“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."
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Pat Toomey is an architect of a GOP proposal that would allow deep automatic spending cuts to take effect Friday but authorize Obama to choose where to chop and where to trim. My oh my, Obama would have to govern instead of campaign.
Toomey draws up measure to soften sequester
Proposal would allow Obama to choose where to cut
February 27, 2013 12:16 am
By Tracie Mauriello / Post-Gazette Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Pat Toomey is an architect of a GOP proposal that would allow deep automatic spending cuts to take effect Friday but authorize the president to choose where to chop and where to trim.
Mr. Toomey and Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla, expect to introduce their bill today, but it’s already under attack by Democrats and some fellow Republicans, who have their own ideas for how to address $85 billion in automatic spending cuts known as the sequester. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has said he will allow each caucus to offer only one alternative for an up-or-down vote.
None of the proposals that have emerged so far appears likely to receive enough votes to pass in the Senate.
The Toomey-Inhofe legislation would maintain the overall size of the sequester but would authorize the White House to decide where to cut within broad categories. As it stands, defense spending would be cut by 13 percent and most other departments and programs would be cut uniformly by about 9 percent over the next seven months. "It gives no discretion to the managers of the agencies or the administration -- or anyone, for that matter -- to decide which of these programs has greater importance, greater urgency than another," Mr. Toomey said. “There are any number of contrasts and comparisons you could make, but -- in my view -- a government subsidy to Solyndra wouldn't be as high a priority as maintaining air-traffic controllers." Republicans including Sen. John McCain of Arizona have said that kind of approach relinquishes congressional budgetary authority to the president.
"I say to my Republican friends, if you want to just give the president flexibility as how to enact these cuts in defense spending, then why don't we go home and just give him the money?" Mr. McCain said Sunday during an appearance on CNN.
Mr. Toomey said he tried to ease that concern by including a provision that would give Congress final approval over the cuts President Barack Obama would decide to impose. "I understand [Mr. McCain's] point, and this is why I have consistently said the Senate ought to do its work. We haven’t been doing budgets these past two years," he said. "We shouldn't be governing by crisis and governing by [fiscal] cliff. I wish we weren't in this position ... but I'm dealing with the reality that faces us on Friday morning," he said. "I'm trying to make a bad situation less bad."
Democrats say it's inconsistent for senators who have criticized the president's spending priorities to now want to give him more discretion.
Rep. Mike Doyle, D-Forest Hills, said Republicans are playing politics by forcing the president to take the blame for cuts he's being forced to make. "When the cuts start to affect people, they want to be able to say, 'The president had the flexibility not to do this to you,' " he said.
"There is nothing that Sen. Toomey is doing that improves the situation," Mr. Doyle said. "It's like saying, 'We're going to cut off one of your fingers, but you get to choose which finger.' "
Mr. Obama wants more than the ability to choose where to cut. He also wants more money on the table so he won't have to cut so much. He wants to raise $580 billion in revenue over the next 10 years by closing loopholes and stopping deductions that help the wealthiest taxpayers.
He and other Democrats say the GOP is putting the interests of the wealthy ahead of the needs of the rest of the country by allowing cuts that will reduce essential government services such as funding to Head Start early education, vaccination programs, meat inspections, airport security checks and much more.
"There's no smart way" to cut $85 billion in seven months, Mr. Obama said Tuesday during a public appearance in Newport News, Va. "Do I choose between funding for the disabled kid or the poor kid? Do I close this Navy shipyard or some other one?"
He's looking for additional revenue by closing "wasteful" loopholes and ending deductions he says help only the wealthiest. In exchange, he's willing to cut $930 billion in spending over that period.
The administration has said that if the poor and middle class have to suffer by losing services in order to reduce debt then the wealthy should contribute, too, and that means them paying higher taxes.
Republicans say the rich already are paying more than their fair share. "Spending always ultimately gets paid for by confiscating [money] from the more productive private sector," Mr. Toomey said during a Senate Budget Committee hearing Tuesday. Republicans are adamant that they won’t let that happen this time. "The administration can either go ahead and make very disruptive spending cuts ... or they could support my legislation, which would give them the flexibility and the authority to do this in a way that is least disruptive and does the least harm," Mr. Toomey told reporters Tuesday evening.
"I don't think there's going to be any grand bargain" to avoid the sequester entirely, he said.
Washington bureau chief Tracie Mauriello: tmauriello@post-gazette.com or 703-996-9292. First Published February 27, 2013 12:00 am Join the conversation:
Who comes up with these terms? Fiscal cliff, sequester? How about "work ethic", "living within your means", "self sufficiency", "frugality"?
“The Great Sequester" amounts to 1% of nominal US GDP, 1% of total US public debt, 3.5% of the Fed's balance sheet or a mere 7% of the annual deficit. http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-02-25/behold-horror-sequester-context
TERRIFYING!!!!!
What a testament to the sad, supine shape of today's flabby, debt-driven U.S.consumer "economy".America is a socialist country by default as over half of the population is fed, housed, employed, or otherwise supported by the government.
This whole lurching from one manufactured crisis to another simply points out how fundamentally dysfunctional our system is. The question really is whether the system is capable of "reform" or needs to be completely scrapped.
The country (collectively and individually)has been living beyond its means for a long time now. The credit racket spiraled out of control and the house of cards tumbled. The credit system needs to be scrapped. If that means moral hazard, so be it. We need a reset.
The way to fix D.C. is to starve it. Take away the money and the crooks will leave. Devolution!
We’ve spent all weekend trying to wrap our head around why anyone, particularly a public official, would knowingly siphon work-related funds to satisfy personal fetishes.
To be fair, former Rep. Jesse L. Jackson Jr., D-Ill., has copped to being exhausted/bipolar/depressed since dropping from view last summer. But, as became apparent with the filing of an official plea deal Feb. 15 — a mea culpa acknowledging Jackson and his wife, Sandi, illegally directed about $750,000 in campaign funds during the past decade for personal expenses — Jackson has clearly been out of his mind for quite some time.
Some of his mind-boggling splurges include: •$43,000 for a gold Rolex; •$27,000 for Michael Jackson memorabilia, including a $4,600 fedora; •$10,000 for Bruce Lee collectibles; •$5,000 for a football signed by “American presidents.”
While we never condone embezzling, Jackson could have at least saved a few bucks on his road to professional ruin.
For instance, who wouldn’t be proud to display this virgin golf ball signed by former President Gerald Ford?
An act similar to the cleavland steamer. This variation on it requires the man to lay under a glass table while the woman deficates on the glass above the mans chest. This was allegedly started by danny thomas when, after having sex with a prostitute, he requested that she deficate on a glass table while he layed under it and watched.
===
John: Hey betty, how about you give me a cleavland steamer?
Betty: How about eggs danny thomas style instead?
john: That works too.
===
1.
cleavland steamer
Also known as the Pasadena mudslide, California hot plate, or simply the "steamer", this term commonly involves some variation on the act of defecating on a chest of a lover as a means of revenge.
After hearing that her boyfriend had been cheating on her, Nancy gave him the cleveland steamer while he slept and left with his car.
2.
cleavland steamer
When after having engaged in intercourse the male or female lets his/her partner fall asleep. Then he/she takes a crap on his/her chest and run away
"I gave Carrie the old cleavland steamer so I didnt think she would be calling again"
A scarred face, a long, thin moustache, and a muscular body with large tattoos render Trejo one of the most distinctive character actors of our time.
Has two sons: Danny Boy (b. 1981) from an earlier marriage, Gilbert Trejo (b. 1988) and one daughter Danielle Trejo (b. 1990).
He is one of the most prolific of American actors, having usually done at least 4 films a year since the 1990s. In 2002 alone, he did 9 films.
His character's name in Heat (1995) was Trejo.
Is the only actor to appear in all three of the From Dusk Till Dawn movie series.
Trejo spent much of the 1960s in California prisons--Tracy (1963-1965), San Quentin (1965-1968), Soledad (1968-1969).
He and director Robert Rodriguez are second cousins.
His characters in the films of Robert Rodriguez are usually named after knives: Desperado (1995) (Navajas), the From Dusk Till Dawn trilogy (Razor Charlie), the Spy Kids movies (Machete), the Grindhouse (2007) trailer (Machete), Predators (2010) (Cuchillo), Machete (2010) (Machete again). Only in Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003) (Cucuy) is this not the case.
He named his five favorite films as The Searchers (1956), Death Wish (1974), Animal Factory (2000), Dirty Harry (1971) and Once Upon a Time in the West (1968).
Was considered for the role of Det. Rey Curtis on "Law & Order" (1990).
Inducted into the Texas Film Hall of Fame on March 8, 2012 in Austin, Tx.
""He named his five favorite films as The Searchers (1956), Death Wish (1974), Animal Factory (2000), Dirty Harry (1971) and Once Upon a Time in the West (1968).
Bob (Robert Casey, US Senator PA, D) sent me an email:
Dear Friends,
As you may know, sequestration is scheduled to go into effect at the end of the week. Leading economists have warned of the damaging impact these across the board cuts will have on job creation and our economy. Allowing these indiscriminate cuts to wreak havoc is inexcusable when there is an alternative. The American people deserve a balanced and reasonable approach that will cut spending, sustain the economy and protect middle class families. Like most households, we have to make tough but smart decisions about our finances. Republicans and Democrats need to come together in a responsible way to cut spending, sustain the economy and protect the middle class. Outlined below are several examples of how sequestration would impact our commonwealth: Overall Impact of Sequester On Jobs Job losses due to DOD cuts: 39,941 Job losses due to non-DOD cuts: 38,513 Total Job losses due to sequestration: 78,454 in PA in FY’12/FY’13 [George Mason University Study 7/17/12/] Military Furloughs: In Pennsylvania, approximately 26,000 civilian Department of Defense employees would be furloughed, reducing gross pay by around $150.1 million in total. [WH 2/24/13] Army: Base operation funding would be cut by about $7 million in Pennsylvania. [WH 2/24/13] Teachers: Pennsylvania will lose approximately $26.4 million in funding for primary and secondary education, putting around 360 teacher and aide jobs at risk. In addition about 29,000 fewer students would be served and approximately 90 fewer schools would receive funding. [WH 2/24/13] Work-Study Jobs: Around 3,160 fewer low income students in Pennsylvania would receive aid to help them finance the costs of college and around 2,290 fewer students will get work-study jobs that help them pay for college. [WH 2/24/13] Job Search Assistance to Help those in Pennsylvania find Employment and Training: Pennsylvania will lose about $866,000 in funding for job search assistance, referral, and placement, meaning around 36,860 fewer people will get the help and skills they need to find employment. [WH 2/24/13] Sincerely,
If only the president’s $3 billion initiative to map human brain activity had been completed by now, we might have the tools to make sense of the carnival that pre-sequester Washington has become. Alas, since the science won’t be in for years, we can only hypothesize about what corner of the neocortex is driving our leaders’ behavior as this latest fiscal precipice draws near.
The first critical but virtually undiscussed question is what portion of the president’s brain (or brain trust) led him to extend 82 percent of the Bush tax cuts on Jan. 1. Recall that even as the sequester was kicked down the road then, President Obama could have let all the Bush tax cuts expire before coming back with big-sounding tax cuts of his own – tax cuts that would have involved far smaller revenue losses over time than had Bush’s.
Even if Republicans grumbled at first (and secretly prayed for the economy to tank), they would in short order have supported those new tax cuts. When the dust cleared we’d have lifted revenue closer to what’s required for our aging population.
Instead, after Democrats spent a decade griping that the Bush tax cuts were a boon only for “the rich,” they decided that Bush had in fact been correct all along in claiming they benefited everyone. {…}
{…} Scientists will also have their work cut out decoding the president’s split brain on defense. The president leads the party that rightly argues we should shrink the Pentagon to something more like a triangle as part of a broader plan of nation-building at home (a position interestingly held by some rising military officers as well). Yet Tuesday he went to a shipyard to argue yet again that a roughly 8 percent trim after military spending doubled in the last decade would be devastating. Huh?
The GOP’s confusion and denial are, if anything, more profound. Even as their attacks on government in the abstract remain as shrill as ever, big-name Republican governors are admitting that Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion (while imperfect) promises too much health security for too many of their struggling constituents to be spurned out of ideological pique. Again, purely as a matter of science, it would be great to know how Florida Gov. Rick Scott’s and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s brains manage to order their mouths to rail against the feds while instructing their hands to pocket the cash.
The more comical GOP brain burp can be seen in the overdue effort by conservative thinkers to craft an agenda that might help average Americans improve their lives. The president is usually the one mocked as remote and Spock-like, but it’s Republican politicians now who seem mysteriously robotic and disengaged. “Hmmm,” Republican officials seem to be saying, as their policy wonks serve up relevant new ideas, “these humans apparently crave opportunity and security. Most interesting...”
The workings of the brain may be more than a $3 billion question, so the president should be forgiven if he first greenlights the grants that help us penetrate the Republican mind. Still, taking the broadest point of view (not to mention the citizen’s), this sequester spectacle is disturbing. The ability to reason, and thus ultimately to cooperate, was supposed to be the thing that distinguishes us from the rest of the animal kingdom. That, and the opposable thumb. The more our endless fiscal cliff rolls on, the more truly unique that thumb is looking – and the more intent Washington appears on proving that the ascent of man is bunk.
A Republican proposal to increase Presidential authority. The GOP just loves the Imperial Presidency.
Makes no matter to the Federal Socialists which "Party" they belong to, or which holds the White House, they still strive to increase the authority of the President, rather than doing their own jobs, as legislators.
The deficits have kept the stock market and unemployment stable. In fact the stock market has fully recovered from the crisis. 401K's across the country have recovered. Goldman Sachs is doing just fine.
The deficits have accomplished their primary mission. The US still directly controls 25% of the global economy.
We have been running cash flow deficits since WJ Clinton left office, not a balanced cash flow budget on the books, since the Clinton's left the White House, 12 years ago.
Before that he US had been running deficits since LBJ. Lots of "Good" has been done, since then.
And Spending, as a percentage of the GDP has never been higher, ever, except during WWII.
Government spending at the start of the 20th century was less than 7 percent of GDP. It vaulted to almost 30 percent of GDP by the end of World War I, and then settled down to 10 percent of GDP in the 1920s. In the 1930s spending doubled to 20 percent of GDP. Defense spending in World War II drove overall government spending over 50 percent of GDP before declining to 22 percent of GDP in the late 1940s. The 1950s began a steady spending increase to about 36 percent of GDP by 1982. In the 1990s and 2000s government spending stayed about constant at 33-35 percent of GDP, but in the aftermath of the Crash of 2008 spending has jogged up to 40 percent of GDP.
Ruf, ole buddy, I don't really care if you look at it or not. One can't speak of low revenue as a % of GDP, with out addressing the thru the roof spending as a % of the GDP. Revelancy is a state of mind.
Gag, ol buddy, it is of no interest to someone who lives in Ms, or Az, or Mo if California, or New Jersey spends a lot of money. It is U.S. Spending that affects us.
I put up the correct numbers for U.S. Spending. (and, gave you a "clickable" link, to boot.)
Bob Woodward says Obama is showing a "kind of madness" in his attitude towards things as of late. I suspect "O" will be taking up the fiddle soon, playing in the Rose Garden wearing a Toga and olive wreath?
If, doug, I was at the old tower of power, hardwired to the web I would get that for you. But I am not. You can find the reference yourself if you try.
As for Federal expeditures, I think rufus right.
Now I'd support cutting spending, freezing spending or any other option to get Federal expeditures to 20% and revenue to 18 or 19%
As for unemployment, what would it have been without those deficit trillions of USD flowing through the economy?
which is not to say that 8% unemployment is good, but it is better than many here projected it to be. Better than it may well have been without those Federal deficits.
the Deficit is in line to drop to 2.4% of GDP in 2015. That is, basically, where we want to be. (we tend to get good growth, and low inflation at around 2.0% to 2.5% deficit to gdp ratios.)
Doug, old boy, you are fixated on the butt and what comes out of it... like big time. What's up with that? One would think you get a kick out of that stuff. If so, I think you are in the wrong place.
You see before you now the new, kinder, gentler, Quirk. In tune with the new venue's more civilized rules and my wife's admonition to 'lighten up', I merely play the Fool on the Hill offering wisdom to those who will not hear.
As such, I try to minimize detailed comments on things I have said here (or rather there) a thousand times before, in this instance for example, you and your 'use' of statistics. If, to date, you have learned nothing from past episodes in past lives on past blogs you never will.
wildflowers the early spring sunshine in my hand
I am immutable yet transcendent, untouched by petty, mundane, mewlings; however, I must admit that I really liked that proctologist comment, Doug.
Surely, Ash recognizes that yours was merely poetic allusion.
As we've been told many times before on a blog far, far away by a blogger now far, far away himself, like the proverbial camel through a needle's eye, it is almost impossible to get something even as small as the point of a stick up the anus, much less a head, and even less so, a big head.
anal references are what they are and I don't want to be anal about it but, heck, all of doug's detailed blabbing upthread about Steamers coupled with his constant anal references leads one to the impression that the guy really is into all things anal including being sexually aroused by it all....
‘You can’t go wrong buying these, because they are really a U.S. government credit, but they pay you a higher yield! So you get more profit with no credit risk!’
Over the last four decades, the U.S. government has engaged in a financial experiment, or adventure, of exploding agency debt relative to Treasury securities.
I luv the way Rufus and BHO promise Free Everything, and then add that the cost is zero, because they are not legally liable for the debts that "free" things incur.
Free Houses! ...the result was to have been a mere ripple in the pond, according to Ruf...
It is not the numbers. It is the interpretation. It is the starting point we choose. It's the obvious we ignore. We have travelled this road before you and I but in opposite directions. I feel you are beyond redemption, yet I still hope.
For you, that article is black and white. Not so for me. To argue against photo - id's to vote, not just tenditious, but based in corruption. Register and vote here, there and everywhere. Early and often. It's a Democrat imperative, not a right.
Who comes up with these terms? Fiscal cliff, sequester?
ReplyDeleteHow about "work ethic", "living within your means", "self sufficiency", "frugality"?
“The Great Sequester" amounts to 1% of nominal US GDP, 1% of total US public debt, 3.5% of the Fed's balance sheet or a mere 7% of the annual deficit. http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-02-25/behold-horror-sequester-context
TERRIFYING!!!!!
What a testament to the sad, supine shape of today's flabby, debt-driven U.S.consumer "economy".America is a socialist country by default as over half of the population is fed, housed, employed, or otherwise supported by the government.
This whole lurching from one manufactured crisis to another simply points out how fundamentally dysfunctional our system is. The question really is whether the system is capable of "reform" or needs to be completely scrapped.
The country (collectively and individually)has been living beyond its means for a long time now. The credit racket spiraled out of control and the house of cards tumbled. The credit system needs to be scrapped. If that means moral hazard, so be it. We need a reset.
DeleteThe way to fix D.C. is to starve it. Take away the money and the crooks will leave. Devolution!
The last time there was a budget was before the I-Pad was on the market.
ReplyDelete"Who comes up with these terms? Fiscal cliff, sequester?"
ReplyDelete---
Professionals, you are not qualified to judge.
Good-Buy, Jesse Jackson Jr.
ReplyDeleteWe’ve spent all weekend trying to wrap our head around why anyone, particularly a public official, would knowingly siphon work-related funds to satisfy personal fetishes.
To be fair, former Rep. Jesse L. Jackson Jr., D-Ill., has copped to being exhausted/bipolar/depressed since dropping from view last summer. But, as became apparent with the filing of an official plea deal Feb. 15 — a mea culpa acknowledging Jackson and his wife, Sandi, illegally directed about $750,000 in campaign funds during the past decade for personal expenses — Jackson has clearly been out of his mind for quite some time.
Some of his mind-boggling splurges include:
•$43,000 for a gold Rolex;
•$27,000 for Michael Jackson memorabilia, including a $4,600 fedora;
•$10,000 for Bruce Lee collectibles;
•$5,000 for a football signed by “American presidents.”
While we never condone embezzling, Jackson could have at least saved a few bucks on his road to professional ruin.
For instance, who wouldn’t be proud to display this virgin golf ball signed by former President Gerald Ford?
.
DeleteDuring his million dollar golf weekend with Tiger Woods, it cost us $18,000 for the Big O to get a golf lesson from Tiger Wood's old coach.
Nuff said? Maybe not.
Of course, it was President's Day weekend and he deserved a break from the wife and kids.
He sent them off on their annual President's Day ski trip.
.
"Never let a Crisis go to Waste:"
ReplyDeleteeggs danny thomas style:
An act similar to the cleavland steamer. This variation on it requires the man to lay under a glass table while the woman deficates on the glass above the mans chest. This was allegedly started by danny thomas when, after having sex with a prostitute, he requested that she deficate on a glass table while he layed under it and watched.
===
John: Hey betty, how about you give me a cleavland steamer?
Betty: How about eggs danny thomas style instead?
john: That works too.
===
1.
cleavland steamer
Also known as the Pasadena mudslide, California hot plate, or simply the "steamer", this term commonly involves some variation on the act of defecating on a chest of a lover as a means of revenge.
After hearing that her boyfriend had been cheating on her, Nancy gave him the cleveland steamer while he slept and left with his car.
2.
cleavland steamer
When after having engaged in intercourse the male or female lets his/her partner fall asleep. Then he/she takes a crap on his/her chest and run away
"I gave Carrie the old cleavland steamer so I didnt think she would be calling again"
Danny Trejo & His 1952 Chevy Truck
ReplyDeleteTrejo spent much of the 1960s in California prisons--Tracy (1963-1965), San Quentin (1965-1968), Soledad (1968-1969).
A scarred face, a long, thin moustache, and a muscular body with large tattoos render Trejo one of the most distinctive character actors of our time.
Has two sons: Danny Boy (b. 1981) from an earlier marriage, Gilbert Trejo (b. 1988) and one daughter Danielle Trejo (b. 1990).
He is one of the most prolific of American actors, having usually done at least 4 films a year since the 1990s. In 2002 alone, he did 9 films.
His character's name in Heat (1995) was Trejo.
Is the only actor to appear in all three of the From Dusk Till Dawn movie series.
Trejo spent much of the 1960s in California prisons--Tracy (1963-1965), San Quentin (1965-1968), Soledad (1968-1969).
He and director Robert Rodriguez are second cousins.
His characters in the films of Robert Rodriguez are usually named after knives: Desperado (1995) (Navajas), the From Dusk Till Dawn trilogy (Razor Charlie), the Spy Kids movies (Machete), the Grindhouse (2007) trailer (Machete), Predators (2010) (Cuchillo), Machete (2010) (Machete again). Only in Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003) (Cucuy) is this not the case.
He named his five favorite films as The Searchers (1956), Death Wish (1974), Animal Factory (2000), Dirty Harry (1971) and Once Upon a Time in the West (1968).
Was considered for the role of Det. Rey Curtis on "Law & Order" (1990).
Inducted into the Texas Film Hall of Fame on March 8, 2012 in Austin, Tx.
""He named his five favorite films as The Searchers (1956), Death Wish (1974), Animal Factory (2000), Dirty Harry (1971) and Once Upon a Time in the West (1968).
ReplyDelete---
Dire Straits
- Once Upon A Time In The West
Bob (Robert Casey, US Senator PA, D) sent me an email:
ReplyDeleteDear Friends,
As you may know, sequestration is scheduled to go into effect at the end of the week. Leading economists have warned of the damaging impact these across the board cuts will have on job creation and our economy. Allowing these indiscriminate cuts to wreak havoc is inexcusable when there is an alternative. The American people deserve a balanced and reasonable approach that will cut spending, sustain the economy and protect middle class families.
Like most households, we have to make tough but smart decisions about our finances. Republicans and Democrats need to come together in a responsible way to cut spending, sustain the economy and protect the middle class.
Outlined below are several examples of how sequestration would impact our commonwealth:
Overall Impact of Sequester On Jobs
Job losses due to DOD cuts: 39,941
Job losses due to non-DOD cuts: 38,513
Total Job losses due to sequestration: 78,454 in PA in FY’12/FY’13 [George Mason University Study 7/17/12/]
Military Furloughs: In Pennsylvania, approximately 26,000 civilian Department of Defense employees would be furloughed, reducing gross pay by around $150.1 million in total. [WH 2/24/13]
Army: Base operation funding would be cut by about $7 million in Pennsylvania. [WH 2/24/13]
Teachers: Pennsylvania will lose approximately $26.4 million in funding for primary and secondary education, putting around 360 teacher and aide jobs at risk. In addition about 29,000 fewer students would be served and approximately 90 fewer schools would receive funding. [WH 2/24/13]
Work-Study Jobs: Around 3,160 fewer low income students in Pennsylvania would receive aid to help them finance the costs of college and around 2,290 fewer students will get work-study jobs that help them pay for college. [WH 2/24/13]
Job Search Assistance to Help those in Pennsylvania find Employment and Training: Pennsylvania will lose about $866,000 in funding for job search assistance, referral, and placement, meaning around 36,860 fewer people will get the help and skills they need to find employment. [WH 2/24/13]
Sincerely,
Bob
This is your brain on sequester
ReplyDeleteBy Matt Miller, Wednesday, February 27, 8:22 AM
If only the president’s $3 billion initiative to map human brain activity had been completed by now, we might have the tools to make sense of the carnival that pre-sequester Washington has become. Alas, since the science won’t be in for years, we can only hypothesize about what corner of the neocortex is driving our leaders’ behavior as this latest fiscal precipice draws near.
The first critical but virtually undiscussed question is what portion of the president’s brain (or brain trust) led him to extend 82 percent of the Bush tax cuts on Jan. 1. Recall that even as the sequester was kicked down the road then, President Obama could have let all the Bush tax cuts expire before coming back with big-sounding tax cuts of his own – tax cuts that would have involved far smaller revenue losses over time than had Bush’s.
Even if Republicans grumbled at first (and secretly prayed for the economy to tank), they would in short order have supported those new tax cuts. When the dust cleared we’d have lifted revenue closer to what’s required for our aging population.
Instead, after Democrats spent a decade griping that the Bush tax cuts were a boon only for “the rich,” they decided that Bush had in fact been correct all along in claiming they benefited everyone. {…}
{…}
ReplyDeleteScientists will also have their work cut out decoding the president’s split brain on defense. The president leads the party that rightly argues we should shrink the Pentagon to something more like a triangle as part of a broader plan of nation-building at home (a position interestingly held by some rising military officers as well). Yet Tuesday he went to a shipyard to argue yet again that a roughly 8 percent trim after military spending doubled in the last decade would be devastating. Huh?
The GOP’s confusion and denial are, if anything, more profound. Even as their attacks on government in the abstract remain as shrill as ever, big-name Republican governors are admitting that Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion (while imperfect) promises too much health security for too many of their struggling constituents to be spurned out of ideological pique. Again, purely as a matter of science, it would be great to know how Florida Gov. Rick Scott’s and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s brains manage to order their mouths to rail against the feds while instructing their hands to pocket the cash.
The more comical GOP brain burp can be seen in the overdue effort by conservative thinkers to craft an agenda that might help average Americans improve their lives. The president is usually the one mocked as remote and Spock-like, but it’s Republican politicians now who seem mysteriously robotic and disengaged. “Hmmm,” Republican officials seem to be saying, as their policy wonks serve up relevant new ideas, “these humans apparently crave opportunity and security. Most interesting...”
The workings of the brain may be more than a $3 billion question, so the president should be forgiven if he first greenlights the grants that help us penetrate the Republican mind. Still, taking the broadest point of view (not to mention the citizen’s), this sequester spectacle is disturbing. The ability to reason, and thus ultimately to cooperate, was supposed to be the thing that distinguishes us from the rest of the animal kingdom. That, and the opposable thumb. The more our endless fiscal cliff rolls on, the more truly unique that thumb is looking – and the more intent Washington appears on proving that the ascent of man is bunk.
The opposable thumb has been reduced to a tool for anal rape.
Delete...with malice, aforethought.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete(The Previous comment was an Ad Hominem, but NOT Toward a poster on this site.)
ReplyDelete...I beg your indulgence.
And it was still deleted. Think.
DeleteDoug
Delete...dials in the Parameters.
Doug, please, take a nap, please.....
ReplyDeleteSend me some Mexican Meds, I'm outta control, Gag.
Delete"...authorize Obama to choose where to chop and where to trim."
ReplyDeleteGood idea. Let's just give him total control of the country.
What could go wrong?
DeleteA Republican proposal to increase Presidential authority.
DeleteThe GOP just loves the Imperial Presidency.
Makes no matter to the Federal Socialists which "Party" they belong to, or which holds the White House, they still strive to increase the authority of the President, rather than doing their own jobs, as legislators.
I like the idea of 'across the board' spending cuts. Everything should be up for review.
ReplyDeleteThe demand siders will howl and they may be right but four years of deficits haven't done much good.
They've done a hell of a lot to speed the US Dollar as the global currency to oblivion.
DeleteTo be replaced by what, doug?
DeleteThere is no currency "In the Wings" to replace the USD as the reserve currency of global trade.
Certainly not the Euro, Lira or Mexican Peso.
The Yen, maybe that'll do it?
The deficits have kept the stock market and unemployment stable.
ReplyDeleteIn fact the stock market has fully recovered from the crisis.
401K's across the country have recovered.
Goldman Sachs is doing just fine.
The deficits have accomplished their primary mission.
The US still directly controls 25% of the global economy.
We have been running cash flow deficits since WJ Clinton left office, not a balanced cash flow budget on the books, since the Clinton's left the White House, 12 years ago.
Before that he US had been running deficits since LBJ.
Lots of "Good" has been done, since then.
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteFederal revenue, as apercentage of GDP has never been lower, in the past 60 years.
ReplyDeleteIf one is looking for the "Cause" of the Obama deficits, there it is.
The tax code is in serious need of reform, to increase revenue but that is not going to be forth coming from our representatives in DC...
They will continue to allow global corporations to hollow out US industry, using our "Free Trade" tax code as the mechanism of the destruction.
And Spending, as a percentage of the GDP has never been higher, ever, except during WWII.
DeleteGovernment spending at the start of the 20th century was less than 7 percent of GDP. It vaulted to almost 30 percent of GDP by the end of World War I, and then settled down to 10 percent of GDP in the 1920s. In the 1930s spending doubled to 20 percent of GDP. Defense spending in World War II drove overall government spending over 50 percent of GDP before declining to 22 percent of GDP in the late 1940s. The 1950s began a steady spending increase to about 36 percent of GDP by 1982. In the 1990s and 2000s government spending stayed about constant at 33-35 percent of GDP, but in the aftermath of the Crash of 2008 spending has jogged up to 40 percent of GDP.
Gag, you must be looking at State, Local, And Federal Spending with those numbers.
DeleteFederal Spending reached a high of a bit over 25% of GDP in 2009, and is now down to approx 22% of GDP.
I don't think so but so what?
DeleteWww.usgovernmentspending.com
Here's the relevent info from the CBO:
DeleteCBO Report
Make that a "clickable" link, and I'll look at it.
DeleteRuf, ole buddy, I don't really care if you look at it or not. One can't speak of low revenue as a % of GDP, with out addressing the thru the roof spending as a % of the GDP. Revelancy is a state of mind.
DeleteGag, ol buddy, it is of no interest to someone who lives in Ms, or Az, or Mo if California, or New Jersey spends a lot of money. It is U.S. Spending that affects us.
DeleteI put up the correct numbers for U.S. Spending. (and, gave you a "clickable" link, to boot.)
"Federal revenue, as apercentage of GDP has never been lower, in the past 60 years"
ReplyDelete---
We await your link.
"They will continue to allow global corporations to hollow out US industry, using our "Free Trade" tax code as the mechanism of the destruction.>"
ReplyDelete---
Agreed.
But we do NOT Need more "revenue" for the Feds!
ie - this is the LIBERTARIAN Blog,
NOT totalitarian
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete"The deficits have kept the stock market and unemployment stable.
ReplyDelete"
---
Yeah, like Freddie Mac and Fannie kept the housing market "stable."
Dumb A..
The deficits have kept the stock market and unemployment stable.
"
---
Yeah, 8 percent, the new normal,
FOURTEEN PERCENT FOR BLACKS!
Bob Woodward says Obama is showing a "kind of madness" in his attitude towards things as of late. I suspect "O" will be taking up the fiddle soon, playing in the Rose Garden wearing a Toga and olive wreath?
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure it's not Bob Woodward that's going "kind of mad."
DeleteIf, doug, I was at the old tower of power, hardwired to the web I would get that for you. But I am not. You can find the reference yourself if you try.
ReplyDeleteAs for Federal expeditures, I think rufus right.
Now I'd support cutting spending, freezing spending or any other option to get Federal expeditures to 20% and revenue to 18 or 19%
As for unemployment, what would it have been without those deficit trillions of USD flowing through the economy?
ReplyDeletewhich is not to say that 8% unemployment is good, but it is better than many here projected it to be. Better than it may well have been without those Federal deficits.
As Rumsfeld would say ...
An Unknowable.
As per my CBO link
ReplyDeleteCBO Link
the Deficit is in line to drop to 2.4% of GDP in 2015. That is, basically, where we want to be. (we tend to get good growth, and low inflation at around 2.0% to 2.5% deficit to gdp ratios.)
Don't feel bad. Only 6% of the population realizes that the deficit is shrinking, not growing - and shrinking pretty damned fast, too.
DeleteSpending for the first 4 months of fiscal year 2011 was $1,177,106,000,000.00
DeleteTreasury Statement for Jan. 2011
Spending for the first 4 months of the 2013 fiscal year is $1,178,193,000,000.00
Treasury Statement for Jan. 2013
an increase of 1 out of 1177 - too small to calculate, basically.
1,000,000,000.00
Deleteone thousand million dollars.
only a democrat could characterize that as "too small to calculate"
0.000849
DeleteThere
Happy?
So, yeah; "calculate" was the wrong phraseology. The math is easy.
DeleteBut, it Is false precision.
.
ReplyDeleteA truism.
Some people should not be allowed to play with statistics. They don't understand them and don't know how to handle them.
The same applies to guns.
.
Why don't you 'splain them to me, then.
DeleteHe's a blog commenter, not a proctologist.
DeleteSomeone else will have to remove your head from your anus.
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteDoug, old boy, you are fixated on the butt and what comes out of it... like big time. What's up with that? One would think you get a kick out of that stuff. If so, I think you are in the wrong place.
Delete.
Deletesplain?
You see before you now the new, kinder, gentler, Quirk. In tune with the new venue's more civilized rules and my wife's admonition to 'lighten up', I merely play the Fool on the Hill offering wisdom to those who will not hear.
As such, I try to minimize detailed comments on things I have said here (or rather there) a thousand times before, in this instance for example, you and your 'use' of statistics. If, to date, you have learned nothing from past episodes in past lives on past blogs you never will.
wildflowers
the early spring sunshine
in my hand
I am immutable yet transcendent, untouched by petty, mundane, mewlings; however, I must admit that I really liked that proctologist comment, Doug.
.
I am gratified from my head to that region that Ash requests should not be mentioned.
DeleteNo worries, Q. Some on this blog (and their savior, Obama) have always denied the US has a spending problem. Fiddle away!
Delete.
DeleteNot to worry, Doug.
Surely, Ash recognizes that yours was merely poetic allusion.
As we've been told many times before on a blog far, far away by a blogger now far, far away himself, like the proverbial camel through a needle's eye, it is almost impossible to get something even as small as the point of a stick up the anus, much less a head, and even less so, a big head.
.
.
Delete.
Big?
Perhaps I stretch the limits of civility. I am still learning.
It is a journey.
the road moves west
illusion drops as rain
the passage narrows
.
anal references are what they are and I don't want to be anal about it but, heck, all of doug's detailed blabbing upthread about Steamers coupled with his constant anal references leads one to the impression that the guy really is into all things anal including being sexually aroused by it all....
Delete...*shudder* yuuuck!
.
Deletethe couch beckons,
the plum is dissected,
I spit out the pit.
.
...not that there's anything wrong w/that.
DeleteRight?
...butt still.
Deletebeing a butt boy is one thing (gay or straight) but into shit?
DeleteThat's the source of shudder for me. blech!
.
Deletea line is drawn,
perversity is encircled with nausea,
pc (of sorts) lives.
.
The Government’s Four-Decade Financial Experiment
ReplyDelete‘You can’t go wrong buying these, because they are really a U.S. government credit, but they pay you a higher yield! So you get more profit with no credit risk!’
Over the last four decades, the U.S. government has engaged in a financial experiment, or adventure, of exploding agency debt relative to Treasury securities.
Graph
I luv the way Rufus and BHO promise Free Everything, and then add that the cost is zero, because they are not legally liable for the debts that "free" things incur.
ReplyDeleteFree Houses!
...the result was to have been a mere ripple in the pond, according to Ruf...
For Ash:
ReplyDeleteRufnether Regions.
(The area between a person's(male and female) legs; the crotch, the groin, the area where reproduction and the removal of bodily wastes occurs.)
Brazillian Butt
ReplyDeleteAss and leg is great - shit not!
Delete.
DeleteShit not, lest ye be shit!
.
Know Shit?
ReplyDeleteSo, Q; in other words, you got shit. No comment on why the CBO, and the Treasury Dept is wrong. Just anal renderings.
ReplyDeleteOratory is a hoot - until someone posts the numbers. Right?
What is it about anal renderings that is wrong?
DeleteIs a link to Uranus Verbotten?
Is 14% unemployment a civil right?
.
DeleteIt is not the numbers. It is the interpretation. It is the starting point we choose. It's the obvious we ignore. We have travelled this road before you and I but in opposite directions. I feel you are beyond redemption, yet I still hope.
the alpha and omega,
which really comes first,
to what end?
.
My "interpretation" is that the Deficit is declining. Where am I going wrong?
Delete.
DeleteThis has all been explained to you many times before, grasshopper, in a past blog; yet you refuse to learn.
You are not ready.
the cabbage blooms in the field,
the grasshopper eats to gluttony,
he does not grow.
.
"A Perpetuation of Racial Entitlement."
ReplyDeleteAntonin Scalia
referring to the Voting Rights Act.
The Right to Vote.
ReplyDeletean entitlement.
Gee, no link, what a surprise.
Deleteesp after recently scolding someone for same.
Pouting that you would therefore not pursue the point.
You need a link to support the contention that all races, even *gasp* black ones, are entitled to vote?
DeleteLink
DeleteThere is a huge difference between a "Right," and an "entitlement."
DeleteAn "entitlement" is conferred by Statute. A "Right" is straight from the Constitution.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
DeleteSo far in the last two days you have called me an asshole, a crotch, and accused me of "sucking Obama's ass."
DeleteOne of us is going to be gone soon, son.
and since there is no God there are no rights
DeleteFor you, that article is black and white.
DeleteNot so for me.
To argue against photo - id's to vote, not just tenditious, but based in corruption.
Register and vote here, there and everywhere.
Early and often.
It's a Democrat imperative, not a right.
I'll stick with the 15th Amendment.
DeleteRufus again on his campaign against free speech.
Delete...if it injures his tender sensibilities.
Censorius Bast...
naw, you are just being an asshole.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Delete.
Deletewords, words, words,
I'll know it when I see it,
hmmmn.
.
The case of the kid registering as Eric Holder is well documented.
ReplyDeleteHas nothing to do with a Supreme Court Justice referring to the Right to Vote as a "Racial Entitlement."
DeleteYes, Scalia is a stupid as you are.
DeleteHow did I miss that?
"as"
Deletenot a..
DeleteThe comment that was removed was not vulgar, contained no profanity or body parts, and did not cast aspersions on anyone.
ReplyDeleteKeep it up Rufus, you're making progress!
I guess calling someone an ass is not quite as bad as accusing them of "sucking Obama's ass," but you've gotta start somewhere.
DeleteStill on your campaign against Orange And Green Snowcones, huh?
DeleteSoon Deuce will explain why it's fine for Ash and Rufus to type "A.."
ReplyDeleteBut not for me or WIO.
No, he won't. I've called people assholes, but I don't remember the last time, if ever, that I wrote a..
DeleteHello, i think that i saw you visited my weblog thus
ReplyDeletei came to return the favor?.I am attempting to to find issues to enhance my website!
I assume its ok to use a few of your ideas!!
Feel free to visit my site; vexxhost surveys