One hundred tea party leaders to announce support for Newt tomorrow
One hundred tea party leaders to announce their support for Newt Gingrich tomorrow.
Tag: budget
On Tuesday the Treasury Department began using pension funds to keep the federal debt below the debt limit.
The day of reckoning looms closer all the time: On Tuesday the Treasury Department began using pension funds to keep the federal debt below the debt limit.
This action is, at this time, only a stop-gap until the debt ceiling is raised $1.2 trillion as per Obama’s request. Nonetheless, it signals the federal government’s increasingly dire debt problems.
House Republicans try to rescind a $100 billion European bailout fund created by the Democrats and Obama in 2009
House Republicans are trying to rescind a $100 billion European bailout fund created by the Democrats and Obama in 2009.
Makes sense to me. How can you be loaning money to others when you are in debt yourself?
NASA to mothball two wind tunnels at Langley
NASA to mothball two wind tunnels at Langley.
But NASA can spend millions to build Langley a new conference center and cafeteria. Am I crazy or is there something really wrong here?
NASA awards $42m for new Langley cafeteria and conference center
NASA has awarded a $42 million contract to build a new cafeteria and conference center at its Langley Research Center in Virginia.
They can’t build a rocket to put humans in space, but dammit, those NASA workers are going to have nice place to meet and eat!
Obama asks for more power to consolidate government agencies
President Obama today asked Congress for additional power to consolidate six government agencies.
While this at first sounds like a very good idea, I must admit that it is difficult for me to trust this man with more power, at any time. In addition, how serious can we take his claim of desiring to save money when his administration is on a pace to increase the federal debt by more than $6 trillion, exceeding the debt accumulated by all Presidents from George Washington to Bill Clinton?
“I’d hoped for something different.”
“I’d hoped for something different.”
Me too. But Rome wasn’t built in a day. And this is all the more reason to vote more conservatives into power. And to not be afraid of new faces whom we’ve never heard of. The familiar names surely aren’t doing what is necessary.
The U.S. Agriculture Department announced Monday it will close nearly 260 offices nationwide.
The U.S. Agriculture Department announced Monday it will close nearly 260 offices nationwide.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said the goal was to save $150 million a year in the agency’s $145 billion budget. About $90 million had already been saved by reducing travel and supplies, and the closures were expected to save another $60 million, he said.
Though this is probably a good thing, the article only notes the amount supposingly saved, without showing how it would actually reduce the agency’s budget. Furthermore, I am puzzled why these cuts are necessary, since the USDA’s budget in 2011 still exceeds what it got in 2008. Both facts make me wonder if these cuts are nothing more than smoke-and-mirrors, designed to make us think they are trimming the budget when they actually are not.
“I like being able to fire people who provide services to me.”
“I like being able to fire people who provide services to me.”
This statement was made by Mitt Romney yesterday, explaining how it is a good thing to be able to chose the company from which you buy your insurance, or any product, and how it is even a better thing to be able to dump that company if it doesn’t do its job well.
The author of the article above, along probably with much of the press, will try to stain Romney for this statement. To me, it is the best recommendation to hire him as President. With the federal government out of control, in debt, and unable to do anything it promises, it really is time to fire a lot of people. I hope Romney, if he turns out to be the candidate and wins the Presidency, has the courage to do it.
The national debt now equals the entire U.S. economy
The day of reckoning looms: The national debt now equals the entire U.S. economy.
The amount of money the federal government owes to its creditors, combined with IOUs to government retirement and other programs, now tops $15.23 trillion. That’s roughly equal to the value of all goods and services the U.S. economy produces in one year: $15.17 trillion as of September, the latest estimate. Private projections show the economy likely grew to about $15.3 trillion by December — a level the debt is likely to surpass this month.
But don’t worry. The press is focused like a laser on more important issues, such as whether the states might someday consider outlawing the pill.
The National Science Foundation has declined until 2020 to commit to funding a giant American-built ground-based telescope
Bad news for American astronomy: The National Science Foundation has declined until 2020 to commit to any funding for either one of the two giant American-built ground-based telescopes.
For nearly a decade now, two university consortia in the United States have been in a race to build two ground-based telescopes that would be several times bigger than today’s biggest optical telescope. One group—led by the University of California—plans to build the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) in Hawaii. The other team—led by Carnegie Observatories, the University of Arizona, and other institutions—is developing a 28-meter behemoth named the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT), which would be built in Chile. Over the past few years, both teams have raised tens of millions of dollars toward the billion-dollar-plus projects in the hope that the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) would come up with the balance.
But now, it turns out, neither project has a chance of receiving any significant funding from NSF for at least another decade. In a solicitation posted by NSF last week, the agency indicated that it does not expect to fund the building of any giant segmented mirror telescopes—that is, TMT or GMT—until the beginning of the 2020s. According to the solicitation, all that NSF can provide right now is $1.25 million over 5 years for the development of a public-private partnership plan that could eventually lead to the building of a large telescope, should NSF be in a position to fund such a telescope sometime in the next decade.
I suspect the NSF’s unwillingness to fund this project at this time is directly related to the budget crisis in Washington. Though the NSF got slightly more money in 2012 than in 2011, that money is all accounted for by other projects. There is no margin for anything new that will be as expensive (in the billions) as these giant telescopes will be.
The United States closed 2011 with a record $15.22 trillion Debt that was officially 100.3% of GDP and only $14 billion from breaching the debt ceiling
Meanwhile, in real news: The United States closed 2011 with a record $15.22 trillion debt that was officially 100.3% of GDP and only $14 billion from breaching the debt ceiling passed by Congress only five months before.