Help!

Why hasn't Harry Reid passed a budget in three years? ....no constraints on spending. And they have spent!

Now, we stand again on the edge and still the blame is placed on the fiscally conservative by the public because the media has told them so...

Contributed by Mike Walker, Col. USMC (retired)

Subject: U. S. Budget for Dummies

* U.S. Tax revenue:        $ 2,170,000,000,000
* Fed budget:              $ 3,820,000,000,000
* New debt:                $ 1,650,000,000,000
* National debt:           $14,271,000,000,000
* Recent budget cuts:      $    38,500,000,000

Let’s now remove 8 zeros and pretend it’s a household budget:

* Annual family income:                     $ 21,700.00
* Money the family spent:                   $ 38,200.00
* New debt on the credit card:              $ 16,500.00
* Outstanding balance on the credit card:   $142,710.00
* Total budget cuts so far:                 $     38.50

P.S. This does NOT include the money owed to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

Right to life... the truth! Congratulations Blake Adams, a home schooled Georgian.

I love when ideas are expressed using foundational elements, in this case historical references.

Follow the link...
http://conservativevideos.com/2012/12/highschoolers-national-right-to-life-oratory-contest-winning-speech/

The Heritage Foundation… http://www.askheritage.org/s/join-heritage/

What are 10 Facts on the Fiscal Cliff, Debt, and Spending?

Budget policy in 2012 was characterized by deficit spending, major increases in the national debt, and a heated debate over the “fiscal cliff.”

With just days left for President Obama and lawmakers in Congress to avert a major tax hike, sequestration, and other major policy changes, today we bring you a list of the top 10 facts on federal spending in 2012:

1. Four years of trillion-dollar-plus deficits. Fiscal year 2012 concluded with a $1.1 trillion deficit, marking the fourth year of trillion-dollar-plus deficits. Too much spending is the root cause of the federal government’s deep and sustained deficits. At 23 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2012 and on track to rise further, federal spending is growing at a dangerous pace.

2. National debt hit $16 trillion. On September 4, the U.S. national debt hit the $16 trillion mark. We owe more on the national debt than the entire U.S. economy produced in goods and services in all of 2012. Sixteen trillion dollar bills stacked one on top of the other would measure more than 1 million miles high, which would reach to the moon and back more than twice.

3. The debt limit was raised by $1.2 trillion. On January 30, the federal government raised its debt limit from a staggering $15.194 trillion to an even bigger $16.394 trillion. This increase was the last one of three granted in the Budget Control Act of 2011, a result of that summer’s debt ceiling negotiations, which allowed for a total debt limit increase of $2.1 trillion.

4. The $650 billion fiscal cliff distracted from the $48 trillion looming fiscal crisis. Much of 2012 was spent arguing over tax rates in the fiscal cliff debate while lawmakers ignored the much more dangerous looming fiscal crisis. As large and as major a concern as federal budget deficits are today, they stand in the shadow of $48 trillion in long-term unfunded obligations in Social Security and Medicare. Even with President Obama’s originally proposed tax hikes in his budget, the federal debt would still rise by more than $7.7 trillion in the next 10 years.

5. Social Security ran a deficit for the second year in a row. According to the 2012 trustees report, Social Security spent $45 billion more in benefits in 2011 than it took in from its payroll tax. This deficit is in addition to a $49 billion gap in 2010 and an expected average annual gap of about $66 billion between 2012 and 2018. Social Security’s deficits will balloon yet further. After adjusting for inflation, annual deficits will reach $95 billion in 2020 and $318.7 billion in 2030 before the trust fund runs out in 2033 and a 25 percent across-the-board benefit cut occurs.

6. Three years of spend-as-you-go policies without a federal budget. The last time both chambers of Congress agreed on a budget was on April 29, 2009. Since then, Congress has operated on a spend-as-you-go basis, characterized by incoherent, ad hoc budget procedures. The House passed budget resolutions each of the past two years, but the Senate failed to do its part.

7. The government spent nearly $30,000 per American household. The average American household’s share of federal spending in 2012 was $29,691, or roughly two-thirds of median household income. The government collected $20,293 per household in taxes in 2012, resulting in a budget deficit of $9,398 per household in 2012.

8. Obamacare will spend $1.7 trillion over 10 years. After the Supreme Court decision on Obamacare, the Congressional Budget Office did an update of its scoring of the law. The result: Obamacare will spend $1.7 trillion over 10 years on its coverage expansion provisions alone, including a massive expansion of Medicaid and federal subsidies for the new health insurance exchanges. This means that Obamacare will increase federal health spending by 15 percent.

9. Social Security was the biggest federal spending program. In 1993, Social Security surpassed national defense as the largest federal spending category, and it remains first today. The top five biggest spending programs, in order, are 1) Social Security; 2) national defense; 3) Medicare; 4) Medicaid, CHIP, and other government health care; and 5) interest on the debt.

10. More than 40 percent of Americans are on some government program. According to Census Bureau data and Heritage Foundation calculations, 128.8 million people in America depend on a government program for basic (or not so basic) needs, such as rent, prescription drugs, and higher education.

Chart of the Year:

Entitlements and Interest Drive the Fiscal Crisis

Romina Boccia, conservativebyte.com

December 26, 2012 at 10:04 am

The end of 2012 was marked by lawmakers engaging in a distracting fiscal cliff debate over tax rates when the solution to the real fiscal crisis lies in an entirely different area of the budget.

Federal spending on entitlements and interest on the debt drives the federal budget crisis. Together the three major entitlements of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid (including Obamacare), as well as net interest, make up more than half of all spending in the federal budget today. Their share of the budget will grow to over two-thirds of all spending in 10 years.

By 2025, the major entitlement programs and net interest together will eat up all tax revenues collected in that year. This implies that all other government spending, including for national defense, would have to be financed by borrowing.

This projection by the Congressional Budget Office assumes that historically low interest rates continue at least until 2015 and that inflation will be modest, inching up toward 2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2017. Nevertheless, spending on interest on the debt would double before the end of the decade.

Should the Federal Reserve’s continued and prolonged quantitative easing lead to more severe inflation—a risk that is very real—the dangerous scenario painted in the chart of the year could come about even sooner.

One thing is clear: Lawmakers are playing a risky game for as long as they neglect to address the structural problems in the entitlement programs that are driving the nation deeper and deeper into debt. Reform is inevitable. The only question: Will lawmakers develop the political will before the real fiscal crisis hits or will they be forced into making changes in the midst of it?

DISTORTING THE FACTS TO AID DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATES COMES NATURALLY TO SUSAN RICE

Paul Mirengoff, Powerline

In a 2001 article about Rwanda in the Atlantic Monthly, called “Bystanders to Genocide,” Samantha Power wrote:

At an interagency teleconference in late April [1994], Susan Rice, a rising star on the NSC who worked under Richard Clarke, stunned a few of the officials present when she asked, “If we use the word ‘genocide’ and are seen as doing nothing, what will be the effect on the November [congressional] election?” Lieutenant Colonel Tony Marley remembers the incredulity of his colleagues at the State Department. “We could believe that people would wonder that,” he says, “but not that they would actually voice it.” Rice does not recall the incident but concedes, “If I said it, it was completely inappropriate, as well as irrelevant.”

According to Time Magazine, Rice has since worked her way back into favor with Power, who is closely connected to President Obama. Indeed, the two are said to enjoy a “strong relationship.” One would expect no less from a foreign policy operative seeking advancement in the Obama administration. For someone of Susan Rice’s ambition, it wouldn’t pay to stay on the bad side of Samantha Power.

But the fact remains that Rice wanted to avoid saying that genocide was occurring in Rwanda in order to help Democratic congressional candidates in 1994 — an election in which Rwanda could hardly have been less relevant. That’s how motivated she is to leave no stone unturned in aiding her party. That’s how political a creature she is.

It’s little wonder, then, that down the stretch of a presidential election — one that she knew might well result in her elevation to Secretary of State — Rice was so anxious to avoid saying that terrorism was occurring in Libya. And it’s little wonder that, given Rice’s willingness to tailor foreign policy statements for political purposes, Team Obama picked her to go on the Sunday talk shows even though, as Obama has since said, the U.N. ambassador had nothing to do with Benghazi.

A Story Only Washington Believes

Mike walker, Col. USMC (retired)

All,

Sometimes you hear things out of Washington that are insane. Today was one of those days.

The dolts in Washington are saying they already made $1 trillion in spending cuts. Really? 

What they are saying is that instead of spending $7 trillion that they didn't have they decided to only spend $6 trillion they didn't have.

It you are a taxpayer, that is like saying I only stabbed you six times when I could have stabbed seven times. Good grief! 

How about not stabbing the taxpayer at all? How about balancing the budget! That is fiscal responsibility. 

The American government is on the path of spending itself into bankruptcy. It is on track to reach $17,000,000,000,000.00 in debt this year and that does not even address the fact that Medicare and Medicaid are going broke.

On top of that triple-dose fiscal disaster is the looming insolvency of Social Security (by the way, the Social Security Trust Fund that your payroll dollars go into has already been spent, the Trust Fund is really full of US Government IOU's and not real money -- so much for "trust" in Washington). 

That's four not three strikes. Government spending is way OUT... of control.

By the way, I have never met one person in the Tea Party who has presented a detailed plan to balance the budget along with fixing Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. 

If the Tea Party wants to remain relevant they better get serious about developing real solutions.

Mike