"The American People Need Real Spending Cuts"

[WhiskeyGirl]

Federal spending has grown dramatically since the 1970s, with the biggest increases coming during Republican administrations. Spending today is hundreds of billions greater than in 2008 and much higher as a percentage of the economy. True, it is lower now than in 2009, but that year, a combination of George W. Bush and Obama “stimulus” spending, set a record.

The sequester consists of $1.2 trillion in across-the-board cuts in non-entitlement spending growth over ten years. To put that in perspective, Reason editor Nick Gillespie writes, “Remember that we’re talking about $1.2 trillion dollars taken out of a projected $44 trillion or so in spending. What kind of budget discipline is that?”

Spending cuts the size of a drop in a vast ocean?  Still need to borrow money? 

What about the claims that a spending slowdown would harm the economy? We’re told the economy could fall back into recession if spending is not maintained at the vigorous pace previously planned. After all, it is argued, if government workers are laid off and fewer military contracts are written, less money will be in people’s hands to spend on goods and services. Considering that the government wouldn’t actually have less revenue under sequestration, this is an outrageous exaggeration if not an outright lie. Of course, beneficiaries of that spending—especially the parasitic politicians and the military-industrial complex—have every reason to mislead the taxpayers. The people’s natural interest in lower taxes and lower government spending must be overcome somehow. Frightening them into believing that even a slowing of the growth in spending would wreck the economy is just the ticket.

read more here - http://reason.com/archives/2013/02/24/the-american-people-need-real-spending-c

I keep hearing about $250 billion in unspent stimulus funds.  Why not just wish that money out of existence?  Use it to pay something of the $17 TRILLION debt?

Instead of asking what to cut...ask what is necessary?  Spending triage?

End the Fed and all the borrowing and secret wheeling and dealing?  Open the books and transactions to some sunlight?

End the never end slush fund to higher education?  Welfare?  Housing?

Why should it be about cutting?  Why isn't it about pressing the reset button and starting over?  What do we really need to keep the bare bones government going?  Just the basics?  End the IRS?  Department of Education?  HUD?

just my humble opinions

[WhiskeyGirl]

Dirty Air and Dirty Water...

CREDIT BUBBLE BULLETIN
The Fed and Chinese risk

This from the Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis president James Bullard on February 21: "Let me just talk a minute about [Fed governor] Jeremy Stein's speech - governor Stein is a Harvard finance professor - surely one of the leading finance people in the world. And we're fortunate to have him on the [Federal Reserve] Board of Governors. He came out to a conference in St Louis a couple of weeks ago and gave a speech in which he talked about potential imbalances in financial markets in the US and a little bit around the world. The first point to make would be that - my main take away from the speech - he pushed back some against the 'Bernanke doctrine'.

"The Bernanke doctrine has been that we're going to use monetary policy to deal with normal macro-economic concerns, and then we'll use regulatory policy to try to contain financial excess. And Jeremy Stein's speech said, in effect, 'I'm not sure that you're always going to be able to take care of the financial excess with the regulatory policy.' And in a key line, he said, 'Raising interest rates is a way to get into all the corners of the financial markets that you might not be able to see or you might not be able to attack with the regulatory approach.'

Has regulation, Dodd-Frank, eliminated financial excess?  What exactly is financial excess?  Excessive always increasing salary, benefits, and bonuses for the elite in the global big bank/financial industry?  While everyday people get stuck with the financial fall out?

What about that dirty air and water Obama keeps going on about?  I see only cleaner air and water in my neighborhood.

Where is the dirty air and water?

A lot has transpired in China over the past year. The Chinese people - and the world more generally - have become much more aware of China's endemic corruption problem. Widespread toxic air (and water) pollution has also been recognized as a consequence of a runaway Chinese boom. Other more typical credit inflation consequences - notably asset bubbles, widening wealth disparities and economic imbalances - have also become more pressing.

Moreover, inflation continues to quietly impart pain upon the large population of impoverished Chinese. The new Chinese government faces daunting financial, economic, environmental and social challenges. The global love affair with money printing (QE) doesn't today seem to work in their best interest.

Hmmm...China's endemic corruption problem?  Dirty water and toxic air?

What fuels that?  Obamacash?  Increasing welfare dependency? 

How many working and poor Americans can afford the doubling of gas prices during Obama's first term?  What is Obama's response to rising gas prices?  Use less.

Where is the corruption?  Dirty air and water?

Seems like instead of spending cuts, we need to start over and let working people keep everything.  Shut off the never ending slush fund from the American government to foreigners, big banks, and the greedy...

just my humble opinions

[WhiskeyGirl]

Dirty Air and Dirty Water...

CREDIT BUBBLE BULLETIN
The Fed and Chinese risk

This from the Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis president James Bullard on February 21: "Let me just talk a minute about [Fed governor] Jeremy Stein's speech - governor Stein is a Harvard finance professor - surely one of the leading finance people in the world. And we're fortunate to have him on the [Federal Reserve] Board of Governors. He came out to a conference in St Louis a couple of weeks ago and gave a speech in which he talked about potential imbalances in financial markets in the US and a little bit around the world. The first point to make would be that - my main take away from the speech - he pushed back some against the 'Bernanke doctrine'.

"The Bernanke doctrine has been that we're going to use monetary policy to deal with normal macro-economic concerns, and then we'll use regulatory policy to try to contain financial excess. And Jeremy Stein's speech said, in effect, 'I'm not sure that you're always going to be able to take care of the financial excess with the regulatory policy.' And in a key line, he said, 'Raising interest rates is a way to get into all the corners of the financial markets that you might not be able to see or you might not be able to attack with the regulatory approach.'

Has regulation, Dodd-Frank, eliminated financial excess?  What exactly is financial excess?  Excessive always increasing salary, benefits, and bonuses for the elite in the global big bank/financial industry?  While everyday people get stuck with the financial fall out?

What about that dirty air and water Obama keeps going on about?  I see only cleaner air and water in my neighborhood.

Where is the dirty air and water?

A lot has transpired in China over the past year. The Chinese people - and the world more generally - have become much more aware of China's endemic corruption problem. Widespread toxic air (and water) pollution has also been recognized as a consequence of a runaway Chinese boom. Other more typical credit inflation consequences - notably asset bubbles, widening wealth disparities and economic imbalances - have also become more pressing.

Moreover, inflation continues to quietly impart pain upon the large population of impoverished Chinese. The new Chinese government faces daunting financial, economic, environmental and social challenges. The global love affair with money printing (QE) doesn't today seem to work in their best interest.

Hmmm...China's endemic corruption problem?  Dirty water and toxic air?

What fuels that?  Obamacash?  Increasing welfare dependency? 

How many working and poor Americans can afford the doubling of gas prices during Obama's first term?  What is Obama's response to rising gas prices?  Use less.

Where is the corruption?  Dirty air and water?

Seems like instead of spending cuts, we need to start over and let working people keep everything.  Shut off the never ending slush fund from the American government to foreigners, big banks, and the greedy...

just my humble opinions

link to above - http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/GECON-01-250213.html

Seems like dirty air and water is a result of a corrupt banking system, welfare spending, privatizing profits and socializing losses...

just my humble opinions