Tag Archives: debt

Poverty War

BY JOHN FEEHERY
Reprinted from TheFeeheryTheory.com

50 years ago, President Lyndon Johnson declared a “War on Poverty,” in the Chamber of the United States of Representatives. Johnson had only been in the Oval Office for three months, and the country was still reeling from the assassination of John Kennedy.

The Texas Democrat clearly wanted to change the subject from lingering concerns about who killed his predecessor. Nobody would have guessed that the Dixie politician would have put forward such a bold and liberal plan, but Johnson’s ambitions were seemingly boundless. Continue reading →

The Fall of the Motor City

BY JOHN FEEHERY
Reprinted from TheFeeheryTheory.com

Eminem is the best thing to come out of Detroit in the last twenty years. That, and the Clint Eastwood Chrysler commercial.

Detroit filed for bankruptcy yesterday.

No surprise there. Kind of like Whitney Houston dying. You can only dance on death’s door for so long before the door opens and lets you in.

It was a bunch of French Canadians who first saw Detroit’s immense promise. Antoine de La Mothe Cadillac joined with 51 others and founded a place they called Fort Ponchartrain du Détroit, which provided a wonderful gateway to the Great Lakes and the Great White North, better known as Canada. Continue reading →

Detroit. Bankrupt.

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

The City of Detroit filed for bankruptcy yesterday afternoon. It owes as much as $20 billion and there is no conceivable way that debt will ever be paid. The city offered its debtors 10 cents on the dollar but the debtors refused.

A good deal of the blame – rightly or wrongly – will be placed at the feet of municipal workers – sanitation, water, sewer, cops, firefighters and so on.

The pressure of ever-rising wages for no additional work, leading to ever-rising pension costs, plus ever increasing benefits and ever more closely defined work rules will likely be found to be at the bottom of all this.

But its not the unions’ fault. It is the fault of the elected officials – Democratic elected officials in Detroit – who didn’t have the, um, guts to ever say “No” to their largest voting bloc. Continue reading →

Duck Sex and Essential Government (Part II)

BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON

When last we commiserated about the sex life of ducks, we questioned why taxpayers were being billed (billed—ducks—get it?) for million-dollar National Science Foundation (NSF) research into the corkscrew-like genital appendage on the female duck that deters the unwanted advances of the male.

The study, now in its eighth year, is just one of hundreds of taxpayer-funded projects that presumably hold the promise of scientific discovery and the eventual benefit to society worth the investment. And maybe that will turn out to be the case.

Though science projects are a budgetary breeding ground of questionable spending priorities and outright waste, there are others much worse.

Remember the Las Vegas retreat for General Service Administration employees? How about the Internal Revenue Service spending $49 million on conferences? Continue reading →

The Coming Nanny State

BY JOHN FEEHERY
Reprinted from TheFeeheryTheory.com

The welfare state begets the nanny state.

I was thinking about this fact in the context of the Mayor of New York, the immigration debate, and our national debt.

Michael Bloomberg may or may not care about the personal health of his constituents. What he definitely cares about is the rising cost of health care in his city, and that is why he is doing his level best to create the world’s largest day-care center in the Big Apple.

Bloomberg is trying to get New Yorkers healthier by banning trans-fat, cutting down on the amount of soda pop consumed, and by keeping cigarettes out of the sight of those who might be tempted to smoke merely by the sight of smokes. Continue reading →

Big Government vs. Small Government

BY FRANK HILL
Reprinted from TelemachusLeaps.com

When we find things that are better-written, more clear and to the point than anything we can write on a subject, we try to reprint it for your edification. Such is the case with most things Chuck Blahous writes. See for yourself:

Last week House Republicans, under the leadership of Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, unveiled their draft budget for the coming fiscal year. Senate Budget Committee Democrats also released their budget blueprint assembled by Chairman Patty Murray. Continue reading →

Populism Run Amok

BY JOHN FEEHERY
Reprinted from TheFeeheryTheory.com

First published in The Hill.

Andrew Jackson was our nation’s first populist president.

He ran against the moneyed Eastern Establishment and abolished the Second Bank of the United States.

Jackson also was the only president to pay off our national debt. Soon after erasing the debt and squashing the national bank, an early version of the Federal Reserve, the American economy went into a severe depression.We have never paid off our national debt again. Continue reading →

Blue Mountains and Budget Cliffs

BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON

WINTERGREEN, VA (Oct. 7, 2012)—The Blue Ridge Mountains are spectacular, even on a cold, overcast gray day in October. The leaves are turning color and the tranquility is sedating. Crisp 40-degree temperatures sharpen the senses, but still beckon you outdoors for slow walks and casual conversations.

Congressman Paul Ryan is here, preparing for his debate later in the week with the Vice President, jovial Joe Biden, the man who always says just a little more than he should. Continue reading →