WaPo: Republicans should stand and fight

12/10/2012 by Marc A. Thiessen (Hat tip: John H. Detweiler) - When the 1st Marine Regiment was encircled by communist forces at the Battle of Chosin Reservoir, Marine Col. Lewis “Chesty” Puller was said to have declared: “We’re surrounded. Good! Now we can fire in any direction.” ✧ It’s time for congressional Republicans to adopt some of Puller’s courage — and strategy — when it comes to their fiscal stand-off with Barack Obama. Read Thiessen's three part plan... Read More......

GOVERNMENT: Gigantic Special Interest Group

(Hat tip: Patricia Anderson)
Link to video: http://youtu.be/xOAgT8L_BqQ Read More......

Detweiler submits another letter to the editor regarding levy

Via email: 4/27/2011 - John H. Detweiler submitted another letter to the editor (untitled) regarding the Corvallis Local Option Levy 02-74:

The levy that will appear on the May ballot will not solve our financial problem. What it will do is restore cuts that have been made to lower priority services - the Osborn Aquatic Center is the lowest priority service -- leaving the cuts to higher priority services stand. If the levy passes, next year we will be told that if we want higher priority services - fire and police - funded, we will have to pay more taxes. Details on priorities can be found at www.peak.org/~detweij.

Our problem is that expenditures have been above revenues in property tax funds since FY07-08 and we are running out of reserves. We knew that this was going to happen many years before it did happen but we did not do anything about it. If the levy passes, it really won't give us an opportunity to decide how to reshape our city government because the City Council won't take that opportunity because we don't elect people to the City Council who will say "NO". Our City Council has to be pressured to make good financial decisions and voting against the levy will increase that pressure.

Join me and others who worry about the financial sustainability of our wonderful city in voting against the levy - entitled Local Option Levy 02-74.

John H. Detweiler; web page => www.peak.org/~detweij

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WaPo: Obama abdicates on the budget

WASHINGTON POST, 4/24/2011 by Robert Samuelson (Hat tip: John H. Detweiler) - "If you’ve wondered why it’s so hard to subdue budget deficits, you should consult a new study from the Congressional Budget Office called “Reducing the Deficit: Spending and Revenue Options” (free at www.cbo.gov). You’ll learn from its 240 pages that the deficits definitely can be curbed. The CBO presents 105 policies (it doesn’t endorse them) that would shrink deficits by trillions of dollars over the next decade. You’ll also learn — surprise! — that most choices are political poison. ∴ Suppose we increased the federal gasoline tax by 25 cents a gallon, from 18.4 cents to 43.4 cents. That would raise $291 billion from 2012 to 2021, estimates the CBO. Or we could advance the ages for early and full Social Security benefits; one suggestion is to raise them (now 62 and 66) by two months a year until reaching predetermined targets (say, 64 and 70). The CBO reckons the decade’s savings at about $264 billion. How about slowly moving Medicare’s eligibility age from 65 to 67? The savings: $125 billion. ∴ Are we finished? Nowhere near..." Read more at the Washington Post... Read More......

Mitch Daniels, thinking like a president

WASHINGTON POST, 2/18/2011 by Michael Gerson (Hat tip: John H. Detweiler) - President Obama's 2012 budget is the numerical embodiment of his State of the Union address - both being systematic distractions from the main, current tasks of governing. His plan includes, according to Yuval Levin, editor of National Affairs, "no entitlement reform, no tax reform, no significant spending reform, indeed no meaningful change of direction of any sort." Read more at the Washington Post... Read More......

USA Today: Budget sets battle over cuts

WASHINGTON — President Obama on Monday unveiled his $3.7 trillion budget plan for 2012 at a middle school in Baltimore, saying his proposals are designed "so that every American is equipped to compete with any worker anywhere in the world." Read more at USA Today...

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said in a statement Monday that Obama's budget proposal will "destroy jobs by spending too much, taxing too much and borrowing too much. ∴ The president's budget isn't winning the future, it's spending the future,"he said. Boehner cited a group of 150 American economists who signed a statement sent to the White House on Sunday that said spending needed to be cut to help create a better environment for job creation. ∴ That's why the new House majority will vote this week to cut $100 billion in discretionary spending over the next seven months – with more cuts to come – in contrast to the Obama administration, which has proposed no cuts to the current fiscal year's budget while simultaneously asking for an increase in the national debt limit,"

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