Our biggest financial problems are still ahead

I write this out of fear for my country.  As anyone my age may remember the British Sterling was the money standard for the world for years.  In the 70's the liberal Parliament decided that they needed to spread the wealth around similar to what has happened here and the financial strength of the pound went south eventually being devalued by 14%.  This sent the entire economy of the British into chaos.  Interest rates soared, jobs were lost and the Sterling was replaced by the U.S. dollar as the world economy went into a spin.  Right now China, Russia, Japan, Korea and several Arab countries have challenged the value of our dollar because of the amount of new money we are printing in order to pay our outstanding debts.  Once the dollar is no longer considered the world currency standard our treasury will be forced to quit augmenting our debt with its printing press and we will be facing our monumental world debt head on.  The number that is being bandied around in the press is $17 Trillion when if you include the total responsibility for debt that the United States is under it will amount to closer to $35 Trillion with just the Social Security, Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac losses, public employees union benefits on top of the world debt accumulations.

Right now our interest rates are being artificially held down by the Fed to anywhere from 0% to .25%.  Should this be stopped by the loss of status as the world moves to remove our currency from this position and the interest rates go to market levels we will be in a disaster that will make 2008 look like fun.  No longer having the opportunity to print our way out of debt our obligations will soar as interest rates climb.  Just a 4% rate will bring our debt to the level of well over $60 Trillion if paid over a standard 30 year amortization.  That is if we stop immediately over spending and reduce our annual spending to match our gross income.  The United States has reach the point of no return prophesized in 1776 when it was said that when the people of America realize they can vote themselves benefits from the treasury, they will, and it will soon deplete the reserve required to continue.   We have now reached the point where over 50% are now on some type of governmental assistance leaving few to replenish the pot of gold that was America.  Every year we are asked to raise our debt ceiling and have been told it is an inconsequential necessity to continue our way of life.  I don't know about you but in my family we can't seem to do that, we are forced to pay our bills out of what we earn and when the government takes more and more of what we earn we are forced to lower our standard of living. It's time to stop this folly and face the crisis we have created or our children's children will have nothing left to live for.

 

Why not us?

Why not us?  Why has the administration left the American public out of the loop when it comes to exemptions from the Affordable Care plan?  We have all of Congress and the Executive and Judicial exempted as well as Federal employees and many major corporations, yet we the ones that contribute the most are totally forgotten.  I don’t know about you but I like the medical plan I have and the payments as they were three or four years ago.    Our company plan has had to be reduced over the last couple of years significantly due to cost increases.  If I understand this whole thing we are paying more because of those who were uninsured roughly 30% of the population.  Now we are being told that 20% of the population will still be uninsured and if the young millenniums fail to buy in, our rates will go sky high.  Not only the financial loss but the loss of privacy will affect us greatly.  The idea that our medical records will suddenly be on a government data base is scary.  If you are old enough to remember the Social Security program was never supposed to be used as an identification and now your social security card is the most common form of identification.  What happens if later they decide our medical records can be used for things like the ability to repay loans etc.  Hackers also have been able to break into many government highly secure data bases, what happens if our medical records become the next Wiki leaks project.

The United States has always been known through-out the world for the most outstanding medical services and advances as well as the ability of its population to access this system.  Now because of one man’s narcissistic attempt to build his legacy we are forced to accept this program.  They say it’s the law duly legislated by our Congress but in reality it was done in a clandestine operation in the middle of the night by a lame duck legislative body.  We were told that they had to pass it in order to know what’s in it.  Well now we know and It’s not a pretty sight.  The so called glitches in the online program have caused access to be denied to most of those who have tried to get additional information.  One who did get through had the shock of her life at the reality of the situation; 

 4:45 PM [kcmana] [3:42:16 PM] iz is here: [3:40 PM] Suzie ~ miyushu: <<<OBAMACARE Reality Shockwave Has BEGUN... From a forum I visited:

I just saw a repost from a Facebook page - An alleged comment on the Affordable Care Act FB page states that a person had signed up online, under the $45-55,000 income range, pre-existing condition of type I diabetes. They chose the "Silver" plan...

4:45 PM [kcmana] Their premium came back as $597 per month, with an almost $14,000 annual deductible!  And when the person clicked the "opt out" option, they shortly received an e-mail stating that their fine would be $4,037, and could be attached to their annual tax return.

 4:45 PM [kcmana] And if you don't have the $4,037 on time, then the repercussions for non-payment begin with your drivers license being suspended until the fine is paid, and if it goes 24 months without payment, a tax lien is placed on you property. It gives you the option to provide your bank info so your penalties can be withdrawn weekly, or biweekly, etc.

Posted by Florence Markovich 
870-424-4090

Why not a shutdown

We're being threatened with a "Government Shutdown." Hmmm...imagine if that were really to happen and the American citizenry could pick and choose how it could be reassembled. What would you want to leave out of the new one? Maybe the following will give you some thoughts . . .

•  “We only have one goal, and that is to have all of Detroit working together for one Detroit, with the Obama administration as a key partner.”  That's from Director of the National Economic Council, Gene Sperling. He and Detroit's key partner, Barack Obama, gave $320 Million of our money to the city of Detroit Friday.

•  The Army sent checks totaling $16 Million to AWOLs and deserters over the past two years. Said it was a "glitch" and they're working to correct it. Who could be so dumb as to allow a 16 million dollar glitch?

•   In 2010, the Internal Revenue Service spent $4.1 million on a lavish party for 2,609 of its employees in California. Expenses included $50,000 for line dancing and "Star Trek" parody videos, and $64,000 in conference perks like rubber duckies for employees ... plus free meals, cocktails and hotel-suite upgrades.

•  In 2012, the Department of Agriculture spent $300,000 on activities pro­moting caviar produced in the land-locked state of Idaho.

•  The Federal Communications Commission spent $2.2 BILLION in 2012 to provide cell phones to low-income Americans, up from $819 million in 2008. This despite a review that found that 41 percent of the over 6 million recipients were either ineligible or failed to prove their eligibility for the program!

 

•  The Department of Energy's Savannah River facility spent $7.7 million on severance pack­ages for 526 temporarily hired contract workers instead of issuing layoff notices. That's over $14,600 per "temporary" employee. Pretty nice "gratuity."

•  Taxpayers spent $700 million in stimulus funds on the Department of Energy's Smart Grid Demonstration Program. An audit found that $12.3 million in reimbursements lacked required supporting documentation.

 

•  The U.S. Secret Service spent $23 million to purchase a new fleet of luxury parade limousines. They didn't bother asking for competitive bids ... paid full price to the dealers.

•  The White House is currently spending $376 mil­lion on a four-year renovation of the Executive Mansion, which includes a second Oval Office for the president to use during the dusty renovation.

•  The General Services Administration's inadequate oversight of 33 courthouse-construction proj­ects from 2000 to 2010 cost taxpayers $835 million in extra building expenses.

 

•  The National Endowment for the Arts gave a $100,000 grant to fund development of a video game about a female superhero sent to save planet Earth from climate changes (darn, I missed it!)

•  The Transportation Security Administration has let 5,700 pieces of unused security equipment worth $184 million sit idle in a Dallas warehouse, costing taxpayers $3.5 million annually to lease and manage.

 

•  This year the U.S. government will pay $65 per year EACH  in service fees to keep 13,712 of its empty bank accounts on the books, costing taxpayers $891,280 (gee, that's almost as much as the Postmaster General earns in a year...).

 

•  Medicare was found to have OVERPAID hospitals and clin­ics for one kidney dialysis drug to the tune of $800 million per year, a continuing error that they won't get around to correcting until new rates are established in 2014.

 

•  In 2012 the Treasury's Inspector Gen­eral for Tax Administration admitted to $757 mil­lion in fraudulent income-tax refunds to prisoners in 2010.

 

•  Due to poor oversight, over 1,000 Pennsylvania prisoners were able to collect weekly unem­ployment benefits over a four-month period, costing taxpayers $7 million.

 

•  A fis­cal 2011 Performance and Accountability Report from the Social Security Administration (SSA) found it overpaid $2.11 BILLION in Social Security benefits.

 

•  The same report found that the SSA OVERPAID old-age, survivor and disability insurance benefits by $934 million in fiscal 2010 alone.

 

•  Also in 2010, 117,000 individuals received $850 million in cash benefits by double-dipping into Social Security's disability insurance pro­gram AND the federal unemployment insurance program.

 

•  The U.S. Department of Agriculture awarded a $149,992 grant to researchers at Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey to study college students' on-campus dining selections.

 

•  The Office of Naval Research conducted a $450,000 study to determine whether babies would pay attention to unin­telligent robots.

 

•  In a study costing $681,387, the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research confirmed that men bearing firearms appear taller, stronger and manlier than those who don't carry firearms (wonder where I could rent a bazooka?).

 

•  The same U.S. Air Force office also conducted a $300,000 study that concluded that the first bird on Earth probably had black feathers.

 

Now come on, fess up. Couldn't we get by without all of these government guys for a few days? So far they've managed to run up an unpaid bill of $16.8 TRILLION (and look at the great job they've done!). Of course, it won't happen ... at least for long. Where else could a bunch of dimwits have so much fun mismanaging OUR money?