Showing posts with label Finance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Finance. Show all posts

Sunday, December 16, 2012

Merry Christmas to who? Is there a “Sandy Scam???”


Obama Sandy aid bill filled with holiday goodies unrelated to storm damage

Vics suffer as $60B aid plan gets porked up

  • By S.A. MILLER and GERRY SHIELDS Post Correspondents

WASHINGTON — President Obama’s $60.4 billion request for Hurricane Sandy relief has morphed into a huge Christmas stocking of goodies for federal agencies and even the state of Alaska, The Post has learned.

The pork-barrel feast includes more than $8 million to buy cars and equipment for

BARELY HOLDING ON: A woman stands amid rubble in Sandy-thrashed Breezy Point, Queens, where more federal assistance would be welcome.the Homeland Security and Justice departments. It also includes a whopping $150

million for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to dole out to fisheries in Alaska and $2 million for the Smithsonian Institution to repair museum roofs in DC.

An eye-popping $13 billion would go to “mitigation” projects to prepare for future storms.

BARELY HOLDING ON: A woman stands amid rubble in Sandy-thrashed Breezy Point, Queens, where more federal assistance would be welcome.  Dan Callister

Other big-ticket items in the bill include $207 million for the VA Manhattan Medical Center; $41 million to fix up eight military bases along the storm’s path, including Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; $4 million for repairs at Kennedy Space Center in Florida; $3.3 million for the Plum Island Animal Disease Center and $1.1 million to repair national cemeteries.

Budget watchdogs have dubbed the 94-page emergency-spending bill “Sandy Scam.


Click here for full story.

Friday, August 24, 2012

Greg Hunter talks about the economy, the election, the drought and geo-politics

Thought I’d mix it up a bit with some video on current issues that should receive attention this political cycle.  Enjoy the video and check back for more issues, as I scour the web for the factual articles and video that the MSM ignores.

YiT ~ Shelly


Sunday, June 17, 2012

As Greece goes, so goes the Euro

When governments become too big to fail and borrow from institutions that they themselves are too big to fail, where will the people left to fend for themselves run to?  Too big to fail in monopolistic companies or governments are always a bad idea.

YiT ~  Shelly


Sunday, April 15, 2012

Politicians continue to ask Automobile Drivers to fund more Mass Transit in Washington State

An excellent source for news on what’s happening in “Washington State, Counties, Cities, and even our Local Communities” in politics, is the Washington Policy Institute.

Please enjoy this post from the Washington Policy Institute.  I have added them to my favorite blogs and trust you will check-in with them to read and educate yourself on what’s happening in politics “locally”.  Their articles and posts will help to educate you to become a better informed voter and promoter of “free enterprise” for a truly diverse and healthy economy in Washington State, Whatcom County and all the Cities within Whatcom County.

YiT~  Shelly


WA public transit agencies spent $12.6 billion in last five years

April 12, 2012

King County Executive Dow Constantine wants drivers to pay even higher taxes and fees to not only reinvest in the roads they drive on, but to also subsidize mass transit.

In a statement released yesterday, Constantine says the following,

"Despite having the votes and bipartisan support for 'local-option' bills to allow counties to ask voters for desperately-needed transit and road revenues, lawmakers failed to bring those bills to the floor.

The bills would have created local options for cities and counties to raise transportation related taxes and fees. With the exception of the gas tax, those taxes and fees would have been used to subsidize mass transit.

There are two big problems with Constantine’s argument. Public transit is not underfunded and the new taxes and fees would have been unfairly paid by a single user group; drivers.

All transportation taxes and fees paid by drivers should be used for highway purposes only, while alternative travel modes should be funded by their own users (which reduces the public subsidy) or through local options that apply to the general public, like sales taxes.

Saturday, December 3, 2011

Clean Coal is not a Myth?

Ask any thinking person, what is the nucleus to economic health?  If they really are a thinking person they know the answer is energy. That is why it is every thinking persons responsibility to fully understand what, where, how and when to stop the insanity of bankrupting not just the United States, but the world, with investments into “green energy” that’s not really “green” and costs multiple times more than the readily available forms of coal, gas, hydro and nuclear energies.

Enjoy this new article from Watts Up With That? on the untold story of “clean coal” and how the main stream scientists, media, and, oh yeah!, the Obama Administration, ignores that which is staring them in the face.

Yit,  Shelly


Coal – confirmed by NASA as getting cleaner

Posted on December 3, 2011 by Anthony Watts

Oh Dear, It’s another Joe Romm head exploder. The improvement is verified by satellite data and the results are peer reviewed. Yet the EPA still insists on closing coal plants nationwide.

NASA Satellite Confirms Sharp Decline in Pollution from U.S. Coal Power Plants

A team of scientists have used the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) on NASA’s Aura satellite to confirm major reductions in the levels of a key air pollutant generated by coal power plants in the eastern United States. The pollutant, sulfur dioxide, contributes to the formation of acid rain and can cause serious health problems.

Click the button to read the full story.  Green Tea and here.  Green Tea 


And even more evidence…

Japanese Satellites say 3rd World Owes CO2 Reparations to The West

31102011

Well, in a somewhat bizarre twist, it looks like I must reconsider my opposition to CO2 reparations. The notion that the evil sources of CO2 “pollution” must pay those who are lowering the planet’s CO2 levels.

It seems that the Japanese have a nice tool on orbit and set out to figure out who was a “maker” and who was a “taker” in the CO2 production / consumption game. (h/t to kuhnkat in an o.t. comment. Seems they found out that CO2 was largely net absorbed in the industrialized ‘west’ and net created in the ’3rd world’. So pony up the cash, China, Brazil, and Africa. I want my environmental compensation!

This isn’t that much of a surprise to me. I’d figured out some time ago that trees and bamboo could consume far more CO2 than I “produce” via burning oil and gas. I’ve also pointed out that The West is largely letting trees grow, while mowing our lawns and having the clippings “sequestered” in land fills (along with an untold tonnage of phone books and junk mail…) while the 3rd world is busy burning and cutting down their forests. The simple fact is that “jungle rot” will beat out my “gallon a day” of Diesel any time. Basically, we in the west grow far more wheat, corn, soybeans, wood, lawns, shrubs, etc. than we burn oil. In the 3rd world, they burn their sequestering plants. (And it takes one heck of a lot more wood to cook a meal than it does coal via a highly efficient furnace / electric generator / microwave oven.) But it’s nice to see it documented in aggregate in the “facts in the air”

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Friday, November 18, 2011

Congressional Corruption or COWS?

I’m short on time, but this article is so well written and relevant to what’s happening today, “right now”, that I am doing a quick posting in hopes that it will reach others, who will share it with their contacts.

YiT,  Shelly


How Congress Occupied Wall Street

Politicians who arrive in Washington as men and women of modest means leave as millionaires. Why?

By SARAH PALIN (link to article)

Mark Twain famously wrote, "There is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress." Peter Schweizer's new book, "Throw Them All Out," reveals this permanent political class in all its arrogant glory. (Full disclosure: Mr. Schweizer is employed by my political action committee as a foreign-policy adviser.)

Mr. Schweizer answers the questions so many of us have asked. I addressed this in a speech in Iowa last Labor Day weekend. How do politicians who arrive in Washington, D.C. as men and women of modest means leave as millionaires? How do they miraculously accumulate wealth at a rate faster than the rest of us? How do politicians' stock portfolios outperform even the best hedge-fund managers'? I answered the question in that speech: Politicians derive power from the authority of their office and their access to our tax dollars, and they use that power to enrich and shield themselves.

sarahpalinAssociated Press

The money-making opportunities for politicians are myriad, and Mr. Schweizer details the most lucrative methods: accepting sweetheart gifts of IPO stock from companies seeking to influence legislation, practicing insider trading with nonpublic government information, earmarking projects that benefit personal real estate holdings, and even subtly extorting campaign donations through the threat of legislation unfavorable to an industry. The list goes on and on, and it's sickening.

Click here to read the full article (it’s worth it!).


Friday, November 11, 2011

Abramoff Sings about Congressional Insider Trading

Love him or hate him, Jack Abramoff is out of jail and singing like a bird about how the political elite “legally” make money off of insider trading, while private citizen’s are run down with pitchforks for the same behavior.  Even if it were proven that a politician made money from insider advice through political legislation, they would not be charged with a crime.  The Stock Act H.R. 4188 was written in January of 2009, by none other than our own Representative Brian Baird (D-WA), and it has yet to come out of committee for a vote.  Now how is this equal justice under the law?  Shelly wonders why  the politically elite are tone deaf to movements like “the Tea Party” and the “Occupiers” who rise-up specifically because of this type of preferential treatment?
YiT,  Shelly

Another great story dealing with the same subject will be aired on CBS, Sunday night, November 13, 2011 at 7:00pm ET/PT.  Here's a brief tidbit from the online story that should've been told many decades ago.  It's this type of disparity that keeps the law abiding citizen's from fully engaging in the political process, because we all know that thus far it's a rigged game and the only people who can fix this are the people.  As is said in the article; "Throw them All Out!"  We need moral, principled people in public office representing the "People", not the "Parties"!

Congress insiders: Above the law?

(CBS News)  Preview: InsidersMartha Stewart went to jail for it. Hedge fund honcho Raj Rajaratnam was fined $92 million and will go to jail for years for it. But members of Congress can do the same thing -use non-public information to make stock trades -- and there's no law against it. Steve Kroft reports on how America's lawmakers can legally make tidy profits on information only they know, simply because they won't pass a law against themselves. The report will be broadcast on Sunday, Nov. 13 at 7 p.m. ET/PT.
Among the revelations in Kroft's report:
* Members of Congress have bought stock in companies while laws that could affect those companies were being debated in the House or Senate. Click here to read the full story.












 

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

What Country has No Greed?

Time to post more positive truth.  As Donahue pushes Dr. Freidman about the supposed greed of capitalism, Dr. Friedman responds with common sense.  “Greed?  Tell me what Country does not suffer from the immorality of greed?  Capitalism is the only economic model that affords anyone the opportunity, in a free market, to reach as far as they can if they’re willing to work for it.”Sus Devp (small)

Yours in Truth,  Shelly


Where are we going?

Another winner!  Milton Friedman is a renowned economist who was capable of forecasting economic projections that foretold of the coming events of today.Sus Devp (small)

Yours in Truth,  Shelly


Thursday, October 6, 2011

Higher taxes = Public Dependency, Lower taxes = Personal Responsibility

Found this ditty on a blog (if you click this link you need to sign-up to read the submitted materials…so far, it’s a very un-invasive blog and I’ve found many insightful posts) today and with all of the petulance and whining on display across the United States at our financial hubs, I just had to share it.  If you’ve never run a business and only been an employee, you may not understand these words…I hope I am wrong about Sus Devp (small)that.  It also speaks for the need of a “flat tax”.

Yours in Truth,  Shelly


"I have never viewed taxation as a means of rewarding one class of taxpayers or punishing another.  If such a point of view ever controls our public policy, the traditions of freedom, justice and equality of opportunity, which are the distinguishing characteristics of our American civilization, will have disappeared and in their place we shall have class legislation with all its attendant evils.  The man who seeks to perpetuate prejudice and class hatred is doing America an ill service.  In attempting to promote or to defeat legislation by arraying one class of taxpayers against another, he shows a complete misconception of those principles of equality on which the country was founded.  Any man of energy and initiative can get what he wants out of life.  But when that initiative is crippled by legislation or by a tax system which denies him the right to receive a reasonable share of his earnings, then he will no longer exert himself and the country will be deprived of the energy on which its continued greatness depends."
"This condition has already begun to make itself felt as a result of the present unsound basis of taxation.  The existing tax system is an inheritance from the war.
  During that time the highest taxes ever levied by any country were borne uncomplainingly by the American people for the purpose of defraying the unusual and ever-increasing expenses incident to the successful conduct of a great war.  Normal tax rates were increased, and a system of surtaxes was evolved in order to make the man of large income pay more proportionately than the smaller taxpayer.  If he had twice as much income, he paid not twice, but three or four times as much tax.  For a short time the surtaxes yielded a large revenue.  But since the close of the war people have come to look upon them as a business expense and have treated them accordingly by avoiding payment as much as possible.  The history of taxation shows that taxes which are inherently excessive are not paid.  The high rates inevitably put pressure upon the taxpayer to withdraw his capital from productive business and invest it in tax-exempt securities or to find other lawful methods of avoiding the realization of taxable income.  The result is that the sources of taxation are drying up; wealth is failing to carry its share of the tax burden; and capital is being diverted into channels which yield neither revenue to the Government nor profit to the people."
"Taxation: the people's business", Andrew Mellon, 1924

There were some pretty smart people in America.  Andrew Mellon was treasury secretary for the decade of the roaring 20s, and then vilified and persecuted mercilessly by FDR.  Sometimes you can find in dusty history books more wisdom than anyone from the current government.


From the Wikipedia link on Andrew Mellon, I feel a need to cover Mellon’s well intentioned, but unheeded advice to President Hoover on how to reverser “the Great Depression”.  ~ Shelly

Mellon became unpopular with the onset of the Great Depression. He advised Herbert Hoover to "liquidate labor, liquidate stocks, liquidate farmers, liquidate real estate… it will purge the rottenness out of the system. High costs of living and high living will come down. People will work harder, live a more moral life. Values will be adjusted, and enterprising people will pick up from less competent people."[7] Additionally, he advocated weeding out "weak" banks as a harsh but necessary prerequisite to the recovery of the banking system. This "weeding out" was accomplished through refusing to lend cash to banks (taking loans and other investments as collateral), and by refusing to put more cash in circulation. He advocated spending cuts to keep the Federal budget balanced, and opposed fiscal stimulus measures. In 1929-31, he spent much of the time overseas, negotiating for repayment of European war debts from World War I.


Monday, October 3, 2011

“I’m not sorry we loaned Solyndra $535 bil dollars in tax payer money”

The President of the United States, Barack Obama, gave his first verbal comment on the government subsidized, stimulus funded, “green scam”, to the private company known as “Solyndra”.  I will not re-write POTUS’s words, I have merely pasted the words as they were printed in the LA Times.  The LA Times did not use the exact language that I heard on the radio from Obama’s own lips;  “I am not sorry for the loan to Solyndra!”  Excuse me?  You’re not sorry?  What an outrageous, narcissistic thing to say!  $535 billion dollars were loaned to a company that was not financially qualified to repay the loan. $535 billion dollars were loaned to a company who's financial P&L showed that it was more likely that they would go bankrupt by September of 2011, than they would be a financially viable success.  $535 billion dollars were flushed away.  $535 billion “taxpayer” dollars were wasted on a zero sum gain, that should have either never been spent or used to pay down the debt.  What kind of a tone-deaf, buffoon is serving as our Commander-in-Chief?

Sorry for the rant, but some things do require venting.Sus Devp (small)

Yours in Truth, Shelly


Obama defends loan to Solyndra, calling it a 'good bet'

In a short but wide-ranging interview, the president spoke for the first time on the collapse of Solyndra, the solar start-up company that got a government-backed loan in 2009.
The question arose shortly after Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee released copies of internal emails in which senior administration officials warned against having Obama visit the company as its financial troubles piled up.
Obama said the loan guarantee program is working well overall, despite the fact that "not every single business is going to succeed."
If the U.S. wants to compete with other countries that are subsidizing "industries of the future," Obama said, the government has to make sure American companies "get a shot" to compete.

"Hindsight is always 20/20," Obama said. "It went through the regular review process and people felt this was a good bet."


Saturday, July 23, 2011

Is it Welfare or a Well of the State?

This is a video which illustrates:

Here is a development in Tacoma WA (Salishan) that was built for Illegal Immigrants! 1325 Homes created! Refugee Pay offers them $2642 per month in SSI benefits, plus Food Stamps, plus Section 8 Housing. You will see new expensive cars in this video. Wouldn't you like to get a free ride like the illegals? http://www.salishan.net/projectupdates.html

(There was an article published by the NY Times in 2007, which elaborates on this project.  The article never mentions that this housing and subsidy program includes “illegal-noncitizens”, but it does reference the paid for landscape maintenance and language barriers due to the foreigners inability to speak English.)

So there’s not much for me to say except, watch this video, share this video, contact your State of Washington political representatives and ask them:

Why we spend money to make life so easy for those who have broken our laws?

Why is our State and Country broke, but the State and Federal governments refuse to address the real spending problems?

When are we going to “Cut, Cap and Balance” the Federal government?

Welfare Project in Tacoma, Washington, or should I say Well of the State Project?

Yours In Truth  Winking smile  Shelly

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Washington Senators Make End Run Around I-1053–“No New Taxes w/o Super Majority Vote in WA State”

A bill up for consideration is SB 5944 which would allow State Legislators to remove tax incentives and credits by simple majority.  On its face this sounds appropriate enough if you do not consider the removal of incentives and credits as a tax increase.

Look over the bills and tell your representatives your thoughts on this end run to increase taxes in the State of Washington.

Yours in Truth  Winking smile  Shelly

SB 5944

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

“Is Whatcom County flush with cash?”

Please take a moment to look over the boondoggle on the wish list of the Whatcom County Council.  If only the County (that means me and You) can convince a few good politicians to support us in these purchases we can all go home happy in having completed a good days work.  The problem is this, we’ve been told by, the County, the City, the State and the Federal government that we’re broke!  The problem is that every year they say they’ve cut spending when all they’ve done is reduce the amount of their planned spending increase, which they want us to believe is a “cut”.  The problem is that the County, the City, the State and the Federal government are raising taxes where they can, or adding fees where they shouldn’t, which takes away the fruits of labor from everyone as we are forced to pay these taxes and fees at ever increasing and unsustainable amounts.  The answer is that “We the People” must stay connected and involved.  “We the People” must raise our voices and demand to be heard.  “We the People” must research the candidates and vote for the person who has a track record for doing what they say they will do for “We the People” that is fiscally sound and constitutionally legal.

Yours In Truth  Winking smile  Shelly

Click on the image to open the PDF file of “all” the land the Whatcom County Council has their eyes on for new park land.  Watch Out Whatcom County!  Your property tax bill is going to get bigger if we continue to be silent on this one.

WC CEDS 2010

Saturday, April 16, 2011

It’s A Spending Problem–Not A Taxation Problem

Congressman Allen West, FL, discusses the latest polls which show that Conservatives, Independents and especially those of the Tea Party persuasion want Congress to stick to their promise of deep spending cuts to bring down the deficit, salvage the United States credit worthiness and insure that the nations children and grandchildren will not be burdened with this generations spending problem.

In other words; “It’s time to dance with those who brought you to the dance!”  Compromise shows weakness to the Obama Administration and if you didn’t hear the real Barak Obama in the audio clip that was released on Thursday, then you’re deaf.  Speaker Boehner and the U.S. Congress must stand-up to his “Chicago Thug Tactics” and demand that the U.S. Military are funded.  Just ask “We the People” if we’ll stand for the “Commander in Chief” to deny the troops their wages in a time of war!

Enjoy these short clips as Congressman West discusses with the Fox News interviewers, his thoughts on the road back to prosperity.

Yours In Truth  Winking smile  Shelly

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Local Movement “Transition Whatcom” hosting the forum “Move Your Money”

I am not a fan of ‘big’ banks, but is this movement any different than the demonization that has been done to and continues to be the focus of “Progressives”?  ”Take from the rich to give to the poor!”

Large financial institutions have not helped their images over the past decade.  Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Chase, Goldman Sachs and other mega-banks, have brought a lot of this upon themselves through their business models.  They took TARP money and stopped lending to the small businesses, that needed their help to get through the 2008 financial decline.  Instead of working with their small business customers to find creative solutions to stay financially healthy, they actively pursued commercial appraisers to go out and appraise ‘all’ commercial assets to quantify the risk to the bank(s) if their small business clients failed.  Not only did they get new appraisal’s (paid for with the bank’s money) but they reappraised every 6 months as the commercial real estate markets (no surprise there) continued to be devalued.  Their business clients were now unable to qualify for financial assistance or to rewrite their loans at the new lowered interest rates and SBA points, because of tighter constraints on lending ‘and’ lower commercial real estate values.  Couple these actions with their push to automate daily financial transactions (no need to go into your local branch and get to know them) and ever increasing fees for the privilege of parking your money with them, and you have the makings of a love-hate relationship of biblical proportions.

I do not advocate for people to be coerced into moving their money to punish the banks, or to foster the belief that all ‘big’ banks are evil and all ‘small, local” banks are good.  That said, I also do not think that it was a good thing when these banks were allowed to merge into financial institutions who could be deemed “too big to fail”.  So what am I saying here?  I believe that both models of financial institutions serve a niche and to demonize one over the other is not the way to fix things.  If we want to fix the financial lending environment, then we must allow them to fail when their business is no longer capable of supporting itself due to their own business practices.  That will give the smaller financial institutions the opportunity to fill in the gap(s) as the free markets will do, when allowed to.

Check out this short video which describes “Arianna Huffington’s” movement “Move the Money” and how the local group “Transition Whatcom” has taken up this move here in Whatcom County.

Yours In Truth  Winking smile  Shelly

Whatcom Investing Network

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Move Your Money Whatcom

Posted on March 7, 2011 by admin

Tired of Wall Street banks crashing our economy, then trashing our public sector and buying politicians?  Move your money out of big banks and into local banks and credit unions.  Help strengthen our local economy!

Check out these Move Your Money Whatcom activities:

“Atlas Shrugged” discussed on FBN’s “Stossel”

Enjoy this short video with John Stossel on Fox Business as he discusses the book and the movie, “Atlas Shrugged”.
Yours In Truth  Winking smile  Shelly

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

U.S. Underfunded State Pensions as of June 2008

This report comes from Pew Center Research and is based on June 2008 data.  Since ‘all’ of the State Pension funds are in the red pre-2008 recession, it’s only a wild guess what the real deficits are now.  This is why you should never trust anyone with your property and all of your labor should be paid to you and invested by you into your own private plan.  How can we trust them with the ‘trillions’ of dollars they plan to confiscate from our paychecks for healthcare and increased taxes/fees to our energy bills?

Yours In Truth  Winking smile  Shelly

image

Click the document to see the full report for all the States.

Monday, April 4, 2011

March Madness in Washington D.C.

It’s time for the citizens of the United States to demand that their elected representatives of this Great Country get a grip and implement fiscal sanity into the U.S. Federal Government at all levels. This posting is a wake-up call from those in-the-know about the fiscal insanity that is currently taking place with ‘our’ precious human resources, productivity and tax dollars.

Yours In Truth  Winking smile  Shelly

March Madness: U.S. Gov't Spent More Than Eight Times Its Monthly Revenue

Monday, April 04, 2011
By Terence P. Jeffrey

Erskine Bowles

Erskine Bowles, co-chairman of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsbility with his co-chair former Sen. Alan Simpson (R.-Wyo.) (AP photo/Alex Brandon)

(CNSNews.com) - The U.S. Treasury has released a final statement for the month of March that demonstrates that financial madness has gripped the federal government.

During the month, according to the Treasury, the federal government grossed $194 billion in tax revenue and paid out $65.898 billion in tax refunds (including $62.011 to individuals and $3.887 to businesses) thus netting $128.179 billion in tax revenue for March.

At the same, the Treasury paid out a total of $1.1187 trillion. When the $65.898 billion in tax refunds is deducted from that, the Treasury paid a net of $1.0528 trillion in federal expenses for March.

That $1.0528 trillion in spending for March equaled 8.2 times the $128.179 in net federal tax revenue for the month.

The lion’s share of this federal spending went to redeem Treasury securities that had matured during the month—most of which were short-term Treasury bills that have terms of one-year or less.

In fact, during March the Treasury redeemed $705.3 billion in Treasury securities of which $623.9 billion were short-term bills with a term of one year or less.

After the disbursements made to pay off the $705.3 billion in loans that came due in March, three of the other top four federal spending items for the month were entitlements programs. The other top item was payments to defense contractors.

The Treasury paid $49.8 billion in Social Security benefits in March, $47.4 billion in Medicare benefits, and $22.575 billion in Medicaid benefits. It also paid $37.9 billion to defense contractors.

To help pay off its $1.0528 trillion in monthly bills on only $128.179 in monthly tax revenue, the Treasury turned primarily to new borrowing. During the month, according to the Treasury statement, the government sold $786.5 billion in new securities. It also drew down its cash balance from $190.6 billion at the beginning of the month to $118.1 billion at the end of the month. It also reaped $18 billion from the sale of assets in the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

The federal government’s cash-flow situation was summed up pungently in Senate Budget Committee testimony by Erskine Bowles, who served as chief of staff to President Bill Clinton and is now the co-chair of President Barack Obama’s National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility. (See video below.)

“I'm really concerned,” Bowles told the committee last month. “I think we face the most predictable economic crisis in history. A lot of us sitting in this room didn't see this last crisis as it came upon us. But this one is really easy to see. The fiscal path we are on today is simply not sustainable.

“This debt and these deficits that we are incurring on an annual basis are like a cancer and they are truly going to destroy this country from within unless we have the common sense to do something about it,” said Bowles.

“I used to say that I got into this thing for my grandchildren,” Bowles said. “I have eight grandchildren under five years old. I'll have one more in a week. And my life is wonderful and it is wild. But this problem is going to happen long before my grandchildren grow up.

Continue to read this story by clicking here.

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Does Mitt Romney Have What It Will Take?

Okay! I know!  I know!  Governor Romney is currently best known for Romney care, giving in (or dropping out of) the 2008 Presidential race.  But, he is best known for rescuing the 2002 Salt Lake City, Utah, Olympics.  So, because of his leadership role in that, I spent the time to read this opinion written by the former Governor of Massachusetts.  After reading this piece, it felt that I could have written it myself…only there are no national publications seeking my opinion.  It really does not matter to me who gets that kind of credit.  The only thing that matters to me is, whomever is elected in 2011 and 2012, to local, state and national positions of public representation, must possess the attitude and passion to enact what former Gov. Romney wrote in this piece.  Please take the time to read this and click on the link for the rest of the story.  You’ll be glad you did.

Yours In Truth  Winking smile  Shelly

Romney: On jobs, where is Obama?

By Mitt Romney

Sometimes truth arrives from the most unexpected sources. Christina Romer, President Obama's former chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisors, said last week that she was dismayed at Washington's lack of focus on jobs.

By Alex Brandon, AP

"I frankly don't understand why policymakers aren't more worried about the suffering of real families," Romer said. "We need to realize that there is still a lot of devastation out there." She called the 8.9% unemployment rate "an absolute crisis."

How bad is it? Last week, in the blue-collar community of Taunton, Mass., the annual jobs fair was canceled because not enough companies came forward to offer jobs.

Defining Deviancy Down was the title of Daniel Patrick Moynihan's seminal account of how American society came to condone previously stigmatized conditions and behavior. Moynihan focused on the growing acceptance of the deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill, the expansion of single-parent families and the violence in inner cities. To his examples, we can now add joblessness.

Last year, unemployment averaged a shocking 9.6%. The previous year, at 9.3%, was only marginally better. So far in 2011, it has fallen to 8.9%. A consensus has emerged among some economists and politicians that we must accept historically high levels of unemployment over the next several years. Best case forecasts see a range between 7.5% and 8%.

Faces of despair

Even 7.5% unemployment means 11.5 million Americans without jobs. The human cost of that dry statistic can be detailed in a canvas of broken hopes and shattered lives. Workers at job fairs today …

Click here for the full story.