One thing about being back in the US for a while. It just depresses the hell out of you, at least if you turn on the news.
If you watch the local news here in North Carolina-a lot of people are meeting violent ends. For what purpose I am not really sure. But there are some truly screwed up people out there, judging by the number of homicides I saw reported in just the past three evenings.
On the other hand, if you watch the national news-you see the same old drama playing itself out again and again. Our national leadership is simply unable to put aside their petty bickering and do the right thing and provide a budget for the rest of the year-along with spending targets for the remaining four. And before anyone throws out the stupid and completely ridiculous canard that "the House did pass a budget, two of them"-you can stop right there and stop wasting your breath. Just shut your pie hole because the statement is not true. Paul Ryan's so called budget was a fraud, based on cruel and evil premises-and worst yet-his numbers did not add up. When examined carefully, by reasonable economists, his math just falls apart. Garbage in=Garbage out.
Now that does not absolve Obama or the Democrats for not pushing harder to get a budget passed. However when you have a group who has proven to be such a group of spoiled children as Paul Ryan, Eric Cantor, the entire Teabag caucus, and the rest of the "serious" people are, it becomes impossible for Congress to do its primary and perhaps most important job.
But as far as Ryan et al are concerned-they have only one job. Screw the black guy in the White House at every opportunity. A solid majority of Americans did itself proud by seeing through that smoke screen and sending Romney home. ( Which home is that by the way? The one in California or the one in Massachusetts? Or any of his other ones. It is hard to keep track of them all).
The failure to have a proper and serious budget is destructive. It does not allow the government and the people in it to plan. It does not provide security to a large group of folks who need it, and so whatever recovery we are undertaking gets short circuited.
And when I make that statement, that does not mean that taxes returning to the level they should have been at all through this decade is a part of that uncertainty. Its not. Setting tax rates and sticking to them-while you figure out long term tax reform is not "stoking the flames of uncertainty".
However you can see by the cuts that are now being trotted out by the services-which- if the Navy means what it says are pretty Draconian. Now I tend to look at the Navy closest because it is my field of expertise-but it seems to me that they are being deliberate in trying to paint a picture of gloom and doom if sequestration hits.
Now don't get me wrong, I think sequestration as currently laid out is a disaster for the country, not just for DOD. However, both sides of the house, defense and non defense CAN accept some cuts. But they are going about it the wrong way. The Navy appears to be concentrating all of the pain in OM&N and personnel. Why I am not really sure. Actually I take that back, I know exactly why they are doing it-hoping to get a lot of people so upset that a ground swell builds to restore funding. The problem with that line of thinking is that there are folks like Ryan, who never served a day in his life, who welcome Draconian cuts. They don't get hurt, you see, so they could care less about anyone else.
But rather than make vertical cuts and RIF's, e.g.., removing whole staff's and agencies that are on the cusp of irrelevance, they intend to make sure everyone "feels the pain". The money gets saved but it's a stupid self inflicted move that will cause the deaths of real Sailors unnecessarily . At least in aviation it will.
The same is true in other areas of the government. There are cuts to be made to be sure-just as there is a need to raise the revenue base of the government to do the things it is supposed to be doing. But "spreading it out" and saying travel is the culprit of increased spending, or stopping training, or furloughing civilians for 22 days, or any of the other things being proposed is short sighted. And glosses over a Navy created problem, namely the service's inability to say no, that have created the problems its faces today.
Let me say this again. Vertical cuts. Do away with the extra organizations and flags. Stop LCS acquisition. Deploy only one carrier to CENTCOM if need be. RIF civilians on the staffs that get vertically cut. Yea that is painful-but in the long run its less painful that doing this same drill next year.
Vertical cuts. What remains-you fund to 100%. Whatever 100% turns out to be.
And the only way to do that is with a budget.
Which is why I say it is the most destructive force in America right now.
Do I think we will get one? Not a chance. I have zero confidence in our GOP Galtian overlords, especially the saunty Mr. Ryan- he of zombie eyed granny starving fame- to do the right thing. I despise the man.
Shakespeare summed the guy up well:
Mark you this, Bassanio,
The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.
An evil soul producing holy witness
Is like a villain with a smiling cheek,
A goodly apple rotten at the heart:
O, what a goodly outside falsehood hath!
The country needs a budget, a responsible budget that makes real progress towards balancing the budget, with both revenue and prudent cuts. But because Mr Ryan and his ilk are as described above by Mr. William, nothing of the sort will be accomplished.
Skippy,
I have not heard how other governmental agencies will put some skin in the game and sacrifice. It seems that the low hanging fruit to start cutting is DOD. Why don't they really do a good "scrub" of who should actually be getting benefits in the USA and see how much that would save. Last year, there was a big "to-do" in the Japanese press about the number of centenarians actually being a lot lower, and some people who would supposedly be in their 120' having been long dead, yet the family is still getting a social security check, and the government paperwork was supposedly in order. Let's see what kind of scub that can be done for some of the people and other organizations who are at the government "teet" come up with.
I agree with your assessment of them trying to blame it all on travel. You as a DOD traveler and me having to try to manage a TAD for you in the past know that the travel rules are very hard to bend, yet organizations like GAO can rent out top floor suiets in Vegas and we can't get seperate rental cars for two travelers. Oh by the way, all of the Regional ED's and top officials have traveled back to DC to meet with CNIC to discuss the way ahead. Yet they want everyone else to conduct business via VTC.
I just think if we ran the government in some ways like a business, we could get things done. I can go to an ATM in Thailand and pull out 500 baht for a good time, and then log into NFCU and see the withdrawl. Yet we can't seem to verify who should be in the country or who has overstayed their visa, leaving the regular taxpayer to foot their bills.
I am going to quit worrying about what I cannot control and start to live a life of leisure back in Asia.
Grant-Lucky Guy!
Maurice, you points about the benefits thing is overdone me thinks. Percetage wise the amount of people getting benefits they haven't earned is small. The real issue is to have a realistic plan that provides for health care and retirement coverage for everyone-that both employees and employers HAVE to pay into. No exceptions. How to get there-I don't know, but that does not mean that the Congress is not thinking smartly about how to do the cuts.
Take CNIC for example. It has 7-9 SES's where it previously had 1. It does not need any. In my mind-its an organization that is ripe for a vertical cut. Eliminate it-move shore installation management back into the TYCOM's and take the people from CNIC you need to ensure the needed work gets done. The rest get RIF and an opportunity to rebuild. The salaries from 7 SES's could fund a lot of travel.
Skippy,
Where is the President's budget in all of this mess? Where has it been in the last 4 years? For 2 of those years he had more than enough votes in both the House and Senate to pass any budgets he wanted and yet where were they? Where is the leadership coming out of this White House? Both the Health Care and the Stimulas bills were voted on with much of any debate, where was that 36 hours everybody had to take a look at the bills bit? Last I remember, a leader is supposed to lead, not simply sit there like a fool and wait for other idiots to make policy.
Strange thing, gas is near $4.00 a gallon and our press isn't bitching and moaning how these high prices are hurting the little people like they did during W's administration. Guess now since Obama is a GOD in there eyes the man can just make oil come forth from his fingertips and we all will be forever taken care of by the Federal Government…..
While the DOD can't budget anything without being over it, this 10 year bit of drawing down and building up the military is getting a bit on the anoying side. Will SOMEONE in DC get a freaking clue?
OK, I ranted.
Skippy,
7 SES's salaries could fund a lot more than just travel, just as much as if you take the supposed 11 million that are in the US illegally and stop them from getting benefits, and I am sure that it will have much more of an impact than those 7 SES's.
NPR did a stat on how much effort it would take to expel 11 million illegals. Finding a way to make them taxpayers though-by Comprehensive Immigration Reform-and you get more revenues. Stop fixating on that and fixate on how to make the country work.
Chef,
You ranted-but it would be better to rant from facts. 1) Obama submitted budgets every year-and will again this year. Congress however only had a filibuster proof majority in the Senate for only about 100 days between 2009 and 2011. 2) 2009's budget had already been passed-by then , it was Bush's budget. FY10 budget was passed. 3) Health care took over 14 months to get passed-partly because of the ignorance of the Tea Party on the subject. The Stimulus took a month to pass-and oh by the way we were in dire straits. BTW compare the amount of time they took on the Obama Stimulus with the Bush one, which gave an equal amount of money to the same people who wrecked the economy. The idea that no one read the bills-is a quaint popular fable put forth by the conservative media.
The better thing to rant about is why, your Congress is so hell bent to oppose the President when he has LED as anything but a liberal. He's been Bush on just about all of foreign policy, and his domestic policy has been thwarted by an electorate stupid enough to elect douchebags like 90% of the tea baggers in Congress.
Skippy,
It wouldn't take much effort to get rid of 11 million illegals. Afterall, they left their homes of origin we are told with very little to come to America to find prosperity, so I tend to think that if they find that they are no longer eligible to get free stuff from the US government they would leave. No need to go round up people in the middle of the night. SImply hold businesses that hire illegally accountable. I mean we have enough peopple in government in places like CA that can go around and check to see if furniture stores are selling items with that little tag on them that says "Do not remove" (true story) or people going around and making sure that once your meter expires, you get a parking ticket to go around and find out who is hiring. Also, the use of e-Verify should be mandatory.
Think about the life of a person here in Nippon who overstays their visas and how limited they are in their ability to live on their own here, and compare it to the USA. Also, if unemployment is still upwards at 8%, where are all of these people working, since you say they are going to add to the tax base, I am not sure I understand how. Being paid low wages to do the work they are doing is not going to bring the economy around.
Skippy,
To provide an example to my point on employer verification and if you stop giving illegals jobs they will leave, an interesting article was on Drudge (I know you hate him, and he does sensationalize the headlines on his page, but they do link to legitimate articles not made by just right wing reporters), about a Sunnyvale (CA) "Green Energy Firm" was cited for paying illegal workers in pesos vice dollars.
To quote: "The employees were skilled workers and they were in the United States on visitors’ visas, which does not allow them to work. Bloom Energy brought the workers in from Mexico to refurbish power generators alongside U.S. workers. Federal investigators found that the workers were paid in Mexican pesos the equivalent of $2.66 per hour. The FLSA requires that covered, nonexempt employees be paid at least the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour for all hours worked. California minimum wage is $8 per hour."
This is just one example out of many you can find all over. I know more people who would be able to do those jobs that are US citizens, yet this company, who probably got a nice Federal stimulus to operate decides to not hire US workers but undercut and hire illegally. This from a company in the very liberal Silicon Valley, whom I am sure are very big Dem supporters. So yes, I do blame the flood of illegals into the country as part of the problem. I understand that they are not the root cause, but a major part and should be dealt with, along with some of the other measures that need to be done.
You don't actually understand math do you?
Perhaps you've heard of leadership and the art of compromise?
Only a jacked up meth addicted crackhead can write the crap you do about how the MINORITY is fucking over the country because it won't compromise with the MAJORITY. You can bleat about filibuster proof nonsense all you like but it fails the test of reason and common sense. Not to mention being a pathetic lie.
The HOUSE did submit a budget. Live with it. The President submitted budgets that not one single member of his party in the SENATE voted for. That leadership thing seems to escape you yet again. How could he FAIL when there is always the GANG OF 8 and 4 reliable GOP morons willing to compromise on everything? The MAJORITY doesn't even make a pretense of seeking BIPARTISAN support and then idiots like you leap out of the woodwork and blame the GOP because the donkeys never got with the program.
Paul Ryan's, Boehner's, Cantor's budget got a majority vote in their chamber. That's leadership and that's doing the job they were elected to do.
You say you know why the OMN cut makes sense and decry not attacking the other pots. Only one was placed out of bounds that I know of and after the A12 billions of $ fiasco of canceling a contract of that scale I can see why they are staying away from OPN cuts for short term savings.
Go RIFs! Go vertical cuts! Go cutting/firing civilian staff. We could lose 40% of them and 40% of the contractors supporting those useless staffs with no measurable impact on current or future readiness.
I see the navy did finally admit that 2 CVBG are not necessary in the Gulf and never were. Saying NO is damned easy even in the navy. When pressed to say yes, tell them to send a MIPR and all of a sudden they go away.
gop galtian overlords…..:) Your president. Your senate. You lurve them, remember? Pity they can't lead a mob out of a wet paperbag.
Curtis,
Your version leaves out some important points. 1) Ryan's budget-like the man who authored it-was a piece of shit. And it was unworkable. If you recall, the Senate rejected the President's budget because of the procedural traps that were attached to it in the effort to bring it to the floor. And by the fact that by mantaining a CR was thought to work better to get spending levels where the President wanted them-especially due to the presence of the crying children in the House. That's the truth-and filibusters were involved as well in dealing with the previous financial issues. The majority in the house are the deranged GOP folks of the tea bagger wing of the party.
Overwhelmed by crying children. How sad. You'd think with a majority they could do something with a little leadership and compromise on their part.
Curtis-THEY DON"T HAVE A MAJORITY IN THE HOUSE!
Yeah? But you claim that having a majority doesn't make any difference. Even with a majority in the senate they can't pass dick and you STILL blame the GOP. That is just pathetic.
Yes the GOP is pathetic. They have had more filibusters in the past 6 years than in the last 190. The filibuster needs to be done away with.
Skippy,
The Senate voted on Obama's budgets and they turned them down by something like a 100 – 0 vote? (the majority of them were more than 90% against) Who is the FINAL word on proceedural measures in the Senate? Harry Reid last I checked. How many Republican budgets did Harry allow for debate on the Senate floor? Was it a number larger than 0, nope.
The art of compromise in the congress begins with one or the other houses passing a bill and then allowing for debate in the other chamber to come up with something different OR agree with the bill that was presented. In Harry's Senate, NEITHER of these happened and nothing was ever done. Harry doesn't allow debate on much of anything coming out of the House, so not much is going to get done because of his pigheaded leadership. Somebody named Pelosi ran the House the same way until she was tossed out as majority leader.
You can blame the Republican's all you want, however you may want to explore a bit deeper as Harry's Senate doesn't run like it's supposed to.
Well the main reason the Senate did not take up the GOP "budget" is that it was not a budget at all. At best it was a worthless piece of shit called a budget. And again, the Obama budget was voted down due to the land mines that were attached to it-by the minority party. Its not all Reid's fault, there is a d-bag named Mitch Mconnell in there as well.
It still comes down to the fact that the Constitution does not require 60 votes for everything, Most things were meant to pass with a majority vote. The filibuster should be done away with.