". . . In the 2016 presidential campaign, Mr. Trump promised to eliminate the deficit (and all existing U.S. debt) in eight years. Instead, the budget deficit is two-thirds larger than the deficit he inherited, and his latest spending plan expects the shortfall to linger into 2035. And that’s only because the budget is built on a mountain of falsity — from an expectation that the economy will grow by 3% (which it hasn’t in the Trump era) and that Democratically held U.S. House of Representatives will accept a slew of damaging social safety net reductions, including cuts to Medicaid and food stamps, while substantially increasing spending on the military and a border wall. . . "
. . . is certainly easily obtained
At a rate of about 'a dime a dozen'
Experts abound
Some asking more
Others asking less
For sharing their precious wisdom
"Budget?" they ask
To which I say No
"Goals" they inquire
Well most certainly Yes!
I want to make music
For you and the rest
(from http://www.slate.com/articles/life/a_fine_whine/2012/10/why_do_we_iron_our_clothes_let_s_just_wear_wrinkled_ones.html by Seth Stevenson)
". . . I waste zero time slaving over an ironing board. Squander no money on superfluous laundry services. Budget no mindshare to the relative dishevelment of my cuffs, box pleats, and plackets.
. .You will say I look less than neat. You'll tell me I'm one or two corners shy of squared away. I contend that the deficiency is all yours. You are beholden to an ancient despot: the tyranny of crispness. . ."
". . . the budget boosts Defense Department spending by $54 billion (or by 10%); it cuts the State Department by 28% and the Environmental Protection Agency by 25%; it provides $1.5 billion for construction of Trump's wall; it eliminates funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting; and it all fails to balance the budget in the process.. . The problem? "It's dead on arrival," Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) . . . And what about presenting evidence to prove his claim that Barack Obama tapped Trump Tower? "Let's see whether or not I proved it," he said on Fox News . . . "You looked at some proof. I mean, let's see whether or not I prove it. I just don't choose to do it right now." In fact, the top Republican and Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee said there is no evidence<http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/house-intel-committee-still-no-evidence-trump-tower-wiretap-n733886> that Obama did what Trump originally tweeted<http://www.nbcnews. com/news/us-news/trump-accuses-obama-wiretapping-residence-during-campaign-n729056>. "Are you going to take the tweets literally? And if you are, then clearly the president was wrong," Chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA) said. . ."
. . . for electing Hillary Clinton President of the United States of America. . .
(from http://harpers.org/archive/2014/10/stop-hillary-2/ by Doug Henwood)
". . . boils down to this: She has experience, she’s a woman, and it’s her turn. It’s hard to find any substantive political argument in her favor. She has, in the past, been associated with women’s issues, with children’s issues — but she also encouraged her husband to sign the 1996 bill that put an end to the Aid to Families with Dependent Children program (AFDC), which had been in effect since 1935. Indeed, longtime Clinton adviser Dick Morris, who has now morphed into a right-wing pundit, credits Hillary for backing both of Bill’s most important moves to the center: the balanced budget and welfare reform.1 And during her subsequent career as New York’s junior senator and as secretary of state, she has scarcely budged from the centrist sweet spot, and has become increasingly hawkish on foreign policy. . . "
OHO's "Ocean City Ditty," the CD single is now available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/oho4
(and, if you're in town, at Trax On Wax on Frederick Rd. in Catonsville, MD) OHO is Jay Graboski, David Reeve & Ray Jozwiak. Please Visit http://www.ohomusic.com
My latest solo offering, Just More Music by Ray Jozwiak, featuring original, instrumental piano music is now available at - Just More Music by Ray Jozwiak
(To Access all Ray Jozwiak - Gonzo Piano music you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
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(from http://nbcpolitics.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/12/11/21863224-boehner-lashes-out-at-conservative-groups-on-budget-deal?lite)
Republican leaders defended a modest budget deal that would maintain
government operations through 2015 amid conservative opposition that
could scuttle the legislation in the House.
House Speaker John
Boehner, R-Ohio, lashed out at conservative advocacy groups that have
encouraged GOP lawmakers to oppose a budget framework unveiled last
night by Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash.
"They're
using our members and they're using the American people for their own
goals," an animated Boehner told reporters at the Capitol. "This is
ridiculous."
Republican
House Speaker John Boehner delivers a message to advocacy groups
opposing the bipartisan budget framework agreement that was reached this
week.
Ryan and Murray, the top budget officials in their
respective chambers, announced an agreement that would set baseline
spending levels for the 2014 and 2015 fiscal years. The agreement calls
for spending levels slightly above the cap established by the automatic
spending cuts known as the "sequester" through a combination of reforms,
cuts and new, non-tax revenue.
Conservative groups had been girding themselves against the deal
before its details were finalized, mostly because the spending levels
exceed sequester levels. The Club for Growth, Americans for Prosperity
and Heritage Action -- each of them well-financed conservative advocacy
groups that hold some sway over Republican primary voters -- have begun
lobbying furiously against the modest government funding agreement.
"By
having a budget agreement that does not raise taxes, that does reduce
the deficit and produces some certainty and prevents government
shutdowns -- we think is a good agreement," Ryan, the architect of the
budget agreement, said after a closed-door meeting with fellow
Republicans.
Of the package's prospects for passage, the 2012 GOP
vice presidential nominee added: "We feel very good at where we are with
our members."
Chuck Todd reports on the budget deal presented by Rep. Paul Ryan and Sen. Patty Murray.
The
Republican leadership's struggle to manage its restive conservative
flank is a familiar storyline to any observer of Congress over the past
three years.
. . . person to give credit to the current U.S. Senate, would be ME . . .
. . . but . . .
Signs of progress began to emerge in U.S. budget talks on last Tuesday, as top Senate Democratic negotiator Patty Murray said that she sees a path toward an agreement to ease automatic "sequester" spending cuts.
Murray, asked if there was now a path forward in her talks with her counterpart, Republican Representative Paul Ryan, said: "I believe there is."
The lawmakers are racing against a December 13 deadline for a deal, as Republican resistance to including new tax revenues continued to be a sticking point, according to a Democrat on the negotiating committee headed by Murray and Ryan.
House and Senate negotiators were putting the finishing touches Sunday on what would be the first successful budget accord since 2011, when the battle over a soaring national debt first paralyzed Washington.
The deal expected to be sealed this week on Capitol Hill would not significantly reduce the debt, now $17.3 trillion and rising. It would not close corporate tax loopholes or reform expensive health-care and retirement programs. It would not even fully replace sharp spending cuts known as the sequester, the negotiators’ primary target.
(thanks to Reuters and the Washington Post)
A friend recently commented to me that he wished the President had not made those recent comments about race relations to which I, naturally, responded, "Why?" He said that among all of the problems we as a people, society and world currently face, the Trayvon Martin/George Zimmerman situation should not be monopolizing our attention. In short, like a popular song on a top 40 radio station, he was just sick and tired of hearing about it.
Like many other conversations with many people, I was quickly distracted from this one and on to other things. But later that day, after contemplating our short interchange further, I realized what I could have, should have, and hope to tell my friend upon our next encounter. And, in brief, that is: the President's remarks were spot-on. They were NOT political, they were not platitudinous or pompous blather, trite heard-it-alreadies or scolding. They were simply a from-the-heart reflection and plea for US to reflect on how we treat each other. Reflect- probably something very few of us do during our busy, self-absorbed days. He also described how it feels (and felt to him) being a young black man and some of the racist behaviors with which young black men must cope everyday. He mentioned the history of mistreatment to which black people have been subjected and alluded to the anger that results. So many things which white people know, but have somehow tucked away and choose not to think about too much. . . BUT SHOULD!
These are things that middle-aged white men such as my friend and myself do not now, nor have in the past, encountered. If we have a country, and a world, where people must live together, we must, at the very least, be empathetic to these things. This is every bit as important as the economy, the environment, budgets and spending, foreign policy, drones and (do-nothing)politicos. This is our world. It's the only one we've got. We can, and should, certainly make time to help resolve such such relevant and important issues as THE WAY WE GET ALONG!
(by Charlie Reese, a former columnist of the Orlando Sentinel Newspaper)
"Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.
Have you ever wondered, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits?
Have you ever wondered, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes?
You and I don't propose a federal budget. The President does.
You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does.
You and I don't write the tax code, Congress does.
You and I don't set fiscal policy, Congress does.
You and I don't control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does.
One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one President, and nine Supreme Court justices equates to 545 human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.
I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but private, central bank.
I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a President to do one cotton-picking thing. I don't care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator's responsibility to determine how he votes.
Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party.
What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall. No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating deficits.. ( The President can only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept it.)
The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes. Who is the speaker of the House?( John Boehner. He is the leader of the majority party. He and fellow House members, not the President, can approve any budget they want. ) If the President vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they agree to. [The House has passed a budget but the Senate has not approved a budget in over three years. The President's proposed budgets have gotten almost unanimous rejections in the Senate in that time. ]
It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million cannot replace 545 people who stand convicted -- by present facts -- of incompetence and irresponsibility. I can't think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people. When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist.
If the tax code is unfair, it's because they want it unfair.
If the budget is in the red, it's because they want it in the red.
If the Army & Marines are in Iraq and Afghanistan it's because they want them in Iraq and Afghanistan ..
If they do not receive social security but are on an elite retirement plan not available to the people, it's because they want it that way.
There are no insoluble government problems.
Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take this power. Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like "the economy," "inflation," or "politics" that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do.
Those 545 people, and they alone, are responsible. They, and they alone, have the power.
They, and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses. Provided the voters have the gumption to manage their own employees... We should vote all of them out of office and clean up their mess!"
(from the Progressive Change Campaign Committee PAC)
"The president is set to include a major Social Security benefit cut in his budget on Wednesday. President Obama is proposing the so-called chained CPI, which would cut cost-of-living adjustments for grandparents and veterans.
Tuesday, April 9th -- at 12:30PM EST, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee PAC is going to deliver hundreds of thousands of petitions directly to the White House telling Obama: No cuts to Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid benefits. "
Seems to me that is cost-of-living increases can be cut from benefits, (to which, by the way, anyone working in the U.S. contributes throughout his working life) the president must write INTO law that the cost of living can no longer GO UP! Seems only fair.
What
do YOU think?
http://www.rayjozwiak.com/guestbook.html
My latest release, Black & White Then Back,
can be downloaded digitally at:
(or you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak3)
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