the snake oil salesmen
First, how about a little music? Of course, other than the title, the music has little to do with the post.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqwnLDdu11Q
Now down to brass tax.
As I write this, the government has run out of money. Again. It is likely, however, that something will get done tonight or tomorrow, to keep things running. Why are we here again?
Look, this problem is bipartisan, there is no question. GOP wants to blow money on the military, the Democrats want to blow money on the bureaucracy, in the name of the poor.
If our military is so bad off as we hear, we need to disengage from these wasted wars completely. Completely. Of course, we need to do that anyway, as all of these actions are not constitutional. And that many on the right have no problem excusing that when a Republican is running the White House, had tremendous problems with it when President Obama was in charge. Well, not Graham and McCain, they are for war, period. Eisenhower warned of the "military industrial complex". he cut the military's budgets while President, maintaining that we had the ability to kill all the Russians, so why did we need to be able to do it 100 times over? An ongoing audit, THE FIRST EVER for the Pentagon, has found over $800,000,000 in accounted spending in the CONSTRUCTION budget alone. How many more billions will turn up lost or wasted? Or trillions?
Okay, Mr. Progressive Democrat. Stop laughing. Can we talk? Your guy Durbin whined on the Senate Floor during this showdown theater, that he longed for the days when appropriations bills were passed, and we had actual budget and spending bills. So, Dick, let me ask you this? Did you know that the House has passed its spending bills under regular order back in the fall? Where are they? Languishing in the Senate. Why is that? Well, if I had to guess, I would have to say that the minority party has dropped the F-bomb on McConnell.
If a Senator wants to filibuster, they need to get out on the senate floor and hold it. None of this "we are going to filibuster that, move on" crap. Make them hold the floor. There was a reason that in the old days they were few and far between. They ain't easy. At this point, I would say to toss it. I guarantee you that WHEN the Democrats control the senate and White House, it will be gone. Period. And it needs to be gone. I will argue, the same, by the way, when the Democrats have the majority. Which they will. The party that the electorate has put into power should have the ability to get legislation through. In fact, I would venture that the need to get 60 votes is why every law passed is crap.
Take the recent Tax Law. if a majority only was needed for the Senate, real reform could have been enacted.
Remember when President Reagan said that saying Democrats spend money like drunken sailors is an insult to drunken sailors? Well, as more proof that both parties are two sides of the same coin, The GOP can spend nearly as well as Democrats.
Look. I had no problem with them "allowing" an increase in deficit spending to "pay" for tax cuts. Why? Because it is OUR MONEY! You don't have to PAY for allowing me to keep more of my money! Holding the military hostage for bogus domestic spending should be a crime. Besides, if the economy is doing well, why the freak are we increasing payouts on the societal safety net? And, by the way. As much as we get ripped off for military spending, it pales in comparison to the rip off in the welfare payments. What kind of rip off? Turning needs based assistance into dollars, (Medicaid, Food stamps, section 8, cash payments, etc.) the recipient collects 15 cents out of every dollar "spent" The rest is admin costs. That is Clinton Foundation territory there. To compare, we are told that a non-profit is efficient when it has a maximum of 15 percent admin cost. The inverse of the government. No more needs to be said.
The parties are the snake oil salesmen. They go to their base and say Military! or Welfare! and then they shake hands, meet for dinner, and we get the check.
All the while, while we are talking about potentially trillion dollar deficits, we are ignoring the trillions in unfunded liabilities for pensions, Medicare, and Social Security. None of which are considered entitlements, but are definitely non-discretionary spending. The unfunded liability for Medicare and Social Security alone is 4-5 times the current National Debt of $20,000,000,000,000. If a few years, the federal government will be paying out Medicare, and Social Security, and NOTHING ELSE! (okay, servicing the debt at MUCH higher interest rates) No roads, no military, no arts, sciences, education, just Medicare and Social Security. (and interest on debt)
Update:
They passed the bill, confirming all of the above. Here is the deal. This free spending has been made possible by unnaturally low interest rates. We are seeing that those days may be over. It is one thing to borrow for necessities, but borrowing for luxuries, (and paying people to not work is a luxury). The Fed has to move to raise rates, and we could easily end up being Venezuela, or Greece, or any other debt ridden nations unable to pay. Servicing the debt is one of the largest items in the federal budget. If rates go up just a little it will be the largest. Then what? Inflation in Venezuela right now is reported to be 4000%. Think about that. Could it happen here? Conservatives tried to filibuster this monstrosity. Republicans and Democrats voted to stop it. See? Two sides of the same coin.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqwnLDdu11Q
Now down to brass tax.
As I write this, the government has run out of money. Again. It is likely, however, that something will get done tonight or tomorrow, to keep things running. Why are we here again?
Look, this problem is bipartisan, there is no question. GOP wants to blow money on the military, the Democrats want to blow money on the bureaucracy, in the name of the poor.
If our military is so bad off as we hear, we need to disengage from these wasted wars completely. Completely. Of course, we need to do that anyway, as all of these actions are not constitutional. And that many on the right have no problem excusing that when a Republican is running the White House, had tremendous problems with it when President Obama was in charge. Well, not Graham and McCain, they are for war, period. Eisenhower warned of the "military industrial complex". he cut the military's budgets while President, maintaining that we had the ability to kill all the Russians, so why did we need to be able to do it 100 times over? An ongoing audit, THE FIRST EVER for the Pentagon, has found over $800,000,000 in accounted spending in the CONSTRUCTION budget alone. How many more billions will turn up lost or wasted? Or trillions?
Okay, Mr. Progressive Democrat. Stop laughing. Can we talk? Your guy Durbin whined on the Senate Floor during this showdown theater, that he longed for the days when appropriations bills were passed, and we had actual budget and spending bills. So, Dick, let me ask you this? Did you know that the House has passed its spending bills under regular order back in the fall? Where are they? Languishing in the Senate. Why is that? Well, if I had to guess, I would have to say that the minority party has dropped the F-bomb on McConnell.
If a Senator wants to filibuster, they need to get out on the senate floor and hold it. None of this "we are going to filibuster that, move on" crap. Make them hold the floor. There was a reason that in the old days they were few and far between. They ain't easy. At this point, I would say to toss it. I guarantee you that WHEN the Democrats control the senate and White House, it will be gone. Period. And it needs to be gone. I will argue, the same, by the way, when the Democrats have the majority. Which they will. The party that the electorate has put into power should have the ability to get legislation through. In fact, I would venture that the need to get 60 votes is why every law passed is crap.
Take the recent Tax Law. if a majority only was needed for the Senate, real reform could have been enacted.
Remember when President Reagan said that saying Democrats spend money like drunken sailors is an insult to drunken sailors? Well, as more proof that both parties are two sides of the same coin, The GOP can spend nearly as well as Democrats.
Look. I had no problem with them "allowing" an increase in deficit spending to "pay" for tax cuts. Why? Because it is OUR MONEY! You don't have to PAY for allowing me to keep more of my money! Holding the military hostage for bogus domestic spending should be a crime. Besides, if the economy is doing well, why the freak are we increasing payouts on the societal safety net? And, by the way. As much as we get ripped off for military spending, it pales in comparison to the rip off in the welfare payments. What kind of rip off? Turning needs based assistance into dollars, (Medicaid, Food stamps, section 8, cash payments, etc.) the recipient collects 15 cents out of every dollar "spent" The rest is admin costs. That is Clinton Foundation territory there. To compare, we are told that a non-profit is efficient when it has a maximum of 15 percent admin cost. The inverse of the government. No more needs to be said.
The parties are the snake oil salesmen. They go to their base and say Military! or Welfare! and then they shake hands, meet for dinner, and we get the check.
All the while, while we are talking about potentially trillion dollar deficits, we are ignoring the trillions in unfunded liabilities for pensions, Medicare, and Social Security. None of which are considered entitlements, but are definitely non-discretionary spending. The unfunded liability for Medicare and Social Security alone is 4-5 times the current National Debt of $20,000,000,000,000. If a few years, the federal government will be paying out Medicare, and Social Security, and NOTHING ELSE! (okay, servicing the debt at MUCH higher interest rates) No roads, no military, no arts, sciences, education, just Medicare and Social Security. (and interest on debt)
Update:
They passed the bill, confirming all of the above. Here is the deal. This free spending has been made possible by unnaturally low interest rates. We are seeing that those days may be over. It is one thing to borrow for necessities, but borrowing for luxuries, (and paying people to not work is a luxury). The Fed has to move to raise rates, and we could easily end up being Venezuela, or Greece, or any other debt ridden nations unable to pay. Servicing the debt is one of the largest items in the federal budget. If rates go up just a little it will be the largest. Then what? Inflation in Venezuela right now is reported to be 4000%. Think about that. Could it happen here? Conservatives tried to filibuster this monstrosity. Republicans and Democrats voted to stop it. See? Two sides of the same coin.
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