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2010
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August
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- The Last Hurrah...???
- Barker's Newsbites: Tuesday, August 31, 2010
- The Man is an A--hole... (And that's all there is ...
- Barker's Newsbites: Monday, August 30, 2010
- Restoring Honor - August 28, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Friday, August 27, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Thursday, August 26, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Wednesday, August 25, 2010
- Is Hamas a Terrorist Organization?
- Barker's Newsbites: Tuesday, August 24, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Monday, August 23, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Thursday, August 19, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Tuesday, August 17, 2010
- So... when's the last time you got new tires?
- Barker's Newsbites: Monday, August 16, 2010
- Weekend Newsbites: Sat. & Sun., August 14 & 15, 2010
- Harold Curtis VanDemark
- Barker's Newsbites: August 13, 2010
- Vernon Baker
- Barker's Newsbites: Thursday, August 12, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Wednesday, August 11, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Tuesday, August 10. 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Monday, August 9. 2010
- Weekend Newsbites: Sat. & Sun., August 7 & 8, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Friday, August 6, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Thursday, August 5, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Wednesday, August 4, 2010
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August
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About Me
- William R. Barker
- Pearl River, NY High School Class of '81; Northeastern University, Boston, MA Class of '87.
9 comments:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-11/u-s-is-bankrupt-and-we-don-t-even-know-commentary-by-laurence-kotlikoff.html
* HERE - GET A LOAD OF THE OPENING SENTENCE!
Let’s get real. The U.S. is bankrupt. Neither spending more nor taxing less will help the country pay its bills.
(*SNORT*)
* HEY... GOTTA LOVE THE CANDOR, RIGHT...???
Last month, the International Monetary Fund released its annual review of U.S. economic policy. Its summary contained these bland words about U.S. fiscal policy: “Directors welcomed the authorities’ commitment to fiscal stabilization, but noted that a larger than budgeted adjustment would be required to stabilize debt-to-GDP.”
* IN PLAIN ENGLISH...
[T]he IMF has effectively pronounced the U.S. bankrupt.
(*SIGH*)
Section 6 of the July 2010 Selected Issues Paper says: “The U.S. fiscal gap associated with today’s federal fiscal policy is huge for plausible discount rates.” It adds that “closing the fiscal gap requires a permanent annual fiscal adjustment equal to about 14% of U.S. GDP.”
* BY "ADJUSTMENT" THEY MEAN "CUT." SINCE A CUT AIN'T GONNA HAPPEN... (*SHRUG*) FOLKS... IT'S GONNA BE BAD.
To put 14% of gross domestic product in perspective, current federal revenue totals 14.9% of GDP. So the IMF is saying that closing the U.S. fiscal gap, from the revenue side, requires, roughly speaking, an immediate and permanent doubling of our personal-income, corporate and federal taxes as well as the payroll levy set down in the Federal Insurance Contribution Act.
[T]he Congressional Budget Office's Long-Term Budget Outlook, released in June, shows an even larger problem: Based on the CBO’s data, [Laurence Kotlikoff, the author of this piece] calculates a fiscal gap of $202 trillion, which is more than 15 times the official debt. "This gargantuan discrepancy between our “official” debt and our actual net indebtedness isn’t surprising. It reflects what economists call the labeling problem. Congress has been very careful over the years to label most of its liabilities “unofficial” to keep them off the books and far in the future. For example, our Social Security FICA contributions are called taxes and our future Social Security benefits are called transfer payments. The government could equally well have labeled our contributions “loans” and called our future benefits “repayment of these loans less an old age tax"...”
We have 78 million baby boomers who, when fully retired, will collect benefits from Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid that, on average, exceed per-capita GDP.
* GET IT...?!?!
[The federal government has] run a massive Ponzi scheme for six decades straight, taking ever larger resources from the young and giving them to the old while promising the young their eventual turn at passing the generational buck.
* AND THAT'S JUST A FACT, FOLKS... (*SIGH*)... NOT DEBATABLE.
Herb Stein, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under U.S. President Richard Nixon, coined an oft-repeated phrase: “Something that can’t go on, will stop.” True enough. Uncle Sam’s Ponzi scheme will stop. ... And it will stop in a very nasty manner. The first possibility is massive benefit cuts visited on the baby boomers in retirement. The second is astronomical tax increases that leave the young with little incentive to work and save. And the third is the government simply printing vast quantities of money to cover its bills. Most likely we will see a combination of all three responses with dramatic increases in poverty, tax, interest rates and consumer prices.
This is an awful, downhill road to follow, but it’s the one we are on.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704164904575421613093659730.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop
To treat Washington's spending addiction, the November elections are the taxpayer's best chance to stage an intervention. But until then, President Obama and the Democratic Congress are determined to keep pushing strung-out state governments to take one more fix.
Witness yesterday's 247-161 largely party-line House vote to approve a Senate bill shovelling another $26.1 billion out to state education and Medicaid programs.
* TWO RINOs BROKE RANKS AND VOTED WITH THE DEMOCRATS: MICHAEL CASTLE, (RINO-DE) AND JOSEPH CAO (RINO-LA).
Maintaining the salaries and generous benefit plans for members of teachers unions is indeed a top Democratic priority. That's why $10 billion of the bill's funding is allocated to education, and the money comes with strings that will multiply the benefits for this core Obama constituency.
Specifically, the bill stipulates that federal funds must supplement, not replace, state spending on education. Also, in each state, next year's spending on elementary and secondary education as a percentage of total state revenues must be equal to or greater than the previous year's level.
* YOU FOLKS ARE FOLLOWING THE "LOGIC" OF THIS, RIGHT? OBAMA, PELOSI, REID AND THE DEMS ARE DELIBERATELY PUMPING UP SPENDING LEVELS FAR BEYOND THE STATE'S ABILITIES TO SUSTAIN THEM AND THEN LOCKING THE UNSUSTAINABLE SPENDING LEVELS IN!
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/aug/10/arizona-sheriffs-call-ice-chiefs-visit-a-stunt/
In July the Obama administration said it would send 1,200 National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border on Aug. 1 for a year-long deployment...
The full deployments have not taken place.
* INSTEAD, THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION IS SENDING U.S. IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS ASSISTANT SECRETARY JOHN MORTON TO ARIZONA. (*SNORT*) (*SMIRK*)
Two key sheriffs along the Arizona-Mexico border on Tuesday called a planned visit by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Assistant Secretary John Morton a "political stunt" and described as "pathetic" Obama administration attempts to "cover up its inaction in protecting our borders."
"The administration blew past their promised Aug. 1 deadline to send 524 National Guard troops to Arizona, and now they are trying to appear concerned by sending the ICE director, who recently received a vote of 'no confidence' by ICE's union," Arizona Sheriffs Paul Babeu of Pinal County and Larry Dever of Cochise County said in a tersely worded statement.
* THE REST OF THE PROMISED DEPLOYMENT WAS SCHEDULED TO BE: 250 TO TEXAS, 224 TO CALIFORNIA, 72 TO NEW MEXICO, and 130 TO SOMETHING CALLED A "NATIONAL LIAISON OFFICE."
Noting that Mr. Morton's planned visit Wednesday follows an aggressively litigated lawsuit by the Justice Department against Arizona over a tough new state immigration law, they challenged President Obama and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, a former Arizona governor, to visit the border themselves.
"While he may be on vacation or fundraising, we in Cochise and Pinal counties cannot take a vacation from the hundreds of thousands of illegals that continue to break our laws each day and threaten the safety and security of our residents," said Sheriff Babeu, president of the Arizona Sheriffs' Association.
"As hidden-camera footage from the border has shown, illegal immigrants coming across the border are skirting our laws and placing our deputies in harm's way," said Sheriff Dever, a member of the board of directors of the National Sheriffs' Association and a former president of the Arizona Sheriffs' Association.
"It seems as though the administration's standard procedure is to slap us with a lawsuit and delay help when we ask them to do their job," he said.
ICE did not respond to an e-mail for comments on the Babeu-Dever statement.
http://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta/crowd-waiting-for-housing-589653.html
A crowd of people hoping to get federal housing assistance became unruly Wednesday morning with reports of fights breaking out in the crowd.
* THIS TOOK PLACE IN EAST PORT GEORGIA, WHICH AS I GATHER IS A PART OF GREATER ATLANTA.
Thousands of people were lined up at the Tri-Cities Plaza shopping center, hoping to apply for a voucher from the East Point Housing Authority that will give them a discount on their rent.
* AND WHY WOULD THESE PEOPLE EXPECT GOVERNMENT VOUCHERS FOR DISCOUNTS ON THEIR RENTS...???
People began lining up at the shopping center two days ago, and by Wednesday morning the crowd had grown to over several thousand people. East Point police, some wearing riot helmets, were patrolling the area. Firefighters and EMTs were attending to people who were overheating in the sun. Police from College Park, Hapeville, Fulton County and MARTA assisted in crowd control.
* AMERICA IN THE AGE OF OBAMA... (*SIGH*)
Felecia McGhee told the AJC she arrived around 6:30 a.m. Wednesday. She said the major problem began when people started breaking into the line and officials started moving the areas where they were handing out applications. She said she saw at least two small children trampled when the crowd rushed the building where the applications were to be handed out.
East Point Police Sgt. Cliff Chandler...estimated the crowd at 8,000 to 10,000.
* ARE YOU F--KING S--TING ME...?!?! SOUNDS LIKE GAZA, NOT ATLANTA, GEORGIA!
* FOLKS... WE'RE LOSING OUR COUNTRY. JUST BECAUSE (FOR THE MOMENT!) WE'RE ONLY READING ABOUT IT OR WATCHING IT ON TV AS OPPOSED TO GETTING CAUGHT PHYSICALLY IN THE MIDDLE OF IT... (*SIGH*)... WELL... THAT DOESN'T MEAN IT'S NOT HAPPENING.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/38658978
The Obama administration is providing $3 billion to unemployed homeowners facing foreclosure in the nation's toughest job markets.
* THAT'S MY FRIGG'N MONEY THEY'RE "PROVIDING"...!!!
The Treasury Department says it will send $2 billion to 17 states that have unemployment rates higher than the national average for a year. They will use the money for programs to aid unemployed homeowners. ... Another $1 billion will go to a new program being run by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. It will provide homeowners with emergency zero-interest rate loans of up to $50,000 for up to two years.
* WHILE I PAY 5.9% ON MY CAR LOAN...??? WHILE MY KID PAYS INTEREST ON HER STUDENT LOANS...???
The administration was required to launch the HUD emergency loan program by the financial regulatory bill signed by President Barack Obama last month.
(*SMIRK*)
* BUT I THOUGHT THAT BILL WAS ABOUT "REGULATION" AND "ENDING BAILOUTS." SEEMS LIKE WHAT IT DID WAS MANDATE A FURTHER $3 BILLION IN BAILOUTS RIGHT HERE!
The Treasury are using money from the $700 billion Wall Street bailout...
* WHICH WAS SUPPOSED TO GO TO SHORE UP THE BANKS I THOUGHT - THUS "WALL STREET" BAILOUT.
* LIES AND DECEIT; THAT'S ALL WE GET OUT OF THESE PEOPLE.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.a23419fa91b88a81502fae648d152780.121&show_article=1
The U.S. trade deficit widened sharply in June to the highest level in 20 months on rising imports from China and waning exports...
* THE OBAMA RECOVERY PRECEDES APACE...
The trade gap grew at its fastest monthly pace on record to reach 49.9 billion dollars, threatening to erode already slow economic growth. "This is spectacularly terrible," said economist Ian Shepherdson of High Frequency Economics, explaining that rising imports eat in to already anemic U.S. growth figures.
* YA THINK...?!?! (*SMIRK*)
It is "bad news for real GDP growth in the U.S., which will be further reduced by the effects of rising imports," said Moody's Economy.com's economist Christopher Cornell.
Facing lackluster growth and a high jobless rate, the US Federal Reserve on Tuesday vowed to renew crisis-era measures that pumped hundreds of billions of dollars into ailing markets...
* MORE UNSUSTAINABLE DEBT... IT'S LIKE POURING GASOLINE ON A FIRE... (*SIGH*)
The central bank downgraded its assessment of the health of the U.S. economy...
(*ROLLING MY EYES*)
* JUST ANOTHER BANNER DAY IN THE AGE OF OBAMA...
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704901104575423601722830706.html?mod=WSJ_hps_LEFTWhatsNews
The U.S. government spent itself deeper into the red last month, paying nearly $19.9 billion in interest on debt...
* ALMOST $20 BILLION IN INTEREST ALONE... ALMOST $20 BILLION IN INTEREST ALONE FOR JUST ONE MONTH...
Federal spending eclipsed revenue for the 22nd straight time, the Treasury Department said Wednesday.
(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)
The $165.04 billion deficit...was the second highest for the month on record. The highest was $180.68 billion in July 2009.
* HMM... I DON'T RECALL BUSH HAVING BEEN PRESIDENT IN JULY OF 2009; NOR DO I RECALL REPUBLICANS CONTROLLING BOTH HOUSES OF CONGRESS IN JULY OF 2009.
So far in fiscal 2010, the government spent $1.169 trillion more than it made.
For all of fiscal 2009, the U.S. ran a record $1.42 trillion deficit. Fiscal 2010 might run a little higher - the Obama administration sees $1.47 trillion.
(*SNORT*)
Years of deficit spending by Washington have led to a mounting national debt. Interest payments so far in fiscal 2010 amount to $185.25 billion; by contrast, corporate taxes collected by the government during the same 10 months were $139.71 billion.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704901104575422581368407018.html?mod=WSJ_hps_MIDDLEThirdNews
The remains of four of the six Americans killed during a medical mission in northern Afghanistan have begun the journey back to the U.S., the U.S. Embassy said Wednesday.
Elsewhere, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization reported that a U.S. service member died Wednesday following an insurgent attack in southern Afghanistan.
(*SIGH*)
Ten members of an International Assistance Mission medical team - six Americans, two Afghans, one German and a Briton - were ambushed and killed Aug. 5 by gunmen in Badakhshan province.
http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article/543310/201008101851/Little-Brown-and-Biased.aspx
* CAUTION: EVEN I FOUND THE FOLLOW HARD TO BELIEVE!
Phil Angelides is former head of the California Democratic Party...
[This same] Phil Angelides [presently serves as] Commission Chairman [of the] Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission...
The Democrat-run Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission has retained a major publisher to help sell its false narrative that Wall Street caused the housing crisis.
* READ THE FULL EXPOSE. YOU'RE NOT GONNA BELIEVE THIS ONE!
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