Is Peter Schiff Right?

So - how about that budget deal?

Thank goodness someone saved me the trouble of having to actually write something.  The Lonely Conservative summed it all up nicely and said pretty much what I would have said (if I had said it - which I didn't - at least not yet) - and I thank her from the bottom of my lazy little heart. 

Head over to her slice of blogging goodness and read what she has to say.




As for me?  I can't get too excited one way or the other.  The math informs me that the game is over no matter what anyone does so I'm headed outside to get some work done. 

Sarah Palin to Obama: "What's Your Game?"

Sarah on Facebook: 

Commander in Chief’s Appalling Action with Our Troops

[...]Like me, you might be asking yourself: Why on earth would he threaten to veto funding for the troops? What is his game plan? Basically, he’ll veto military funding because he wants the rest of the government funded too. And by the rest of the government, he means things like Harry Reid’s “Cowboy Poetry.” Essentially, he’s holding military funding hostage to NPR funding. This is a perfect analogy for what is wrong with this entire budget showdown. Our federal government has strayed so far from what is constitutionally mandated that they are blind to the fact that NPR funding is not a constitutional duty. Funding our military at a time of war is!

[...]It’s about time the President step up to the plate and lead responsibly. Our troops who are putting themselves in harm’s way deserve a Commander in Chief who is not AWOL from the debt debate. The American people deserve a president who will take on the tough challenges and understand that funding “Car Talk” is not as crucial as funding our troops at a time of three wars.  read the entire post

 Let's see.  Don't pay the military but make sure taxpayers pay for abortions.  That makes perfect sense.  Need we remind anyone that it's the demorats that didn't pass a budget??

God bless, Sarah...

The Heritage Foundation on Paul Ryan's budget...

fair and balanced.

Chairman Ryan’s Budget Resolution Changes America’s Course

America needs to change course. Our current direction is fiscally and economically unsustainable and politically and culturally bankrupting. It is threatening the well-being and future of our country.

Allow me to interject:  the very first sentence pretty much says it all.  

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s (R–WI) budget proposal, for the first time in recent memory, sets our nation on a different and better path. It tackles the massive spending excesses of the recent past and the entitlement crisis that is beginning to command our fiscal future. It rejects the politics of government dependence, massively higher taxes and the inevitability of national decline. No budget in decades has had the potential for so fundamentally improving the nation’s prosperity and restoring its vast promise. This is a monumental budget proposal for monumental times, and it opens a serious and necessary conversation about the future of our nation and its great legacy of freedom, opportunity, and self-government. read the rest

A happy H/T to Mike over at That Mr. G Guy's Blog.

See:  Paul Ryan's Plan...

Paul Ryan's Plan...

 conceived and written by an adult.  How refreshing.

The GOP Path to Prosperity
by Paul Ryan

Our budget cuts $6.2 trillion in spending from the president's budget over the next 10 years and puts the nation on track to pay off our national debt.  read the rest at WSJ




WSJ economist Steve Moore has the details on Rep. Paul Ryan’s plan to cut spending.

$1.5 trillion tax hike in Obama's budget...

and he's just getting started IMO.

Tax hikes as reported by Americans for Tax Reform:

• Raising the top marginal income tax rate (at which a majority of small business profits face taxation) from 35% to 39.6%.  This is a $709 billion/10 year tax hike

• Raising the capital gains and dividends rate from 15% to 20%

• Raising the death tax rate from 35% to 45% and lowering the death tax exemption amount from $5 million ($10 million for couples) to $3.5 million.  This is a $98 billion/ten year tax hike

• Capping the value of itemized deductions at the 28% bracket rate.  This will effectively cut tax deductions for mortgage interest, charitable contributions, property taxes, state and local income or sales taxes, out-of-pocket medical expenses, and unreimbursed employee business expenses.  A new means-tested phaseout of itemized deductions limits them even more.  This is a $321 billion/ten year tax hike

• New bank taxes totaling $33 billion over ten years

• New international corporate tax hikes totaling $129 billion over ten years

• New life insurance company taxes totaling $14 billion over ten years

• Massive new taxes on energy, including LIFO repeal, Superfund, domestic energy manufacturing, and many others totaling $120 billion over ten years

• Increasing unemployment payroll taxes by $15 billion over ten years

• Taxing management capital gains in an investment partnership (“carried interest”) as ordinary income.  This is a tax hike of $15 billion over ten years

• A giveaway to the trial lawyers—not letting companies deduct the cost of punitive damages from a lawsuit settlement.  This is a tax hike of $300 million over ten years

• Increasing tax penalties, information reporting, and IRS information sharing.  This is a ten-year tax hike of $20 billion.

Hard Choices? Obama's 2012 "budget" will sink the country...

and the Republicans are no better.

I know that sounds harsh, but it's time we faced some facts here.  Every month millions of responsible American families sit down and work on their budgets.  They look at the amount of money they have, pay their necessities first, maybe put some money in savings, and if there is a tad left over, they may enjoy a dinner out that month or maybe purchase something for the house.

 That's not how it works for the federal government.  They spend money they don't have and then wonder why there's a problem.  And they spend it on things they have no business even being involved in such as the Department of Education or the Environmental Protection Agency (which specializes in such worthy causes as saving the snail darter.)

As usual, when faced with what Politico calls "hard choices", these Washington weenies, and that includes Republicans, tout slashing programs by a few million here or a few million here.  It takes a thousand thousands to make a million and a thousand of those millions make a billion.  Add together a thousand billion to get to a trillion. See the problem?

This myriad of federal departments need to be defunded now.  Anyone with a shred of common sense could find hundreds of departments to throw into the closest trash can.  Check out  A-Z Index of U.S. Government Departments and Agencies to put this in perspective.  Neither the Democrats or the the Republicans will never do this because these unconstitutional programs have been designated as "untouchable."  It's just a way for the "elites" to siphon off our money into their pockets.

Do you anticipate that any of these departments will be defunded?  I sure don't, which means we're in deep doo.  The Republicans and the Democrats will engage in a bit of Kabuki theater over the next few weeks and then it will be back to the same 'ol, same 'ol, while the American public goes back to watching Lady GaGa do something stupid on the Grammy's.  And the beat goes on...

More:


The Other McCain:  The Bottom Line is the Punchline in Obama’s Laughable Joke of a Budget
Bungalow Bill:  OH CRAP!: Obama Proposes a $1.65 Trillion Deficit in New Budget

The Lonely Conservative:   Obama’s Budget: $1.65 Trillion Deficit
Conservative Outrage:   Can You Say Domino?