The Deficit Tango or, The Federal Budget Put in Simpler Terms

(Note: the best part of this post is all the way down at the bottom...)



Sorry folks, but no, this is not my post about how much my tango has cost me over the past seven years. Or is it eight? I dunno. Some day I may get around to writing that post. It would be an interesting one, especially when you factor in lost opportunity costs and loss of profit. I get this nagging retro rearview don't want to look at it was it all a dream feeling that my tango came at great cost to me. HUGE investment. The return on that investment? Hmm. You'll have to stay tuned whilst I ponder and cipher on that one. And I'm not talking about greenbacks. Well, maybe kindasorta that too. Whatever. But I digress. (grin)

This one is about Warren Buffet's op-ed in the New York Times about the super-wealthy getting preferential treatment by Congress and not paying enough taxes. I haven't actually read it yet, but I wanted to post it before I get too far down the road and forget.

Here's the link: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/15/opinion/stop-coddling-the-super-rich.html

And then there's this little tidbit from Warren - thanks to La Reina for sending it to me:

The Federal Budget put in simpler terms...

The U.S. Congress sets a federal budget every year in the trillions of dollars. Few people know how much money that is, so we created a breakdown of federal spending in simple terms. Let's put the 2011 federal budget into perspective:

• U.S. income: $2,170,000,000,000

• Federal budget: $3,820,000,000,000

• New debt: $ 1,650,000,000,000

• National debt: $14,271,000,000,000

• Recent budget cut: $ 38,500,000,000 (about 1 percent of the budget)


It helps to think about these numbers in terms that we can relate to. Therefore, let's remove eight zeros from these numbers and pretend this is the household budget for the fictitious Jones family.

• Total annual income for the Jones family: $21,700
• Amount of money the Jones family spent: $38,200
• Amount of new debt added to the credit card: $16,500
• Outstanding balance on the credit card: $142,710
• Amount cut from the budget: $385

America's $1 Bill Protest

Self-explanatory protest.

Facebook Event Page: https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=247696611916441





http://www.rubberstamps.net/

The Financial Report for the Government of the United States of America in the year of our Lord Two Thousand and Nine

From Guest Blogger Michael Granof for McCombs TODAY - published by the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas.

The title of the article is "Released to Near Silence, the U.S. Treasury 2009 Financial Report Shows Dire Course". Click the link to read more.

Grave. Very grave indeed.

Thanks go to Mari for this one (again).

Deadly serious stuff :: Supreme Court allows unlimited corporate funding in political campaigns

[Foto by AlexTangoFuego]

Keith Olbermann: U.S. government for sale ::With no limits on campaign financing, corporations will take over the government

Here is a New York Times article, also on the subject of the Supreme Court's decision yesterday to allow unlimited corporate funding of political campaigns.

And here is the New York Times editorial about it.

This is deadly serious stuff folks (thanks Alberto, for sharing). If you ever
thought of writing to your representatives in Congress, now is the time to do it. Please also share and email this article to everyone you know. We have to correct this travesty of justice. How do we over-rule the Supreme Court of the United States of America? That is the question before us as citizens now.

My first thought is that our justices have been bought off, and to follow the money will lead us to the culprits. Unbelievable that this is happening in America. Un-*******-believable. Expletive deleted. Sorry, I can't, I won't censor my own brain and its inner workings.

UN...FUCKING...BELIEVABLE.

It's time for pitchforks and torches in the streets, and perhaps some tar and feathers. Oh, I do miss the good 'ol days...

Link to the House of Representatives - name & address search...

Link to the Senate - name & address search...

Another good contacts link at USA.gov...

"True patriots must be willing to defend their country against their government." [Attributed to author Edward Abbey]

On Prison Reform :: Argentine Tango Therapy

In the past, for its shock value, I've jokingly referred to myself as a radically conservative ultra left-wing fundamentalist liberal extremist. Although, I don't think it's really a joke.

My views on prison and justice system reform are very similar to my views on capitalism, consumerism and government funding of failed private sector business models. Cash flow fuels the system. Profits fuel the system. Special interests fuel the system. Justice has absolutely nothing to do with it anymore. Prisoner rehabilitation has nothing to do with it anymore.

Prisons have in fact become a criminal welfare system. Prison is no longer a deterrent to crime, in fact, I would offer that in many cases, it is an incentive to commit crime. Want to get away from the nagging wife and whining kids? Bored with your job? Wanna kick back with the boys? Wanna hang out, work out, sleep a lot, get fed three square meals a day, read, watch TV, live the good life? Then commit a crime that will get you three to five years in the pen.

My beef with the system is that it doesn't work, and when something doesn't work, the solution is not to build more prisons and throw more money into the system and throw more people into jail to give the illusion that the system is now working "better".

Don't get me wrong, I'm definitely not pro-crime or criminal. I'm pro-justice. I'm pro-human rights. I'm pro-helping a man when he's down. I'm pro-helping a man be a better man. I'm also pro-education - which I believe to be another broken system that feeds into the criminal justice system.

I'm pro-fiscal responsibility and pro-social responsibility at the same time. I'm pro-death penalty and pro-rehabilitation at the same time. I think the system costs way too much money - mainly because there are too many people in the system. There are too many people who shouldn't be in the system, caught up in it because there were no therapeutic alternatives to prison. Mainly because most states don't make the prisoners work for their rehabilitation. And of course there is the graft and waste and inefficiency - always that to deal with.

There's one guy in the Senate who is speaking out on the topic - Virginia Senator James Webb.

Here is a New York Times editorial.

Here is a Washington Post article.

Oh, I almost forgot - re: the Argentine Tango Therapy, that was underhanded on my part - to entice you to read the entire post. Sorry.

But I have sometimes wondered if tango could rehabilitate a hardened criminal...?

I toldya so...

The $300 billion housing bailout (passed by Congress this past summer) to supposedly help hundreds of thousands (+/-400,000) of homeowners avoid foreclosure has failed miserably.

Only 312 homeowners have filled out the application paperwork.

Of those 312 who applied - guess the number who have been able to forestall foreclosure and stay in their homes - ZERO.

Sad, but true, and I am not surprised in the least. This is our own federal government of the United States of America. It's time we admit that it is fundamentally impossible for them to do anything effectively, efficiently, or that actually results in the desired/planned/needed outcome.

It just ain't gonna happen.

Now here's my question...where's our $300 billion?

Here's the link to the video on NBC.

By the way, $300,000,000,000 divided by 400,000 equals $750,000 per homeowner. Something's wrong with our government's math.

$700 billion bailout lacks oversight :: The Livid Level

Read the article here on MSNBC.com.

Does this surprise anyone? I'm not surprised. I have been telling everyone I know that the U.S. Government (and its Department of Special Interests) is stealing the U.S. Taxpayer blind. Robbing from the poor and the middle class and giving to the rich.

Pallets full of $100 million in cash - bricks of $100 bills - are air freighted to EyeRACK (I say Ear-rock...with a slight roll of the "r" - one little tongue thrust into the roof of the mouth - the proper way...), disappears, and no one knows what happened to it. I know what happened to it. It's back in the good 'ol U.S. of A - in the form of big houses, big boats, big vacations. Assholes.

$100 million is piss-ant. A drop in the bucket. Not even a drop. A droplet. $100 million will barely buy you four Gulfstream jets. $100 million will barely buy you ten nice sized houses in Aspen. By "nice sized" I mean at least 6,000 square feet. Red Mountain quality level.

So now we're talking $700 billion. AIG has already asked for another $40 billion and continues to blow OUR money on luxuries and posh-ass amenities at out of town retreats or whatever they are doing under the guise of rebuilding their failed business model. No doubt with the same corporate leadership philosophy and oversight that built the business model that failed. You really think they are doing anything different? These are corporate Republican assholes. Moneygrubbers. They are doing the same old thing, only with our money backing them to do it all over and fail again. Key point here - they are skimming their 'vig' in the process.

Does anyone really believe that our Federal Government (or local, county or state for that matter) can really do ANYFUCKINGTHING right? I'm not just talking about the current DUMBFUCKS of the current administration.

I sorry to burst everyone's bubble here. I'm a big OBAMANOS supporter. BUT DOES ANYONE REALLY BELIEVE THAT ANYTHING WILL TRULY BE DIFFERENT UNDER THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION???

The momentum of the (Fed) behemoth is so great, that I don't think anyone can change the way "business as usual" has been going on at the federal level for years and years and years. Not Obama. Not God.

Alex is not pissed anymore. Alex is absolutely fucking livid. Foaming at the mouth type livid. Spitting and choking and sputtering livid - as I sit here calmly at my keyboard at 4am.

If you get 10 or 20 million livid folks - out of work - hungry - their houses and their SUV's and their boats and their jetskis and their RV's and their bigscreen plasma displays repo'd - watching AIG (and other banking executives) using tax dollars to enrich and luxuriate themselves - watching all government employees and Senators and Congresspeople safe and sound in the cocoon of taxpayer funded salaries and benefits - healthcare - retirement - lots of paid vacation days - etc. - watch what happens.

Watch what happens when you get 10 or 20 million people who finally reach the livid level.

Watch what happens.

It's called a revolution.

P.S. This is one of those posts that I usually go back and hide within a few minutes of posting it...although this time, I'm leaving it up.

Okay. There's a little glimmer of hope peeking through my lividity. Call your Senator and Representative today. Call their office directly. Tell them you read about this on MSNBC and you want to know what they are going to do about it. What are they going to do about it today? Right now.

Their numbers are below.

Call.

Now.

No excuses.

Tell them you are disappointed in them. Disappointed in the job they are doing.

Tell them you have faith and hope that they can do a better job.

Tell them that they must do a better job.

Tell them you expect them not only to "do the right thing", but to also "do the thing right".


Congressional Directory

Senate Directory

We're all going to have to get off our collective asses and get involved. Directly involved. Obama can't do it alone. It is time.

The Wrecking Crew

On NPR today, I heard an interview with Thomas Frank, the author of "The Wrecking Crew". He made a convincing argument that deficits have evolved into a weapons against the left. I'm probably oversimplifying here, but check out the link below to the New York Times review of the book. I plan to buy it as soon as I win the lottery.

It dawned on me in listening to the author, that when there are tax cuts, that the people who don't receive the cuts are paying for those who do receive the cuts, either now, or into the future. Either way, it sucks. We are being bent over and Enron'd in the ass. On a daily basis. I don't like it. Not one little bit.



Here is the link to The New York Times book review by Michael Lind.

Here is the NPR link.

Here is the NPR radio interview.

Bush :: Now he's gone too far...

Here are the first several paragraphs...click here to read the entire article.




Does Bush proposal threaten access to the pill?
White House seeks to protect health-care workers who object to abortion

By Rob Stein :: The Washington Post
updated 12:27 a.m. ET, Thurs., July. 31, 2008

A Bush administration proposal aimed at protecting health-care workers who object to abortion, and to birth-control methods they consider tantamount to abortion, has escalated a bitter debate over the balance between religious freedom and patients' rights.

The Department of Health and Human Services is reviewing a draft regulation that would deny federal funding to any hospital, clinic, health plan or other entity that does not accommodate employees who want to opt out of participating in care that runs counter to their personal convictions, including providing birth-control pills, IUDs and the Plan B emergency contraceptive.

Conservative groups, abortion opponents and some members of Congress are welcoming the initiative as necessary to safeguard doctors, nurses and other health workers who, they say, are increasingly facing discrimination because of their beliefs or are being coerced into delivering services they find repugnant.
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But the draft proposal has sparked intense criticism by family planning advocates, women's health activists, and members of Congress who say the regulation would create overwhelming obstacles for women seeking abortions and birth control.

There is also deep concern that the rule could have far-reaching, but less obvious, implications. Because of its wide scope and because it would -- apparently for the first time -- define abortion in a federal regulation as anything that affects a fertilized egg, the regulation could raise questions about a broad spectrum of scientific research and care, critics say.

"The breadth of this is potentially immense," said Robyn S. Shapiro, a bioethicist and lawyer at the Medical College of Wisconsin. "Is this going to result in a kind of blessed censorship of a whole host of areas of medical care and research?"

Broad implications
Critics charge that the proposal is the latest example of the administration politicizing science to advance ideological goals.

"They are manipulating the system by manipulating the definition of the word 'abortion,' " said Susan F. Wood, a professor at George Washington University who resigned from the Food and Drug Administration over the delays in approving the nonprescription sale of Plan B. "It's another example of this administration's disregard for science and medicine in how agencies make decisions."

The proposal is outlined in a 39-page draft regulation that has been circulated among several HHS agencies. The FDA has not objected, but several officials at the National Institutes of Health said that the agency had expressed serious concerns.

"This is causing a lot of distress," said one NIH researcher who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal discussions. "It's a redefinition of abortion that does not match any of the current medical definitions. It's ideologically based and not based on science and could interfere with the development of many new therapies to treat diseases."

Since a copy of the document leaked earlier this month, outside advocates and scientists have voiced growing alarm that the regulation could inhibit research in areas including stem cells, infertility and even such unrelated fields as cancer.