Thursday 28th of November 2024
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maxxing-out .....

 

maxxing-out .....

from Buzzflash …..

‘George Bush's proposed $2.9 trillion budget follows his pattern of ill-advised economic planning that is bad for the vast majority of Americans. Bush hopes to boost military spending 12% to $481 billion - roughly 20% of the entire budget - and to make permanent his tax cuts for the rich at a cost of $1.6 trillion over the next decade.

At the same time, Bush's plan projects the current $248 billion deficit to slowly decrease into a moderate surplus in 2012. All of the spending on wars and tax cuts means something will have to give, and that something is domestic services.

As Reuters reports:

The spending plan would hold growth in domestic discretionary spending to 1 percent. After accounting for inflation of 2.5 percent, that rise would amount to a cut in programs ranging from labor to education and cleaning up the environment.

Slashes in education money include the termination of 43 "low-priority" programs. Bush's plan also calls for a significant reduction from health care funding: $66 billion for Medicare and Medicaid over the next five years. Among his plans for implementation are higher premiums and less money for the Children's Health Insurance Program. Bloomberg.com calls the proposed budget "a menu of politically perilous cuts affecting the poor, the elderly, and the disabled."

This ABC News article discusses the various good uses we could have put the estimated $1-2 trillion to that economists expect to be spent on Iraq. But instead of merely wasting that money, the problem is now being compounded as Bush proposes to actually cut domestic programs to pay for his war.

The fact that Bush hopes to have a balanced budget 12 years after inheriting a $230 billion surplus from Bill Clinton in 2000 is all the less impressive considering his own budget's dire predictions for the national debt. Totaling $8.4 trillion last year, Bush's numbers indicate the debt getting worse every year and reaching a whopping $11.4 trillion by 2012.

Bush's proposed budget is already receiving an icy reception from key congressional leaders, some of whom have already noted that Bush fudged some of his numbers to make his forecasts more optimistic.

Luckily, Bush's proposal is just that - a proposal. Democrats are free to ignore as much of it as they want when drafting their budget legislation for next year.

Early end to space wars?

When Beijing demolished that satellite, it brought a new dimension to star wars. From Orbiting Junk, Once a Nuisance, Is Now a Threat:

  • Now, experts say, China’s test on Jan. 11 of an antisatellite rocket that shattered an old satellite into hundreds of large fragments means the chain reaction will most likely start sooner. If their predictions are right, the cascade could put billions of dollars’ worth of advanced satellites at risk and eventually threaten to limit humanity’s reach for the stars.
Now, maybe, the military-industrial complex will turn itself to something useful, like providing drinkable water round the globe, or equitable distribution of foods and essential medicines. Or, maybe it will continue right on doing what it is designed to do.

cash dash whoosh?

How the US sent $12bn in cash to Iraq. And watched it vanish

Special flights brought in tonnes of banknotes which disappeared into the war zone

David Pallister
Thursday February 8, 2007
The Guardian

The US flew nearly $12bn in shrink-wrapped $100 bills into Iraq, then distributed the cash with no proper control over who was receiving it and how it was being spent.

The staggering scale of the biggest transfer of cash in the history of the Federal Reserve has been graphically laid bare by a US congressional committee.

In the year after the invasion of Iraq in 2003 nearly 281 million notes, weighing 363 tonnes, were sent from New York to Baghdad for disbursement to Iraqi ministries and US contractors. Using C-130 planes, the deliveries took place once or twice a month with the biggest of $2,401,600,000 on June 22 2004, six days before the handover.

Details of the shipments have emerged in a memorandum prepared for the meeting of the House committee on oversight and government reform which is examining Iraqi reconstruction. Its chairman, Henry Waxman, a fierce critic of the war, said the way the cash had been handled was mind-boggling. "The numbers are so large that it doesn't seem possible that they're true. Who in their right mind would send 363 tonnes of cash into a war zone?"

No-no.. we are. Yes, we are not

From the Guardian

Target Iran: US able to strike in the spring

Despite denials, Pentagon plans for possible attack on nuclear sites are well advanced

Ewen MacAskill in Washington
Saturday February 10, 2007
The Guardian

US preparations for an air strike against Iran are at an advanced stage, in spite of repeated public denials by the Bush administration, according to informed sources in Washington.

The present military build-up in the Gulf would allow the US to mount an attack by the spring. But the sources said that if there was an attack, it was more likely next year, just before Mr Bush leaves office.

Neo-conservatives, particularly at the Washington-based American Enterprise Institute, are urging Mr Bush to open a new front against Iran. So too is the vice-president, Dick Cheney. The state department and the Pentagon are opposed, as are Democratic congressmen and the overwhelming majority of Republicans. The sources said Mr Bush had not yet made a decision. The Bush administration insists the military build-up is not offensive but aimed at containing Iran and forcing it to make diplomatic concessions. The aim is to persuade Tehran to curb its suspect nuclear weapons programme and abandon ambitions for regional expansion.
Robert Gates, the new US defence secretary, said yesterday: "I don't know how many times the president, secretary [of state Condoleezza] Rice and I have had to repeat that we have no intention of attacking Iran."

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Gus: I believe too that the Pentagon has a few  plans-to-go, in its dusty cellars, on attacking any country in the world, even the friendly ones — just in case they fall in the hands of the wrong people for example... Of course the Pentagon has nukes on the ready on countries like Russia, China and North Korea, Pakistan etc... Why bother have nukes if they are not targeting sumpthin' and could be hit for six before they're ready to launch?

I believe the president is pulling one by one, the petals of a white daisy, saying to one petal: "no we are not attacking Iran" then saying to the other: "yes we are attacking Iran", then saying to the next one: "no we are not attacking Iran", then pulling another: "yes we are attacking Iran"... etc.

It looks he might run out of petals soon.. Too soon.

Unfortunately too, his daisy has been specially bred by the Pentagon.

Grease my pole...

Congress Finds Ways to Avoid Lobbyist Limits
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
Published: February 11, 2007

WASHINGTON, Feb. 10 — The 110th Congress opened with the passage of new rules intended to curb the influence of lobbyists by prohibiting them from treating lawmakers to meals, trips, stadium box seats or the discounted use of private jets.

But it did not take long for lawmakers to find ways to keep having lobbyist-financed fun.

In just the last two months, lawmakers invited lobbyists to help pay for a catalog of outings: lavish birthday parties in a lawmaker’s honor ($1,000 a lobbyist), martinis and margaritas at Washington restaurants (at least $1,000), a California wine-tasting tour (all donors welcome), hunting and fishing trips (typically $5,000), weekend golf tournaments ($2,500 and up), a Presidents’ Day weekend at Disney World ($5,000), parties in South Beach in Miami ($5,000), concerts by the Who or Bob Seger ($2,500 for two seats), and even Broadway shows like “Mary Poppins” and “The Drowsy Chaperone” (also $2,500 for two).

The lobbyists and their employers typically end up paying for the events, but within the new rules.

Instead of picking up the lawmaker’s tab, lobbyists pay a political fund-raising committee set up by the lawmaker. In turn, the committee pays the legislator’s way.

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High corruption with one more cog in the works... just to make it look like an ethical fun event...