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Thursday, March 7, 2013 | 2:02 a.m.
Another view?
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So now the sequester is in effect. Congratulations to all the members of Congress for their total disregard of the American people. This is America as it now stands.
Of course, the people who will really suffer are working-class families who are struggling to make ends meet. They are, apparently, little more than collateral damage as congressional members fight with each other. After all, these families contribute little, if anything, to campaigns so they are irrelevant.
Members of Congress will lose nothing. They will still get full salaries, free health care, limousines to take them to work, fact-finding junkets, numerous vacations, etc. Oh sure, they may have to lay off junior or insignificant members of staff, whose functions or names are, most likely, unknown.
If Congress were a business, the owner of the business (voters) would have fired the members long ago. When will all of the people of America actually be represented and valued? That’s a question everyone should ask when the next election occurs.
Members of Congress act as we should expect given the 'system' in place.
Being a member is lucrative and we don't have term limits so many members want to make a 'career' of 'serving'. Election and re-election demand huge sums of money, which are provided by lobbyists for powerful interest groups looking to advantage themselves. We don't have public financing of campaigns so lobbyists run rampant and 'buy' the votes of members of Congress.
Current members of both parties have 'earned' being fired, but if we don't change the 'system', new members will behave as current members do.
Stop buying the crap both parties spew and demand a change in the system. It is the only solution.
Michael
The SEQUESTER is a positive step forward
The sequester has broken Obama's spending momentum
Now with the $600 billion fiscal cliff tax increase and the small limit in the growth of the government we can build on this.
The next step is a reform of entitlement programs and reform of taxes
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But first Obama must properly manage the sequester
Leaked e-mails show that team Obama has directed that the sequester should cause maximum pain.
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Democrats political strategists say the president hopes the cuts hurt enough to compel Republican lawmakers seeking re-election next year to agree to more tax increases.
Gene Sperling, the White House's top economic adviser, stated "Our hope is, as more Republicans start to see this pain in their own districts, they will choose bipartisan compromise over this absolutist position,"
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Transportation Security Administration spent $50 million to buy new uniforms for rank-and-file agents, despite budget cuts would result in furloughs and 90-minute flight delays.
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Obama choose to shutdown the self-guided WH tours the same day that John Kerry gave Egypt $250 million
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Each golf trip Obama takes to Fl costs several million dollars yet there is no money for first responders. Obama was in Fl on Saturday and Sunday and on Monday reported he could not fund first responders.
Yes, Congress is a bad business model.
For the record, the Nation is moving without the help of congress. Almost as if Congress is not needed, that the business community on a National and Gobal level have a system that does not need a congress. A bypass of sorts, a different level of evolution. Business is going around and through congress.
As we can see the wealthy, the people and corporations that are involved with the essentials of the World, are moving ahead in spite of the obstructions in Washington, DC.
In other words Washington is no longer the straw that stirs the drink. There are forces that are letting this be known.
The Congress is not a business model. It's a governance model. And it worked to the tune of $85 Billion in less spending. Not cuts. But reduction in growth of spending. All 3 parts of the government approved sequestration. Two parts Democrat: President and Senate. And one part Republican: The House. Compromise and negotiations got it passed into law. Let er rip.
The sky hasn't fallen. The country has not come to a stop. People are not affected, unless you count the kiddies who want to visit the White House during spring break. Then I suggest they go to the Capitol. That's open and a much better tour. Plus if you talk to your local representatives, you can obtain a flag that flew over the Capitol. Free!
CarmineD
The business of Congress is governing, but the resemblance to a cafeteria food fight is unmistakable.
If Congress was a business, they would ask for a taxpayer bailout.
"Cutting" 2.4% from increased spending is not a "cut" to begin with. That would be like you overspending your earnings by 40% and cutting it back to 37.6%. You'd still go down the tubes! Why is it folks like Stilley haven't a clue as to what is really happening to the United States of America? Is he profiting from government overspending? We are purposely being pushed towards bankruptcy and if we don't stop the big spenders, the $#*% will really hit the fan when the Social Security checks stop coming; hospital & doctors bills go unpaid; food stamps wither on the vine and welfare addicts are left to sell apples on the corner once again. Armaggedon will not be flaming balls of fire coming from the heavens. It will be the collapse of the dollar and the chaos it will lead to. In your own self-interest: WAKE UP, FOOL! There is still time to reverse course.
Sequester was Obama's idea.
He worked very hard to get it replaced.
When he went on his golf trip with Tiger that what he was doing.
Working hard to stop the sequester.
Your hero.....Obama.
Like a lab rat used for cancer research, leathery skinned, chain-smoking wino John Boehner has seen too many days passed out under a hot sun lamp. GOP House members cling to power through gerrymandered districts (Dem candidates won 1.4 million more House votes in November) but to hear the orange speaker tell it, voters have given his caucus a "mandate" to push our economy back into deep recession.
America's only hope is that obese republican states secede from the Union and form their own Third World nation of illiterate sharecroppers.
Congress lacks the courage to do the right thing, it's time to stop lining theirs and their crony friends pockets.
"Remember our administration promise that it would be good stewards of taxpayer dollars. Remember? Remember Vice President Biden? He was put in charge of a tough, unprecedented oversight effort. That's how it was introduced. You know why? Because nobody messes with Joe." Sarah Palin
The moral limits of markets ?
About the sequester Obama now says "This is NOT going to be the apocalypse, I think..." but I will make it as hard as I can on American so Republicans pay a price
Obama would have you believe there is not enough waste, fraud and abuse to cover limiting growth 2%
Obama would have you believe that a hiring freeze would not cover limiting growth 2%
Obama would have you believe that restricting government employee travel and conventions would not cover limiting growth 2%
Per Future at 2:54 AM: "Leaked e-mails show that team Obama has directed that the sequester should cause maximum pain."
Whoever sent that wasted a perfectly good e-mail!
I've been a manager. Were I directed, by someone who didn't understand my job, that I MUST, willy nilly, cut my overall expenses by AT LEAST 10% I would be d...ed sure I made cuts that would have maximum visibility. I would be equally sure to go above that goal - to avoid any possibility of ending the year below it. Any failure, regardless of reason, to meet such an imposed goal would only open me to charges of "shirking," "not being a team player," or (from my supervisor) "disobeying my direct order." No sense, or promotion, in getting THAT type of reputation!
Oh yes, I'd also be quite sure to protect my OWN job!
Obama's golf trip cost the government 341 federal employee furloughs. Another example of "protecting the middle class".
Congress and the President have failed to fulfill one of their primary responsibilities -- that of agreeing upon & implementing an annual budget. Senior non-appointed Federal executives have also behaved in an irresponsible manner, failing to plan over the last year for the highly probable impact of reduced spending by identifying cuts that could be made with minimal impact or aggressively rooting out fraud, waste & abuse.
Instead of those folks doing their jobs, lower ranking Federal employees are financially penalized, public services curtailed, and military readiness degraded -- all at the 11th hour and in a manner that suggests the intent is largely to alarm the public for short-term political gain.
Maybe it's time for all Americans to take to the streets in protest against a governing elite that has become out of touch, unresponsive, wasteful, and unaccountable. It's not a question of "small government" versus "big government" anymore, it's a question of honest and competent leadership versus a bunch of self-serving knuckleheads!
Frontline did an excellent piece on how the sequester mess developed:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/...
Yesterday the House with large Democrat support passed a CR to finish out FY-2013.
Obama agreed to this last Friday
How long will it take for Reid to get his act together.
This is the last step to clear out all the problems so the grand bargin can begin
Tax reform and entitlement reform finally -- something as simple as using the superlative CPI could save $14 billion each year
How long will it take for Reid to get his act together.
Future Harry's busy right now making sure Jack Johnson gets a pardon from the president.
Future - "The sequester has broken Obama's spending momentum"
One day people will come to realize much of what they believe is nonsense. The Easter Bunny doesn't exist and wrapping tin foil around your head doesn't do squat but make you head hotter.
Here are two articles from the WSJ for you to chew on. You can't accuse the WSJ of being a liberal biased news source when it comes to facts.
Obama spending binge never happened Government outlays rising at slowest pace since 1950s
http://articles.marketwatch.com/2012-05-...
Laffer and Moore: Obama's Real Spending Record
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424...
Vernos: I excerpted this from one of your articles. I'm not sure you read it.
"Maybe Keynes was wrong and Milton Friedman was right when he warned that government spending is taxation and that government can't tax an economy into prosperity. Friedman made it clear time and again that restraining government spending stimulates the economy by liberating private resources."
I'm on the side of Friedman not Keynes and Krugman. It would appear so is the US economy.
Remember Keynes says increasing taxes to increase government spending jump starts the economy. Really? $180 billion in 2008. $900 Billion in 2009. Unemployment still at 5.5 percent. $85 Billion in sequestration: Stock market hits all time highs. Everybody gets it except the President and his keynesian economic advisors.
CarmineD
@CarmineD,
The point of my post was to illustrate that misinformation is being used as propaganda. This deficit was a long time in the making initiated by both parties over many years, check the chart in one of those articles.
According to many who post here we didn't have any problems until the Obama administration. A few believe the universe was stable and planet Bizarro was fine, until Obama came along to wreck everything.
I submit, if it weren't for a number of things Obama did to stall this recession, we would have had another Great Depression. The auto industry would be extinct and Wall St. would be in the toilet instead of setting new records.
Congress is NOT a business model. It's a government model and yes, not a good one.
"I submit, if it weren't for a number of things Obama did to stall this recession, we would have had another Great Depression. The auto industry would be extinct and Wall St. would be in the toilet instead of setting new records."
Vernos: Credit goes to Ben Bernanke for easy money and liquidity. But sadly inflation is up: prices for goods and services, like food and energy. These hurt consumers and workers.
But even that [inflationary money policy] only goes so far: J-O-B-S. Hopefully President Obama after 4 years will finally approve the Keystone XL Pipeline and get 16,000 direct union hires with more downstream. While it doesn't sound monumental it sends a message to businesses and consumers. FINALLY, this President gets it!
CarmineD
Both parties have contributed to the current state of affairs, which is embarrassing. If this is the eventual destiny of free nations as history suggests, no wonder our future looks bleaker with each passing year.