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Current Events A place for serious discussion of news and events from the world around us. |
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#1
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17 Trillion and Counting
http://www.usdebtclock.org/
We crossed the $17 Trillion line today. I heard on TV that we added $328 billion since just yesterday. Our incompetent leaders toss a billion here and a billion there and act like it doesn't matter. And with $17 trillion in debt, it almost doesn't matter. It is a staggering number. A friend says it is just too big to comprehend. I told her to think of it this way: A moderately successful worker will earn $2 million in a lifetime. That's my daughter's entire HS graduating class working 40 years at $50K just to make just a billion. How can we ask our kids to gather EVERYTHING they will ever earn, and all their friends will ever earn just to pay off a billion in debt? ... And we've added 300 more high schools since just yesterday. I don't know what the answer is but we have to do something. |
#2
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while I would never state that it is privy to this administration, it sure does look like anything goes. Here are some examples:
1.A reality TV show in India. The Department of Agriculture’s Market Access Program spends $200 million a year to help U.S. agricultural trade associations and cooperatives advertise their products in foreign markets. In 2011, it funded a reality TV show in India that advertised U.S. cotton. Studying pig poop. The Environmental Protection Agency awarded a $141,450 grant under the Clean Air Act to fund a Chinese study on swine manure and a $1.2 million grant to the United Nations for clean fuel promotion. Amtrak snacks. Federally subsidized Amtrak lost $84.5 million on its food and beverage services in 2011 and $833.8 million over the past 10 years. It has never broken even on these services. Using military exercises to boost biofuels. The U.S. Navy bought 450,000 gallons of biofuels for $12 million—or almost $27 per gallon—to conduct exercises to showcase the fuel and bring it closer toward commercialization. It is the largest biofuel purchase ever made by the government. Conferences for government employees. In 2008 and 2009 alone, the Department of Justice spent $121 million to host or participate in 1,832 conferences. The most unproductive and unpopular Congress in modern history – (Congress) $132 million .................................................. .............................................. 4 2. Professional sports loophole – (Taxes) $91 million .......................................... 7 3. OH SNAP! Junk food, luxury drinks, soap operas, and billions of dollars in improper food stamp payments – (Department of Agriculture) $4.5 billion .................................................. .................................................. ............................... 10 4. Oklahoma keeps unused airport open to collect federal checks – (OK) $450,000 .................................................. .................................................. ........................ 13 5. Moroccan pottery classes – (U.S. Agency for International Development) $27 million .................................................. .................................................. .................... 15 6. Out-of-this-world Martian food tasting – (HI) $947,000 .............................. 17 7. When robot squirrels attack – (CA) $325,000 .................................................. . 20 8. USDA’s caviar dreams – (ID) $300,000 .................................................. ............... 22 9. Bailed out tourist boat sinking private business – (AK) $3.3 million ...... 24 10. Phantom, unused grant accounts draw fees – (Department of Health and Human Services) $2 million .................................................. ..................................... 28 and from the Heritage foundation: http://www.heritage.org/research/rep...e-numbers-2012
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Having a dog named shark at the beach was a bad idea Why is there a highway to hell but only a stairway to heaven It's wierd being the same age as old people My mom didn't raise no dummy, if she did it would be my sister I told my wife to embrace her faults......she hugged me I took a DNA test- God is my father When I ask if you want me to be honest, please say no |
#3
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Chump Change
A million here and a million there and it starts to add up.
When I worked in the Pentagon, I helped the major warfighting commands find funds for "emergent" needs. We routinely found funding for projects in the 50 to 100 million dollar range. After 9-11 one of the commands asked for help in finding $1 million to test system integration to eliminate a national defense weakness. I remember telling him to look in the CINC's couch cushions for that kind of change. I wouldn't get out of the rack for anything less than 5 or 10 million. But, yes, we did find the money for the testing and corrected the weakness - just from a different pot of money. I can understand how the leaders fall into the trap. When you work with such big numbers, you forget what they mean. But I always tried to think of it as the first tax dollar I ever wasted was the last tax dollar I contributed. If I saved on one end, I didn't have to pay on the other. |
#4
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1.The Food Stamp Program paid out $1.9 billion in overpayments in 2009, according to GAO.An April 2012 undercover investigation by a Memphis CBS affiliate recently found food stamps being used rampantly to illegally buy non-food items including condoms.
A March 2012 investigation by a Baltimore ABC affiliate found food stamps being used in local stores to buy beer, cigarettes, and being exchanged for cash in stores.In 2011, a Los Angeles CBS station found recipients selling their food stamps on craigslist for pennies on the dollar. In Michigan, a woman who won $700,000 in the state lottery in September 2011 was still receiving full food stamp benefits in March 2012. According to the USDA Inspector General, two Detroit-area brothers convicted of more than $679,000 in food stamp fraud in 2002 were caught illegally buying food stamps at their store again in 2009 after they were re-admitted to the food stamp program. A 2-year joint criminal investigation led by USDA OIG disclosed that the owner, manager, and employees of two SNAP-authorized retailers in Cincinnati exchanged SNAP benefits for firearms, cash, stolen tobacco products, narcotics, and drug paraphernalia. According to the a USDA audit, from September 2007 to September 2009, the owner of a Brooklyn food store and her son exchanged SNAP benefits for cash in a series of trafficking transactions that amounted to $1.4 million. The USDA OIG found in 2011 that the Food and Nutrition Service did not require states to use the management reports provided by their EBT processors. Thus, neither New Jersey nor Florida (the two states audited) was using these reports to identify potentially fraudulent activities by SNAP recipients. The audit identified over 2,600 questionable transactions using these reports, totaling over $181,700 for a 1-month period
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Having a dog named shark at the beach was a bad idea Why is there a highway to hell but only a stairway to heaven It's wierd being the same age as old people My mom didn't raise no dummy, if she did it would be my sister I told my wife to embrace her faults......she hugged me I took a DNA test- God is my father When I ask if you want me to be honest, please say no |
#5
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Heat and Eat”:
A new abuse of the system has popped up in the last few years, whereby states provide a minimal LIHEAP benefit, such as $1, in order to expand food stamp eligibility and increase benefits. Under Food Stamp regulations, receipt of a LIHEAP benefit, regardless of the amount, enables Food Stamp recipients to maximize their Standard Utility Allowance (SUA). Using the highest allowable SUA in the Food Stamp benefit calculation may make otherwise ineligible applicants for Food Stamps eligible and may significantly increase Food Stamp benefits for many households. Some states are even sending LIHEAP check to households whose utilities are part of their rent just to get them on food stamps. In New York 115,000 households got a benefit increase of an average of $118 a month because of $1 LIHEAP checks. In Vermont 4,000 residents who live in public or subsidized housing with heat included in rent, received a $5 annual LIHEAP benefit payment that leveraged increases in their food stamp benefits from $10 to more than $60 a month. Maine residents living in subsidized housing with heat included in their rent are eligible for a one-time LIHEAP benefit not to exceed $5, which allows eligibility for Food Stamps. Washington sent $1 checks to every SNAP recipient in the state. Those token payments triggered an additional $43 million in SNAP benefits.
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Having a dog named shark at the beach was a bad idea Why is there a highway to hell but only a stairway to heaven It's wierd being the same age as old people My mom didn't raise no dummy, if she did it would be my sister I told my wife to embrace her faults......she hugged me I took a DNA test- God is my father When I ask if you want me to be honest, please say no |
#6
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1. The Obama administration has encouraged States to take advantage of categorical eligibility. In a September 2009 memo they write: “We encourage you to continue promoting expanded categorical eligibility as a way to increase SNAP participation and reduce State workloads.” In most states, that means households who receive cash and non-cash benefits under Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) are automatically eligible for SNAP. If a household is merely given a brochure funded by TANF, they will be automatically eligible for SNAP.
Another memo from the Obama administration explains: “With broad-based categorical eligibility, state agencies can effectively raise the income limit and raise or eliminate the asset test.” In Ohio, a woman with a $300,000 home, a Mercedes, and $80,000 in savings qualified for SNAP because, under categorical eligibility, these resources are not taken into account
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Having a dog named shark at the beach was a bad idea Why is there a highway to hell but only a stairway to heaven It's wierd being the same age as old people My mom didn't raise no dummy, if she did it would be my sister I told my wife to embrace her faults......she hugged me I took a DNA test- God is my father When I ask if you want me to be honest, please say no |
#7
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Rich, you are killing me. I read these kinds of reports all the time and shake my head over every one. But when you stack them up they start to really add up. I despise the "add on" benefits. One seemingly innocuous benefit triggers a landslide of additional gifts from the government.
My favorite is that any family that qualifies for SNAP (Supplemental being the key word) automatically receives free/reduced school lunches. Hey! I thought we were already paying for a supplement to the family food budget. They also qualify for Obama phones, free internet, subsidized childcare and the list goes on and on. As I said before, all these seemingly small expenditures of our tax dollars start to add up. The Heritage Foundation report was good reading. I can understand a deficit of a few billion or even a few hundred billion (but those should be rare and extreme cases). But when we start piling trillion dollar deficits year after year we can never recover. It is past the time to trim the budget. We need to slash spending. If we can do that, I can even accept some tax increases. But if we cut the waste, eliminate the fraud and kill the pork in the budget we probably won't need to raise taxes to reduce the debt to something we can live with. Sadly, with the current administration, Senate and House those things will likely never happen. |
#8
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I had to stop Runt........I was depressing myself. There are more. This administration is presently receiving the highest amount of $$$$ ever, and they want more. It is a simply a disgrace.
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Having a dog named shark at the beach was a bad idea Why is there a highway to hell but only a stairway to heaven It's wierd being the same age as old people My mom didn't raise no dummy, if she did it would be my sister I told my wife to embrace her faults......she hugged me I took a DNA test- God is my father When I ask if you want me to be honest, please say no |
#9
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In the end we have to face the fact that we are nearing the point where more people vote for a living than work for a living. I was not overly fond of Romney but he was correct with the 47% comment.
Most voters will not vote for a candidate that proposes cuts to benefits that particular voter receives or to programs that support that voters job/lifestyle. That is a key reason we see the current administration increasing the breadth of benefit coverage. If they can get more voters taking just a little bit, the tipping point moves just a little closer. |
#10
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Let us not forget the govt workers and their spouses...they'll not bite the hand that feeds them.........and the govt workers numbers are growing daily. I believe we are already at the point of "more voters than workers".
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Having a dog named shark at the beach was a bad idea Why is there a highway to hell but only a stairway to heaven It's wierd being the same age as old people My mom didn't raise no dummy, if she did it would be my sister I told my wife to embrace her faults......she hugged me I took a DNA test- God is my father When I ask if you want me to be honest, please say no |
#11
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:le sigh:
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#12
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All the pork is done for one reason and one reason only...reelection...
And since the dems and repubs are hand-in-hand in this marriage, they are more than happy to sign off on your pork as long as you return the favor and I'll see you on the links after our lunch with the lobbyists. And then every election season this very people come back to your town and tell you what they have been fighting for you in washington and why you need to vote them back.... Rebuplicans = Democrats = Politicians = Business As Usual In America |
#13
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Quote:
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The significant problems we have cannot be solved at the same level of thinking with which we created them- Albert Einstein Quinn: It was, kind of...what's that thing, when things turn funny? Moronic? Jane: I think you mean ironic Daria: She was right the first time |
#14
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Quote:
__________________
Having a dog named shark at the beach was a bad idea Why is there a highway to hell but only a stairway to heaven It's wierd being the same age as old people My mom didn't raise no dummy, if she did it would be my sister I told my wife to embrace her faults......she hugged me I took a DNA test- God is my father When I ask if you want me to be honest, please say no |