Giving Away Deficit Dollars

Read a thread this morning on Survivalist Forum that brought this little bit of news to my attention -

Here's the complete link: International Bailout Brings Us Closer To Economic Collapse.

Written by Ron Paul (R-TX), 23 Jun 2009:

An excerpt:

As Americans struggle through the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, this emergency supplemental appropriations bill sends $660 million to Gaza, $555 million to Israel, $310 million to Egypt, $300 million to Jordan, and $420 million to Mexico. Some $889 million will be sent to the United Nations for so-called "peacekeeping" missions. Almost one billion dollars will be sent overseas to address the global financial crisis outside our borders. Nearly $8 billion will be spent to address a "potential pandemic flu" which could result in mandatory vaccinations for no discernable reason other than to enrich the pharmaceutical companies that make the vaccine.

Perhaps most outrageous is the $108 billion loan guarantee to the International Monetary Fund. These new loan guarantees will allow that destructive organization to continue spending taxpayer money to prop up corrupt leaders and promote harmful economic policies overseas.

Could someone please explain to me how we can manage to give away money that we don't even have?????? Does this not make you furious????

Checking Facts

One thing that many people seem to fail to do these days is think for themselves about the "big picture". We don't do the research. We don't connect the dots. We don't understand or try to learn how all the global economies are intertwined and how it can impact our recovery.

We are busy. Pursuing our own agendas - trying to get ahead and have more. It's confusing sometimes - complicated. So, we tend to skim the headlines, listen to the local or national news in the background and let the little snippets infiltrate us, thinking we then have as much of the story as we need to know.

With economic times such as they are right now, it would pay for more of us to try to understand how the systems interact. To re-visit what our country is supposed to be about - to stand for. To look at our history and know that we are on a slippery-slope right now by supporting such a "victim" mentality throughout our society; by assuming that "someone" will come to our rescue.

So I encourage you today to do your homework. Make an effort to understand how things interact across the globe. Draw your own conclusions, not the conclusions the mainstream media wants you to believe. Check the facts through your own resources and don't take everything on face value. Read and get the facts - something the House and Congress didn't even do before passing the stimulus bill.

Here's one opinion on the facts as they were presented last night from the President. Again, read, do your own checking and form your own opinions.

Fact Check: Obama's Words On Home Aid Ring Hollow

Federal Reserve Minutes from 2/18

Policymakers project high unemployment through 2011, vow aggressive action:

Federal Open Market Committee Minutes - January 2009

Scroll about half way down to start reading the staff reviews, staff projections, meeting participants views and policy action to get sense of how they are all looking at our economic recovery - it is not at all comforting to realize that those supposed to be "in the know" seem relatively unsure about most things and between the lines it appears to me that they themselves are relatively uncertain that the stimulus will really be a stimulus at all:

An excerpt: "Participants were, however, quite uncertain about the outlook. All but a few saw the risks to growth as tilted to the downside; in light of financial stresses and tight credit conditions, they saw a significant risk that the economic recovery would be both delayed and initially quite weak. In particular, most participants saw the renewed deterioration in the banking sector's financial condition as posing a significant downside risk to the economic outlook absent additional initiatives to stabilize the banking system. . ."

Another excerpt: "Participants indicated they had been surprised by the speed and magnitude of the slowdown in economic growth abroad and the resulting drop in demand for U.S. exports. . ."

Another excerpt - something we all know to be true:

"Staff Review of the Economic and Financial Situation
The information reviewed at the meeting indicated a continued sharp contraction in real economic activity. Sales and starts of new homes remained on a steep downward trend, consumer spending continued its significant decline, the deterioration in business equipment investment intensified, and foreign demand weakened. Conditions in the labor market continued to deteriorate rapidly in December: Private payroll employment fell sharply, and the unemployment rate rose. Industrial production dropped more severely than in earlier months. Headline consumer prices fell in November and December, reflecting declines in consumer energy prices; core consumer prices were about flat in those months. While conditions in some financial markets showed limited improvement, extraordinary financial stresses remained apparent and credit conditions became still tighter for households and businesses. . . ."

Summary of Economic Projections - January 2009

An excerpt:

"Participants anticipated that labor market conditions would deteriorate substantially further over the course of this year, and nearly all expected that unemployment would still be well above its longer-run sustainable rate at the end of 2011. Participants' projections for the average unemployment rate during the fourth quarter of 2009 had a central tendency of 8.5 to 8.8 percent (emphasis added), markedly higher than last December's actual unemployment rate of 7.2 percent the latest available figure at the time of the January FOMC meeting."

Another excerpt:
"In addition, some participants noted that a substantial degree of uncertainty was associated with gauging the stimulative effects of nontraditional monetary policy tools that are now being employed given that conventional policy easing was limited by the zero lower bound on nominal interest rates. Others referred to uncertainties regarding the size, composition, and effectiveness of the fiscal stimulus package--which was still under consideration at the time of the FOMC meeting--and of further measures to stabilize the banking system. . ."

HOMEWORK: Are you prepping yet????

Great Idea

I originally read this over at Coffee With The Hermit and thought it was such a great idea I asked for permission to share it here. Enjoy and let me know what you think!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When a company falls on difficult times, one of the things that seems to happen is they reduce their staff and workers The remaining workers need to find ways to continue to do a good job or risk that their job would be eliminated as well. Wall street, and the media normally congratulate the CEO for making this type of "tough decision", and his board of directors gives him a big bonus.

Our government should not be immune from similar risks.

Therefore: Reduce the House of Representatives from the current 435 members to 218 members and Senate members from 100 to 50(one per State). Also reduce remaining staff by
25%.

Accomplish this over the next 8 years,(two steps / two elections) and of course this would require some redistricting.

Some Yearly Monetary Gains Include:

$44,108,400 for elimination of base pay for congress. (267 members X $165,200 pay / member / yr.)

$97,175,000 for elimination of the above people's staff. (estimate $1.3 Million in staff per each member of the House, and $3 Million in staff per each member of the Senate every year)

$240,294 for the reduction in remaining staff by 25%.

$7,500,000,000 reduction in pork barrel ear-marks each year. (those members whose jobs are gone. Current estimates for total government pork earmarks are at $15 Billion / yr)

The remaining representatives would need to work smarter and would need to prove efficiencies.It might even be in their best interests to work together for the good of our
country.

We may also expect that smaller committees might lead to a more efficient resolution of issues as well. It might even be easier to keep track of what your representative is doing.

Congress has more tools available to do their jobs than it had back in 1911 when the current number of representatives was established. (telephone, computers, cell phones to name a few)

Note: Congress did not hesitate to head home when it was a holiday, when the nation needed a real fix to the economic problems. Also, we have 3 senators that have not been doing their jobs for the past 18+ months (on the campaign trail) and still they all have been accepting full pay. These facts alone support a reduction in senators & congress.

Summary of opportunity:

$ 44,108,400 reduction of congress members.

$282,100, 000 for elimination of the reduced house member staff.

$150,000,000 for elimination of reduced senate member staff.

$59,675,000 for 25% reduction of staff for remaining house members.

$37,500,000 for 25% reduction of staff for remaining senate members.

$7,500,000,000 reduction in pork added to bills by 0ther reduction of congress members.

$8,073,383,400 per year, estimated total savings. (that's 8 BILLION just to start!)

Big business does these types of cuts all the time.

If Congresspersons were required to serve 20, 25 or 30 years (like everyone else) in order to collect retirement benefits there is no telling how much we would save.Now they get full retirement after serving only ONE term.

Stimulus Watch

See what your state is hoping for:

http://www.stimuluswatch.org/project/by_state

Accountable and Transparent?

Well dear folks, here is the link where we are supposed to be able to see with complete accountability and transparency our tax dollars at work from the new stimulus plan:

Recovery.gov

Check it out for yourself.