It is taking your hard-earned dollars and giving them to wealthy, well-connected concerns:
"US on track for lowest budget gap since 2008" Associated Press May 13, 2014
WASHIN’GTON — The US government ran a big surplus in April, thanks to a flood of tax payments that helped keep the budget on track for the lowest annual deficit in six years.
The Treasury Department said Monday that April’s surplus totaled $106.9 billion, down slightly from last April’s $112.9 billion surplus. The government typically runs a surplus during April, when individual tax returns are due and corporations make quarterly tax payments.
Through the first seven months of the 2014 budget year, which began Oct. 1, the deficit totals $306.4 billion. That’s down 37 percent from the same period last year.
The Congressional Budget Office is forecasting a deficit of $492 billion for the full budget year. That would be the narrowest gap since 2008.
The numbers are un$u$tainably $taggering.
In 2008, the government recorded a deficit of $458.6 billion, which was the deficit up to that time. But that record was soon eclipsed as the government ran annual deficits surpassing $1 trillion for the next four years. Those deficits reflected a deep recession. The downturn reduced tax revenue and increased government spending to stabilize the financial system and pay benefits for people who had lost jobs.
So far this budget year, revenue totals $1.74 trillion, up 8.2 percent from the same period in 2013. Revenue has been boosted by a stronger economy, which means more people working and paying taxes, thereby reducing the deficit.
So $ays AP.
Government spending totals $1.6 trillion, down 8.2 percent from a year ago. The decline reflects efforts by Congress and the administration to trim spending.
After peaking at $1.4 trillion in 2009, the deficit has been falling. Last year, it dropped to $680.2 billion.
Over the next decade, the budget office is projecting that the deficits will total $7.6 trillion, $286 billion less than it projected in February. The biggest factor in the improvement is $165 billion less in projected spending on health insurance subsidies for policies sold through exchanges created by the Affordable Care Act. Those policies are proving less costly than originally thought, mainly because of tighter management of treatment options.
The rationing of health care and your increased premiums is considered a good thing.
The office is forecasting that the deficit will fall to $469 billion in 2015 before rising again and topping $1 trillion annually starting in 2023. The increases will be driven by spending on the government’s major benefit programs, including Social Security and Medicare, as baby boomers retire.
Yeah, it's the social services bankrupting us. You know, the stuff we already paid for and was supposed to be held in trust. It's never the aid to Israel, the gluttonous war machine, the corporate welfare, or lavish political lifestyles being led by the same bastards screaming austerity.
Republicans have accused Obama of failing to propose significant cost-cutting measures to reduce soaring entitlement costs. Democrats counter that Republicans would rather impose sharp cuts on necessary government programs than impose higher taxes on the wealthy.
Forget the $hit-fooley blame game; I hold you BOTH RESPONSIBLE, and this disingenuous political show is offensive to voters.
Neither side is expected to make major concessions in this congressional election year.
Yeah, it's all hot air hocus locus political $hit. Sorry.
But the budget wars of the past three years are likely to subside this year after an agreement was reached in December on the broad outlines for spending over the next two years. The agreement will allow Washington to avoid the showdowns that culminated in October’s 16-day partial shutdown of the government.
Related:
"The deal buoyed Wall Street investors. Guggenheim Partners, a financial services firm, concluded that as a result overall Pentagon spending will remain relatively the same for the next several years before it begins to grow once again, at about 2.5 percent per year."
Yeah, and at the same time it locked in social service cuts that are $et in $tone as far as both parties are concerned.
The cease-fire in the budget wars also includes legislation that will suspend the government’s borrowing limit through March 15 of next year. That puts off another battle over raising the debt ceiling until a new Congress takes office in January.
Meaning they will all live good in the Beltway this election year.
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So what did they do with all that extra tax loot?
"Senate sheds worry about big deficits, takes up package of business tax breaks" by Jonathan Weisman | New York Times May 14, 2014
WASHINGTON — The Senate on Tuesday shrugged off the deficit concerns that were once an animating force on Capitol Hill, voting 96 to 3 to take up a package of business tax breaks without offering any way to pay for them.
Look at the vote. So much for parti$an$hip that blocks extension of unemployment checks.
At least they agreed on cutting food stamps for a hungry nation.
The procedural vote presaged final passage as early as this week and followed the House’s overwhelming approval of legislation to make permanent the research-and-development tax credit for businesses and raise the deficit by $156 billion over the next 10 years. On that vote, 62 House Democrats joined virtually every Republican in ignoring President Obama’s veto threat because of the deficit implications.
That's all it is, too. He'll $ign it.
Related: $86ing This Post
I'm about to, yeah!
“It’s pretty remarkable,” said Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a deficit watchdog group.
“It’s a shift from ‘This is a huge problem’ — and if anyone looks at the long-term problems, it clearly still is — to ‘We’ve made so much progress on the budget deficit’ to doing things that actually hurt the debt,’’ MacGuineas said. “It’s as though members of Congress tried out fiscal discipline, didn’t like how it felt, and are falling back to bad habits.”
As the deficit continues to fall, it loosens the policy reins in Washington for the first time since Obama rammed through his stimulus law in the opening weeks of his presidency. Last week, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office reported tax receipts were up 8 percent over the first seven months of the fiscal year, which began in October. Spending was down around 3 percent, and at $301 billion, the federal budget deficit is $187 billion lower than at this time last year.
“We will not pull the plug before our nation’s recovery is complete,” said Senator Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada and the majority leader. “Let’s work together to give America’s families a fair shot.”
You run Bundy of his land yet, a$$hole?
The Senate’s Expiring Provisions Improvement Reform and Efficiency Act, renews more than 50 tax credits through 2015, including the research and development credit, tax credits for investments in depressed areas, and tax breaks for energy-efficient home improvements and for higher-education expenses.
Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon and the new chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, had pledged to pare back the routinely extended tax breaks as a dry run for a broader overhaul of the tax code. In the end, nothing was pared back — not even the “temporary” tax break for rum producers in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
In coming weeks, the House is likely to make permanent five more corporate tax cuts, costing $301 billion through 2024. That would virtually wipe out all the deficit reduction last year, when Bush-era tax cuts were allowed to expire on upper-income households....
Related: Fiscal Cliff Fraud
And they called it deficit reduction!
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Gotta $hower some more money on the Pentagon, too:
"House budget defies Pentagon; $601b bill keeps unwanted items" by Donna Cassata | Associated Press May 23, 2014
WASHINGTON — The House defied the Pentagon on Thursday, overwhelmingly backing a $601 billion defense authorization bill that saves the Cold War-era U-2 spy plane, military bases, and Navy cruisers despite warnings that it will undercut military readiness.
A White House veto threat, reiterated hours before the vote, had little impact in an election year as lawmakers embraced the popular measure that includes a 1.8 percent pay raise for the troops and adds up to hundreds of thousands of jobs back home. The vote was 325 to 98 for the legislation, with 216 Republicans and 109 Democrats backing the bill.
No parti$an$hip there, either.
Hours later, the leaders of the Senate Armed Services Committee announced the completion of its version of the bill that backs several of the Pentagon proposals while breaking with the administration on some weapons.
Most notably, the Senate panel “created a path to close Guantanamo,” said the committee’s chairman, Senator Carl Levin, Democrat of Michigan, a long-sought goal of President Obama. Under a provision, the administration would have to produce a comprehensive plan for transferring terror suspects from the US naval facility in Cuba that would be subject to a congressional vote.
I'll bet I know where he puts them.
See: Dinner at Guantánamo
It might be your final meal.
The Senate panel backed the administration on some personnel benefits and a 1 percent pay raise for the military, while breaking with the administration by sparing the A-10 Warthog close-support plane and an aircraft carrier.
Certain to frustrate the administration was a provision that would authorize the military to train and equip vetted Syrian rebels battling forces loyal to President Bashar Assad.
The Senate bill must be reconciled with the House version.
Representative Howard “Buck” McKeon, Republican of California and chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, defended his House bill and rejected the suggestion that the measure was a “sop to parochial interests,” arguing it makes “the tough decisions that put the troops first.”
But the panel’s top Democrat, Representative Adam Smith of Washington state, complained that the House rejected the Pentagon’s cost-saving proposals and came up with no alternatives.
“We ducked every difficult decision,” Smith said.
With the ending of two wars and diminishing budgets, the Pentagon had proposed retiring the U-2 and the A-10, taking 11 Navy cruisers out of the normal rotation for modernization, and increasing out-of-pocket costs for housing and health care.
I gue$$ they figure if they repeat it enough the reader will believe it.
Republicans and Democrats rejected the Pentagon budget, sparing the aircraft, ships, and troop benefits.
An increasingly antagonistic White House issued a veto threat on Monday, and Chief of Staff Denis McDonough reinforced that message in a private meeting with House Democrats on Tuesday morning. Late Wednesday, the White House issued another veto threat over restrictions in the bill on President Obama’s ability to transfer terror suspects from the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
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What else is in the works?
"Congress OK’s pared water projects bill" Associated Press May 23, 2014
WASHINGTON — Congress sent to the White House a $12.3 billion water projects bill half the size of its last one seven years ago — before the economy sank into a deep recession that helped swell the government’s debt and before lawmakers swore off inserting pet projects for folks back home.
With a 91-7 vote Thursday, the Senate passed the bill authorizing 34 new projects over the next 10 years. The House passed it Tuesday after key lawmakers spent six months blending House and Senate versions approved last year.
So that's how pork gets phat. You water it.
The bill authorizes big new flood control projects for Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and Fargo, N.D., and dredging and harbor expansions in Boston and Savannah, Ga. But it also puts an end to $18 billion in dormant projects that Congress had passed before the last round of $23.3 billion in water projects was approved in 2007.
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The power of the $mall fry lobby:
"Legislators insist potato be part of WIC" Associated Press May 23, 2014
WASHINGTON — The ubiquitous white potato has scored another victory on Capitol Hill.
House and Senate panels this week endorsed the inclusion of fresh white potatoes in the federal Women, Infants, and Children nutrition program. The Agriculture Department doesn’t allow them in the program for low-income pregnant and nursing mothers because they say people already eat enough of them.
Chips.
The potato industry has aggressively lobbied for inclusion in WIC, saying it’s not as much about sales as the perception that potatoes are not as nutritious as other vegetables.
Uh-huh.
The advocates argue that it provides potassium, dietary fiber, and folate, a water-soluble B vitamin that can be helpful for pregnant women. They say it is also economical.
The Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday adopted an amendment by Senator Susan M. Collins, Republican of Maine, to an agriculture spending bill that would include white potatoes in WIC. That followed House subcommittee approval of its version of the bill, also allowing potatoes into the program.
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Her that $izzle, kids?
"House GOP bill would roll back school lunch rules" Associated Press May 20, 2014
WASHINGTON — House Republicans are proposing to let some schools opt out of more healthful school lunch and breakfast programs if they are losing money.
A GOP spending bill for agriculture and food programs released Monday would allow schools to apply for waivers if they have a net loss on food programs for a six-month period.
Championed by first lady Michelle Obama, the new standards have been phased in over the last two school years, with more changes coming in 2014. The rules set fat, calorie, sugar, and sodium limits on foods in the lunch line and beyond. Obama made a call to rally supporters of the food rules Monday as a House subcommittee prepared to consider the bill on Tuesday.
While many schools have had success putting the rules in place, others have said they are too restrictive and costly.
And the kids think they suck.
Schools pushing for changes say limits on sodium and requirements for whole grains have proven particularly difficult, while some school officials say students are throwing fruits and vegetables in the trash.
GMOs?
The House Appropriations Committee said in a release that the waiver language is in response to requests from schools.
The School Nutrition Association, which represents school nutrition directors and companies that sell food to schools, endorsed the provision Monday and said schools need more room to make their own decisions. Its president, Leah Schmidt said the group supports the waiver as a temporary solution until Congress considers renewal of a school foods law, which expires in 2015.
‘‘School meal programs need more flexibility to plan menus that increase student consumption of healthy choices while limiting waste,’’ Schmidt said.
The School Nutrition Association said that almost half of school meal programs reported declines in revenue in the 2012-2013 school year, and 90 percent said food costs were up. Nutrition advocates and other supporters of the rules say it will take some time for schools to adjust and the House proposal is overly broad. Margo Wootan of the Center for Science in the Public Interest said the House Republicans are using a ‘‘hacksaw rather than a scalpel’’ to try to solve problems some schools are having.
They are serving Soylent Green now?
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I wouldn't want to eat a school lunch these days.
Related: Michelle Obama speaks out on lunches
She going to get mad at Ma$$achu$etts, too?
Obama plans 2016 deadline for Afghan exit
He makes me angry so I'm going to skip the admission that CIA-Duh is being trained in Jordan and then crossing into Syria.
Also see: 50 US Senators urge NFL to change Redskins’ name
Confronting the urgent challenges of our times I see.
