Tag Archives: Pork

Current Events

Hidden in Plain Sight

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Well, it’s Saturday and we wonder what the scum swamp creatures are up to? There’s not telling, nothing surprises me any more. Just read where the VP is not very well liked throughout the nation among both parties. Well, that’s no surprise since she only got 3% of the votes in the Dem primary amongst all those other duds.  

Anyway, I digress and as you know I have chosen to not post any more about Joe and the “other” ones. 

Today’s post is another from my good friend and frequent contributor Greg. Thank you sir.

By: G. Maresca

Jimmy Carter is a retired peanut farmer and among historians is arguably one of the nation’s most maligned chief executives.  Current White House occupant Joe Biden has a trillion-plus-dollar “infrastructure bill” with only peanuts set aside for actual infrastructure that has the potential to change the relationship between government and the economy.

Democrats, beginning with FDR and the New Deal, refer to “infrastructure spending” as if it’s the magic elixir that will solve all of the nation’s fiscal and economic trials.

Back during the Carter years, we had gas lines, but they were not the result of a disabling cyberattack that occurred with the Colonial pipeline that was felt nearly instantaneously.  The circumstances may have been different, but the results were equally as devastating.

Owning a piece of the pipeline attack is the politically charged FBI and CIA and a socially woke corporate America that failed to secure and protect such sensitive infrastructure.

This latest manmade disaster only underscores how America’s enemies understand how vulnerable our infrastructure remains.  It is only a matter of time before another strike comes to fruition, but rather than shutting down a regional pipeline, how about hacking in and disabling the nation’s electric power grid?  Try going without electricity for a week and given the dated nature and vulnerability of our grid, the possibilities are not unthinkable.

One of the key ingredients why infrastructure gets neglected, or in many cases ignored, is that there remains little to no political pay-off to upgrading airports, repairing potholes or replacing bridges.  Juxtapose that to spending the same money building community centers, creating rails to trails and upgrading public swimming pools.  Such ribbon-cutting events provide politicians with plenty of favorable and free publicity. Nobody holds ribbon-cutting ceremonies for upgrading and securing computer software, milling roadways, and replacing sewer lines.

The threat of the power grid crashing like it did in Texas over the winter is quite real, but preventable.  Most, however, have no idea the severity of vulnerability under which we live.

The Task Force on National and Homeland Security is comprised of citizens, engineers, and field experts concerned about the vulnerability of our critical infrastructures.  It is an official Congressional Advisory Board that receives no federal funding and operates exclusively on donations. They have reported to Congress on several occasions that in the event of an Electro Magnetic Pulse attack, 70- 90% of Americans could be dead within a year.

And you thought COVID-19 was bad.

Minor negligence has a way of resulting in major consequences. As our country’s infrastructure continues to age — something America takes for granted — we will see more foundational systematic breakdowns.  Being attentive to our country’s infrastructure by advocating for its continued improvement is critical when it comes to working toward the common good and is everyone’s responsibility.

Why does it take several years to replace a bridge, when the Empire State Building was constructed in two years and during the Great Depression?  It is little wonder that Americans have lost faith in government institutions.

Government-funded projects often fail to live up to their lofty intent.  The problem is not that tax dollars are not being spent, but rather the money is being allocated and managed so poorly.  While it may sound costly, building resilient infrastructure will save plenty of money over the long term as it invests in the future.

Allow state and local governments to raise and spend money for their own projects making the case for what they really need, while freeing them from the tedious strings that always come attached to federal subsidies.

Infrastructure, like anything else in the physical world deteriorates and needs not only to be maintained, but at times, upgraded and improved.  It is important that elected officials understand public works are not just a short-term inducement or a vehicle for politically driven job creation.  The goal should be to create the best and broadest necessary infrastructure for the most responsible price.

Transforming and securing our national infrastructure is the best kind of financial stimulus since it supports all economic avenues.  There is no reason why we cannot build a better and smarter future for our children’s and grandchildren’s generation.

The nation’s subsistence depends on it.

Do some due diligence and you will be utterly shocked at how little money in that bill is actually going to fix our infrastructure. I did. WOW! How do you spell immigrants?

Originally posted 2021-05-22 12:54:31.

Recent Posts

Jumping the Stimulus Turnstile

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Another very informative article from my good friend and strong contributor to the blog, Greg Maresca. To add to his great discussion, let me remind everyone that consumer spending makes up 70% of our country’s GDP. There many other ways to stimulate the economy and increase consumer spending at the same time i.e., tax cuts, which do not increase the deficit, but always bring in more revenue. Remember Reagan and his “Trickle Down Economics”?

 

 

 

By: G. Maresca

The COVID stimulus train has added another $1.9 trillion to its ever-growing caboose. Uncle Sam is running the nation’s treasury like a Parker Brothers’ board game. Through continuous stimulus spending, Congress, who controls the nation’s purse strings, has dismissed the burgeoning federal deficit outright.

The numbers throughout this COVID cash craze are astonishing: In just 16 months, the Federal Reserve has pumped over $9 trillion into the economy. According to Forbes, last June the U.S. accumulated more debt than in the 200-plus years from America’s founding in 1776 through 1979.

The stimulus bills have provided temporary relief but are toxic over the long-term. Nearly half of the unemployed will be paid more to stay home, while keeping unemployment artificially higher which will result in calls for more stimulus.

Economic incentives matter but handouts?

History will look back on this COVID era with disbelief that so many were bamboozled into believing that freebees were a good idea or even sustainable.

There is no real stimulus. Such semantics masks (pun intended) what is happening to the economy that resembles a Bowery wino. Government giveaways and money-printing have their inevitable effects. Stimulus checks will not grow the economy, but it will stimulate the federal debt and cause inflation.

Chetan Ahya, chief economist at Morgan Stanley, “The driving forces of inflation are already aligned, and a regime shift is underway.” Perhaps forgotten is that inflation is the most universal tax of all.

Bestowing money on those who work is scandalous because it steals from their children and grandchildren. Such fiscal policy only grows government and restricts liberty, while handcuffing small businesses – the economy’s driving force. Future generations will face burdensome taxation and cut services thanks to this intergenerational redistribution of wealth.

Stimulus spending has resulted in a higher national debt percentage of GDP than at the end of WWII and both political parties are to blame. They seem to believe that zero interest rates will last forever.

Politicians have not missed a paycheck, nor have they read the 5,600 pages of latest bill that is the handiwork of an army of aides acting on behalf of lobbyists and interest groups.

Some highlights have $750 million for border walls in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Oman and Tunisia. Apparently, the only country that Congress feels should have open orders is our own. Other pork chops include $1.3 billion for the Egyptian military, $130 million for Nepal; $135 million for Burma, $34 million and $85 million for Cambodia, and $231 million to pay down the national debt of Sudan, where apparently Sudan’s debt matters more than our own.

Ten million has been allocated for gender programs in Pakistan. Rather than cash, we should send the Pakistanis the annual army of leftist gender studies graduates. Don’t forget $600 to non-American citizens and the $40 million to the closed Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. In an insult to fiscally responsible states, $350 billion is allotted to bail out states like New York and Illinois, who run yearly deficits.

For all their self-aggrandizing rhetoric about helping those in need with additional stimulus spending, the reality is that both parties are helping themselves to excess at the expense of future Americans.

Considering what has taken place over the course of less than a year, it begs the question: Will there ever be a time when politicians won’t be “stimulating” the economy? Tax, spend, regulate, then “stimulate,” which is just another synonym for more spending.

You cannot spend yourself into prosperity.

If history tells us anything the forgotten 1920-21 economic crisis taught that sometimes the best stimulus is none at all.

Rather than expanding government, a true fiscal “stimulus” initiative would promote and support the private sector. One of the best ways of doing that would be to reduce the regulatory and tax burden on U.S. corporations and small businesses.

Paying customers are the best stimulus for any enterprise, while allowing them to keep more of the money they earn would also underscore that it is their money, not Uncle Sam’s.

Instead of forcing businesses and schools to close, while restricting our civil liberties and bribing the masses through federal handouts, open up the economy, tax less and invest our taxes into America.

Watch inflation, it’s like Murphy, always waiting for a misstep, which Trader Joe will certainly provide..

 

 

Originally posted 2021-01-30 10:50:45.