Hat’s Off To Ann

If there is anything a numbers person admires or appreciates, it is someone who does state budgets 7 years in a row.  Yours was a herculean task. Like Clark Kent, laymen will never understand the super powers that lay therein, but rest assured, some of us do know.

You are a credit to our kind…..

Welcome home, soldier…….

Ann Vasalli…

 

How Much Did Republicans Cost You With Every Single Attempt To Repeal Obamacare?

CBS puts the price tag at $1.5 million per vote… That is probably exaggerated and where that might have been the actual initial expense were one to account for all the high priced hours, acquired document fees, parking, etc for the information collected in the first vote, it would be safe to assume that most of the subsequent votes all draw from that original document…. and the expense would be less.

As all know by now, Obamacare helps we, the people, and in doing so costs the private insurance companies a little more in profit unearned. That essentially is what this whole battle is over.  If the private insurance companies had from the get-go, said they were gung-ho into Obamacare, none of this controversy would have occurred at all. …

So according to CBS, the grand total, with 50 attempts to repeal, is now at $75 million of your dollars completely wasted over nothing…   We still have Obamacare. The money was spent.  It was therefore spent on nothing and Republicans in the House, are the ones solely responsible. Someone needs to be accountable for spending the exact same money when they knew very well it was to wasted and could go no  further…. over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over.

(Yeah, it’s 50)

So when you legitimately complain that nothing is getting done to help you the public citizen, consider this:  what $75 million would otherwise buy….

$150,000 jobs…. 500 per year

$75,000  jobs….  1000 per year

$50,000 jobs….   1500 per year

$35,000 jobs…    2142 per year

Fixed pot hole…..  250,000 at the high in estimate of ($300 per pothole)

Brand new high schools…. 3 3/4

Elementary schools…. 10

Rounds of ammunition…. 255 million

Roman Abramovich’s home …. 1

M1 Abrams tanks…..  8.74 tanks

Spent on Marijuana Prohibition….. 1.36 days

SNAP Benefits….. 8 hours 14 minutes worth

Operating a Nimitz Class Aircraft Carrier….. 70 days, 21 hours,

Amount applied to Protecting Endangered Species…..  3 years and 3 months

Speakers of the House…..  360 of them. (Vice Presidents too)

=====

Bottom line. We could have gotten a much better deal for the money spent.  Everyone knew it was being spent on absolutely nothing.  Yet Republicans spent every penny anyway…  Remember this the next time they yelp about Keynesians spending government money on useless projects…

This was just a pure sad waste of your money. No ifs, No buts. No do overs…

It is up to you to hold the Republican Party accountable; the main stream media won’t…..  Just wait until the next time some one dares complain about Obamacare in front of you…!

If this information were to ever get out, it alone could cause the House to turn blue in 2014……..

Why Removing Oneself From The Stock Markets Makes Sense

I sometimes forget that people really don’t understand the financial markets as well as they should.  That’s very understandable.  I don’t understand everything it takes to build a road, as much as I should. 

There are so many things to know; we can’t know everything.  When I posted a message about getting out of the markets, I received a comment that reminded me that not everyone was up to par on what is about to happen and how that will affect them.  

Here is why getting out now is a good thing, and why staying in “for the long haul” is a bad thing.

Assume you have $10,000 in stocks.   If the stock market drops 40% as it is prone to do, it will be years before it gets back up to its level.  On the Dow Jones a 40% drop would be like going down to 9000 to give you an idea.  That can happen in a day, and with most IRA’s, you have to put your bid in one day and it comes out the next.  You could do it now, and if it crashes tomorrow still lose it all.

Which is why you should act today, Friday, and take a chance on Monday.

If you don’t.  here is what will happen.   That $10,000 could become $6,000 by next Monday afternoon.  But you are in it for the long haul, right?.  Again after 2 years of  awesome 30% growth,, that money-total of yours has again climbed up to $10,000.  No big deal you shrug. You were in it for the long haul. You lost nothing.

Now, the other side of the story.

You switch the $10,000 right now over to a Treasury bond fund.  There is not much growth, so it stays at $10000 for a while.  Of course, everyone else has lost 40% but you are steady.  

So when the market stops losing and starts bouncing back, you go in at the bottom. with your full $10,000.   After 2 years of 30% growth, you have $16,000.  Had you stayed, you only had $10,000.

That is why, both those who are smart and unsmart should get out of  the stock market now.

In layman’s terms its the equivalent of protecting your property upon notice that Superstorm Sandy is headed for Delaware’s shores.  You can take your chances that it will blow over and do nothing….. you could be right if you are very lucky.  or you could hedge your bets and with little or no expense, and just a tiny bit if effort, protect your assets from any damage that could occur…. 

Just saying that an economic superstorm of gigantic proportions is headed your way.

 

 

Student Loans: Next Financial Crash?

On July 1st the interest rate on student loans rises  from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent of this year.

One year ago, the trillion dollar mark was crossed for the amount owed and required to be paid back for a student’s education..

3.4 to a 6.8 is a doubling… Just on a gross scale, off a Trillion dollars, the interest per year is jumping from $34 billion to $68 billion.   On a $16 trillion GDP, that is nothing.  But when you look at other figures, that jump has shocking consequences for the world-wide banking system.

The post graduate boom is usually what drives our economy.  New cars, New electronics, New houses.  Dining out. Spontaneous purchases.  A study by the New York Federal Reserve shows that graduates are living austerely to pay of their gigantic debt, most of which are more costly than the mortgages owned by middle America.  Asking someone to buy a house while paying off their educational loan, is equivalent to asking then to buy a second house while still paying off their first,  How rich does one have to be in order to do that? What amount of yearly income is required to do that? +$125,000? Does this mean there will be no net new buyers of houses for 20 years?  Anyways, after July 1st, there will be $34 billion less with which to purchase houses.

The Department of Education predicts a default rate of 13.4%… Off a trillion that means $130.4 billion dollars will be the amount defaulted. $130.4 billion. 

So adding the two together, the upcoming shock on our economy will now cost $198 billion. Poof, right out the door, $198 billion. Gone from our economy. 

Tran Union a credit reporting agency says the data in it’s files show that almost half, or 43.5% of student debt is in deferment.  In dollars off that trillion total, that would amount to $435 billion dollars of debt not being paid in a timely fashion.

Particular concern must be paid here, because more than half of college graduates under the age of 25 are either unemployed or underemployed — the highest rate in 11 years, according to an analysis of government data.

Putting the two together, we have half of those required to pay $435 billion defaulted, who are either under or unemployed.

As we saw with mortgages, when people can’t pay, there is no notice, They just walk away.

A nation depends upon its newest generation to lead them forward with energy and enthusiasm, long after the previous ones are tired and ready for rest.  This generation is coming out on the playing field, weighed down like knights of old, in ancient armor….  The upcoming football game does not look promising…  Their best 100 yard dash is just under 10 minutes.

Single Sex Marriage

To be brief:  it is one of the founding principle of this nation that one has the right to be happy. (That comes of course with the price of not making others unhappy.)  In making single sex marriage legal, one has to look at all options and answer these questions…

Is is unfair to allow heterosexual couples rights not allowed to single sex couples?

Yes, it is unfair.  Anytime there is a double standard, … it is unfair.  (That is actually the proper definition of the word unfair: ie. employ a double standard.)

Will single sex marriages cause any harm to anyone?

No, it will cause no harm.  Whether someone two counties away lives in a civil union or a legally sanctioned marriage will not affect me (or you) one way or another.

There you have it.

Allowing Single Sex Marriages will repair an injustice and will not cause any harm when it is done.

Meaning the only two reasons to vote against it, are because you purposefully want to be unfair, … or you purposefully want to harm someone.

Passing this is a no-brainer.  If we are going to start listening to Christian fundamentalists, then we had better be prepared to listen to Islamic mullahs, Jewish prophets, as well as  every Wikkim candidate for office… Sure they have a right to speak, but we have a bigger right to ignore them.

Passage of this is a no-brainer because it corrects a longterm unfairness without hurting anyone in the process….

Still Confused By Fiscal Cliff? Now Easily Explained in 6:51 Minutes

Courtesy of the Treasury Blog.

YOU, You Now Can Fix The Deficit Problem Where Boehner, McConnell, and Republican’s Can’t

Courtesy of New York Times

Here is the sight where you can fix the deficit yourself... Let me know how long it took and what you found to be your biggest surprise?

Indirect link:
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/11/13/weekinreview/deficits-graphic.html?choices=012vn5qj

Gingrich’s Irony…..

Why you have to do a reality check everytime Gingrich speaks……

Gingrich quotes describing President Obama as the:

“finest food stamp president in American history” because more people will end up getting government aid than new jobs.

Fact: George W Bush followed Newt Gingritch’s plan while in the White House.

Fact: The best remedy for less public assistance, is more jobs.

Fact: During the 8 years of George W. Bush, there was 0 net job growth…. Zero.

Fact: Under Obama’s tenure, 2.9 million new jobs have been created, (get this) in the private sector.

Truth. Gingrich’s taunt works better against his own policies. They certainly don’t apply to those of President Obama.

Bottom line; If you want more welfare and public assistance, vote Republican.. If you want jobs, vote Democratic.

History is all the proof you need.

Then There’s Newt Gingrich….

Again, lifted from Der Spiegal

The current favorite? He’s a political dinosaur, dishonored and discredited. Or so we thought. Yet just because he studied history and speaks in more complex sentences than his rivals, the US media now reflexively hails him as a “Man of Ideas” (The Washington Post) — even though most of these ideas are lousy if not downright offensive, such as firing unionized school janitors, so poor children could do their jobs.

Pompous and blustering, Gingrich gets away with this humdinger as well as with selling himself as a Washington outsider — despite having made millions of dollars as a lobbyist in Washington. At least the man’s got chutzpah.

The hypocrisy doesn’t end here. Gingrich claims moral authority on issues such as the “sanctity of marriage,” yet he’s been divorced twice. He sprang the divorce on his first wife while she was sick with cancer. (His supporters’ excuse: It’s been 31 years, and she’s still alive.) He cheated on his second wife just as he was pressing ahead with Bill Clinton’s impeachment during the Monica Lewinsky affair, unaware of the irony. The woman he cheated with, by the way, was one of his House aides and 23 years his junior — and is now his perpetually smiling third wife.

Americans have a short memory. They forget, too, that Gingrich was driven out of Congress in disgrace, the first speaker of the house to be disciplined for ethical wrongdoing. Or that he consistently flirts with racism when he speaks of Barack Obama. Or that he enjoyed a $500,000 credit line at Tiffany’s just as his campaign was financially in the toilet and he ranted about the national debt. Chutzpah, indeed.

Yet the US media rewards him with a daily kowtow. And the Republicans reward him too, by having put him on top in the latest polls. Mr. Hypocrisy, the bearer of his party’s hope.

“I think he’s doing well just because he’s thinking,” former President Clinton told the conservative online magazine NewsMax. “People are hungry for ideas that make some sense.” Sense? Apparently it’s not just the Republicans who have lost their minds here.

In A Perfect World….

Call it temporary insanity but let’s pretend, let’s just say, …that at one moment in time, if I chose to donate my youth out for my country, to be compensated back in the form of low pay; to completely and unjudgingly offer my fate up to the will of bureaucrats, all for the loss of my own self esteem, all for unending stretches of boredom, sparsed with interludes of a few intense seconds, that fortunately thorough my reactions and training, enabled me to continue living as I do today………….

I could reasonably be expected to be honored for that service to my nation, right?

In a perfect world, that is….

One would think, that in a perfect world, as needs were being debated across the universe of public funding, that a hierarchy resembling this, would sort of be the guideline, if not the rule?

National Heroes…..

over

We, The People…..

over

LLC corporations….

After all, if it weren’t for us, there’s a good chance those LLC. corporations wouldn’t be able to do business in a free and prosperous society, you would think?….

One would think, that if one of these heroes needed medical care, with the tremendous amounts of money being thrown away by our government daily, in the forms of corporate tax breaks enabling corporations to make “record breaking profits”…. that they would be put at the top of the list.. don’t you think?

Sorry, CEO… your operation will have to wait… We have a veteran who is in dire need ahead of you….

In a perfect world….

One would think, that a voucher system would be in place, or a blank check, where any veteran could walk into any hospital, and get immediate, necessary medical attention, have his prescriptions filled as a privilege for his service, and that the bill would be willing be paid by those with monetary resources more than adequate for their own needs?

One would think, (right?)… that it would be CEO’s, those who give pink slips so they can break profit records, those who cut benefits so they can break profit records, those who don’t invest in America so they can break record profits, ….who should be the ones finding themselves regulated to CEO hospitals, where they would then have to settle in on a waiting list for the next opening to occur, where they had to endure budget cutbacks and go without life-saving medicine because there was no money left in the CEO fund, perhaps because it had all gone to Veterans to pay THEIR expenses?

In a perfect world…..

In a perfect world, veterans would need no freebies…. They would not need welfare, or a pension, or a humble stipend to eke an existence… They would be working, contributing to society, in any way they could… If they had no legs, they would be outfitted at corporate’s expense, so that would not be an issue… If they had no arms, they could be outfitted at corporate’s expense so that was not an issue. If they had psychological damage, (and who wouldn’t?) they could be treated at corporate’s expense… so that was not an issue.

If they were so badly damaged that they create an efficiency drain on society, they could be honored for their sacrifice, and a useful voluntary capacity could be created to honor that commitment once made so long ago… Perhaps speaking about serving one’s country in every class, in every school, in every county? Can you think of any better civic’s lesson?

There’s a lot that can be done…

The problem is that veterans are deemed as just another expense…. Because to corporate America, that is just what they are… An expense, an obligation to be met that gets in the way of their making more money…

Unfortunately, our Congress is owned by Corporate America….

What should and does need to happen, is this relationship needs to be exposed. We need to call them out on it…

Republicans and Democrats are both complicit in allowing corporate raiders this unprecedented power. But Republicans are the symbol of Corporate America. Republicans are the ones who championed the Corporate Takeover. Republicans are the ones who dismanteled the safeguards that had been put in place to prevent that takeover from happening. That is why they need to go. Disappear… Whoever is left, the remainder, most likely after seeing the elimination of a large majority of their peers, will think twice before following their Dark Lord, now a soul less wanderer eking existence.. ……

In a perfect world…

Unfortunately, today we need to contend with obscene amounts of money saying Corporate is Good; Government Fairness is Bad….

But we have our lives telling us the opposite… It will take courage and strong will, to override all the overload of sensory data being pipelined into our soul, but we still have hearts, and those hearts are attuned to what makes America special. great, and the best place to live on this earth….

WE can still dream….

And those dreams should include a perfect world… one we CAN make happen, at least for those without whom we would not have the freedom, the resources, the nation, we have today….

Here’s to a perfect world?