More entitlements financially irresponsible.

COUNTRY CANNOT PAY FOR PRESENT ENTITLEMENTS

ALL ABOUT TRANSFORMING AMERICA 

We now hear that the democrats are proposing only funding their new entitlements for 3 years rather than 10 years. Once entitlement expansion is passed it is forever, if there is no money, just borrow more and devalue the currency. It is time that all these omnibus or large spending bills are eliminated. They should have to debate and pass each with separate legislation. Any bill that is 2500 pages, or any number like it  should never be considered. These large bills are always loaded with pork and other distasteful abuses.

Pelosi has promised her constituents, "Transformational legislation ", which in real speak means it is a socialist revolution in one big package. The whole idea of human infrastructure needs to be rejected in its entirety. Any one who votes for such a mess hates a free America and wants a new Socialist America. The only real government investments that I recall was the Louisiana purchase and the purchase of Alaska. 

We have been witnessing the real authoritarian ideologs of our country. They are democrats who have abused their power with lockdowns, mandates and other unconsititutional edics, most without the approval of the legislators either at a state or federal level. Now, they want to expand their power by implementing new entitlements to buy votes and expand dependency on the federal government. They hope that this legislation will seal the fate of our country. It will give the bureaucracy more power over our lives. They have proven that they cannot control their lust for power.

To now insist on keeping this legislation intact, but cutting the cost by only funding for 3 years is just another bait and switch. The present estimates of $3.5 trillion dollars are already a fake number, the real cost could be 3 times that much in 10 years. This whole package needs to be scraped and if there are any worthy parts, they should be voted on one by one in seperate pieces.

This country cannot pay for the benefits it has now. They could confiscate all the money from the so called 1 % and they could not balance a budget for 1 year. This situation will get worse even if no new entitlements are enacted. We need a fundamental change in the budget and spending excesses in this country. The country needs to live within its means, just like every family. 

More government programs means more government power and regulation. dependency and a further disincentive to work. We obviously already have more of this than we can handle.

Will new energy crisis lead to new debt crisis?

COST OF ENERGY SKYROCKETING WORLDWIDE

NOT CAUSED BY ENERGY SHORTAGE, BUT SHORT SIGHTED POLICY 

Filled my gas tank yesterday, gas now approaching $3.50 a gallon. Fuel Oil approaching $3.00.  It was in 2007 that gas reached $4.00 a gallon, it was not long until many who were living with a lot of debt were in trouble. The high cost of gas led to higher prices for everything, food, electricity, all manufactured goods, transportation not just for commuters but to get all our basic necessities to market. 

There is no energy shortage, just bad policy, not only here, but in western Europe as well. Natural gas prices have risen over 300% in Europe mostly because of their dependence on North Sea windmills which for some reason has had shortage of enough wind to make electricity. Now they have had to refire natural gas plants to make electric. This will result in higher heating cost and will likely last for at least a year. They may be saved by the new availability of Russian Gas.

We hear that Biden is proposing building windmills along all our coasts. Is he going to mandate that those states allow windmills everywhere?  Who wants to look out at their beautiful ocean view and see a forest of  windmills? How well will windmills hold up in hurricane prone areas? We also witnessed that Texas windmills did not operate in cold weather, who would have thought?

We will never run a modern industrial economy on windmills and solar panels! Only people with no practical knowledge or experience would believe in such a pipe dream. Pipe dream really has a new meaning in today's world.  Politicians, academics and those profiting from government subsidies love these unreliable alternative energy ideas. Do we have to only learn from self imposed disasters?

We need to find alternatives to fossil fuels if only because it is a finite resource that will inevitably become in short supply. Moving everything to electric, while not being able to provide the electric production is so very short sighted. They are either fools or liars, probably a mixture of both.

Instead of spending $3.5 trillion on social spending that will not create anything except dependence and poverty, we could start a new Manhattan project to find a replacement for fossil fuels. Nuclear fusion is just such a possibility, but it has the dreaded NUCLEAR word. That should be easy for motivated progressives. If a word is offensive, just change the language. Maybe they could call it Progressive Molecular Combining technology. That sounds so very non-threatening.

It is likely we will continue to see bad policy as long as we have people running the country who really have no practical common sense knowledge. The kind of knowledge that only comes from doing things.

Time for governors to exercise their 10th amendment rights.

 DEMOCRAT GOVERNORS HAVE BEEN IGNORING FEDERAL LAW FOR YEARS

REPUBLICAN GOVERNORS TURN TO PROTECT THEIR STATES

"THE POWERS NOT DELEGATED TO THE UNITED STATES BY THE CONSTITUTION, NOR PROHIBITED BY IT TO THE STATES, ARE RESERVED TO THE STATES RESPECTIVELY, OR TO THE PEOPLE"

This amendment was the great relief valve to insure that the elite bureaucracy in Washington did not become an oppressor to the people of the states. The Democrat governors have not been afraid to use this power to ignore immigration laws or Federal drug laws. It is time that Republican governors do the same by enacting and enforcing state laws that are in the best interest of their states.

We have seen Florida pass legislation to bar social media from discriminating against conservative speech. Texas has proposed finishing the border wall to protect the states citizens and property from being overwhelmed by uncontrolled immigration. It is their duty and right to protect their state when the federal government has not assumed responsibility for protecting the people of the country. 

States have also passed legislation to protect children from medical experimentation concerning gender manipulation. 

The federal government used the interstate commerce clause to impose many laws and regulations on the states.  They have also used withholding federal funding as a threat to insure submission by the states. It is time the states just stand up to these methods of extortion and do what is the best interest of the citizens of the states.

There is no reason that the states should allow the federal government to dump thousands of  illegal migrants in their states. Many of these persons will become a financial and social burden on the citizens of the states. Some states like California and New York are willing to accept unlimited immigration, so let them have them by busing them to nearest state with that philosophy.

The states are supposed to be the laboratory of freedom, democracy and opportunity. When some policy works, others can take notice. And when it doesn't, they can avoid making the same mistake. If we allow the states to represent their citizens, we will relieve much of the tension and division that we are now experiencing. 

We can lay much of the division in the country on inappropriate judicial and Washington overreach.

Under the Biden administration we can expect to see an intensified effort to control everyone and everything from Washington. 

The tenth amendment is clear, as is the constitution, that the federal government is given limited powers and those powers not specifically granted to the federal government are to remain with the states and the people. State governments need to re-examine the 10th amendment even if it means rejecting Federal funds in some areas.

originally published 6/15/21 

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Government debt, your savings and your money

WE ARE ALL PAYING FOR THE GOVERNMENT DEBT 

DEBT WILL NEVER BE PAID, WILL RESULT IN LOWER STANDARD OF LIVING FOR ALL AMERICANS

We again hear about the debt ceiling, this seems to be an annual event with all the drama that both parties can lay on the American people for political advantage. Talk of imminent destruction or long term consequences, it seems it easy to persuade people to go for the long term consequences over imminent destruction. 

Up until 1969 the Federal government mostly worked within a balanced budget. After the huge increase of entitlement programs in the 1960's they realized that they could not raise taxes high enough to balance the budget. While they could have, they knew that it would be so unpopular that they would be thrown out of office. This coupled by the disconnect of our money being backed by gold in 1971 has resulted in very little restraint in spending by the federal government. Most of this spending has been an effort to buy votes by promising free benefits that in the long run are unsustainable. So what has been the consequences of the government debt. Inflation for one thing, but also much more.

In 1972 you could buy a new ranch home in the $25,000 range, a new mid sized car for just over $2000. Gas prices were .39 cents a gallon. By 1975 gas prices were already up to .57 cent a gallon. Our unbalanced budget and the devaluing of the dollar brought about the creation of OPEC, because those countries were being paid $3 a barrel for oil and being paid in ever lowering of the buying power of the dollar. In fact the price of most items has not increased, the value of the buying power of the dollar has decreased. Gold was $35 an oz. today $1750.

That is not all that has happened, the unsustainability of entitlements was quickly becoming evident. Medicare for one has been continually expanded as to what it covers, this resulted in ever increasing costs. This was answered by the government setting the prices for services. After lowering reimbursements over and over, providers then engaged in cost shifting, by charging private insurance more and more to offset the low reimbursements from medicare. It is now to the point that many will no longer take medicaid patients and more are not taking any new medicare patients.

Social security has been around for a long time, originally it was a retirement supplement for the those over 65, but as time went on it has expanded and expanded to the point of including many other classes of people. In 1975 Social security was given an annual cost of living increase to offset deficit spending and inflation. It is linked to the consumer price index, this index is often recalculated to lower the true cost of inflation. Social Security cost of living increases have averaged 1.6% for the last 10 years, a total of  16% for 10 years. Medicare premiums, which rise much more than the CPI are deducted from these benefits, so in effect there has been little increase in the last 10 years.

Now the biggest drain on your financial health is what deficit spending has done to your savings and investments. There was a time, not that long ago, that  5% or 6 % interest on your savings was a normal return. It was 7.5% in 1960. and as high as 18% in the late 1970's.  This decline in interest rates is a direct result of the increasing federal debt and the need by the government to keep interest on their debt low. 

The Federal debt payment for 2021 is $562 billion, if they had to pay 6% it would be $1.5 trillion. Now keep in mind that Federal interest rates are .85 on 5 year, and 2.% on 30 year. Also realize that the Federal Reserve has bought $8.3 Trillion of assets and federal debt accounts for $4.5 Trillion. What are they paying for these assets with. Just book entry. This is an attempt to keep interest rates low, but how long can they do this? For seniors who saved for their retirement they have been in fact cheated out of any real return on their hard work and saving. According to the Congressional budget office, The federal government spent $6.6 trillion in 2020, and revenue was $3.86 trillion. It is unlikely that they could balance this spending even if they confiscated all the wealth of the 1%.

If you are receiving .3% on savings and inflation from deficit spending is 3%, you are losing 2.7% on your purchasing power every year. You are paying for the governments irresponsible fiscal policy.

Then consider the social security trust fund. There is no fund. The money has been spent by your politicians and government and bonds have been substituted. Which equal more government debt. Total Government debt is now $123 Trillion. With over $96 Trillion in social security and medicare liabilities. This amounts to $760 000 per household.

So, be prepared, you are about to be told that the debt is irrelevant and government can spend any amount and it does not matter. They will just tax the rich, don't worry, these deficits will cost YOU nothing. The federal government has locked up many people for telling much smaller lies than this one. 

Social media regulation, more government censorship.

 SOCIAL MEDIA ABUSES CAN BE ADDRESSED

ALLOW FREEDOM AND CHOICES BY USERS AND PARENTS

I suspect that recent political outrage with social media companies is mostly a smokescreen to institute more censorship and government control over what Americans see and hear. We continually hear about taking away protections in section 230, which makes Social media companies immune from liability for what its users say on their platform. Users are still liable for what they say or do if it breaks the law. Users should be the ones to be held accountable.

Very little is being mentioned about the collusion between social media and government entities both here and abroad. Nothing is being mentioned about political bias and collusion between social media companies and politicians. Nothing is being mentioned about the fact that the intelligence and security services pay these companies $Billions to collect and convey information that is likely being used to profile all Americans. Instead we are being distracted by stories of traumatised teenage girls and other things that responsible parent should be dealing with.

All these companies have rules forbidding content that is illegal, contains child pornoghraphy or drug trafficing and other like activities. These rules are good and easily enforced. As for their banning and adding disclaimers to other speech this should not be allowed as they should be considered public utilities. We have laws against all kinds of discrimination and any discrimination based on race, religion or political affiliation or opinion should not be allowed. It should be an open forum as they pretend that it is, if they are either pushing or restraining political speech then they are political activist and should be subject to election laws for in kind contributions. They should be able to be sued for discrimination. It is simple, allow freedom of speech that is legal without bias or restraint.

Collusion between these very powerful companies and the government or politicians should be punishable.

As for children, the addiction of children to social media is an epidemic. They are being deprived a full life of  a varied experience. They seem to be looking at this creen every waking minute. Again, I don't believe this is a government responsibility, but it is a parental responsibility. It would not be hard for tech companies to provide parents the ability to authorize activities for underage children. They would need to approve what their children watch and be able to have these devices automatically shut off when a pre selected user time is reached. 

Make it easy for parents to regulate what and how long they have access to these activities. Public services messag3s similar to anti-drug and smoking campaigns should alert parent to the long term dangers to their children.

We can make social media responsible and an asset, but freedom of speech and the ability of parents to control it should be the priority. Government will undoubtedly use any new power for its own advantage, without really making anything better for the people.

Censorship, all about political power.

 IT IS NEVER ABOUT DEMOCRACY OR PUBLIC SAFETY

LEFT REALLY FEARS OTHER OPINIONS

The 2008 Obama campaign was praised for using social media to be able to connect with large numbers of voters and motivate them to the polls. In 2016 the Trump campaign's similar use of social media was likened to criminal activity. 2016 was the pivotal moment that the media decided it needed to silence or at least limit the speech of the other side.

It is no secret that most of the media and particularly social media leans farther and farther to the left in their allegiance. They realized that they have the power not only to move public opinion but to go all out by limiting the speech of anyone who opposes their view. The major networks have been mostly bought out by media companies who view the news and politics as a spectator sport. But a spectator sport that they are increasingly rigging for their own benefit.

We have witnessed the false Russia collusion conspiracy, which they had the power and knowledge to reveal the truth, but aided and abetted for ratings and profit. We saw them bury the Hunter and Joe Biden corruption story and label it Russian disinformation when they knew it was all true. They claimed that $40,000 of Russian facebook public opinion surveys was an attempt to throw an election.  Anyone who is paying any attention can see the corruption either in false stories or omission of true stories. 

Now we see politicians claiming they are concerned about the influence of social media. Not likely, they are concerned that the influence of social media should be fashioned for their benefit and their benefit alone. Of course, we are told all this is concerning the preservation of democracy and the public good. 

Of course the social media bosses claim it is all a result of algorithms, actually most of these decisions are made when some operative informs facebook or other social media that these sites or writers are not to be viewed and they comply. The algorithm is actually people informing them to what they want limited or removed. It is just another way of escaping accountability. 

These sites all have rules listing content that is not in the, so called, community interest. But it is a fact that their focus goes far afield from any of these listed rules. They never actually inform anyone as to what rules have been violated. This would open them up to possible accountability. It is likely they probably don't really know why, just that someone in influence does not want the story.

Different opinions and views are the bedrock of democracy, not censorship. The market place of ideas should be a free market and ultimately the truth will be made clear. Censorship is the tool of those who fear their ideas cannot holdup in the light of day.

Next Biden created crisis to be economic.

EXPECT TO SEE HIGHER PRICES, LOWER GROWTH 

LESS JOBS, LESS ECONOMIC ACTIVITY

We are still living in the basic economic environment created during the Trump administration. That is all about to change when the democrat "Social Infrastructure bill" is made law. It will have negative effects on the economy in numerous ways. First, it will likely further decrease incentives to work. It will create more dependence on the federal government. It will expand so called entitlements, entitlements that will never be able to be discontinued or limited. 

On the other side of the equation, they expect to raise taxes. First on corporations which will increase incentives to offshore production. This will slow job creation and eventually will slow tax revenues. The other plan is to raise taxes on the so called rich. These persons didn't become successful by being stupid. They will adjust their incomes  in many ways and again tax revenues may suffer in the long run. Of course the middle and lower classes will not be able to adjust their incomes or control their basic expenditures which will increase due to higher prices for food, energy and the basic necessities of life. We can expect a downward spiral of economic activity as more resources are shifted from the private sector to the government.

As upper mobility is restrained we will see more incentives to accept government programs for basic survival. The so called 3.5 Trillion spending package has no limits on these so call entitlements. When the economy slows we can expect these costs to increase dramatically as more people will qualify and accept these hand outs. The new taxes are supposed to pay for these new programs, but many experts predict that the actual increase in revenues will be more like $2 trillion. That is before taxpayers begin to adjust to the new taxes and regulations, which then will create huge government deficits which will erode the value of the dollar and increase prices for necessities.

We also hear that they want to increase the IRS by 70,000 workers to capture more revenue from the American people. They say this is to insure that the rich will pay their fair share. They propose that banks will report any transactions over $600 to the IRS. That any sales over $600 on ebay or any other web site will require a 1099 to filed with the IRS. They claim this will cost over $70 billion in new costs for the IRS to police. It will be interesting to see how much revenue is actually reaped. We can expect huge costs for sellers and also a predictable higher cost in paperwork for everyone. It is likely the only gain will be more government snooping into everyone's affairs, more government control and decreased economic activity.

With the inevitable increase in citizens changing their practices to avoid government scrutiny will require more scrutiny and enforcement. Maybe even incentives offered for people to report to the IRS if their neighbors are living better themselves. Also more taxes and fees when economic activity slows and revenue decreases.

We can see Biden and the democrats are actually using their decades old economic plan that has devastated the cities of this country. Raise taxes and fees and when revenues decrease, keep raising them until it all collapses.This time there will not be anywhere to flee to or escape their destructive policies.