The US Senate Fails To Pass 5 Budgets

This was mostly bipartisan. None of them want a budget… so stop bitching everyone.

http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=112&session=2&vote=00097 http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=112&session=2&vote=00098 http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=112&session=2&vote=00099 http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=112&session=2&vote=00100 http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=112&session=2&vote=00101

Oxford (UK) Steps Into Curing Blindness

href="http://www.ox.ac.uk/media/news_stories/2012/120503.html">http://www.ox.ac.uk/media/news_stories/2012/120503.html

Pretty amazing that we blow about $700 Million at NEI at NIH each year, and they produce what? Nothing. Well, they spend all that money, a lot of it is wasted on sprucing up their offices and paying people who have retired, but are back on staff as (much over paid) "contractors". It's a game they play across the Federal Government. It's a buddy system that eats up the budgets. Totally legal.  Ought to be stopped? 

Meanwhile, the rest of the world makes groundbreaking advances.

The Paul Ryan Republican Budget

I read it, the first half  is just overarching numbers that don't mean anything (because there are exceptions all over the place).

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-112hconres112eh/pdf/BILLS-112hconres112eh.pdf

Starting on page 60, they cover the Medicare/Social Security changes. The Medicare part is going to kill Republicans this fall, unless they get out front with real details.

One GOOD thing they did, is actually recoup unobligated funds across government. The only problem is, that it doesn't request a presidential decree stopping the "spend it or you won't get it next year" WASTE that goes on, in every branch of government. Had they done that, this would have some real teeth.

The really BAD thing this does, is give even more tax breaks to rich people, kills AHA (at least four times), and not even attempt to balance the buget. 

Get serious Paul...this is pretty much a bad joke.  Find the changes both sides can live with and start implementing them.

US DOD Cut Highlights

Reasonably delays:

• Joint Strike Fighter.
• Replacement SSBN Submarine.

Cuts Army/Marines by 100K personnel, but maintains key middle managers, so they can staff up junior recruits (draft) quickly, if needed.  Probably the smartest part of the entire plan.

Air force gets a good whacking.  Um, considering the Navy and Marine air capabilities, I am not sure why the Air force exists anymore (I suggest a major reorganization)..

The Navy is pretty much untouched, except the delay I mentioned at the top. If anything, the new fast attack subs and cruisers with more missile capabilities, will increase their budget.

Some vague comments on modifications to retirement and healthcare changes, will be met with a mighty backlash. But considering it won't impact anyone for a while, that should subside.  I personally know several military (soon to be) retirees, who will draw a military pension, corporate pension and Social Security, all at the same time.  That needs to be means tested...some of these people are millionaires!

Full news conference is here;

Japan's 2012 Budget

The scary parts in this is how similar our debt is increasing. The big difference is expenditure on "Defense". Japan spends a bit over 5%. The US spends %50 of the overall budget. We spend almost the same incurring debt, as we do on "Defense".

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20111225a1.html

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Japan Worried About US DOD Cuts

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20111020a5.html

Well, considering we have Guam 1000 Miles SE (with a possible 4 Airfields), why keep proping up Japan??

Let's get the bulk of the Military out of Japan, they will be fine without the US.  We can still make port visits...don't worry.
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US In Iraq

So we are still there.  50k troops still there. And Ambassador James Jeffrey just announced he wants $6.2BN for 2012?  That's above everything the Military is spending.  Why is Iraq not able to support their own development projects, even iff the US State Deptartment coordinates?  Where does Jeffrey think this money will come from?

We need to be out of Iraq, and wrap up Afghanistan.

Your Tax Dollars

There is a term being heard all across the Federal Government these days, and it happens every year at this time.

"Spend it of you won't get it next year". The Feds say it with pride.

This is the term I heard at the NSF and the NIH over and over, year after year.

The end of summer sees a spending spree across the HHS, EPA, pick one. They run around and buy anything they can think of, just so they spent all of their budget. Thus ensuring they will get the same level of funding, or more, the following year.

The waste I saw made me sick. Giant printers that sat dormant in a corner, hundreds of large flat screen monitors (that replaced fairly new CRT monitors), wallpaper (this seems to be replaced every 3 or 4 years), projectors for conference rooms, big screen TVs and software that no one will ever use (like Acrobat Pro for a bunch of people who never create PDF files!).

I was fired for complaining about the last one, ok "technically" I was laid off. I asked the question: "Why not give it back"? I was told it was "very complicated". So complicated that you hear "Spend it of you won't get it next year" all over the place. Right...

2010 President's Budget

http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2010/assets/trs.pdf

Under reductions and terminations (savings are for 1 year, not overall);

Brownfields Economic Development Initiative $10 Million saved.
C-17 Strategic Airlift Aircraft $91 Million spent, I guess they are replacing them??
California Diesel Emissions Reduction Grants, $15 Million saved. Not a very green thing to do?
Civic Education, $31 Million saved.
CSAR-X Helicopter, $144 Million saved.
Delta Health Initiative, $26 Million saved, but Mississippi is pissed.
Denali Access, $6 Million saved on another Alaskan road to nowhere.
Denali Commission, $20 Million saved. Last year they got the money, even though HHS/HRSA didn't want it (there was another $3 Million for Job training saved too).
Emergency Operations Centers (DHS), $35 Million saved. This was for the "so called" interment camps that were popping up around the country.
Environmental Infrastructure Construction (Army Corp's Of Engineers), $180 Million saved. Their web site is gone, so I can't see what their projects were.
F-22 Raptor, almost $3 Billion saved.

There are a lot more details at the link above. I think a lot of the reductions are stripping out congrssional earmarks from the past.

Fixing California

I was reading Newt's Washington Examiner article and he tossed out the "big" problems in California; a $42 Billion budget shortfall. Um, that is not a big deal really. It works out to $1100 per person, per year.

If the people making more than $150K per year pay $2000, the people making less can probably only pay $800 and it would be a wash. It isn't rocket science guys. If you don't want to pay the taxes, you won't get the services. Go look at the roads in Michigan and see what that leads to.

So California votes down the tax increases on May 19th and the Governor in turn will close every State park he possibly can. That means a lot of workers will be laid off and will get unemployment or state aid.

It's crazy, if you want the services; water, trash, roads, parks...you have to pay for it. Why don't yo people examine all of the tax breaks your movie industry gets?? They pay no taxes and rake in billions.