What ?? Reagan was Right ??

[PawDawg]

The first program we should get rid of is Section 8 housing. The federal/State gov't has no business in providing housing to low-income folks. The second program is Food Stamps. Sure, let the hungry have some flour, milk, and tuna but zero of the fried chicken or frozen pizzas. The third program is Aid to Dependent Children. Just encourages lust and irresponsibility. The really sad thing is if you put these gov't programs all together, you have cradle-to-grave socialism.

Well we both know that none of the programs are going anywhere no matter who is in charge. The only hope this nation has is to change the culture that has grown dependant on these programs. More government programs aren't the answer, but there are a few that actually work.

One in particular is the Pre K program. This is a must have. Somebody with a brain actually decided that these kids coming into school were so far behind that life skills were having to be taught in Kindergarten and first grade. Doing this was holding back the child and those around them. Pre K actually teaches these kids simple things like learning how to eat with a fork, going to the bathroom, ect. It's really sad that we need this type thing, but without it our public schools keep falling behind. A vicious cycle.

[saltydawg]

"This one will have heads exploding all over the liberal blogosphere. Of course the media will only mention this once. If Clinton were in office it would be the lead story for a week."

http://wizbangblog.com/2006/07/09/ta...ds-explode.php

"Now if we could hold spending in check (much less cut it) we'd have something."

jmo,
nadB, a Reagan Republican.

Since RR took Office, the national debt has increased by $5 trillion dollars. If voodoo economics had any validity that would not have occurred.

Of course, all you "conservatives" out there have your collective heads in the sand about our national debt, almost as though it doesn't exist. Better yet, blame it on the Democrats! LOL!

[Soonerdawg]

Since RR took Office, the national debt has increased by $5 trillion dollars. If voodoo economics had any validity that would not have occurred.

Of course, all you "conservatives" out there have your collective heads in the sand about our national debt, almost as though it doesn't exist. Better yet, blame it on the Democrats! LOL!

Spending has increased. Revenues did not decrease.

[saltydawg]

Spending has increased. Revenues did not decrease.

Yeah, something has to be done about those Republicans spending taxpayers money like drunken sailors.

[saltydawg]

Here's a way to raise tax revenues...

July 10, 2006 — NEW YORK (Reuters) - Regulating Internet poker could bring the U.S. government some $3.3 billion in taxes annually, according to a study to be released on Tuesday, ahead of an expected debate over legislation to ban online gambling.

Income taxes on winnings from Internet poker alone — which is estimated to have attracted $60 billion in wagers worldwide in 2005 — could amount to $2.5 billion each year, according to the study commissioned by the Poker Players Alliance, a group calling for the regulation of online gambling.

"The majority of the revenue that's generated would be from reporting of poker winnings," said Michael Bolcerek, president of the group.

The study also said that a 1 percent user fee on online poker transactions would generate another $800 million to $1 billion in revenue per year for the U.S. government.

The U.S. Justice Department says a 1961 law that forbids interstate telephone betting also applies to the Internet, making it illegal for the industry to do business in the country.

Authors of a bill expected to be debated in the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday, say their legislation would clarify that point for prosecutors. It would also prohibit gambling businesses from settling Internet wagers with credit cards, checks or fund transfers.

Among Web sites used by U.S. players to gamble are those run by UK-listed companies such as Party Gaming Plc and 888 Holdings.

The Poker Players Alliance says the fees and taxes that would come with regulation could deter some people from playing online, but Bolcerek said legalizing online poker would still lead to an increase in the number of players and revenue.

[Soonerdawg]

Yeah, something has to be done about those Republicans spending taxpayers money like drunken sailors.

AT LAST, WE FINALLY AGREE ON SOMETHING. I'm going to sit on this for about 30 minutes, but I might give you some green for a very, very true statement.

Don't forget, though, the dems are just as guilty. Throw all of the bumbs out.

[nadB]

............ Throw all of the bumbs out.

I'm inclined to agree.

Else; someday, the buzzards will come home to roost.

jmo :icon_wink

US 'could be going bankrupt'
By Edmund Conway, Economics Editor
(Filed: 14/07/2006)

The United States is heading for bankruptcy, according to an extraordinary paper published by one of the key members of the country's central bank.

A ballooning budget deficit and a pensions and welfare timebomb could send the economic superpower into insolvency, according to research by Professor Laurence Kotlikoff for the Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis, a leading constituent of the US Federal Reserve.

Prof Kotlikoff said that, by some measures, the US is already bankrupt. "To paraphrase the Oxford English Dictionary, is the United States at the end of its resources, exhausted, stripped bare, destitute, bereft, wanting in property, or wrecked in consequence of failure to pay its creditors," he asked.

According to his central analysis, "the US government is, indeed, bankrupt, insofar as it will be unable to pay its creditors, who, in this context, are current and future generations to whom it has explicitly or implicitly promised future net payments of various kinds''.

The budget deficit in the US is not massive. The Bush administration this week cut its forecasts for the fiscal shortfall this year by almost a third, saying it will come in at 2.3pc of gross domestic product. This is smaller than most European countries - including the UK - which have deficits north of 3pc of GDP.

Prof Kotlikoff, who teaches at Boston University, says: "The proper way to consider a country's solvency is to examine the lifetime fiscal burdens facing current and future generations. If these burdens exceed the resources of those generations, get close to doing so, or simply get so high as to preclude their full collection, the country's policy will be unsustainable and can constitute or lead to national bankruptcy.

"Does the United States fit this bill? No one knows for sure, but there are strong reasons to believe the United States may be going broke."

Experts have calculated that the country's long-term "fiscal gap" between all future government spending and all future receipts will widen immensely as the Baby Boomer generation retires, and as the amount the state will have to spend on healthcare and pensions soars. The total fiscal gap could be an almost incomprehensible $65.9 trillion, according to a study by Professors Gokhale and Smetters.

The figure is massive because President George W Bush has made major tax cuts in recent years, and because the bill for Medicare, which provides health insurance for the elderly, and Medicaid, which does likewise for the poor, will increase greatly due to demographics.

Prof Kotlikoff said: "This figure is more than five times US GDP and almost twice the size of national wealth. One way to wrap one's head around $65.9trillion is to ask what fiscal adjustments are needed to eliminate this red hole.

The answers are terrifying. One solution is an immediate and permanent doubling of personal and corporate income taxes. Another is an immediate and permanent two-thirds cut in Social Security and Medicare benefits. A third alternative, were it feasible, would be to immediately and permanently cut all federal discretionary spending by 143pc."

The scenario has serious implications for the dollar. If investors lose confidence in the US's future, and suspect the country may at some point allow inflation to erode away its debts, they may reduce their holdings of US Treasury bonds.

Prof Kotlikoff said: "The United States has experienced high rates of inflation in the past and appears to be running the same type of fiscal policies that engendered hyperinflations in 20 countries over the past century."

Paul Ashworth, of Capital Economics, was more sanguine about the coming retirement of the Baby Boomer generation. "For a start, the expected deterioration in the Federal budget owes more to rising per capita spending on health care than to changing demographics," he said.
"This can be contained if the political will is there. Similarly, the expected increase in social security spending can be controlled by reducing the growth rate of benefits.

Expecting a fix now is probably asking too much of short-sighted politicians who have no incentives to do so. But a fix, or at least a succession of patches, will come when the problem becomes more pressing."


GO, DAWGS ! ! ! ! ! ! !

[saltydawg]

Talking about federal spending. From this morning's NYT:

July 19, 2006
Homeland Security Department Is Accused of Credit Card Misuse

By ERIC LIPTON
WASHINGTON, July 18 — Flat-bottomed rescue boats at double the retail price, $68,500 worth of unused dog booties, hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of computers that somehow disappeared and a $227 beer brewing kit.

These are just a few of the questionable purchases that Congressional auditors have found by digging through half a year of credit card records from the Homeland Security Department, including records for the months immediately after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita last year.

The audit, by the Government Accountability Office, which is due to be released Wednesday, concluded that the credit card misuse could probably have been avoided had the department completed a long-planned rulebook for its more than 9,000 employees who spent $420 million last year using government-issued credit cards.

Instead, “due to a lack of leadership” at the department, the draft manual has never been finished, creating accounting weaknesses that “leave D.H.S. highly vulnerable to fraudulent, improper and abusive activity,” the audit says.

The result is that in the five months examined, the investigators found that 45 percent of purchases did not have appropriate preauthorization by supervisors and that 63 percent did not include documentation stating whether the goods or services had been received.

Congressional leaders, who requested the investigation, said they were once again disappointed at the lack of oversight of taxpayer dollars at the Homeland Security Department, which has already been blamed for up to $2 billion of waste and fraud related to the hurricanes last year.

“It seems no matter where we look at Homeland Security, we find a pattern of waste, fraud and abuse,” said Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine and the chairwoman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

One employee of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which is part of the department, spent $7,790 on a 63-inch plasma monitor, which sat for six months, unused, in its original carton.

Another FEMA employee spent $68,442 on the 2,000 dog boots, which were intended to protect the paws of search dogs on rescue operations; the boots ended up in a FEMA warehouse and have not been used.

A Coast Guard cardholder bought the beer brewing kit, which officials explained was “a quality product for official parties attended by cadets, dignitaries and other guests,” but which the auditors called “abusive and questionable.”

The small flat-bottomed boats, the audit said, were bought from a Texas company for a total of $208,000. That was about twice the retail rate for the boats, which were supposed to be used in the rescue and recovery effort in New Orleans.

Auditors also found that officials from Customs and Border Protection spent $2,492 on rain jackets for use at a firing range, even though the firing range is usually closed when it rains. And Secret Service officers spent $7,000 on iPods, which the agency explained were intended to serve as data storage devices, an explanation the auditors found unconvincing.

Russ Knocke, a spokesman for the department, said it would soon be issuing credit card rules, which he agreed were needed to avoid some of the problems.

“We are still a young department, a little over three years old,” Mr. Knocke said, adding that the total value of the purchases questioned by the auditors represented only a tiny share of the amount charged on the government cards.

He also said that the department had found many of the more than 100 computers bought with the credit cards that investigators said had disappeared.

“More resources have been spent on investigating these anomalies than the amount of resources actually lost,” he said.

[duckbillplatty]

Talking about federal spending. From this morning's NYT

I wish I could say that surprised me, but I live too close to the city of $100,000 toilets.

So this poses a question... Does public office and/or a government job corrupt the individual or do corrupt individuals pursue those jobs? Perhaps that a chicken and the egg question...