Tennessee Ernie Ford Sings 16 Tons (by curleyb3)
This song should be the theme to the goverment.
“Saint Peter don’t you call me ‘cause I can’t go. I owe my soul to the company store”
Just replace word store with goverment.
“Saint Peter don’t you call me ‘cause I can’t go. I owe my soul to the goverment”
Politics at its finest.
Politics should never interfere with the lives of the citizens. It should be the other way around. The citizens should be able to interfere with the politicians.
I wonder what this country would be like if the politicians actually cared about real life and not their own agendas.
Poor Richard's News: Unsustainable: Government spending per household exceeds median household income
President Obama has spent more money than any world leader in history, and according to 2010 census data, the Federal Government is actually spending per household more than the median per-household income.
from Terence Jeffrey:
As reported in my new book, “Completely Predictable,” the combined spending of federal, state and local governments per American household actually exceeded the median household income for 2010, which is the latest year for which all relevant government data are available.
In fiscal 2010, according to numbers published by the Census Bureau and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), net spending by all levels of government in the United States was $5,942,988,401,000. That equaled $50,074 for each one of the 118,682,000 households in the country.
In that same year, according to the Census Bureau, the median household income was $49,445.
That means total net government spending per household ($50,074) exceeded median household income (49,445) by $629.
Government in the United States, of course, has not always spent more per year than the median household earns. As recently as 2000, the relationship between government spending and household income was dramatically different.
I don’t want to offend any drunken sailors here, so I’ll just say that President Obama’s spending is completely out of control. With every dollar this government spends, we hurl closer and closer to a financial crisis like the ones in Cyprus, Greece, and all across the EU.
Poor Richard's News: What Sequester? Feds spend $1.5 million to study why lesbians are fat
Here at PRN, we’ve tried to curb all the sequestration drama by reporting the truth about it. For instance, we reported that sequestration was indeed Obama’s idea to begin with, that no actual cuts would occur because of it and all the grandstanding being done by the those on the left, including the president, simply weren’t true. But another way in which we’ve tried to keep it all in perspective is to report on the hundreds of billions of dollars our government wastes every year. And of all the things we’ve found, this one might just be the most amazing.
From CNS News:
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded $1.5 million to study biological and social factors for why “three-quarters” of lesbians are obese and why gay males are not, calling it an issue of “high public-health significance.”
Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Mass., has received two grants administered by NIH’s Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) to study the relationship between sexual orientation and obesity.
“Obesity is one of the most critical public health issues affecting the U.S. today,” the description of the grant reads. “Racial and socioeconomic disparities in the determinants, distribution, and consequences of obesity are receiving increasing attention.”
“[H]owever, one area that is only beginning to be recognized is the striking interplay of gender and sexual orientation in obesity disparities,” it states. “It is now well-established that women of minority sexual orientation are disproportionately affected by the obesity epidemic, with it continues.
“In stark contrast, among men, heterosexual males have nearly double the risk of obesity compared to gay males.”
My thoughts after reading this: What. Did. I. Just. Read.
The phrase “minority sexual orientation” sounds like it needs to be in a joke about politically correctness run amok. But unfortunately it’s not a joke. It’s real life. This is what we’re up against folks. No, not fat lesbians, rather, a government who thinks it’s acceptable to take your money to study them.
Intervention: Democrats in denial about Washington’s spending addiction
Basically, the Democrats think that there’s no problem until the country is flat broke. They look at the private sector of the economy and they don’t see wealth generated by a free people in the marketplace, they just see a river of tax revenue they haven’t collected yet.
US Tells EUSSR To Up Military Spending
‘The UK and other European countries must use the money saved by withdrawing from Afghanistan to re-equip their military and help reverse worrying cuts in defence spending, the American ambassador to Nato will warn on Tuesday.
Ivo Daalder said if Europe did not invest in new capabilities, its over-reliance on America would continue at a time when Washington had made the far east and China its new strategic priority.
“If we don’t start soon in investing in those capabilities then the gap between the US and the rest is going to grow. And if it is bad now, then it will be worse. If we have problems, they will be even worse.”’
Rand Paul: Above All Else, Pay the Crony Banksters Their Interest
As much as I hate social security, medicare, and other government hand outs those recipients of the stolen loot are far more deserving than the crony banksters that Rand wants to protect.
Senator Rand Paul wants crony banksters and anyone else who supports the state by buying US government securities to be first in line for your tax dollars.
This afternoon, Sen. Paul introduced the Default Prevention Act, which would require the President to prioritize federal revenue to interest on the national debt.
“Some of my Republican colleagues in the House have decided to surrender to the Democrats’ annual plan to increase the debt ceiling. I believe we should stand and fight for a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution before we raise the debt ceiling. My legislation takes the possibility of default off the table so we can continue to push for fiscal restraint. There is no reason the government would – or should – responsibly consider the idea of default,” Sen. Paul said.
UPDATE
To elaborate on what is going on here. Rand is, in a fashion similar to his TSA proposal, which I discussed with Doug Wead on the Robert Wenzel Show, attempting to micro-manage government in ways that will help expand the government instead of shrink it. The best thing that could happen is for investors to get nervous about holding government paper, which would make it much more difficult for the government to finance expansion. Rand, however, comes up with a proposal that will protect debt holders and eliminate their fears of holding US government debt. Thus, preventing market imposed discipline on the US government.
Shopping Around for a Better Life by John Stossel
Thanks, California! Thanks for your monstrous spending and absurd regulatory overreach! America needs you. We need Connecticut and Illinois, too! We need you the way we needed the Soviet Union, as models of failure, to warn us what happens if we believe those who say, “Government can.”
Moving to California was once the dream for many Americans. Its population grew at almost triple the national average — until 1990. Then big government, in the form of endless regulation and taxes, killed much of the dream. In the last decade, 2 million people left California.
Many of them moved to Alaska, Florida, New Hampshire, Nevada, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington or Wyoming. More on what makes those states special in a moment.
When the USSR died, overthrown by its own citizens’ hatred of central planning, I assumed the world would acknowledge that big government is a nightmare. But people don’t. Our brains are programmed to believe that “next time, central planning will help.” So, many people forget the lesson of the USSR.
Fortunately, they can still watch what’s happening right now in California, Illinois and Connecticut. OK, those states are not totalitarian dictatorships, but they tax and micromanage so much that they will soon approach bankruptcy, cut services and stagnate.
And Americans have an advantage Soviet citizens never had: 50 states. If we live in a big-government state, we can move. I did.
I grew up in Illinois. It was nice enough (except in winter). But gradually its politicians gave away its future.
I moved to New York City, no political paradise, but where the big TV news jobs are. And maybe New York’s promises to unions won’t bankrupt us too soon.
I could always move again. I would still be smothered by federal rules, but at least I can move to a place with fewer onerous state rules.
A group called the Free State Project invites us to move to New Hampshire to help create “liberty in our lifetime.” It’s too early to see how that will work out, but that state now has a booming population of libertarians and anarchists. One even got elected to the state legislature after running against his own roommate, also a libertarian, whom he accused of not being anti-government enough.
Americans who want to escape state income taxes and live near better job prospects can move to one of those nine states that I mentioned above.
It’s no surprise they produce more jobs. Without an income tax, those states were forced to limit the growth of their governments, so they did. Every state has schools, social service programs, prisons, etc., but those states find a way to fund those things for less. Then they reap benefits.
It's the Spending, Stupid! by John Stossel
Listening to progressive media pundits, I’d think the most evil man in the universe is Grover Norquist, head of Americans for Tax Reform. His crime? He heads a movement that asks political candidates to pledge not to raise taxes.
I think Grover accomplished a lot. But I wish he’d convinced politicians to pledge not to increase spending.
President Obama says raising taxes to cut the deficit is a “balanced” approach.
Balanced …
But what’s “balanced” about raising taxes after vast increases in spending? Trillions for war, Medicare, “stimulus” and solar panels. Tax receipts rose — after tax-rate cuts — from $1.9 billion in 2003 to $2.3 billion in 2008, the year the recession started. That increase couldn’t keep up with the spending. The deficit doubled — actually, more than doubled — as politicians increased spending to nearly $4 trillion! Our debt, at more than $16 trillion, now exceeds our gross domestic product.
Ludicrous, irresponsible spending is why we’re in trouble. As columnist Ron Hart points out, Bill Clinton’s balanced budget spent $1.7 trillion. “Adjusted for inflation,” he writes, “our federal government would (have) a $200 billion surplus. But instead of increasing government spending in line with normal inflation, under Bush and Obama we are spending $3.8 trillion today. Democrats, who believe we have a ‘revenue’ problem instead of a ‘spending’ problem, must also think they have a bartender problem, not a drinking problem.”
The media obsess about tax rates, but spending is more important. As Milton Friedman taught us, spending is a far more accurate gauge of the government burden. If government spends a dollar, that dollar is taxed away from someone. If it’s borrowed, it’s removed from productive use, setting the stage for higher taxes later. If the government prints more dollars to fund spending, our purchasing power falls. Transferring purchasing power from the people to the government via inflation is a form of taxation.
Republicans are now ready to allow tax hike for the rich if Democrats cut spending on entitlements.
Speaker John Boehner has proposed allowing tax rates to rise for the wealthiest Americans if President Barack Obama agrees to major entitlement cuts, according to several sources close to the talks.
It is the first time Boehner has offered any boost in marginal tax rates for any income group, and it would represent a major concession for the Ohio Republican. Boehner suggested hiking the Bush-era tax rates for top wage earners, including those with annual incomes of $1 million or more annually, beginning Jan. 1, two sources said.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2012/12/boehner-pitches-millionaire-tax-hike-85128.html#ixzz2FFWMCYiv
The Keynesian Architects of the U.S. Warfare State | Joseph T. Salerno (by misesmedia)
From Ludwig von Mises Institute:
The Donald M. Rembert lecture, presented at the 2012 Mises Institute Supporters Summit: “The Truth About War: A Revisionist Approach”. Recorded at Callaway Gardens, Georgia, on 27 October 2012.
Music by Kevin MacLeod.
John Stossel - A Model For Economic Recovery (by LibertyPen)
Q - Why is government riddled with so much debt? A - It takes courage (a commodity rarely found in politics) to reduce public spending. Gov. Luis Fortuno displays what political courage has done for Puerto Rico.
Investigate more liberty issues at http://www.LibertyPen.com
Obama: Since I’ve Been President Federal Spending Has Risen at Lowest Pace in 60 Years (by jackohoft)
Oh Brother.
Here’s the video of Barack Obama telling supporters he’s some kind of fiscal conservative.
Chart of the day.
John Stossel - Military Spending (by LibertyPen)
Chris Preble of CATO joins John to discuss how much military spending is enough. http://www.LibertyPen.com
