Are you starting to feel the country spinning out of control folks?
I am.
You know what...?
It is.
I notice that some of you HAVE been doing your own research and sharing your findings on FB. I'm really happy about that! The only problem... how many of your FB "friends and family" are interested in such posts?
(*SIGH*)
Well... I suppose if even one is... than that's better than nothing!
Anyway... let me get started...
The actual newsbites - as always - can be found in the comments section of this post.
Feel free to comment... to question... even to add your own newsbites!
7 comments:
* TWO-PARTER... (Part 1 of 2)
http://cfif.org/v/index.php/commentary/43/1991-obama-tripled-the-deficit-now-brags-he-cut-it-in-half
Familiar is the parable of the boy who murders his parents, then seeks leniency because he is suddenly an orphan.
When it comes to budget deficits, Barack Obama is more like the boy who knocks off his parents, then brags that he drove them to the morgue.
While his public approval rating plummeted this week to a new low of 37%, here was Obama in a press conference rationalizing his refusal to even negotiate over the nation’s debt limit: “Don’t tell us that the government is going bankrupt, when the deficit has been cut in half!”
* CUT IN HALF FROM THE HIGH WATER MARK SET BY YOU AND THE THEN-DEMOCRATIC CONGRESS...!!!
Obama tripled the deficit before he cut it in half.
* ONE MORE TIME...
Obama tripled the deficit before he cut it in half.
Consider that when he ran for the White House in 2008, the deficit was $498 billion in inflation-adjusted dollars. On the campaign trail that summer, Obama labeled that so severe as to be “unpatriotic”: “The problem is that the way Bush has done it over the last eight years, is to take out a credit card from the Bank of China in the name of our children, driving up our national debt from $5 trillion for the first forty-two presidents – number forty-three added $4 trillion all by his lonesome – so that we now have over $9 trillion of debt that we’re going to have to pay back - $30,000 for every man, woman and child. That’s irresponsible. It’s unpatriotic!”
* FOLKS... FOLLOWING THEIR ELECTORAL VICTORIES OF 2006, DEMOCRATS (PELOSI & REID) CONTROLLED THE HOUSE AND SENATE... THE ENTIRE CONGRESS... THROUGH THE END OF 2010.
* SO... JUST AS AN EXERCISE... CONTRAST 2001-2006 FEDERAL SPENDING WITH 2007-2008 FEDERAL SPENDING WITH 2009-2010 SPENDING WITH 2011-2014 FEDERAL SPENDING. THAT WILL TELL THE POLITICAL TALE!
* ANYWAY... CONTINUING...
So what did Obama do with that “unpatriotic” level of deficit spending? He tripled it. From a deficit of $498 billion in 2008, it shot up to $1.539 trillion in 2009.
* HE... TRIPLED... IT...
Before Obama, America had never witnessed a deficit of $1 trillion or more.
Since Obama, America suffered four consecutive years in excess of that amount.
* TO BE CONTINUED...
* CONCLUDING... (Part 2 of 2)
His 2010 deficit reached $1.387 trillion, his 2011 number hit $1.350 trillion and the 2012 shortfall was $1.120 trillion. The just-completed fiscal 2013 deficit came in at $759 billion.
* AND THESE DOUCHE BAGS IN WASHINGTON ARE PLEASED WITH A "MERE" $759 DEFICIT!
Thus, the “halved” 2013 deficit over which Obama brags is larger than the largest deficit of any president who preceded him. Even at the height of World War II in 1943, the deficit only reached $737 billion in current dollars.
Even excluding the 2009 deficit, which Obama’s dwindling number of shock troops falsely attribute entirely to George W. Bush, that leaves Obama with a four-year average deficit of $1.153 trillion. Include the 2009 deficit, two-thirds of which occurred after he was inaugurated, and his average rises to $1.231 trillion.
To provide additional context, the eight-year average Bush deficit that Obama labeled “unpatriotic” was just $297 billion. Even being charitable to Obama by removing the 2001 budget surplus from Bush’s tally and adding the entire 2009 deficit to it, he still averaged just $511 billion.
In other words, even in its most unfairly charitable light, Obama’s average deficit is more than double that of his all-purpose scapegoat predecessor.
Overall, according to the U.S. Treasury Department’s annual fiscal summary released this month, total federal debt held by the public has increased 90% during the Obama presidency.
* YOU'RE READING THIS - RIGHT?
According to the report, total public debt as of January 20, 2009 amounted to $6.307 trillion, but as of September 30, 2013, the end of the 2013 fiscal year, it amounted to $11.976 trillion. That’s a lot worse than the accumulation of debt that Obama labeled “unpatriotic” under Bush.
So what do we have to show for it? The single worst economic recovery in recorded U.S. history. The last recession officially ended all the way back in June 2009, but past that point we witnessed a record number of months over 8% unemployment, a decline in median income even after the “recovery” began, astonishingly low gross domestic product (GDP) growth, a doubling of the number of food stamp recipients and dangerous declines in adult workforce participation.
* AND INFLATION, FOLKS. FOOD AND FUEL INFLATION. MONEY RIGHT OUT OF OUR POCKETS... RIGHT OUT OF OUR STANDARD OF LIVING.
Moreover, Obama has deliberately failed to provide leadership in finding a long-term solution. He demanded the formation of the Simpson/Bowles Commission, but then completely ignored its 2010 recommendations.
* OBAMA PROMISED TO FUNDAMENTALLY CHANGE AMERICA. HE'S DONE SO.
http://foxnewsinsider.com/2014/08/05/doesnt-matter-anymore-trucker-records-video-frustrated-border-patrol-agent
* JUST WATCH THE VIDEO...
http://abcnews.go.com/International/us-soldiers-attacked-shooting-afghanistan-camp/story?id=24843479
An American general was killed today and 15 other soldiers wounded in an attack at a military academy in Afghanistan today. Eight of the 15 wounded are Americans, all of whom are expected to live, a U.S. official told ABC News.
* SOUNDS LIKE EVERYTHING IS UNDER CONTROL... NOT.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, in which a gunman wearing an Afghan army uniform opened fire on Americans and other Afghans at Camp Qargha, a military academy 11 miles west of Kabul. The camp trains hundreds of Afghan forces a month...
* INCLUDING PERHAPS THE GUNMAN!
Rear Admiral John Kirby said the shooter was believed to be an Afghan soldier.
(*SHRUG*)
A U.S. official described the shooting victim as a two star major general, the highest ranking official to be killed in the Afghanistan war. American generals usually have their own security details.
* I WONDER IF OBAMA WILL GO TO HIS FUNERAL? (HER FUNERAL?)
Today's shooting is the latest in a string of so-called "green-on-blue" attacks in Afghanistan, in which members of the Afghan forces have attacked U.S. and coalition forces. There have been more than 85 green-on-blue attacks during the war...
* ANY WHILE BUSH WAS PRESIDENT... OR ALL DURING OBAMA'S PRESIDENCY? (SERIOUS QUESTION! I DO BELIEVE IT'S THE LATTER!)
"We are in the process of assessing the situation," the ISAF Joint Command said in a statement. "More information will be released as we sort out the facts."
* WASN'T THE ISAF JOINT COMMAND ULTIMATELY IN CHARGE OF OVERSEEING SECURITY FOR THE GENERAL'S VISIT...???
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2014/08/05/federal-spending-transparency-money-missing/13485581/
A government website intended to make federal spending more transparent is missing at least $619 billion from 302 federal programs, a government audit has found.
And the data that does exist is wildly inaccurate, according to the Government Accountability Office, which looked at 2012 spending data. Only 2% to 7% of spending data on USASpending.gov is "fully consistent with agencies' records," according to the report.
* YOUR GOVERNMENT IN ACTION, FOLKS; OBAMA'S GOVERNMENT... OBAMA'S EXECUTIVE BRANCH...
The White House itself failed to report any of the programs it's directly responsible for. At the Office of National Drug Control Policy, which is part of the White House, officials said they thought HHS was responsible for reporting their spending.
* FOLKS... YA CAN'T MAKE THIS SHIT UP!
* TWO-PARTER... (Part 1 of 2)
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/barbara-hollingsworth/economist-social-security-worse-shape-detroit-s-pension-funds
“Social Security is insolvent,” Boston University economics professor Laurence Kotlikoff told the House Subcommittee on Social Security at a hearing on Capitol Hill Tuesday. “And it’s not bankrupt in 30 years, or 20 years, or 10 years. It’s bankrupt today.”
* THEY KNOW THIS; THEY SIMPLY WON'T ACKNOWLEDGE THAT THEY KNOW THIS.
“This is not my opinion. This is the only conclusion one can draw from Table IVB6 of the 2013 Social Security Trustee’s Report."
"This table reports that Social Security has a $23 trillion fiscal gap measured over the infinite horizon,” noted Kotlikoff, who also served as a senior economist on President Ronald Reagan's Council of Economic Advisers.
(See kotlikoff_testimony_7-28-2014.pdf)
“Twenty-three trillion dollars is 32% of the present value, also measured over the infinite horizon, of Social Security’s future revenues. Hence, Social Security is 32% underfinanced, which means it is in significantly worse financial shape than Detroit’s two pension funds taken together.”
Social Security’s debt also “swamps the $13 trillion of official debt in the hands of the public,” Kotlikoff testified.
And “the system’s off-the-books debt is growing at leaps and bounds – by $1.6 trillion between 2012 and 2013 – thanks to the approaching retirement of vast numbers of baby boomers.”
While “the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance and Disability Insurance (OASDI) Trust Fund fails the long-range test of close actuarial balance, it does satisfy the test for short-range (10-year) financial adequacy,” the 2014 Trustee's Report states. The “combined trust fund asset reserves at the beginning of each year will exceed that year’s projected cost through 2027,” it continues. However, “depletion of combined trust funds reserves” will occur in 2033.
* THE ABOVE IS NONSENSE. SOCIAL SECURITY WENT UPSIDE DOWN YEARS AGO. (I'M NOT SURE IF IT'S RIGHTED ITSELF AS OF YET, BUT EVEN IF IT HAS... THEY'RE STILL SIMPLY SPENDING "SURPLUS CONTRIBUTIONS" - IF ANY - WHILE ALSO COUNTING THE MONEY AS "EXISTING" IN THE FORM OF IOU's.)
* FOLKS... ANY CORPORATE MANAGEMENT... CEO/PRESIDENT... BOARD OF DIRECTORS... WHO TRIED TO RUN THEIR COMPANY RETIRE PLAN AS THE FEDS DO (AND AS STATE AND MUNICIPAL RETIREMENT PLANS DO) WOULD BE IN JAIL!
* TO BE CONTINUED...
* CONCLUDING... (Part 2 of 2)
According to Table VI.FI “Unfunded OASDI Obligations Through the Infinite Horizon” in the 2014 report, Social Security’s fiscal gap has increased to $24.9 trillion.
Social Security cannot “sustain projected long-run program costs in full under currently scheduled financing, and legislative changes are necessary to avoid disruptive consequences for beneficiaries and taxpayers,” the trustees state.
Kotlikoff also told House members that Social Security is now in “worse financial shape today than when the Greenspan Commission ‘fixed’ it” 31 years ago.
“Today, we are looking, in the current 75-year projection widow, at 31 years of negative cash flows, which the Greenspan Commission knew were coming and willfully ignored,” he said.
The economist also accused the system’s trustees of a “disinformation” campaign to keep Americans from finding out that “Social Security is in dire financial shape.”
* DUH!
“To their great credit, Social Security’s actuaries have been reporting the system’s infinite horizon fiscal gap every year since 2002. And to their great shame, Social Security’s Trustees have been ignoring this comprehensive measure of the system’s insolvency every year since 2002.”
* FOLKS... CONSIDER THIS: IT'S 2014. THIS ENTIRE GENERATION OF K-12 STUDENTS COULD HAVE BEEN TAUGHT THE TRUTH... YET WEREN'T. THINK ABOUT THAT.
“Unfortunately, those who proclaim the strongest desire to preserve and protect Social Security, particularly its Trustees, are doing their level best to destroy the system by ignoring or substantially understating its financial problems,” he said.
Although he praised Social Security for being a “lifeline for generations of Americans who would otherwise have spent their retirements in abject poverty,” Kotlikoff testified that “nothing short of a fundamental reform of the system” will save it.
“To pay its scheduled benefits in full through time, the Social Security system needs a 32% immediate and permanent increase in the future path of payroll tax revenues,” Kotlikoff noted. “Alternately, to prevent having to raise its FICA payroll tax rate, the system needs to immediately and permanently cut all benefits payments by 22%.”
He also pointed out that Social Security, which is 32% underfinanced compared to its obligations, “cannot be bailed out by the rest of our fiscal system,” which is 58% underfinanced.
(*GUFFAW*)
* FOLKS... SERIOUSLY... YA CAN'T MAKE THIS STUFF UP...!!!
In April, Kotlikoff told CNSNews.com that “the nation’s true fiscal gap is $205 trillion. The nation is completely broke.”
Kotlikoff urged House members to support The Inform Act (H.R. 2967 and S. 1351), which has been endorsed by 17 Nobel Laureates in economics. The bill would require federal accounting agencies such as the Congressional Budget Office, the Government Accountability Office, and the Office of Management and Budget to do “infinite horizon fiscal gap” accounting for every major fiscal bill introduced in Congress.
That would require them to calculate “the present value lifetime net Federal tax burdens facing each current generation of children 18 years of age and under, as well as each future generation.”
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