Shutdown and Sequestration: Misdirection or Real? (Representatives, Congress, legal, politicians)
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This compilation of overspending by our esteemed (and I use that word loosely) leaders is probably one of the most important ones any of us can ever read. No matter on what side of the divide you live - this is a huge concern and we need to stop all this name calling and infighting and deal with the real culprits: The population who lives inside the beltway and outside the real world.
PLEASE READ THE ARTICLE before you attack me or attack the source or decide that it can't be right because it was posted by someone who may not share your views. We are all stakeholders in this country and we need to pay attention to the real back stories and stop watching the kardashians!
For what it's worth, every single fact in the article can be back checked to the official record at the CBO - Congressional Budget Office. So these are REAL numbers. Read and weep.
First, I do not consider congress anything other than corporate employees with a cushy gig. Some employees are better than others, of course. Politics is mostly theatre.
Quote:
Originally Posted by CDusr
Funny how the so-called "shutdown" and debt ceiling was so hyped, but the debt ceiling debacle seemed to just be a continuation of this, which was hardly discussed. It was passed very quickly with escrows setup for congressional payroll as well. H.R.325- 113th Congress (2013-2014): No Budget, No Pay Act ...
quote:
Suspends through May 18, 2013, the current $16.394 trillion public debt limit.
Secondly, you need to look at how govt uses debt to acquire wealth. The entire economy didn't accidentally become debt based.
This you may find useful.
Originally Posted by CDusr
Not really anything new here. Same players, really the same game, as well. The Truth About QE, The Deficit, And GDP Growth
quote:
But it seems clear that deficit spending, and not QE, has been the important source of our economic recovery since the great recession. It is also obvious why few politicians are interested in serious reduction of budget deficits any time soon, certainly while they expect to continue in office. Something would seem to be amiss in the economy if the fact of running an excessive fiscal deficit can be viewed as a good thing.
Thirdly, the CBO is not the best place to get a real financial picture of what is being made and invested. It is just dealing with budgets. I would start with CAFRS. The Treasury, the Fed and Accounting Offices are better for this type of information, also.
thanks - I was being lazy and not grabbing all the links because I was on my iPad.
While CBO isn't always the best resource, the Daily Distribution charts give some good indicators as well... and yes, CAFRS is an excellent place to look.
The point, really, is that all the hair pulling and screeching on the news wasn't all that truthful. Our govt didn't really shut down. In fact, if you look at the Daily report, on the first day of the shutdown, our govt cut a check to National Public Radio/PBS for $463 million. The PDF gives quite a few examples of monies that were spent when things were supposedly "shut down."
In truth, a management company for a 315 million population (which is what our govt is, essentially) really can't shut down or stop all the gears. It would be insane -- like trying to stop a speeding train on a dime. My point of the post was simply, "Can we all stop beating each other up and start looking at facts and figures and start holding these corporate employees' feet to the fire?" We really need to demand more accountability from the top down. I get so tired of the back and forth on "you must listen to Fox news!" and "You must listen to MSNBC!" when what we really need to be doing is reading executive memoranda, CBO, CAFRS, and all the other resources that are right under our noses.
The data is there. Some of the corporate employees really do care and are giving us good information. It's up to us to sort it out and ASK our representatives to explain it. The squeaky wheel gets the grease...
thanks - I was being lazy and not grabbing all the links because I was on my iPad.
While CBO isn't always the best resource, the Daily Distribution charts give some good indicators as well... and yes, CAFRS is an excellent place to look.
The point, really, is that all the hair pulling and screeching on the news wasn't all that truthful. Our govt didn't really shut down. In fact, if you look at the Daily report, on the first day of the shutdown, our govt cut a check to National Public Radio/PBS for $463 million. The PDF gives quite a few examples of monies that were spent when things were supposedly "shut down."
In truth, a management company for a 315 million population (which is what our govt is, essentially) really can't shut down or stop all the gears. It would be insane -- like trying to stop a speeding train on a dime. My point of the post was simply, "Can we all stop beating each other up and start looking at facts and figures and start holding these corporate employees' feet to the fire?" We really need to demand more accountability from the top down. I get so tired of the back and forth on "you must listen to Fox news!" and "You must listen to MSNBC!" when what we really need to be doing is reading executive memoranda, CBO, CAFRS, and all the other resources that are right under our noses.
The data is there. Some of the corporate employees really do care and are giving us good information. It's up to us to sort it out and ASK our representatives to explain it. The squeaky wheel gets the grease...
Can't say I agree with this. While conversations can be useful, if you can get them, people are being deliberately misled on a very widespread scale. Best to study the financials and see how they work. There are videos of people going to local offices about CAFRS, it amounted to a bunch of staring at papers, hemming and hawing.
However, getting informed about the finances and accounting is crucial. Also seems worthwhile to work with others to get a game plan. Not sure I am on board with nationalizing of banks, but still interesting. This gentleman has had some interesting dialogs with the CA govt over their CAFRS and they mostly replied no comment, but did also state that laws or regs would need to be changed.
This acquisition of wealth is legal. Taking taxpayer money investing it and pocketing the returns is perfectly legal. It is an enormous financial and accounting system. I wouldn't spend as much time on budgets. They already try to get everyone focused there, instead of on the revenue and investment side.
There are also movements to bring CAFRs out in financial discussions. To date I have only seen 1 rep on his own merit publicly discuss CAFRs in regard to budgeting. AZ is the only state of which I am aware that now works with CAFRs more publicly, but it was not adequate.
Why is public accounting not actually publicly discussed? Public budgets sure are. Gotta wonder about that.
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