JUST SOME POSTS

The current administration is being labeled with many names. Most of these are due to two of the major activities being carried out (or that are being tried to be carried out!) - dealing with and deporting illegal aliens and government spending. I will leave the former for later after just saying that having a country where anyone can show up and get similar (or better?) benefits than long-standing citizens, there is a serious issue. Starting out by breaking the law is no way to start a relationship. But, enough of that subject. On spending. Since reading details does not seem to be what a lot of folks do these days I will break it down to the heading of this post - WE ARE BROKE! I am going to offer many facts and figures to document this, but if you don't read any further, remember that fact.  I have not given my list of absolutes in a while, as I do not post nearly as much. I have been writing books for the last seven years and that takes time that I would have spent writing here...

 Well, even though the media is doing what they always do and making the budget dispute now seem to be unique and disastrous, it is neither. Just since 1980 there have been 10 government shutdowns. Some were for only certain branches of the government (in a bit of disclosure, I am not sure how the government can only shut down only some parts) and some were for only one day (actually only part of one day).  The last two were during the Trump administration. Those times the executive branch (Trump administration) wanted to set some limits on spending and the Democratic controlled Congress did not. The entire government was shut down for three days in January 2018 and then in December of 2018 the majority of the government was shut down for 35 days into January of 2019.  During the Obama administration there was a complete government shutdown for 16 days. The Obama administration was trying to increase spending and the Republican led Congress was trying to set limits. (See ...

 Here it is headed towards the middle of the fifth month of 2023, a year that I began promising myself I would start posting regularly again! Oh well... I am moved to do this post due to the totally manufactured "debt crisis" that Congress is foisting upon us, the taxpayer - AGAIN!  Why do we have to raise the debt ceiling again? What is the debt ceiling? Why does any of this matter? The debt ceiling was put into place in its modern form with the Budget Acts of 1939 and 1941. This established a limit to how much debt could be incurred by Congress to try to cap the cost of borrowing and spending. The issue has been, especially of late, that Congress just passed another set of rules saying they could increase this limit at will. (obviously assuming that the two parties could agree on the amount and vote it through) So, the limit is really just a suggestion, more or less. The debt ceiling has to be raised because Congress/the Federal Government is spending more than is being tak...

As I am writing this Congress appears to be about to pass and send to the President to sign, a "bailout" bill to help offset the financial effects of Covid-19. (The Senate has passed their version and it is moving to the House for a vote today) The total price tag is going to be in the neighborhood of $2,000,000,000,000 (two Trillion, with a "T").  That is over $5,500 for every man, woman, and child in the US that will have to be paid back at some point. I wanted to put the amount into perspective. Did you realize that the TOTAL SPENDING of the federal government of the US did not equal or surpass $2 Trillion until 1990. That year the total expenditure was $2.08 Trillion.  Nine years later in 1999 the total expenditures of the federal government equaled or exceeded $3 Trillion for the first time with a total of $3.06 Trillion.  Only five years later in 2004 spending equaled or exceeded $4 Trillion for the first time (helped along by spending after 9-11). The ...

I am very, very dismayed at the current state of affairs in Washington, especially concerning the budget. I have posted on various other times about our need for term limits (the House of Representatives was set up with two year terms for a reason - rollover), responsible elected "leaders" that will make tough decisions, and responsibility from the elected and the electorate. If you have an interest in my thoughts on these matters, dig around the archives here. You might find a surprise or two anyway, this blog is VERY eclectic. The current issue of the budget and the idiotically named "fiscal cliff" arguments are extraordinarily annoying. First, the much touted 'fiscal cliff" was created by the politicians that are whining about it now. The great gnashing of teeth that is taking place amongst the members of congress and the news media is ridiculous. The "cliff" was created by the inability of the elected to do anything about the actual budget p...

I have put off posting for so long I thought I would do one this evening. As I have mentioned before, I have not had a lack of ideas, but too many. I was going to do politics (and some will consider this politics, but I am talking "pure" politics - this is political, but not politics), but I have done so much of it in the past that it would be redundant. I ask you to go read some of the from 2008 and 2010 if you wish to know more. They all still apply. This post is about the idiotic notion that is out there about taxing the rich, and how they are not "paying their fair share". I have done posts about this subject in the past as well, but I think this is a bit of a different take on the subject. Why "idiotic"? Here are some facts - as you should know (and again, I have posts on this prior to this) the top 5% of people based on income pay over 50% of federal income taxes. The top 1% pay over 35%. Now, they have a large percentage of the income, so maybe ...

I almost hate to do this one for fear of running off people that don't want serious posts, or get bored with the same subject; but I feel I have to. My last post went into the problem we have in this country with finances, specifically government finances. There are way too many people in this country that believe the government can just spend money whenever and on whatever they want (including a lot of politicians!). I won't redo that post. If you care, you can go look yourself. This post however is going to be similar. I am gravely concerned about our national debt. Mostly because the spending/budgeting by the government seems to be ignoring it. The U.S. national debt now stands at over 14 TRILLION dollars! 14 Trillion! Our GDP (gross domestic product - the combined value of all goods and services of an economy) is about 14 Trillion dollars. So, the U.S. owes as much as it produces. Now this is not as much as is earns - but produces. Compare this to an individual that owe...