The Pardu

Archive for February 24th, 2013|Daily archive page

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Obama Administration and Sequester Breakdown (State-by-State)

In Obama Administration on February 24, 2013 at 9:31 PM

President Obama and his economic team have proactively revisited the looming fiscal “sequester”. The last proposal to House speaker Boehner was met with continued posturing in effort to place total blame for the issue on the resident.  As with any rational leadership recognition of the issue and  its critical om our fragile economy, needs continued efforts to move towards resolution.  If you recall we received reports last week that President Obama called both Boehner and McConnell.  It is duly noted,  we are not seeing like efforts to resolve the sequester from Republicans in Congress.


Multiple news sources are reporting the release of a detailed state-by-state breakdown of the effect of a fully enacted sequester.  The details look dire.  For those who do not feel the march sequester date is a jump-off point for fiscal collapse (Albeit temporary), my unqualified mind tells me, “Who the hell knows the truth and full impact.” Have we been at this point in the past? The answer is “no.”  We are not confident of any theory, theorem, posit, or opinion.  The bottom-line is, why do we have to go there at all?

WASHINGTON — It’s looking increasingly like the government is about to impose on itself $85 billion in across-the-board spending cuts. So as part of its strategy to pressure Republicans into accepting new revenues as part of a deal to prevent the sequester from taking effect, the White House released new reports on Sunday that outline the ugly effects those cuts would have in individual states.

Each state’s report is linked below. But Jason Furman, principal deputy director of the White House’s National Economic Council, pulled out some state-specific examples of the ways the cuts will hurt education, national defense, public health and the economy.

In Ohio, 350 teacher and teacher-aide jobs are at risk, which means 43,000 fewer students will be served, Furman said on a Sunday conference call with reporters. In Virginia, 90,000 civilian Department of Defense employees would be furloughed. About 4,180 fewer children in Georgia would get vaccines and, in Kentucky, 400 fewer victims of domestic violence would end up being served.

Read more 

The state by state breakdown of deficit cuts are as follows (States are reported as posted on Huffington Post)

2. Alaska
10. Florida
11. Georgia
12. Hawaii
13. Idaho
15. Indiana
16. Iowa
17. Kansas
20. Maine
27. Montana
29. Nevada
36. Ohio
38. Oregon
44. Texas
45. Utah
46. Vermont
51. Wyoming

Additional news source:  USA Today

Why would you place one bit of fiscal faith in the GOP. 

If we forget the past we are doomed to relive it!

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Crooks and Liars, Publishes On Societies Crooks and Liars

In MSNBC on February 24, 2013 at 2:52 PM

Crooks and Liars has published a poignant piece about John Nichols’s apparence on the UP With Chris Show, MSNBC, Saturday February, 22nd.   It is becoming increasingly obvious the free world has been turned into a massive “money-farm” for those who “dominate by commercial and industrial interests” (capitalist bourgeois).  

Nichol”s references to PRWatch and the treatises of Pete Peterson, remind of the millions upon millions in campaign contributions of people who claim to long for ‘small government’. Government poses a threat to the pipeline of money and power harvested like apples in an orchard made possible and nurtured from the toils of ordinary people like you and me. 

If you doubt a concerted crusade towards oligarchy, think for a moment.  Why would so many uber wealthy billionaires give millions to conservative candidates via highly compensated front-men?  Do you think they give for sake of making life better for others, the less fortunate?  Is it even remotely possible that you can twist your mind to not accept that government places restraint on ‘money-grabbers?  Accepting the role of government is to accept that oversight of the sub-prime bubble and toxic assets might have been snuffed out before growing to that of a behemoth. A behemoth that literally contributed to the Bush ‘great Recession as an equal partner to two wars and cutting taxes.  How about taking our questions and thoughts to social issues?  Women’s rights, civil rights, food safety, workplace safety, and consumer protection, environmental safety are a few ‘safe harbors’ our of effective government. 

 Nichols and his referenced work from Pete Peterson provide irrefutable evidence of a man-made evolution that must be slowed, placed in check and eventually eliminated.  People like Nichols and Peterson can work to slow the crusade towards oligarchy and billionaire malfeasance  only you and I can eliminate it. Our only weapon is the vote.  

 When we run to the voting booths and push a button or activate a lever for a candidate like Mitt Romney, we literally feed the crusade towards oligarchy.   

C&L  

February 23, 2013 09:26 PM 

John Nichols: ‘Fix the Debt’ Run by Billionaires Who Really Want Lower Taxes   By Heather

 

From this Saturday’s Up With Chris Hayes, panel member and Hayes’ fellow contributor at The Nation brought up a topic at the end of the show that we unfortunately don’t hear too often on MSNBC, which is the fact that the “Fix the Debt” campaign is not really interested in “fixing” anything. They’re funded by a bunch of billionaires that are pushing for austerity measures and who are really just interested in lowering their taxes.

Pete Peterson’s PRWatch Link 


If we sit idly by and continue down the path we now follow; there is no good end.  Do you think for one second wealthy people have any interest in remaining part of the “group” who aspire to be like them.  No, they relish in their socio/income start and they defend it via elected officials.  

For those 47% folk that voted for Romney/Ryan know that “money-grabbers” do not fund hospitals, schools, municipal improvements, subsidize, farms, nor do they seek protection on behalf of citizens from greedy capitalist.

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Morning Java: The Sequester…. From President Obama

In Uncategorized on February 24, 2013 at 2:00 AM

Enjoy while the caffeine kicks-in!!!!
White House and the Sequester to go along with your Sumatra,  Kopi Luwak Indonesian, Kenya AA, Tanzanian, French Roast, Kona Coast, ‘Black Ivory’ [ Thai Elephant Dong],  Jamaica Blue Mountain, Ethiopian Yirgacheffe, Costa Rican, Espresso,  Moyobama Peruvian Organic, Indonesian Blend, Coffee Latte, Kauai Blend (often bitter), Colombian Red Lips, or your Folgers 100% Colombian. 

Coffees of the World

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From White House Dot Gov

What Is the Sequester?
Megan Slack

Megan Slack

February 22, 2013
06:30 PM EST
In eight days, harmful automatic cuts  known as the sequester take effect, threatening hundreds of thousands of jobs, and cutting vital services for children, seniors, people with mental illness and our men and women in uniform.
To prevent a costly, self-inflicted wound to our economy and middle class families, President Obama put forward a plan to avoid these cuts and reduce the deficit by cutting spending and closing tax loopholes. Now it’s up to Congress to act. Learn more about President Obama’s plan here.

 Still have questions about what the sequester is, and why American famillies and our national economy face this threat? We’ve put together the explainer below using some helpful background information President Obama laid out in a statement on Tuesday. 

 Check it out:

 $2.5 TRILLION IN DEFICIT REDUCTION

“Over the last few years, both parties have worked together to reduce our deficits by more than $2.5 trillion. More than two-thirds of that was through some pretty tough spending cuts. The rest of it was through raising taxes — tax rates on the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans. And together, when you take the spending cuts and the increased tax rates on the top 1 percent, it puts us more than halfway towards the goal of $4 trillion in deficit reduction that economists say we need to stabilize our finances.“


SO WHAT’S THE SEQUESTER? WHY NOW?

“Now, Congress, back in 2011, also passed a law saying that if both parties couldn’t agree on a plan to reach that $4 trillion goal, about a trillion dollars of additional, arbitrary budget cuts would start to take effect this year. And by the way, the whole design of these arbitrary cuts was to make them so unattractive and unappealing that Democrats and Republicans would actually get together and find a good compromise of sensible cuts as well as closing tax loopholes and so forth. And so this was all designed to say we can’t do these bad cuts; let’s do something smarter. That was the whole point of this so-called sequestration.“

“Unfortunately, Congress didn’t compromise. They haven’t come together and done their jobs, and so as a consequence, we’ve got these automatic, brutal spending cuts that are poised to happen next Friday.”
Teachers and Students Graphic
“Now, if Congress allows this meat-cleaver approach to take place, it will jeopardize our military readiness; it will eviscerate job-creating investments in education and energy and medical research. It won’t consider whether we’re cutting some bloated program that has outlived its usefulness, or a vital service that Americans depend on every single day. It doesn’t make those distinctions.“




A WAY FORWARD, A BALANCED APPROACH

“There is a smarter way to do this –- to reduce our deficits without harming our economy. But Congress has to act in order for that to happen.“
“Now, for two years, I’ve offered a balanced approach to deficit reduction that would prevent these harmful cuts…“
“I am willing to cut more spending that we don’t need, get rid of programs that aren’t working. I’ve laid out specific reforms to our entitlement programs that can achieve the same amount of health care savings by the beginning of the next decade as the reforms that were proposed by the bipartisan Simpson-Bowles commission.“
“I’m willing to save hundreds of billions of dollars by enacting comprehensive tax reform that gets rid of tax loopholes and deductions for the well off and well connected, without raising tax rates.“

“I believe such a balanced approach that combines tax reform with some additional spending reforms, done in a smart, thoughtful way is the best way to finish the job of deficit reduction and avoid these cuts once and for all that could hurt our economy, slow our recovery, put people out of work. And most Americans agree with me.“