Tag: spending

America's conscience is responding with strengthening itself against tyranny, while our governmental protectors now practice maneuvers in Miami, and Huston, that desensitize, and hone skills as is observed here.

Ayes: Benishek, Bentivolio, Camp, Huizenga, Miller, Rogers, Upton, and Walberg.

Noes: Amash

ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) -- A continued rebound in manufacturing will help Michigan add jobs and end its economic downturn over the next two years, but recovering the hundreds of thousands of jobs lost since 2000 will take far longer, a University of Michigan economist said Friday.

"Once Michigan's curse, the concentration of manufacturing has now become its blessing," George Fulton said at the university's annual economic forecast conference.

The state is on the upswing, albeit slowly. Fulton said he expects it will end 2011 with its first net job increase in 11 years, having added 64,200 positions. With the expected addition of 32,000 jobs in 2012 and 45,000 in 2103, the state's likely to see its unemployment rate drop from 10.6 percent now to around 10 percent in 2013.

The farce in U of M's figures?

Michigan is struggling to replace the 857,000 jobs it lost between 2000 and 2009,..

"Balancing the budget" by killing the dollar bill and forcing Americans to carry little burlap bags full of dollar coins like it is the 12th century, not the 21st?  I know this is RightMichigan.com, not 30 Rockefeller Center, but... Seriously?

According to Roll Call, that's the proposal being floated by a "Republican" Congressman from Arizona by the name of Dave Schweikart.  (Because the last time Republicans followed the lead of an Arizonan it worked out so well.  (ZING!))

Schweikart (pictured at right swimming in cold, hard home-state-mined cash) claims that burning all the paper money and forcing Americans to use those gold colored copper one-dollar coins (you know, the ones you immediately hand back to the cashier or the bank teller asking for "real money" every time she tries to hand it to you?) will help balance the budget by saving less than $200 million a year.  Coins are more durable, the argument goes, so they'd last longer and cost less to reproduce.

Yeah they last longer.  Because they sit in the bottom of our sock drawers since you'd have to lug around eight pounds of metal to buy a freaking Big Mac!  The American people have had the option -paper or coin--for years.   We've chosen lighter pockets and fewer trips to the chiropractor.

Camp and Upton sit on the powerful Super Committee and have not yet provided any clear inclination that they back this expensive, onerous, poorly thought out  bit of cow-towing to Arizonan special interests (I'll get there, bear with me), but its just a sneakily stupid enough of an idea I figured it'd be worth raising the red flag.

Please read more below the fold.

From the AP

  The House on Thursday voted to allow the government to go $1.9 trillion deeper in debt -- or about $6,000 more for every U.S. resident. The measure, approved 217-212, would raise the cap on federal borrowing to $14.3 trillion. That's enough to keep Congress from having to vote again before the November elections on an issue that is feeding a sense among voters that the government is spending too much and putting future generations under a mountain of debt to do it.

    Already, the accumulated debt amounts to roughly $40,000 per person. And the debt is increasingly held by foreign nations such as China.

    Passage of the bill would send it to President Barack Obama, who will sign it to avoid a first-ever, market-rattling default on U.S. obligations.

    "I can't think of a more reckless or irresponsible act. Defaulting is not an option," said Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass. "If the United States defaults, investors will lose confidence that the U.S. will honor its debts in the future.

    Democrats barely passed it through the Senate last week over a unanimous "no" vote from GOP members present.

I've said for almost four years that the Republican Party is at a crossroads, mainly due to fiscal issues. It can follow the lead of the Republican Study Committee, Mike Pence, Jim DeMint, and Jeb Hensarling in its opposition to deficit spending, or it can follow the lead of Ted Stevens, George W Bush, and Charlie Crist in their support for big spending policies. The choice made here, will determine whether the GOP can take the house back in 2010, and the senate back in 2012 or 2014. It will also determine if Obama will be a one-termer. The bailout in 2008 turned the election from a close race to an ass kicking. The fiscal policies in 2006 caused an ass kicking. Democrat-lite policies from the GOP do not work. Why vote for democrat-lite when the real thing is always available.

While I understand that what works in one community does not always work in another, basic principles should always apply, and that they should be less government and more freedom.

Many in the GOP are starting to get that message again with Obama's radical leftism, Mike Pence having a more visible role, Ted Stevens being defeated, and George W Bush being gone. Starting being the operative word. There's still a lot of trust that needs to be earned, and nobody trusts the government right now. That's why we have the tea parties. That's why the calls are flooding the offices. That's why people are involved in politics who have not been involved.