The Department of Energy Before we even think about increasing taxes perhaps we should eliminate entire departments of the federal government. Many think the Department of Education serves no purpose and represents pure overhead with no benefit. Here is something I received from a friend regatrding the Departemnt of Energy. If even half of this is true every single employee should be dismissed and the building(s) that house this boondoggle should be bulldozed so we do not have to waste any more energy maintaining them. Does anybody remember the reason given for the establishment of the DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY..... during the Carter Administration? Anybody? No? Didn't think so! Bottom line: We've spent several hundred billion dollars in support of an agency...the reason for which not one person who reads this can remember! Ready?? It was very simple . . . and, at the time, everybody thought it very appropriate. The Department of Energy was instituted on 8/04/1977 TO LESSEN OUR DEPENDENCE ON FOREIGN OIL. Hey, pretty efficient, huh??? AND, NOW, IT'S 2010 -- 33 YEARS LATER -- AND THE BUDGET FOR THIS "NECESSARY" DEPARTMENT IS AT $24.2 BILLION A YEAR. IT HAS 16,000 FEDERAL EMPLOYEES AND APPROXIMATELY 100,000 CONTRACT EMPLOYEES, AND LOOK AT THE JOB IT HAS DONE! THIS IS WHERE YOU SLAP YOUR FOREHEAD AND SAY, "WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?" A little over 33 years ago, 30% of our oil consumption was foreign imports. Today 70% of our oil consumption is foreign imports. Ah, yes -- the good old Federal bureaucracy!! NOW, WE HAVE TURNED THE BANKING SYSTEM, HEALTH CARE, AND THE AUTO INDUSTRY OVER TO THE SAME GOVERNMENT? Hello!! Anybody Home?
Here is an article detailing one of our greatest expenses.....the cost of war: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43573008/ns/world_news-south_and_central_asia/ Looks like Bin Laden gets the last laugh as his actions have damned near bankrupted us.
Wow great news. Our involvement in Lybia must be entirely cost free. At least that's the impression one gets if you read the MSNBC article which completely ignores the cost of that military action. Could it be because it's Mr. Obama's War?
I'll bet the group that did the study didn't have the data on Libya or it is not catagorized as a "war"......just military action which is a very large category if you look at all of the limited action military maneuvers that we have been involved in over the years.
Creative accounting at it's finest.....if we tallied the cost of entitlements in the same manner, the number would be in the hundreds of trillions leaving defense spending as still only a fraction of the entitlement burden. In spite of the liberal efforts to ignore and deflect, we cannot solve the problem of structural deficits and keep the economy on firm footing without reducing entitlement spending.....it's just not possible and we can continue to kick the can down the road if we like, but that's a helluva nasty thing to do to our children and theirs.....
:idea: We won't be able to solve any problems until we get a leader in the White House to replace the empty suit that we have now. I could only stand a few minutes of his speech today, then I had to go do something else. My rule is: I listen until I hear the first lie. Once again, it came quickly. He railed against all the fat cats who fly in private jets... It was just last week that he praised the private jet industry for "creating new jobs" and he pointed out that millions in stimulus money was poured into the private aircraft industry. Before I could even reach for my remote control to turn him off, he also quickly blasted "rich hedge fund managers" and "Wall Street fat cats"... uh...wasn't he just raising campaign funds on Wall Street with those same rich fat cats just three days ago? I'm going to have to keep that remote closer to the couch. That guy's lies are coming faster than I can react to them...
Here is the president's press conference as viewed by Weasel Zippers... Update 12:45 PM EST: Press conference is over. Below are the updates as they happened real time. •Here comes Mr. Wonderful … 9 minutes late. •“Right now” Congress give me more money. •“Right now” X 10 times •Fear mongering on budget cuts. •“I spent two years cutting taxes” with a straight face. •“Corporate jet owners” need their taxes raised. •“Corporate jet owners” X 3 times. •“Call me naive” ok, you’re naive. •“Corporate jets” X 4 •“Corporate jets” X 5 •“Corporate jets” X 6 •Another talking point, “time limited, scope limited” in Libya. •Won’t say if War Powers Resolution is constitutional. •DOMA is “unconstitutional” •“I’ve discovered a President can’t dictate” Yes, really. •NLRB suit against Boeing is okay. •When asked point blank, refuses to say “victory” is our objective in Afghanistan, only to be “successful” •“Pathway for illegals” aka amnesty. •More fearmongering, if debt ceiling isn’t hiked. We’ll pay China and not Social Security. •Congress ran up this debt, he had nothing to do with it. •“I am not engaging in scare tactics” •Invoking his daughters Malia and Sasha for some unknown reason. •“I’m amused when people say the President needs to show more leadership” . . . “I put Joe Biden in charge of debt talks” •Complaining about Congress not showing up to work! •End.
Cost of entitlements after the present value of money has been determined for the trillions taken from hard working Americans by the government to pay for those/their entitlements?
The government has NO money for ANYTHING......EVERY nickel they spend for EVERYTHING that they spend it on is "taken from hard working Americans by the government to pay for those...." If you accumulated the money taken from hard working Americans to pay for SS and Medicare and the present value of those contributions at the present rate and deducted the payments made and the present value of the future obligations under the present schedule, we have an unfunded liability of almost $50 TRILLION dollars that will have to be paid by.....hard working Americans to the tune of approx $400 thousand per household.....congrats Gator, you have a mortgage payment you didn't realize with more on the way........you tell me, how is that going to work. It will not go away, facts are very sticky things..... http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2011-06-06-us-debt-chart-medicare-social-security_n.htm So again, we are in the same place.....what suggestions do you have for the President?
There is a real disconnect here and Dave is not alone. The government works for US, not the other way around. WE pay the bills, not them.
It appears that growing up into our 50s we were working hard and not paying at all for our own future......just the future of those older than us. So here we are......having paid into these programs for 35 plus years and we are are left holding the empty bag.........nice.
We are agreed.....the program as designed is simply unsustainable given the current demographics. The tragedy of it all is that this is not a new revelation.....we've known for 20 years that this point was inevitable but nobody had the sack to deal with it..... George W made an effort in his second term, but it just could never get beyond the politics.....at some point and we are closer now than we have been in centuries, politics will break us.
At the present rate of divisiveness you and I are agreed. Here is a tough solution.......but I am trotting it out there anyway. When you are 25 and someone says you will not have a safety net......you MUST put your money in a sock drawer for retirement purposes ( I mean come on.....trust in anything in this country is a thing of the past ).......then at least you have a fighting chance. When you are 65 and your earning career nears the end and then the plug is pulled form your finaces that is much harsher and unforgiving. Maybe the youngsters should contribute to the plans as they have been all along but with some sort of additional mandatory retirement plans other than Social Security. The "Sock Drawer" Fund might be the mandatory plan for instance. With regard to healthcare......we might be left with no choice but to socialize the entire system.......and hopefully control costs by doing so. Everyone must contribute to the system as well......no wait......this sounding suspiciously like Obama Care..... :roll: I give up...... :shock:
:roll: Obama's attack on America's aircraft industry was taken up by Democrats across the board today as part of their campaign strategy; thus proving that the speech was indeed a calculated and coordinated political screed and not a serious attempt to reach compromise over the federal budget. We knew that. Obama hasn't even proposed a budget for this year, nor did he propose one last year either. If you're one of the 1.2 million Americans who work in the general aviation industry, you just got thrown under the bus... http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/06/30/aviation-industry-assails-obama-for-cynical-call-to-end-corporate-jet-tax-break/
So why can't those business execs with private jets live like frugal folks...like Democratic members of Congress? http://www.businessinsider.com/nancy-pelosis-in-flight-food-and-drink-costs-101000-2010-1
That's a lot of booze! Of course I'd have to drink a lot myself to justify supporting her, working for her, or being her!