Tag Archives: budget

Attack of the $5 Trillion Gubmint

14 Tuesday May 2019

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There’s just no need for elaboration. These numbers speak for themselves:

The federal government spent $2,573,708,000,000 in the first seven months of fiscal 2019 (October through April), setting an all-time record for real federal spending in the first seven months of a fiscal year, according to data published in the Monthly Treasury Statements.

Prior to this fiscal year, the most that the federal government had ever spent in the first seven months of a fiscal year was in fiscal 2011, when it spent $2,476,257,690,000 in constant April 2019 dollars (adjusted using the Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation calculator).

That’s a high price for an Empire that’ll be gone in a decade and a half. It’s like wasting everything on a luxury model for use as a beater that you can’t even afford to insure. Should have gone with the economy republican model. Or even a mid-sized Monarchy or something. Hey, it’s just (fake) money in (and at) the end.

PrioritieS

14 Thursday Feb 2019

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Democrats and Republicans have theirs. Their priorities and interests (and allegiances) do not align with yours.

A Republican-Democrat spending bill being offered to President Trump spends nearly 40 times as much on foreign aid as it does on a wall to secure the United States-Mexico border.

Though Trump requested about $5.7 billion to fund a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, a spending package written by elected Republicans and Democrats funds just $1.3 billion for 55 miles of wall at the border.

Meanwhile, the deal spends nearly 40 times as much American taxpayer money on foreign aid as it does on a border wall. In total, about $50 billion is spent on foreign aid, including: [a whole bunch of stuff we cannot afford and do not need].

Surely the next election will be the cure, right?

No Shutdown and No Wall

25 Friday Jan 2019

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This was predictable: Trump caves on Shutdown/Wall.

The Senate swiftly and unanimously approved the deal, and the House was ready to follow suit and send the legislation to Trump for his signature.

Trump’s retreat came in the 35th day of the partial shutdown as intensifying delays at the nation’s airports and another missed payday for hundreds of thousands of federal workers brought new urgency to efforts to resolve the standoff.

The shutdown was ending as Democratic leaders had insisted it must — reopen the government first, then talk border security. “The president thought he could crack Democrats, and he didn’t, and I hope it’s a lesson for him,” said the Senate Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said of her members: “Our unity is our power. And that is what maybe the president underestimated.”

It’s certainly a lesson.

Okay, now we wait two days for the strategery, if any. Actually, we’ve been waiting for two years now. Trump admits there’s an emergency and that he has the authority and power to deal with it … later. We wait.

The shutdown isn’t the problem – next to none care about it. It’s the invasion and the decline, Mr. President.

Just What, Exactly, Is Conserved Here?

18 Tuesday Dec 2018

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Ann Coulter’s bet is still out there waiting for a taker: will Trump cave on the budget and the wall (again)? It certainly looks like it.

The White House suggested Tuesday that President Donald Trump could back down from his demand for $5 billion to fund his proposed border wall in a year-end spending bill.

Trump’s push for the money has threatened a partial government shutdown when funding for seven agencies lapses after midnight Friday. Last week, the president said he would be “proud” to close parts of the government over border security.

“We have other ways that we can get to that $5 billion that we’ll work with Congress,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told Fox News on Tuesday morning. She added that the Trump administration could support $1.6 billion in border security funding proposed by Senate Democrats, as long as it can “couple that with other funding resources” to get to $5 billion.

We wait. And, even if there is a partial shutdown, those “essential” personnel will still keep working. One wonders if the ATF is essential because the agents will be needed ASAP to enforce Trump’s ban on bump stocks.

The Trump administration moved Tuesday to officially ban bump stocks, which allow semi-automatic weapons to fire rapidly like automatic firearms, and has made them illegal to possess beginning in late March.

The devices will be banned under a federal law that prohibits machine guns, according to a senior Justice Department official.

I feel a little foolish, now, about running those pro-Trump 2A articles at FP a few years ago.

No border security, no deportations, no repelling actual invasion, no sound budgeting, and no respect for the Second Amendment. Thank you, queen Hillary.

This new regulation is, of course, unconstitutional. But, it will stand – Ivanka’s tears can reach the Supreme Court if needed.

Be mindful that the same regulatory logic, under different laws, could be used – in one stroke of the Presidential pen – to ban aliens, gun control, and debt. All debt-holders must either destroy their debt instruments or else turn them into the Treasury for immediate destruction. All debt is now illegal. It’ll not happen though it could.

Conservative friends, the old Trump Train can’t make it far from the station if the tracks are destroyed.

Conservatives Again Fail to Conserve

19 Wednesday Sep 2018

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Not that one’s coming, but what difference would a Blue Wave really make in DC?

The current Red Tide is failure enough. Even as agencies scramble to waste the leftovers from the last piecemeal, half-a$$ “budget,” the Senate, allegedly governed by conservative Republicans, prepares the next stroke of insanity.

The Senate is racing to avoid the third government shutdown of the year ahead of a looming end-of-the-month deadline.

Senators on Tuesday voted 93-7 to pass a sweeping $854 billion spending bill that includes funding for the Departments of Defense, Health and Human Services (HHS), Labor and Education, which make up the lion’s share of total government spending.

Six Republican senators — Jeff Flake (Ariz.), Mike Lee (Utah), Rand Paul (Ky.), David Perdue (Ga.), Ben Sasse (Neb.) and Pat Toomey (Pa.) — joined Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in voting against the bill, which also includes a short-term stopgap bill to fund the rest of the government through Dec. 7 and prevent a shutdown that would start Oct. 1.

Some of them are upset … at what they’re doing.

Ah well, at least we’re getting a $pace Force.

The General Stands Again

08 Thursday Feb 2018

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Sen. Rand Paul, the only sane man left on Capitol Hill, is derisively dubbed “General*Paul” by Lindsey Grahamnesty. Lindsey was himself described recently in Taki’s Mag as “suspiciously swishy.”

Today Dr. Paul, the General (I like that, let’s take it away from them), took a hard stand against the bizarre, if predictable, new budget proposal.

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul is preventing a two-year budget deal from passing, as the White House advised federal agencies to prepare for the government to start shutting down at midnight.

Congressional negotiators were scrambling earlier Thursday to lock in enough votes in the House, and that was before Paul, a Republican, made public his dissatisfaction with the deal, which would raise government spending, avert a government shutdown and lift the debt ceiling.

A senior administrative official said the White House is instructing agencies to begin shutdown preparations in the event that Congress fails to pass a budget before the midnight deadline.

Paul is pushing for an amendment to maintain budget caps, but Senate sources say leaders have no plan to give Paul such a concession, meaning that he can continue to prevent a vote until after midnight, when government funding runs out.

The colossal bill, which lawmakers have been negotiating for months, would be a game-changing piece of legislation, clearing the decks for Congress in dealing with major spending issues as well as doling out disaster relief money.

The overall deal also does not address the high-profile issue of immigration, a key sticking point for many Democrats; but it does increase spending caps by $300 billion for the Pentagon and domestic priorities, a crucial incentive for getting enough votes from both parties.

The Convertible of State is aimed at the edge of a cliff. The Elephant at the wheel floors the gas pedal. The Donkey passenger shouts, “Go, Man, Go!” This is the bipartisanship the people claim to be all crazy about – “gettin’ the people’s business done!” Most don’t realize they’re in the backseat behind the two dumb animals, headed for the edge at high speed.

I guess Rand is more like a traffic cop than a general. Hey, still a man in uniform, right? Maybe that’s what Grahmnesty meant by the remark; you know, what he digs…

The uniparty hasn’t been able to pass a whole and complete annual budget for about a decade. Stopgap after appropriation after special package after… Now! Now, they’ve got us a twofer in store, doubling down (up) to make up for lost responsibility. Deficits and the debt be damned.

Go ahead. Shut her down. Leave her down.

American history repeats itself: There stands Paul like a stone wall!

nimbus-image-1518139305235

CNN (sightly modified).

*Lindsey ridiculed Dr. Paul for wanting to bring our standing armies home and end the oldest war in US history. (I’ve never used the term “cuck” here, you know). Neocons like Grahamnesty should favor the idea, giving the troops a breather before the next war with Iran and/or North Korea and/or Russia and/or China and/or Whomever it is. You know, the war just after the depression and before the civil…

The Lack of a Budget

21 Sunday Jan 2018

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In the days of old Congress used to pass annual budgets. This process generally started with a recommendation from the President. Next the proposed budget passed through the House, then the Senate. Finally, if he agreed with it, the President signed off on it.

That was then. Today, for more than a few years now, different appropriations have been cobbled together for this and that, rather than passed as a whole. Technically, this is permissible under Article I, Section 7 of the old Constitution. It’s my quibble that the old way was better, smoother. At any rate, at least it’s done. Until it’s not.

Last Friday/Saturday at midnight the Congress failed to agree on the latest stopgap spending bill. As such, “your” government has no budget for the coming fiscal year – running on empty.

A House-passed stopgap bill that would avoid a government shutdown fizzled out in the Senate late Friday night, leaving Congress negotiating frantically as the midnight deadline to fund the government passed.

The measure failed in a procedural vote by a 50 to 49 margin. Five Democrats — Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Joe Donnelly of Indiana, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Doug Jones of Alabama and Claire McCaskill of Missouri — had backed it. Four Republicans — Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Jeff Flake of Arizona, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Mike Lee of Utah — opposed it. So did Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for procedural reasons.

As nearly all Democrats and some Republicans opposed the measure that failed to work its way through Congress on Friday, lawmakers saw government funding lapse, at least temporarily. The proposal that failed in the Senate would have funded the government through Feb. 16 and reauthorized the popular Children’s Health Insurance Program for six years.

As far as I’m concerned, they could permanently shutter the whole operation forever. Fear not, they won’t. In fact, much (most?) of the government will operate pretty much as “normal” for the duration. Most people will notice no difference. I’m releasing a video for FP tomorrow about this and a few related matters. Watch it.

This last happened in 2013. Before that, it was a more pronounced shortage in 1995. We somehow survived those episodes. The sky will not fall. For now, just know that “your” elected representatives are a band of utterly incompetent fools. You should remember this come the next election. You probably won’t though I’ll drop a reminder.

Running on, running on empty
Running on, running blind
Running on, running into the sun
But I’m running behind

–Running on Empty, Jackson Browne, 1977.

run-out-of-gas

The Ryan-McConnell School for Drunk Sailors

20 Friday Oct 2017

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I heard talk of a real budget coming from and for D.C. soon. It’s been a while. In that time, the makeshift measures have done wonders – assuming everyone wants the country bankrupted.

Real federal spending in fiscal 2017, which ended on Sept. 30, was higher than in any year in the history of the United States other than fiscal 2009, which was the year that President Barack Obama’s $840 billion stimulus law was enacted.

Fiscal 2017 also saw the second highest real federal individual income tax totals of any year in U.S. history, according to the Monthly Treasury Statement released today.

Total federal tax revenues were the third highest in U.S. history.

While it was collecting the third highest total tax revenues in U.S. history, the federal government ran a deficit $665,712,000,000 because of its high total spending.

Republicans have controlled the House of Representatives since 2011, after winning a majority of seats in the 2010 election. They have controlled the Senate since 2015, after winning a majority in the 2014 election. In fiscal years 2016 and 2017, a Congress in which the Republican Party controls both houses was responsible for enacting all federal spending legislation.

Total federal spending in fiscal 2017, according to the Treasury, was $3,980,605,000,000. Total federal tax revenue was $3,314,893,000.

Prior to this year, the highest level of real federal spending was the $4,024,794,600,000 in constant 2017 dollars (adjusted using the Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation calculator) that the Treasury spent in fiscal 2009.

In the years after 2009, real federal spenpding hit its lowest level ($3,633,572,490,000 in constant 2017 dollars) in fiscal 2014. In fiscal years 2015, 2016, and 2017 federal spending has been on the rise again—reaching this year’s $3,980,605,000,000, the second highest spending level in the nation’s history.

On the tax side, federal individual income taxes hit their all-time peak in fiscal 2015, when the Treasury took in $1,598,265,180,000 in constant 2017 dollars in individual income taxes.

Record taxes and they still run record deficits and debt. We can call 2017 the year of the Beast’s Billion…

Check this graph (in constant, inflation-adjusted dollars):

chart-spending

CNS.

Now, imagine an overlay of the debt doubling about every 8 to 10 years. Next up! $40 Trillion!!!

The Swamp drains the Country.

That was a Pretty Good Kick, by Congressional Standards

01 Monday May 2017

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Recently I’ve noted the Kongressional Kicking of the Kan along with the perpetual betrayal of conservative voters by the GOP.

The latest kick puts reality and the federal budget off until September.

President Donald Trump said he’ll sign a bipartisan $1.1 trillion spending bill that largely tracks Democratic priorities and rejects most of his wish list, including funds for a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.

“We’re very happy with it,” the president said Monday in an interview with Bloomberg News. The plan would allocate some new funding for border security, though the funds couldn’t be used to build his promised wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. The president said he will sign the bill if it remains “as we discussed.”

The compromise measure, announced early Monday morning, would keep the government open through the end of September. Under House procedures, a vote could be held as early as Wednesday. The plan drew howls of protest from conservatives.

Howl at the moon if it makes you feel better. But this is the way it is. The Republicans are the Atlanta Falcons of politics. The budget blueprint is blown to smithereens. The tax reforms may happen but they won’t look anything like what was announced. No wall. No spending cuts. No priorities met. War in Syria. War brewing with North Korea, Russia, and half the rest of the world. Healthcare reform may make a comeback – or it may not. ISIS is planning the next domestic attack on the West. Rest assured the debt ceiling will be raised in timely fashion. And then raised again. And again. Over and over, bloated half-measure “budgets” will sail through in order to avoid the dreaded “shutdown”.

More of the same. More of the same. More of the same. Not that it will make any difference but I will probably remind you of all this again just before the next election, the next election when you keep the cycle going.

Howl.

Kongress Kicks the Kan

30 Sunday Apr 2017

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Again. Because shutdown.

The US Congress has passed a stop-gap spending bill to keep the government running an extra week.

It will now go to the White House for the president’s signature, and will buy Congress time to reach a deal to fund the government until September.

It came just hours before a funding deadline expired, threatening a second government shutdown in four years.

Republicans were forced to make several concessions, the latest on funding for so-called Obamacare.

A government shutdown would close national parks and monuments, lay off federal employees and delay tax refund payments.

The last shutdown, in 2013, lasted for 17 days.

There was a time, long, long ago, when Congress used to appropriate money for an entire year at a time. Now it’s a chunk here, a chunk there, one week, three weeks, four months, your dollar. The word “incompetent” comes to mind.

The real reason the pols fear a shutdown is that, should one happen and go on too long, the people might realize just how little they needed or missed the government. They can’t have that. And they can’t act responsible. So they kick the can.

The only downside I see to a temporary shutdown is the closing of the Parks. And those, I can tell you from experience, are still accessible. No force field goes up around them. They’re just much, much quieter. Kind of nice.

It would be nice if Trump would veto this one-week measure. He could use it as a “teaching moment” for the idiots on the Hill, maybe for others. Go ahead and shut her down. That won’t happen though.

The can shall be kicked. Again. And then, again later. And again. A day may come when it will be harder to kick or the kicking won’t help. Not that the pols care. Or that most of you notice.

kicking-the-can

The Times Picayune.

A better approach might be for Congress to leave the can alone and kick the bucket.