Public Law 112-95 - The FAA Reauthorization and Reform Act of 2011

This bill should really be called "The Bleed The Taxpayer Dry Act of 2011", inasmuch as it has authorized funding for the FAA of approximately $3.35B per year for the period 2011-2014. The costs for this one government project are $100.69 per person (and increases their $49,752.84 share of the national debt to $49,853.53 [source: Congressional Budget Office] ). Just what we don't need - another $13B+ of debt.

 

According to WashingtonWatch.com, this "law" - as is true with most legislation - was basically sold to the highest bidder! In the House, whichever side provided the greatest monetary incentive - Yea or Nay - got the nod (with a handful of exceptions who apparently voted for the people). All of Utah's representatives voted for H.R. 658 - now PL 112-95 - and in the Senate, Orrin Hatch chose not to vote at all.

 

Have our lawmakers not heard that we are not only BROKE, as a nation, we are in debt (primarily to China) to the tune of $15.6 TRILLION DOLLARS! Since September 27th, 2007, our national debt has increased at the rate of $4.02B per day! And there is no end in sight!! Has everybody in Washington D.C. gone totally INSANE? How will we ever pay off such indebtedness? Increase taxes levied upon the citizens, of course. Perhaps not directly as "taxes" per se, but by insinuating "fees" and "charges" into everyday activities. An example is the 1% transaction "fee" on each and every banking transaction, as proposed by the Obama administration. Make a deposit - personally or by Direct Deposit - of $1,000 and your account is debited $10 for the privilege of making that deposit. Write a check for $500 and your account will reflect a $5 "fee" for that transaction... a business transaction in which the government itself has no investment of time, labor or money! What is the difference between this activity and "protection money" paid by small business owners to street thugs? Such a governmental action is nothing more than legalized (by imperial fiat) extortion of the taxpayers!

 

Can we stop this financial bloodletting by our elected representatives? Maybe... but ONLY if we let them know that we are onto them, and that we will do everything we can to insure they are not re-elected if they continue along this path.

 

As I said in my opening paragraph, this is only ONE of the hundreds of pieces of cost-ignorant legislation passed by Congress each year. If we allow it to continue, perhaps we are as stupid and indifferent as they seem to think we are. If so, we deserve whatever they choose do to us!

Obama Threatens August Social Security Checks

Our cowardly President, Barack Hussein Obama, in a last-ditch attempt to defeat the resistance of Congress (and therewith, the will of the people) to his beloved debt ceiling increase, threatens to withhold August social security checks if the ceiling isn't raised by August 2nd. And, from whom will he withhold this money? From people who have paid into the social security fund all their lives! People who were promised by the government that the money they "contributed" to the fund would be there to help them when they retired. He would rather do that, than reduce government spending by downsizing our government, or eliminating some of the true entitlement programs, such as welfare.

Here's my idea:

The entire Congress, along with the Executive and Judicial branches of government, take an immediate 50% pay cut.

The White House staff reportedly just got an average 16% pay raise, so let's take that away and reduce their pay by another 16%.

Repatriate 20-30 million illegal aliens to their country of origin, and then secure our borders, thereby eliminating trillions of dollars of unnecessary taxpayer expense in welfare payments, medical expenses, and financial losses by our hospitals.

Cut off all foreign aid to countries who have not proven themselves to be friends and allies. Why should our tax dollars be spent to support those who wish us nothing but harm?

Withdraw from the United Nations and require them to leave the country. The United Nations assesses dues upon all members, which is fair... but, the United States assessment is greater than the next top 5 nations combined! And, on top of that, we supply the meeting hall. Is this equitable?

The government should stop borrowing money for the purpose of lending it to other countries. Let them get their own financing!

And why are our tax dollars being spent to build/refurbish mosques in the oil-rich middle-east? These are the same countries that are gouging us for every drop of oil that they pump out of the ground. Our government doesn't spend our tax money on building or updating Christian or Jewish houses of worship here, and they shouldn't! STOP DOING THAT IN OTHER COUNTRIES!

Eliminate welfare as a family business - one that's passed along from generation to generation. Close the "Welfare-r-Us" businesses, and replace them with a program that provides the less fortunate with a subsistence income for 18 months. During that 18 months, they must attend a government-sponsored training program designed to provide them with a marketable skill upon completion. At the end of 18 months the recipients must report to the nearest State-run employment service, where they will be interviewed. This applicant will be given priority placement over anyone currently employed who is just searching for a new job. There is a big difference between indigence and indolence - let's not punish the indigent so that we may reward the indolent. Let the "grasshoppers" earn their way in society, just like the "ants"! Welfare should be a once in a lifetime condition of dependency. But, it should not be for a lifetime unless the recipients are physically or mentally incapable of supporting themselves (as verified by a medical evaluation board).

Eliminate the almost innumerable, and in most cases frivolous (as in a political "thank you for your support") grants for ridiculous things.

Obama apparently wants to be viewed as Emperor of the World, passing out trinkets to his subjects, while destroying the country we love. Anyone who votes for him in 2012 should be very careful sitting down... they're liable to break their own neck.

Living Large on Taxpayer-Supplied Easy Street

Want a raise? Don't beg to your boss. Just vote yourself one. That's what the United States Congress did in 2004. "For the fifth year in a row, lawmakers voted not to reject their automatic "cost of living" raise that will increase the annual salary of members by $3,400 to a total of $158,103 per year."

During the Constitutional Convention, Benjamin Franklin considered proposing that elected government officials not be paid for their service. Other Founding Fathers, however, decided otherwise.

From 1789 to 1815, members of Congress received only a per diem (daily payment) of $6.00 while in session. Members began receiving an annual salary in 1815, when they were paid $1,500 per year - a significant amount of money in 1815, considering that those who were working for "wages" (as opposed to farmers and tradesmen) were knocking down a whopping 50¢ per day! Members began receiving a larger annual salary in 1855, when they were paid $3,000 per year. The current salary (2009) for rank-and-file members of the House and Senate is $174,000 per year. The Majority and Minority Leaders of the House and Senate are paid $193,400 each. And the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi is paid $223,500. Are we getting our moneys worth? Oh, and let's not forget the $120,000 in jet fuel that Pelosi burns up every weekend in that 200 seat Boeing 757 aircraft for a round-trip from D.C. to California at taxpayer expense! If the private sector (Big 3 Auto CEOs) flies in private jets to meetings called by the ruling party in Congress, it's a big waste of taxpayers money. If a Democrat flies in a taxpayer funded private jet on government business, it's OK. If the country is having hard economic times, you certainly couldn't tell it by looking at how our government is managing our tax dollars!

Here's what I see as a few problems in our system:
1. Our laws are made by lawyers rather than people with common sense. This is the equivalent of having the fox guard the hen house. Does anybody still wonder why our laws have become so complex and bifurcated? Special interest groups, PACs, Labor Unions, and essentially anybody else with lobbyists on Capitol Hill goes to the head of the line, while the majority of the citizenry suffers in silence. We have the best politicians money can buy.

2. Those who make our laws are overcompensated for what little they do for us - they're too busy doing for themselves. And they get to approve their own pay raises! Wouldn't we all like to have a job like that? "Public service" means serving the public, not servicing them!

3. Members of Congress are entitled to a retirement after only 5 years of participation (I refuse to use the word "service" to describe what they do). There are about a half-dozen different retirement schemes for them, so they can milk us for as much as possible (source: 2007 Congressional Research Service Report). They also have full medical coverage, and a staff and office plus other expenses for which we pay.

4. The worst part is that "we the people" keep re-electing the same lazy, corrupt, lying bastards over and over again!

What's the solution? There is no solution so long as #4, above, continues unchecked. Should that ever be corrected then things like term limits, a salary cap at around $50,000 with a very modest local housing allowance become more possible (or, better yet, government supplied quarters on a military installation such as Bolling AFB, Andrews AFB, or Fort George Mead, all within reasonable commuting distance of downtown D.C.). Lawyers should have minimal representation in Congress, comprising no more than 1/3 of the total makeup of Congress, thus insuring that our laws are less likely to be intellectualized to the point of ineffectiveness in the real world.

I just think "we the people" are getting ripped off to the maximum extent possible by professional politicians, and thought I'd share these "tip of the iceberg" thoughts with you.

I could be ... nah, no way!

A Little Quick Math ...

A little quick math tells us that of the $410 billion Omnibus Spending Bill of which Nazi Pelosi is so proud (the governments operating capital for the remainder of 2009), and thanks to the "elimination of earmarks" promised by Barack Obama (there were only 8,570 earmarks in the bill - I suppose that's called "elimination" in the mystical language of politics), there was only $7,700,000,000 ($7.7 billion) set aside for those eliminated earmarks.

There are two ways to look at this, I suppose:

1. Pork accounts for just under 2% of the Omnibus Spending Bill, or

2. The mathematical mean average cost per slice of eliminated pork is only $898,483.08.

On the positive side, that is slightly less than $1 million per slice ... not much less ... but less. I'm glad our newly elected President has the intelligence to be a good steward of our tax dollars - I just wish he'd USE that intelligence!

Yo Ho Ho And A Bottle of Rum!

Arrrr, Maties! 'Tis the crewe of Cap'n Obama, sailing up the Potomac into D.C., and plundering the coffers of the United States of America ... and they're taking no prisoners. Instead they are putting the financial future of this country into jeopardy for the next one hundred years!

Most people, myself included, have no concept of the word "trillion" or what it represents numerically. Certainly most of us understand hundreds, thousands and tens of thousands, but the numeric concept becomes a bit blurry around the million mark, and from there on it's all downhill. Thanks to Alexander E. Braun, I have a few examples of what a trillion actually represents in terms that you may be able to get your head around:

A trillion seconds add up to 31,710 years. If you started your count while Egypt’s Great Pyramid was being built, you’d have over 26,000 years to go.

If you wanted your trillion dollars in $100 bills, you’d have to carry off 10,000,000,000 bills. This roughly adds up to 9,370 tons of paper—the U-Haul folks will love you!

Stacked one on top of the other a column of those $100 bills would reach 631 miles up, endangering low-orbit traffic, such as Shuttle flights, the International Space Station, and the Hubble Space Telescope.

A car going at 65 miles per hour would take 1,756,235 years to travel a trillion miles.

And those figures are just for ONE trillion. Do you have some idea now? The debt that the Obama administration is creating for our country via the $789,000,000,000 "stimulus package", including pork earmarks and interest, (which has also been referred to as the Generational Theft Act of 2009) will cost American taxpayers $3.27 trillion over the next 10 years. (That stack of $100 bills is now 1,893 miles high. Or, if you got your $3.27 trillion in $1.00 bills, you could construct a wall of bills [laid on their edges] 13.08 feet high extending from New York City to San Francisco.) Now, keep in mind that the only money the government has is that which they collect from the citizens in the form of taxes and fees for services. Even the left wingers that elected Obama are beginning to have second thoughts, although most won't admit it, because to do so means recognizing that they were stupid enough to be taken in by Obama's mezmerizing, but empty, oration. The Democratic Spend-A-Thon will surely cripple the country for several generations to come.

I wonder what the shortest time record is for the impeachment of a United States President ... and will we set a new record? Oh, no ... I forgot ... impeachment proceedings against a sitting President must be initiated by the Congress, the body of which is overflowing with socialist liberal lefties itself. No impeachment on the horizon! Somebody wake me when the revolution begins ...

A trillion here, a trillion there ... before long we're talking about serious money!

I suppose there's an outside chance that I could be wrong about all this ... but I'm NOT!