Funding Pakistan, but Military Suspends U.S. Tuition Assistance

 

The disconnect in Washington continues. While warning us of increased security lines at airports, the TSA pushed through a $50 million deal to buy new uniforms. The USDA warned they will not be able to monitor the food you eat, but will forge ahead with its partnership with the Mexican government on food stamps. There's also the release of thousands of illegal immigrants from jail by the Homeland Security department, which has posted more than 100 job openings this month alone.

There’s the closing the White House to public tours, but they’re giving 139 staffers six-figure salaries!

The list of hypocrisy in this government goes on and on, but this latest example of sequester hype may take the cake.

The Pentagon is cutting assistance for American troops! According to members of Congress, the Marines spent $47 million to help graduate 50,000 military members last year.

That money represents just a tenth of a percent of the Pentagon's budget.

The Army offered similar assistance by giving $4,500 annually for courses and more than 200,000 soldiers participated in the program.

Here's the hypocrisy of it all!

We're cutting these programs, but are still spending nearly $13 million on education aid in Pakistan! Where hatred against the U.S. is at record levels! That $13 million is just a fraction of the $370 million we’ve spent on all forms of nondefense aid to Pakistan in 2012, and another $250 million in additional aid to Egypt.

This administration is really missing a golden opportunity here with this sequester. Instead of acting like a two-year old and throwing a temper tantrum, laying people off, closing the White House, and making other big spectacle cuts, why not really look at where the money is going.

Look at smart ways to meet the new budget requirements.

No one's telling you to never spend another dime. We just ask that for once you spend that money wisely!

Despite Sequester, Feds Offer High-Paid Internships

 

The gall of this administration reaches no bounds. Today, they admitted to releasing more than 2,200 illegal immigrants from jail because of what the head of ICE said was "solely budgetary reasons." Immigration and Customs Enforcement falls under Homeland Security, the same department that has posted more than 100 job openings since the March 1st sequester.

So, this administration that claims their hands are tied from this sequester, which they say they had no part in, pays 139 people at least $100,000 each. The federal government also posted more than 2,600 job openings over the last two weeks and now they're looking for interns as well.

According to a Fox News search of the USA Jobs website, Uncle Sam has 84 open internships. Let me tell you, these aren't your usual unpaid internships where you work strange hours getting coffee.

The Department of Agriculture has one internship opening for a student trainee at the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service that pays more than $24 an hour!

One NASA internship pays more than $83,000! That's two-thirds higher than the median household income in this country!

Okay, well it is NASA… maybe they're offering the salary so they can get the best of the best, right?

Applicants only have to have a 2.9 grade point average- a B letter grade- and only have to be enrolled in college on a half-time basis.

NASA is not alone. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has an internship opening offering a salary of almost $63,000.

So, with all these expensive internships and calligraphers, why are those in the White House closing off the White House to tours? Well, apparently they're not!

As usual, Obama and company are blaming everybody else. They're claiming it was the Secret Service who decided to cancel the tours. As we know, the Secret Service has such a great history of good-decision making.

Boy did that plan backfire on this administration. Instead of being an example of how draconian the sequester is, the White House tour scandal became an opportunity to point out all the other ways the White House is wasting money... like hiring 84 very expensive interns.

Applying For Obamacare is as Difficult as Doing Your Taxes

 

Premiums for some could double, 20 new taxes are being implemented, you may not even get to see a real doctor the next time you're sick, and if you can get past all that, it's going to take a very long time to apply for coverage.

In fact, the Associated Press says the process is as daunting as doing your taxes.

For a family of three, the government's draft application is 15 pages long!

If you thought you could get health insurance online in an amazon-style marketplace, think again. The online application process has 21 steps, and some of those steps have more than one question.

The Department of Health and Human Services estimates that it will take you at least a half hour to complete the online application and 45 minutes to fill out the paper version.

Now this is on average. If you have specific issues it's going to take you much longer.

If your household income has changed over the past year and you're looking for benefits, you will have to apply based on your latest tax return. Then, in the same turn you have to predict what your income will be in 2014. In other words, you have to provide loads of documentation.

Also, if you or your spouse, decide not to take your employer-offered insurance then the questions will be a plenty.

Even once you've filled out all the forms... the red tape is just getting started.

At least three major federal agencies, including the IRS, will have to approve your application. They'll check your identity and see if you meet the income and citizenship requirements. But wait, they not going to approve you for the actual benefits- they're just approving you to go on to the next step- which is actually picking a health plan.

The throngs of pages and paperwork could backfire on the White House, as some are concerned people will be so overwhelmed they will simply give up!

This is just another example of what happens when government gets involved.

Cutting the Essentials and Funding the Junk

 

National parks are closing down as spring approaches, air traffic control towers are going black, high school field trips are being forced to skip tours of the White House and the list of casualties from the sequester goes on and on.

One of our viewers, Alan from Wyoming, recently hit the problem right on the head. He said, “With all of the end of the world rhetoric and Obama threatening to defund everything that is vital, he is doing what politicians always do when money is short.  They cut the essentials... while they fully fund the junk."

In this case, the "junk" is their precious ever-expanding bloated government.

According to the USA Jobs Federal Employment website: when the big bad sequester went into place March 1st there have been nearly 2,600 job openings!

So, while the economy is supposedly crumbling all around us, they want to add thousands of people to Uncle Sam's payroll.

That includes more than 100 positions at the Department of Homeland Security. The same department that said its budget was so slashed by the sequester they had to free illegal immigrants that had been behind bars. Or how about the Department of Agriculture, which warned they would not be able to carefully check food. Just today they said they would be halting inventory publications. They are also hiring over 100 people.

And get this! The V.A has more than 900 new openings... so much for the threat of forcing veterans to live on the streets.

It's not just the new jobs costing millions of dollars, there are the jobs that are already filled!

Around 139 White House staffers are earning six figure salaries! In fact, 20 were making the maximum salary of $172,200!

Apparently, President Obama needs really expensive climate change advisors. His "deputy" assistant for climate change, his "special" assistant, and his "deputy director" earned $370,000 last year alone.

Do you really need three people doing the same thing just with three different titles?

And the worst example of them all: the Chief Calligrapher makes nearly $97,000... not six figures, but pretty close! Her assistants make $94,000 and $86,000. That's $500,000 on invitation writing!

When it comes to White House pay, they make the same argument Wall Street makes: you have to pay more to attract the best people.

It takes a lot for someone to leave the private sector, not that there's a big need for calligraphers in the private sector, but other presidents have done it with less.

The payroll under the Bush administration in his last year in office was $33 million, compared with nearly $38 million last year. Only 18 staffers earned the maximum salary in 2008.

All I can say is stop Mister President. Stop trying to pull the wool over our eyes. Stop playing politics with people's livelihoods. Stop acting like your hands are tied and Congress is screwing everything up. Stop, as Allen said, cutting the essentials and funding the junk.

Do Green Cars Have a "Dirty" Little Secret?

 

Green technology is one of those loaded phrases that for many has positive associations.

Think butterflies, buttercups and sunshine.

People like Hollywood actor Leonardo DiCaprio are big proponents. In fact, DiCaprio recently said he was looking forward to flying all over the world and promoting green technology… no doubt in a private jet.

In other words, he wants everyone else to use less carbon-based energy sources, but when it comes to his own life he believes the rules shouldn't apply to him. So, it goes in the world of the green.

Take the arguments for the electric car. It's supposed to be better for the environment, right? 

Electric batteries are better than gas for the environment. 

Perhaps they contribute less to global warming? Perhaps not. Consider this from Bjorn Lomborg, and the Copenhagen Consensus Center.

By the time an electric car rolls off the production line, it has already contributed 30,000 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions. That's because just making the darn thing, especially the battery, requires a lot of energy.

Manufacturing a conventional car creates only 14,000 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions. So, before you even get on the road, the so-called green energy friendly alternative has already produced twice the negative environmental impact of regular cars.

It turns out the zero emissions promise from electric car makers is not that much of a promise.

When you factor in the huge emissions created in the electric cars' manufacturing, the "green" option is still creating more carbon dioxide than a conventional car even after driving 50,000 miles.

If the owner of the car uses a coal-fired electric plant to fire his car, he is producing 15 ounces more per mile of carbon dioxide than a gas-powered car. Don't forget we are subsidizing these purchases. There is a $7,500 tax break for buyers of the cars, and more than $5.5 billion in federal grants and loans that go directly to manufacturers like Tesla Motors and Fisker Automotive.

To me, that's a tragedy because right now the electric car is doing virtually nothing to attack global warming. Maybe, years from now it will, or as Robert Bryce likes to say, the electric car is the next great automotive idea and always will be.

So, is green the only way to go? That’s just hypocritical and duplicitous. Green technologies, especially the electric car, are far from proving themselves.

Look, if you were to peel back the left's support for green energy and its desire to reduce carbon emissions, what you find is a group of people who have fundamental problems with this country's energy consumption.   

They don't like the fact we consume 24% of the world's energy and they say it's a tragedy that the average American consumes twice the energy of a person in Japan, or six times the average Mexican. They also think the U.S. should pare back its size, its influence and its capabilities.

Here's what I say: America has the world's biggest economy with just 5% of the population. That's not something to apologize for, that's something to be proud of!

You don't get to be the world's biggest economy on a snickers bar and a shoe string. It takes energy and lots of it.

We are the most productive people on the face of the planet and that is a good thing!

Education Bombshell: 80% NYC High School Grads Can't Read at Grade Level

 

Sometimes there's just one number that describes everything you need to know about a topic. We have one of those today and it has to do with education.

If you want to understand the state of education in this country, listen to this: nearly 80% of New York City high school graduates have trouble with basic skills like reading, writing and math. The vast majority do not have the basic skills you would expect of someone half their age.

The news was reported by a local CBS affiliate today. City officials said 11,000 kids who had graduated from the city's high schools needed remedial courses to relearn the basics before entering New York’s community college system.

This isn't just an inner city, poor schools issue. When Former District of Columbia Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee appeared on our program, she told us that the underperformance can be seen in students of all backgrounds.

The poorest kids in America rank 26th out of the 30 developed nations in math compared to their peers. That's a trend we are too accustomed to seeing, but the trend is broader. The richest kids also rank 26th. “Middling schools aren't confined to ghettos,” says Rhee. They plague every neighborhood.

A report by the Georgetown University Center on Education and Workforce found that the U.S. economy will create 46.8 million new and replacement jobs in the next five years. More than half of those will require some college education. The problem is that we're not producing enough educated workers to fill those positions. If we don't fill those positions, watch out for more outsourcing. American jobs will go overseas to China and India, and we don't want that!

When it comes to education, the stakes could not be higher.

New York's Mayor Michael Bloomberg is planning to put education high on his list when he leaves office later this year. He plans to bankroll charter schools. Good for him.

I'd prefer that he fixes the mess that exists first. Kids graduating from New York schools need to have basic skills.

 

Once Again, Conference Attendees Wine and Dine on Your Dime

 

I would love to be at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Beach Resort in Waikiki, where the temperature today was 82 degrees and not a cloud in the sky.

There are water slides, a rooftop restaurant, a lagoon, five pools and the widest stretch of beach in Waikiki, unlike New York, where we are scheduled to get a wintry mix of rain and snow.

This paradise will be the home of the National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems in May, which is to say the folks who managed public pensions into a financial train wreck will be getting together over Mai Tais and roasted mahi-mahi on your dime!

Now, there is no doubt that the main topic of conversation will be budget cuts, austerity, and possibly the role public pensions are playing in the need for these budget cuts. After all, public pension funds have a funding gap of $770 billion. California, Illinois, New York's financial problems, as well as those of other states, can largely be ascribed to the pumping up of retirement benefits, pensions instead of 401(k)s, double dipping, you name it.

 

The cost for airline tickets and the $650 to $750 registration fees will be paid for with local tax dollars and 100,000 attendees are expected.

Now the organization is feeling a little guilty. Executive Director Hank Kim says the plans were made back in 2006, before the recession.

Afterwards he said, “Objecting to Honolulu because it has beautiful beaches is like objecting to New York because it has Broadway and Times Square or objecting to New Orleans because it has jazz clubs and great food.”

This guy just doesn't get it. The objection is not necessarily to the location, it's to the spending! Public pension funds debt, which we will no doubt inevitably have to pay as much as $2.2 trillion, are the people charged with managing it. Isn't it obvious that saving is more important than spending? Have you folks heard of Skype? You could meet for free at no cost to the taxpayer.

Republican Ohio House member Lynn Wachtmann is complaining about the bill of $11,200 that is being spent to send Buckeye state employees there. 

"For most Ohioans, a trip to Hawaii is considered a very, very, very deluxe trip," Wachtmann said. 

No kidding. So why are we paying for this exclusive trip?

Maybe for the same reason we paid the General Services Administration's $800,000 four-day Vegas party for 300 employees.

It's time government workers felt some of the pain that the rest of us have felt during this recovery. Austerity measures should start at home!

Where Would You Rather Live?

Nelson, GA

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/06/us-usa-georgia-guns-idUSBRE9251M920130306

 

Lancaster, CA

http://www.mnn.com/your-home/at-home/blogs/renewable-rules-lancaster-calif-requires-all-new-homes-to-have-solar-power

 

Make sure to vote!

Out of Control Government Spending Continues

 

It turns out; stopping the federal government from spending money is harder than stopping the snow from falling. That's what we saw in Washington D.C. today, and true to form the government sent everybody home for a day off with pay.

Suffice it to say our very own, Peter Barnes, made it in to work, as did lots of others who work for business. According to the A.P., the snowstorm has largely bypassed the nation’s capital, with less than an inch of precipitation falling at Reagan National Airport by midday.  Apparently, it was mostly rain.

In addition to the snow day, there was spending at the TSA, even as Janet Napolitano warned of long lines at airports and opened the doors to illegal aliens. In its wisdom, the federal government spent $50 million on new uniforms for agents. Some uniforms will undoubtedly be produced in Mexico, adding insult to injury.

And then there's this.

This White House employs a calligrapher for $96,000 a year. Further, this person is the Chief Calligrapher, and she has two deputies who make nearly as much! Mr. President, in these tough times of austerity, have you not heard of Evite? It’s an invitation system that uses the web, not fancy writers. It's considered very 21st century to send invitations this way. I am sure the Heads of State you have to the white house wouldn’t mind at all!

You have to ask yourself: how can we how can we motivate the President to get serious about cutting spending? What do we have to do? Congressman Louie Gohmert has an idea that just might work.

Gohmert filed an amendment for the continuing resolution bill to keep government funded that would bar Obama from traveling to a golf course on the public dime.

Since the President can't get anywhere without public expense, for example, the cost of transportation or the secret service detail that follows him around, it's impossible for him to make it to a golf course without spending public funds. Isn't that the appropriate way to react to the fiscal crisis that the President has called both "draconian" and "drastic?" How about laying-off the golf until things gets better?

Now, that's thinking- hit 'em where it matters.

By the way, just in case you are worried that Uncle Sam will go broke or waste away to nothing, just remember tax revenues are expected to rise this year to $2.7 trillion, 11% higher than last year, and the highest level on record since the recession started in 2007.

Don't worry; it's all going to be okay. No Armageddon. The sun will come up tomorrow. 

Even With The Sequester in Place, Feds Continue to Hire & Spend

 

"Deep concern." That's what President Obama said on Monday about his feelings towards the automatic federal spending cuts, which began to take place yesterday.

"We are going to manage it as best we can, try to minimize the impacts on American families," Obama told reporters during a meeting with his Cabinet.

The President's opposition to the $85 billion in spending cuts is well known, and according to the Congressional Budget Office it's really only $44 billion. At turns, he's called it "draconian" and "drastic."

It’s not as bad as it seems. For example, layoffs may be in the offing, but right now the government is advertising for workers.

The U.S. Forest Service is looking for “recreation aides" this summer. At the same time, the IRS advertised for an office secretary in Maryland, the U.S. Mint wanted 24 people to help press coins, and the Agriculture Department said it needs three "insect production workers" to help grow bollworms in Phoenix.

On Monday alone, as these shocking cuts were supposed to take place, the government advertised 400 new jobs by 6 p.m. Things can’t be all that bad if Uncle Sam still wants to hire 24 people to press coins.

In February, during the to-ing and fro-ing over sequestration, our federal debt rose by $253.5 billion. Our government was borrowing at a rate 44 times the puny cuts we were arguing about.

Don't worry about the government going hungry. The federal government is on pace to collect a record $2.7 billion in tax receipts this year, 11% higher than last year.

It’s not just the hiring and the tax collections that continue. It's the waste too. The USDA is planning two conferences in Oregon and California in the upcoming weeks that will feature guest chefs and wine for department employees.

Then there are the duplicated programs and the reams of poverty programs.

The federal government runs 33 different housing programs: 21 programs to provide food, 8 health-care programs, and 27 cash or general assistance programs.

It's hard to find a government department that doesn't run an anti-poverty program and that’s just scratching the surface.

According to Senator Tom Coburn, there are nearly 1,400 programs that duplicate others for a total of $364.5 billion in wasteful spending.

Maybe, just maybe, it’s time we stopped spending so much. Maybe it’s time the government stopped producing cooking shows and studying how fish view Democracy. Maybe it’s time we get the shrimp off the treadmill that we spent $500 million on.

The Presidents says he’s worried about cuts hitting regular Americans, but I think he just wants to keep government growing and growing.