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POPS“A History lesson….Cry for Me, Argentina” 12.9.2009
Among Irigoyen’s changes: mandatory pension insurance, mandatory health insurance, and support for low-income housing construction to stimulate the economy. Simply put, the state assumed economic control of a vast swath of the country’s operations and began assessing new payroll taxes to fund its efforts. With an increasing flow of funds into these entitlement programs, the government’s payouts soon became overly generous. Before long its outlays surpassed the value of the taxpayers’ contributions. Put simply, it quickly became under-funded, much like the United States Social Security and Medicare programs. The death knell for the Argentine economy, however,came with the election of Juan Perón. Perón had a fascist and corporatist upbringing ; he and his charismatic wife aimed their populist rhetoric at the nation’s rich. This targeted group “swiftly expanded to cover most of the propertied middle classes, who became an enemy to be defeated and humiliated.”
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POPS The Senate Postmortem other Republican moderates or deal-makers who earlier this year were prepared to compromise. Some 18 Senate Republicans voted to more than double the size of the children's health insurance program in 2007 over the opposition of President Bush, and Mrs. Snowe and Messrs. Grassley and Hatch and others have long joined with Democrats for health-care subsidy expansions that most Republicans dislike. The GOP had no choice but to oppose this plan or completely abandon its principles. Read full WSJ post @ http://bit.ly/7lW0QL
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POPSThe Bondage of Debt of our nation's history. No matter how much money Uncle Sam extracts for his coffers, however, it appears it's never enough. The demand for entitlements continues to grow and liberals in government are only too willing to accommodate that demand by expanding the power of the nanny state. Contemporary society has been taught that when it comes to the world of finance, credit is king. Credit, we are told, is how we finance the good life. When Gordon Gekko told us that greed was good, we apparently believed him, and set about to prove his point. As a nation, we've racked up nearly $12 trillion in debt and have seen the budget deficit soar from $455 billion to $1.4 trillion in the last year alone. And in the same way a strapped homeowner takes out a second mortgage on his house to stave off financial ruin for one more year, Congress has time and again"in the name of the people's "general welfare" no less"voted to take on more and more debt to fund a ballooning list of
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POPSHey diddle didlle - they're still on the fiddle
Yet the Blackpool Labour stalwart has no problems of getting all the freebies he is entitled to, under his own rules, whilst former public servants drift away in silence. To add insult to injury, a former labour government removed the safety net of pension, paid for by his own donations, by changing the rules by which serviceman's pensions were calculated DOWNWARDS. To gain a full pension pre 1975 Social Security and Pensions Act one had to complete a full 22 years of the 22 year contract, which only came into force once you are eighteen years of age. That meant all those who gained medals before their 18th birthdays got NOWT, NOTHING, ZILTS, KISS YOU POLITICIANS FAT ARSE for service served and lives lost. Then all contributions to your own pension was arbitrarily cut from a 22 full part to 36. That is to say that if you did 21 years six months, instead of getting 21.5 of 22, ie, almost a full pension once your entitlement kicked in, you got 21.5 of a 36 full part. A third of your cont
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POPSHow farm subsidies aggravate world hunger Subsidized grain gets sold or given away to poor countries, driving local farmers there out of business. Then, when food prices rise worldwide, poor people cannot afford imported food and no farms are left to grow it locally.
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POPSObama Want’s All Your Halloween Candy If I snatched the pizza and slammed the door without paying, I'd have been a thief. If everyone defrauded them, the pizza shop, the delivery boy and the people who supply the pizza shop with ingredients would all go out of business. http://symbolic-mirage.blogspot.com/2009/10/obama-socialist-impact.html
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POPSLooking for a middle class
A sad depiction of how our middle class has been steadily losing ground to corporate dominance. This new economy is strangling the very people responsible for the success of many businesses who, along with government’s help, are creating this new economy. The days of job security are over. Beginning when companies began turning their ‘full-benefit’ employees into contractors to save the expense of providing those benefits. The middle class is about to be beat down even further when the drive to reduce the deficit and debt takes center stage. Reduction of Social Security, Medicare and other entitlements will be seen as the answer to rising costs and the middle class will be the biggest losers, again. Ms Cocco advises us to “Fight the myths. Break the back of the corrupt campaign finance and lobbying systems. These are hard political tasks. But being pushed further down is harder, still. Because no one knows where the new bottom lies.” Advice we would all do well to heed.
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POPSObama’s Tripling of the National Debt in Pictures In 2009, Washington will spend $30,958 per household "the highest level in American history" and under President Obama’s budget, the figure will rise above $33,000 by 2019. The public national debt" $5.8 trillion as of 2008" is projected to double by 2012 and nearly triple by 2019. Thus, America would accumulate more government debt under President Obama than under every President in American history from George Washington to George W. Bush combined. To put that $1 trillion dollars into perspective, have a look at what it looks like! http://izismile.com/2009/03/10/can_you_imagine_one_trillion_dollars_6_pics.html
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POPSRein in entitlements? No. Increase them, says James Galbraith. COMMENTARY | October 08, 2009 It's time the press stopped falling for false, ongoing efforts to portray Social Security and Medicare as going broke, says economist James Galbraith. To the contrary, increases in entitlement program benefits would provide a major boost to economic recovery. For reporters and editors Galbraith's message is: Separate propaganda from facts.
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POPSNo Drought Required For Federal Drought Aid
"In this county, we got a lot of questions from producers: 'Why are we eligible?' " recalled Tom Schneider, the head of the USDA office in Manitowoc County, where livestock owners got $1.5 million. "Our answer was 'Because we were told you were eligible.' " Several Wisconsin counties qualified on the basis of a two-year-old disaster declaration for a January 2001 snowstorm. "It was a nasty winter storm," recalled Teresa Zimmer, the USDA official in Green County. Asked how the storm affected ranchers, she said, "There were several days where livestock owners couldn't get to the market . . . to sell their animals." Ranchers in Green County collected nearly $1.5 million. One of those who got a payment was Cornell Kasbergen, who helps run family dairy farms in Green County and Tulare County, Calif. Family members received a total of $72,000 in livestock funds, records show. It was a program that was available that we took advantage of, did we have any losses? I couldn't tell you.
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POPSGreenback Acres - Growing the Welfare Crop The payments now account for nearly half of the nation's expanding agricultural subsidy system, a complex web that has little basis in fairness or efficiency. What began in the 1930s as a limited safety net for working farmers has swollen into a far-flung infrastructure of entitlements that has cost $172 billion over the past decade. In 2005 alone, when pretax farm profits were at a near-record $72 billion, the federal government handed out more than $25 billion in aid, almost 50 percent more than the amount it pays to families receiving welfare.
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POPSEver Wish Obama Was More Like Reagan? Even Ford and Carter did a better job at cutting government. Their combined presidential terms account for an increase of 1.4%—compared with Reagan's 3%—in the government's take of "national income." And in nominal terms, there has been a 60% increase in government spending, thanks mainly to Reagan's requested budgets, which were only marginally smaller than the spending Congress voted. The budget for the Department of Education, which candidate Reagan promised to abolish along with the Department of Energy, has more than doubled to $22.7 billion, Social Security spending has risen from $179 billion in 1981 to $269 billion in 1986. The price of farm programs went from $21.4 billion in 1981 to $51.4 billion in 1987, a 140% increase. And this doesn't count the recently signed $4 billion "drought-relief" measure. Medicare spending in 1981 was $43.5 billion; in 1987 it hit $80 billion. Federal entitlements cost $197.1 billion in 1981—and $477 billion in 1987. (Written in 1988)
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POPSMedia Dozes While Social Security Is On The Verge of Negative Cash Flow Morrissey points out that the report lays bare the fundamental incompetence and/or dishonesty earlier this year of Peter Orszag, President Obama’s Director of the Office of Management and Budget: …. Democrats wanted analysis that allowed them to ignore the problems in Social Security, and Orszag was happy to supply them. Douglas Elmendorf has had to right the ship at CBO while Orszag continues to blow his predictions at OMB, most notably in overall deficit projections, which Orszag had to admit were off by more than 40% and $2.2 trillion over the next ten years. Of course, they were helped along by a complacent media unwilling to do math, and a host of apologists for the Left. …. The situation at Social Security is much worse than this administration and Democrats in Congress want to admit. They want to continue busting the deficit and creating new entitlements while the existing ones careen towards collapse.
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POPSSo much food. So much hunger. "David Beckmann, president of the antihunger group Bread for the World, boiled the causes down into one unifying theme " 'a lack of give a damn.'"
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POPSThe White House Agrees With Joe Wilson? Seems to me maybe the White House and congressional democrats owe Joe Wilson and the American people an apology. He was right, Obama did lie, and now the White House may end up getting behind a proposal republicans made a while ago that was defeated by a straight line party vote.
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POPSUseful Idiots Upon being Free, Staying Free. God gives us all freedom and government takes it away. Man yearns for liberty and government takes it away. Take heed-see if you are an useful idiot.
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POPSSTUPID NATION By Rich Lowry Stupid enough to think increased preventive care will save the government money, just because President Barack Obama constantly repeats it despite all the independent studies to the contrary. Stupid enough to believe that a program with no cost controls that can be discerned by the Congressional Budget Office will control costs. Stupid enough not to worry that Obama's proposed superteam of technocrats operating outside normal political controls " the so-called Independent Medicare Advisory Council " will resort to rationing when costs continue to spiral upward. Stupid enough to consider it wise to use several billion dollars in cuts from Medicare to create a new entitlement rather than to forestall Medicare's own looming insolvency, currently projected for 2017. Stupid enough not to notice that the "public option" was explicitly designed by the left as a stealthy path to single-payer, even as liberals continue to talk and write about its ultimate purpose openly.
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POPSLawrence O'Donnell Exposes GOP Congressman's Hypocrisy On Government Health Care (VIDEO) Again, Culberson refused to give a straight answer and complained about O'Donnell's persistence. O'Donnell replied: "I don't want you to spin your time away here." Culberson later admitted that he would have voted for Social Security in 1935 and "probably" would have voted for Medicare in 1965. An exasperated O'Donnell asked the Congressman: "You know that Medicare is a completely government-run health care system and yet you're saying you would have voted for it." Culberson's response: "Yes"
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POPSObama's "Read my lips. No more taxes." Then Obama's National Economic Council director Lawrence Summers likewise said when asked about the middle-class tax hike on "Meet the Press" that it was "never a good idea to absolutely rule things out, no matter what." That's because Geithner and Summers both know that Obama's health care proposal is not a stand-alone item. In addition to unfunded Social Security and Medicare entitlements, bailouts and stimulus spending have already pushed the national debt to $37,813 for every man, woman and child in America. According to the IRS, the top 5 percent - which includes households earning more than $160,041 - already pays 60 percent of all federal income taxes. Even former Clinton Treasury official Leonard Burman admitted in a New York Times oped that "this idea that everything new that government provides ought to be paid for by the top 5 percent, that's a basically unstable way of governing." White House spokesman Robert Gibbs furiously backpedaled Monday . . . . .
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POPSHealth Care Reform That Works The Health Care Reform Bill Will Cost $500 Billion in New Taxes Posted by Michael D. Tanner House Democrats released their 1,018 page health care reform bill, America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009. This bill is a dog’s breakfast of bad ideas paid for by more than $500 billion in new taxes. The reform would impose an individual mandate on individuals, requiring every American to buy a government designed insurance package or pay a new tax equal to 2.5 percent of their income. At a time of rising unemployment, businesses would be required to provide health insurance to workers or pay a new tax equal to 8 percent of workers wages. These new taxes could drive the total cost to taxpayers much higher than the $500 billion in direct taxes in the bill. In addition, the bill includes a host of new insurance regulations that will drive up the cost of insurance premiums, and a new government-run insurance plan that will “compete” with private insurance.
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POPSWhy Europeans are Turning Against Obama Third: With the cradle to grave security guaranteed by government and the lack of job creation, the level of permanent unemployment has remained in the double digit range and the birth rate has so declined that in most countries it is below replacement levels. Fourth: Nearly all Western European countries are now faced with inevitable bankruptcy due to the excessive entitlements. In the past ten years, some in Europe have begun to wake up and realize this path can no longer be sustained and changes had to be made on a gradual basis. However, as long as the United States was there, not only to defend Europe but also to be the dominate economic power in the world, time was certainly on their side. President Obama's policies have now begun to open the eyes of the most hardened socialist in Europe and the reality of world without the United States being the economic and military super power thus potentially ushering in the demise of Western Civilization
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POPSTeddy K's turn Under The Obama Bus A plan that costs a trillion dollars won’t add to our deficit? Really? And adding a public plan on top of that won’t create an entitlement commitment on top of the collapsing entitlements of Medicare and Social Security, either. And the unicorns will run through the lollipop fields with the Easter Bunny to collect all of the lemonade raindrops for Peter Pan. Don’t forget to clap for Tinkerbell!
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POPSGo US Chamber of Commerce - Right On!!! "We're launching this campaign because those who make or influence economic policy must understand that a productive, competitive private sector is not something they can take for granted," "It is built on a system of incentives that offers opportunity and rewards for those who work hard and take risks. Take away those incentives through an avalanche of new rules, restrictions, mandates, and taxes and you will seriously undermine the wealth and job-creating capacity of the nation."
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POPS Bloggers Get Budget Briefing This booklet contains a series of 40 charts on federal spending, taxes, debt and deficits, and entitlements. The charts outline the increases in federal spending that are projected to occur during the Obama administration. Nicola Moore of the Heritage Foundation described the new material as “blogger-friendly.” Bloggers will be able to “save it and embed that image directly on blog,” Moore said. Moore added that this year, there is a new interactive feature with a flash graphic version of one of the charts. Moore also welcomes input from those who have new ideas for charts and other suggestions. The contents of the book can be found online at www.heritage.org/budgetchartbook. Brittany Fortier is an intern at the American Journalism Center, a training program run by Accuracy in Media and Accuracy in Academia.
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POPSState Tax Forms In some cases, primarily those in which early retirement benefits are payable to retired employees and spouses between ages 60 and 62, some occupational disability benefits, and other categories of unique Board entitlements, the entire annuity may be treated like a private pension.
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POPSMillennials Demand Suitable Environment to Grow Cannabis They think Obama can give them free college, free money, and free health care. They support Obama for his promised entitlements while ignoring the power he gains. They fail to recognize the debt he creates and the new taxes everyone will pay. They fail to see our country will soon be bankrupt at this pace.
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POPSWhatever... The Grand Obstruction Party truly is bereft of new ideas. Reading most any comment by a Republican these days makes one wonder if they all were abducted by aliens in 2000 and just returned to earth yesterday. Why would anyone take anything they say seriously? Let me make this clear - their Reagan Trickle Down plan does not work. We know this. Non-regulation does not work. We know this. Yet like mad men, they continue to tout the same actions to events and expect different results. We often here people say, "Americans aren't stupid". There is merit in that statement. Unfortunately, the same can't be said of some Republicans who rely on proven bad policy simply because it's the Conservative Way.
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POPS GOP Gloves Off For Budget Brawl The principles in the Republican budget will sound familiar: “limits the federal budget from growing faster than the family budget, ... provides universal access to health care and secures entitlements, ... lowers taxes, ... keeps energy and fuel costs low, ... ends the bailouts and reforms the financial system, ... keep the cost of living low.” Pence and the other Republicans at the news conference rapped Democrats and Obama for offering housing proposals that are no more than “failed policies that reward bad behavior and massively expand government programs.” “Contrary to the administration’s straw man diversions, Republicans do have our own ideas,” Pence said. “These are solutions that are complementary and in some cases can replace what we believe are misguided attempts to try to do the same thing.”
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