about vast amounts of money controlled by bureaucrats in the private sector. What does that mean exactly? Where socialism sought totalitarian control of a society’s economic processes through direct state operation of the means of production, fascism sought that control indirectly, through domination of nominally private owners. Where socialism nationalized property explicitly, fascism did so implicitly, by requiring owners to use their property in the “national interest”—that is, as the autocratic authority conceived it.

 

Ok, let's don't get crazy and start name calling and finger pointing. I just want to point out that we have a system that can be misconceived as something that it's not. Here is a video that describes the whole situation quite well. Please forgive this fellows theatrics, everyone has a different approach on capturing an audience.

 

 Click here: Walter Burien speaks at the Health and Freedom Conferen...

Comment by John Harvel on January 23, 2011 at 3:12pm

Heh-heh, I'm not certian what mentally-ill is:O)

Comment by John Harvel on January 23, 2011 at 11:27am

Free speech is the voice of opposition. As long as I have a free moment, I don't mind baiting people to waste there time on me. At the risk of sounding foolish for arguing with a fool, I would prefer to exercise the skills of voicing my beliefs. In voicing ones own beliefs is it possible to truly learn what your beliefs are. 

 

As some would have us believe, A society made up of individuals who were all capable of original thought would probably be unendurable. Maybe, in government and politics there is no truth, only error to be exposed.

 

I personally wouldn't wish for some kind of support group that was all one sided. Over the years I have converted many who would make sport of me. The idea is to keep them coming back. 

Comment by Armando Delgado on January 23, 2011 at 10:37am

Folks, John Stephenson is a political aggitator who infiltrated this blog trying to get an angry response from a member so as to discredit the tea party. He eventually gave himself away with his rhetoric, and now he'll move on.  This, however, should be a lesson.

 Let's remember, we know how progressives and socialists think, and we know what we believe in. We don't need to prove our beliefs to any one, and we won't convince the opposition by engaging in debate--debate only helps the objective bystanders and observers. 

This blog is our means of exchanging ideas, educating ourselves on the foundation of the values in which we believe, and consolidating those beliefs. The enemies of free speech want to shut us down. Let's not give them a chance.

Comment by John Harvel on January 23, 2011 at 9:55am

GREAT PRACTICE.....

Comment by John Harvel on January 23, 2011 at 9:54am

No!!! Don't remove him!!! He's get practice!!

Comment by FCTP on January 23, 2011 at 9:52am

Hi all:  John does this with almost every posting.  Not sure why he stays on this site and at some point, I may grow weary of him and remove him.  Or, if you guys want him removed, let me know.

The dialogue is interesting and I am proud of your wisdom in dealing with John's remarks.

 

Let me know when you tire from this.  Billie

Comment by J.R. on January 23, 2011 at 9:44am

John Harvel, I, too, am in awe of and delighted by the successes of the Tea Party phenomenon... tickles me pink to see how it rattles the cages of the leftists and the drive-by media who fear it so much that it puts them in perpetual attack mode.  Here is a link that helps explain their psychosis: 

http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=116644%20\%20ixzz1Bs2Pm4RF 

 

I just read the nonsensical new posting by John Stevenson.  It's so transparent that he's baiting you. I've determined it's useless to respond to such delusional drivel, so I will respond to him no more.  Maybe if no one rises to the bait he will wander back off into the blogosphere looking for other troll victims.  There's not world enough or time to straighten out the way he looks at the world, so please, please don't take the bait.

Comment by Tracy on January 23, 2011 at 9:31am

To J.Harvel , My FYI post was not meant to be sarcastic in any way although I can see where it could be seen as such.Just an observation I have made after having some debates over the past months.:)

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