House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told CNN yesterday that there isn’t a single thing the government can afford to cut from its budget:
“[T]he cupboard is bare. There’s no more cuts to make. It’s really important that people understand that.”
Oh, really?
Just off the top of my head, here are a dozen things the government could’ve cut to save the taxpayers some money:
1. We spent $7.2 million to put more sand on Coney Island.
2. It’s almost embarrassing that government thought “cigarette-monitoring underwear” was worth the $400,000 investment.
3. Let’s not forget the $45,000 government spent to market bloody Mary mix – and $213,000 spent on a Virginia farm to make more strawberry flavored ice cream and jellies.
4. Last March, the federal government doled out $1.18 million for puppets.
5. Can someone ask the Department of Defense if the $31,000 contract an oil painting of former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta was necessary?
6. We cannot forget the First Family’s African outing, which cost taxpayers up to $100 million.
7. Concerning fueling our national defense, we’re paying $59/gallon on “green” jet fuel. By the way, this contract was signed amidst sequestration. Additionally, regular jet fuel costs about $3.73 per gallon.
8. Concerning the bottomless hole known as green jobs, we’ve spent $21 billion to create 28,854 jobs! That’s nearly $728,000 a job.
9. Did we have to spend $81,000 on televisions for Gitmo detainees while civilian workers got furloughed?
10. Also, how can we forget the $25,000 study that sought to link childhood obesity to fatty, sugar-filled foods?
11. Someone needs to ask if the $556,000 HHS spent on LGBT mental health training for medical students was necessary.
12. Lastly, there’s Obamacare. It’s costing us over a trillion dollars, and there’s more than enough places to trim, cut, or refine. After all, the new law hasn’t been undergoing the smoothest of transitions into becoming fully functional.
And of course, there are many many others — though perhaps the most egregious aspect of Pelosi’s bugeyed lie is that the government itself has located redundant programs and fraud, waste, and abuse within its own ranks that, should those problems be shored up, would save hundreds of billions if not a trillion dollars.
Just as it was ironic to hear the Democrat gun grabbers rushing to microphones to call for more gun control after a man entered a government installation in a heavily gun controlled district and, with a weapon lauded by the Vice President, was able to lay waste to a government facility where military workers were disallowed from carrying firearms for protection — and by “ironic,” I mean, of course, insulting, cynical, revoltingly opportunistic, and ridiculous — here we have the specter of Nancy Pelosi decrying the call by we “anarchists” to cut government spending that is already put us $17 TRILLION in debt before unfunded liabilities are factored in, claiming that there’s no room to cut in a massive governmental complex that routinely runs deficits into the high billions and trillions. Meaning, it’s spending more money than it has to spend.
So here’s an idea: howsabout we just start with outlawing deficit spending, then tackle redundancy and waste / fraud / abuse, and see if that doesn’t present us with areas to cut.
Then we can move on to lawmaker perks.
Sound good?
We were doomed the moment the first congresscritter realized the federal treasury was his own reelection fund.
I didn’t hate black people until I opposed Obamacare. Somehow when I did the second thing the first thing also happened or something. Therefore Obamacare made me a racist. Obamacare causes and advances racism like nothing else in our history.
You forgot to mention the billions squandered by our bloated and wasteful armed forces via Obama’s war machine.
But yes, please, end the scientific research, and shackle food stamps to work requirements in a jobless recovery. Think of the savings.
The cupboard is not bare. Hell, I’d be fucking ecstatic if the cupboard were merely bare. Truth is, the cupboard is full of IOUs with our children’s names on them. Trillions of them, putting our children in servitude, and all so that Nancy and her friends can continue to live high on the hog without contributing a single damn thing to society.
As Adam Carolla said the other day: You want proof that gun owners aren’t the careless knuckle-draggers they’re portrayed to be? Look to the fact that all these assholes are still walking around, without a single bullet hole in ’em.
Oh, do fuck off, Dale. Your thin attempts at shit-stirring aren’t even competent enough to be entertaining any more.
I have an idea… how about we scale the pay for Congresscritters based on the money they save?
If the Federal Government runs a deficit, take away their pay/staff/benefits to make up the difference. If the deficit is more than 10% of the budget, the Congressmen make up the difference out of their own pockets/estates. With 537 elected officials and associated staff, most of whom would be earning six figures, that should save us a billion dollars, easy.
If the Federal Government runs a profit (where tax income exceeds spending), Congress will get paid a pro-rata portion of half of whatever gets saved, with the other half going to pay down the debt already run up.
Next would be the requirement that any personnel staff layoffs start at the top, with security and clerical being the first to go. I’d love to see Obama vacuuming the carpets while M’Shell stands a rifle watch atop the White House.
I’d bet we wouldn’t be running any more deficits…
(FWIW, I’m fully down with the feds getting out of R&D and food stamps entirely. There’s no reason why private industry and the academy can’t do their own R&D, and there’s no reason why individual communities can’t feed their neighbors without sending having Washington skim 20% off the top.
Just commenting on the deep ignorance of these comments made from inside the padded confines of a rural/suburban bubble.
And the fact that yellow ribbon hysteria apparently keeps Jeff and CNS from the elephant in the room that is the military and how its crippled our ability to be a civilized industrial nation – an embarrassment to our global peers.
Although, to be honest, I have no real assurances that M’Shell would pass a background check to buy a rifle, especially in DC…
“Global peers”? In order to have peers, one must first have someone capable of doing the same job, and there aren’t any other nations either capable or willing to do 1/10 what the US has managed over the last half century.
There are entire continents that would have gone bankrupt if they had been forced to pay for their own security in addition to the other spending they committed themselves to…
So until there is a nation capable of matching us, we have no “peers”. So fuck off.
She speaks and words come out but they’re dissolving in this plane of existence before they fully arrive, like internet packets reassembled incompletely. It’s pixilated. Shout! Nancy, shout! We hear you but you but none of it is sense.
Plus the visage and the gesticulations have all gone mechanistic.
Here’s what to do. Use one of your arms to pick up an axe and chop off another appendage.
They can’t do it. It’s against their nature. So it must be done for them. Don’t worry. There are ten thousand octopus arms.
And they grow right back. Start chopping.
Perhaps another analogy would be useful. Barnacles upon the lumbering ship of state. Barnacles with barnacles. Clear that off so the ship can start over and sail without drag.
That’s it! Your government, Nancy, is like an aircraft with fixed gear, except your fixed gear has decorative gargoyles that add significantly to drag, and those gargoyle decoration on your fixed gear all have parachutes holding back flight, cut them loose, they have parachutes, they’ll enjoy the fall. And say, “Job well done!” As you do.
Entire departments.
They were begun in my lifetime. Started right up out of thin air. Place holders. Rent seeking. Positions just made right up out of the blue. It would suit me just fine, balance, Maat if you like, to see them all gone within my lifetime. Why not? That’s not so radical. Is housekeeping radical?
Say, “Well done!” And call it a day.
Education
Energy
Agriculture
and so on
ATF and a host of others.
Too many Departments to list, actually, ridiculous to try listing in comments the number of departments that could vanish without interruption and most likely with a very great deal of good side-effects, most having to do with getting out of the way.
So many departments they must be listed alphabetically, clicking on the “A” clicking on the “B” clicking on the “C” and so on through the alphabet. Hundredsxxxxxxxx thousands of government departments, barnacles upon the ship of state. Octopus arms reaching into your pockets, sexing you up, distracting you with sweet sweet octopus suckery kisses, dropping coins into you pockets, stripping your paycheck, tickling your testicles, taking your money.
Perhaps another analogy would be useful, darkening the sky with criss-crossing payments, until such a
We do not actually need an IRS. It is possible to run government without one of those.
These Departments are obviously too easily politicized. Nancy Pelosi is saying her Party cannot exist without them.
Dale, shut up.
My husband spent 23 years in the US Army, including 3 tours in Vietnam as a Chinook helicopter pilot. Our armed forces are fighting with equipment that is old and worn out. Elderly battleships float our Navy and ancient airframes are patched together on our aircraft. Our soldiers don’t have sturdy boots. Recently, men in the field were cut back to two hot meals a day. Many are serving their fourth or fifth tours of duty. Yes, our military is stretched to the limit and yes it is Obama’s fault. We haven’t had a major build-up of equipment or ship fitting since Reagan was president.
Aren’t you late for class? Go learn something, you tool.
“Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives” should be a convenience store, not a Federal Agency.
Global peers? What the hell is he talking about? Are the “Global peers” stepping up to pay off the accumulated American debt all of a sudden?
“Just commenting on the deep ignorance of these comments ”
Which you are not remotely qualified to do in any shape or form. But the important thing is the optics right?
Actually, the elephant in the room are all the transfer payments promised to various constituencies, which the pols know will never be paid, or if paid, the value of same will have been diminished beyond all recognition. In the space of 50 years, they have condemned us and our descendants for many generations to live the life the way our great-grandparents lived it.
So Lois Lerner retires from the IRS. Guess she can begin collecting her pension now.
Gee, I wonder if Lois will be able to remember anything now or will her health take a turn for the worse?
Except that our great grandparents didn’t have all those memories of “how things used to be”.
“I tell you, my grandfather told me these little devices used to be able to play thousands of songs for whole hours at a time, but the The Change for Hope came, and… well, you can look around you. Or you could, if the sun was up.”
“No way, grandpa, really?“
Gad, Drumwaster. And here all these years I thought Rod Serling was just a sad sack, not a prophet.
Always be a pessimist. That way, you will spend your life being either proved right or pleasantly surprised.
Drum, it’s only pessimism while there remain the possibility of of two or more outcomes, some good and some bad. When the possibility of the good outcomes has been eliminated, you cease being a pessimist and become the voice of Truth.
Yes, we really missed an opportunity to save some wealth by simply surrendering to the Soviets. How can we pass up another opputunity like the one the Islamists are offering.
The Soviets would have shot us and made our family’s pay for the bullet. I bet the Islamists throw in the blade sharpening free-of-charge.
So by Dale’s “logic,” we need the feds to stop doing their primary Constitutional duty in order that they may squander our grandchildren’s money on transfer payments, “green energy” boondoggles, LGBT mental health training, and socialized medicine, not one of which is a legitimate federal concern.
Dale is much like the United States, in that he is peerless in the world.
you cease being a pessimist and become the voice of Truth.
Well, I have been looking for a new career…
Infidels get dull blades, bgbear. They are not worthy of a clean beheading.
They are not worthy of a clean beheading.
I heard about that kind of thing from Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington…
hey, I am just thinking about the poor executioner, he could develop a really bad case of tendonitis having to hack off heads with a dull blade.
“Except that our great grandparents didn’t have all those memories of “how things used to be”
My grandparents remembered FDR’s men mass destroying their “sick”cattle and leaving them a check big enough for some food and shoes so the country could keep beef prices artificially high and after that joining the beef club and smoking the hell out of the meat so it would last the winter. And the remember selling the hogs and getting some pity sausage back because they couldn’t really afford to hold onto the good meat. This was described as Federal generosity “freeing” the farmers from the burden of cattle they couldn’t properly care for and preventing disease. But my grandparents knew what was up.
… he could develop a really bad case of tendonitis having to hack off heads with a dull blade.
I think you’ve just stumbled upon the next Obama/Kerry foreign policy strategy.
They’ll just use a modified spiral slicer and automate the process. Because OSHA.
“As has been the case in all aspects of the current IRS investigation, the IRS internal Review Board found no evidence of political bias in her neglect of duties,” Levin said. “The basic overreaching premise of the Republicans that the IRS had an ‘enemies list’ and was being influenced from the outside has been proven wrong again, as it has again and again.”
– Because as we all know, the hordes of Obama ankle lickers would never think of carrying out the Wans unspoken wishes of course, and as far as Lerner and the IRS, it was just incompetence, no political agenda what so ever!
– The Dems/Progressives think like children and expect their stupid childish assertions to be believed by other children.
– This 8 year experiment in Marxo-socialism is not going to end well for the Left. As the wheels come off expect serious attacks by the statists because they will never (have never) give up power willingly.
Palaeomerus, I’ve heard similar stories. I remember the first time I heard the word “kulak,” and thought “that’s what they were talking about.”
They’ll just use a modified spiral slicer and automate the process
“they’ve eliminated entire occupations because they’re now robotized. We don’t have travel agents. We don’t have bank tellers. ”
poor Achmed is next :(
Achmed can still wheel it in, blow the dust and spider webs off of it, and plug it in and run some rubbing alcohol through it before putting it away again. And he can set the video camera up too when they have an extra important client.
Except tha Li Je Wei is willing to that for $2 an hour less than Achmed currently gets. So Achmed probably has some negotiations ahead of him. If he knows somebody he should be alright.
Oh, look – they found one place that cuts were possible: health care fraud investigation. **smack forehead against keyboard**
http://www.cnbc.com/id/101041552
ot
ALL Charges Dropped Against Dad Who Was Arrested After Speaking Out Against Common Core at Public Meeting
What the hell? How is it that anybody can sit there, listening to her say things so far removed from reality, and not laugh in her plasticized face? Not even so much as an “Are you serious?”
All charges dropped…
– Yeah, like his name may be Small but he knew the best move was to lawyer up, and like all Fascist bullies Mr Smart got outta town fast. Both him an the Baltimore board will now spend sleepless nights in anticipation of a suit to follow.
– If it was me I’d sue the sombitches until they were all dead or homeless.
What the hell? How is it that anybody can sit there….
– Shes the most useful of idiots, saving all the other crooked fucking Dem/Progs from having to say stupid things in public, so they’re grateful shes that dumb and wouldn’t think of standing in her way.
TRESPASSERS W, they’d have to say it twice. For the ironies.
Progtardian discourse has about the same relevance to sanity re the Constitution as does skidmarks on the shorts of Uncle Sam. And smells about as fetid as Rovian discourse.
proggtardia news
DOJ vs. Police: Angela Davis and George Soros Edition
As to the charges being dropped against the Towson dad, I predicted that yesterday. I truly hope he lawyers up and sues the bastards. That’s the only way the worthies will understand we’re serious.
Maryland is so awesome how not-fascist it is I love it. Their governor has sights set on higher office!
He better look sharp though or that Hillary will give him a heckuva run for his money I bet. Plus she has Bill onboard her team. Savvy operator, that one.
SAS hero of the mall massacre: Off duty soldier with a handgun saved 100 lives as terrorists ran amok
Why can’t somebody make O’Malley resign in mid-term?
comrade party 1st
always use SQUID™ tar, feathers and pitchforks
Working at one’s real profession was very probably made a privilege
that can be denied the disobedient because otherwise there
would be nothing left to take away from people. The levelling of the
living standard has gone so far that everyone is in the same boat and
the totalitarian power must therefore endow even the most natural
social functions with the qualities of privilege.
In the early 1960s, when even the leadership of the state began to
feel the effects of that levelling, they initiated what they called ‘delevelling’,
which, of course, attacked the problem from the silliest
possible end, that of wages. The real essence of levelling, in fact,
does not lie in reducing the differences in people’s ability to
consume, but in making sure that everyone is equally without rights,
that there is an equally small area for everyone to exercise their
initiative or realize their ideas – even the most insignificant
ideas – and that the pressure of the system, compelling everyone to
behave like everyone else and to desire what everyone else desires,
potpowerless @pg 201
“I truly hope he lawyers up and sues the bastards.”
Yes. Unfortunately the taxpayers will wind up paying the settlement, not Mr. Jackboots personally.
That’s something else that needs to be fixed.
palaeomerus: we came within a hair’s breadth of going full Fascist in the FDR years. If the bastard hadn’t croaked, we probably would have.
Restore it to Clinton-era levels.
Good Lord, whatever you do, don’t touch the National Turfgrass Evaluation Program (NTEP)!
http://www.ntep.org/
Golf courses and corporate headquarters lawns everywhere rely on this program to produce new varieties of grass. For the children.
Another day in the salt mines. This time I was able to hit the gym briefly.
I could not load the software I need on my work computer yesterday. I hope it goes better today. Otherwise, they are not the slave drivers I expected. Put in your 8 and go home.
Of course, I won’t be playing here during working hours. If they followed my path and saw all the gun talk they might pee their pants.
Tell the truth: y’all are just punking people with this fake “Dale” person. No one is that fucking stupid, right?
Oh, wait: Obama voter? That explains a lot.
Godspeed, Cranky.
Perhaps, Mzzz. Pelosi should be given the same treatment I’ve recommended for Mitch ‘The Quisling’ McConnell…
http://t.co/UTBQ4rWzzE
Outside of the improvement in her reasoning skills, Nancy won’t notice the difference.
Mein Gott. Is anyone listening to Himself speechifying at the UN? This is painful.
“I, me, my . . .” Arrgh.
Yes. Unfortunately the taxpayers will wind up paying the settlement, not Mr. Jackboots personally.
That’s why in my state, monetary damages for this sort of thing are the personal responsibility of the public entity’s governing body and cannot be discharged in bankruptcy. The only defense is voting against the violation or, in the Towson case, making a record that the member of public be allowed to speak.
In Dalek’s world, a trillion dollars spent over a decade is the same as a trillion dollars spent in one year.
Moron.
No, not even Himself.
In Dalek’s world, a trillion dollars spent over a decade is the same as a trillion dollars spent in one year.
We need to stop paying people to defend our nation, so that we’ll have lots of money to pay people to sit on their asses all day.