Tag Archives: sequester

Take Religion Out of Economics

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

I had lunch yesterday with one of the smartest guys I know, Steve Bell. Steve is a long-time Hill budget and tax expert.

I am, as you may know, arithmetically challenged.

This was largely a one-way conversation. Steve talked and I nodded, pretending to understand what he was saying. The part of the conversation I did get was this: The two parties no longer consider each other to be political opponents – each aiming for the same goal but choosing differing paths to get there.

Each of the two parties now considers the other to be not just a political enemy, but an enemy of everything the other believes in. We have traded political ideology for political religiosity. Continue reading →

Fun in Functional

BY JOHN FEEHERY
Reprinted from TheFeeheryTheory.com

Last night, as I welcomed a group of executives from the American Public Transportation Association, I said the following:  “Welcome to Washington, where we put the fun in dysfunction.  Well, at least it is fun for us.”

I then pointed out, “most economists think that the best thing you can do for the American people is to come up with a short-term plan to boost economic growth and a long-term plan to deal with our long-term fiscal crisis. What did the politicians do? They came up with short-term plan that could stall Continue reading →

Obama the Space Invader

BY JOHN FEEHERY
Reprinted from TheFeeheryTheory.com

When I was a teenager, Space Invaders was one of most popular video games.  The premise, for those who have recently arrived from space, was pretty simple: Shoot down incoming missiles that descended from the sky before they landed on your missile silos.

We seem to live increasingly in a space invader world.

Things keep coming down from the sky and it is getting harder and harder to shoot them down. Continue reading →

If We’ve Lost Walter…

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

America Held Hostage: Sequester Day 8

It didn’t snow in DC on Wednesday so I spent the entire afternoon watching Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) filibustering the nomination of John Brennan to be the director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Sen. Paul’s issue wasn’t with Brennan; it was with the refusal of President Barack Obama to describe his position on using drones to kill people generally, and Americans in particular, on U.S. soil. Continue reading →

Petulance

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

America Held Hostage: Sequester Day 6

President Barack Obama has shut the White House to visitors. A notice went out yesterday saying that due to the personnel reductions required by the sequester, there will be no public tours after Friday. According to USA Today a recording on the White House tour line was as follows: “Due to staffing reductions resulting from sequestration, we regret to inform you that White House Tours will be canceled effective Saturday, March 9, 2013, until further notice. Unfortunately, we will not be able to reschedule affected tours …”

In case anyone was too dense to get to the “baby puppies, calves, lambs, and kittens will die” part of the announcement, this: “We very much regret having to take this action, particularly during the popular spring tour season.” Continue reading →

Obama Has Overplayed His Hand

BY FRANK HILL
Reprinted from Telemachus.com

This ‘Dreaded Sequester’ will apparently only cut $42B out of this year’s fiscal budget. Not $85B as previously reported and feared.

That is according to CBO. That is also less than 1 penny out of every dollar the federal government spends this year. Even Joe Scarborough says so although Mika would disagree with him, of course.

Have you had to cut back a little more than 1 penny per dollar in your spending these past 4 years? Betcha have.

1 penny. Less than 1% of the budget this year. Continue reading →

Richard Milhous Obama

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

Well, well, well. Here we are. March first. Sequester day. America Held Hostage; Day One.

President Obama has been criss-crossing the country proclaiming the dire effects of March 1 if the Republicans in the House didn’t bow to his demands. We don’t know what his demands are, but he spent a lot of money accusing the GOP of not caving into them.

The Department of Homeland Security is made up, apparently, of the only group of people in America that believed Obama. A division of DHS got a jump on Sequester Day by letting “several hundred” illegal aliens who were in jail, out of jail and into what a spokesperson called “placed on an appropriate, more cost-effective form of supervised release. Continue reading →

How To Go $16.5 Trillion in Debt

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

A recent poll by the Pew organization showed that while those of us in our Nation’s Capital and the 2,375 people who watch cable chat shows are consumed by the looming sequester, the other 75% of Americans are just shrugging, sighing, and smiling knowingly that the world will go on after Friday.

The underlying issue about the size of the deficit (about $1 trillion for FY 2013) and the national debt (a touch under $16.6 trillion) is the way the government spends our money.

Not its money. Our money. Continue reading →