Peter Principle in Chief "fouls" up the budget problems.

I'm frankly shocked that the US Government credit rating isn't at junk bond status right now. S&P sounded the warning alarm. This is what happens as a result of the combination of the Peter Principle with Obama, the biggest joke in the country with the US Senate led by Harry Reid, and a cowardly Republican house still living in 1995 and 1996 fears. In response to the S&P decision, Obama's yesman "economic advisor" didn't talk about spending less, but accused them of "amateurism". Are you f'ing kidding me? That's coming from the administration which is the embodiment of amateur hour in action. Dumb and Dumber. When 12 trillion isn't enough, there's a problem. Bailous, stimulus, Obamacare, and this.

Just as bad was Congress and the GOP house caving like this. This isn't 1995 or 1996. The same rules don't apply, there's no Okalahoma City bombing, and there is no balanced budget. The internet is bigger today. Obama isn't Bill Clinton and doesn't have the same effect on people as in 2008 now that the "we can elect a black president," "Bush fatigue", and the "stop the war" push is over. I'm no Clinton fan, but one thing I agree with him on is "A few years ago, this guy would be getting us coffee." That was the quote in 2008. Clinton was young when he was elected, but had 11 years of executive experience as governor, interrupted by a statewide defeat and comeback.

Obama on the other hand rose way beyond his level of incompetence. He didn't get to where he was at by what he knew. He only got there because he was a useful tool to influential power brokers. At Harvard Law, he was the president of law review, but had no articles published. None. Why? Anyone that went to law school knows that one of the expectations on law review is to write articles. That goes double for the person in charge. If he didn't write articles, how did he get there? From there, he was ACORN's attorney, and he then ran for state senate in a special election of 96.

The one thing that Obama actually is good at besides sticking his nose in the air and running his mouth is campaigns. Chicago politics. He and Axelrod know what they are doing there. He got his first opponent kept off the ballot. That's Chicago politics. He was unopposed in 98 and 2002. In 2004 he ran for US Senate, and got lucky when there was a major mess on both party sides. The frontrunning dems had scandals on one side. On the GOP side. Maverick Peter Fitzgerald (despised by state GOP leadership for his corruption stances) decided not to run again. This was in the era of George Ryan. Ryan was the GOP version of Rod Blagojevich and went to prison. Typical Chicagoland politics. Jack Ryan won the nomination. Obama's people and media allies were leaking his supposed to be sealed divorce file which had a skeleton, and Ryan dropped out. Marylander Alan Keyes replaced Ryan and Obama won with 70%. He also that same year had a major speech at the 2004 DNC convention which set him up four years later. Friends in high places.

That's a real rapid and lucky rise for someone who until there was nothing more than a two bit state senator and ACORN's attorney. It's also a big jump from a two bit junior league less than one term senator to being the Peter Principle-in-chief. Tony Resko, Bill Ayers, and company taught him well.

Obama can campaign, and he can organize, but he doesn't know anything about budgets. He is showing his incompetence. He has no experience balancing budgets at an executive level. While in Congress, the budget increased every term. He voted for them. He voted for the Bailouts. He enacted the stimulus package. He signed budgets that shattered Bush's records. The Peter Principle in chief then sticks his nose up in the air and has the arrogance to lecture all of us on budgets. Boehner needs to screw civility tell him off in the matter what former Coach Bob Knight did to a media person who didn't get his facts straight. It won't happen.

Knight's quote - "I'll handle this the way I want to handle it now that I'm here. You F@%#ed it up to begin with, now just sit there or leave. I don't give a @%## what you do." This clown needs to be told to sit there or leave.

This deal obviously didn't work. The credit ratings are down. Markets are dropping. What is as bad as the deal is the fact that Boehner bragged about it like it was a good thing. What he should have said is that "We control one branch of government. The democrats control two. This is the least worst option that slowed growth of spending although it didn't make cuts. We wanted to avoid the default as we think this is the worst case scenario. In order to actually balance the budget, we need to get rid of Obama and Reid."

A balanced budget and actual cuts need to be pushed. Not "cuts in growth" over 10 years. Not 2008 levels. Balanced budget.

This is also going to be a big weekend in Iowa. August 13th is the day of the famous Ames Straw poll. This will likely start narrowing the field of declared candidates further. Nobody is running away with the nomination right now. After suffering for four years of the Peter Principle in chief, we need to make sure someone with actual experience and intelligence beyond American Idol Campaign styles and reading a teleprompter gets elected.

The Peter Principle in Chief isn't done fouling things up. Whoever takes over will have a gigantic mess to fix. Boehner needs to limit the damage as much as possible, and the rest of us need to keep pushing our reps that this deal wasn't acceptable, and we need to cut spending. ASAP. Now.

Another trllion dollar deficit under Obama and Reid

So Bin Laden has been taken out. Great. The politicians didn't screw that up. I'll raise Obama's great of a 0% F- to a 20% F-, which is still a failure. That's amazing it wasn't screwed up because they are FUBAR-ing the deficit here. It's "fouled" up beyond all recognition.

From the AP

WASHINGTON – The government is taking in more tax revenue as the economy improves, but not nearly enough to keep the federal budget deficit from exceeding $1 trillion for a third straight year.

The deficit for April dropped to $40.5 billion, half the imbalance from the same month last year, the Treasury Department said Wednesday. Tax receipts were up 45 percent last month compared to the same month one year ago.

Still, the deficit is on pace to grow to $1.4 trillion in this budget year, according to the Congressional Budget Office. That would be greater than last year's $1.29 trillion deficit and nearly match the record $1.41 trillion deficit hit in 2009.

Obama's legacy is record deficits. This trillion dollar boondoggle would be a record under Bush, who also sucked on this issue. Bush's last year in office had a 450 Billion dollar deficit. Obama talks a game on this with his nose up in the air, but is a absolute failure when it comes to fiscal responsibility, just as he was as a senator. Harry Reid is as bad or worse.

As for John Boehner, the house proposals aren't good enough. The Paul Ryan budget isn't good enough. Right now, from both a policy and PR standpoint, anything that isn't a balanced budget without raising taxes isn't good enough. Take a page out of Mike Pence or Jeb Hensarling's book and push a balanced budget and put pressure on the senate to get a vote. Stop being Bush Republicans on this.

Every time Obama runs his mouth on the debt, he needs to be called out. No more commissions. No more task forces. Just don't spend what you don't have. Balance the budget, or shut the Hell up.

Rick Snyder needs a reality check

I got most of a robocall from Snyder's people today asking me to call Joe Hune and tell him to support the budget and the pension tax, saying that it doesn't touch social security (you gotta be shitting me with that being the justification, and that's the edited version of what I said). It was a rather pathetic talking point. I was frankly embarrassed that this guy is supposedly from my party. I called Joe's office, thanked him for his opposition, and told him that I opposed this and why I did. I skipped the profanities in the call, but I'm irked enough to use them here.

The Bill Milliken saying is that Good policy is good politics. I rarely agree with anything Milliken did, to the point where I'd vote for most democrats over him. That saying is true, and the inverse is even more true. Bad policy is bad politics. Snyder is pushing bad policy right now. It's horrible politics.

Democrats are gleeing right now as a democrat polling firms numbers on Snyder.
Public Policy Polling. Now some are wondering, why I'm posting a dem poll on a conservative GOP leaning blog. Because I think if the numbers aren't true, they are close, despite high democrat sampling of voters. Their numbers.

Virg Bernero 47, Snyder 45. Approval 33%, disapproval 50%.

Among Republicans - 68% Approval, 13% Disapproval, 19% not sure. (and I think many of those 19% are being polite to the pollster)

Among Indys - 32% Approval, 44% Disapproval, 25% not sure.

That ain't good, and I see that here on the street. A lot of social conservative independent populists (IE - Seniors) remember the bad things about their perceptions of republicans. They are normally false perceptions. "Republicans are corporate stooges for the rich." In Snyder's case, it's tougher to defend.

The problem is that Snyder's budget, like everything else that comes out of Lansing the past 20+ years is based on a false premise. The false premise is that only the so called "discretionary fund" is allowed to be touched. That puts about 82% of the budget as off limits. That's an unacceptable starting point. "Why isn't discretionary" was my question to a legislative aide. "Because of either the feds or constitution" "State Constitution?" "Yes" "That can be amended."

If Snyder wants to reinvent government instead of more of the same, he needs to start with opening up the entire thing. By announcing this tax increase, he lost much of his political capital to do that and needs to earn it back. This budget - at least the tax portion, is already likely DOA due to conservatives opposed to this teaming up with democrats who want to see him fail, and look good opposing the tax increase. Seniors, many who whom live off their PENSION, are going to vote democrat or stay home after they see their checks decrease, which were earned mostly for 30+ years of hard work. Why won't they. They'll mistake Snyder for being a republican in general.

As to our legislators, the question to them is this. Do you want to do the right thing and lead with your own plan, or be followers to someone who really isn't your boss. Being followers is what cost our party in 2006. We can not make the same mistake again.

What Snyder needs to do with this budget, is 1. Admit that he blew it and 2. Push for a constitutional amendment opening up the entire budget so we can fix the structural problems, and not raise taxes. People don't usually care about the process. They care about the pain. They see pain coming their way, and also see a government with a history of being FUBARed giving it to them, once again asking them for a bailout.

We don't need Granholm II. We don't need the Snyder plan. We need an actual Republican plan without more of the same, and tax increases. Start by opening up the entire budget. If that can't be done, fix it so it can. Anything else will kill us in 2012.

Federal Budget Proposals by House GOP or Obama - Neither is good enough

I'm going to start with this. The debt is at 14 Trillion. The deficit is over 1.3 trillion a year. It was a big issue in the 2008 elections and the democrats got their ass kicked.

Now all of a sudden, politicians are running their mouths about it. Wow. Obama, who broke Bush's records is talking about it and is supposed to mention it in his state of the union speech which I plan on skipping (Why would I want to see a politician run his mouth?).
From ABC

Pursuing a path of deficit reduction and government reform, President Obama will tonight in his State of the Union address call for a ban on earmarks and he will propose a five year budget freeze on non-security related discretionary spending, ABC News has learned.

The proposals come as the president prepares to tackle the deficit and debt and as he faces a House of Representatives in Republican hands, many of whose members include those affiliated with the Tea Party who may be willing to embrace both moves.

The president will propose some new spending in certain areas that address the speech’s theme of “How We Win the Future”: innovation, education and infrastructure. But those increases will be proposed within the context of a proposed partial budget freeze.

The FY 2011 budget was $3.8 trillion; $1.415 trillion of which was discretionary spending. The president's proposal would save, according to estmates, roughly $400 billion.

Talk is cheap, and Obama's record on spending speaks for itself. He talks a game and then breaks Bush's records. He's the worst resident of the White House ever in the history of this country when it comes to big spending. He signed the bills and didn't veto them. He supported them. Period. Even worse, a freeze on a 1.4 trillion dollar per year deficit still breaks Bush's records. His plan sucks.

But Obama isn't the only one who sucks on spending. Congress also sucks, and the latest from the Republicans isn't good enough either. It sucks less.

From UPI

WASHINGTON, Jan. 25 (UPI) -- The U.S. House of Representatives Tuesday passed a measure returning the budget to 2008 levels.

The House voted 256-165 along party lines to instruct House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., to set this year's budget at or below 2008 spending levels, The Hill reported.

That's not good enough. We don't need 2008 budget numbers. Those were also big deficits and on par with Bush's records. That sucks less. That's like picking the 2010 Detroit Lions over the Matt Millen era. It's an improvement but it is still below .500 and it still misses the playoffs.

We need a balanced budget, period, end of story. We need to reduce and eventually eliminate the $204 Billion a year in interest that is thrown away. We need to pay down the principal on this debt. We need to do so without raising taxes. Anything else is unacceptable. No gimmicks. No band-aids. Balanced budget.

Deficit Reduction Commission is bullshit as I expected

I called this one. Federal and State government created Commissions to look at issues are jokes. They have been in the past, are presently, and will be in the future. They are a joke because they appoint retired politicians and bureaucrats to the commission to give recommendations on issues they don't know anything about or don't have the right perspective to give a correct statement. Politicians appoint commissions because they don't do anything while making it look like they are doing something. The old saying is this. If you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit. Commissions are bullshit. What baffles me is how Washington thinks that a commission is needed to balance the budget. It's been sort of done. Newt Gingrich's congress did it.

Here's how to balance the budget. It's a brilliant plan. It's the best one there is, thanks to my genius intelligence. Do not let expenditures exceed revenues. There. That's it. It doesn't take 27 years like the commission suggests either.

It's not hard. Government needs to live within its means. Don't raise taxes. Don't overspend. We can start with eliminating federal programs and organizations that aren't needed, like the BATFE or the Department of Education. Education is a state issue and local, not federal. No Child Left Behind didn't work.

Obama to focus on deficit? Where was this the last six years?

Leave it to the AP to spew this

WASHINGTON – Preparing for political life after a bruising election, President Barack Obama will put greater emphasis on fiscal discipline, a nod to a nation sick of spending and to a Congress poised to become more Republican, conservative and determined to stop him.

As I said in January, Obama's new awakening on fiscal matters is absolute bullshit. We had a record deficit since then.

Or as I said in 2009, Obama lecturing about Debt is like the Detroit Lions talking about winning.

This emphasis on "fiscal discipline" is from the clown who spend a crapload of money as a senator and as the resident of the white house the last two years. Bush was bad on fiscal matters. I called him out back then and supported the Pence plan as an alternative back in 2006. Obama makes Bush look about as fiscal conservative as Ron Paul. He's shattering the records with his budgets, bailout votes, and stimulus packages. If there's a poster boy for fiscal mismanagement, it is Barack Obama.

The president has signaled that at the start of the new year, he will speak more directly to the country about the financial choices ahead. "If we're going to get serious about the deficit, then we're going to have to look at everything: entitlements, defense spending, revenues. ... And that's going to be a tough conversation," he said.

It's one that will be framed by a bipartisan debt commission, whose ideas this December will give Obama political cover on where to suggest unpopular cuts.

Taxes. Of course. That's what Obama wants. He sure as hell isn't going to cut entitlements or his stimulus spending.

Obama says the most frustrating part of his presidency is that he had to keep spending money and adding to the deficit in his first six months in office "to save the economy." He has from the start called deficit reduction a goal, but one that had to get bumped in favor of sparking the economy.

Bullshit. Keynesian Economics is, was, and always will be a failure. It leads to stagflation, as proven during the Carter years. As for his suggestion on Commissions, they are also a joke. Always was, is, and will be. Federal Commissions are a bunch of politicians and has-been politicians with big egos who get together, run their mouths, and give themselves status to beltway people to get their bad policies passed. Look for tax increases to be proposed, pressure to come to the reps because of the commission being the ones to push this, and no real good solutions from them.

It's not that hard. Don't spend what you don't have. It takes 4th grade math to figure that out. It doesn't take a commission. It doesn't take a summit. It takes representatives to do their jobs and pass a balanced budget without tax increases. It's then the idiot in chief's job to sign that and not be an idiot anymore. It's not that hard. Even a caveman can do it.

Feds give us another 1 trillion deficit. Good job guys.

Mr. Obama is so fiscally leftist, he makes George W Bush look moderate on fiscal matters. It's not just Obama though. Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi deserve just as much blame, as do Carl Levin, Stabenow, Gary Peters, Mark Schauer, John Dingell, Sander Levin, Bart Stupak, Dale Kildee, and John Conyers.

From the AP

The Congressional Budget Office is projecting that the deficit for the 2010 budget year that ended Sept. 30 will total $1.29 trillion. That's down by $125 billion from the $1.4 trillion in 2009 — the highest deficit on record.

I thought the Jimmy Carter years proved that Keynesian economics don't work. Apparently, not. George W Bush believed in it too, and Obama believes in it on steroids.

There's more.

The Obama administration is projecting that the deficit for the 2011 budget year, which began on Oct. 1, will climb to $1.4 trillion. Over the next decade, it will total $8.47 trillion. Deficits of that size will constrain the administration's agenda over the next two years and will certainly be an issue in the 2012 presidential race.

How the hell is this government going to afford health care? Are we going to have more bailouts? Stimulus bills that didn't do a damn thing?

It's time for less spending, less government and more freedom. What needs to happen is for the GOP to push for a balanced budget without tax increases if they get past the house. There doesn't need to be a "reduction" in growth of the deficit. That's a halfway job which is worthless. Balanced budget or bust.

If Obama vetos it, send it back to him until he signs it or shuts down the government.

Obama lecturing about debt is like the Detroit Lions talking about winning

Who the hell is Mr. Obama to say anything about debt? He makes Bush look like a moderate spender. From Reuters

BEIJING, Nov 18 (Reuters) - President Barack Obama gave his sternest warning yet about the need to contain rising U.S. deficits, saying on Wednesday that if government debt were to pile up too much, it could lead to a double-dip recession.

With the U.S. unemployment rate at 10.2 percent, Obama told Fox News his administration faces a delicate balance of trying to boost the economy and spur job creation while putting the economy on a path toward long-term deficit reduction.

This is from the guy who voted for the bank bailouts and Bush's bad spending as a senator. He was even worse as the punk-in-chief, as he bankrupted GM and Chrysler after bailing them out, pushed through nearly a trillion in the stimulus failure, and he just got his trillion dollar plus healthcare takeover through the house. That's all in addition to the regular record deficit budget.

Son, when you correct those problems, then you can say something about the debt. Until then, you can sit down and shut your mouth.

The infamous vote of confidence

Considering how the market tanks usually when politicians open their traps, this is not what I want to hear.

From ABC

Investors should have "absolute confidence" in money placed with the United States, President Barack Obama said during an appearance with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva at the White House today.
...
Obama was asked about Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao's expression of concern Friday that the Chinese investment of approximately $1 trillion in U.S. Treasury bills could be losing value.

"I think that not just the Chinese government, but every investor can have absolute confidence in the soundness of investments in the United States, and that it is not just in U.S.-issued Treasury notes but also in the private sector and the commerce and the industry that has made this the most dynamic economy in the world," Obama said.

With these bailouts, stimulus packages, trillion dollar deficits, and a 10 trillion debt, I can understand the concern about the T-Bonds.

Now as for Obama's "vote of confidence," this guy just recently said that the economy wasn't that bad. Before he said that, he said this was a crisis and the only possible solution according to him, was this massive spending package and a budget that is has a deficit four times higher than the worst of the Bush budgets (2008).

One thing politicians love is a good panic. They can load up radical and pork laden bills to push through when there is a crisis. These wouldn't pass 99% of the year because they are bad policy and bad politics alike. However, when things get rough, it has to be passed in the name of the "economic crisis", "war on poverty", "war on terror", "war on drugs." These bad bills are always the "only solution" that can be considered.

Lastly, this Obama "vote of confidence" reminds me of sports. How often are there public statements and "votes of confidence" in the coaches are followed by a firing?

From the ESPN archives

With three games remaining in another disappointing season, Michigan State has decided that John L. Smith will not return to coach the 2007 season.
....
Smith has been under pressure at Michigan State. School officials gave him a vote of confidence after last season's losing campaign, but were looking for better results in 2006.

At least John L Smith for all his faults at MSU was a competent coach at other schools until he got to an elite conference in the Big Ten and slapped himself in the face. Obama hasn't shown that he's competent in anything outside of giving a speech using a teleprompter. Obama can help matters to some degree by keeping his mouth shut (or resigning, but that isn't going to happen).

Obama talks fiscal responsibility, but delivers a $1.75 trillion dollar deficit budget (With yet another bank bailout)

I've come to understand that whenever Obama promises something, it is time to expect the opposite. Nowhere is that more apparent than when it comes to fiscal responsibility. This budget does not deliver whatsoever when it comes to that. I knew it was a joke when he talked about slashing the deficit in half in four years. That's unacceptable. It needs to be balanced. Period. This is going in the opposite direction.

From the AP

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama is sending Congress a "hard choices" budget that would boost taxes on the wealthy and curtail Medicare payments to insurance companies and hospitals to make way for a $634 billion down payment on universal health care.

Obama's first budget, which will top $3 trillion, predicts the deficit for this year will soar to a whopping $1.75 trillion, according to administration officials who spoke on condition of anonymity before the public unveiling of the budget Thursday. The huge deficit reflects the massive spending being undertaken to battle a severe recession and the worst financial crisis in seven decades.

As part of the effort to end the financial crisis, the administration will propose boosting the deficit by an additional $250 billion this year, enough to support as much as $750 billion in increased spending under the government's financial rescue program. That would more than double the $700 billion bailout effort passed by Congress last October.

How many bailouts does this make now? Whiskey Tango Foxtrot is going on here? At least 2 trillion dollars have gone to the banks that screwed things up in the first place. They get rewarded for this junk. It also sounds as this new bailout is just a placeholder for yet another bailout.

There's also tax increases

The $634 billion down payment on expanding health care coverage would come from a $318 billion increase over 10 years in taxes on the wealthy, defined as couples making more than $250,000 per year and individuals making more than $200,000. The tax increase would occur by reducing the benefit the wealthy get on tax deductions. As one example, taxpayers in the current top tax bracket of 35 percent would see their tax deduction for every $1 given to charity drop from 35 cents to 28 cents.

The other half of the down payment on Obama's drive toward universal health care — $318 billion — would come from curtailing payments to hospitals and insurance companies under Medicare and drug payments under Medicaid.

The first one sucks, the second gets my guard up even more. I need more information to analyze what is meant by "curtailing payments," but I don't trust it, that's for sure.

The cost of the stimulus bill and the increased bailout support would push the deficit for this year to $1.75 trillion, nearly four times last year's record $455 billion and a percentage of the economy — just over 12 percent — not seen since World War II. The deficit is expected to remain around $1 trillion for the next two years before starting to decline to $533 billion in 2013, according to budget projections.

I think we all agree that Bush was not a fiscally responsible president. Obama exceeds Bush's fiscal mismanagement in spades. A 1/2 trillion dollar deficit is ridiciulous. $1.75 trillion is insane - and that is in addition to the "govenmental stimulation" package that was passed, along with the bailouts that the tag team of Bush and Obama both gave to us.

Then there is this:

The plan also contains a contentious proposal to raise hundreds of billions of dollars by auctioning off permits to exceed carbon emissions caps, which Obama wants to impose on users of fossil fuels to address global warming.

Are you f'ing kidding me? After this winter, we can use some global warming.

The last Bush budget sucked. This budget goes beyond sucking. It sucks on the level of former Lions GM Matt Millen. We have a tax increase for another bailout. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expected different results. The first bailout did not work. The newest bailout will not work and have the same effect as the old one. The tax increase irks me, but the bailout is what angers me the most.

However, saying "No" is not enough. There needs to be a counter budget that needs to be proposed and marketed. With the current membership in the screwed up organization known as Congress, it won't pass. However, it needs to be pushed into the minds of the public. The conservative wing of the GOP (Hensarling, Pence) need to go out and propose a balanced budget like they did in 2006. Unlike 2006, the GOP needs to embrace that budget and push that for a vote. If Pelosi fails (as she probably will) to allow a vote, run on that.

We're going from the bad to the worse, and it's time for this to be stopped.