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Shout out to El Som who dutifully does what in the other 49 states would be the News Journal’s duty, just so we too can be an informed public… Many thanks from those of us who use this valuable resource….
You probably know by now from the “other” sources that Valerie Longhurst is gutting $70 million from fixing our roads and bridges despite the disaster on 495!
You probably right now are smacking your forehead with your hand, and saying “What the fuck is she thinking?” I have to sit in traffic an extra hour because of her!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You would be right. But, apparently she is not alone. The majority of the Legislature is still living in the 00’s and is too timid to increase revenues… any revenues… There is very tiny fringe of people cheering that… and that tiny fringe are the only ones who have their ear…
So the rest of us have to suffer more gridlock because of Valerie Longhurst… and more, and more, and more, more, more, more, more, …,
Collectively in 2 years we will all scream!!!!!!!!!!!!!! “Why doesn’t someone do something!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”….
Instead of passing a gas tax which will hurt only those speculators investing in gasoline….and will be 60% financed by out of state travelers….. she is cutting, (this is not about growing any bigger) but she is “cutting” infrastructure improvements…..
Well, we gotta cut something……
NO! YOU DON’T…….
There are unlimited resources for raising revenue… The gas tax is one… And taxing our wealthy is a goldmine… Recently it was determined that our wealthy could adquetely fund up to $1.3 billion yearly each single year…. to bring them up to the level counting for inflation to where they were taxed back in the 50’s… They survived then; they’ll survive now…. No billionaire has ever died impoverished…..
So with an untapped $1.3 billion at our disposal…. Valerie Longhurst is cutting back on rebuilding bridges and roads!… Just think… if that inspector who luckily got in his car that Monday morning to look under that bridge, … had been laid off. Just think, if all of them had been laid off! Exactly! That is where Valerie is taking us….
We’d not have fixed the bridge in time… We still be pulling bodies out the river….
This is where Valerie Longhurst is leading us… This is just plain fucking stupid. Anyone can see it is plain fucking stupid….
The problem is not really in the number of brain cells these legislators have…. They, I trust, have pretty close to the same number as the rest of us… The real problem…. IS THAT THEY… DON’T…. HEAR… YOU !!! (They hear the tiny few from ALEC 40 times a day)… You must make them HEAR you… You must…
Call or more effectively…. email…. today….
Say: RAISE THE GAS TAX AND TAX THE TOP ONE PERCENT….. BUT, whatever you do…. don’t EVER cut the transportation fund and make me wait in my car ONE MORE SINGLE MINUTE because you were too cheap to fix a bridge before it goes out!!!
And if you don’t know who they are…….
The problem with government these days is that they just don’t hear anymore from people with plain Common Sense…. Change that! Today!
What do these three have in common?
They are the main themes of the News Journal, most progressive blogs and radio talk shows, and Pope Francis….
Since the News Journal came out with their report on jobs in the economy, there has been a shill of shrill callings for education to become the white knight to raise children up from poverty… Pick up a News Journal (paper version preferable)… Op-ed piece: James Butkiewicz; Robert Frost, Letter to The Editor, Phillip Socorso, Letter to The Editor, Bruce W. Lee, Letter to the Editor, Editorial Board writes “Get Ready for Lifetime of Learning.”
Hell, I was even guilty of it myself….”The path out of poverty is a good education and that’s the very thing we are not giving them: a good education.
But there is this idea boiling up pretty much only here in Delaware,with piece, after piece, after piece, that we need good education to grow jobs in Delaware….
Our direction is misplaced.
Good education can’t hurt, but with only a casual glance around the world, one can see the nonsense in connecting good jobs with good education…. Examples? Japan. Japan has the best education around, but has been in a slump for 20 years… Well educated populace does not equal booming economy and full employment. China, although Shanghai has private schools rated rather well, most of the jobs are in the outlaying regions. Places where people work for cheap. Education out there is not as high as we often hear about in Shanghai. Finland is rated as the best for education. It is the model. And yet the Finnish economy is facing industrial restructuring, rising domestic costs and an aging population. If one takes average wages, as a sign of prosperity… the US is on top, followed by Ireland, Luxembourg, Switzerland, and Austrailia.… none of which are touted for their prowess in education.
Not globally astute? Let’s look at domestic, shall we… Top job growth in 2012…?
North Dakota (+ 29)
D.C. (+25)
South Dakota (+21)
Alaska (+19)
Arkansas (+17)
All home to America’s most brilliant minds…. “Can someone please pass the jelly?” All states educated and populated with rocket scientists, all… “Honey, you stay and wash the clothes; I’m going out and shoot me a deer.”
And the worst….
States with the Worst Job Growth
Nevada (-6)
New Jersey (-2)
California (0)
Oregon (+2)
Connecticut (+2)
New Jersey ranks at number 6 according to the NAEP, the nation’s report card. Connecticut was number 20. What about the two top educated states? Massachusetts? Employment peaked in 2001…. Minnesota? It’s lost 24,000 jobs across the past 6 months…
Time to pop that balloon once and for all… Other factors relate to full employment, not education. Luck is a big part of it. Who 5 years ago would know that the upper Midwest would produce more energy than the Middle East? Jobs depend solely on economics; there is no relation to how smart one’s educational system is, and more jobs… Period…. In fact, if one looks at the economic maps showing employment and unemployment, the most prosperous states right now, are all drilling… If you can’t drill, you are suffering….
Why are jobs not being created elsewhere? Actually there is a reason. A very good reason, and it is not, NOT, the quality of one’s education….
Our job’s situation is being hit on two sides with a double whammy…. The first is technology. Machines cost the same as people, and we have the technology to now replace people.. Face it! If you ran a business and the costs were the same, who would you prefer? A machine, of course… “Hello, I’m your machine, and I am so sick, I have to call out today… Yeah, I was up all night and had diarrhea and was throwing up and stuff… Must have been something I ate…. I should be fine tomorrow though… ” said no machine, ever.
And the other, is our intentional cutting away all public sector jobs… Mostly thanks to Republican philosophy…. “We gotta cut the government.”
NO…… We ……. DON’T……
In fact it defies rationality that as our economy was tubing, we were shedding jobs. And now that it is rebounding, we are shedding jobs… Does that makes sense to you? In fact… in an ideal world, where thoughts and ideas could be debated in the open, without being ignored or amplified by the main stream media to achieve their preferred result…. we would have figured this out long ago….
Machines replace people and cause profits of those who are doing the replacing to soar… However, because machines are not moral entities, they don’t know right from wrong. Therefore it will still take people who do have moral judgment to discern the moral qualities behind a certain business…. That was essentially a polite way of saying: we need more inspectors now… We always had people checking up on people. We need people to check up on machines….
As one example. If the London Whale had to be first cleared to make his huge transaction, would it have been made? That type of monitoring across all industries, is sort of what we are talking about…. We need public sector employees to do things like monitor rivers, air, crabs, venereal diseases, and hookers. If no one is monitoring them, what happens? Exactly.
These people need hired, trained, and jobs. But where should the money come from? Silly question… those who have it, of course…..
It is now time for the kavipsian family pizza analogy…. You have a family who is hungry. You put in a Red Baron Pizza, cook it at 425 for 15 minutes, and cut it for 4 people…. Everyone gets enough, but not too much…. That is normal… That describes the baby boomer’s parent’s economic lifestyle… But, it gradually evolved to where the baker person, got to cut his piece first, and the others split what was left… He now takes half, and the others split the other half, getting one sixth, whereas before it was one fourth…. The baker person, gets a whole half… so the pizza is consumed like this: by one half, one sixth, one sixth, and one more sixth… Three people are a little hungry, and the fourth, has too much so he wraps up roughly the left-over quarter he couldn’t eat and puts it into the freezer of the refrigerator, and scrawls his name across the plastic….
Over time, (he never eats them), that freezer fills up, because there is always a new pizza being ordered… always. Everyone else is hungry, and the baker keeps taking his half….
So… finally a change comes… And the other three decide, niceties aside, they have to eat MORE… They change the rules so that pizza being kept in the freezer, gets offered to them… The baker still gets his half off each new… but he gives a slice of frozen pizza to each of those others, and they can microwave it and add that to their one sixth….
All live happily every after… The baker is glad to still be alive, and he keeps his share of pizza… the others are glad they have one sixth and one fourth a pizza with each meal. And the refrigerator slowly empties its inventory…. but it takes a while because the baker is still putting in his quarter of pizza he can’t eat, back into the freezer….
Translated to the economy… It is not socialism. The baker had ownership of what was originally the other three’s shares. He is just essentially paying them back the loan.
If only some of that money that once was used to make jobs, was returned to making jobs again, all would be good… The rich would still get richer (though at a slower pace), and everyone else would get richer …too. Amazingly all levels of income brackets would simultaneously get richer… Wasn’t that once the American dream?
The answer to the capitalists when the backlash come, and it will come, is this: we gave you the opportunity to get wealthy by investing in us, and you turned us down cold… Since you didn’t do it, for our nation’s survival, we have to do it in spite of you… For actually, they very well could have trimmed profits and put much of that money back into their own companies in order to make sure, for instance, that they did not overlook a mistake costing them dearly in the future…. They chose not to and now, well, here we are.
So what we collectively need to say to the capitalists, is that since you have the advantage of the machines who replaced us, we will have to charge you for our public sector jobs now… That is fair. After all, what you made equals exactly what we gave up….
For if something happened, an EMP for instance and none, not one of those machines would work… Suddenly they’d be desperate for workers to make things again… Their loss of profits would be …”oh well, it has to be done this way.” and not…. “what? your taking my, my, my money, and giving it to, to, to, T-H-O-S-E … people???”
Since their loss of money would not affect them in that particular scenario ( they call it a cost of business), we should not worry about how loud they boast it will affect them now… Because you see, in our simplistic illustration, there are three who’ve been quiet this whole time, who desperately need this change to go forward now… They should have yelled, but for some reason, didn’t. Now one loudly complains; three are immensely grateful; two points ahead, it’s a win.
Bottom line. IT IS OUR INEQUALITY THAT IS COSTING US JOBS, MAKING US UNEMPLOYED. It is something we could readily fix… today! Well, maybe not exactly today… but when Congress returns in January.
Raise taxes, by however method you wish, just raise them solely on those who have stolen and fattened their refrigerators with our victuals. We can raise them a lot, if we want a 5 Hour energy economic boost, or, it can be done gradually with Mountain Dew if we wish not to shock the system too much….
With that new money, use roughly half to continue paying down the debt, and roughly the other half to start creating jobs. At which point we hit somewhere near 5% unemployment…. we lift our foot off the accelerator and coast down the highway to a more prosperous America…..
Back to education. Real good education is something we all want, but higher standards imposed on an unwilling young public won’t magically grow jobs. Attacking the inequality that even Pope Francis says is the most important problem mankind now faces, will.
Tax, save half, spend half, and let’s get this party rolling….
I for one, wouldn’t mind partying like its … 1999…..
What an odd title but that is exactly what is going on in Egypt right now. A similar juxtaposition also occurred inside the minds of some Americans back on July 4th 1863 (exactly 150 years ago) as they begin to bury the dead from both sides in Gettysburg. Since human beings are 99.5% the same, what Egypt is now bearing must create some intro-inspection upon how things are going here in the US as well.
I was shown an email passed among Tea Partiers that whooped: “Egypt got rid of their dictator; Why can’t we get rid of ours?” Ironically the popular vote percents are strikingly similar… Morsi won with 51.7%; Obama with 51.1%… Yet Egypt is in the middle of a coup; and Obama is being hailed as the first since Dwight to have solidly won over 51% for both terms…
Just looking at a chart over our nation’s history one sees just how tight our popular vote margin is. (one also sees the margin of victory is a bad indicator of just how good a president will be)…
It’s a good thing we have an electoral college to decide matters for us, and create a more determinable method of preventing what Egyptians and many of out tea partiers think should happen now….
I know many decry Bush’s win (-0.51$) over Gore and use that to promote an amendment to abolish the Electoral College. However America survived far better than Egypt (+1.7%) is doing now, with even worse violations against the the popular vote total… Through the House of Representatives, these people became President: Benjamin Harrison (-0.83%), Rutherford B. Hayes (-3.00), and John Quincy Adams (-10.44%) all with more of a percentage loss than had George W. Bush over Gore. In two of the three, the loser returned to whomp the stealer out of his second term. One of these “losers” even had a 51% popular vote majority!
But the electoral college provided decisiveness. Just like in football or basketball, the final score may not portray the better team, but it provides a finality from which we can all move on.
The demise of Morsi is a great chance to bring up this issue, simply to force us to understand why our founding fathers who were unburdened at that point by political parties, could by using what today are called “thought models”, come up with this peculiar institution that has well served it’s test over time. Couple that to the fact that even today, we have something almost akin to a political party vying for the forced overthrow our our elected top official, one can imagine the rancor and violence that might have tainted our nation’s development if we did not have a clear uncontestable “score” that determined our winners from losers.
One must be cautious when comparing today’s Egypt with today’s American democracy. Egypt is in its founding stages. As Morsi proclaimed, removing him removes all legitimacy of any future democratically elected government. As did Julius Caesar to all future democracy in Rome.
It makes us realize how lucky we are today that all of America was unified behind George Washington as it’s first head of state. That unanimity of opinion, allowed the slow formation of traditions we now have today to take root. For one, Washington did not impose himself (as did Morsi) by aligning with either the Democrats or Federalists on policy at the expense of the other.
Morsi made that mistake with the Muslim Brotherhood. Instead, unlike the current head of Egypt, George Washington held court over a myriad of opinions, and picked and chose in the fashion of King Solomon, almost the same as he did at the Constitutional Convention, of which was the most judicious approach on the basis of each proposal’s merits. It is worth noting, that towards the end of his second term as the political parties were being formed for the upcoming 1798 race, he himself became quite disgusted with the smears, dirt, graft, and corruption required to enable any country to run effectively upon its own power…
Perhaps because Egypt did not endure a long war of Independence, it does not respect the cost of freedom. Perhaps because democracy came to Egypt in its first time like a pack of chewing gum in a cashiers line, they easily think they can replace it again with a better flavor?
But this foreboding irony of Egypt remains. Instead of comparing it with American Democracy, suppose we go Godwin and compare it to the German election of 1932. What if the Germans had risen up a year later against Hitler and thrown him out? That would be good thing right? Or had Mao been pushed out and the Chinese business reforms begun 40 years earlier? Or had North Korea said “unh unh” to its dictator in the first year? Or had Centrists in Iran risen and prevailed over the Ayatollah?
The Turkish Army as well as the Pakistani Army has on occasion stepped in and then later bowed out whenever control has become precarious. Perhaps this is the only model that works well for overly excitable Arab populations? it is a longterm democracy with military safeguards built into its Constitution.
But one thing is very clear from this current outcome is this: religion can play NO part in government, even if given a political mandate. Living vicariously through Egypt it is clear there must be an impenetrable wall between that which belongs to Caesar, and that which belongs to God. All political entities who have dared mix religion into their political framework, have populations who are deeply suffering now (relative to those in strictly secular governments), even when that religious entity is the Chairman of the ruling political party himself, as is the case in North Korea, the old Soviet Union, or as was of Japan and Germany during the second world war…
It’s a lesson the US should take to heart. They next time anyone decries we need more religious people in our democracy, cut them off with this: “Remember Iran; Remember Egypt.”
As Americans we are not immune to Civil War. From it we learned it is a horrible alternative to walk away from one’s existing structure simply because one does not get one’s own way… We also learned that one can’t impose one’s will on vast majorities of ourselves who think differently.
Third. We learned that freedom is great, but the need to eat is greater. Government first has to function to meet the basic needs of its citizens; only then, once its citizens are economically stable to be not worried whether they will be alive the day after tomorrow, can their thoughts begin to turn to topics such as does democracy even matter?
As US policy, our actions need to first get Egypt to feed themselves; Spare no expense; make it our generation’s Marshall Plan. Then once well fed and able to provide for themselves, can we begin to proselytize our points of view. Whether they choose democracy or totalitarianism, will depend solely on who they see helping them now in their time of need… One can talk of democracy’s long-term future implications, but that rings on deaf ears when all one really wonders, is if one will be alive the day after tomorrow.
Because Congress has not yet acted to approve normal borrowing authority after
May 18, the Treasury Department will begin implementing the standard set of extraordinary
measures that enable us, on a temporary basis, to protect the full faith and credit of the United
States by continuing to pay the nation’S bills. These measures are the same ones that have been
used in previous debt limit impasses, and are described in detail in an appendix to this letter.
And so it begins again…. Another debt ceiling crises…. Can we ever get rid of this pestilence which afflicts us?
Hope you’ve gotten out of the market? Remember what happened the last time. And the effect upon the economy which just like this year, had grown amazingly well the first quarter… and then.. Bam!
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.
Originally published on the Office of Management and Budget blog and picked up here off the Treasury Blog… the magic number of deficit reduced is $737 billion.
Put into perspective.
This is compared to the $4 Trillion Grand deal that was agreed to by everyone back in August 2011, then scuttled by Paul Ryan (Romney’s VP pick), who walked out of the agreement taking the Tea Party Republicans with him… The agreement was there, it was right there on the table; Obama had signed on. Democrats in the Senate had signed on. Republicans in the Senate had signed on. Democrats in the House had signed on. And the Republicans in the House had signed on… But then, to everyone’s surprise! Paul Ryan, said no, it raised taxes, so he and his Tea Party couldn’t vote on it… The deal was scuttled. And we got sequestration, a new debt ceiling, and the expiration of the Bush Tax Cuts all at once… . .
Last Monday, Paul Ryan voted to raise taxes. So what was the Big Deal?
This table shows the relief from last years policy. This year, we will cut the proposed deficit by 4 billion. That is in jeopardy, because the Hurricane Sandy relief which has been promised to be passed by the new House of Representatives sworn in yesterday, is already 60 billion over what was previously budgeted…. Next year we may get some of that back; this bill drops our deficit $42 billion.
The point I’m making is that this bill although a victory, actually saves very little…. Obama originally said we’d go with $1.6 Trillion in new revenue. $2.4 Trillion of cuts would be on top of that. Now, including both revenue and cuts, we have not even half of that. Over 12 years, we save $737 billion with $329 billion coming from the last three years of the second term of whomever gets elected after President Obama!
What we got …. was a deal. That says something. America should be grateful for small wonders. America also got time to debate the cuts. They would have happened immediately without debate had we done nothing. SURPRISE!!! 500,000 ARE UNEMPLOYED AS OF TODAY!! America got unemployment insurance extended. America got the wind credit tax extended, very necessary right now. America got higher taxes on the top half of the 1%.… As they scramble to bury their money into our economy, we could see job growth come out of it… And that is really what was important. That the 2$ Trillion sitting outside the economy, get taxed so it becomes now cheaper to invest in our nation’s infrastructure and not in the stock market…. That was the whole idea for high taxes. Force investment into the economy…. Those 400 people who own the top 1/10th of the top one percent of the wealth, now… have to do something with it.. or lose it…
But as for affecting the deficit, it could actually help if the economy takes off and 12 million new jobs open up as anticipated. Those new jobs will pay tax money too, more than making up what the incomes between $250,000 and $400,000 got to keep.
But Delaware’s Senator Tom Carper is correct here. This bill he voted no for, simply kicks the can down the road, where had it not been passed at all, the laws on the books would have begun to eat up the deficit like bacteria in a sewage tank… Like taking an antibiotic, which makes you initially get sick the first day, then you begin getting better almost immediately, this deal against which Carper voted “no” would have caused a recessionary blip, then pulled us into prosperity.
This flashing, daring, last minute grand compromise, as Carper rightfully states, is the equivalent to opting NOT TO TAKE THE ANTIBIOTIC BECAUSE IT MAKES YOU A LITTLE SICK THE FIRST DAY…..
Tim Geithner said today, that the Treasury runs out of money on December 31st. That day we cross the $16.4 trillion debt limit.
Extraordinary measures can be expended to provide a stopgap… The Federal Treasury can raise $200 billion as a stopgap which provides 2 months leeway…
We were here once before, and learned nothing.
This crises is caused by a holdout band of renegade Republicans who for better or worse are out to destroy the United States of America.
There is no other scenario.
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
I wish I could say it was both parties to blame. But to do so is to lie. That is one thing I don’t do.
After crunching the numbers the president’s plan is the basic, lowest tax increase we can afford. Anything less, does nothing to bring our nation back to prosperity. I certainly would argue that the tax increase should be higher, but it appears that instead of starting high and negotiating lower, Obama started with the bare minimum. This is it; take it or leave it. He cannot go below that line. Period.
The Republicans know the stakes; but would rather take us over the cliff, instead of looking weak to the faithful of their party, which lost btw….
It is just nuts. Now, they want to create another debt ceiling crises? …. again? Is there no end to stupidity?
Pros and Cons of Holding A Nationwide Strike on January 2nd, 2013.
Pros:
1) Forces Republicans to negotiate.
2) Demonstrates to Congress this is not a game.
3) Gives everyone a day longer holiday break.
4) Raises stakes for Tea Party Republicans thinking about defaulting.
5) Causes all eyes to stay focused on the deficit issue at hand.
6) Could be conducted as a wildcat strike , just call in sick.
7) Shows that Americans are serious about taxing the wealthy.
8) Gives our president a tool to hold over corporate America
9) January 2nd is the lowest productivity day of the year, no economic loss
10) Needs to be viral to have any meaning. People have to want to show their support for balancing the budget through taxes on the wealthy.
11) Continuation of occupy themes.
12) Businesses as well as labor, can show their support for raising taxes on the wealthy.
13) After experiencing a nationwide strike, Labor negotiators will have more clout in negotiations.
14) America’s people takes back their destiny. Like Thanksgiving, almost every American is off work.
15) Will demonstrate what happens if America stops working.
16) Will be called off if Agreement is decided before Dec. 15th.
17) Should be also supported by Businesses, corporations as well as workers. We all have a hand in making sure our government can pay it’s bills far into the future.
Cons:
1) Inconvenience to those flying that day, or any travelers.
2) Lost day of work.
3) Job may fire you.
4) There are no winners in a strike. Victor goes to the one who stands hardship the longest. All lose.
5) If successful Could be overused. Strike for Animal Rights.
6) Will gum up normal operations. for whole day. and perhaps the next.
7) Will lower GDP by one day’s worth in that quarter.
8) May cause gigantic riots never before seen in the history of the World.
9) Nobody will come.
kavips 
