The first step is admitting you have a problem. That is the foundation of all recovery programs.
We have a problem.
We spend money like Michelle Obama on taxpayer-funded vacation. Even worse, forty cents out of every dollar we spend is going on our national credit card. We’re up to our eyeboobs in debt.
Here’s an example of how we spend money:
Watchdog sees pork in Sandy relief bill
As Congress takes up the second slice of relief money for Superstorm Sandy, the influential Club for Growth said Monday it will seek to punish the lawmakers who support the $51 billion package because it includes wasteful spending and pork that have nothing to do with reconstruction efforts in the Northeast.
The dueling messages underscore the divisions within Republicans ranks over the relief package — a $17 billion bill and $34 billion amendment —- that the House is expected to vote on this week.
Earlier this month, Congress approved a $9 billion relief package to fund the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s flood insurance program.
But Mr. Christie, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, and other elected leaders from the Northeast — and both sides of the political aisle — have been waiting on Congress to approve more emergency funding and harshly criticized the delay.
The funding was expected to be voted on two weeks ago, but House Speaker John A. Boehner, Ohio Republican, changed gears and pulled a proposal after Republican lawmakers raised questions about some of the spending that was unrelated to the relief efforts.
Still, the Club for Growth and other budget watchdogs, such as Taxpayers for Common Sense, say the $51 billion package that Congress is expected to consider this week also includes millions of dollars for Amtrak upgrades, FBI salaries and road projects in states not affected by the storm.
[…]
In a letter to lawmakers on Monday, Andy Roth, the Club for Growth’s vice president of government affairs, said lawmakers should oppose the Sandy relief package — a $17 billion bill and $34 billion amendment — that Congress is expected to take up this week and said disaster relief legislation should be offset with spending cuts elsewhere and not larded up with what the groups calls pork projects.
[…]
“Congress shouldn’t keep passing massive ‘emergency’ relief bills that aren’t paid for, have little oversight, and are stuffed with pork,” Mr. Roth said. “Also, Congress shouldn’t use disasters like Hurricane Sandy as an excuse to spend billions on long-term projects that should be considered during the regular appropriations process.”
$17 billion in aid and $34 billion in pork. That’s how you end up OVER $16 TRILLION in debt.
Denial is not a township in Ohio. Whenever someone on the right tries to discuss our spending problem, someone on the left inevitably responds with something like this:
Republicans didn’t give a damn about the debt during Dubya’s presidency. Or Poppy’s. Or Reagan’s. And it was always pretty clear that Romney didn’t care about the deficit except insofar as he could use it as an excuse to destroy entitlements.
Personally, I blame The Gipper for starting this mess. He promised to cut taxes and spending but only cut taxes. So the debt started piling up. It kept piling up under Reagan, Bush, Bush II and now Bush III. The Clinton years (but not all of them) were the only time we were “in the black” on spending.
Classic Keynesian economics calls for deficit spending (going in debt) by government in times of fiscal slowdown to stimulate the economy. I’m not going to debate the efficacy of that policy on the economy except to say that correlation is not causation.
But Keynesian theory does not call for deficit spending during good economic times. Quite the opposite in fact – the good times is when you’re supposed to pay back the money you borrowed.
But it really doesn’t matter who ran up the debt or what we spent it on. What matters is the fact that we are now OVER $16 TRILLION IN DEBT. Whether we spent it wisely or foolishly irrelevant. We spent it and now we have to figure out how to pay it back. We need to fix the problem, not the blame.
We are in a deep hole, and the First Rule Of Holes is “When you’re in one, stop digging”. The Keynesians out there would tell us that this is the wrong time to stop digging, but they’re kinda vague as to when the right time will be.
As it’s a sure bet that when the economy finally turns around (and it will eventually) we’ll hear cries for tax cuts and increased spending under the theory that “now we can afford it.”
Great po … mmm bacon 🙂
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/01/15/FBI-Busts-Corruption-at-FEMA-Guilty-Plea-Results
things like this do not help.
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2013/01/want-to-preserve-your-childrens-future-slow-the-growth-of-welfare-spending.php
here is one place that needs a lot of work. welfare is not supposed to be permanent.
Or passed down from generation to generation along with the family chinet. 😯
We couldn’t afford them fancy paper plates.
AOSHQ:
http://freebeacon.com/green-ball-slashes-prices-to-attend/
well they are cutting prices
corporate welfare has to be looked into. too much well it does not matter if they do a good job and have cost overruns, they contributed to my campaign I owe them. do not know if we will ever get rid of that thinking in government but it cost the taxpayers billions.
look at the money wasted on the green companies
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/jan/16/obama-using-gun-issue-advance-health-law/
look how the will intrude on your life
sorry meant this to reply to Mary
Apparently, the President doesn’t have enough Democratic votes in the Senate to pass what he wanted, including assault weapons ban, which is why he moved to EO’s instead.
Democratic Senators.
And he’ll never get past the HIPA laws re mental health.
ACLU et al will fight it tooth and nail.
23 Executive orders. 23.
And not a one of them would have stopped Newtown.
My favorite: 7. Launch a national safe and responsible gun ownership campaign.
IOW, promote gun ownership. Score.
Also: 23. Launch a national dialogue led by Secretaries Sebelius and Duncan on mental health.
That’s going to drive people nuts.
Thanks for posting that. I was just coming back to correct myself—apparently these are executive “actions,” not “orders,” and are basically just recommendations to Congress.
Leahy says his committee in the Senate will start hearings to craft legislation to enact all into law.
That’s all I know so far. 🙂
Oh…..and I don’t see anything in there about violence in games or movies.
Guess his Hollywood sponsors got a pass.
http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/the-administration/277449-a-democracy-under-siege
a democracy under siege
I don’t like Joy Behar, but this is pretty funny
http://nation.foxnews.com/jay-leno/2013/01/05/jay-leno-joy-behar-osama-bin-laden-your-new-boss
The circus came to DC and never left.
Florida Sen. Rubio: ‘Pres. Obama’s frustration with our republic and the way it works doesn’t give him license to ignore the Constitution’ – @KellyO
http://beforeitsnews.com/politics/2013/01/oregon-sheriffs-blast-biden-we-wont-let-you-turn-citizens-into-criminals-with-unconsitutional-actions-by-misguided-politicians-2484972.html
Oregon sheriffs say no way
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/01/16/Obama-Declares-war-on-bitter-clingers-hollywood-gets-a-pass
war on bitter clingers not on hollywood
http://weaselzippers.us/2013/01/16/crooked-dem-charlie-rangel-southern-states-have-cultures-that-we-have-to-overcome-to-enact-new-gun-laws/
nothing like causing more division
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/any-elected-official-pass-mental-health-background-check-prior-holding-any-elected-office/SJjSfwjd
here is a petition that I would sign
make it a yearly exam
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/obama-asks-doctors-help-deal-guns_696121.html
isn”t a doctor – patient confidentially law in the states?
Ad is racist, according to WKJM.
but but it is ok for backtrack to use other people’s kids to further his gun agenda.
Duh, of course it’s racists, it’s critical of Obama. What rock have these people been living under.
stole it
Not Latin — Ancient Greek — it was what the Spartan King Leonidas I said to the Persians when they demanded the Spartans surrender their weapons at the battle of Thermopylae.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/jan/15/houses-reading-of-constitution-speaks-volumes/
could not show up for reading of the Constitution.
bet they showed up for every event given by a lobbyist
http://wwwwakeupamericans-spree.blogspot.com/2013/01/missouri-bill-to-protect-2nd-amendment.html
states introducing laws to uphold 2nd amendment
I’m good with that….