Tag: deficit

Warren Buffett’s foolproof plan to wipe out the deficit

Warren Buffett says he could wipe out the deficit in five minutes. It’s a simple solution, really. All we have to do, according to Buffett, is set a budget cap and if it’s violated, fire Congress.

Warren Buffett says he could wipe out the deficit in five minutes.

It’s a simple solution, really. All we have to do, according to Buffett, is set a budget cap and if it’s violated, fire Congress. It’s the old’ “If you guys won’t do it, we’ll find someone who will” plan.

Don’t look now, Mr. Buffett, sir, but that’s what the Tea Party is all about. Yet you hate the Tea Party and love Obama.

Sure, it’s inconsistent. But he’s the world’s third richest and fifth glibbest man, so let’s not expect consistency.

H/T: iOwnTheWorld.com

Budget brouhaha: Chairman of presidential deficit commission says Ryan’s budget is better than Obama’s

Co-chair the Presidential Deficit Commission, appointed by Barack Obama, says the President’s budget proposal is inferior to Paul Ryan’s plan.

Next thing you know, the President will send a Navy Seal team after Erskine Bowles.

Bowles, a Democrat who co-chaired the Presidential Deficit Commission and was appointed by Barack Obama, says the President’s budget proposal falls short on several key goals. In fact, he says it’s inferior to Paul Ryan’s plan.

Bowles: It is $4 trillion, however, over 12 years. It is heavily back-end loaded, so when you compare it to the Ryan plan and to the Commission’s plan, which also has $4 trillion in savings, it is probably more like $2.5 trillion. And in fairness, the way it is setup, according to our analysis, it really doesn’t stabilize the debt, and the debt as a percentage of GDP gets up to around 77 percent and it never gets to primary balance, which is about a deficit-to-GDP ratio of around 3 percent.

Other than that, how did you like the play, Mrs. Lincoln?

Government union calls Republican plan a “mistake for America.” Translation: “Oh, crap.”

The National Treasury Employees Union called passage of the republican Path to Prosperity resolution a “mistake for America.”

House Republicans passed a common sense bill on Friday. In light of the trainload of fiscal disaster racing down the tracks toward us, they voted to freeze federal employees pay for three years and to allow 10% of the federal workforce to wither away through attrition.

fat-cat-federal-worker
Typical federal worker

As you might imagine, it makes a lot more sense to us than it does to federal workers.

Federal News Radio has the details:

The House passed a fiscal year 2012 bill today that freezes federal pay for three years and cuts the federal workforce by 10 percent through attrition.

The budget plan by House Republicans – called the Path to Prosperity – also requires federal employees to pay for half of the defined benefit they receive at retirement.

The GOP plan proposes a plan that promises $6 trillion in spending cuts over the next decade compared with the budget President Obama unveiled in February.

The final vote in the House was 235-193.

The National Treasury Employees Union called passage of the resolution a “mistake for America.”

“Apart from the broad social changes the resolution seeks to make, its anti-federal employee provisions would result in federal agencies having great difficulty not only in retaining the highly-skilled, dedicated employees they now have, but in recruiting new talent to the government,” said NTEU President Colleen Kelley in a statement.

Colleen, honey, you seem to miss one very important point: We don’t need to recruit any more of that great talent to the government. We need to cut it to the bone.

The same bone you’re using on the American taxpayers.

H/T: CO2Insanity

Source: Federal News Radio

Top 25 reasons Joe Biden fell asleep during President Obama’s deficit speech

Yup. Ol’ Joe chose what some extremist Republicans are calling an inappropriate time to catch a catnap – right in the middle of his boss’ speech on the debt and the deficit.

Yup. Ol’ Joe chose what some extremist Republicans are calling an inappropriate time to catch a catnap – right in the middle of his boss’ speech on the debt and the deficit.

But the Vice President had a really good excuse. Twenty-five of them, in fact.

  1. Up late last night trying to come up with something incredibly stupid to do while President spoke.
  2. In his dreams, the President is serious about deficit reduction.
  3. He made the mistake of counting members of the mainstream media lining up like sheep to back Obama’s plan.
  4. All those zeros… Zzzzzzeros.
  5. Hey, Gore slept through the 90s and nobody said anything about it.
  6. He was tired from a long day of making sure that only China could have coal plants.
  7. He stayed up all night trying to figure out a good comeback for that smartass at the ice cream shop.
  8. The way the government has been spending money, taking a 20-minute map is like stickin’ it to the man for $4 million.
  9. It’s the Biden Sleep Deficit plan.
  10. That’s not just a nap, that’ fucking serious sleep!
  11. “Barry told me to go ahead, take a nap, and he’ll wake me up when he needs me to add something intelligent.”
  12. Being a word genius is tiring work.
  13. Even the dimmest of bulbs need to be turned off to cool down once in a while.
  14. Up late last night making up phrases that rhyme with “Boehner.”
  15. Nice sunny day, gentle breeze from Barry’s mouth, the endless droning on and on of Barry’s speech … you do the math.
  16. His son Beau put music on Joe’s MP3 player and he fell asleep listening to the unofficial lib lullaby: Ten Years After’s I’d Love To Change The World:

    “Everywhere is freaks and hairies
    Dykes and fairies, tell me where there is sanity
    Tax the rich, feed the poor
    Till there are no rich no more

    I’d love to change the world
    But I don’t know what to do
    So I’ll leave it up to you

    And it’s somehow Bush’s fault.”

  17. Honoring those Latino citizens who made this country great by partaking in the traditional siesta!
  18. He lost a significant amount of sleep worrying over the results of Barrack’s AIDS test.
  19. The inside of Biden’s eyelids look just like the long, dark chasm that has been the Obama presidency.
  20. The anesthesia hadn’t completely worn off after an earlier trip to the hair clinic.
  21. His alien radio control implant was temporarily blocked by the lead paint in the rotunda.
  22. Late night panty raid in the Freshman dorm.
  23. He couldn’t get any coffee that morning because he didn’t have an Indian accent.
  24. Brainwashing Side Effects include: drowsiness, prolonged grinning, hair loss, and delusions of grandeur.
  25. Time for a nap – I’ve heard this all before from that peanut farmer guy … what the hell was his name? His brother made some great beer … where am I?

Contributors: Sven Waring, Perlcat, JJJRO

Paul Ryan and Ben Bernanke agree: If you want to stimulate growth, cut spending

Questioning the Chairman on Capitol Hill last week, Republican Paul Ryan got Bernanke to agree that the best way to generate growth in the economy is to cut spending. Direct question, very direct answer.

President Obama may want to spend another $53 billion on high speed trains and other nonsense, but even the Chairman of the Fed knows this madness cannot go on forever.

Questioning the Chairman on Capitol Hill last week, Republican Paul Ryan got Bernanke to agree that the best way to generate growth in the economy is to cut spending. Direct question, very direct answer.

But then Ben said, “I’d really love to answer more questions, Congressman Ryan, but I’m working swing shift on the printing press tonight and I really have to get going. George Soros gets very angry when I’m late.”

OK, well, maybe he didn’t say it, but we’re pretty sure he was thinking it.

State of the Union word cloud: “Debt” and “deficit” missing in action

In this State of the Union address word cloud, Obama said “America” a lot. He said “Americans” a lot. He said “government,” “people,” “years”, “new”, “jobs” and “make.” Funny thing, though. The words “debt” and “deficit” aren’t even in the top fifty.

President Obama said a lot of words last night. Oh, man, did he say a lot of words. It was almost as if the people who run Ben Bernanke’s printing presses wrote the speech.

As you can see in this word cloud of his State of the Union address, he said “America” a lot. He said “Americans” a lot. He said “government,” “people,” “years”, “new”, “jobs” and “make.”

Funny thing, though. The words “debt” and “deficit” aren’t even in the top fifty.

You might even say we had a deficit deficit.

state-of-union-word-cloud

Source: Zero Hedge via Economic Collapse.

Obama was opposed to passing the buck before he was in favor of it

During the presidential campaign, Candidate Obama condemned John McCain for saying he would appoint a commission to solve the deficit problem. Oops. Now President Obama is all in favor of, you guessed it, appointing a commission to solve the deficit problem.

During the presidential campaign, Candidate Obama condemned John McCain for saying he would appoint a commission to solve the deficit problem. Oops. Now President Obama is all in favor of, you guessed it, appointing a commission to solve the deficit problem.

Obama worried his deficit commission ploy will be seen as a ploy

President Barack Obama is pledging to tackle the nation’s spiraling deficit immediately. So long as immediately means after the November elections.

President Obama sticks his finger in the air to see which way the political winds are blowing

President Barack Obama is pledging to tackle the nation’s spiraling deficit immediately. So long as immediately means after the November elections.

According to Politico, Obama endorsed legislation to create an independent commission that would create deficit-reduction steps for Congress.

But the move comes so late in the game that that he fears it might seen as a ploy to shore up support for fiscally moderate Democrats. Rest assured that’s only because it’s a ploy to shore up support for fiscally moderate Democrats.

(It should be noted that fiscally moderate Democrats are only Marxists, not Marxist-Leninists.)

As the president points out, “These deficits did not happen overnight, and they won’t be solved overnight.” And, apparently, they won’t even start to be solved until after the elections.

Source: Politico

– Written by Sven Waring

Nancy Pelosi then vs Nancy Pelosi now: the deficit

What a difference a president makes. Here’s what Queen Nancy had to say about the deficit just a couple years ago, and now.

A trillion here, a trillion there. Is anyone counting anymore?
A trillion here, a trillion there. Is anyone counting anymore?

What a difference a president makes. Here’s what Queen Nancy had to say about the deficit just a couple years ago:

After years of historic deficits, this new Congress will commit itself to a higher standard: pay as you go, no new deficit spending. Our new America will provide unlimited opportunity for future generations, not burden them with mountains of debt.
– Nancy Pelosi, January, 2007

So far we haven’t heard the Speaker of the House make any comments about this news item:

What is $1.42 trillion? It’s more than the total national debt for the first 200 years of the Republic, more than the entire economy of India, almost as much as Canada’s, and more than $4,700 for every man, woman and child in the United States.

Ms Pelosi? Ms Pelosi? Ms Pelosiiiiiiiii?

Source: Flopping Aces

Why Obama’s estimated $9 trillion deficit is far too rosy

Here’s the problem: Obama’s estimate of trillion dollar annual deficits is all based on his crack economic team’s estimate of 3.8% growth in 2011 and greater than 4% growth the following three years. Problem is, growth in the last expansion topped out at just 3.6%.

obama-deficit The Obama administration announced last week that its ten-year deficit estimate – you know, the one for which it bears absolutely no responsibility – had increased from $7 trillion to $9 trillion in just five months.

They tried to bury the news by releasing in late on a Friday afternoon just as the Obama family was preparing for a week in Martha’s Vineyard. This may explain why the President announced that he didn’t want to talk business while he was on vacation.
Continue reading “Why Obama’s estimated $9 trillion deficit is far too rosy”

Red Chinese worried about red ink in American budget

Consider it another step toward Armageddon: It’s reached the point that Communist China is lecturing the United States about it’s massive deficits.

The Chinese should relax and remember the immortal words of Alfred E. Newman, "What, me worry?"
The Chinese should relax and remember the immortal words of Alfred E. Newman, "What, me worry?"

Consider it another step toward Armageddon: It’s reached the point that Communist China is lecturing the United States about it’s massive deficits.

President Obama dispatched little Timmy Geithner to China to calm the frayed nerves of the Chinese government. It holds $8901.5 billion in U.S. Treasury debt, more than any other nation, and they’re worried that our skyrocketing deficit will trigger massive inflation and/or devastate the dollar. Either scenario is bad news for their investments.

“We sincerely hope the U.S. fiscal deficit will be reduced, year after year,” Assistant Finance Minister Zhu Guangyao said.

“The Chinese government is a responsible government and first and foremost our responsibility is the Chinese people,” he continued, “so of course we are concerned about the security of the Chinese assets.”

Geithner reassured them by saying, “Where can a guy find some good mu shu pork around here?”

Source: AP

California bankrupt because it spent too much, not because it taxed too little

Would someone at the L.A. Times, San Francisco Chronicle or Sacramento Bee please explain how it’s possible for San Diego County to run up a $700 million surplus while the state of California is running up a $45 billion deficit?

These esteemed newspapers seem to think the only solution to the state’s legislature-induced suicide is more taxes, higher taxes, and really creative taxes.

Perhaps they should watch as Dianne Jacob, Chairman of the San Diego County Board of Supervisors, explains that California has a spending problem, not a revenue problem.

Source: BluegrassPundit.com

Obama’s massive borrowing looks like sub-prime loan scandal all over again

The Sub-Prime Fiasco and the Obama Spending Fiasco. Parallel tracks meeting in the distance.
The Sub-Prime Fiasco and the Obama Spending Fiasco. Parallel tracks meeting in the distance.

Have you ever noticed the strange parallels between the last year’s sub-prime loan fiasco and this year’s Obama spending fiasco?

In the subprime fiasco, people borrowed money to live far beyond their means. In the Obama spending fiasco, the government’s borrowing money to live far beyond its means.

In the subprime fiasco, everyone in charge knew the borrowers would never be able to repay their debts. In Obama’s spending fiasco, everyone in charge knows the government will never be able to repay its debts.

In the subprime fiasco, Barney Frank and Chris Dodd assured everyone that everything was ok. In Obama’s spending fiasco, Barney Frank and Chris Dodd are assuring everyone that everything will be ok.

In the subprime fiasco, anyone who raised an objection was called a racist. In Obama’s deficit spending fiasco, anyone who raises an objection is called a racist.

In the end, there really is only one difference between these two fiascos. This one has a lot more zeroes.

Obama to cut staggering deficit by purchasing office supplies in bulk

The Obama administration is about to begin saving money in a big, big way.
The Obama administration is about to begin saving money in a big, big way.

Good news. President Obama’s soaring, staggering, stunning deficit will soon be a mere pittance.

All because the President has announced that the Department of Homeland Security will soon begin buying office supplies in bulk.

In an effort to hurry along the process, we stopped by our local CostCo yesterday and signed up the President. So in addition to office supplies, every government agency will soon buy everything in bulk. Aircraft carriers by the dozens, dark blue FBI suits by the rackful, teleprompters by the truckload.

We have one other genius idea:

Costco gives away free food samples every day at lunch. Today we had their vegetarian lasagna, beef jerky, crab on cracker, and apple juice. They were all delicious.

Instead of giving people food stamps, give them CostCo membership cards. Then instruct them to head for CostCo at lunchtime to gorge themselves on free samples.

The savings will dwarf whatever Janet Napolitano saves on office supplies.

I HATE THE MEDIA ™
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