Government Achieving New Lows - Addended (updated 12aug12)

George Rebane

[This is the submitted form of my regular Union column that was scheduled to appear the 11aug12 print and online editions of the newspaper.  Due to some administrivia at The Union, the column was published in print and online in their 18aug12 editions.  The addendum was appended on 10 August 2012.]

To remind us again what an upstanding institution government is, we sample a few from the daily tsunami of lies coming from our elected honorables.  You’ll quickly understand why these happenings weren’t prominently reported in the nation’s lamestream media, being left to secondary outlets like Fox, PJMedia, and various blogs and legislator newsletters.

Starting close to home, Sacramento, along with rogue agencies like CARB (California Air Resources Board), is upping the pace of driving our businesses either to other states or into the mud.  A prime example of one recently announced departure is XCOR Aerospace now relocating to Midland, Texas due to state taxes and senseless regulatory burdens.  Apparently the last straw was Cal EPA marching into their offices to mandate extensive paperwork required to track their use of kerosene.  XCOR is developing space systems for commercial orbital operations.

Governor Perry is personally welcoming the company to his state as part of Texas’ overall program to attract fleeing California companies.  Besides a long list of other benefits of doing business in Texas, all XCOR employees will receive an automatic 10.25% pay raise – do the math.

But driving out companies is just one ongoing travesty in California’s insane business environment.  Assemblyman Dan Logue reports that midnight legislative operations continue with very little or no voter awareness.  By 2020 CARB’s implementation of AB32’s carbon cap and tax provision will cost California $60B annually.  It will be administered by a new state owned company that will be awarded the contract without need to bid competitively.  This sleaze was quietly hidden in SB1018, one of 30 budget related bills rushed through without review in less than 48 hours.

According to Logue “the exemption will allow CARB to use a private third-party corporation to conduct its cap-and-trade auction without having to comply with state laws, called the Bagley-Keene Act, that require state agencies to keep meetings and records open to the public. This is a gross violation of the public's right to know about state agency actions that affect them.”

Meanwhile at the federal level, the Brookings Institution has dropped a mainstream-muffled bomb on the Big Progressive Lie about worker wages and financial mobility.  Team Obama’s cornucopia of misinformation has always included the liberal shibboleth about poor and middle class income having declined in recent decades.

Well, Fox unveiled that Brookings’ senior fellow Scott Winship has analyzed CBO published data which shows since 1979 the bottom fifth earners’ real income has increased over 40%, and the middle fifth’s income went up 33%.  All quintiles advanced over this period.  Also income mobility is alive and well – for example, over 60% in the lowest fifth migrate to one of the higher quintiles.

And there’s more to debunk the class warfare propaganda from the left.  It turns out that while people in the bottom two fifths pay almost no federal income taxes, the middle fifth pays 9.4% and the top fifth pays 67.9%, or more than two thirds of all federal income taxes.  The average tax rate for the vilified top “one percent” is 28.9%, and for the bottom fifth it is 1%.  And according to our Class Warfare Warrior-in-Chief all this is still unfair.

Finally, Team Obama’s latest campaign low is the enlistment of one of Nevada’s political prostitutes, currently also Senate Majority Leader, to charge that candidate Romney paid no taxes for ten years.  Harry Reed will reveal neither the source of his information, nor his compensation for entering this unfounded allegation into the Congressional Record from the floor of the Senate.

And when you read this, more obaminations will be in the news, like Romney causing the cancer death of the wife of an employee who worked for a company owned by Bain Capital.  The White House continues to embrace this claim made nationally by a leftwing PAC.  When your record stinks, the only alternative is character assassination of your opponent.

It is now being widely suggested that Governor Romney and President Obama make a trade.  Romney will release ten years of tax filings if Obama will let Americans see the sealed college records of his trail through Occidental, then Columbia, and finally to Harvard.  Neither the Wall Street Journal nor prominent classmate Wayne Allyn Root have been able to find very much about Barack Obama at Columbia.  Should prove interesting, but don’t hold your breath.

George Rebane is an entrepreneur and a retired systems scientist in Nevada County who regularly expands these and other themes on KVMR and Rebane’s Ruminations (www.georgerebane.com).

[Addendum]  For the record, this column is submitted to The Union on the Thursday before its publication on the following Saturday.  A theme, detected early and reported assiduously in these pages, is that the Obama administration, starting with its leader, has been the most untruthful and prevaricating activity of our federal government in recent memory.  (And mine goes back quite a bit.)  This lying cohort has now taken its modus operandi into the 2012 presidential campaign, a strong point made in the above column.

My understanding and interpretation of President Obama’s ideology and character is often taken by a klatch of liberal readers as somehow being unique and shared by no one in the more reasonable streams of public discourse.  Citing published evidence to the contrary notwithstanding, their accusations have remained unchanged – another prominent aspect of the liberal mind.

In this context I was heartened to see the leading editorial in the 10aug12 WSJ that made clear my stance on Barack Obama and his minions has, perhaps, been overly reserved.  From that piece we read that “the challenge is finding anything his campaign says is true.”  The editorial begins with –

President Obama spent his formative years in academia, so he's no doubt familiar with postmodernism, the literary theory that rejects objective reality and insists instead that everything is a matter of interpretation and relative "truth." At any rate he's running the first postmodern Presidential campaign, now organized almost exclusively around allegations about his opponent that bear no relation to the observable universe.

After an analysis of the now notorious Obama campaign ads and recorded statements of lying staffers, this telling point is worth pondering –

The point is that more than any President we can recall, Mr. Obama isn't trying to persuade voters that he deserves to stay in office because of his philosophy, record or positive vision for the country. Rather, his case is that he deserves re-election because Mr. Romney is worse, and he is so very much worse because of things that were invented in the West Wing but are detached from reality. … The entire theory of the Obama campaign seems to be that the more outrageous the claim the better, because the more you repeat it the more the media will talk about it, and the lie will achieve a kind legendary truth.

Both Lenin and Stalin demonstrated, and so taught two generations of communist tyrants, that even the most egregious of lies metamorphose into ‘truth’ and ‘accepted wisdom’ when streamed continuously into weak and weakened minds.

[12aug12 update]  The Long Lie just keeps getting longer and longer.  This week's big whopper is Team Obama and the Dems trumpeting that Romney's choice of running mate Ryan now guarantees that they "will end Medicare as we know it".  That is exactly the Alinsky180 tactic touted by Socialist Saul himself in his Rules for Radicals.  It is Obamacare that ends Medicare as we know it, and that is now law in black and white.  Post-modernism is a terrible side effect of collectivist thought.  More here.

Comments

[billy T]

Obama is all for the Simpson Bowles plan and agreed to release all his college records. He voted present when asked.

[Russ Steele]

Romney picked an Obama attack dog for a running mate. Ryan's closing line in his acceptance speech: [we have] "the courage to tell you the truth." I am looking forward to some truth telling in the coming months before the election.

[George Rebane]

RussS 755am - Excellent point. Let's hope we don't have to hold our breaths too long.

[billy T]

Guess President Obama should not use the campaign slogans President Reagen used during his reelection bid. "Leadership that's working" and "Morning in America" worked for Reagon. "Forward" is being used by the Obama Reelection Committee. Forward into what? By 2021, the debt will be over 21 trillion smackers. I think "Tax and Spend" or "Divide and Conquer" or "Class Warfare" or even "Results Don't Matter" would be more honest and accurant campaign slogans for current tenant of our White House. Each would fit nicely on a bumper sticker. But, what does honesty and accuracy have to do with Change we can believe in anyway? http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/08/09/mr-obama-forward-is-direction-not-policy/

[TomKenworth]

The Republicans can use the line, "Morning in the Far East." That's what they've supported. Suppose we'll have some truth about taxes anytime soon? Or details of an economic plan with projections for success for more than just the top 2%? Those are truths I'd love to see. I see certain people couldn't handle the truth about schools looking for computer teachers in the mid 1980's.

[TomKenworth]

Or the Repubbys could use, "JOBS, Our Number One Export!"

[TomKenworth]

The Dalai Lama quotes the Buddha--Three things cannot be long hidden--the sun, the moon and the Truth. Tom searches for all--

[Russ Steele]

TK,

As I recall the Democrats have been the greatest job exporters from California, many to other states and some off shore. Even in Nevada County the Democrats environmental regulations have driven manufacturing off shore, we no longer can do metal plating, essential to manufacturing.

[Russ Steele]

Tea Party Patriots are on Board:

Romney Picks Ryan

Tea Party Patriots welcomes the selection of Paul Ryan as the Vice-Presidential running mate for Governor Mitt Romney. With this selection, Governor Romney and the Republican Party make it clear that they have accepted the Tea Party Patriots values of fiscal responsibility, limited government and free markets as the best course of action for economic recovery and restoring personal freedom and individual responsibility to our national values.

[TomKenworth]

"we no longer can do metal plating, essential to manufacturing" you mean we can no longer injure American workers doing it the cheap way, so we kill off foreigners instead, great!

[George Rebane]

TomK 956am - as I have cited here before. Obama's stimulus money didn't do diddly for American jobs, but sure made Chinese contractors happy building/repairing American infrastructure. Talk about exporting jobs that are totally invisible to the progressives. At least the private sector job exports give us the benefit of lower cost products and services. Socialists just increase our unfunded liabilities.

[TomKenworth]

Did Obama assign the money to American contractors, who THEN made the decisions to export the jobs, or did Obama contract directly with the Chinese? If the former, then it is NOT Obama's fault. If the latter, please provide examples.

[George Rebane]

TomK 1148am - as a regular RR reader and discussant, your recollection of past discussions and topics appearing on these pages is limited. You're always asking others to do your research for you and links referenced. Here are a couple from a larger collection.

http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/us-bridges-roads-built-chinese-firms-14594513?tab=9482930?ion=1206853&playlist=14594944%20

http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-20108353-54/boston-power-moves-ahead-by-moving-to-china/

Perhaps the biggest travesty of all is again California (we lead in everything stupid), now writhing in the embrace of AB32. That law, instead of developing 'green jobs' here, has enabled Chinese manufacturers - e.g. of solar cells - to open up new mandated US markets for their products while shutting down more public-funded Solyndras here.

[TomKenworth]

But Obama did not make the choice to send the money to the Chinese, now did he?

They wound up with the money, but American contractors made the decisions, not the President.

BTW,
Paul Ryan Bailouts and Big Government

Voted YES on TARP 2008
Voted YES on $15B bailout for GM and Chrysler Dec 2008
Voted YES on $192B additional anti-recession stimulus spending Jul 2009
Voted Yes on Medicare Part D prescription drug expansion 2003
Voted YES on $70 million for Section 8 Housing vouchers. Jun 2006
Voted YES on No Child Left Behind further nationalizing education 2001
Voted YES on Head Start Act 2007
Voted YES on making the PATRIOT Act permanent. Dec 200
Voted YES on authorizing military force in Iraq Oct 2002 Yes, Big Government is still his thing

[TomKenworth]

In your first example, it is the California State government that makes the decision accroding to the video. In the second, it is absolutely the CEO of the American company which is getting grants and incentives from the the CHINESE government to move operations abroad. Was this some sort of test to see if I actually looked at the data which you presented? Neither of them demonstrates that Obama sent money to the Chinese.

" Battery maker Boston Power is shifting its operations to China to capitalize on the electric-vehicle market.

The Westborough, Mass.-based company today announced that it has raised $125 million from Chinese venture capital firm GSR Ventures as part of an expansion into China. In addition to the private equity, the company is receiving grants, low-interest loans, and other incentives from the Chinese government, which will lead to construction of a large-scale battery manufacturing plant.

Boston Power's lithium ion battery cells will be strung together to make larger battery packs for EVs.
(Credit: Martin LaMonica/CNET)

By the end of next year, the 400-megawatt-hour-per-year plant will be capable of making enough lithium ion batteries for about 10,000 all-electric cars a year, according to company founder, former CEO, and board member Christina Lampe-Onnerud. The company expects to announce its first Chinese auto manufacturing customer in the comings months which will make both electric cars and trucks, she said.

As part of the change, Boston Power will also open an EV battery research and development center in Beijing to work in conjunction with the factory. It plans to hire hundreds of people in China in the coming months, including a new CEO and CFO located there. Technology development of the battery cell components will remain in Massachusetts, but the company will shift multiple positions to China and cut its U.S. staff by 35 percent, Lampe-Onnerud said. "

[George Rebane]

TomK 1222pm - "But Obama did not make the choice to send the money to the Chinese, now did he? They wound up with the money, but American contractors made the decisions, not the President."

Obama and his congressional minions just demonstrated the limited scope of the socialist mind when it comes to assessing/predicting the effects of their great wealth redistribution schemes. The stimulus monies went to states and local jurisdictions. Many of these decided to get the most bang out of their bucks, and compared overseas manufactured products/services to those provided by (mostly unionized) onshore providers. The decisions were then made according to the rules that Team Obama mandated, and sumbich if a lot of the cash didn't wind up in China and other places.

Global socialists should be happier than pigs in ... . They are getting the US to transfer our wealth overseas and grow weaker in the process. More things to check off the Agenda21 do-list.

[TomKenworth]

So the American state governments and American contractors made the decisions, right? Your complaint is that Obama gave them too much rope to play with, or was that the Republicans in Congress who didn't want restrictions?

"End game for America’s jobs

America will never recover if we outsource everything, including our public infrastructure. Bloomberg made the excellent video above about California outsourcing the construction of a portion of the San Francisco Bay Bridge to Shanghai Zhenhua, a Chinese firm. Shanghai Zhenhua is assembling the section and will then ship it to California for installation. The state is supposedly saving $400 million with this move. The workers at the Chinese facility are making $12 dollars a day.

In times of fiscal stress it’s easy to understand why public entities are trying hard to cut costs. But this “cost cutting” is really just off-shoring American jobs. Something has to give — we can’t recover without creating American jobs. It’s our choice, and I choose spending more and creating jobs at home."

[TomKenworth]

To get to the job, at $12 a day, the Bridge Toll of $6 would eat up 1/2 the day's wages, assuming car with no gas/maintenance costs. Obama signs the bills that come to him, who creates those bills, and when exactly did the Federal funding get put in place for the bridge? When did the state make the decisions to outsource to China? Seems to me this has been in the works and under construction prior to Obama taking office.

[Russ Steele]

TK @11:48

It appear that the Chinese contracted directly with the states involved, using Federal Dollars. From Fact check:

It’s true that ABC News did a report on Chinese firms winning contracts to repair U.S. bridges. But the report pointedly said states were to blame. It didn’t mention federal funds — let alone stimulus funds — except to note that California turned down federal money to avoid federal “Buy American” laws and hire a Chinese firm.

Caltrans hired China Contractors directly to build the new Bay Bridge using steel make in China. Last time I checked Caltrans was part of a Democrat administration who had no problem sending US jobs to China.

That said, as a former Transportation Commission I know that the states are expert at money washing. A state has pot X collected from fuel tax that was allocated to project W. Federal money J comes available with buy American strings, that can not be use on project F which was bid on by non-US firm. State just swaps Federal J money for pot X money, and then claim that no federal money was used to hire Chinese contractors. No sir re, we are too smart to get caught doing that.

[TomKenworth]

Obama was in office for all of 8 months, when this progress report was issued. Sorry, George, (LW phrasing), the bridge and the decisions to outsource were made during Bush's reign.

http://sfpublicpress.org/news/2009-12/unparalleled-bridge-unprecedented-cost

BTW, Governor Schwarzenegger muddy up the waters a bit back in 2005, and apparently Federal funds were not used, as the savings of having it done in China were greater:

From Wikipedia:

"Offshore fabrication of components

Even though controversial, authorities decided to allow bids to include major components and materials not made in the United States. This was partially due to the cost of materials, but more substantially, required by the lack of suitable fabrication facilities within this country, or even within the western hemisphere. Since such facilities would have to be built anew and the prospects of additional work (at that time) would be either low or uncertain, the cost of fabrication would be much higher due to the facilities cost being supported by a single job. As acceptance of Federal Highway funds generally comes with "Made in America" restrictions, the bridge is being built without such funds, for which it would otherwise qualify owing to its carriage of Interstate 80. In contrast, China has both low cost materials producers and major fabricators of bridge components, due to the current and extensive investment in infrastructure being made by its government. In fact, the Chinese facilities producing the SAS deck components was built anew, with the speculative expectation that further work, both in China and abroad, would allow the extensive capital costs to be amortized over a number of subsequent projects. Other major components have been produced in Japan (not known as a low cost producer), owing to the availability of large steel casting, welding, and machining capabilities. Suspender saddles come from England. A spokesman for the joint venture claimed the United States (in both private and public spheres) has neglected to make such investments for quite a long time and has as a consequence lost the ability to make suitably large steel components for civil structures such as this bridge.[15]
Construction begins
Construction on the skyway in progress at left, with main span counterweight support columns in place at right of center (2004)

After more than a decade of study, construction began on a replacement for the cantilever portion of the bridge on January 29, 2002, with completion originally slated for 2007. The new eastern "signature" span will feature a pair of side-by-side, five-lane concrete viaducts linked to a single-towered, self-anchored suspension span ("SAS"), and a transition structure joining the SAS to the existing double-deck tunnel. When completed, this will become the largest bridge of this type, and will also have a number of unique features. The approach viaducts from the eastern shore are largely complete and located just north of and parallel to the existing truss viaduct.
Construction is delayed
A price shock

The authorities were shocked when they opened the bids on the proposed tower portion, as there was only a single bid and it was considerably more expensive (US$1.4 billion) than their estimate ($780 million), partially because of a recent and unexpected rise both in the cost of steel and of concrete. As both concrete and structural steel are now commodities within the worldwide market, the prices were much higher than expected because of a concurrent building boom throughout China. (China was then consuming 40 percent of worldwide cement production.[16]) Another qualified potential bidder did not bid due to a number of construction uncertainties owing to the innovative design—another likely contribution to the very high bid. The entire project, which will require 100,000 tons of structural steel, is now expected to cost $6.2 billion (as of July 2005), up from a 1997 estimate of $1.1 billion (for a simple viaduct) and a March 2003 estimate of $2.6 billion that included a tower span.
Governor kills signature span
December 10, 2004: Six alternative eastern span proposals were released.

On September 30, 2004, the office of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced that, without sufficient funds authorized by the legislature, the bid must be allowed to expire. It was, at the time, unclear if this would require a redesign to obtain a less expensive span. It might have been possible to quickly redesign the span using a more conventional cable stayed design, for which the construction methods and costs are well understood but the cost of the resultant delay was likely to far exceed any potential savings."

[George Rebane]

re TomK 100pm - now there's a novel spin: Obama and the Democrat Congress get credit for all the stimulus spending programs, but not any of the screw-ups that resulted from the allocation of these taxpayer monies - the screw-ups all accrue in the someone else's column whether in office or not. Kinda invites a new look at the meaning of teflon.

[TomKenworth]

Well, it looks like we are quite a ways away from Obama giving money to the Chinese:

"A state has pot X collected from fuel tax that was allocated to project W. Federal money J comes available with buy American strings, that can not be use on project F which was bid on by non-US firm. State just swaps Federal J money for pot X money, and then claim that no federal money was used to hire Chinese contractors. No sir re, we are too smart to get caught doing that."

"A"{Fuel tax money (pot X) for Project W,} which also gets money from Feds, "B"{(pot J)}, gets diverted to "C"{Project F with the non Americans.}

Do not the Feds get a full accounting of costs for Project W, including the funds that the state is providing from "A" Don't Feds usually provide matching funds? If laws have been broken, and Steele's friend is aware of them, then isn't he guilty of concealing a crime? Great friends, creative accounting, but I've seen same sort of thing go on in school districts.

Obama did not instigate the Pot Swaps. He signed laws designed and passed by Congress, where the House has been busy blocking, and not paying attention to what was happening with the money.

[Paul Emery]

Well, now that the Presidential election is essentially over we can focus on more relevant issues such as how do we effectively wean the country from the failed two party system. Once again, the Repubs are throwing in the towel early in exchange for not having to take the responsibility of leading the country. Their last example of that can't leave his Texas ranch except for an occasional book signing or local football game. The delivery of Ryan as the Repub veep was indeed a gift from God who must be on the Dems side to offer such a fortuitous goody as Ryan and his budget.

[Russ Steele]

[email protected]:48

And the alternative is to keep spending at trillion dollars a year that we do not have. As some point the rest of the world refuses to loan us anymore trillions and our economy collapses. We have 100 million people on the public dole, some day the government will run out of money to pay the dole, then what happens? Greece comes to mind, but there will be no one to bail us out. Obama is warning the banks the crash is coming. I hope you are prepared if Obama keeps spending at $1 trillion a year. While the Ryan Budget may be painful, it is necessary for any hope of economic sanity.

[billy T]

Battery powered cars, what a concept. The first horseless carriage makers tried batteries. Too heavy, too expensive, and not enough juice to make it to town and back. 120 years later, batteries are still too heavy and too expensive. We have come a long way, baby! I used to have a 70 or 72 International Scout. That little thing weighed 6,300 pounds. It was built that heavy on purpose to avoid Federal mileage standards and smog standards. My 4X4 long bed from the same era weighted 3,600 pounds. Since then the cars are loaded with plastic to lighten them up for mileage standards. Started with the bumpers and ended up with the door panels and even the steering wheel. Nowadays we are adding heavy batteries. Those batteries contain toxic waste and some have had their own little spontaneous combustions. The answer to the battery safety issues is to reinforce them with more steel and bigger steel cages. Heavy, expensive, and still don't have enough juice to get you to town and back. Rather than have everybody drive electric go carts, we should have natural gas piped into every home and save our energy grid for something important...like running hospitals and lighting up the Empire State Building. Otherwise I would have to put solar panels on Granny's Iron Lung.

[Paul Emery]

Russ

100 million public dole? Can you break that down? Does that include all persons receiving government checks or assistance? Does that include retired military,farm and corporate subsidies for example. Does that include teachers, firemen and police?
Russ
There is no way that the budget will be balanced in the near future so it is a sure thing that Romney and the career politician he chose as his running mate will be asking for a loan the first year the budget crosses their desk. Of course they won't ask the military to take a cut so the percentage of military spending will increase under their budget. Medicare is extremely popular and there's no chance they will convince voters otherwise in the less than 100 days till the election.

No doubt the Repubs are throwing in the towel on this one. They will keep the TP's in camp but they weren't going to support Obama anyway so what's the point? The Dems dodged a bullet when the Repubs chose Ryan over Rubio of Christie who could have actually on them some votes. Pretty funny actually. The Dems are licking their chops right now at this fortituos turn of events. Game, Set. Match

[Paul Emery]

DAmage control; is already setting in!

"Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, left, introduces his vice presidential running mate, Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, Saturday, Aug. 11, 2012 in Norfolk, Va. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

Within minutes of tapping Paul Ryan as his vice presidential nominee, presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney was distancing himself from the congressman's controversial budget, which includes steep cuts to government programs and changing Medicare into a voucher-like program.

The Romney campaign sent out talking points on Saturday that made the case that he was his own man on matters of Medicare and Social Security and that he wouldn't be tied to a document he insisted he'd sign into law and once called "marvelous."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/11/mitt-romney-paul-ryan-budget_n_1767765.html

[billy T]

Dr. Rebane, I do believe our public servants have let us down and have sunk lower. With all the problems we as a nation face, our Congress and Chief Executive debate free birth control and even regulating the expensive cigar market. Congressional hearing after Congressional hearing about whether one man named Roger Clemens took steriods during his baseball carreer. You are correct to point out the new sleaze in this current election cycle. I did find it rather distateful for the Senate Majority Leader to announce from the hollowed chambers of the US Senate that he heard a rumor that Romney is a habitial tax cheat. Harry Palms Reed should have called a press conference or done a tv interview to announce the rumor he heard and respected the floor of the US Senate. Wonder what John C Calhoun or Webster or even Alan Cranston would have thought about that pathetic use of the US Senate Floor. Yes, Romney is certainly a hateful homophobic bully cause he teased a guy in high school about his haircut. Romeny is an animal abuser because he put his dog in the animal carrier tied to the roof of the station wagon while taking his family of 7 (plus his mother-in-law) on a trip. Shameful. Well, at least he did not eat the dog. Romney has committed felonies by being a tax dodger. Who would want to vote for a felon, allbeit an unconvicted felon. Probably was a draft dodger to boot. Did you hear that Romney is a murderer of poor housewives. Can any human sink so low to beneath the very depths of Hell and still be able to show his wretched face in public? Meanwhile, everything is grand in the White House. Sure am glad the hurricane is over and the wind stopped howling. The Stimulus worked, Obamacare is working, foreclosers are slowing down a wee bit and we are once again the Shinning Beacon on the Hill. Now, more hearing on Roger Clemons now that the Jobs Plan is working. Perhaps a tax break for our Olympians.

[billy T]

PS: I am also most happy that our wittle childrens are brighter and more learned that they were 4 years ago. http://i.imgur.com/8Wokx.jpg

[Russ Steele]

[email protected]:23

More than 100 million people in the United States of America get welfare from the federal government. 110 million.

"The federal government administers nearly 80 different overlapping federal means-tested welfare programs," the Senate Budget Committee notes. However, the committee states, the figures used in the chart do not include those who are only benefiting from Social Security and/or Medicare.

Food stamps and Medicaid make up a large--and growing--chunk of the more than 100 million recipients. "Among the major means tested welfare programs, since 2000 Medicaid has increased from 34 million people to 54 million in 2011 and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, or food stamps) from 17 million to 45 million in 2011," says the Senate Budget Committee. "Spending on food stamps alone is projected to reach $800 billion over the next decade."

The data come "from the U.S. Census’s Survey of Income and Program Participation shows that nearly 110,000 million individuals received a welfare benefit in 2011. (These figures do not include other means-tested benefits such as the Earned Income Tax Credit or the health insurance premium subsidies included in the President’s health care law.

This does not include those on military retirement, on Social Security, or receive Medicare.

[Paul Emery]

Thanks for the details Russ. It would be interesting to know what percentage of Americans receive some kind of "check in the mail" from the US, state or local government. It's interesting to note that one of the most conservative and Republican counties in California is Sierra County. It is estimated that nearly 70% of residents receive some kind of government check in the mail each month.

[Russ Steele]

[email protected]:38

I guess your are very staified with the Huffing Puffington Post. Fine, but they are doing that great in the market place. The Huffington Post ranks last in the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). I do not read the crap in the Huffington Puffinton Post, the facts seem to get lost before it hits the street. It says a lot about the regular readers.

[Russ Steele]

opps, should read satisfied with the Huffington

[Russ Steele]

Oh No! Gallup: More Seniors Prefer Ryan Budget Plan than Obama’s

This is not as surprising as one would think. In the Ryan budget, his Medicare proposal, which would provide vouchers so that recipients can purchase their own insurance, does not cover current users of the system. The Democrats can use all the scare tactics they wish, but as far as senior citizens are concerned, the Ryan budget proposals offer no change to how they receive the benefit.

[George Rebane]

How convenient it is to forget and never talk about the fact that California has been in the Democrat bag for eons. This has been a public employee union state for two generations. Remember when California manufactured cars and trucks, built world class aircraft,..., and it was the preferred place to come build a home and raise a family, and businesses wanted to relocate here, and we didn't have one in three welfare recipients in the nation call it home?

In a few years we'll add to the list and try to remember when California had an energy industry and could still refine its own fuels? (and Nevada County still had a positive growth rate - now down to 0.6%/yr from 2000 to 2010?)

[Russ Steele]

[email protected]:49PM

I am not sure where you got your Sierra County numbers. The total populations is 3,240, with about one half on the east-side of the Sierra and the other half on the west-side. I was told by a county sage that the east was more conservative than the west side. Of the 3,240, a total of 1,540 are employed. Over 33% of the populations is over 55, 20% over 65. About 1425 are eligible for some benefits, be it Federal retirement, Social Security, Farm Subsidies or Other Federal assistance due to poverty. Over 428 Vets live in the County and though I could not find the numbers I have been told it is a retirement destination by many Forest Service retirees. You did not make any distinction between those who earned their federal retirement benefits and those who are on the public dole, food stamps and other employment support benefits.

[billy T]

I agree with Mr. Steele's 7:50 post. I remember when a whopping 1500 Sierra County residents voted in the Bush/Gore election, give or take. When I lived outside Colfax, I was told half the residents of that fair village were on crazy money. I never investigated whether that figure was true, but judging by the screwy ideas that come out of Nevada City I figure that half the residents in tiny NC are on crazy money or, in the very least, qualify for mental disability. Perhaps that figure is too low. Hard to get a complete picture who is on the dole and who is not by using Nevada City or Sierra County or North San Juan as a yardstick. As one of my favorite local cartoonists wrote, "There is a full moon every night in Nevada City".

[TomKenworth]

Of course if the 110 millon were totally off the planet, who would the remaining workers and companies sell to instead? And how fast would the unprotected by military, uneducated by teachers, infrastructure not maintained LE not in place, and uncared for by health professionals, USA collapse or be invaded?

The Repubbies throwing this election under the bus is a clear signthat they really haven't got anything to fix what the business leaders of the country broke. Tell me again, (for the first time) how does an American welder compete with a Chinese welder who is happy with $12/day?

[Paul Emery]

Russ
government checks are government checks I didn't make a distinction

[billy T]

"When your record stinks, the only alternative is character assassination of your opponent." N They started picking on Romney's wife months ago. Did you hear that Ann Romney was spotted sporting a thousand dollar blouse! Shameful. Who does she think she is? Someone from Camelot? More hard cold evidence that Mrs. Romney (who never worked a day in her life raising 5 kids without help while battling MS)....more evidence that she is out of touch with the common woman in life's struggles. Scandalous I tell ya, bloody scandalous. Good thing Mrs. Obama was not raked over the coals for wearing a $6,000 jacket, a foreign made jacket at that. I am pleased that the candidates' families are off limits, or at least the Liberal spouses are. OK, Billy Carter was an exception, but he loved the limelight and had the press eating out of his hands. He may have made a ton of greenbacks peddling his Billy Beer, but he never ever could make a blouse look good on him at any price.

[Paul Emery]

Government checks are government checks.

[Todd Juvinall]

Paul, as to our bet of five bucks last night. Would you like to send it now? LOL!

[TomKenworth]

In RE:

"That said, as a former Transportation Commission I know that the states are expert at money washing. A state has pot X collected from fuel tax that was allocated to project W. Federal money J comes available with buy American strings, that can not be use on project F which was bid on by non-US firm. State just swaps Federal J money for pot X money, and then claim that no federal money was used to hire Chinese contractors. No sir re, we are too smart to get caught doing that.

Posted by: Russ Steele | 11 August 2012 at 12:48 PM "

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Is that kinda like this?

http://www.businessinsider.com/companies-with-connections-to-israeli-intelligence-wiretap-the-us-for-the-nsa-2012-4