Another One Bites The Dust

Yet another government entitlement program looks to be about to go belly up.

Social Security Disability Payments Could End in 2017

Aging baby boomers and laid-off workers are inundating Social Security’s disability program with benefit claims, a financial strain that new congressional estimates report could leave the program bankrupt by 2017.

Applications have increased by 50 percent over the past decade, according to a report from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), as more people with disabilities lost their jobs — and often remain unemployed for months or even years — in an economy that has been hemorrhaging jobs.

See also:
Social Security Disability and SSI going broke
Social Security Disability Payments May Cease in 2017
Social Security disability on verge of insolvency
Report: Disability fund losing cash
A look at Social Security’s disability program
Old And In The Way: The Politics, Policies and Poverty Of Aging
Soc. Sec. disabilities claims up by 50%
U.S. Trust Funds
Social Security Disability Payments In Peril by 2017
Another Looming Entitlement Crisis
Social Security Disability Fund In Trouble
Government Running Out of Funds for Social Security
Social Security disability payments could end in 2017

Medicare, Social Security, and now Social Security Disability are all well down the road toward insolvency and the politicians, particularly the Democrats, don’t have the guts to do a damn thing about it. So, if you’re under say, 50, I wouldn’t be counting on any of these entitlement programs to be there for you when you might need them in the future.

/it’s the Age of Obama economy and you’re just going to have to learn to fend for yourself

What Was The [Expletive Deleted] Point?

First they promised to cut $100 billion, then said what they really meant was that they’d hold out indefinitely for $60 billion, then they totally caved in to the Democrats, compromising on $38 billion, and in the end all we got was a lousy $352 million in cuts. What a gyp, shame on the spineless Republicans.

Budget deal: CBO analysis shows initial spending cuts less than expected

A federal budget compromise that was hailed as historic for proposing to cut about $38 billion would reduce federal spending by only $352 million this fiscal year, less than 1 percent of the bill’s advertised amount, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Although that analysis dampened enthusiasm for the deal among many Republicans on Thursday, the House and the Senate approved the measure with bipartisan support. President Obama is expected to sign the bill Friday, officially ending the prospect of a government shutdown.

The findings from the budget office warned that the deal may never come close to delivering on its promises. The analysis found that $13 billion to $18 billion of the cuts involve money that existed only on paper and was unlikely to ever be tapped.

See also:
U.S. Budget Analysis Shows Smaller Savings
CBO Says Budget Deal Will Cut Spending by Only $352 Million This Year
Forget $38B: Budget only cuts $352 million this year
Deal Approved but Debate Continues Over Actual Extent of Spending Cuts
Budget cuts too small for many conservatives
Spending cuts fall short of $38 billion: CBO
How Washington Turned $38 Billion Into $352 Million
CBO: 2011 Budget Cuts Far Less Than Promised
Editorial: Washington’s $38 Bil In ‘Cuts’ Are Bogus

This is insane, the United States is $14 trillion in debt, the world bond markets could decide to cut up our national credit card at any given moment, the laws of mathematics dictate that the American economy will completely collapse by 2037, and these congressional buffoons spent the entire last month arguing over cutting $352 million?

The 2012 elections can’t come fast enough. We need to start with a new President and Republicans taking control of the Senate and keeping control of the House. It’s apparent that one party rule, with a party that’s serious about restoring fiscal sanity (and that ain’t the Democrats), is going to be required to stop this country from careening off the cliff of financial ruin.

/and, if that doesn’t work, we’ll have to get us some new Republicans starting in 2014

Bogus Obama Math Busted

It’s bad enough that Obama had the gall to release a farcically irresponsible 2012 budget that kicks the fiscal sanity can down the road and shoves the United States well down the path to third world status, but then he and his clown posse minions have the further, cynical audacity to lie about it to the American public.

CBO: W. House Lowballs Debt

The president’s budget plan would double the debt over 10 years to $20.8 tril, the CBO estimated, $2.3 tril more than the White House had projected. Interest on the debt would top 18% of federal revenue in 2018, a level that Moody’s has said could trigger a downgrade of America’s AAA rating.

Read the Congressional Budget Office report:

Preliminary Analysis of the President’s Budget for 2012

See also:

Report says Obama budget underestimates deficit
CBO Claims Obama Budget Underestimates Future Deficits by $2 Trillion
CBO: Obama budget underestimates deficits by $2.3 trillion over upcoming decade
CBO: Obama understates deficits by $2.3 trillion
Obama Budget Underestimates Deficits by $2 Trillion
CBO: Obama FY12 Budget Would Result In $9.5T In Deficits Over Next Decade
CBO: Obama policies would require deficits of $9.5 trillion through 2021
CBO: Obama budget worse than projected on 10-year deficit
Congressional Budget Office projects higher Obama deficits
CBO Analysis: Obama’s 2012 Budget Increases Deficit
US budget to worsen deficits: CBO
UPDATE 2-Obama budget would worsen deficits – CBO report
Oooops! CBO says Obama’s budget understates deficits
To Bull[expletive deleted] . . . And Beyond!

Paul Ryan and the Republicans will soon unveil their 2012 budget which will address the looming entitlements disaster, make the hard choices, and put America back on the road to fiscal solvency. And, of course, Obama and the Democrats, in control of the Presidency and the Senate, will fight tooth and nail to sabotage and undermine any attempt to walk America back from the edge of the financial abyss which they seem hell bent on flinging us into.

/I can’t emphasize just how important the 2012 elections are, without a new President and Republican control of the Senate, the United States economy will continue to recklessly stagger towards economic collapse under Obama’s crushing, unsustainable debt load

,

Obama Sets Another New Record

And it’s not a good one.

U.S. posts record monthly budget deficit

The U.S. government posted a budget deficit of $222.5 billion in February, the largest monthly deficit on record, the Treasury Department reported Thursday.

The government spent about $333 billion in the month and took in about $110 billion. February is typically a deficit month.

Year-to-date, the deficit is $641.2 billion, according to Treasury.

And just how bad is Obama’s out of control spending?

Big government doesn’t come cheaply. According to Congressional Budget Office (CBO) figures released Monday, the budget deficit for February hit a staggering $223 billion – meaning the Obama administration added more in debt last month than was borrowed in all of 2007.

Yep, that’s right, Obama added more to the national debt, money that we don’t have, in a single month, than George Bush added in the entire year of 2007. What’s wrong with this picture?

See also:
U.S. Runs $222.5 Billion Deficit in February; Highest for Any Month
U.S. Budget Deficit Expanded to Monthly Record $222.5 Billion in February
U.S. Posts Record Monthly Budget Deficit In February
February budget deficit highest ever for any month
Budget deficit hits record $222.5 billion in February
US budget deficit hits record in February
U.S. federal gov’t monthly budget deficit rises to record high in February
US Trade & Budget Deficits Get Worse
Deficit this month more than all of 2007
Obama Is Setting Records but Not in a Good Way

Everybody knows exactly what has to be done, Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security need to be reformed back into solvency. It’s going to be painful and unpopular and the longer we wait to do what’s necessary, the more painful and unpopular the reforms are going to be. Unfortunately, no one seems to want to take the lead on this issue and get the job done, least of all Obama, who’s supposed to be leading this country. Obama is nothing more than a narcissistic political opportunist, more concerned with getting reelected than he is concerned with doing what’s right for the American people and the country.

Hopefully, when they release their 2012 budget proposal, the Republicans will step up to the plate as patriotic adults, negative political repercussions be damned, and include entitlement reform that will start to bring this country back on to the path to fiscal sanity.

/because someone has to do the right thing for America, a concept lost on Obama and the Democrats

How Do You “Invest” When You’re Broke?

Hey Obama, what part of “we don’t have any money” don’t you understand?

CBO: Federal deficit to hit $1.5T this year

Last month’s bipartisan tax cuts and spending deal has deepened the federal deficit dramatically this year, putting the government on track for a nearly $1.5 trillion shortfall — the largest in history — the Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday.

The sobering check on the country’s finances was announced a day after President Obama‘s address to Congress and underscored the country’s tenuous fiscal standing, which could doom many of Mr. Obama‘s initiatives to boost government spending on education, roads and other infrastructure.

The CBO did say the economy appears to be improving, albeit slowly, from a deep recession that drove the unemployment rate to more than 10 percent. The rate is still above 9 percent, despite efforts by Mr. Obama and Congress to pump money into the economy.

“It’s been a slow recovery by the standards of our past. The labor market in particular has been coming back slowly; income has been coming back slowly,” said CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf.

Social Security Will Post Shortfall This Year, CBO Says

Social Security will post a $45 billion shortfall in fiscal 2011 and will pay out more in benefits than it accepts in payroll taxes through at least 2021 without legislative changes, the Congressional Budget office said on Wednesday.

See also:
The Budget and Economic Outlook: Fiscal Years 2011 to 2021
CBO projects record-high $1.5 trillion budget deficit this year
As deficits, debt soar, Obama, Congress fail to confront them
Deficit Outlook Darkens
CBO forecast: frightening fodder for both parties
It’s official: The debt is ballooning. Now can we think clearly?
Social Security to Run Deficits for Foreseeable Future, CBO Says
Social Security fund now seen to be empty by 2037
Social Security to Operate in the Red for the Next 10+ Years: CBO
Social Security to run permanent deficits, says CBO
CBO: Social Security Will Run Permanent Deficits
A Roadmap for America’s Future

I swear, Is Paul Ryan the only adult in Washington? When are these moron politicians going pay attention, grow some spines, and start taking this fiscal crisis seriously. Every day that goes by, we dig ourselves deeper into the national debt hole and it becomes ever so much more difficult and painful to try and climb out of our self inflicted, bottomless deficit pit.

/we’d better just forget about pie in the sky choo choo trains and go straight to the required austerity budget measures

The State Of The Union Is Not Strong

The U.S. economic forecast looks grim and we’re definitely expecting more rain.

UPDATE: CBO Estimates 2010 Deficit At $1.34 Tln

A new projection from the Congressional Budget Office forecast the federal government’s budget deficit for fiscal 2010 would total $1.34 trillion, improving to just over $1 trillion in fiscal 2011, which begins on Oct. 1.

If the CBO’s figures are reached, the deficit in the current fiscal year would be equal to 9.1% of U.S. gross domestic product, compared with fiscal 2009’s mark of 9.9%.

The latest figures from the nonpartisan agency portray a dreary picture of the U.S. economy, predicting U.S gross domestic product would only grow by 2% between the fourth quarter of 2010 and the same period next year.

It said the unemployment rate would not fall back to the long-term average of 5% until the end of 2014.

The CBO said since mid-2009, the recovery in the U.S. economy had been “anemic” compared with the periods following earlier recessions.

The projections involve several assumptions that likely make them optimistic. They assume the Bush-era tax cuts expire at the end of 2010, for example, and also that Congress makes no further annual adjustments to prevent the alternative minimum tax from hitting middle-class taxpayers.

The projections also don’t include any further government stimulus efforts to accelerate the lagging economy.

Read the report:

The Budget and Economic Outlook:
An Update

See also:
Keeping tax cuts beneficial in short term, harmful over long term, CBO says
Stimulus and tax cuts now, smaller economy later, CBO report says
Analysts: CBO GDP Forecast A Fantasy
Budget analysts: Near-record 2010 deficit of $1.3T
UPDATE 1-U.S. 2010 budget deficit at $1.342 trln – source
$1.3-trillion U.S. budget deficit expected
Projected US budget deficits threaten to curtail growth: CBO
Gloom weighs on fragile US recovery

The economy’s in shambles and getting worse by the day, so what does Congress and Obama do? Why naturally they all go on vacation for the rest of the month! Crisis, what crisis?

/if these so called people’s representatives don’t get deadly serious about making the hard and unpopular choices that are necessary to get us out of this massive deficit mess, we’ll soon be past the debt with interest tipping point and unable to avoid total economic collapse no matter what anyone does

Obamacare: Way Beyond Anything Rube Goldberg Could Have Ever Imagined

This is your health care on drugs. Does this look like it’s going to be more efficient and save money to you?

Download Chart (PDF format)

Obamacare Only Looks Worse Upon Further Review: Kevin Hassett

One of the more illuminating remarks during the health-care debate in Congress came when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told an audience that Democrats would “pass the bill so you can find out what’s in it, away from the fog of controversy.”

That remark captured the truth that, while many Americans have a vague sense that something bad is happening to their health care, few if any understand exactly what the law does.

To fill this vacuum, Representative Kevin Brady of Texas, the top House Republican on the Joint Economic Committee, asked his staff to prepare a study of the law, including a flow chart that illustrates how the major provisions will work.

The result, made public July 28, provides citizens with a preview of the impact the health-care overhaul will have on their lives. It’s a terrifying road map that shows Democrats have launched America on the most reckless policy experiment in its history, the economic equivalent of the Bay of Pigs invasion.

Before discussing what the law means for you, we have to look at what it does to government. That’s where the chart comes in handy. It includes the new fees, bureaucracies and programs and connects them into an organizational chart that accounts for the existing structure. It’s so carefully documented that a line connecting two structures cites the legislative language that created the link.

See also:
AMERICA’S NEW HEALTH CARE SYSTEM REVEALED
UPDATED CHART SHOWS OBAMACARE’S BEWILDERING COMPLEXITY
Republicans draw circles around Obama health plan
ObamaCare: A Tangled Knot Around America’s Throat
Obamacare: Read it and weep
Charting the Murky Waters of ObamaCare
Brady bashes government
Republican Chart Outlines House Democrats’ Government Takeover of Health Care
Congressman Kevin Brady
Kevin Brady

Well, I for one DO NOT welcome our new health care overlords. Hopefully, if the Republicans can at least take back the House, they can strangle this vile monstrosity to a slow death by withholding funding, assuming it can’t be straight up repealed.

/in the meantime, be afraid, be very afraid, this is idiotic craziness, far beyond sheer insane madness

Can We Call It The Biggest Boondoggle In American History Yet?

Obama and the Democrats lied, ObamaCare is going to cost way more than if they had passed nothing? Say it ain’t so! Seriously, what sane person didn’t see this coming? The really scary part is, it’s only going to get much worse.

CBO Hikes ObamaCare Cost Estimate By $115 Billion

Better sit down, because you are in for a “shock”: ObamaCare will cost more than previously thought.

The Congressional Budget Office today released an analysis of discretionary spending in the law, and found that those costs will “probably exceed” $115 billion over 10 years.

At a stroke, that erases almost all of ObamaCare’s $143 billion in budget savings based off rushed, incomplete CBO projections given just before the decisive House vote in March.

Of course, that original forecast also assumed politically poisonous Medicare cuts and numerous other budget tricks. But, continuing to set those issues aside, the CBO suggests even its surplus forecast may prove ephemeral.

The new estimate includes the costs of administering the law by the IRS and the Dept. of Health and Human Services, and the cost of “future appropriations for a variety of grant and other program spending for which the act identifies the specific funding levels it envisions for one or more years.”

Yet there are other programs for which “no specific funding levels are identified in the legislation,” and the CBO couldn’t estimate the cost of those. The smart money says those costs will exceed $28 billion.

See also:
CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE Douglas W. Elmendorf, Director, May 11, 2010
Discretionary Spending in the Final Health Care Legislation
Health overhaul law potentially costs $115B more
Health Overhaul Law Potentially Costs $115B More
CBO ups health care cost projections
CBO revises estimate on reform law costs
Republicans jump on new CBO score to blast health reform bill
Consequences of health care law coming to light

The sooner we toss out enough Democrats and elect Republicans instead, the sooner we can get rid of or at least modify this incomprehensible, money devouring mountain of [expletive deleted].

/vote like you mean it in November, this Democrat induced travesty is coming out of your wallet

Bloviator In Chief

Hoo boy.

Obama’s 17-minute, 2,500-word response to woman’s claim of being ‘over-taxed’

Even by President Obama’s loquacious standards, an answer he gave here on health care Friday was a doozy.

Toward the end of a question-and-answer session with workers at an advanced battery technology manufacturer, a woman named Doris stood to ask the president whether it was a “wise decision to add more taxes to us with the health care” package.

“We are over-taxed as it is,” Doris said bluntly.

Obama started out feisty. “Well, let’s talk about that, because this is an area where there’s been just a whole lot of misinformation, and I’m going to have to work hard over the next several months to clean up a lot of the misapprehensions that people have,” the president said.

He then spent the next 17 minutes and 12 seconds lulling the crowd into a daze. His discursive answer – more than 2,500 words long — wandered from topic to topic, including commentary on the deficit, pay-as-you-go rules passed by Congress, Congressional Budget Office reports on Medicare waste, COBRA coverage, the Recovery Act and Federal Medical Assistance Percentages (he referred to this last item by its inside-the-Beltway name, “F-Map”). He talked about the notion of eliminating foreign aid (not worth it, he said). He invoked Warren Buffett, earmarks and the payroll tax that funds Medicare (referring to it, in fluent Washington lingo, as “FICA”).

. . .

Even Obama seemed to recognize that he had gone on too long. He apologized — in keeping with the spirit of the moment, not once, but twice. “Boy, that was a long answer. I’m sorry,” he said, drawing nervous laughter that sounded somewhat like relief as he wrapped up.

But, he said: “I hope I answered your question.”

See also:
Obama’s 17 Minute, 14 Second Answer on Higher Taxes and Health Care
The great elaborator: Obama gives 17-minute answer to health-care query in N.C.
Obama’s 17-minute answer
Obama’s answer was rather loquacious
Obama Fights Adversity With Verbosity
Defensive much? Obama gives rambling, incoherrent 17 minute response to concern about being ‘overtaxed’
President Obama takes 17 minutes to answer a question

Let’s see, Obama takes 17 minutes to not answer a simple question, Alan Grayson is threatening doctors, Henry Waxman is threatening major U.S. corporations, and, a week into this new entitlement fiasco, most Americans still think Obamacare sucks.

/yeah, I see nothing but smooth sailing for Democrats going forward

All Aboard!

House to Hold Crucial Health Care Vote Sunday

The U.S. House of Representatives is set to hold a crucial vote on Sunday on sweeping health care reform legislation. President Barack Obama has postponed his planned Asia-Pacific trip to Indonesia and Australia for a second time to be in Washington, D.C. as Congress votes on his top domestic priority after a year of debate and wrangling.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters Thursday that President Obama is confident that the health care reform legislation will soon be the law of the land in the United States.

“I think health care is going to pass the House on Sunday. I believe shortly it will pass the Senate, and the president will be able to sign all of it into law,” he said.

The president postponed his planned overseas trip until June to oversee the culmination of a year-long effort to pass health care reform legislation over the united opposition of every single Republican lawmaker in both the House and the Senate.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi unveiled what Democrats hope will be the last, corrected version of a $940-billion health care reform bill, which will extend health insurance coverage to some 32 million people who are currently uninsured. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office released figures Thursday estimating the legislation will reduce the federal deficit by $138 billion over its first 10 years.

House Speaker Pelosi, who is still trying to nail down the 216 votes she needs for the bill to pass the House, was very pleased with the CBO numbers, which may help to win over fiscally-conservative Democrats who face tough re-election battles in November.

“For the health and well-being of American people, for the fiscal soundness of America’s budget, for seniors, for our young people, for women, for small businesses and for competitiveness we will make history and we will make progress by passing this legislation,” she said.

If it passes, the massive health care overhaul will re-structure one-sixth of the U.S. economy, and for the first time will require that most Americans carry health insurance and penalize medium-sized and large companies that don’t provide health insurance coverage for their employees. It will also place restrictions on insurance companies, for example by not allowing them to exclude people because of pre-existing medical conditions.

Democrats are using a complicated legislative process to pass the bill. First, the House will have to approve a Senate bill that many of its Democratic members strongly dislike. Then both chambers will need to quickly pass a package of corrections to the bill agreed to in negotiations with the White House.

Republican lawmakers have opposed the health care bill from the outset, saying it is too big, too expensive, and that it inserts government bureaucrats into American’s medical decisions.

House Minority leader John Boehner has vowed that Republicans will “do everything that we can do to make sure this bill never, ever, ever passes”, and some Republicans in the Senate say they have been studying Senate rules to do whatever they can to block the legislation if it arrives back in the Senate next week.

H.R. 4872 – Reconciliation Act of 2010

CBO Score

See also:
Democrats Post Health Care Bill Online, Setting Up Possible Sunday Vote
US Congress Waging Fierce Final Battle over Health Care Reform
Health-care reform debate gets more intense with possible weekend vote looming
March Madness
Obama Deploys Personal Presidential Touch in Health Care Push
Holy War Erupts Among Catholics Over Abortion Language in Health Care Bill
Republicans mock ‘tweak’ to new $940 billion health care bill
Republicans Ready Strategy to Scuttle Health Bill, as Democrats Push Forward
What happens if health care reform dies?

/Michael Ramirez

The good news is that Obama and Pelosi still don’t have the 216 votes, as of the time of this posting, and there’s still time for you to act.

Stop Obamacare now!

The bad news is that this massive trillion dollar cluster[expletive deleted] of a Democrat national debt busting boondoggle is not permanently dead yet.

/God help us all if they actually manage to pass this abomination