Tag: deficit (page 3)

And while the Green and White make their way to Ford Field,Jay Cutler won't be, which is also good news, because now I won't have to hate the Lions like I suddenly hate the Bears.  (Kyle Orton and a couple of mediocre draft picks?  Seriously?)

That's the good news, and folks from out-of-state who stumbled onto this website in advance of your trip to the big game should just skip ahead to the next story on the page.  Because to whatever extent the rest of Detroit remains a secret to the average non-Michigander, we'd probably all be better served to preserve that naiveté.

The rest of the picture isn't pretty and it just keeps getting creepier.  Worse, uglier, sure, between the record shattering unemployment, the stubborn refusal to vote for change and the mayoral candidates who sound like everyone else from the last fifty years there are a lot of adjectives we could use, but "creepy" fits this morning's news best.

Read on...

See, this week the President suggested that good teachers be rewarded with merit pay.  Perform well, produce results above and beyond by-the-book expectations in your classroom and you get a bonus.  And just because he's a nice, fair, equitable guy (allegedly) he won't even cut the salary of teachers who might be better served in another career field.

No downside.  All upside.  Free money for exceptional performers.  

Alas, the Michigan Education Association directly and publicly opposes President Obama, saying they aren't interested unless everyone gets free money.

And I don't know if you've noticed but there really isn't that much extra money floating around these days.  In fact, quite the opposite is true.  

According to the Detroit News, state revenues have plummeted since a series of disastrous tax hikes literally altered consumer behavior here in Michigan.  

Read on...

I've come to understand that whenever Obama promises something, it is time to expect the opposite. Nowhere is that more apparent than when it comes to fiscal responsibility. This budget does not deliver whatsoever when it comes to that. I knew it was a joke when he talked about slashing the deficit in half in four years. That's unacceptable. It needs to be balanced. Period. This is going in the opposite direction.

From the AP

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama is sending Congress a "hard choices" budget that would boost taxes on the wealthy and curtail Medicare payments to insurance companies and hospitals to make way for a $634 billion down payment on universal health care.

Obama's first budget, which will top $3 trillion, predicts the deficit for this year will soar to a whopping $1.75 trillion, according to administration officials who spoke on condition of anonymity before the public unveiling of the budget Thursday. The huge deficit reflects the massive spending being undertaken to battle a severe recession and the worst financial crisis in seven decades.

As part of the effort to end the financial crisis, the administration will propose boosting the deficit by an additional $250 billion this year, enough to support as much as $750 billion in increased spending under the government's financial rescue program. That would more than double the $700 billion bailout effort passed by Congress last October.

So much for even the pretense of fiscal sanity.  Yeah, we all chuckled when we heard President Obama speak Tuesday night about the need to cut the federal budget in order to dig into that trillion dollar deficit he just created, but it is still early enough in his term that I'm willing to take the man at his word.

He says he wants to cut the budget... well OK then.  Let's cut the budget.

Apparently the national TV audience were the only ones to catch that portion of his speech, though, because yesterday's action in the overwhelmingly Democratic Congress, only a few hours after the speech, seems to indicate it went right over the heads of folks like Mark Schauer and Gary Peters.

The Ivory Tower reports that the United States House of Representatives voted yesterday, largely along Party lines, to approve a massive NEW spending bill with a full 8% increase over last year's budget.

$410 BILLION total.  And the kicker?  

The bill ... provides sizable increases for a long list of health, education, transportation, housing and other domestic programs. In some cases, the boosts go to items that already got more money in the $787-billion economic-stimulus plan that became law last week.

Lawmakers did make one important nod toward austerity: They froze their salaries for 2010. Most members of Congress earn $174,000 a year; leaders get more. The freeze doesn't affect 2009 pay. Members got a $4,700 cost-of-living raise last month.

Emphasis mine.

Michigan's Congressional delegation voted overwhelmingly to support the massive new spending.  Again.  Every single Democrat, including those in swing districts like Schauer, Peters and Bart Stupak up in the relatively conservative 1st voted to ignore President Obama.  Frustratingly, so did Republicans Fred Upton and Candice Miller.

Not cool, guys.  Not cool at all.

Upton is considered a bit of a moderate and Miller is an uber-hawk for her District and funding that might head its way.  Hardly excuses, but maybe a bit of an explanation.

Props, though, to Congressmen Pete Hoekstra, Vern Ehlers, Dave Camp, Mike Rogers and Thad McCotter for standing up for a healthy dose of fiscal sanity.

Who'd have thought that two months in to Democratic President Obama's first term, only Michigan's five most conservative Republican Congressmen would be willing to listen to what the man has to say and to support him with their votes when he happens to make a lick of sense.

The rest of the delegation, Republicans AND Democrats, might be well served to tune in to Dave Ramsey after session today... never wise to spend money you don't have.  Especially when the check they're going to bounce has that many zeroes.

A) Spend more than a half-billion dollars of one-time only federal stimulus funds, designed to create jobs and kick-start the economy, to instead erase bureaucratic red ink and

B)  Increase overall spending!!!

Because that won't create a massive new structural budget hole that'll need filling in the future.  Noooooooo.

Here is a history of Michigan's state government budgets during the Granholm-Cherry administration's time at the helm.

2003 Total Budget: $38,546,223,200  

2004 Total Budget: $39,236,530,900

2005 Total Budget: $40,224,217,400

2006 Total Budget: $41,672,547,100

2007 Total Budget: $42,791,804,000  

2008 Total Budget: $43,827,383,200  

2009 Total Budget: $44,200,000,000

Don't need to be a rocket scientist (apologies to Congressman Ehlers) to notice that those numbers have gone up pretty significantly.  

Are there cuts in this budget?  You bet.  The Governor wants to fire 1,500 government employees, cuts funding for schools by $59 per kid and slashes higher ed funding by $100 million.  

And STILL the overall budget increases by nearly $400,000,000... in the face of a $1.6 billion short fall!

With a half-billion in one-time stimulus spending used to erase red ink.

Talk about a whole new definition of "spending cuts."  More like "shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic."

That's the word this morning in the Ivory Tower.

Democrats on Capital Hill are in the process of raking bank presidents over the coals this week because the billions of taxpayer dollars they gave them seem to have up and disappeared.  They plugged budgetary holes, they erased red ink and they kept banks afloat... all well and good and nice and pleasant but not exactly what was expected of them.

That initial bailout was supposed to stir job creation and open up the lending spigots.  None of the banks seem to know if it has.  Alas, it appears the money was used as a one-time fix.

Welcome to Thursday, February 12, 2009, the day the Granholm - Cherry administration is expected to reveal their budget for the coming year.  To reveal their budget and to commit the exact same bailout-spending-sin that has Congressional Democrats foaming at the mouths this morning!

Read on...