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Tuesday, December 21, 2010
The wages of big government
The Left is impaling itself on its own sword. From 60 Minutes,
BEHOLD!
American politics as you think you know it is dead; most people just don't realize it. A newly dead corpse still has some heat ....
The worst thing is how "everybody" looks to the Feds to fix it. While the local economy goes without, and sends billions to DC, the paltry sums that return, due to paying all the "overhed" is a crime.
And if the people running the Federal Government know this, then they are conscious crooks. If they don't know it, they don't have the qaulitifcations to work there.
Yet...we keep eleting them to go up there, to steal from our local paockets, so they can fund Grateful Dead history projects, when there are people without roofs over their heads as a result.
And...the Left will defend this type of "management" of the masses that came our way in 1932...and is reaching it's pinnacle of incompetence. Question: Does the Peter Principle apply to the reason we are here, especially when you consider who is in the White House, to include all the czars and authorized advisoers? The incompethen now all all together making such decisions?
Excellent story, but his number's are slightly off. California has more than $500 billion in unfunded liabilities in their state pension fund. A better story would look not at the income-to-expenditure gap, but rather at the income-to-liability gap.
I saw this when it first aired the other night. The most astonishing thing about it was that it aired on 60 minutes. The gravy train has run out of money and politicians are still spending.
And that is why the Repubs got trounced a few years ago - they did not lose congress because most Americans wanted a Socialist paradise, they lost it because they spent just like the Dems.
Similarly, Obama did not win because people were giving him a huge vote of confidence, he won election to the Presidency because many, many folks were voting AGAINST the government at the time not for him.
The trouble is, you folks on the left cannot seem to understand that - you assume that America is a leftwing nation and simply has been living in denial for the last decades. As such it is the duty of good progressives to "lead" those "too stupid to understand" to the nirvana that is socialism.
I would say "Pardon me if I (and others) don't choose to go there"...but you folks won't allow anyone to disagree, dissent or plain not choose to not go along. To Obamaites, progressives, and lefties of all ilks the end game of socialism justifies all actions in forcing people to go there.
I am entitled to a pension at retirement from a liberal county in a large Republican state. As far as I know, they have stopped giving the option for a pension to new employees but those who have already signed up, they plan on meeting their obligation. If they have to cut it or renegotiate, it is just something they have to do. Something is better than nothing.
Maybe "Guest" is thinking of the Govinator "Get in the Chopper" Arnold! Cause he obviously had an "R" beside his name while the Democratic control state legislature when almost 200 days before passing a budget this last last CY. It is obviouly Arnie's fault that the Democratic represenatives and senators kept wanting to appease thier SEIU/AFL-CIO/Union thug leadership voting base. I mean it is Govinator's fault that Bell city government had the highest amount of people paid for thier work while living in one of the poorest income districts.
The difference is that the Left coninues to gripe about cuts. Look at the teacher in the video. "You are no longer funding my education..." That is what she said....yep; Oh well!
Ahhhnuld had the best of intentions and really wanted to make positive changes in the state. Then the nurses, teachers and correctiions officers unions got a hold of him and stomped him into mush. Sacramento is much like Washington - you go there with the loftiest aspirations and dreams, and the realities of the way things work just grind you down until you really end up accomplishing nothing.
Margaret Thatcher IS right, "Socialism works fine until you run out of other people's money." Another elephant in the room, besides profligate spending, is the fact that nearly half the people in this country pay no taxes...and vote. When you have no skin in the game and can basically confiscate a chunk of your neighbor's income, that my friends is a recipe for disaster and financial ruin. I think the Founders got it right when it came to voting requirements and then we went and tinkered with it; they knew what would happen. If you look at any city, county, or state run by the left, you will see corruption on an unchallenged scale, debt beyond imagination, and stupidity run amok. Just the facts. LA, Chicago, San Francisco, Berkeley, Cleveland, Philidelphia, D.C., Atlanta, Portland, Detroit, Boston, Seattle, Cook County, Sacramento County, King County, Multnomah County...
ahhhhanold had the union people pretty much on their back in that first election.
about three days before the election the variouls unions didn't have enough money to pay their wages, media bills (that bunch wants cash form the various political "movements" (i wonder why)) and it really looked like they were going to lose it.
then they (the unions) went to the hollywierds for a HUGE amount of cash and the wheels fell off of Ahhhanolds wagon.
kind of like he got woodsheded at the breakfast table.
I'm from Virginia and we've always done thing's the right way. We don't borrow and we fully fund our pension obligations. However the last two years have seen Bob McDonnell (our Republicans and you'd think fiscally conservative governor) borrow billions from public pensions to give raises to public employees ?!?!?! and now suggesting we issue BILLIONS in new debt that we can't afford.
I'm living through this storm as a school board member in a small NJ town. The long-time attitude of the school administrators (and most board members) has been "how can we maximize our programs (and associated budgets)?" and not "how can we deliver a compliant program at the lowest cost?" Feedback from taxpayers comes in one form -- approval or rejection of the proposed budget. Unless there's a huge controversy, the board meetings are rarely attended by members of the public. The single biggest driver of costs at the local level is the teachers' salaries and benefits - base salaries alone consume half of our local property tax revenue. Raises are mostly automatic each year, through the contractually agreed salary guide. My district guide, from our expiring contract, would increase base salary cost by 2.4% if each teacher moved up to the next step. Some of those teachers would see as much as 7.9% if that salary guide is carried into the new contract unchanged. The benefits are very generous, e.g., no co-pays on health insurance, which until this year was fully funded by the taxpayers. State law (pushed by Governor Christie) now requires that the teachers contribute at least 1.5% of their salary toward the cost of health insurance. Local districts have little incentive and no control over pension costs, as all of our teachers are in a statewide system. The same is true for most other benefits. On the revenue side, we now have a fairly hard cap of 2% growth on local property taxes. My district collected about $5.5 million this year, which means we can increase the levy by not more than $110K. Revenue from other sources is currently projected to be down by about $290K, which means that we MUST reduce our spending plan for the next year by around $180K (a little over 2% of our total budget). The governor's plan is working exactly as intended at our local level, forcing a reduction in spending at the lowest level of government. Hopefully, his plan will also work at the state level -- he reduced the state 2011 budget by $1.6 billion, 5.3% below the 2010 level, and I expect that we will see a similar spending reduction in the 2012 budget he submits in February.
Got in a arguement last week with a local mayor. He has tied himself in knots trying to figure out how to find the money to balance the budget. Never once did he mention cutting spending or holding the departments responsible for the overage accountable. You can only guess what party he is associated with.
You see, Bilbo, has shown his racist colors (pun intended). He has shown that he thinks that Whites are the only ones that are allowed to earn or own homes. For those of us that grew up in a Black neighborhood, we know different. It seems, more often than not that the Libs tend to be more racist. Oh well.
Usual Suspect just said, "<span> I think the Founders got it right when it came to voting requirements." I assume that means he agrees with the Founders who felt that only white, male, property-owning individuals should be allowed to vote. </span>
Well, at least you got your name right... Really, is that the best argument you can come up with? The Constitution is an evolving document. It evolved, made slavery illegal, made voting rights a law, etc. It also allows for freedom of speech so you can say dumb things like this.
Alright, I'll give you something to mull over. What I believe was good, was the concept of only property owners having the right to vote. In other words, those who actually had an ownership stake in the system got a say in how things were done. I would suppose in modern times that would equate into only those who actually pay taxes being allowed to vote.
In your response (if you do), please focus ONLY on the point I made above and not bring race into it. My point has nothing to do with it.
i believe that what you are talking about comes under "conditions of employment" which is a contract that says in effect "if herman gluberfanaker comes to work and performs his duties under xxxx conditions until he is "vested" in the retirement system, said retirement system shall pay him the following benefits from the date of retirement until he cashes in his chips."
it is called a contract and if they cut back on it herman can march right down to the nearest court and shove it up thier ........
are these "liabilities" calculated on the basis of every one affected living to be 100 or do they have some kind of adjustment for the statistical deaths of the recipients before they live to be 100.
as in do they discount the guys that fall under a buss, drink themselves to death, get shot by an enraged husband........
So if someone rents their home, rather than owns it, who pays the property tax? Before you answer "landlord," realize that the property tax is factored into the rent the renter pays.
Unless you're homeless, EVERYONE pays property tax.
Also, in many states, cars count as property. For example, I live in Virginia, where I pay a yearly property tax on my car.
Restricting voting only to people who directly pay property tax (as opposed to those who pay it indirectly, through their rent) would be astoundingly retarded.
And then there's the old trope of people who "don't pay any taxes at all" which of course ignores sales tax, use tax, payroll taxes (SS and Medicare)... So I'm really not sure who these mythical people are who don't have any skin in the game. Homeless people and squatters who barter instead of using money?
Talk to the folks in Guam, Puerto Rico, America Somoa, Northern Marianas Islands, US Virgin Islands, Wake Island, Midway Island, and other outlying US territories; they get all sorts of government services without paying any taxes into the system. Then we have the illegal immigrants, those already on SSA disability payments, anyone with an IRS recognized religion, also Native Americans/First Peoples don't pay any state or county taxes for the services they provided while living on the reservations. They only pay federal income taxes. So all those casinos all over most of the NA's reservations don't pay into the system for the counties, cities, and states they reside in. Yet they ask for the same police, fire, schooling, and roads; that those on the outside ask for as well.
You are right that everyone in CONUS pays some sort of tax. However, how is it fair for some people who have thier pay and entitlements tied to the Consumer Price Index (like federal retirees, DoD Military personnel, Federal Employees) see thier housing and COLA adjustments get shifted downwards, while the civil populace in a region vote for increasing property taxes. Even when said people vote in the elections (when they are allowed to or their ballots are counted)? Let alone how is it fair for those that only live in a region for a few years, such as a military member; get priced out of living in the town and become a contributing member of that community when the civilian populace votes for every increasing services that need to be paid for via a tax of some sort? Let alone the stealth tax of inflation in a region and the overall decrease of spending power via the dollar bill.
Lil chickies that left home are comin' home to roost. Them as let 'em go, didn't figure on 'em growing to rocs. The Big Birds aren't from Sesame Street. Brobdingnag. Hungry, too.
Noble motives that exceeded the feed inventory, laid an egg.
Now the "tax and spend like there's no tomorrow gang" of yesterday have it on their face.
Social democration is capitalism plus fear of revolution, with Soviet Union no longer creating the second, only the first part will remain... unless a serious ideological chalenger appears, which I dont see because Chinese communists nowadays are more capitalist than Wall Street. Unions? What unions? Not on my watch!
People have been yelling on this Fuster Cluck for years. Gee, I wonder what gets cut to compensate?
ReplyDeleteThe worst thing is how "everybody" looks to the Feds to fix it. While the local economy goes without, and sends billions to DC, the paltry sums that return, due to paying all the "overhed" is a crime.
ReplyDeleteAnd if the people running the Federal Government know this, then they are conscious crooks. If they don't know it, they don't have the qaulitifcations to work there.
Yet...we keep eleting them to go up there, to steal from our local paockets, so they can fund Grateful Dead history projects, when there are people without roofs over their heads as a result.
And...the Left will defend this type of "management" of the masses that came our way in 1932...and is reaching it's pinnacle of incompetence. Question: Does the Peter Principle apply to the reason we are here, especially when you consider who is in the White House, to include all the czars and authorized advisoers? The incompethen now all all together making such decisions?
We got the Government we elected, and allowed.
http://articles.latimes.com/2010/apr/06/opinion/la-oe-crane6-2010apr06
ReplyDeleteExcellent story, but his number's are slightly off. California has more than $500 billion in unfunded liabilities in their state pension fund. A better story would look not at the income-to-expenditure gap, but rather at the income-to-liability gap.
I saw this when it first aired the other night. The most astonishing thing about it was that it aired on 60 minutes. The gravy train has run out of money and politicians are still spending.
ReplyDeleteNice of you to assume that it's all the "Left's" fault. Both sides of the aisle have been spending.
ReplyDeleteI DID enjoy hearing the governor tell the teacher if she didn't like it to quit doing it.
ReplyDeleteAnd that is why the Repubs got trounced a few years ago - they did not lose congress because most Americans wanted a Socialist paradise, they lost it because they spent just like the Dems.
ReplyDeleteSimilarly, Obama did not win because people were giving him a huge vote of confidence, he won election to the Presidency because many, many folks were voting AGAINST the government at the time not for him.
The trouble is, you folks on the left cannot seem to understand that - you assume that America is a leftwing nation and simply has been living in denial for the last decades. As such it is the duty of good progressives to "lead" those "too stupid to understand" to the nirvana that is socialism.
I would say "Pardon me if I (and others) don't choose to go there"...but you folks won't allow anyone to disagree, dissent or plain not choose to not go along. To Obamaites, progressives, and lefties of all ilks the end game of socialism justifies all actions in forcing people to go there.
I am entitled to a pension at retirement from a liberal county in a large Republican state. As far as I know, they have stopped giving the option for a pension to new employees but those who have already signed up, they plan on meeting their obligation. If they have to cut it or renegotiate, it is just something they have to do. Something is better than nothing.
ReplyDeleteOK, of the half dozen states in the worst fiscal condition - which has been ruled mostly by the right for the last 30 years? Please, ed'u'mah'kate me.
ReplyDeleteMaybe "Guest" is thinking of the Govinator "Get in the Chopper" Arnold! Cause he obviously had an "R" beside his name while the Democratic control state legislature when almost 200 days before passing a budget this last last CY. It is obviouly Arnie's fault that the Democratic represenatives and senators kept wanting to appease thier SEIU/AFL-CIO/Union thug leadership voting base. I mean it is Govinator's fault that Bell city government had the highest amount of people paid for thier work while living in one of the poorest income districts.
ReplyDeleteThe difference is that the Left coninues to gripe about cuts. Look at the teacher in the video. "You are no longer funding my education..." That is what she said....yep; Oh well!
ReplyDeleteAhhhnuld had the best of intentions and really wanted to make positive changes in the state. Then the nurses, teachers and correctiions officers unions got a hold of him and stomped him into mush. Sacramento is much like Washington - you go there with the loftiest aspirations and dreams, and the realities of the way things work just grind you down until you really end up accomplishing nothing.
ReplyDeleteMargaret Thatcher IS right, "Socialism works fine until you run out of other people's money." Another elephant in the room, besides profligate spending, is the fact that nearly half the people in this country pay no taxes...and vote. When you have no skin in the game and can basically confiscate a chunk of your neighbor's income, that my friends is a recipe for disaster and financial ruin. I think the Founders got it right when it came to voting requirements and then we went and tinkered with it; they knew what would happen. If you look at any city, county, or state run by the left, you will see corruption on an unchallenged scale, debt beyond imagination, and stupidity run amok. Just the facts. LA, Chicago, San Francisco, Berkeley, Cleveland, Philidelphia, D.C., Atlanta, Portland, Detroit, Boston, Seattle, Cook County, Sacramento County, King County, Multnomah County...
ReplyDeleteahhhhanold had the union people pretty much on their back in that first election.
ReplyDeleteabout three days before the election the variouls unions didn't have enough money to pay their wages, media bills (that bunch wants cash form the various political "movements" (i wonder why)) and it really looked like they were going to lose it.
then they (the unions) went to the hollywierds for a HUGE amount of cash and the wheels fell off of Ahhhanolds wagon.
kind of like he got woodsheded at the breakfast table.
C
I'm from Virginia and we've always done thing's the right way. We don't borrow and we fully fund our pension obligations. However the last two years have seen Bob McDonnell (our Republicans and you'd think fiscally conservative governor) borrow billions from public pensions to give raises to public employees ?!?!?! and now suggesting we issue BILLIONS in new debt that we can't afford.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately Chris Cristie is one of a kind! :(
I'm living through this storm as a school board member in a small NJ town. The long-time attitude of the school administrators (and most board members) has been "how can we maximize our programs (and associated budgets)?" and not "how can we deliver a compliant program at the lowest cost?" Feedback from taxpayers comes in one form -- approval or rejection of the proposed budget. Unless there's a huge controversy, the board meetings are rarely attended by members of the public.
ReplyDeleteThe single biggest driver of costs at the local level is the teachers' salaries and benefits - base salaries alone consume half of our local property tax revenue. Raises are mostly automatic each year, through the contractually agreed salary guide. My district guide, from our expiring contract, would increase base salary cost by 2.4% if each teacher moved up to the next step. Some of those teachers would see as much as 7.9% if that salary guide is carried into the new contract unchanged.
The benefits are very generous, e.g., no co-pays on health insurance, which until this year was fully funded by the taxpayers. State law (pushed by Governor Christie) now requires that the teachers contribute at least 1.5% of their salary toward the cost of health insurance. Local districts have little incentive and no control over pension costs, as all of our teachers are in a statewide system. The same is true for most other benefits.
On the revenue side, we now have a fairly hard cap of 2% growth on local property taxes. My district collected about $5.5 million this year, which means we can increase the levy by not more than $110K. Revenue from other sources is currently projected to be down by about $290K, which means that we MUST reduce our spending plan for the next year by around $180K (a little over 2% of our total budget).
The governor's plan is working exactly as intended at our local level, forcing a reduction in spending at the lowest level of government. Hopefully, his plan will also work at the state level -- he reduced the state 2011 budget by $1.6 billion, 5.3% below the 2010 level, and I expect that we will see a similar spending reduction in the 2012 budget he submits in February.
Got in a arguement last week with a local mayor. He has tied himself in knots trying to figure out how to find the money to balance the budget. Never once did he mention cutting spending or holding the departments responsible for the overage accountable. You can only guess what party he is associated with.
ReplyDeleteHuh?
ReplyDeleteYou see, Bilbo, has shown his racist colors (pun intended). He has shown that he thinks that Whites are the only ones that are allowed to earn or own homes. For those of us that grew up in a Black neighborhood, we know different. It seems, more often than not that the Libs tend to be more racist. Oh well.
ReplyDeleteUsual Suspect just said, "<span> I think the Founders got it right when it came to voting requirements." I assume that means he agrees with the Founders who felt that only white, male, property-owning individuals should be allowed to vote.
ReplyDelete</span>
Well, at least you got your name right... Really, is that the best argument you can come up with? The Constitution is an evolving document. It evolved, made slavery illegal, made voting rights a law, etc. It also allows for freedom of speech so you can say dumb things like this.
ReplyDeleteI'm just trying to understand what Usual Suspet meant. What was so great about the Founders' concept of voting requirements?
ReplyDeleteAlright, I'll give you something to mull over. What I believe was good, was the concept of only property owners having the right to vote. In other words, those who actually had an ownership stake in the system got a say in how things were done. I would suppose in modern times that would equate into only those who actually pay taxes being allowed to vote.
ReplyDeleteIn your response (if you do), please focus ONLY on the point I made above and not bring race into it. My point has nothing to do with it.
Stu, this guy is trying to bait us. The Troll Watch is up, DON'T FEED THE TROLL!
ReplyDeleteSometimes I like to pull the wings off flys. :)
ReplyDeletei believe that what you are talking about comes under "conditions of employment" which is a contract that says in effect "if herman gluberfanaker comes to work and performs his duties under xxxx conditions until he is "vested" in the retirement system, said retirement system shall pay him the following benefits from the date of retirement until he cashes in his chips."
ReplyDeleteit is called a contract and if they cut back on it herman can march right down to the nearest court and shove it up thier ........
C
a question.
ReplyDeleteare these "liabilities" calculated on the basis of every one affected living to be 100 or do they have some kind of adjustment for the statistical deaths of the recipients before they live to be 100.
as in do they discount the guys that fall under a buss, drink themselves to death, get shot by an enraged husband........
C
That is the problem Douchebaggins, you A-S-S-U-M-E.
ReplyDeleteSo if someone rents their home, rather than owns it, who pays the property tax? Before you answer "landlord," realize that the property tax is factored into the rent the renter pays.
ReplyDeleteUnless you're homeless, EVERYONE pays property tax.
Also, in many states, cars count as property. For example, I live in Virginia, where I pay a yearly property tax on my car.
Restricting voting only to people who directly pay property tax (as opposed to those who pay it indirectly, through their rent) would be astoundingly retarded.
And then there's the old trope of people who "don't pay any taxes at all" which of course ignores sales tax, use tax, payroll taxes (SS and Medicare)... So I'm really not sure who these mythical people are who don't have any skin in the game. Homeless people and squatters who barter instead of using money?
ReplyDeleteTalk to the folks in Guam, Puerto Rico, America Somoa, Northern Marianas Islands, US Virgin Islands, Wake Island, Midway Island, and other outlying US territories; they get all sorts of government services without paying any taxes into the system. Then we have the illegal immigrants, those already on SSA disability payments, anyone with an IRS recognized religion, also Native Americans/First Peoples don't pay any state or county taxes for the services they provided while living on the reservations. They only pay federal income taxes. So all those casinos all over most of the NA's reservations don't pay into the system for the counties, cities, and states they reside in. Yet they ask for the same police, fire, schooling, and roads; that those on the outside ask for as well.
ReplyDeleteYou are right that everyone in CONUS pays some sort of tax. However, how is it fair for some people who have thier pay and entitlements tied to the Consumer Price Index (like federal retirees, DoD Military personnel, Federal Employees) see thier housing and COLA adjustments get shifted downwards, while the civil populace in a region vote for increasing property taxes. Even when said people vote in the elections (when they are allowed to or their ballots are counted)? Let alone how is it fair for those that only live in a region for a few years, such as a military member; get priced out of living in the town and become a contributing member of that community when the civilian populace votes for every increasing services that need to be paid for via a tax of some sort? Let alone the stealth tax of inflation in a region and the overall decrease of spending power via the dollar bill.
<span> The Constitution is an evolving document. It evolved, made slavery illegal, made voting rights a law, etc.</span>
ReplyDeleteLOG IT! Byron agrees with me. I think you will see these words again in some future discussion....... :-D
Sorry, Skippy, I'll have to work on that, wont let it happen again ;)
ReplyDeleteI didn't say "property taxes." You did.
ReplyDeleteYou also said "astoundingly retarded."
Mr Douche is the kind of guy who lets perfect be the enemy of good.
ReplyDeleteI think I see the 2nd sign that the end of the world is coming. Both Skippy and Byron agree to something. =-O Be afraid! Be very afraid!
ReplyDeleteLil chickies that left home are comin' home to roost. Them as let 'em go, didn't figure on 'em growing to rocs. The Big Birds aren't from Sesame Street. Brobdingnag. Hungry, too.
ReplyDeleteNoble motives that exceeded the feed inventory, laid an egg.
Now the "tax and spend like there's no tomorrow gang" of yesterday have it on their face.
"And the Gods of the Copybook Headings say....."
Charles, it ain't done till I get Skippy to start eating grits and sauge and gravy and to say, "ain't" and "ya'll" :)
ReplyDeleteSocial democration is capitalism plus fear of revolution, with Soviet Union no longer creating the second, only the first part will remain... unless a serious ideological chalenger appears, which I dont see because Chinese communists nowadays are more capitalist than Wall Street. Unions? What unions? Not on my watch!
ReplyDeleteCan you eat grits and sausage and gravy with chopsticks?
ReplyDelete