Captain Obvious Moment of the Day: Debt Unsustainable, We Must Stop Borrowing From China

Thank you Captain Obvious… err… I mean Obama!

Captain Obvious

Ironically enough the debt and the borrowing that Obama is concerned about will mostly come from his irresponsible spending habits within his first 100 days.  When Dick Morris mentioned that Obama’s first 100 days would come back to haunt him, he was right!

President Barack Obama, calling current deficit spending “unsustainable,” warned of skyrocketing interest rates for consumers if the U.S. continues to finance government by borrowing from other countries.

“We can’t keep on just borrowing from China,” Obama said at a town-hall meeting in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, outside Albuquerque. “We have to pay interest on that debt, and that means we are mortgaging our children’s future with more and more debt.”

Holders of U.S. debt will eventually “get tired” of buying it, causing interest rates on everything from auto loans to home mortgages to increase, Obama said. “It will have a dampening effect on our economy.”

That calls for a big “DUH!” but that is simple common sense, something that is much like an endangered species in the halls of D.C.

The amusing part of all of this is the fact that Obama is just simply unwilling to look in the mirror and realize that he has quadrupled the debt and increased our deficit more than any other president in history.  He has spent more in his first 100 days than all presidents throughout history combined – and that includes Bush to all you liberals.

Obama continuously uses the blame Bush rhetoric for having to take “drastic” measures, but as any intelligent human being should realize, when the government and politicians make things out to be a crisis, yet you don’t really feel that way (unlike a physical attack against your country), you should be incredibly wary.  Politicians lie, they lie to pass an agenda, and Obama is a genius when it comes to manipulation, deceit, and drama.

Earlier this week, the Obama administration revised its own budget estimates and raised the projected deficit for this year to a record $1.84 trillion, up 5 percent from the February estimate. The revision for the 2010 fiscal year estimated the deficit at $1.26 trillion, up 7.4 percent from the February figure. The White House Office of Management and Budget also projected next year’s budget will end up at $3.59 trillion, compared with the $3.55 trillion it estimated previously.

Two weeks ago, the president proposed $17 billion in budget cuts, with plans to eliminate or reduce 121 federal programs. Republicans ridiculed the amount, saying that it represented one-half of 1 percent of the entire budget. They noted that Obama is seeking an $81 billion increase in other spending.

We are now learning that the supplemental spending for war funding and emergency funding that is sitting in the House and Senate are both over $90 billion at this point.  There will most likely be a compromise of some sort between the House and Senate but I believe that the real amount of additional appropriations will most likely stay above the $90 billion threshold.

Let’s not forget that under the Obama administration and this radical left Congress that government is growing and the private sector is shrinking.  Entitlement programs are growing because liberals know that the more you can put your thumb over people and oppress them by getting them “hooked” on entitlements and the government, the more they will win votes… that’s just cruel.

The issue is that we are going to go bankrupt quicker by upping the ante on entitlements.  Entitlements themselves are already unsustainable.

Baby boomers — that 70-million-strong population lump — begin officially retiring this year. That means the government’s bill for retirees’ pensions and health care has no where to go but up, for decades to come.

Everyone knew this day would come. And virtually every economist and actuary who had run the numbers could tell you, within a few years’ certainty, the system was going bankrupt.

But all this seemed to happen in the distant future. Last year, both political parties virtually ignored the topic during their presidential campaigns. It became a non-issue issue.

Well, thanks to a profligate federal government, which will double the national debt to $11.5 trillion in just four years, and a recession that has weakened federal tax revenues, we can no longer ignore the problem. The day of reckoning is at hand.

The Social Security Board of Trustees reported Tuesday that costs will exceed revenues in 2016 — a full year sooner than expected just last year. And total assets — including more than 70 years of “surpluses” built up in the “trust fund” — will be completely gone by 2037 — four years earlier than in last year’s report.

The deficit over the next 50 years is expected to be about 2% of taxable payrolls — up from 1.7% last year. By the way, changes in the last year alone have added $5.3 trillion in costs to the program.

Long-term, unfunded liabilities for Social Security and Medicare top $53 trillion — about four times the size of current GDP. Taxes must either rise or benefits shrink by that amount to close that gap.

Maybe we could try to work on some issues that really matter, those that could possibly destroy people’s lives?  Instead of criticizing private social security accounts, maybe we should revisit the idea and work from there.  Many economists argue that private accounts of some sort would be more cost effective and better for everyone.

We also cannot forget that Obama and his lefty contemporaries want to reform health care and create a possible single payer system.  Many do not believe that the single payer legislation will get passed, but something that makes the private sector compete with the public sector by providing a choice.  The issue that I have/see with this “competition” is how the government can become so forceful and, as it has done in the past, force out of business anything competing with it.  Either way, any additional programs provided by the government must come out of taxpayers’ pockets, so medical care will never technically be free – it will only be free to those who don’t work or pay taxes.  This is the crux of the problem.  Health care provided by the government will just increase our debt to China even more…

Obama is concerned with China?  He’s concerned with owing the Chinese more and more?  Well, maybe if we took a look at the recent auto industry news regarding GM it would be evident that all we do is take China’s money, give China jobs, and all in all are in the pocket of China.

As thousands of General Motors workers await word on more U.S. plant closures, reports that the company plans to import Chinese-made vehicles to the U.S. have created a political problem for the automaker and the White House.

The reports, which GM will neither confirm nor deny, could mean trouble because GM is supported by $15.4 billion in U.S. government loans, largely due to the Obama administration’s desire to preserve the company’s 90,000 U.S. jobs.

The United Auto Workers charged last week that the Detroit automaker intends to almost double over the next five years the number of vehicles it imports to the U.S. from Mexico, South Korea, China and Japan.

“GM should not be taking taxpayers’ money simply to finance the outsourcing of jobs to other countries,” Alan Reuther, the union’s Washington lobbyist, wrote in a letter to U.S. lawmakers.

Maybe if the Unions were not allowed to lobby on Capitol Hill to force the hands of Democrats and completely crush the auto industry, this would not have been a problem and the outsourcing of jobs would not have been so enticing to the ailing auto giants.  But why would Democrats ever put the good of the country or an industry over that of a big donor?

I have an idea for all who read this – let’s attempt to elect someone who is for the people, by the people – not bought and paid for.  Let’s elect somebody who is honest and integrity means more to them than politics and agenda… Stop electing these corrupt, pathological liars and maybe we can get our country back on track.

Obama Budget Dumps Funds for Jailing Illegal Immigrants and Teaching Abstinence

President Obama voted in the Senate to provide additional funding for a program targeted for elimination by his budget that provides states a federal subsidy to offset the costs of jailing illegal immigrants.

Killing the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAPP) would save $400 million, according to Obama’s budget for fiscal 2010 released Thursday. It’s one of the largest non-defense discretionary cuts proposed in the president’s budget.

Think along with me here folks… Each illegal immigrants, studies show, cost Americans roughly $1 million dollars.  Democrats are trying to push through a new Amnesty bill for nearly 12 million illegal immigrants.  $1M x $12M = More than $400M! The logic of Democrats make absolutely no sense at all.  They never plan ahead or measure the possible long-term repercussions of their actions.  Obama sees money that can be cut now – so he doesn’t, or can’t, look beyond that.  This action will actually cost us more money in the end.

Obama cuts abstinence-only programsout of the budget as well.  Many argue that abstinence is not realistic in today’s society, but that has become more the norm due to Hollyweird and others advocating sex on a regular basis. Sex sells and sex is becoming the norm.  My personal belief is to teach both and emphasize that the only sure fire way to avoid getting pregnant and contracting an STD is abstinence.  What doesn’t make sense to me is the budget cut for this.

The White House wants to get out of the business of telling youngsters “Just Say No to Sex.”

President Obama is putting his own ideological stamp on federal spending in his proposed 2010 budget by cutting cash for abstinence-only sex ed programs.

He’s taken a scalpel to a pair of $100 million George W. Bush-era programs that exclusively preached abstinence. Obama is replacing them with $110 million for comprehensive teen pregnancy prevention.

“It’s about time that evidence-based management – and sanity – return to family planning programs,” said Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-Manhattan).

Think along with me again.  The more young unwed mothers you create, the more welfare recipients you create. The more welfare recipients you create, the more loyal Democrat voters you create.

Thus, Democrat sex-education must always focus on getting teenagers to have more sex, not less.

Another important point to note – see what I bolded above?  How is this a tax cut?  If he is replacing the PAIR of programs that each equaled $100 million with only one program worth $110 million then it is, but the writing is very vague and misleading here… the question is if he is going to replace both programs with two other programs worth more money than the previous ones…

A picture of what his budget cuts really look like in the scheme of things:

Photobucket

Dumping the say-no-to-sex programs were a tiny fraction of the $17 billion Team Obama trimmed from its $3.4 trillion funding budget request.Overall, New Yorkers say Obama’s budget helps the city – but raised several red flags.

One is Obama’s plan to cut $600 million from the federal terrorism insurance program.

Maybe that’s what New Yorkers should be focusing on – not sex! Wake up!

The Puppet Makes Budget Cuts… To Help Unions

We all know that Obama is bought and paid for by the unions and he once again proves that he is in their pocket.  He makes these grandiose overtures to try and pass off budget cuts of historical proportions or market himself to appear to be improving the national debt.

Those who research and do our homework know that those overtures fall flat, especially when one of the largest cuts from the federal budget is the 9% budget cut of the union regulations department.  This comes from the Department of Labor via American Spectator:

…buried in the budget documents released by the White House today is a 9 percent cut in the unit of the Department of Labor that is in charge of regulating unions.

Under the leadership of Elaine Chao during the Bush administration, the Labor Department’s Office of Labor-Management Standards took its job of policing unions seriously. Its actions led to 929 convictions of corrupt union officials and to the recovery of more than $93 million on behalf of union members. Yet the Obama administration has proposed slashing its budget from $45 million in 2009 to $41 million in 2010, citing an insufficient “workload” for the office.

Instead of using the money to make sure unions play by the rules, the Obama administration proposes shifting resources to the department’s Wage and Hour Division, Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration — all areas of the agency focused on regulating businesses.

Not like union regulation matters anymore when the Department of Education is growing at a rapid clip and the UAW owns GM and Chrysler.  I guess the unions can all manage themselves – no corruption there/sarc.

Half of the budget cuts under Obama will actually come from the defense budget:

About half of the cuts are in the Defense Department’s budget, and the White House readily concedes that Defense Secretary Robert Gates already had proposed much of this as part of a new, and bigger, Defense budget that he is seeking. Defense is growing, not shrinking.

Funny how a recent Rasumussen Report just showed the majority of Americans do not believe the unions or the government will manage the auto industry well.

Another funny side note:  Bush actually cut more from the budget than Obama.

President Obama announced fewer budget cuts and for a lesser dollar amount than President George W. Bush did in his final budget – and is counting on being able to eliminate some programs that his predecessor repeatedly tried, but failed, to slash.

Obama administration officials said they’re convinced they’ll have more luck eliminating programs such as Even Start, an early childhood education program that Mr. Bush put on the chopping block year after year but which both Democrats and Republicans in Congress refused to cut.

National Tea Party Heads Accepted Invitation to Meet With Obama

If this happens and I mean a big IF, I hope that none of them are swindled when speaking to the silver tongued “One.”   I have a feeling that he wants to talk to them and possibly persuade the Tea Party leaders to stop this major grassroots movement.  But I thought that this movement was insignificant? HA!

The National Leadership Team of the Nationwide Tea Party Coalition today accepted President Obama`s invitation “to have a serious conversation about how we are going to cut our health care costs down over the long term, how we are going to stabilize Social Security.”

The invitation was extended by the Presidentat a Town Hall Meeting held in Arnold, Missouri today. Michael Patrick Leahy, a member of the National Leadership Team of the Nationwide Tea Party Coalition, said ” We want to broaden the scope to address the President`s runaway march to socialist-statism, and the rampant across the board irresponsible spending he is promoting with his $787 Billion Stimulus Plan and his $1 Trillion Annual Deficit, his takeover of General Motors, Chrysler and the Banks .”

Kellen Giuda, organizer of the New York City Tea party attended by 12,000 and of Parcbench said, “I think a constructive dialogue with the President would be a great opportunity for him to acknowledge that, yes, many Americans have a problem with the way Washington is handling our taxpayer dollars and also that we are concerned about health care and social security reform. I am happy he is open to a discussion. The Tea Parties are protesting against fiscal irresponsibility and any dialogue we can have will hopefully bring a better public understanding of our country`s finances. Health care and social security reform is a large concern to us.”

The National Leadership Team of the Nationwide Tea Party Coalition includes 25 of the more than 900 local organizers of the April 15, 2009 Tax Day Tea Parties held across the country, which were attended by more than 1 million Americans. Members of the National Leadership Team includes Judson Phillips, organizer of the Nashville Tea Party attended by 10,000, James Dickey, organizer of the Dallas Tea Party, attended by 5,000, and JoAnn Abbot, organizer of the Washington, DC Tea Party attended by more than 3,000. The full list of the 25 members of the National Leadership Team of the Nationwide Tea Party Coalition can be found here.

Senate Passes FY10 Budget Blueprint of $3.4T ~ No GOP Support (Bend Over and Take it America Act)

The Senate passed the 2010 budget resolution, 53-43, Wednesday without any Republican votes, giving President Barack Obama another high-profile victory before his 8 p.m. press conference to mark his first 100 days in office.

The House voted 233-193 earlier in the day to back the $3.4 trillion budget blueprint, which sets limits for legislation to follow, including the annual appropriations bills.

Four Democratic Senators, including newly minted Democratic Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.), opposed the budget resolution. Sens. Evan Bayh (Ind.), Robert Byrd (W.Va.) and Ben Nelson (Neb.) also voted “no.”

Specter had objected to the inclusion of fast-track rules that will allow the Senate to pass health care reform with a simple majority vote.

Awww isn’t that sad that Specter, the traitor, is whining about the budget and voting against it while almost all of his contemporaries voted for it.  He is also upset about the reconciliation language – something that can destroy the entire democratic process for large legislation items, like health care.

The blueprint sets the stage for a wholesale reform of the nation’s health care system, continued tax cuts for the middle class and higher tax rates for those making more than $250,000. It also predicts the largest budget deficits in the history of the country, although the blueprints presume that those deficits will drop significantly within five years.

Farewell America, it was nice knowing you – I really wish we could have had more time together ~ at least we almost made it to the 30 year relationship… I hope we can still be friends, please keep in touch!

Yours Truly,
CrabbyCon

Final blueprint vote count:

YEAs —53
Akaka (D-HI)
Baucus (D-MT)
Begich (D-AK)
Bennet (D-CO)
Bingaman (D-NM)
Boxer (D-CA)
Brown (D-OH)
Burris (D-IL)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Cardin (D-MD)
Carper (D-DE)
Casey (D-PA)
Conrad (D-ND)
Dodd (D-CT)
Dorgan (D-ND)
Durbin (D-IL)
Feingold (D-WI)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Gillibrand (D-NY)
Hagan (D-NC)
Harkin (D-IA)
Inouye (D-HI)
Johnson (D-SD)
Kaufman (D-DE)
Kerry (D-MA)
Klobuchar (D-MN)
Kohl (D-WI)
Landrieu (D-LA)
Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Leahy (D-VT)
Levin (D-MI)
Lieberman (ID-CT)
Lincoln (D-AR)
McCaskill (D-MO)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Merkley (D-OR)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Murray (D-WA)
Nelson (D-FL)
Pryor (D-AR)
Reed (D-RI)
Reid (D-NV)
Sanders (I-VT)
Schumer (D-NY)
Shaheen (D-NH)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Tester (D-MT)
Udall (D-CO)
Udall (D-NM)
Warner (D-VA)
Webb (D-VA)
Whitehouse (D-RI)
Wyden (D-OR)
NAYs —43
Alexander (R-TN)
Barrasso (R-WY)
Bayh (D-IN)
Bennett (R-UT)
Bond (R-MO)
Brownback (R-KS)
Bunning (R-KY)
Burr (R-NC)
Byrd (D-WV)
Chambliss (R-GA)
Coburn (R-OK)
Cochran (R-MS)
Collins (R-ME)
Corker (R-TN)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Crapo (R-ID)
DeMint (R-SC)
Ensign (R-NV)
Enzi (R-WY)
Graham (R-SC)
Grassley (R-IA)
Gregg (R-NH)
Hatch (R-UT)
Hutchison (R-TX)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Isakson (R-GA)
Johanns (R-NE)
Kyl (R-AZ)
Lugar (R-IN)
Martinez (R-FL)
McCain (R-AZ)
McConnell (R-KY)
Murkowski (R-AK)
Nelson (D-NE)
Risch (R-ID)
Roberts (R-KS)
Shelby (R-AL)
Snowe (R-ME)
Specter (R-PA)
Thune (R-SD)
Vitter (R-LA)
Voinovich (R-OH)
Wicker (R-MS)
Not Voting – 3
Kennedy (D-MA) Rockefeller (D-WV) Sessions (R-AL)

« Previous PageNext Page »