Comment

Comment by Donald Adams on July 28, 2011 at 10:51am

YEAH! You tell'em boy!

Comment by Ted Johnson on July 28, 2011 at 10:28am

85MCstang, dang gum!!! You are my hero!! I'm with you and thanks for the list. I'm sure there's more also, but that's a darn good start. And thanks for the link for news.

Comment by 85MCstang on July 28, 2011 at 10:28am

Dang....still didn't finish. Here is the last of it:

And finally, for anyone the made it this far; here is a post of mine from a few days past on ZeroHedge (The "quoted" remarks are from another poster on Zero Hedge and below them my answers):

by r101958
on Fri, 07/22/2011 - 17:52

"Effectively in the United States the labor movement has been dismantled over 30 years through multiple policies, the main one being 'Right-to-Work' laws, which have left only 6.9% of private sector workers in unions, and 36.2% of public sector workers in unions."

How about we think a little further down the road than the tip of our socialist or fascist noses? So, let's say that 40 or 50% of the private sector labor in this country is unionized. Then there would be just that many more unemployed union workers. Why? Because all of the jobs would have moved overseas or to places where labor does not demand so much. Then you might retort 'but if that happened we would just institute tariffs and trade barriers'. Maybe we would, but then hardly anybody would be able to buy all those products because they would simply be too expensive and then people would be laid off and then less people would buy product. Rinse and repeat.

And then we have the public sector unions. Isn't this one of the main reasons that the government budget is so bloated? I am really amazed at the ignorance regarding this. Public Unions get all of their benefits paid by us. There is no magical money tree here (well, the Fed tries). Even if they are asked to pay more towards their retirement they are paying it in money earned from the tax payers.

"Connect this with the Weltanschauung (world outlook) of consumers at the moment, according to the Rasmussen Consumer Index, 61% of the US population see the economy as getting worse."

Well, no schmidt Sherlock! The one fact that most politicians fail to grasp is that there will be no 'closure' for the public until they know that the system has been purged of toxic sludge. In other words, most of us know that the economy is a house of cards built on sand. This will not change no matter what type of perceptions that Washington tries to create with fudged numbers and tweaked reporting. At least a large minority of Americans realize that nothing is really being addressed so long as the TBTF's have to use 'Mark to Fantasy' accounting to remain afloat, the government is spending 1.5 trillion more than it takes in and there is huge overhanging public and private debt.

"where is the social reaction in the United States in comparison to Europe and the Middle East, which were experiencing (and still are) similar situations."

It is called apathy and cover your @$$. A healthy chunk of the populace is afraid to make waives.

"Cutting taxes and eviscerating regulation produced large mountains of government debt and has not increased the number of middle class workers (rather decreased that number)."

Eviscerating regulation? We have more regulation now than we ever had. It is the fact that the regulation we have is not enforced.

"Those people, Tea Partiers and so-called Conservatives, do not understand the first thing about economics and are just rabid ideologues spouting words..."

Showing your true colors here.

"So, yes Americans are going the Tea Party route, because they do not trust government, not recognizing that the line between Governments and Corporations have been obliterated over the last 30 years."

I believe they do know this and are taking the politicians to task for it.

Also, you mention Richard Heinberg but totally fail to acknowledge that he is a proponent of a responsible energy policy and has lectured many times about peak oil. You don't even mention the fact that energy, especially oil, is at the very root of most of our economic problems. Many of the actions of the 'elite' are based on the presumption of

Comment by 85MCstang on July 28, 2011 at 10:26am

I guess everything won't fit on one comment. So, there is the rest....I hope:

2.The government currently takes in about 2.1 trillion in revenue. So, simple, take the spending back to where it was in 2003 when we spent 2.1 trillion. You know, I don't recall people being thrown out on the streets back then nor do I recall Grandma being kicked off of medicare. Do you? (figures in millions)

 

Superfunction and Function    2003

National defense    404,778

Human resources    total 1,417,946
    Education, training, employment, and social services    82,603
    Health       219,576
    Medicare    249,433
    Income security    334,632
    Social security    474,680
    (On-budget)    13,279
    (Off-budget)    461,401
    Veterans benefits and services    57,022

Physical resources    total 115,614
    Energy    -736
    Natural resources and environment    29,703
    Commerce and housing credit    728
    (On-budget)    5,973
    (Off-budget)    -5,245
    Transportation    67,069
    Community and regional development    18,850

Net interest    total 153,073
    (On-budget)    236,618
    (Off-budget)    -83,545

Other functions    total 123,088
    International affairs    21,209
    General science, space and technology    20,873
    Agriculture    22,497
    Administration of justice    35,340
    General government    23,169
    Allowances    ..........0

Undistributed offsetting receipts total    -54,382
    (On-budget)    -44,780
    (Off-budget)    -9,602
Total, Federal outlays    total 2,160,117
    (On-budget)    1,797,108
    (Off-budget)    363,009

3. How about we cut the tax rate back to what it was in 1913 (does that date ring a bell for anyone here)?

1.0% $0-$20,000

2.0% $20,000-$50,000
 
3.0% $50,000-$75,000
 
4.0% $75,000-$100,000

5.0% $100,000-$250,000

6.0% $250,000-$500,000

7.0% $500,000 and up

And finally, for anyone the made it this far; here is a post of mine from a few days past on ZeroHedge (The "quoted" remarks are from another poster on Zero Hedge and below them my answers):

by r101958
on Fri, 07/22/2011 - 17:52

"Effectively in the United States the labor movement has been dismantled over 30 years through multiple policies, the main one being 'Right-to-Work' laws, which have left only 6.9% of private sector workers in unions, and 36.2% of public sector workers in unions."

How about we think a little further down the road than the tip of our socialist or fascist noses? So, let's say that 40 or 50% of the private sector labor in this country is unionized. Then there would be just that many more unemployed union workers. Why? Because all of the jobs would have moved overseas or to places where labor does not demand so much. Then you might retort 'but if that happened we would just institute tariffs and trade barriers'. Maybe we would, but then hardly anybody would be able to buy all those products because they would simply be too expensive and then people would be laid off and then less people would buy product. Rinse and repeat.

And then we have the public sector unions. Isn't this one of the main reasons that the government budget is so bloated? I am really amazed at the ignorance regarding this. Public Unions get all of their benefits paid by us. There is no magical money tree here (well, the Fed tries). Even if they are asked to pay more towards their retirement they are paying it in money earned from the tax payers.

"Connect this with the Weltanschauung (world outlook) of consumers at the moment, according to the Rasmussen Consumer Index, 61% of the US population see the economy as getting worse."

Well, no schmidt Sherlock! The one fact that most politicians fail to gras

Comment by 85MCstang on July 28, 2011 at 10:24am

The first suggestion is from www.zerohedge.com. I highly recommend this site for real news as opposed to the MSM. Also, some of the comments are quite interesting. The other suggestions are mine.

There are more suggestions below this one.

1. I can at least pick out 30 departments that can be scratched!

HERE IT GOES:

Personal Income Tax Division of the IRS
National Endowment for the Arts (Can't sell your art privately?)
National Wild Horse and Burro Program (Huh?)
Dept. of Education
Dept of Energy
FEMA (a corrupt organization if there ever was one--leave it to charities)
FDIC (a sham program with only a fraction of funds needed to save banks)
Freddy Mac & Fannie Mae (helped cause present economic conditions)
Administration on Aging (AoA)
Administration for Children and Families (ACF)
Administration on Developmental Disabilities (ADD)
Administration for Native Americans (ANA)
Children's Bureau (CB)
Family and Youth Services Bureau (FYSB)
Head Start Bureau (HSB)
Healthy Marriage Initiative (HMI)
Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP)
Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE)
Office of Community Services Block Grant (OCS)
Office of Family Assistance (OFA)
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)
Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR)
President's Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities (PCPID)
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)
Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR)
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)
Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)
Indian Health Service (IHS)
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Office for Civil Rights (OCR)
Office of Minority Health (OMH)
Program Support Center (PSC)
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Admin.(SAMHSA)
Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONCHIT)
Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives (CFBCI)
Employees' Compensation Appeals Board (ECAB)
Employment Standards Administration (ESA)
The Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS)
Office of Workers' Compensation Programs (OWCP)
Wage and Hour Division (WHD)
Employment and Training Administration (ETA)
Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA)
Women's Bureau (WB)
Job Corps
Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs
Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs
Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs
Internet Access and Training Program
Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs
Bureau of Human Resources
Bureau of Information Resource Management
Bureau of Intelligence and Research
Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs
Bureau of International Organization Affairs
Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation
Bureau of Legislative Affairs
Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs
Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs
Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations
Bureau of Political-Military Affairs
Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration
Bureau of Public Affairs
Bureau of Resource Management
Bureau of South Asian Affairs
Bureau of Verification, Compliance, and Implementation
Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs
Counterterrorism Office (which produces the Patterns of Global Terrorism report)
National Foreign Affairs Training Center (former Foreign Service Institute)
Office of International Information Programs
Office of the Legal Adviser
Office of Management Policy
Office of Protocol
Office of the Science and Technology Adviser
Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons
Office of War Crimes Issues (They blew the Bush

Comment by Kate Svagdis on July 28, 2011 at 10:21am

Excellent!

Comment by Ted Johnson on July 28, 2011 at 10:20am

Patricia, I agree 100%, but that doesn't make Boneheads plan any better. In any of these "plans" the cuts aren't in them until the "writers" get finished with it. And, those "writers" are NOT the representatives you voted for. We've done this dance many, many times before. Until we get the lobbists out of government and the government depts., and overall size reduced way, way down. We'll be on a downward death spiral. We can not, and will not, sustain this type of government. And, that includes welfare and all the other entitlement programs. The government wasn't set up to ensure people were fed, clothed, and housed comfortablly from cradle to grave. It was set up to make sure everyone has a chance at it. But everyone has to do it on their own, or help from the good of others - charity. A 5% max. federal sales tax on all goods, and doing away with the income and all other taxes would be a good start. You would then see this country rebound and prosper beyond anyones expectations. Thanks for your reply.

Comment by Ernest Lephart on July 28, 2011 at 10:17am

Amen,

I have been thinking the exact same thing. Some of the people that got us into this mess are still around. I would like to see some accountability, then some restitution from the Bush family, the Clinton's and Dick Chaney to name a few.

Comment by Patricia M. McBride on July 28, 2011 at 9:54am

Ted, these may be smoke and mirrors, but the Reid bill is far worse.  About 2 trillion of the cuts in the Reid bill are from getting out of 2 wars.  What are the chances, and those are not cuts in the size and scope of government period.  Obama wants to spend more with no cuts and continue increasing the size of scope of government.  He will also be responsible for getting our credit rating lowered, and he will try to blame it on the republicans since he takes responsibility for NOTHING even when something is clearly his fault.  And his shared pain is a joke since the money he spends is already coming from the very people he wants to take more from!

Comment by Ted Johnson on July 28, 2011 at 9:38am

And all of these "PUNY" cuts are all smoke and mirrors. The next congress doesn't have to do them at all. Plus, what's this "OVER TEN YEARS" stuff?!!! Can we the people do that in our budget? We want cuts today, right now. And not these puny no nothing cuts. Start closing down and doing away with ALL but the two departments in the executive branch that are Consitutional, State Dept. and Defense Dept. If we need anyother dept. they go under congress for direct supervision. Congress already controls their money, and they already have committees on most all of them. But, first and foremost, that has to be done is outlaw all lobbists. No one can give a penny, or job, or even show up at a congressional door, or even phone a congress person representing a company or organization. Congress and the President work for us, and the better meant of this country. Not for themselves or companies, or organizations. And one last thing, Stop give our treasury away to every country in the world just so they'll like us. THEY DON'T!!! If they've got something we need we'll buy it, but it better be at the best price we can get it at. That's what the State Dept. is suppose to be doing, opening doors for commerce. I'd send this to my Representatives, but they're all to busy. Thanks for being there and listening. I'll sign this "One pissed off, and scared for the future American.

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