The Senate must move legislation to raise the federal debt limit beyond $12.1 trillion by mid-October, a move viewed as necessary despite protests about the record levels of red ink. The move will highlight the nation's record debt, which has been central to Republican attacks against Democratic congressional leaders and President Barack Obama. The year's deficit is expected to hit a record $1.6 trillion.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/08/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
$160,000 for every family of 4. Or they average value of the house the average family lives in, which also isn't paid off.
Posted by: ed ||
09/08/2009 6:51 Comments ||
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#2
Basically the whole countries land rent is being extracted for the benefit of bankers, not the American public.
#3
At this debt level, if interest rates hit 9% then ALL current federal revenue would be needed just to service the debt.
At the inflation level of the early 1980's 9% interest was well below 'prime', though above most federal borrowing rates.
#6
The Republicans need to put forth a plan that will reduce federal outlays while driving up revenues.
Here are just a few ideas:
1. Raise the eligibility age for social security to 67 and eventually to 70.
2. Suspend all COLA adjustments for 3 years.
3. Do the same as 1 for Medicare.
4. Means test Medicare recipients so that recipients contribute a portion of the cost. It should not be a free system to the user.
5. Eliminate whole federal departments (e.g. Education)
6. Reduce the corporate and capital gains rates
7. Simplify the tax code
8. Modify the health care insurance program for all federal employees so that it is no longer free to the employee and gold-plated.
9. Initiate a massive energy development program within and around the US continent (oil, natural gas, nuclear and green when it can sustain itself without government support.
10. Limit our efforts in both Iraq and Afghanistan. It is time that the government in Iraq stood on its own feet and time for us to realize that the government in A-stan is never going to even have feet. Leave and nuke from orbit if they ever get antsy again.
Bottom line, government at all levels has to get smaller, and fast, or we are going to be in very big trouble.
11. Require that states and cities enforce all Immigration laws or no Federal Dollars _whatsoever_.
12 Citizenship requirements for welfare, social security, non-immediate-life-threatening-medical, and just about all social programs. And picture positive ID for voting.
13 End Anchor Babies. If both parents are not here legally - the child doesn't automatically get citizenship.
#9
Must respectfully disagree with number one on remoteman's list about raising the age for Social Security. I hate the whole concept behind Social Security and I wish there was a fair way to make it go away or phase it out or something. But now that I've been paying into it all my life, dammit, I WANT MY MONEY BACK!!!
I mean, what if I croak before I get to be 67? Lots of guys do, you know. And then what happens to their money? Too bad. So sad.
Eliminate Social Security if you can find a fair way to do it. Get rid of Medicare while you're at it. Just gimme my money and stuff your cradle to grave security. Let me take care of myself. If I can't take care of myself then let me curl up and die. It'd be better than having to have somebody change my diapers.
#10
I too paid into Social Security all of my working life. I hope you made other plans than SS for your old age.
Unfortunately I suspect that the Democratic 'solution' to the Social Security bankruptcy is to, once again, take from those who have planned ahead and put money away _other_ than SS and give it to those who didn't (or to illegal alien votes) by making SS benefits 'means tested'.
By that I mean those who have worked all their lives, planned ahead and saved outside of the SS system will get much less SS benefits than those who only paid a little (or nothing). Yet another way to 'spread the wealth around'.
And wasn't there mention awhile back about taking IRA's and 401K's and placing them into a SS-like fund (so everyone can have equal shares....)
#11
"And wasn't there mention awhile back about taking IRA's and 401K's and placing them into a SS-like fund (so everyone can have equal shares....)"
I got a forwarded e-mail about something like that, laying it at the mouth feet of that ding-bat Nancy Pelosi. I didn't pay too much attention to it; now I'm thinking I should have.
I think that would be a bridge and a half too far, and would get some Congresscritters iced by extremely pissed-off retirees....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/08/2009 19:38 Comments ||
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#12
Who's going to set the new age cut for Social Security. People who don't do the backbreaking jobs that render those who do generally unfit by 65 let alone 70. It'll just be a 3 card Monty game with the cost being moved over to workman's comp or other government program to cover those who didn't have the kind of job that allowed them to make it to 70 healthy. Then watch that grow at an ever increasing number.
#13
Who's going to set the new age cut for Social Security. People who don't do the backbreaking jobs that render those who do generally unfit by 65 let alone 70. It'll just be a 3 card Monty game with the cost being moved over to workman's comp or other government program to cover those who didn't have the kind of job that allowed them to make it to 70 healthy. Then watch that grow at an ever increasing number.
As a member of the back-breaking labor set allow me to say when my back gives out for physical labor part of my industry, there are alternatives that will allow me to continue to work in a productive manner well into my golden years.
My current "retirement" plan is for me to be found slumped over a granite inspection table, a micrometer in one hand and my laptop mouse on the other with the laptop logged in via ssh to rantburg.com.
Seven years in prison don't appear to have changed former U.S. Rep. James Traficant's style whatsoever, and the 1,200 supporters who gathered at a Boardman banquet hall Sunday afternoon loved him for it.
"I was a quarterback. I was a congressman. Now I'm a convict," Traficant said, his signature toupee firmly back atop his head. "I wouldn't change one single thing. And to the powerful enemies that I have, I'll just say this to you: They had to cheat to convict me."
The crowd roared. After 15 minutes of remarks, hundreds swarmed the makeshift stage to shake his hand or ask for an autograph.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/08/2009 00:00 ||
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He was pro life and anti immigrant which made for agony within the Democratic leadership. By the end of his congressional career he was banned from serving on any of the committees. After his conviction he was expelled by a 420-1 vote. His only supporter was Gary Condit. His trademark was 'beam me up' made after incoherent speeches given on the floor of the House of R and covered by c-span.
Posted by: lord garth ||
09/08/2009 5:59 Comments ||
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#4
The "pro life and anti immigrant" stand, and the feud with the IRS, and the wholw Buford Pusser wanabee act, were all for show. The guy's a Mafia tool--a 100% owned subsidiary.
Motherfucking bastard.
Posted by: Mike ||
09/08/2009 6:31 Comments ||
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This Labor Day brings word of a new Gallup poll showing that American public support for labor unions has taken a sharp dive in the last year and is at its lowest point since Gallup began polling in 1936.
In response to the question, "Do you approve or disapprove of labor unions?" just 48 percent of respondents said they approve, while 45 percent said they disapprove. That's a steep fall from August 2008, when the numbers were 59 percent approve, 31 percent disapprove, and it's the first time approval of unions has ever fallen below 50 percent.
And we've seen the SEUI thugs beat up a black man in a wheelchair, just because he had a few questions for their man.
Before this year, American support for unions had remained remarkably stable for nearly four decades. In August 2001, in the first months of George W. Bush's presidency, Gallup's results for the same question were 60 percent approve, 32 percent disapprove. In August 1997, in Bill Clinton's second term, they were 60-31. In 1985, during Ronald Reagan's presidency, the figures were 58-27. In 1978, during Jimmy Carter's time in the White House, they were 59-31. And in 1972, during Richard Nixon's, they were 60-27.
The new poll also shows that many Americans believe the future is bleak for unions. In response to the question, "Thinking about the future, do you think labor unions in this country will become stronger than they are today, the same as today, or weaker than they are today?" 48 percent said unions will become weaker, versus just 24 percent who said unions will become stronger.
Broken down by political party, Gallup found support for unions has fallen the most among critically-important independent voters. Last year, 63 percent of independents said they approved of unions. Now, just 44 percent say the same thing. Among Republicans, 29 percent support unions, versus 38 percent last year. Only among Democrats does union support remain strong, although it, too, has fallen: 66 percent support today, versus 72 percent support a year ago.
The numbers do not bode well for Democrats' desire to pass the Employee Free Choice Act, or card-check, which would eliminate the right to a secret ballot in union elections, or even a weaker version of the bill, which would provide for mandatory arbitration in unionization battles. This Labor Day, for organized labor, the news is very bad.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/08/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Amazingly undemocratic organization especially in light of the last lines of the article.
Has anyone ever considered RFK when as chief counsel of the 195759 Senate Labor Rackets Committee having taken on the organization in late 50's received a payback from the organization in 1968
#5
A hundred years ago, the unions did heroic and valuable work, calling attention to appalling working conditions, child labor, and other horrors. At the same time, there were crooks and political activists using the unions for their own purposes.
With laws in place to protect workers, the unions became all about power and politics. Also, some organizations, having won their battles, don't know how to say, "We've reached our goals, now we can go home." Instead, they use the same rhetoric to justify all sorts of lesser goals. Like Jesse Jackson.
The comments from the original article note that the union activists attacking people at town hall and tea party meetings probably has a lot to do with the latest decline in people's view of unions.
#6
Unions serve a purpose - they provide a defense against management excesses. And without organized labor you can be sure there will be management 'excesses.'
However, it seems labors own union management rapidly evolves to exhibit its own 'management excesses' to the detriment of the workers themselves. And it is union management (and not labor) which is responsible for donating to various political entities and thus is the actual beneficiary of most labor legislation.
The best situation for the workers seems to be the 'threat' of unionization, without actually unionizing.
#8
Why do there need to be unions in the government sector? Government is not a sector prone to management excesses and there are certainly enough avenues to redress grievances should such excesses occur. Government unions are nothing but shake-down artists and the person being shaken is the tax payer.
The resignation of White House environmental adviser Van Jones has revealed a lapse in the administration's vetting procedures that, nearly eight months into his tenure, delivered President Obama with an unwelcome distraction as he begins an important week on behalf of his health-care reform initiative.
It's not a lapse, it's a design feature for the types of people Bambi wants ...
Except that apparently the White House did not vet Mr. Jones, who didn't have to fill out the form everyone else did.
That's because Val-gal said that Van was cool ...
Jones's resignation late Saturday came as calls for his ouster increased from Republican leaders, who have been critical of past statements and associations that have also taken the White House by surprise. His departure as a top adviser to the White House Council on Environmental Quality leaves Obama's push to create "green" jobs, which he has called an essential element of the more stable economy he is trying to build, without a leader.
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs on Sunday explained the resignation on ABC's "This Week With George Stephanopoulos," saying Jones "decided that the agenda of this president was bigger than any one individual." Obama does not endorse Jones's past statements and actions, Gibbs said, "but he thanks him for his service."
Jones, a towering figure in the environmental movement, had issued two public apologies in recent days. One was for signing a petition in 2004 from the group 911Truth.org that questioned whether officials in President George W. Bush's administration "may indeed have deliberately allowed 9/11 to happen, perhaps as a pretext for war," and the other for using a crude term to describe Republicans in a speech he gave before joining the administration.
His involvement with the now-defunct Bay Area radical group Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement (STORM), which had Marxist roots, also emerged as an issue. And on Saturday, his advocacy on behalf of death-row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal, who was convicted of fatally shooting a Philadelphia police officer in 1981, threatened to further deepen the controversy. A White House official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a personnel matter, said Sunday that Jones's past was not studied as intensively as that of other advisers because of his relatively low rank.
A czar is a low ranking position? Do the other ones know that?
Posted by: Fred ||
09/08/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
It is my understanding that none of the "tsars" are required to fill the paperwork that is needed by those reviewed by Congress (Cabinet, ect). I don't know about the Secret Service background checks, perhaps there are high level "waivers" involved?
#5
Jones' vetting hasn't taken a big enough bite out of Obama. My understanding, from a former Secret Service agent interviewed on some program (I don't recall which one), is that all people entering the White House and close to the president are vetted for obvious security reasons by the SS. Only the president can override any questionable persons, but he always seems to have some excuse, cover, or "plausible deniability" when it comes to his associations with radicals. Avoiding personal responsibility and accountability is an ingrained character flaw of the arrogant, but the bigger they are, they harder they fall. Perseverence and patience, my fellow RBrs--it will all come to light, hopefully sooner rather than later.
Controversial legislation that would make it easier to organize unions will pass this year, Vice President Joe Biden said today.
Appearing at a Labor Day rally in Pittsburgh, Biden praised the role of unions in building the middle class and said the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) will make it through Congress before the end of the year, the Associated Press reports. That's a very optimistic timeline, considering that Democrats are already putting all their legislative muscle behind healthcare reform.
Though the AP didn't quote Biden directly, it seems the vice president referred to the full name of the legislation rather than the familiar shorthand term "card-check." That's actually a big difference. "Card-check" refers to the most controversial part of the legislation, allowing a union to form via a collection of signed cards rather than a secret-ballot election. If that provision were dropped from EFCA, the legislation would certainly have an easier time making it to the president's desk.
A top AFL-CIO official hinted last week that labor organizations might be willing to compromise on the card-check provision.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/08/2009 00:00 ||
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"Biden praised the role of unions in building the middle class"
Keep repeating the lie, Joe.
A large middle class with seemingly endless bulletproof job security, composed of unskilled and semiskilled workers, was the result of a post WWII period where no other country in the world had an intact industrial base. It was a freakish economic blip, a unique set of conditions in history. The unions simply took ruthless thuggish advantage, and, if anything have made it more difficult to find a way from that time to where we need to be now to make our economy the best it can be.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
09/08/2009 5:50 Comments ||
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Former Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy II, the eldest son of Robert F. Kennedy, announced Monday he would not run for the U.S. Senate seat held for nearly 50 years by his late uncle, Edward M. Kennedy. The decision was certain to widen the race for the Democratic nomination.
The answer to JosephMendiola's question just before midnight.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/08/2009 00:00 ||
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Why would he want to be associated with something so bankrupt?
Politics in New Jersey is about as subtle as a fist to the mouth. And with each passing blow, it's becoming clearer that this year's governor's race is going to be especially brutish -- even by Jersey standards.
Nothing is off the table. Not even Republican Chris Christie's 2002 car accident with a motorcyclist who ended up in a hospital.
"I'm not sure if most of our classrooms have done away with drivers ed, but I think on behalf of our opponent, we should get that back into the curriculum," said state Sen. Loretta Weinberg, Gov. Jon Corzine's 74-year old running mate and a lady he calls "the feistiest grandmother I've ever met," at a press conference here Friday.
The event, held in front of an early education center in this blighted city, was ostensibly about education, but what Corzine and Weinberg really want to focus on is raising doubts about Christie, the former U.S. attorney who leads in the polls.
The line got a good laugh from a sympathetic crowd full of local educators, but Weinberg wanted it known she wasn't just having fun at Christie's expense. "Go for it," Corzine encouraged her.
"You know this is not a teenager we're talking about," she added. "He seems to have a set of rules for himself and another one for everyone else."
Don't pick on Corzine like that ...
With poor approval ratings, a sour economy, fresh examples of Democratic public corruption and a dyspeptic electorate, Corzine has little choice but to use an education press conference to hammer his GOP rival on a seven-year-old traffic wreck. His own path to victory, longtime political observers say and even his own campaign acknowledges, will likely only come by rendering Christie as an unacceptable alternative.
"New Jersey races tend to get intense, and this one is heading there more quickly," said Maggie Moran, Corzine's campaign manager. "I maintain, though, that the public has a right to know about our opponent's hypocrisy."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/08/2009 00:00 ||
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Is "Down and Dirty" something new in New Jersey? Thought it was "Same Old Same Old."
Rep. Barney Frank is interested in capping his political career as a member of the president's Cabinet, according to a new biography of the Financial Services Committee chairman. Frank (D-Mass.) told author Stuart Weisberg that he would like to be Housing and Urban Development secretary. However, the 69-year-old lawmaker stresses that his departure from Congress is not imminent.
Man oh man but the Senate confirmation hearing would be a lot of fun. Beck, Hewitt and Limbaugh would be beside themselves ...
I hear there's an opening for Green Jobs Czar.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/08/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Oh God Please No!
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
09/08/2009 4:04 Comments ||
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#2
Cabinet post? I didn't know we had a Secretary of Fiscally Irresponsible Gayness.
#17
My wife wants NEW KITCHEN CABINETS too....
but these fools in Washington and Goldman S... have flushed the economy....
Life is tough....
Deal with it Barney.
The rest of us need to...
Oh and I want to be 18 again...
In Cincinnati tomorrow, President Obama will announce that he's appointing Ron Bloom his Senior Counselor for Manufacturing Policy, White House sources tell ABC News.
Bloom is currently Senior Advisor to Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner as a member of the President's Task Force on the Automotive Industry, named to that position in February. He will remain in that position even while he takes on his new task.
A key part of the team that advised the White House on the struggling U.S. auto industry, Bloom and team pushed U.S. automakers General Motors and Chrysler to come up with viable plans for the future, pushed the CEO of GM to resign, and pushed the U.S. government agreed to become a major shareholder in GM, ponying up $50 billion.
Working with the Auto Task Force, President Obama also supported Chrysler entering into a "short, surgical bankruptcy" and entering into a deal with FIAT while agreeing to provide the company with approximately $3.3 billion in debt or in possession financing to support Chrysler though the chapter 11 proceeding
A former vice president of Lazard Freres & Co. LLC, Bloom was a restructuring expert for the U.S. Steelworkers. In his new position, Bloom will work with the National Economic Council, and the Departments of Commerce, Treasury, Energy, and Labor.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/08/2009 00:00 ||
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com·mis·sar (km-sär)
n.
1.
a. An official of the Communist Party in charge of political indoctrination and the enforcement of party loyalty.
b. The head of a commissariat in the Soviet Union until 1946.
2. A person who tries to control public opinion.
#2
A former vice president of Lazard Freres & Co. LLC, Bloom was a restructuring expert for the U.S. Steelworkers.
Re-structuring expert for the union? I see he is eminently qualified for manufacturing czar? BO is just paying off his debt to the unions.
We need to get rid of the czar concept for whichever party is in power, whether it be the dhimmicrats, communists, trunks or the Tea Party. The whole concept is anti-American and just a scheme to appoint people outside Congressional scrutiny and to give the Oval Office more power.
#5
What does a restructuring expert for the U.S. Steelworkers do? I have visions of consolidating what's left of the U.S. steel industry after the unions forced it offshore. And now he's gonna do the same for the automakers?
#7
We must welcome Ron Bloom and the bringing of kibbutzim. Forget the Shemini Atzeret. You will eat only if you have tilled and when we TELL YOU! Equal portions for all! Rahm and Axel are watching! Geithner is keeping the books!
Another creepy video featuring children singing the praise of Dear Leader Obama. I would hope this is intended as a parody...
Lyrics:
Hmm, hmm, hmm
Barack Hussein Obama
He said we must all lend a hand
To make this Country strong again
Hmm, hmm, hmm
Barack Hussein Obama
He said we must be fair today
Equal work means equal pay
Hmm, hmm, hmm
Barack Hussein Obama
He said we all must take a stand
To make sure everyone gets a chance
Hmm, hmm, hmm
Barack Hussein Obama
He said red, yellow, black, or white,
All are equal in his sight
Hmm, hmm, hmm
Barack Hussein Obama
Yes, hmm, hmm, hmm
Barack Hussein Obama
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Seven years in prison don't appear to have changed former U.S. Rep. James Traficant's style whatsoever, and the 1,200 supporters who gathered at a Boardman banquet hall Sunday afternoon loved him for it. 
This Labor Day brings word of a new Gallup poll showing that American public support for labor unions has taken a sharp dive in the last year and is at its lowest point since Gallup began polling in 1936.
The resignation of White House environmental adviser Van Jones has revealed a lapse in the administration's vetting procedures that, nearly eight months into his tenure, delivered President Obama with an unwelcome distraction as he begins an important week on behalf of his health-care reform initiative. 
Controversial legislation that would make it easier to organize unions will pass this year, Vice President Joe Biden said today.
Former Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy II, the eldest son of Robert F. Kennedy, announced Monday he would not run for the U.S. Senate seat held for nearly 50 years by his late uncle, Edward M. Kennedy. The decision was certain to widen the race for the Democratic nomination.
Politics in New Jersey is about as subtle as a fist to the mouth. And with each passing blow, it's becoming clearer that this year's governor's race is going to be especially brutish -- even by Jersey standards. 
Rep. Barney Frank is interested in capping his political career as a member of the president's Cabinet, according to a new biography of the Financial Services Committee chairman. Frank (D-Mass.) told author Stuart Weisberg that he would like to be Housing and Urban Development secretary. However, the 69-year-old lawmaker stresses that his departure from Congress is not imminent. 
In Cincinnati tomorrow, President Obama will announce that he's appointing Ron Bloom his Senior Counselor for Manufacturing Policy, White House sources tell ABC News.
