Debt Ceiling: a simple explanation

MoonHowler

(and why we must do something immediately)

This isn’t funny, folks.  It isn’t  something that can be held at political ransom so those with a point to prove can make their point.  It costs money to run a country.  You have to bring in enough money to pay for running the country.  This is simple math. 

The ‘job producers’ (very wealthy)aren’t producing the jobs so let’s let them pay their fair share.  Revenues must be raised and spending must be sliced.   Until we can get the house in order, the debt ceiling needs to be raised.

The Senate now plans a vote at 1 pm on Sunday. 

The Debt Legacy: Running in the red

MoonHowler

From the Washington Post:

By Lori Montgomery, Published:  April 30

Now, instead of tending a nest egg of more than $2 trillion, the federal government expects to owe more than $10 trillion to outside investors by the end of this year. The national debt is larger, as a percentage of the economy, than at any time in U.S. history except for the period shortly after World War II.

Voices of caution were swept aside in the rush to take advantage of the apparent bounty. Political leaders chose to cut taxes, jack up spending and, for the first time in U.S. history, wage two wars solely with borrowed funds.“In the end, the floodgates opened,” said former senator Pete Domenici (R-N.M.), who chaired the Senate Budget Committee when the first tax-cut bill hit Capitol Hill in early 2001.

In January 2001, with the budget balanced and clear sailing ahead, the Congressional Budget Office forecast ever-larger annual surpluses indefinitely. The outlook was so rosy, the CBO said, that Washington would have enough money by the end of the decade to pay off everything it owed.

The nation’s unnerving descent into debt began a decade ago with a choice, not a crisis.

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Arkansas Bans Smoking in Cars With Children Under 14

MoonHowler

Arkansas currently has a law that prohibits smoking in the car with very young children.  The law has been extended to include children under 14 years of age, claiming that it will spare children from secondhand smoke.  The law includes all children, even one’s own.  There is a $25 fine.  IN California, the fine is $100.

Is this law too intrusive?  What happens if a smoker takes his/her own children into the home?  Is that child exposed to second hand smoke?   What other bad habits will the state tell us we can’t do in front of our own children? How does this differ from a  child seat law or a helmet law?   Bottom line, is it any of the state’s business? 

 

Corey Stewart begs for money

MoonHowler

 

An email from Corey Stewart:

For the past couple of weeks, liberal DC politicians have been flirting with a national default and the prospect of a declining credit rating. With such an irresponsible approach to take care of the nation’s debt, we are fortunate that in Prince William County our AAA bond rating is stable.

Our AAA bond rating and steady financial outlook are a result of my willingness to make hard decisions and stick to my convictions.  In tough times we kept taxes low and reduced government spending while still making critical investments in our schools and roads.

These same DC Liberals that are spending our children’s future away are attempting to bring their reckless policies to Prince William County and we need your help to keep proven conservative leadership right where it belongs. Will you help us by donating $5, $10 or $20 to our campaign?

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McDonnell eyes Asian schools as a model for Virginia

MoonHowler

Gov. McDonnell wants to make some changes to the Virginia educational system.  In particular, he has been impressed by what he has seen in Asian schools.   According to Newsadvance.com:

Driven by what he’s seen of education programs in Asian countries and other parts of the world, McDonnell said Virginia needs to step up its efforts. Those nations, he said, have “phenomenal education systems training people in math and science and technology.”

“I want to raise the bar,” McDonnell said. “I’d like to have more competition. I’d like to have more charter schools, more college laboratory schools, and more virtual schools. I’d like to find ways to increase our teaching of important life skills, from financial literacy to civics to business, so young people will have a sense of the broader things that are going to make them good citizens,” he said.

More money for K-12 schools isn’t necessarily the way to achieve his goals, he said.

“I am suggesting we may want to look at the ways we allocate that (money for K-12) and put it more directly into instructional programs and less in non-instructional ones,” he said.

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ABC Stores host tasting events

MoonHowler

From the VA ABC website:

ABC Tasting Events

In keeping with our mission to provide excellent customer service, Virginia ABC is proud to present tasting events at store locations across the state, allowing customers to sample select products before making a purchase. Each sample is limited to ½ ounce of distilled spirits, with a maximum of three samples per person, or up to a total of five ounces of wine. Please check back each week for new event postings.

ABC projects that approximately 240 tasting events will be held each month at select store locations. During the first year of tasting events, more than 2,850 tasting were held at approximately 195 ABC store locations. Tastings are mainly held on Fridays and Saturdays.

Become an ABC Facebook fan or Twitter follower today to keep up with tasting event postings.

As required by law, a person must be 21 years of age to participate in an ABC store tasting or to purchase alcoholic beverages.

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McCain tells conservatives they are lying to America

MoonHowler

According to The Plum Line at the Washington Post:

There are Republicans in both the House and Senate who are still pushing for another vote on the balanced budget amendment, even though “cut cap and balance,” which contains such an amendment, has already failed in the Senate. Tea Party GOP Senators such as Jim DeMint and Rand Paul are calling on colleagues to reject John Boehner’s proposal for a two-tiered debt ceiling increase, and are instead demanding another vote on “cut cap and balance.” Meanwhile, House conservatives such as Mike Pence are also urging another vote on a modified version of a balanced budget amendment.

To such conservatives, McCain offered a simple answer: You’re in fantasy-land, and you’re doing your constituents a disservice by perpetuating the falsehood that such a thing can ever happen.

“What is really amazing about this is that some members are believing that we can pass a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution in this body with its present representation — and that is foolish,” McCain said angrily. “That is worse than foolish. That is deceiving many of our constituents.” McCain went on to rip the idea as “bizarro.”

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Colonel Morris Davis: The Skinny on Partisan Campaign Pledges

MoonHowler

The following is the opinion of the poster and does not necessarily represent the views of moonhowlings.net administration.  MH

Guest post from Colonel Morris Davis:

The only pledge a candidate for public office should make is one that reads something like:

“I, _________________, pledge to represent the interests of my constituents and my country to the best of my ability and without regard to my personal enrichment or the impact on my chances of getting elected to an even higher office.”

Instead, just about every interest group has a very specific litmus test candidates must pass or a long laundry list of positions on issues they demand a candidate swear to oppose or support in order to secure their seal of approval. The absurdity of some of these things gained notoriety when Republican presidential candidates Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum signed a pledge that, among a list of rather extreme positions, noted the positive family-values impact slavery had on African-American children in the pre-Civil War days. Many were shocked to hear that there was a silver lining hiding inside the dark cloud of slavery. Who knew?

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The Debt Ceiling Fiasco, “The Scorpion and the Frog”

Elena

I believe in compromise, I would have been divorced, a long time ago, were I not able to compromise.  It isn’t that there are not passionate debates, but at the end of the day, we are in this marriage together.  Apparently, there are factions of the tea party that want a “divorce” in my opinion, a divorce from their fellow Americans. 

An op-ed in the Washington Post by Harold Meyerson exemplifies my feelings on the debt ceiling.

To elucidate the mysteries of Washington — in particular, why House Republicans, having compelled the Democrats to craft a Republican-in-all-but-name plan to get a deal on raising the debt ceiling, still don’t want a deal — we turn to the Fable of the Scorpion and the Frog.

A scorpion meets a frog on the bank of a stream and asks the frog to carry him across on his back. The frog asks, “How do I know you won’t sting me?” The scorpion answers, “Because if I do, I’ll drown along with you.” So the frog, bowing to the logic of the scorpion’s answer, sets out across the stream with the scorpion on his back. About midstream, the scorpion stings the frog, who is paralyzed and starts to sink — as does the scorpion. “Why?” the dying frog asks. “Because it’s my nature,” the scorpion replies.

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Juan Williams: The Assault on Honest Debate

MoonHowler

Juan Williams feels we don’t have an honest exchange of ideas.  He feels we have a niche media landscape.  People seek their own media sources that affirm pre-existing opinions.  There is little effort to get outside one’s comfort zone. 

Williams makes excellent observations. 

Extended interviews  with Williams

 

Bill O’Reilly cries foul over calling Norwegian killer a Christian

MoonHowler

Huffington Post:

Bill O’Reilly sternly criticized the media for describing Anders Behring-Breivik, the man who has admitted to committing the mass killings in Norway, as a Christian, saying that such a thing was “impossible.”

O’Reilly singled out the New York Times, which called Breivik a “Christian extremist” in an article. Breivik also referred to himself as a Christian, as did the Norwegian police, and his 1,500 page manifesto has been described as coming from a Christian perspective. In the manifesto, he writes that he does not have a “personal,” religious relationship with Christ, believes in Christianity “as a cultural, social, identity and moral platform,” which he says “makes [me] Christian.”

To O’Reilly, though, it was “impossible” that Breivik is a Christian.

“No one believing in Jesus commits mass murder,” he said. “The man might have called himself a Christian on the net, but he is certainly not of that faith…we can find no evidence, none, that this killer practiced Christianity in any way.”

I sure don’t recall O’Reilly howling over a man named Scott Roeder entering the church of Dr. George Tiller and gunning him down execution style.  Dr. Tiller was an abortion provider. 

Is it because O’Reilly had gone around for years before calling Dr. Tiller, “Tiller the Killer?”  Was Scott Roeder a Christian?   Is he not howling because Dr. Tiller is only one person?

Don’t people get to determine if they are Christian or not?  Isn’t it up to that person and his or her God to determine that?  I think we, as human beings, can certainly address ‘Christian behavior.”   We all have a pretty good idea what constitutes good Christian behavior and I think we are entitled to give our opinion on such behaviors.  However, I don’t think O’Reilly or any other human being gets to stand in judgement of whether someone else is a Christian or not.  That is a self-identifying task that no one else can do for you.