Government Spending

Trump’s Massive Waste Of Government Spending: His Trips, The Wall, And A Military Parade, While Other Issues That Matter Are Ignored

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Donald Trump has engaged in massive waste of government spending for his own personal desires, and plans to do more if not stopped by Congress and the Republican Party.

His excessive amount of travel to his Mar a Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida has cost the US government a massive amount of expenses, along with the costs to the local communities in Palm Beach County. He has spent more time on vacation than any President, and it is clear he does very little work, preferring to play golf, watch cable news, and eat McDonald’s Cheese Burgers and Diet Cokes.

Trump wants to spend billions of taxpayer money on the proposed Mexico Wall, a pure waste of money that will not work, and will have plenty of cost overruns if built. It also gives the United States a terrible image in the world, and will undermine relations with our 2,000 mile boundary neighbor to the South. It is certain that Mexico will not pay for the wall, should not pay for the wall, and that the taxpayers will be stuck with the bill, when the vast majority of the American people do not support the wall, and we could spend the tens of billions on such things as the opioid crisis, veterans health care, hurricane relief in Puerto Rico, infrastructure spending, and so many other priorities.

And now, Donald Trump wants an expensive military parade on Independence Avenue in Washington, DC, causing massive expenditures by the federal government, and the DC local government, and presenting security challenges. The military is celebrated on Memorial and Veterans Days with parades locally all over the nation, and with ceremonies at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, and that is more than enough in a nation that has civilian government, not military government. We do not need to spend tens of millions of dollars to stroke the ego of a crazy narcissist, who wishes he was a dictator in the line of Kim Jong Un of North Korea, or like China, the old Soviet Union, or the old Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, or other authoritarian dictatorships.

It is up to Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell and the Republican Party to stop Donald Trump dead in his tracks on the Mexico Wall and on the military parade, and say NO WAY!

Ohio Governor John Kasich Comes Across As Maverick To Tea Party Right Wingers–His Problem If He Seeks The GOP Presidential Nomination!

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Ohio Governor John Kasich is, in many ways, one of the most qualified potential Republican nominees for President, but already, he has made enemies with the Tea Party Movement right wingers who dominate the party, and are likely to control the nomination process in caucuses and primaries in the early months of 2016.

Kasich has so many credentials that make him an ideal candidate for the GOP, including:

Kasich comes from Ohio, the single most crucial state in Presidential elections, with the fact that every President elected in the past 50 years has won Ohio.

Kasich’s state, Ohio, gave us six Republican Presidents between Ulysses S. Grant in 1868 and Warren G. Harding dying in office in 1923.

Kasich has the advantage of having run a state government of substantial size, seen as a plus over someone who has only served in Congress, and particularly, the Senate.

Kasich, however, has had long experience in Congress, having served as a Congressman from the 12th district from 1983-2001, a total of 18 years.

Kasich served as Budget Committee Chairman in the House of Representatives from 1995-2001, making him very knowledgeable on economic issues.

Kasich also has worked as a journalist, for Fox News Channel, and for awhile, had his own show on that channel, and he came across as an interesting speaker and commentator, more so than most on that right wing channel.

Kasich also worked as an investment banker on Wall Street, so has business experience, which most politicians do not have.

Kasich won a two to one victory in popular votes in his reelection efforts for the Governorship of Ohio in 2014, after a much closer race for his first term in 2010.

Kasich has an engaging personality, and has avoided divisive rhetoric in his career, and does not come across as looney or crazy or purely stupid, as many other potential GOP Presidential nominees have managed to do.

Kasich has avoided identification with the Religious Right, while converting from Catholicism to Evangelical Protestantism.

During his Congressional career, Kasich supported the Assault Weapons Ban passed under President Bill Clinton, which angered the National Rifle Association; fought to cut government spending on what he considered wasteful programs; and worked to cut corporate tax loopholes.

Kasich has always come across as having an independent streak, so he has accepted Medicaid expansion, which most other GOP governors have rejected, and he is not seen as a Tea Party supporter.

Kasich also has, just this past week, avoided attacking the immigration executive order of President Barack Obama, showing understanding of the plight of illegal immigrants, who, as he said, did wrong, but that realistically, there is no way to deport eleven million people, and instead we should bring them in from the shadows.

Kasich has made enemies on his stand against abortion, and his crackdown on labor unions, with the latter’s rights to collective bargaining curbed by Kasich, but then soundly defeated by voters in a referendum by 61-39 percent, and he then backed off and accepted the defeat in a gracious manner.

No one is saying that Kasich is desirable in comparison to any potential Democratic nominee for President. All that is being said is that he stands out as preferable to an independent or a Democrat who might be disillusioned, and that he has an image which allows for the possibility of his being a serious contender for the White House, if only he can make it past the primaries and caucuses, which is a major obstacle to any potential Presidential candidacy on his part!

Senator Rand Paul Becomes Poll Leader For GOP Presidential Nomination: What Does It Mean?

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Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, the son of libertarian favorite Ron Paul, former Congressman from Texas, has suddenly emerged as the leader in two polls–the CPAC straw poll and the New Hampshire straw poll, both in the past ten days.

This is seen as very surprising to many observers, and it certainly upsets Establishment Republicans who see Rand Paul as far from who they prefer to be the Republican Presidential nominee in 2016.

Rand Paul seems to appeal to young people, who also liked his dad, due to their desire to cut down American involvement in overseas interventions, but that is seen by critics as an unrealistic isolationism, which becomes more problematical with the Russian takeover of Crimea, and the possible intervention in the rest of Ukraine.

Rand Paul’s desire to cut the federal government and spending dramatically in a downward spiral also appeals to many young people, but worries those concerned about the growth of poverty and the decline of the middle class.

And Rand Paul’s statements about the Civil Rights Act of 1964, in regards to the dislike of “forcing” businesses to serve customers they do not want to serve, is also alarming to ethnic minorities, particularly African Americans and Latinos.

Rand Paul’s opposition to women controlling their own reproductive lives also is an alarm bell to many.

There are many who think Rand Paul is a shallow person, who should not even be considered Presidential material.

Are we ready for a libertarian isolationist in the 21st century, after the growth of government in the 20th century, and engaging in wars to promote freedom and liberty and justice in the world?

Are we ready to negate TR, Wilson FDR, and LBJ in domestic affairs, and turn inward in foreign policy?

These are the questions all Americans have to consider, and the thought of Rand Paul possibly becoming President terrifies many Republicans, as well as American citizens who feel that he cannot walk in the shoes of our greatest Presidents!

Barack Obama Becoming Another Bill Clinton On The Economy: Higher Taxes On Wealthy, Better Economy!

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Barack Obama has fought for higher taxes on the wealthy, and brought them about in 2013, as Bill Clinton did in 1993.

Under Bill Clinton, we had the greatest period of economic prosperity in American history, the rich paid more, and the country did not tank!

Now under Barack Obama, the deficit in government spending is rapidly declining, and the stock market is at an all time high, both occurring as we see higher taxes on the wealthy once again!

The Republicans complain bitterly once again, and again, they are wrong, and economic expansion is occurring, even with the GOP attempts to block it, and instead, draw attention to what they call “scandals”, which, by comparison with scandals and controversies under George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan, pale by comparison!

The result of the GOP political “dirty tricks” is that they will NOT harm Barack Obama’s historical accomplishments, or Hillary Clinton’s chances for the White House, which depend only on her desire to run. If she runs, she is the 45th President of the United States on January 20, 2017!

Paul Ryan: Big Spender When Corporations Or Republican Party Wants It, But Not Under Democrats Or Barack Obama!

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Conservatives and delusional people believe Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney’s Vice Presidential running mate, is the solution to BIG government and high spending levels.

The truth is that is ONLY true when Barack Obama is President, or the Democrats had control of Congress, beginning in 2007!.

Paul Ryan backed the Wall Street bailout when the economic collapse was occurring in the Fall of 2008.

Paul Ryan voted for all spending on the Iraq War, having no doubts.

Paul Ryan voted for all spending on the Afghanistan War, having no doubts.

Paul Ryan voted for the Bush Prescription Drug Plan in 2003, without making an issue of adding to the national debt, by refusal to pay for the plan with taxes.

Paul Ryan has become a deficit “hawk” only when Barack Obama became President, and when Ryan became head of the House Budget Committee in 2011.

Paul Ryan has a career of being a big spender, except when it was politically convenient to make an issue of every funding bill under President Obama.

Paul Ryan is, therefore, not what his supporters think he is, and already, there is “buyer’s remorse”, a fear among Congressional Republicans that they will have trouble being reelected with the burden of the Ryan Plan on their backs.

Some see a major disaster in the making, a nearly total wipe out of GOP gains in Congress in 2010, after only two years in the majority!

Ryan may turn out to be worse for the party’s fortunes than Dan Quayle or Sarah Palin! Who would have thought that?

Nobel Prize Winner Paul Krugman And The American “Depression” Solution: An Activist Government!

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Paul Krugman, the winner of the Nobel Economics Prize, columnist for the New York Times, and Professor at Princeton University, has written a new book about how to deal with the American “Depression”, as he calls the Great Recession.

Just suggesting that we are going through a depression is a stunning statement, but Krugman, despite attacks from conservatives, Republicans, and Texas Congressman Ron Paul and his libertarian views, is correct in stating that austerity, being pursued in Great Britain and elsewhere in Europe in a way that has led to a worsening economic condition throughout the continent, is absolutely the wrong thing to do at this time.

The time for cutting spending is when there is a booming economy, not an economy with millions of people unemployed, and attempts being made to cut back the social safety net for desperate people. As Krugman writes, it is John Maynard Keynes, whose ideas helped Franklin D. Roosevelt during the Great Depression, who needs to be followed today.

After all, even Richard Nixon said he was a Keynesian when he decided to impose wage and price controls in the 1970s, and it was Keynesian ideas that helped Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan during the two worse economic downturns in the 1970s and 1980s since the end of the Great Depression until those time periods!

So Krugman advocates much more government intervention and spending than Barack Obama was able to get through Congress in 2009, and argues that had more been done then and since, our economic condition would be far better than it is now.

There may be skeptics, and certainly Ron Paul supporters live in their own parallel universe, but Paul Krugman needs to be listened to, and followed, hopefully, by a Democratic controlled Congress in 2013 and after!

With Ron Paul Having His “Surge” In Iowa, The Investigation Of His Record Begins!

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Texas Congressman Ron Paul has been very appealing to libertarians, and was in fact the Presidential candidate of the Libertarian Party in 1988.

Having run as a Republican for President in 2008, the only repeat candidate along with Mitt Romney, Paul is presently first in some Iowa public opinion polls as the Iowa Caucuses of January 3 get closer.

So Paul is having a “surge”, as earlier Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry, Herman Cain, and Newt Gingrich have had. Only Rick Santorum and Jon Huntsman have not had a “surge’ as the search for the non Romney candidate continues.

So now that Ron Paul is being paid more attention, let us look at the facts about a man who has been around a long time, and has taken positions on all kinds of issues, meaning at least some will be seen in a positive light, depending on the person looking at Paul’s record. But there is plenty to be disturbed about!

But face the facts: There is no way that Ron Paul can be the GOP Presidential nominee, and if he looked as if he was going to be, there would be such a ganging up on him by the Republican Party, which despite its claims, is NOT a libertarian, isolationist party as Ron Paul basically is.

What is objectionable about Ron Paul, in no special order?

1. Ron Paul has in the past, in a newsletter he now disavows, but was under his name, stated racist, anti Semitic, and anti gay statements. While he is not the only Republican to make racist or anti gay statements, the fact that he said them in a newsletter many years ago makes him even more objectionable, since it is harder to refute.

2. Paul is for taking America out of the United Nations and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and all free trade agreements. He is perceived as an isolationist.

3. He is highly critical of Israel, the only Republican candidate to be so, and yet does not see Iran as a threat for the future with the development of nuclear weapons.

4. Paul is for wiping out most government agencies and their bureaucracies, including Education, Commerce, Homeland Security, Energy, Health and Human Services, and Energy. He also would love to eliminate the Federal Reserve Board. None of this is going to happen, no matter what criticisms there might be of these agencies.

5. Paul promotes letting states decide most matters dealt with by the national government, and thinks climate change is a hoax, and advocates stopping interference with religion’s influence in government, including the teaching of intelligent design over evolution.

6. He is a strong believer in pro-life without exceptions; against any government intervention in the environment; any regulation of guns; and any aspect of affirmative action.

7. Paul opposes any kind of amnesty for illegal aliens, any support of any kind for them, and birthright citizenship for their children born in the United States.

8. Paul believes only in excise or sales taxes, and the wiping out of the income tax, and refuses to support any spending programs that create new debts.

Also, a study by a political science journal, The American Journal of Political Science, came to the conclusion that, overall, Paul has the most conservative voting record of all 3,320 members of Congress from 1937 to 2002!

So the attacks on Ron Paul as outside the mainstream, even of the GOP, is rapidly growing!

Conservative And Republican Ideas On Economy: Proved Wrong By What Has Happened In Great Britain In Past Year

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Conservatives and Republicans keep on arguing that budget cuts are the answer, without any tax increases, and that government spending is the villain.

Meanwhile, the British government of Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron has been promoting fiscal austerity, which has failed to help their economic situation. Unemployment has risen, and the budget cuts have not revived business confidence or encouraged more hiring, as people have less to spend as a result.

The British are suffering with a bad economy made far worse by spending cuts in the public sphere. All it has done is make for more future budget cuts as people cannot spend, and is leading toward a policy that did not work during the early years of the Great Depression, but only made it far worse.

Promoting fiscal austerity only will doom the British economy to a long period of no growth and worse economic conditions. Cutting government spending will only cause reduced demand and less tax revenue, and the British experience should be a warning sign to the American government and the American people.

Will we learn from past mistakes during the Great Depression, or will we again prove that we do not learn from the lessons of history?

16,000 Severely Wounded Soldiers Have Come Home From Afghanistan And Iraq: Our Commitment To Them Must Have No Boundaries!

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A new report from the Department of Veterans Affairs demonstrates just how horrifying the interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq have been to our soldiers.

The shocking total of 16,000 soldiers have been severely wounded, losing arms, legs, portions of their face and skull, and brain injuries, and they come home with the likelihood of 50 or more years of life ahead of them. This does not even include those who look physically fine, but also have mental and emotional problems.

While in the past, most of these young men and women would have died, now they have to face the challenge of finding work, having social interaction, and trying to have as close to a normal life as possible.

Will our government do what needs to be done, morally and ethically, for these people who have sacrificed so much?

One has to wonder if our country will show proper respect and regard for these tragic cases of young men and women sent to fight by a government which had no concept of the disaster of Improved Explosive Devices and other methods that killed so many Americans, and yet led to these survivors who face an uncertain future!

This is an area where NO CUTS to government spending can be allowed, and in fact, funding MUST be increased on a steady basis!

Grover Norquist: The Biggest Enemy Of A Stable Economic Future!

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Grover Norquist is a name that most people will not know, but he is, at this point of time, the most dangerous man in America, as the biggest enemy of a stable economic future!

Norquist heads the Americans For Tax Reform lobbying group, the most powerful organization aggressively pursuing denial of ANY tax increases in any form for ANY reason. He does not care anything at all about the debt crisis and the urgency of dealing with the extension of the debt ceiling by August 2, which if not accomplished will cause a massive collapse of the American and world wide economy!

To Norquist, the goal is always to cut taxes to the bone, to “starve the beast”! Whether it is defense, social security, medicare, medicaid, the environment, education, health care, government agencies, or whatever, Norquist insists that government must live on less, despite the reality of the world we live in!

All government would have to cut spending by up to 40 percent immediately were we to follow the advice of Norquist, a totally irresponsible and reckless action! Unfortunately, the Republicans in both houses of Congress seem enslaved by his lobbying activities, and are committed to refuse to consider ANY tax adjustments, and so the die is cast, and we will be facing a far greater economic collapse now than in 2008, if there is not some bending on the part of Republicans!

As Barack Obama stated today in his press conference, both the Democrats and Republicans have to be willing to sacrifice some of their “sacred cows”, in order to come up with a solution. Some spending must be cut, but some tax increases and adjustments are also unavoidable!