The omnibus spending bill

What a turkey that was. Sure, it was crafted by both democrats and republicans largely behind doors over the course of a year. With a lot of "I'll give you this if you give me that." All of that horse trading was to decide how to spend $1.1 trillion.
The problem really isn't 6000 thousand earmarks that micromanage how to divvy up the goodies. That process is symptomatic of a more-or-less pragmatic process otherwise known as making sausage. They have to get to the end game somehow.

The real problem is $1.1 trillion. Or how much sausage this country really needs.

Mitch Mc. said that republicans are now realizing there is something wrong with the process. Maybe. But what about tackling the budget in exactly the opposite way? Instead of saying (Mitch) let's start with $1.1 trillion and figure out how to spend it, what about let's start with 20% less and figure out what to cut?

A great learning experience would be to start with Congress' own budget, $5.42 billion. That's an 89% increase since 2000. OK, security does cost more, but hey - there are 535 senators and representatives. That is over 10 million for each one of them. Per year.

Sorry, was in a hurry to complete Christmas shopping and forgot to list citations.

Congressional operating costs: Congressional News Connection
Decent summary of what I heard myself on C-Span: Politico

13% of Americans approve of the job Congress does

Gallup poll
What do you call that, the margin for error?
(snort)

We interrupt this budget rant for something really awful

This company was created by a couple of homeland security insiders (see about us).
They have a mobile app called the Patriot app. The gist is you can use a smartphone camera and text message features to rat out suspicious behavior - you know the "If you see something, say something" DHS method of security the homeland.
Or maybe you want to rat out your fellow employees for taking an extra couple of minutes coffee break, or tattle on government waste, or company littering. Whatever.
Kind of like a speed camera on steroids.

Here's a quote - one of their corporate goals:

Provide instruction and increase consistency in actions while decreasing variance in human behavior to mitigate risk and error

Why wait for China to foreclose on the US when we can act just like them now?

Citizen Concepts - ewwww! Patriot my patoottie!

Oh well, I guess in a free market economy, you get all kinds. I can't wait for this to show up at a Walmart near me. (By the way, if you don't know Walmart culture, this is just so apropos)

GOP is stupid

Libs are freakin because Obama is giving in, caving, yadeya.
GOP is so focused on personal taxes, they can't see the tree for the leaves, let alone the forest.

Obama wins, here's why:
1) If the economy gets better in 2 years, then we will be able to afford a tax increase - and we certainly could use the money to reduce the deficit.
2) If the economy doesn't get better, then obviously the tax rate extension didn't work, and raise taxes to reduce the deficit. 2012 motto: I won. Again.
3) We just spent another near $trillion we don't have. So regardless what happens, repubs are responsible for even more deficit. How's that for performance and they aren't even sworn in yet. That will be another fine campaign issue.
4) No one is talking about cutting spending, which is the real problem. So he gets to keep his outrageous budget which is 20% over fy2008.

All the "I'm not happy and there is plenty in here to dislike" is just covering up a smirk.

Being without internet for 3 weeks....

Changes your perspective on things.

RIP Domino 5-5-1991 11-12-2010

1

He lived a long life and patiently raised many cats along the way. Always a gentleman and never swatted a soul. He was loud and verbose. It is very quiet around here now. The dog will miss his bed buddy.

I am sad to see you go, old man. I am relieved that you are now at rest.

Rainbow Bridge, the poem
Rainbow Bridge, the memorial site

Budget is about choices

Why not just cut all the budgets by 20%? Because it means you do all that you do less effectively. Rather than do a mediocre job of everything, how about doing what you do well and quit doing the things that don't make as much difference?
Besides, what is fair about cutting medicare and social security by 20% while we continue to fund frog sex and send bazillions to Pakistan which has no income tax?
Congress needs to make choices. Not between across the board cuts of 15% or 20%; not between tax increases for 5% or 15% of the tax paying population. Congress needs to decide that we are going to stop doing a lot of things because they are less important than other things - and we can't just do 20 or 30% less of the important things (like border protection, security and veterans benefits). But we may need to do things like:

• Cut the Congressional budget - especially staffing - by 25%. If we are going to shrink government, we don't need as many people on the hill working on all the assorted committees.
• Stop subsidizing things like oil, farm products and recycling programs. Let the market do what the market does best. Instead of increasing the gas tax, cut the energy subsidies. If you want to ensure more stability, think about managing short term speculative investments, especially for commodities.
• Get real about the cost of security vis-a-vis the benefits. Don't intelligence and identity matching make a lot more sense than random (strip) searches at the airport?
• Encourage the activities that "produce" and cut off the activities that don't. If oil drilling results in revenue, then do more of it, not less of it. Parks are nice. But solvency is more important. Doing is productive. Not doing (like not planting corn, or not drilling, or not fishing) is simply wasting resources.
• Quit spending the money overseas that is subsidizing corrupt and two-faced governments. 
• Quite spending money domestically that is subsidizing corrupt and irresponsible state governments.
• In addition to cutting budgets, cut the regulatory burden on business - especially small business - by 20%
• Similarly, get out of state government business. Define the desired results, but not the methods. 
• Look at more than just medical malpractice as part of tort reform. The lawsuit lottery has to end.
• Consider this: if there isn't a reasonable expectation of reward, people are not likely to take risks. That includes the risk to begin businesses, invest in the market, make career decisions.
• Quit creating and expanding all these agencies to collect data - it is incredibly expensive to collect and maintain data when you consider the privacy and security requirements as well as the "rent." For example, why is OMB collecting information on individual medical insurance claims? That cannot be a productive use of funds. I'm sure BC/BS is going to be a lot more resourceful managing fraud in their policies.

Just some ideas, I'm sure if you started a discussion with voting options for budget ideas, you could come up with a lot more.