Do you really want someone like the character Cloris Leachman plays on Raising Hope to be in charge of the federal government purse strings?
I was thinking about the House of Representatives recently. The Republicans just keep blasting on and on about the budget deficit, even though they didn’t seem to care about it Christmas time when they extended the Bush tax cuts. Friday morning when I was listening to the Morning Joe show I had this flash of the Republicans actually being a senile grandmother. It’s like this. You give your purse to your senile grandmother to hang on to thinking that’s a safe place. After all what can she do? Well, when you’re not looking, she hides the damn thing. You’re stuck searching everywhere for that damn purse. You’ve got these bills that are due and you are beside yourself wondering how you’re going to pay them. When you ask her about it, she seems rather clueless, just like those Republicans. They hold the purse strings and so now we have a do nothing Congress that seems to be doing quite a bit of damage to the middle class.
This morning I had to fill my car with gas at $4.13 99/100 a gallon. I’m not complaining for me on this one because I haven’t been filling my gas tank too often this year. I’m so busy with the online courses I’m taking that I don’t have time to drive any place special. I can’t imagine the rest of you that are driving great distances to work with the cost of gas hanging over your heads and the stagnant paychecks.
For most of us, all of this is a no brainer. With Bin Laden dead, it seems to me that we should get out of these three wars that we have found ourselves in. Of course the “money makers” and those “job creators” want no such thing. While major companies continue to profit off the wars, I find myself reminiscing about an old song that seems to fit today. Take a listen and think about what we’re fighting for. I’m so tired of that Bushism, “We’re fighting them over there so we don’t have to fight them here.” Another one we are always told basically is that “freedom isn’t free”. As we continue to give up our rights in this country and go down that rabbit hole of confusion about what’s really important in our lives; we should stop and think about what all of this is doing to our country, our way of life and our standard of living. It seems the rich just keep getting richer and the poor; well you know what’s going on there. The rest of us are holding onto our jobs by a prayer and a whim and hoping this too will pass.
Whew! Everyone has just breathed that big sigh of relief that their taxes are done and they don’t have to think about them for another year. However, we should all be thinking about where our tax monies are going instead of focusing on the two parties that would have us believe that we must slash and burn “entitlement” programs in order to contain this unyielding budget deficit. I, for one, don’t complain a lot about my taxes and I pay plenty in terms of percent of my income. I am single with no dependents and I no longer run a business that might help for write off reasons. This puts me in that tax space of hell that most single people understand. When I add up all the money I pay for federal, state, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, property taxes and sales tax I could be screaming about the taxes I pay. However, I don’t because I know that we need roads, public education, colleges, hospitals, airports, police, defense and many other things to make our society run. I know I pay my fair share of the tax burden. I don’t need any more and I know that many corporations pay nothing. I also know that many wealthy people don’t share my percent of the burden. I’ve been saying that we need to change the tax code so those at the top can do more for our country. They have more, so they should do more. After all they use more of these government resources than you or I will ever use. They use the airports all the time to fly wherever they want to be in the world.
However, what I want to share with you today is how the rich have access to the government in a way that you and I will never have. They take advantage of programs. They even get programs written for them so they can dip into the honey pot of our tax payer monies. Many of us that are old enough, remember John Wayne being paid not to farm. Yeah, that’s funny. That’s small potatoes compared to what I recently read in this Rolling Stone article. http://readersupportednews.org/off-site-opinion-section/72-72/5564-americas-shadow-budget
The Federal Reserve appears to be at the beck and call of the wealthy superstars. Even though those wealthy bankers were basically crooks and liars and never had to pay for their shenanigans, we keep forking it over to them and now even, their WIVES! This is important to read. It’s from the link within the article about, “Why isn’t Wall Street in Jail?”
Not a single executive who ran the companies that cooked up and cashed in on the phony financial boom — an industrywide scam that involved the mass sale of mismarked, fraudulent mortgage-backed securities — has ever been convicted. Their names by now are familiar to even the most casual Middle American news consumer: companies like AIG, Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America and Morgan Stanley. Most of these firms were directly involved in elaborate fraud and theft. Lehman Brothers hid billions in loans from its investors. Bank of America lied about billions in bonuses. Goldman Sachs failed to tell clients how it put together the born-to-lose toxic mortgage deals it was selling. What’s more, many of these companies had corporate chieftains whose actions cost investors billions — from AIG derivatives chief Joe Cassano, who assured investors they would not lose even “one dollar” just months before his unit imploded, to the $263 million in compensation that former Lehman chief Dick “The Gorilla” Fuld conveniently failed to disclose. Yet not one of them has faced time behind bars.
So, we know these guys are crooked and the government knows it too, so what does the Federal Reserve do? Our government has a “Shadow Budget”. There is a budget that we see and then there is another one that the Federal Reserve creates. You must watch this video because it is eye opening.
The Fed books have been opened up and now we are finding out about these secret transactions. This was brought about by bi-partisan support as the video has stated. Here is just a snippet from the article:
The Fed sent billions in bailout aid to banks in places like Mexico, Bahrain and Bavaria, billions more to a spate of Japanese car companies, more than $2 trillion in loans each to Citigroup and Morgan Stanley, and billions more to a string of lesser millionaires and billionaires with Cayman Islands addresses. “Our jaws are literally dropping as we’re reading this,” says Warren Gunnels, an aide to Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont. “Every one of these transactions is outrageous.”
Here is more:
But if you want to get a true sense of what the “shadow budget” is all about, all you have to do is look closely at the taxpayer money handed over to a single company that goes by a seemingly innocuous name: Waterfall TALF Opportunity. At first glance, Waterfall’s haul doesn’t seem all that huge — just nine loans totaling some $220 million, made through a Fed bailout program. That doesn’t seem like a whole lot, considering that Goldman Sachs alone received roughly $800 billion in loans from the Fed. But upon closer inspection, Waterfall TALF Opportunity boasts a couple of interesting names among its chief investors: Christy Mack and Susan Karches.
Christy is the wife of John Mack, the chairman of Morgan Stanley. Susan is the widow of Peter Karches, a close friend of the Macks who served as president of Morgan Stanley’s investment-banking division. Neither woman appears to have any serious history in business, apart from a few philanthropic experiences. Yet the Federal Reserve handed them both low-interest loans of nearly a quarter of a billion dollars through a complicated bailout program that virtually guaranteed them millions in risk-free income.
Obviously, I encourage you to read the whole article. I also think we have to press congress to stop this outrageous transfer of money to the wealthy Wall Street fat cats. It’s Robin Hood in reverse. We all pay our taxes. We aren’t crazy about paying them, but we know that we have to pay something to keep society going. I have no desire to pay for the fat cats on Wall Street so they can keep their cushy lifestyles. It’s time we all woke up and really learned more about how our government is being run. Right now we keep getting brain washed into accepting what must happen to those “terrible entitlement” programs because they are truly the problem. We are also being told about all those “terrible teachers” and of course now those sleepy, good for nothing, air traffic controllers as well. This is all smoke and mirrors, so they can privatize everything. It will just give those fat cats on Wall Street one more thing to control. I ask everyone that reads my blog to just pass this on and think about who the enemy really is. It isn’t the teachers and it isn’t air traffic controllers that are asked to work all night by themselves without so much as a potty break. It’s okay for our Vice President to fall asleep because he isn’t bringing in planes but truthfully, who is really at fault for putting these planes at risk? I can’t help but wondering why we are hearing about the air traffic controllers right now anyway. Is there some new reason they’re falling asleep or is there something else in the works? http://www.downsizinggovernment.org/privatization
President "Republican Lite" Obama Making Nice With Senator Boehner and Representative Canter, Republican Hatchet Men
You may still be on that holiday high, hung over from the good eats and drinks. However, it’s time to sober everyone up with the reality that is coming. You may be feeling pretty fine right now because your tax cut was saved. Oh, well, you gave in on that tax cut deal for the wealthy thing because well, you got yours! Of course we all know that the status quo is unsustainable for Republicans, unless they’re talking about tax cuts for the wealthy. So, you might be wondering what I could possibly be worried about. The answer is, plenty! As the tax cuts may be giving many people a bit of sugar high right now, those same people will soon be feeling that sugar candy low you get when that sugar rush is gone!
First of all you need to understand that the Republicans feel they can make the most gains by making life as difficult as possible for the Democrats. The Republicans are putting forth a new rule that will make it harder to raise the debt ceiling, something they didn’t mind doing under the Bush administration as I recall. http://thehill.com/homenews/house/134799-new-gop-rules-will-make-it-tougher-for-house-to-raise-debt-ceiling
Furthermore, now that the Republicans got that big tax cut they wanted they are ready to take a hammer to everything else because after all, we are broke. Just listen to Senator Boehner talking about our country being broke and then turning around and pushing for the massive tax cut for the WEALTHY! What a trooper!
That means there is only one way to go and that’s with cuts and I don’t mean tax cuts. We know they are not going to “raise” taxes as they have pushed through the continuation of the Bush tax cuts, even for the wealthy. So just what is discretionary spending any way? Part of the discretionary spending is the defense but we all know that it will not be cut and in fact is going to see a budgetary increase in 2011. That leaves all of the other types of special programs like education and of course that pesky money that goes back to individual states. The states are already hurting and they are probably going to hurt even more! You can read about the discretionary spending in the articles I site and also in the letter sent to the President by the Republicans in 2009. With extending the Bush tax cuts both parties have intentionally painted themselves into a corner. They are going to have to find a way to get out of the room without messing up the paint. It’s not going to happen because once again both parties are going to lay all the ugliness at the feet of the American people. Instead of having the wealthy top two percent step up and do more to help this country, we can all expect that the middle class and the poor will once again absorb these burdens.
In 2009 the head Republicans, Senator John Boehner and Representative Eric Cantor sent President Obama a letter. In it they outlined the cuts they wanted to make to reduce the deficit. These Republicans look at any change to the Bush tax cuts as being a tax increase unless of course it betters the wealthy. We all know that they upped the death tax to favor the very rich! Even though the Bush tax cuts were set to expire and the country would go back to the previous tax code, it is now looked at as being a substantial increase in taxes if they were allowed to expire. It’s really fascinating when you start getting into the mindset of how the Republicans really think about these issues. Much of what they want to do is to push everything back to the states. Of course this has been going on for years already and many states are in a heap of trouble but if you read things through carefully, it is exactly what these guys want to do. They want to eliminate many programs. I think this 2009 letter is a big hint as to what the political fights will be coming down the road in 2011. Remember the budget is only good until March 4th. So, what can we expect? http://republicanleader.house.gov/UploadedFiles/06-04-09_Savings_Proposals_For_President.pdf
This is something everyone should read as it is a real eye opener. There are many programs in education they want to cut or eliminate completely, even my own “art education” gets the whack! So much of what they want to do they deem in their infinite wisdom as not a “federal” role.
The first Baby-Boomer turned 62 in 2008, becoming eligible to retire on Social Security benefits. By 2025, those aged 65+ will comprise 20% of the population. As Boomers leave the work-force and apply for benefits, three things happen:
The percentage of the labor force under 55 stagnates, providing less payroll taxes to fund Social Security.
GDP growth declines remains flat thanks to fewer workers.
By 2040, the Social Security Trust Fund goes bankrupt.
Choices for FY 2012 and Beyond:
As a result, the U.S. Federal Budget in 2012 and beyond will have to choose among the lesser of three evils, none of which are good for the economy:
Devote more of the budget to pay Social Security benefits. However, to maintain current benefits, the federal budget will have to increase to 25% of GDP by 2045.
To fund this increased budget, taxes would have to increase, further slowing the economy.
Decrease the benefit amount paid to retirees. This is the most likely scenario. This would force able-bodied Boomers to continue working. Those who couldn’t work would provide a further drain on the economy.
What I find as the interesting part is the fact that both parties are aware of this and they still decided to reduce the payroll taxes recently. It makes me wonder if they want to cause a catastrophic failure so they can say, “I told you so.” I guess the idea is we pay 2% less into Social Security and that will leave us more money to spend on junk to stimulate the economy. What kills me is what I just read over at About.com. About claims we will have to choose amongst the lesser of three evils, so why did we make it worse by partially defunding Social Security? Maybe greater minds than mind can answer that question. Of course my suspicious mind makes me think that we are being set up for failure so that once again we will accept less. We will accept less in benefits when we retire and we will work longer to get to retirement. Life is over as most of us have figured for our retirements. The state of Michigan already is taxing me higher by making me pay more into my retirement without any additional benefit. I’m sure the Federal government is getting ready to do the same.
There is an agenda out their folks. It seems like all the things that were created under FDR, which were sacred cows at one time, are now going to be fodder for the Republicans and our Republican “lite” President to dismantle. Politicians that might have fought this have been systematically taken out. Two come to my mind that won’t be back after the New Year, Representative Alan Grayson and Senator Russ Feingold. I mean if Democrats had to go, why couldn’t it have been more of those Blue Dogs?
