Here’s The Only Chart You Need To See To Understand Why The US Is Screwed

March 2, 2011

Business Insider
By Henry Blodget

We’re still working our way through Kleiner Perkins’ partner Mary Meeker’s excellent analysis of the financial condition of the United States.

We’ll be breaking out some key sections in the next few days. In the meantime, here’s the one chart you need to see to understand why the US is screwed.

This is the “income statement” of the United States in 2010.  “Revenue” is on the left.  “Expenses” are on the right.

Note a few things…

First, “Revenue” is tiny relative to “Expenses.”

Second, most of the expense is entitlement programs, not defense, education, or any of the other line items that most budget crusaders normally howl about.

Third, as horrifying as these charts are, they don’t even show the trends of these two pies: The “expense” pie is growing like gangbusters, driven by the explosive growth of the entitlement programs that no one in government even has the balls to talk about. “Revenue” is barely growing at all.

As we’ll illustrate with more of Mary’s charts next week, the US cannot grow its way out of this problem. It needs to cut spending, specifically entitlement spending. We hereby announce that we’ll give a special gold star to the first “leader” with the guts to say that publicly.

Here’s the chart.  Click for larger version. SEE ALSO: Your Short Course On Why The US Is Screwed

 USA income statement

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-only-chart-you-need-to-see-to-understand-why-the-us-is-screwed-2011-2#ixzz1FVxs1osC

The Democrat Project

December 18, 2010

Has anyone else heard about this? With all the harping that Democrats have been doing about tax cuts for the rich, they have actually decided to take matters into their own hands. It’s called the Democrat Project.

I didn’t believe it myself, but this comes from a reliable source. Rich liberals like Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Richard Branson, Ted Turner along with a host of the richest Democrat politicians including Nancy Pelosi, Jane Harmon, John Kerry and Al Gore have found the true meaning of Christmas and are banding together to give away money in San Francisco. They were all so upset that the tax rates remained in place for themselves, that they decided to go ahead and give it back to the people who really need it. How admirable is that?

You heard it here first. Although the date hasn’t been announced yet, these humanitarians are planning to give away $100,000 a person to the poorest San Francisco street dwellers in order to help make their lives better this Christmas. I am told it was supposed to be a secret so that what happened in Detroit didn’t happen in the City. But now the cat is out of the bag.

I am here to tell you I am really impressed by this gesture.

The challenge, I’m told, comes in how to choose who gets the money. Several ideas have been proposed at a secret meeting in the Pacific Heights home of a wealthy Democrat supporter who asked to remain nameless.

“We Democrats have long talked about helping the poor; now it is time to put our money where our mouths are,“ he said. “But then we thought about how were we going to start? With all the needy people in San Francisco we had to decide how to go about selecting the beneficiaries of our generosity.”

Right now the plan is to have people call a toll free number and register for their opportunity to receive the gift. Since the total amount of the pool has not been announced, we’re not sure how many people will actually end up being recipients. But what a great idea.

UPDATE: After careful thought, Democrats decided to hire union officials to disperse the money. After negotiations were settled, after salary, pensions and health care benefits to workers, there wash’t enough left to give away, so the idea has been shelved for now. Better luck next Christmas!

- FedUpEditor

More about the Tax Deal – OPINION

December 18, 2010

Friday morning I woke up fuming mad convinced that all incumbents had to go, Republican or Democrat. We had been told on the news all day Thursday that Republican Senators were considering voting for the pork barrel spending additions. That’s when I heard Reid had pulled the bill due to lack of support… from BOTH parties. I believe that is thanks to all of us who made phone calls and wrote letters. Again, the Tea Party Patriots ride to save the day!

Though there was relief that the omnibus spending attachment failed to get added to the tax extension, I still feel incumbents need to go because too many RINOS like Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins, Chuck Grassley and Lindsey Graham, among others, all too often feel that “getting things done” is Congress’s job, regardless of the legislation. Not so fast.

Had Congress “gotten things done” by locking in a Democrat budget for the incoming Republican House, it would not only have been an outrage, it would have been unconscionable. Democrats have been running government with a continuing resolution in lieu of passing a budget (which is unconstitutional by the way) so as to keep from shutting down government. Why was it so important to try and pass it? Politically speaking, so it could have been hung around the neck of the incoming Republican majority, even though they would have had nothing to do with it. Thanks to waffling from the likes of the Senators mentioned above, it almost happened!

Besides, who says it is such a bad thing to shut down government anyway? I look at all the government employees and about the only ones I think DESERVE lifetime pensions and healthcare are those who put their lives on the line every day. And that is NOT Congress nor the hundreds of thousands of bureaucrats who push paper from one office to another in federal, state and local governments. In fact, about the only ones I think deserve lifetime compensation for a job well done are police, fire and the military. This does NOT include the people at TSA. It’s just my opinion.

Government office holders’ benefits are based on tenure; how long they have been there, not how good their performance has been. Does how long a person has worked in a job really qualify them for 70% of their salary for the rest of their life? Those of us in the private sector are responsible for our own retirement. Why shouldn’t government employees be too?

FedUpEditor

What tax deal? – OPINION

December 16, 2010

This tax deal was a bad one to begin with. Originally all that was proposed was extending the Bush tax rates for two more years in exchange for continuing unemployment benefits, another unfunded liability, for 13 more months. Think about that. This would guarantee it to be another political issue around Christmastime next year. And what Grinch politician would vote against extending unemployment during the holiday season for those unfortunate enough to have lost their jobs… 3 years ago? Why not propose an extension for 4 months? Why not 6 months? Because Democrats want it to be an issue next Christmas as well. The worst part? We don’t have the money!

But remember; Democrats did not win the election. Conservatives (for the most part) did. This is not their Congress anymore even though they are technically in charge until January. So why are Democrats setting the agenda for next year and beyond? We have to stop them now and limit the damage.

The 2010 election was about getting rid of out of control government spending. So what were they proposing? Spending another $33 billion that we don’t have to pay people not to work. Pelosi and those who think like her say unemployment is the biggest stimulus we could have and would create jobs. If this is so, with unemployment going from around 5% when Bush was in office to nearly 10% after Obama and the Democrats started running everything, you would think our economy would be booming, right? Of course, sane people know those who share this erroneous opinion are just plain stupid. Still, it doesn’t stop them from continuing to espouse the lie. I guess if someone says it often enough eventually it becomes the truth. Thank you mainstream media.

Sorry, but I live just down the street from Rush Limbaugh in Literalville. By looking at the truth in what the economy is doing and has done in the past, we see that unemployment benefits do NOT stimulate the economy. Money sucked out of the economy to be given to non-producers stimulates nothing. It’s the bathtub analogy again where taking water from one end of the tub and pouring it in the other does not raise the level of the water. No new wealth has been created.

Next we have the fact that current tax rates are the status quo. So leaving them in place would give us more of the same, especially with the current rate Congress is spending. How would extending the Bush tax rates improve our situation? It won’t. What we need is to reduce government spending and lower taxes to spur economic growth. In the original proposal, spending would have been increased to pay unemployment benefits with money we don’t have. So obviously, the original proposal was a bad deal.

Now the bill has gone to the Senate for debate, and it is getting worse. What happened? PORK! After promising to end earmarks in the 2011 Congress, some Republicans have joined the pork fest by adding their own pet projects which have nothing to do with 1) unemployment benefits or 2) extending the tax rates. Even though theirs is just a small portion of the nearly $1.2 trillion in new spending being proposed by Democrats, it doesn’t make it right. Republicans need to listen to the people or risk losing the majority once again in 2012.

So to summarize, what started out as a simple tit for tat to extend the tax rates (and a bad deal at that) it has become a huge omnibus spending bill. It’s time to put a stop to it. Republicans need to stand strong an vote against this. They are in the minority, so if it gets passed, it will be hung around the Democrats’ necks for years to come.

There is so much more I could say about this lousy attempt at “bi-partisanship”. Early on when the media was whining about Obama caving to the “rich” by proposing the extension of the Bush tax rates, it was obvious to me that this will stimulate nothing. What we need is strong leadership from the Republicans. However, judging by the choices for committee chairmanships and the continuation of the “old boy network”, it’s obvious more of the incumbent Republicans need to go in 2012. They are just not listening to us.

Mick Orton

OPINION – Why “Decline to State” is cowardly

November 6, 2010

After Tuesday night’s election, someone came up to me and told me how corrupt the California Republican Party has become. There is no doubt about that.

With representatives like Morgan Kelley from Marin being sent to guide our politics in Sacramento and RINO Abel Moldonado being the GOP’s choice to run against Gavin Newsome (I call him Gavin Nuisance) there is no question why Republicans are in the minority in this state and Decline to States and Independents are becoming more common. Having Governor Arnold representing the GOP was another reason Republicans didn’t fare well. However, what I heard this person say next gave me the shivers.

“…That is why I re-registered as Decline to State,” they proudly announced.

It’s true I went on a rant to my wife about leaving California when I got home Tuesday night. Though heartened by the “red” wave across the country, I was discouraged that there were no major changes made for California. Then I realized the brave thing to do is stay and fight to change it. So that is what I am going to do… or die trying. Now is the time to double down.

I feel it is this frustration that causes people to leave the GOP and choose Decline to State. But is it not cowardly to say, “The Republican Party in California is corrupt and full of Democrat plants so I am leaving the party.”? How does the GOP get changed if everyone leaves it? Form a third party? Hell no! That makes sure the Democrat party remains the ONLY party in California.

So while I understand the frustration many people feel about the GOP choosing squishy RINOS, now is not the time to leave the party. Even more, now is the time to stand and fight back.

The MCRCC (Marin County Republican Central Committee) has already begun to clean house by removing the former “moderate” chair and replacing her with a more conservative member; a far better choice, in my opinion. And that is how it must be done all over the state, from the bottom up.

This year Decline to State voters were allowed to participate in either party’s primary election. But that may not always be so. It is important to be a part of the selection process if we are to get good solid conservative candidates to run. The only way to ensure that is to register Republican.

As many of you have pointed out in your responses to my Marin IJ letter, now that California is completely run by Democrats, perhaps we will have our New Jersey moment too. Let’s hope so for the sake of our state and our country.

FedUpEditor

California – Stuck on Stupid

November 6, 2010

The state is deeply in debt. Strict regulations and high taxes are chasing businesses out of state. People are following them in order to keep their jobs. What voters don’t seem to realize is the only place government can fund the government is with tax revenue they get from the tax base. Yet it’s shrinking while spending is going up. So what is California’s solution?

Vote to return the same group of people back into office… the ones who got us here in the first place. Jerry Brown should be saying, “Fooled you once, shame on me. Fooled you twice shame on you. Fooled you three times… what are you, stupid?”

After all, the man has failed as Governor, as Mayor of Oakland and now as Attorney General. In his latest role, responsible for enforcing immigration laws, he slams Meg Whitman for having an illegal alien work for her. Huh? Whose fault is that? Now he’s Governor again? Stupid is as stupid does.

Don’t be surprised if we see unemployment skyrocket as our state sinks deeper into debt. But we deserve it for re-electing the same fools who brought us to this place. The rest of the country got the message. It’s a shame California no longer leads the way.

FedUpEditor

Obama Wants to Extend the School Year – OPINION

September 29, 2010

An article by CBS News says, “Part of the Obama Education Agenda includes more money and extending the school year, as well as implementing an aggressive program for education reform. “ More money? And this is going to come from where? Oh, I forgot. Taxing the rich. If your kids were in love with Obama, that may not last long. And imagine the nightmare of planning summer vacations. Not only that but it will increase school budgets dramatically.

Moving on, let’s look at it this way. I grew up in Iowa and the school year was shorter than it is now. Our public education system was extremely efficient in teaching the basics: reading, writing and arithmetic. We were number one in the country during the 60′s. Now that schools are teaching diversity training, ethnic studies, conflict resolution, environmental issues and who know what else, there just aren’t enough hours in the school year that we need another month? Give me a break.

What worked in the past (much like our economic system that put us at the top of the food chain) will work today. Our education system needs to be reformed all right… reformed back to what it was when we were world leaders. It’s apparent the education system, as it stands now, does not work for the most part. Kids are being graduating without knowing how to read or write. This is not a matter of money. In fact, so much of it is going to education now that it’s time we look at WHERE the money is going. Can anyone say, “audit?” They talk about Big Business, I say what about Big Education?

Going back, why would another month needed in the school year? Is it that too many days are taken off during the course of the regular session that another month would fix that? And don’t most teachers assign homework? So isn’t most of the learning happening outside the school hours anyway? I don’t get it.

Part of the reason for extending the school year could be more time for indoctrination. I see so many little “hippies” leaving the Tam High school yard every day to sit over at the Safeway across the street and drink mochas or Jamba Juice or whatever. Little Liberals in the making. And the ones that drive have a Prius which daddy bought them and is plastered with “save the earth” or “eat vegan” bumper stickers.

How about this? What if the kids stayed in school and extra hour or two? Wouldn’t that take care of the much needed extra school month? It certainly would make it easier to shop at Safeway if nothing else! Bottom line? Extending the school year and giving education more money will never solve the problem of kids not learning. What needs to happen is change the system, run by the teachers’ union and turn it into a merit based system. Until we get politicians elected that are not beholden to unions will we see real change in education. Unfortunately it may already be too late.

FedUpEditor

Woolsey vs. Judd and Ruyle – Part 3

September 28, 2010

Woolsey vs. Judd and Ruyle – Part 2

September 28, 2010

Woolsey vs. Judd and Ruyle – Part 1

September 28, 2010