COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Thursday, July 14, 2011

The Social Security Caper and The Surplus



The Check is in the Mail, but maybe not. Don't worry, it is in the Lockbox.



…but the money may not be there. Obama says there is no money to send out:

121 comments:

  1. Cash flow, amigos.

    The Federals borrow $100 billion a month, to keep the wheels greased.

    9% of GDP. That's the spread between Federal revenues and expenditures.

    9% of $14.6 trillion
    That's $1.4 trillion.
    Divided by 12, for guesstimate purposes.

    That's the float needed to fund Federal operations.

    Welfare or Defense,
    which will be the priority?

    Which should be?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Fleming v Nestor

    Social Security is just a welfare program, that was decided by the Supremes, back in 1960.

    The FICA taxes were never "dedicated", they were just Federal revenues.

    The "Trust Fund", just the money Congress appropriated for the Program.

    Appropriations can change.

    ReplyDelete
  3. President Barack Obama abruptly walked out of a stormy debt-limit meeting with congressional leaders Wednesday, a dramatic setback to the already shaky negotiations.

    “He shoved back and said ‘I’ll see you tomorrow’ and walked out,” House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) told reporters in the Capitol after the meeting.
    Continue Reading

    On a day when the Moody’s rating agency warned that American debt could be downgraded, the White House talks blew up amid a new round of sniping between Obama and Cantor, who are fast becoming bitter enemies.

    When Cantor said the two sides were too far apart to get a deal that could pass the House by the Treasury Department’s Aug. 2 deadline — and that he would consider moving a short-term debt-limit increase alongside smaller spending cuts — Obama began to lecture him.

    “Eric, don’t call my bluff,” the president said, warning Cantor that he would take his case “to the American people.” He told Cantor that no other president — not Ronald Reagan, the president said — would sit through such negotiations.

    Read more: Cry Baby Barrack

    ReplyDelete
  4. The Dems have nothing, including the last two budgets that never got done
    BHO has offered one plan, which went down in the Senate 99 - 0
    Rejected BY EVERY DEMOCRAT.

    Pubs submit multiple offers, all rejected.

    Pubs offer short term deals as last-minute stopgap to avoid a crash.

    BHO rejects it, and says he will blame it on the Pubs in an address to the people.

    Obviously, all blame belongs to the Pubs.

    ...at least to some Rinos in the Elephant Cage.

    ReplyDelete
  5. There were 60 million people receiving Social Security benefits in May of 2011.

    Social Security Online

    38.5 million of them are over 65 years old. 13.5 million are disabled and under 65 years old.

    Should they be prioritized to be paid, before the supplies required by our troops in the field, deployed across the globe, in any of the over 700 foreign bases the US maintains?

    Likely not.
    Bullets before butter.

    We are at war, you know.

    ReplyDelete
  6. If the ceiling is not raised, then Social Security will not be a viable Program.

    Defense comes first.
    Before welfare, certainly.

    NASA takes it in the throat.

    Got to wonder about the BLM feeding those 35,000 head of horses that the Federals keep corralled and "wild"?
    The feed bill has to run 'em $100,000 a day, just for the hay.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Obviously, doug, the President is a politician.

    As is Mr Cantor.

    The President is going to go over the heads of the Congress, directly to the people.

    He'll have his teleprompter, so he'll do alright at placing the blame upon Mr Cantor and the Radical Republicans, there in the House.

    Mr Romney will not even beat a drum, in response.

    Cantor and Company picked a fight, won, and do not know how to admit victory. If deficit reduction was the goal, which it seems never was the case, for Radical Republicans.

    This is just political theater and power politics, within the DC insiders.

    ReplyDelete
  8. We're not just talking "cash flow;" we're talking "hand to mouth."

    Most people have, at one time or another, mailed off a check to Mastercard (at least in the olden days) knowing that the cash flow to cover it wouldn't be in the account for a couple of days.

    The Feds can't do that.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Grant an increase on debt limit on a SHORT TERM bill.

    If Obama or Senate refuse, THEY are responsible for default.

    ...because they refuse to RAISE THE CEILING ON A SHORT TERM BILL.

    What the Beltway "Conservative" Journalists et-al don't take into account is that if the Pubs kick the can AGAIN and wait for the next election, the T-Party will run candidates against the GOP.

    ReplyDelete
  10. "Cantor and Company picked a fight, won, and do not know how to admit victory."

    Please explain:

    What was won?

    ReplyDelete
  11. The offer to cut the deficit by $4 trillion over ten years or so ...

    Rejiggering of the Social Security and Medicare formulas.

    Instead, Mr McConnell offers to give Mr Obama the authority to increase the debt limit.

    ReplyDelete
  12. "The offer to cut the deficit by $4 trillion over ten years or so ..."

    ---

    Smoke and mirrors:

    Nothing specific on paper, .

    ..promises to do things in the future...

    EXACTLY what you now hold Reagan accountable for:

    Increasing the deficit when the Democrats reneged on promised cuts.

    ReplyDelete
  13. McConnel screwed up, but the House Pubs can still submit a short term bill that raises the debt limit, and cuts expenses.

    The responsibility for vetoing raising the debt limit would then be on THEM.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Reagan was a lifetime ago, dougo.

    Look to the future, not the past. As Mr Reagan started the economic growth through debt, instead of revenue.

    Then, to stave off disaster, signed the biggest tax increase in history, at the time.

    Mr Bush cut the taxes, per the Reaganomics Plan. Now we have to raise taxes, if we are to fully emulate the Reagan boom.

    Because that was the result of the "Total Package" of Reaganomics.

    Cut tax rates, close tax loopholes.

    Obama offered to "go there" and the Republicans left the room. Next day, Obama leaves the room.

    To be expected.

    ReplyDelete
  15. That House bill would never get to Obama, it'd die the Senate.

    Just like Obama's budget.

    ReplyDelete
  16. .



    Quirk said...

    .

    "Cantor and Company picked a fight, won, and do not know how to admit victory."

    but Doug asks,

    Please explain:

    What was won?




    Doug try to keep up.

    Last year, Boehner set up what he said was the GOP acceptable requirements for a budget deal, 85% spending cuts/15% revenue increases. The deal Obama offered, if you can believe the press and CBO amounted to a 83/17 split, what we used to call 'good enough for government work'.

    He has now gone back on that offer and said no tax cuts.

    Cantor, the majority leader, denounced the the results of the 'snaller fix' proposed by the Biden commission because it also included provisions to cut loopholes and subsidies to the rich. He took his ball and left the talks all the while complaining that the deal wasn't big enough anyway, it didn't have enough cuts.

    This is the same sneering clown who said the GOP has already comppromised because they are even talking about raising the debt ceiling, ignoring the fact that the debt ceiling merely pays for past sins, the same sins he, McConnell, and Boehner voted for in the past. Now this nitwit has the gall to call Obama out because he has decided to play by the GOP play book.

    McConnell has been playing politics with this one right along, going along with the leadership in the House that claims they do not have the votes to raise the debt limit.

    Now when the Chamber of Commerce and other business leaders challenge him to 'do his job' and legislate he folds like a cheap suit and offers to dump the whole decision on Obama so he can blame him later. I suppose you would call that leadership. It sure isn't doing his job.

    What did the GOP give up? They pretty much had the deal in hand that Boehner asked for last year.
    In working with Biden, they complained the deal wasn't big enough and included revenue so Cantor walked and said Obama and Boehner would have to come up with a deal. When Obama and Boehner came up with the outline of the 'big deal', Cantor didn't like that either and said let's go back to the 'smaller' Biden deal, the negotiations he earlier walked out on.

    The GOP turned down the deal Boehner asked for when they got it. They turned down the Biden deal before it suddenly looked more attractive. They turned down the 'big fix' Boehner and Obama came up with. Then they talk about dumping all responsibility for the credit ceiling on Obama. Then Cantor says lets go for a temporary fix something the GOP refused to even consider a month ago.

    How can you take these guys seriously?

    They are not interested in reducing the deficit. It's all pure bullshit, the ideology of the nitwits in the Tea Party more interested in their own ideology than in the welfare of the country.

    Time to wake up and drink the coffee Dougo.

    ReplyDelete
  17. .

    Doug calls many here RINOS.

    The current GOP is not the Republican Party I grew up with. The hypocrisy is so blatant it is laughable.

    That being said, the current standoff is just a reversal of roles. In 2006, Obama voted against raising the debt limit saying that it wasn't in the best interest of the US.

    It's all about politics, power, and privilege.

    There are no statesmen left in D.C. They are all the same. None of them do the jobs they were elected to do. Some are just a lot more obvious than others.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  18. I think I heard Toomey say that the U.S. currently has about $90 billion that it can get its hands on. But, today is only the 15th, and We traditionally run very large deficits in July.

    Last year our July Deficit was $165 Billion.

    So, by the 2nd of Aug. we could have burned through All, if not, most, of that money.

    The Gov can't just send out checks, and call the banker up and say, "hey, I might be a couple of days late covering those SS checks, can you take care of that for me?"

    I sure wish someone in the Treasury would give us (the great unwashed) a look at the cash flow projections for the next month.

    ReplyDelete
  19. CAIRO: Egypt's military rulers have fired more than 600 high-ranking police officers and announced that parliamentary elections planned for September would be delayed until October or November.

    Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/egypt-purges-police-force-delays-polls-20110714-1hfrh.html#ixzz1S5vNsU63

    ReplyDelete
  20. .

    EXACTLY what you now hold Reagan accountable for:

    Increasing the deficit when the Democrats reneged on promised cuts.


    Not only did Reagan increase the size of government what is telling is that he also increased significantly the size of the IRS.

    I don't blame Reagan for anything except believing guys like Laffer and Alan Greenspan who pushed supply-side economics. I give Reagan credit for being pragmatic. When things didn't work out as predicted, he had the confidence and the balls to adjust course.

    Reagan had a clear vision of where he wanted to take the country.

    Reagan was a statesmen. Too bad we don't have any these days.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  21. I'm a member of the Idaho Republican Party. We shoot rhinos. (and wolves)


    dwrnl

    ReplyDelete
  22. I know one thing. If the TP'ers get their way, they could bring us the largest One Month Drop in our GDP in History (this includes the Great Depression.)

    The "knock-on" effects of what they want to do are almost too horrible to contemplate.

    ReplyDelete
  23. So much of what we call "discretionary" spending really isn't very discretionary at all. At least not in the short term.

    We import 9 Million Barrels of Oil, Daily. You can't dock those ships if you don't have Customs Agents, Homeland Security, Border patrol, etc.

    You can't operate airports without TSA (at least until the laws are changed,) FAA Air controllers, Immigration, and Customs Agents, Fed Marshalls, etc.

    You can't ship grain w/o the Corps of Engineers, Federal Grain Inspectors, etc.

    You can't process/sell meat w/o FDA Inspectors, etc.

    General Dynamics, Grumman, Boeing can't keep the factories running if the government quits paying, and those factory workers can't pay rent, and buy groceries w/o checks.

    The States can't provide many of their services w/o the Federal block grant money.

    This list could go for pages, and pages.

    Those trains will be shut down if the ports are shut down, and the ports will be shut down if the government employees go home. The employees of all those shipping companies will be sent home.

    On and on.

    ReplyDelete
  24. .

    I'm a member of the Idaho Republican Party. We shoot rhinos. (and wolves)

    Was it Kant or Campbell, or one of the great poets, no wait, it was that great philosopher Forrest Gump that said "Stupid is as stupid does."

    It's a good thing you ended up in farming dsw, you are dumb enough to be fired on your day off.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  25. Quirk, thou art a burly boned rude growing dudgeon and if there were enough left of thee I would piss upon thy mind and use thee as wolf bait.



    dwrnl

    ReplyDelete
  26. .

    What, you and Walt? Two of a kind on the evolutionary scale.

    I can see it now, you and him passing the bottle as you clomp through the woods.

    Suddenly, Walt passes out. In your liquor induced state you notice his eyes are glazed and you're not sure he is breathing.

    You grab the cell phone and call for emergency services.

    You gasp to the operator: “My friend is dead! What can I do?” The operator in a calm, soothing voice replies: “Take it easy. I can help. First, let’s make sure he’s dead.” There is a silence, then a shot is heard.

    Back on the phone, you say, “OK, now what?”

    .

    ReplyDelete
  27. My insult was o'er yours. You hath not the aptitude to insult an ape.




    dwrnl

    ReplyDelete
  28. .

    You hath not the aptitude to insult an ape.

    Au contraire.

    I just did.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  29. Quirk thou swine hearted the only Walt I knew was Walt Zakariason another Swede crushed to death under a piece of his own farm equipment and I felt sad at the news of his demise.

    I have to run now but I shall insult thee later.

    dwrnl

    ReplyDelete
  30. .

    Walt? Bert? Clem?

    Who was that guy too lazy to take care of his livestock?

    .

    ReplyDelete
  31. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  32. Writing from the stables--

    I am here shoveling horse shit for my dotter. I always knew I'd end shoveling shit for someone, I'm blessed that it is for my dotter.

    O oh there goes another big pooper, be back later.

    I have a shovel that I shovel horse shit with that I have nick named QUIRK.

    If my paycheck ever comes through and I have the money to buy a black marker I intend to write QUIRK on the handle.

    That is all from here now.

    dwrnl

    ReplyDelete
  33. I am trying to call Quirker up from the vasty deeps, full fathom there he lies, I wish his bones to be of coral made and his eyes of pearl and he change into something rich and strange.

    Tis a tough days job.

    dwrnl

    ReplyDelete
  34. Roger Clemons: Judge declares a mistrial. More bumbling prosecutors. Where do these guys get their law degrees? On-line?

    Good for the Rocket.

    ReplyDelete
  35. Victim Meets Attacker in Bar on way to Nunnery

    DENVER (CBS4) – A detective testified in Denver court Thursday that the victim in April’s assault at Denver International Airport was headed to Illinois to become a nun.

    Noel Bertrand, 26, of Portland, is accused of raping the woman on the largely deserted A Concourse just after midnight on April 12. A preliminary hearing for the former Marine got under way Thursday morning.

    Bertrand claims the sex was consensual.

    The victim told police she had met the suspect at a bar and they had struck up a conversation.

    ReplyDelete
  36. Resident Socialist explains how no trains ran in 2005 due to lack of Sufficient Federal Govt Spending.

    What would we do w/o Rufie?

    answer:

    Read the NY Times, watch MSNBC.

    Fuckin Jerk

    ReplyDelete
  37. I got Ptomaine poisoning every other week in 2005.

    We had to shut down our homeschool due to lack of funds, also.

    Oh! The Humanity!

    ReplyDelete
  38. (takes a few seconds to load)

    ReplyDelete
  39. Yeah, I completely forgot how the Government reached it Debt Limit, and had to cut spending by 40% overnight.

    Of course, I didn't comletely lose my mental acuity by eating rotten pineapple in 2005. Maybe that explains it.

    ReplyDelete
  40. Didn't take a few seconds for my computer to load. (of course, I didn't click on it, either.)

    ReplyDelete
  41. Fantastic Retort.
    Congrats.



    Total Government Spending 2011 - $6.2 trillion

    Per Capita Total Government Spending - $19,790 / person


    ---


    Total Government Spending 2005 - $4.4 trillion


    Per Capita Total Government Spending $14,881 / person

    ReplyDelete
  42. In 2005 I thought we were reliving 1932.

    It was THAT Bad.

    ReplyDelete
  43. I called it the year of the rotten steak and picketed Safeway Daily.

    ReplyDelete
  44. Why are you putting up comments with State, County, and Municipal Spending totals?

    ReplyDelete
  45. Hint:

    Safeway and Costco care more about food safety than the FDA.

    ...Except in Rufie's Sovietland Utopia.

    ReplyDelete
  46. Rufus II said...

    Why are you putting up comments with State, County, and Municipal Spending totals?


    ---


    Because I wanted to.

    Is it illegal in rufieland?

    ReplyDelete
  47. Let me know when you can go to Costco and buy Non-FDA inspected meat.

    ReplyDelete
  48. Doug said...
    Federal Spending by year.


    2005 $ 2.5 Trillion

    2010 $ 3.8 Trillion

    Thu Jul 14, 06:03:00 PM EDT

    IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

    ReplyDelete
  49. Umm, make that "Non-USDA" inspected meat.

    ReplyDelete
  50. Point is, Costco's standards are higher than your lovers in the FDA.

    ReplyDelete
  51. ...but I forgot:

    Government is GOD in rufieland

    ReplyDelete
  52. per your comment:

    Total Government Spending 2011 - $6.2 trillion

    in case you missed it.

    ReplyDelete
  53. Your point, besides being silly, is meaningless.

    No one can sell meat that hasn't been inspected by the Federal Gov.

    ReplyDelete
  54. I know you'd like to stamp your little pineapple-stained feetsie, and scream "shut it down," but the grown-ups are just pointing out that you can't run a country on the whims of children.

    ReplyDelete
  55. .

    I am here shoveling horse shit for my dotter. I always knew I'd end shoveling shit for someone, I'm blessed that it is for my dotter.

    Hell, dsw, you have been shoveling bullshit here at the bar for as long as I have been coming.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  56. Yeah,

    The "Grown Ups" can explain how government spending can grow 50% in 5 years forever, can't they?

    ...and, of course, explain how we would not have survived w/o such government growth.

    We'da been a Third World Coundtry at those old levels by now.

    ReplyDelete
  57. No, but a grown-up might explain how, if you're going to make large cuts in Government Programs, you need plenty of time to plan in advance.

    ReplyDelete
  58. The first thing This faux grown-up might come up with is the huge (probably 50%) run up in Healthcare Costs (Medicare, and Medicaid, plus gov employee, and retiree costs being a huge part of Government expenditures.)

    ReplyDelete
  59. Private citizens have taken massive pay cuts.

    Others, like my wife, are doing the job that two people used to do.

    ---

    But, of course, pay cuts for Government workers would be unthinkable.

    ...as would be downsizing.

    ReplyDelete
  60. Hard to believe this needs to be explained to a "grown up."

    ReplyDelete
  61. .

    I took a quick look at Doug's Debt Clock.

    Maybe I missed something obvious on the total federal tax receipts but adding income taxes, total corporate taxes, and payroll taxes together only gets you to 90% of the total. Adding interest from the FED gets you some but that is small potatoes.

    At any rate, that is not the main point I would make. The first thing that popped is the size of the payroll taxes. The payroll tax represents 38% percent of total tax receipts, not that far off from the 43% that income taxes represents; yet the only tax those 'tax vigilantes' talk about is the income tax not the tax that has the most impact on the most Americans.

    Corporate taxes represent only 9% of the total.

    Still we get the bloviating.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  62. Yeah, bloviating.

    ...w/o any answers to specifics as to why governments must always grow.

    Morons

    ReplyDelete
  63. Also, remember, Q, those workers are, at present, getting a tax holiday on about 17% of their Soc Sec tax contributions. That would kick it up to about evens with the "income tax."

    But, see, Soc Sec isn't really "income tax." It goes in a "Special Fund," you see. That's why when the Gov. runs out of money those retirees will still get their chec . . . . . oh, wait.

    ReplyDelete
  64. Sure, because the Federals stepped further into the economy.

    In an attempt to stimulate it, in the Reagan fashion.

    Taxes are at the lowest rates in modern times, and the corresponding Federal revenues are at a 61 year low, as measured as a percentage of GDP.

    Time for the Reagan tax increase to be emulated. We're right on track, or the government will be smothered by the debts incurred, to save the economy, by cutting tax rates.

    ReplyDelete
  65. It always grows, doug, because that is what the people vote for.

    Time and again.

    ReplyDelete
  66. Doug, most of us think government's gotten way too big. But childish rants, such as yours, completely destroy your side's arguments. People are to busy laughing at/feeling sorry for you to discuss the serious topics that should be on the table.

    ReplyDelete
  67. More services, at lower prices.

    Right now, taxes are low, service is high.

    We're surfing a $1.4 trillion USD wave.

    Cold turkey is not a viable option for economic addiction.

    The existing status que is not delivering on job growth.
    Nor the enhanced revenues prophesied in Mr Laffers Curve.

    ReplyDelete
  68. Instead the tax code is prompting companies to park their profits off shore.

    This does not lead to jobs or other economic activity, in the United States.

    The major economic issue is not taxes, except in how the tax code impacts the economic decisions driving our balance of payments deficit.

    ReplyDelete
  69. The Federals removed the health inspectors from the equine slaughter houses, destroyed the horse market at the low end. It has led to an increase in the numbers of horses abandoned on the National Forest and State lands.

    Today (5/31/2011): House Appropriations Committee Adopts Amendment to Defund USDA Inspections of Horse Slaughter Plants

    UPDATE (5/31/11, 6:30 p.m.): Your calls did it! The House of Representatives Appropriations Committee voted 24 to 21 in favor of Congressman Jim Moran’s amendment to the 2012 Agriculture Appropriations Bill to

    defund USDA inspections of horse slaughter plants.

    Without funding for federal meat inspections, horse slaughter plants cannot operate in the U.S.

    ReplyDelete
  70. The Lords, and Masters still believe that if they can just stall the ball a little longer the economy will come back, and all will be well.

    And, I know damned well they're wrong. And, that scares the holy hell out of me.

    ReplyDelete
  71. I know, and most any rational person that studies it a whit knows, that we have Two huge problems - ie Housing/Construction, and Energy (gasoline.)

    No one that gives these problems a cursory glance could, Possibly, come to the conclusion that they are going to straighten out "This year," "next year," or, in the next 3 years.

    This is some serious shit we've got ourselves into. Really serious.

    ReplyDelete
  72. "What we found was that he was very isolated, and it is clearly the case he was struggling to continue to hold on to the type of influence and to direct operations in ways he may have been able to do in the past," a US official said.

    Counterterrorism officials from half-a-dozen US agencies have completed their reviews of the bin Laden materials, much of which were held at a secure facility at CIA headquarters in Langley, Va.

    Beyond the planning for an anniversary attack, the bin Laden trove produced few concrete leads of any sort, largely because information that might have located other terrorist leaders, such as phone numbers, ceased to have value almost the instant the US government obtained it, officials said.

    ReplyDelete
  73. The problem for McConnell is that the tea party wing of the party isn’t all that interested in giving the GOP nominee the best chance in 2012. It wants cuts, first and foremost, and damn the torpedoes.

    ...

    McConnell’s proposal and justifications amount to an acknowledgement that the political endgame has gotten away from the GOP. Whether through any fault of their own or not, Republicans are in a corner when it comes to a default, and as his colleagues suggest, McConnell is ceding major ground.

    It’s becoming clear that he can’t please both sides of his party’s new coalition. The question is how it gets resolved, and how deep the wounds will be going forward.

    ReplyDelete
  74. “It’s an option if nothing else works,” said Sen. Tom Coburn (Okla.), who plans Monday to announce his own plan to save $9 trillion over the next decade. “Politically, it’s smart, even if policy-wise it doesn’t fix the country’s problems.”

    On Wednesday, Democrats from both chambers met to discuss the strategy, which is still a work in progress. And although House Republican leaders are balking, some senior GOP lawmakers said it might help the caucus focus on a viable legislative path forward.

    “I think it’s worth considering a Senate-first strategy on this,” said House Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp (Mich.), whose committee is responsible for drafting debt-limit legislation. “It leaves the House with more options.”

    ReplyDelete
  75. Meanwhile out here in the Idaho Brain Trust Literary Society we have put our books down and are oiling up our .243s for this falls coming big wolf killing.


    dwrnl

    ReplyDelete
  76. The Treasury Department has said that on Aug. 2, it will not be able to meet the government’s financial obligations without an agreement to raise its $14.3 trillion debt limit.

    The S&P said Thursday that the chance of Congress not reaching a deal to raise the debt ceiling and causing a default is “small, though increasing.” But the government’s credit rating could also be imperiled if “we conclude that future adjustments to the debt ceiling are likely to be the subject of political maneuvering to the extent that questions persist about Congress’ and the Administration’s willingness and ability to timely honor the U.S.’ scheduled debt obligations.”

    The S&P said its concerns go beyond the debt ceiling to efforts to cut government spending. The U.S. government’s long-term credit rating could also be lowered if “we conclude that Congress and the Administration have not achieved a credible solution to the rising U.S. government debt burden and are not likely to achieve one in the foreseeable future,” the statement said.

    ReplyDelete
  77. The "Idaho Brain Trust" sounds like an endangered species.

    ReplyDelete
  78. .

    Meanwhile out here in the Idaho Brain Trust Literary Society we have put our books down and are oiling up our .243s for this falls coming big wolf killing.

    Meanwhile, Ideeho Fish and Game are issuing dog tags along with the permits for those going "awolfin" this fall in order (in their words) to "help identify the yokels when the inevitible casualties start coming in."

    .

    ReplyDelete
  79. The "Idaho Brain Trust" with Guns?

    Maybe we need to reread that 2nd amendment thing, again.

    ReplyDelete
  80. Out here we dun not want any of the wolfies botherin' the good citizens of Deeetroit, Michigan neither.

    dwrnl

    ReplyDelete
  81. Out here we dun not want any of the wolfies botherin' the good citizens of Deeetroit, Michigan neither.

    dwrnl

    ReplyDelete
  82. Obama's doing another press conference, tomorrow. I wonder if there's any chance he will, actually, "break down" the finances going into Aug 3rd.

    If he can actually show that he was telling the truth the other day a bunch of TP'ers are going to choke.

    ReplyDelete
  83. Maybe he'll let you blow him.

    ReplyDelete
  84. Rufus II said...

    "Doug, most of us think government's gotten way too big. But childish rants, such as yours, completely destroy your side's arguments.

    People are to busy laughing at/feeling sorry for you to discuss the serious topics that should be on the table.
    "

    ---

    It's a childish rant to imply that maybe, just maybe government workers could share some of the burden given that the Feds are spending 50 percent more now than they did five years ago?

    You and BHO:

    The grown ups in the room.

    My ass.

    ReplyDelete
  85. "When Cantor said the two sides were too far apart to get a deal that could pass the House by the Treasury Department’s Aug. 2 deadline — and that he would consider moving a short-term debt-limit increase alongside smaller spending cuts

    — Obama began to lecture him.
    "

    ---

    Rufie's roll model for a "grown up."

    ReplyDelete
  86. A Mexican military commander said Thursday that his soldiers had discovered a record-busting marijuana plantation covering 300 acres in the state of Baja California.

    ...

    Separately, the Catholic bishop of Saltillo, in the northern border state of Coahuila, said that drug cartels are recruiting children and paying them to act as watch guards.

    ReplyDelete
  87. Blowhole Sucks


    HONOLULU — Witnesses who watched a Northern California man get sucked into a Maui blow hole to his apparent death say that the tourist was dancing around and frolicking in the sprays of water moments before a wave knocked him down.

    Rocco Piganelli, of La Jolla, Calif., said he stared in horror as he watched a large wave push the tourist into the hole off Nakalele Point on Saturday afternoon. The man popped up briefly with the next wave, then disappeared.

    "We all stared for like 30 seconds and then I realized — he's gone.

    He's down there," Piganelli told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Wednesday.

    "I felt like I was going to throw up."

    Piganelli, a flight attendant for Southwest Airlines, readied himself to attempt to resuscitate the man, fully expecting him eventually surface. But the man never did.

    "The girl who was with him let out this horrifying scream," he said.

    He and other tourists scrambled over a cliff to look for the man out in the ocean as powerful waves crashed violently against sharp rocks.

    "In my heart, I kind of knew he wasn't coming out," Piganelli said. "I wanted to give him hope because it was all I could do

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  88. Five years, a fifty percent increase.

    The Republicans set the course the Democrats stayed it.

    As obvious as the fact the sun raises in the East, whether or not NASA has a camera in orbit to film it.

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  89. Unless you can add and subtract:

    Then it is obvious Pelosi, Reid, and Obama put The Compassionate One to shame.

    And didn't even submit a budget for over 2 years.

    "Most Transparent" indeed.

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  90. I guess what drives me crazy is I can't imagine any government program that couldn't have 10% cut out of it with, virtually, no Serious noticeable hardship to anyone.

    Well, anyways. . . . .

    It's a beautiful morning in the Delta,

    But, we could use some rain.

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  91. Beautiful morning here too Rufus. The crow on the metallic light pole cawed twenty one times ,whatever that means.

    dwrnl

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  92. Where I grew up that would mean the watermelons are ripe, and he's calling all his buddies to join in the feast.

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  93. Damned crows almost put us out of business a couple of years.

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  94. Some birds are smarter than others I guess, but crows are definitely the genii of the avian universe.

    It's hard to fool a crow, twice.

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  95. I believe the crow pecks the first watermelon because he loves the fruit, but pecks the second, and third watermelons just out of meanness.

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  96. Asshole from Standard and Poors on tv, acting holier than thou.

    Motherfucker should be holding court from his jail cell.

    Where in the fuck was he when S&P was slapping AAA's on the worst, most fraudulent garbage in the history of the universe.

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  97. Yesterday, California produced 14.6% of its Electricity from Domestic Renewables.

    47,224 Megawatt Hrs from Wind, and Solar.

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  98. Note, that 14.6% does Not include imported wind energy, or Large Hydro, domstic, or imported.

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  99. Meanwhile, Doug's idiot state got some good news; Oil (from which they produce Their electricity)

    is only $117.00 bbl, today.

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  100. It matters, not a lick, dougo, that COSTCO or Walmart have higher standards than does the FDA.

    Without FDA health inspectors the slaughter houses shut down.
    That's the law.

    It is not going to change, quickly.
    It will not be changed by the time the Federals shut down non-essential services.

    But there you have the basic problem, one man's pork, well, that's another man's prime beef.

    Notice that the GOP, while advocating a return to 2008 spending levels, voted for and passed increased military expenditures well beyond the 2008 levels.

    Their performance not matching their rhetoric.

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  101. Nothing but a prog, totin the dem line.
    Guess there is a difference tween the federal socialists.
    Doubt most of you pay a high rate of taxes or ur tune might be a bit different

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  102. Not too many top 2 percent of earners blog all day, probably too busy working keepin u leeches cozy, paying for your "free" whatever

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  103. Yep, you're the only one here that ever paid any taxes. No doubt about it.

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  104. The House of Representatives passed a bill, today, to gut the Clean Water Act.

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  105. Now, we'd appreciate it if you'd get your ass back to work.

    They don't give this Bud Light away for free, you know.

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  106. Efficiencies gained through practical and modern technology provided for quantitative increases in both time and labor productivity.

    I earn more than I need, doing quite a bit less than before the days of the productivity explosion.

    Leaving me time to pursue my political agenda.
    Promoting truth, justice and the American way.

    While an intellectual rebuttal to the ideas presented, non-existent.

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  107. While an intellectual rebuttal to the ideas presented, remains non-existent.

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  108. Bud light.
    Reminds me of an old joke.

    how's bud light like sex in a canoe?
    Fucking close to water.

    Heard it goes good with guvmint cheese rufus

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  109. Wonderful hearing from you, T. How's it hangin'?

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  110. I'll bet it does to, Bob. I buy it all the time under its other brand name - Kraft.

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  111. Wonderful hearing from you, T. How's it hangin'?

    Stage III cancer, hitting it with chemo and went back to the Church.

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  112. My daughter did two rounds of chemo. It ain't no walk in the park, but you'll get through it. Glad to hear you're going to Church. We'll all be pulling for you. Write when you feel like it.

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  113. Miss T, I love thee, you Huck Finn pro, best one on the internet

    bob peterson, moscow, idaho

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  114. To Miss T--

    The crow
    On the metallic pole
    Cawed twenty one times this day
    Then flew away
    I no longer have to think of death this day



    I love you kiddo


    bob

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